Taming the Wolf King novel · Chapter 2 of 32

Chapter 2: My Rules

Sally refuses to quit and sets her rules, shows Araminta her own name on the stolen slip, and the Regent arrives to say one scratch on her ends the King.

I woke up on the rug with a crick in my neck and a blanket over me that I hadn't brought.

The fire was lit.

Somebody had swept the glass off the hearth into a neat little pile.

Caspian Ardane was standing at the window in a pair of grey sweatpants and nothing else, drinking coffee out of a chipped mug.

He didn't turn around.

"You're leaving today," he said.

"Good morning to you too."

"I'll tell the Dean it was my call. Nobody can blame you. You keep your scholarship."

"That's not how the Lot works. I read the rules."

"Then I'll change the rules."

"Can you?"

He didn't answer.

So that was a no.

I sat up and rubbed my neck.

"Is there more coffee?"

He finally looked at me.

In daylight his eyes were the grey of wet slate, and the scar on his jaw was thin and pale.

He looked like a man who hadn't slept in a month.

"You think this is funny," he said.

"I think you bit through your own door. I think you're scared of what your wolf does when you're not looking. And I think I'm the first thing in a month that made him lie down."

His mouth went flat.

"Get out of my tower, Coldwell."

"No."

"Here are my rules," I said. "One. We eat breakfast. Every day. Together. In the refectory, where people can see you sitting still."

"Absolutely not."

"Two. No locked doors. Not on you, not on me. If your wolf wants out, he finds me first."

"I'll eat you."

"You had all night to eat me. You drooled on my skirt instead."

A muscle jumped in his jaw.

"Three," I said. "You say please."

"Please what?"

"Please anything. Please pass the salt. Please get out of my way. It's practice."

"For what?"

"For asking. You're terrible at it."

He stared at me.

Then he put his mug down very carefully on the windowsill.

"Fine," he said. "Breakfast. And then you'll see what they're like, and you'll go home on your own."

"Say it properly."

He shut his eyes.

"Please come to breakfast."

"See? It didn't kill you."

The refectory had long oak tables and a ceiling painted with stars.

When the King walked in, every conversation stopped.

When I walked in behind him with my hair in a pencil and my blazer sleeves rolled up, the conversations started again, louder.

The seniors had a table by the windows.

Araminta Wycliffe sat at the head of it in a pressed white shirt and a pearl pin, buttering one triangle of toast.

There was an empty chair at her right hand.

Caspian went to the end of the bench instead and sat down.

I sat next to him.

The whole table watched me take an apple from the bowl.

"Oh, look," Araminta said. "It eats."

Two girls laughed.

"I was worried, honestly," she went on. "Humans are so fragile. One bad night and they're in pieces all over the floor. We all heard the window."

"The window's fine," I said. "They'll have it swept by lunch."

"You must be terrified."

"Of him? No."

"Of all of us, darling." She smiled at the table. "A human in a wolves' college. It's like a rabbit enrolling at a kennel."

More laughter.

Caspian put his fork down.

I felt the air change beside me.

I put my hand flat on the table between us without looking at him.

He picked his fork back up.

Araminta saw that.

Her smile slipped for half a second.

"Pass the salt, please," Caspian said to me, very politely.

I passed it.

I reached into my blazer pocket.

The folded slip was still there, soft at the edges from my fingers.

I laid it on the table and flicked it with one finger.

It slid down the polished oak, past the butter, past the jam, and stopped against Araminta's plate.

It had landed face up.

She looked down at her own name in the Dean's handwriting.

All the color left her face.

Her hand shot out for it so fast she knocked over her juice.

I was faster.

I leaned across and picked the slip up between two fingers before the juice reached it.

"Sorry," I said. "That's mine."

"Something wrong?" one of the girls asked her.

"Nothing," Araminta said. "Nothing at all."

She was looking at my blazer pocket as I tucked the slip back inside.

She looked at it.

I bit my apple.

"So," I said to the table. "What does a rabbit have to do around here to get a cup of coffee?"

Caspian made a noise into his eggs.

It took me a second to realize it was a laugh.

He looked as surprised as I was.

Then the big doors at the end of the refectory opened, and the room went quiet in a new way.

A man in a beautiful grey wool suit walked in with two council guards behind him.

He had silver at his temples and the warmest smile I'd ever seen.

Every student stood up.

Caspian stood up slowest.

"Uncle," he said.

Raife Ardane came straight to our end of the table and looked at me for a long, pleasant moment.

"Miss Coldwell. The Tamer. I came the moment I heard."

He held out his hand.

I shook it.

His palm was dry and cool.

"Six weeks to the Blood Moon," he said, still smiling, still holding my hand. "If his wolf breaks your skin, it's over."

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