Page 135 of Settle Down, Princess

That we were once one people and while wolf shifters were the strongest individually, we could not match the numbers of our human cousins. Together we were a formidable force, but what devastation we could wreak on our own.

“I go to spread the news,” I told him, the wolf speaking, not me. You could hear it in the roughening of my voice. “I go to make clear to all wolf shifters.” I nodded to my fellows. “To all humans, the betrayal our king has committed. He is responsible for leaving your village undefended. It is his fault that all your hard work lies smouldering and I aim to bring each and every one of my complaints to his door and lay them at his feet.”

“If it’s his fault, then he can be the one to fix it!” one of the young men of the village shouted. “If we gather everyone on the borders that’s had to deal with this, he won’t be able to ignore us. No crops being sent to the capital for the rich bastards to gorge themselves on, no taxes being paid.”

“To the capital!” another shouted and another, and right then I didn’t have the heart to tell them. My route would not be so direct, the wolf not allowing it. The man might want to make his way directly to our fated mate, but the wolf?

He wanted to prove his worthiness to his queen by bringing her an army.

Chapter 78

Arik

“Your father thinks he rules as king here,” I snapped at Silas. “Manoeuvring dukes and sisters of the temple.” My eyes found Jessalyn’s back, it getting smaller and smaller as she walked away and why did that feel like my heart was being ripped out of my chest? Thoughts raced inside my head, trying to find a pretext that would put me legitimately by her side. I was her guard still. I could accompany her to the temple and then make sure… My jaw tightened. “Involving our mate in this bloody process.”

“Mate?” Silas nodded as he regarded me steadily. “So you’ve come to accept that now.”

“I always knew at some point Creed would recognise—”

“No.” Silas came to stand right in front of me, close enough that I could smell the mint on his breath. “You accept this, accept her.” Those keen eyes searched my face. “More than that. It fucking kills you, watching Jessalyn walk away.”

It was one of the things I hated and valued about Silas in turns. His mind was as sharp as his damn knives.

“It kills all of us, doesn’t it?” If I wanted confirmation I got it then as Roan stared after the princess like a loyal hound might his mistress. “And if we’re not bloody careful, your father is going to get Jessalyn killed.”

“Or your brother will.”

That insolent tone, that intent gaze, my fingers flexed as I fought back the urge to slam my palms into Silas’ chest.

“That’s why we are supposed to be the ones to put the plan into place,” I snapped. “We take on the danger. If one or more of us dies…” Me, I thought furiously. I was the only suitable sacrifice. Every time I let the king take the princess I’d so carefully escorted to the capital, I’d created a blood debt and it would be paid. “It doesn’t matter as long as she lives.”

“Dear gods.” We all turned around to see Desiree there, hand on her hip. “You lot do have it bad. Well, rather than announce to the entirety of Cheapside that you’re pining after the king’s intended, how about you big strong men make yourselves useful and carry those buckets home for me?”

Action, that was what was needed, even if it was a small one. I nodded curtly and then lifted one, then the other, following Desiree back to her home.

“Mama!”

If I ever wondered what Roan looked like as a child, I could see it in Benny. With a rough shock of blood red hair, the boy came running out the front door of the modest cottage and into his mother’s arms.

“And how are you, darling boy?” she asked, frowning as she saw him wipe a smear of snot across his face. “Still sick, I see.” She produced a clean handkerchief from her pocket and dampened it in one of the buckets before starting to clean his face. “But did you see who’s here?”

“Unca Roan!”

Benny jerked free of his mother’s grip before she could finish the job, but Roan didn’t seem to care. He swept the young boy up in his arms and then set him on his shoulders.

“How’s my Benny boy? Urk!” Benny’s hands slapped down on his uncle’s throat. “Not so tight, kid. Your uncle still needs to breathe.”

The child laughed and loosened his hold.

“Horsey ride, Unca Roan!” Benny cried. “Horsey ride.”

It was a strange thing, to feel jealous of a small child, because as Roan cantered around the garden, Desiree complaining about the way he was trampling her flower beds, I watched the entire thing like it was some kind of strange foreign ritual.

There was no one in my life growing up that would’ve shown me the same kindness, I could admit that without emotion now. My mother had been raised far beyond her expectations, installed as the king’s mistress into grand chambers in the palace, but a golden cage is still a cage after all. Kept away from family and friends, she existed to be available for the king’s pleasure when it suited him and in some ways I was the same. His blood, his heir—I heard that a lot—but I was not his son. It would’ve been far more likely that he turn into a crane and fly away than my father treat me to horsey rides on his shoulders and that’s what made me turn to Desiree.

I caught her smiling at the two of them, shaking her head at her brother’s antics, right as Bill appeared at her shoulder. Even with his crutch tucked up tight under his shoulder, he still tucked his wife into his side after pressing a kiss to her temple. It wasn’t hard to change the figures before me, to turn red haired Desiree into blonde Jessalyn, Bill to Roan and for their child… I sucked in a shuddering breath, then another. Would he have Silas’ green eyes or Creed’s hazel? Would he have red hair, blonde, brown or black? Just not dirty blond like mine. That potential future had me moving, to ensure what we had right now was taken from us.

“Can we talk?” I asked Desiree and Bill.

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