Page 96 of Settle Down, Princess

“Look up, you compulsive gobblers of syphilitic cocks,” I muttered. I’d learnt that particular insult from a man who worked down at the docks in Khean. I’d posed as his apprentice for a while when gathering intelligence for my father. “Look up!”

We were supposed to work as a team, but we hadn’t been doing that well for some time. Arik would blame the princess, but I knew. We’d forged something on the battlefield, and each time we defied the king by surviving, that bond was strengthened.

Which was why the king had removed us from the battlefront and installed us as royal guards.

That was the point where morale started to drop and so had cohesiveness, and I’d take each one of the bastards to task once we got off this damn playing field for letting their focus slip. I’d rather do so on my own two feet than be carried off on a stretcher.

I’d stuffed the flags down the front of my pants to make sure I didn’t lose them in the mad pelt away from those three ravening packs, but this was where my own brothers ran to meet me and help deflect their ire, didn’t they? The plan was not that I’d be standing here like a bloody idiot, facing impending doom on my own while the others kissed poor Roan’s injuries better.

“Assess the situation. Identify all available resources and then utilise them. It doesn’t always have to be in a fancy way, my boy.” My father’s voice rang in my ears as I scanned the arena, catching the moment when the packs I’d left to smash into each other recovered. “You don’t have to try and make clear to everyone around you just how smart you are.”

But I liked to. That’s what stopped the terrible feeling of boredom that seemed to plague my every step, colouring everything in a haze of dull grey. A challenge, that’s what I craved with every breath. But right now, I had far more than I would ever need. Boredom would be driven out of me, as would the air from my lungs, if I didn’t get some bloody help from my pack. Roan finally blinked and saw me, nudging the others, and they had what was no doubt a touching little moment, right before they ran towards me at full pelt.

And I came alive.

My eyes were everywhere, taking in the proximity of every pack, including my own, and wondering if the ones I’d pissed off or my pack would get to me first. I could’ve run to meet Arik and the others. I could’ve pulled out the flags and shredded them, dismissing each one of my attackers from the field, but… I heard Jessalyn’s shout from the crowd, the sound of it cutting through all the noise and spearing into my heart.

She was watching me.

That always brought out the worst elements of my personality. I wanted to show her, show this whole fucking community, what we could do if we turned our minds to it.

Show the one woman I’d ever love that I was worthy of her.

“About fucking time,” I snapped, jerking out the flags and shoving one into Arik’s hands and another into Roan’s. “If you’re quite recovered, we need to run.”

“What?” Arik said, taking in me, the flag, and the shifters running towards us.

“Each one of us, separate direction.” I couldn’t use full sentences as I laid out my plans. “Redirect the packs away from Creed.”

My focus shifted abruptly to my brother, watching him suck in a breath to tell me the collective wisdom of his people, but we couldn’t fight like a pack of wolf shifters, so we’d have to do it my way.

“You find our flag. We create fucking mayhem, dragging these pricks along like a bull by the nose.”

“Have them smashing into other packs, letting them take them out for us.” Arik grinned as he slapped his hand down on my shoulder.

“And if they catch us?” Roan asked. “I’ve got no bloody sword.”

“Nope, but we’ve got a particularly potent weapon all over our skin.” Arik pointed to his forearm, and I put two and two together. Roan, the idiot, got liniment in his eyes, because of course he did. He was damn good with a sword, but sometimes I wondered how he could talk and walk at the same time. Arik rubbed his fingers along his arms and chest. “Liniment is a bitch to get on any of the sensitive membranes, in the eyes, nose, or mouth.”

“This is fate…”

Creed’s reverent tone, his sharp nod, it was all we needed. He took off without a word, eyes scanning, nose working as he searched for our flag.

“We aren’t a match for a wolf shifter’s strength,” Arik said. “But we can use that against them. Force them to smash into each other. Stir them up to have them fighting each other. We’ll come out on top and then…”

He glanced up into the crowd, searching for Jessalyn, but I couldn’t let that happen.

“Starting now.”

I snatched my flag away and went running off, legs pumping and hands slicing through the air as sweet, sweet, adrenaline went coursing through my veins. Never was I more alive than when an enemy was on my trail. I listened for the howls, the thunderous steps of the shifters, keeping track of it as I led them away, then corrected course, aiming straight for a nearby pack that had just discovered their flag.

When their heads jerked up, I caught the gleam in their eyes, and knew exactly how they felt. They’d just found the key to spending more time with the one woman they’d waited their whole life for. This had to feel like destiny, that they were in with a chance of winning, but they didn’t need time with their mate like we did. I was willing to bet they hadn’t crushed their sweetheart’s heart, watched the light die in her eyes. I had, and the shame of it powered me on. Because the minute I realised what Jessalyn had done with the oil, I felt hope.

If she hated me, she was thinking about me, unable to stop herself from coming up with ways to torment me. The idea of the princess punishing me was more delicious than I had words to describe because I knew something she didn’t. My father had forced me to endure torture training, being on the receiving end as well as the one with the whip in hand. That’s when I’d discovered a truth few knew. There was a curious kind of intimacy created between the person taking the whip and the one doing the hurting.

The high-key drama of it had me going back over and over to some of the more reputable ladies in the houses of pain in the tenderloin district of Khean, but no whip, no flail, created the same burn as Jessalyn’s touch. The craving for that, for the princess to unload all her frustrations on me, to give that burden to me to carry for her, spurred me to do something no sensible human would. I threw myself forward, diving into the midst of the triumphant shifter pack, snatching the flag from their hands and then tossing it over my shoulder to the pack pursuing me as I leapt free. A cacophony of snarls and growls, followed by the blunt sound of fists slamming into flesh, was music to my ears as I sprinted away.

There was nothing better than a plan coming together.

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