Taming the Wolf King novel · Chapter 9 of 32

Chapter 9: The Photo

Araminta lowered the phone and smiled up at us through the rain.

"Don't stop on my account," she said.

Caspian went down two steps.

I caught the back of his wet shirt.

He was shaking.

"Don't," I said. "That's what she wants. You lose it on the stairs with her, and it's on video too."

He stopped.

Araminta tilted her umbrella.

"Good boy," she said to him.

Then she walked away down the stairs, unhurried, her heels clicking on the wet stone.

By breakfast it was on every phone in Greyling.

It wasn't the video.

It was one photo, cut from it, the worst one.

My back against the tower wall, his hands on my waist, my mouth open, his eyes gold.

Someone had put a caption on it.

THE TAMER'S METHOD.

Annis showed me in our kitchen with her face red.

"It's in the senior chat. And the juniors'. And somebody sent it to the alumni list."

"The alumni list?"

"That's four thousand wolves, Sally."

Caspian came down the stairs dressed for class and took one look at the phone and put his fist through the pantry door.

It was a thin door.

Annis and I stared at the hole.

"Sorry," he said to Annis. "Please. Sorry."

"It's all right," she said faintly. "I never liked that door."

"Breakfast," I said.

He looked at me.

"Rule one," I said. "Every day. Where people can see you sitting still."

"Today?"

"Especially today."

The refectory went silent when we walked in.

Then the whispering started, all the way down every table.

Someone howled softly.

Someone else made kissing noises.

I took an apple from the bowl and sat down at the end of the senior bench, where we always sat.

Caspian sat beside me.

He put his hands flat on the table.

I could see him breathing.

Araminta waited until we were settled.

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