Page 185 of Settle Down, Princess

That wasn’t true. I knew many professionals who’d dallied with us for a night for coin and they’d all walked free and with a pocket full of gold. Some were living quite a nice life now with their husbands in the country. But those women didn’t touch Arik, couldn’t crack his hard shell, not like Jessalyn.

Not like every princess before her, starting with Ariel.

“You don’t want me.” He said that over and over, rutting against her now in earnest, the combined friction driving the two of them mad. “You don’t want my taint. I’ve got feet of clay, blood on my hands and…”

His litany of sins was cut off as her nails dug into his arse cheeks, her whole body stiffening, as she ground this out between clenched teeth.

“Don’t tell me what I want…”

A little scream alerted us and all the tents around us that Arik had made her come again, but that was choked off as her teeth snapped down on the point where his neck met his shoulders, her blue eyes unfocused and half mad. Creed nodded slowly, a satisfied smile on his face as I just stared.

“It is done,” my brother announced. “Now we can plan for war.”

Chapter 105

Creed had insisted on keeping me with him as the four of them entered the tent that was being used as an impromptu war room. A map of Khean and beyond was spread across the table, small markers symbolising much more powerful forces. I’d never been allowed to see anything like this at home, even though Stormare kept scrupulously out of military conflicts, but it didn’t take much for me to put two and two together. Markers clustered in Lanzene and Matteau represented the bulk of their forces. The fact that it took such a long time to mobilise their troops, to organise and send so many men and war machines north to the Kheanian border was currently all that protected us from an all-out attack.

Then there were the other markers.

James, the new Duke of Fallspire, had been forced to shoulder his father’s mantle: moving markers around, identifying the different powerful factions within Khean, using different markers to quantify how many men each lord was likely to provide if they chose to get involved in a civil war. But all I saw was waste.

The wolf shifters were justifiably furious at being disregarded and dismissed. I had grown up with sniggering tales of the beast men, but as I squeezed Creed’s hand and looked up at him, I understood. He was so massively powerful in his half wolf form that any man here that chose to confront him would be little other than a bloody mess seconds later. That was reassuring, I wasn’t ashamed to admit. Creed glanced down at me when I continued to stare, smiling slightly at my inspection. He was my mate, my protector, and that allowed me to let out a sigh that came from the depths of my soul. But while I might revere him for that feeling of safety, too many humans on the continent—or most importantly, within Kheanian borders—took that power for granted.

“We won’t be fighting any more wars, no more of our males will be sent away from their fated mates to serve in the army,” a big wolf shifter with an air of command about him said to the growling agreement of his fellow shifters. “Not without a serious renegotiation of the treaty between us and humans, one with conditions much more favourable for us.”

“Your case has been made”—James said with a sniff, provoking some of the other lords around him to nod—“eloquently. Khean will not survive absent an alliance with the wolf shifter nation.”

Nation, that was an interesting word. It inferred a level of independence, of self determination that I’d never heard anyone use before. The wolf shifters seemed to hear that too, if the rumbles from their quarters were an indicator of anything.

“Even if we managed to get every lord in the country to call upon his bannerman to fight under the one flag.” The lords all started to snort and snicker at James’ words. “It wouldn’t be enough.”

“The intelligence we’ve received about Lanzene and Matteau show they have spent the many years we have kept them from our borders at war,” one of the human soldiers said. “That creates chaos and death and destruction, but they have gotten very good at the art of war. They have technology, machines we haven’t seen the likes of. High command spoke to the king…”

His eyes strayed almost guiltily to Arik.

“But my ‘brother’ paid little attention to it.”

He moved forward, every inch the prince, not realising he was the only one who stood with that wide legged stance. With his arms crossed against his chest, he raked that hard blue gaze over everyone here. I knew what it was like to be on the receiving end of it, able to feel, hear him from before.

“You don’t want me…”

His voice was a poisonous whisper inside my mind, the hiss of a snake warning me to keep the hell away, but I was like some stupid child. It took me gripping Creed’s hand fiercely, my muscles locking tight to stop myself from going towards him, because I was fairly sure I knew what would happen if I did.

I’d been quietly horrified after I’d bitten Arik, but it seemed the only reasonable response in the moment. The hot, coppery taste of him filling my mouth was a perfect externalisation of the war being fought inside me. The need to push his hand away and draw him closer, forcing Arik to bury himself to the hilt inside me. The other was to slap him hard, to demand that he do the work to make himself worthy of me if he thought he lacked in some way. Biting him cut through the snarl of ambivalence that raged within me, allowing something to settle. And other things I was not ready to face to rise up.

“This king so many of the lords have supported”—Arik skewered some of the nobles in the tent with his gaze—“the one whose orders the army has followed.” Soldiers now were treated to the same look. “And the wolf shifters stood by and allowed Magnus to take the throne; the powers in this land have supported in one way or another the reign of a sadistic, petulant child. He would have disregarded calls to upgrade the military’s equipment because it didn’t reflect glory upon him nor get his dick hard. We are utterly unprepared for an attack on our borders. We have allowed our armed forces to become completely reliant on the wolf shifters for our protection, then fallen into an attitude of complacency. No…” He scanned the faces of the wolf shifter contingent. “Contempt for them.”

His eyes dropped to the map and a furrow formed between his brows.

“Khean has become a viper’s pit, where everyone is out for themselves, only engaging with what will affect them personally. That will be our undoing. Lanzene and Matteau have not had that luxury. Waging constant war is a huge drain on their resources, but to survive it has made them tough, capable and most of all, taught them all the best ways to decimate a population. These are the enemies we face. Where is the king?”

The accusation in Arik’s voice was clear and I found myself standing straighter as a result.

“Where is he?”

His gaze raked across the crowd, so someone felt forced to answer, a soldier stepping forward.

“We’ve received word from the general. He’s approached the king multiple times about the issues, but…” The man paled. “He and his courtiers are preoccupied by… other things. The king does not… seem interested in responding to the general’s requests to mobilise what troops he has to the border.”

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