Page 130 of Settle Down, Princess

They told me the name of their mates, each one feeling like a punch to the gut, because those women had been put in danger for reasons neither I nor the wolf could understand.

“All the women are safe,” I told them, taking in the way their spines sagged and their breath whooshed out. “For now.”

Their commanding officer would have envied the way I gained their attention. Every wolf shifter kept penned up in this place had his eyes on me.

“The king takes wives like human men do doxies,” I told them. “But this time he took the wrong one.” My feet started to move again, because I couldn’t stay still while this travesty was allowed to take place. “My woman. My mate. The king plays sick games with his brother, the Bastard Prince. He uses these highborn girls as a means to remind his brother of his position. He means to kill the…”

My throat closed up, unable to get a word out, but I blinked and stared at the dirt underneath my feet until I was able to swallow that lump down.

“He means to kill the other half of my heart, my fated mate, in the next round of this game.”

The sounds of growls and ferocious snarls were welcome, but it was only when my hand landed on my chest that I realised I wasn’t the one to make those sounds. When I looked up I saw eyes of yellow green boring into mine as they waited for me to finish my tale.

“The compact between our peoples is broken. By taking a woman from the packlands, my woman.” My fist thumped down on my chest. “As I strove to prove my worth to her, he has smashed it to pieces. He knew this or he wouldn’t have brought his tin covered knights with him. He knew this or he wouldn’t have made each one of them tote burning brands, ready to toss on the roof of the meeting hall. He knew this or he wouldn’t have threatened to kill every man, woman and child… Your children.”

“Stop right there.”

This human was the commander. I recognised the insignias of rank that humans were always quibbling over. They needed to have badges and buttons and gold to tell the others how important they were.

But not us.

My brothers-in-arms’ eyes lifted to see the man standing there, bow drawn, the effort of holding it still making his arm quiver.

“You’ll not go any further.” He tried so hard for command, but there was no alpha bark in his voice. “You won’t spread these… lies anywhere else.”

“Commander, perhaps we—” another human said, moving closer to put a hand on the man’s arm, but it was shoved off.

“No. No.” I knew the sound of desperation. It was a song that played in my own heart and when my eyes locked with the commander’s, I felt a strange moment of kinship. “No…” The arrow began to dip as tears pricked the man’s eyes. “Word has been sent to all the garrison commanders and the penalty is clear. If we let you go… If you get free…”

Someone he loved would meet the same end as my princess, somehow I knew.

“If we get free and all other wolf shifters—”

I was about to tell him of the idea that burned inside my brain, not letting me stop, drink, eat, anything, forcing me on. It was the red haze of turning feral, and yet I had far more control over myself. I could reason and think, but before I could explain I heard the frantic sound of a raid bell being rung, followed quickly by the acrid scent of burning vegetation.

“A raid…?” The commander dropped all pretence of drawing on me, the bowstring going as slack as his mouth as he stared at the town far beyond. “Now?”

“What do we do?” the commander’s deputy asked. “We have few men and those we do are largely wounded. What do we do?”

The deputy followed the commander’s gaze, as both men stared down at me.

“What do we do?” he said, all heat gone from his voice. “No matter what the treaty or the king says, humans and wolf shifters have always worked together to keep our lands safe. You know us, Kern, Hallow, Ulfric.” He nodded to the largest of the wolf shifters standing beside me. “I know you just want to keep your families safe, because I… I would never have ordered you to be placed in the stockades unless mine weren’t being threatened as well.”

I could hear the sound of fire crackling, of far off screams and that brought those terrible memories back. Of the day I lost my fated mate. I shouldn’t be here, shouldn’t be concerning myself with the wants and needs of bloody humans, but my head jerked up at the thin wail of a woman screaming for help.

None of the humans cared when our women cried out or winced at the king’s rough treatment. None of those knights stepped in to stop Magnus from taking Jessalyn away. These idiot humans forgot their own history. They called us beast men, reducing us down to the same level as the creatures they hunted, tended or bred for their own purposes, not realising this. Khean was once the domain of wolf shifters only, none dared enter our territory, but them.

Women fleeing brutal marriages where their husbands beat them or the unwelcome advances of other humans. Women so desperate to escape that they walked directly into the wolf’s den. The way we told it, the gods themselves sent them stumbling into our midst, because each woman found not hard hands or words, but… a bond that would persist past death and beyond. One born of love, respect and devotion. A union from which human children and wolf shifter children were born.

Some of the humans left the packlands. They had none of our constancy and all of the human need to take more, more, more, and so we allowed them their lands, promising to keep all of it safe, because after all, they were family, they were pack. I shook my head sharply, feeling exhaustion riding me, but it was a passenger I’d carried this far and I would carry it further still. My claws snicked out and fur prickled across my skin as I became one with my beast.

“Grab every able bodied man you’ve got,” I growled. “We move on my command, but know we ‘beast men’ will keep the border safe for you, yet again, because we know all too keenly the need to protect those who are the most vulnerable. If you’ve got any sense in you, if you can feel the grace of the gods, you’ll join us in ensuring that’s the case.”

I didn’t wait for a reply, because that’s not the nature of leadership. I had to assume they knew what was best for them and they’d rouse their battered bodies for the fight we must win. Instead I started off at a lope, then a run, the machine of my body moving faster and faster as more sounds of carnage filtered through. Wolf shifters were pack, no matter who they were born to or where they lived, but so were humans. Weaker, smaller, persistent in their endless squabbles for more power, they were like small children establishing a pecking order in the school yard, but that was their nature.

And mine was to protect.

That instinctual need rose within me, coupled with a fury that those that did not belong here dared to step across the border. This was the king and his knights all over again. Fire, always fucking fire. We stampeded into the small town, seeing humans in foreign armour ran about tossing burning brands.

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