The Raven Wolf King: Wolfless novel Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Valeria

I end up outside Raphael’s room and knock, but there’s no answer. A hall guard hurries toward me.

“You can’t be here!”

“I’m looking for Raphael–Prince Raphael.”

“I don’t care who you’re looking for! No one who isn’t from the royal family or invited by one can be here at this hour!”

“But-”

He grabs me by the arm. “I’ll have to take you to a holding cell-”

“Leave her.” Urien walks up to us with fast strides. “She’s a special friend of Prince Raphael. Don’t touch her again.”

The guard lowers his head. “Of course, Beta.”

Urien turns to me with a smile. “Raphael isn’t here, but if you tell me a little secret, I can tell you where he

is.”

“A secret?” I don’t have time for this.

“Yeah, tell me what you are to Raphael. It can’t be just a good time. He rarely has the company of a woman, and when he does, it’s not more than once.”

It is just a good time for me, and how did he know Raphael and I had been intimate multiple times?

“Listen, someone is going to attack! Please! I need to see Raphael!”

He jumps, startled at what I say. “He’s out on patrol with our pack men!”

“He’s out there?”

Urien bolts ahead, and I chase after.

“How do you know this?” he asks.

How do I even explain?

I mumble something incoherent, hoping he’ll leave it alone.

“What?” he presses.

As we pass by the tapestry room, Grimm and his friends all walk out.

They were up there? Was it really real then?

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“What’s happening?” one of Grimm’s friends mutters as they watch us fling by them.

We descend the foyer stairs just as Raphael strides in through the outer doors with several of his men. Relief floods me at the sight of him. Raphael looks startled, caught off guard.

“What… is going on?” he asks, his eyes darting between me and Urien.

“The girl is saying we’re about to be attacked,” Urien says.

Raphael turns to me, brows furrowed. “What do you mean?”

“I–there’s a group of men. A small army, waiting in the forest! They said they’d attack at the peak of the moon.”

“That’s in around thirty minutes,” Urien mutters.

“How do you know this?” Raphael asks.

I pause, completely frozen. He’s going to think I’m crazy, but how else do I explain how I know this? And what if I am crazy? What if it was just a dream?

“I…” I look at Urien and then back at Raphael. Then I pull Raphael to the side, unable to spill out this craziness in front of his men, who are carefully watching. “I had a dream,” I reveal.

Raphael takes a few steps until he’s aligned with me and stares me down. I have no idea what he’s thinking, but he seems to be assessing me.

“I’m not crazy. I had a dream. It was so real. Please, just check.”

“A dream?” Urien says, overhearing. He takes a breath of relief, dismissing what I just told them as

nonsense.

“Raphael… if I’m wrong, then you can all call me crazy all you want and I’ll accept it, but-”

“Go,” he says, and turns to his men. “Go check it out.”

“Really?” Urien mutters.

He believed me? I’m shocked. Why would he?

“Wait!” Raphael stops his men and looks at me. “How many?”

“Too many for just your men,” I tell him.

He nods and looks back at Urien. “Get me four units.”

Urien looks surprised but gives no complaints and rushes out.

“Take her to the office,” Raphael tells one of his men.

“Where are you going?”

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“To check this out. I have to lead my men.”

“Be–be careful.”

He gives me a small smile before heading outside, while I trail the guard to a small office tucked away in an unfamiliar wing.

Left alone, I start pacing. Spotting a window, I rush to it, only to find it overlooks the front of the castle. With a heavy sigh, I turn back and pace again. The silence presses in. No commotion, no alarms, nothing

at all.

Was I wrong? Damn it! I feel stupid.

I close my eyes, thinking about what I remember, and it was just so real. I can still see it all as if it had just happened. Am I really going crazy?

Almost thirty minutes pass. I swear I’ve dented the floor with my back–and–forth walking. Finally, the door opens, and Raphael walks in. He stares at me, closing the door behind him.

“N–nothing?” I ask.

He slowly shakes his head. “No men.”

“Did you check the exact place I told you?”

“I did. No men.”

I want to cry now. I’m so embarrassed, but he walks around, watching me carefully as if I were an

enigma.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper.

“Don’t be, you were right.”

“Right? About what?”

“There were no men at that moment, but there was evidence the enemy was there. Footprints, clothes, and a few dead ravens. I have my men following their scent because they left abruptly and recently. The uproar from our own men must have alerted them that we knew about their plan to take us by surprise, so they fled.”

“So… I was-”

“Right,” he says.

I whisper in a daze. “I was right…”

He suddenly picks me up and sits me on the desk. “You were right,” he repeats. “But tell me, how is it that you were right?”

He parts my legs and settles between them, his hands cradling my face as he brushes my hair back. A

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tingling stirs low in my stomach, and my chest tightens at the unexpected gentleness in his touch.

“It’s going to sound crazy,” I whisper.

“You already proved you aren’t. What you said was true.”

“And as crazy as it sounded, you believed me,” I tell him.

His finger grazes my chin and lifts my face. Leaning in, he whispers, “I’ll believe anything you tell me. Always.”

The corner of my mouth lifts. “And what if I had been crazy?”

“Then I guess I’d be falling for a crazy girl.”

My lips tremble. He’s falling for me? No… no, that can’t be right. He’s only saying it. Why would he? How

could he?

“So?” he asks.

“I… had a dream, and it was so real.”

“A dream? And what did you see?”

I tell him what happened.

“A raven?”

I give a quiet, almost reluctant nod.

“Is this why you’re researching the Raven Wolf King?”

I give him another slow nod.

He puts his hands on the desk next to my thighs and tilts his head for what seems like an eternity. “I’ll admit, this almost seems impossible, but I know you’re not lying. It would be best not to tell anyone.”

“Not even the King?”

“No. I’ll just tell him you spotted an enemy through your window. Does your window face that area?”

“Yes. I’d prefer if you didn’t tell him anything about me. I don’t want to be on his radar any more than I already am.”

“Alright. But if anything like this happens again, tell me.”

There’s no reason for me to doubt, but I have them, and he sees it.

“You don’t trust me, do you?” he asks.

My lips press together silently, and I look away.

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“What made you so untrusting of people?” he asks, his hand softly caressing my cheek.

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