Page 129 of Settle Down, Princess

“I told you to never accept a favour from my father.” I felt like an executioner stepping up to the block, but I didn’t have a hood to hide behind. Roan’s eyes burned into mine.

“She needed to bring in the money,” Roan spluttered. “With Bill out of action after that accident. Where else was she going to make that sort of money, except on her back?”

Had my father engineered the accident that crushed Bill’s leg? My mind raced, seeing possibility after possibility until it finally refused to think anymore. It wouldn’t help me, but this would.

“We need to go to your sister’s place, get to Desiree before Father does,” I said.

“She’ll be down at the square,” Arik said. “It’s her day off.”

“How did you—?” Roan started to say.

“Questions later,” Arik barked. “Let's go. We can move Desiree and the family out of the city for a while, out of the Raven’s reach.”

But there was no such place. I felt that keenly later as we walked into the stables, right as I swung myself up into the saddle.

Chapter 75

Creed

This wasn’t the right way.

A red haze covered my field of vision, but if I blinked hard enough, I saw it. Not her, not the city where she had been dragged against her will, but the sharp pointed logs that had been lashed together to create a palisade.

Another fucking garrison.

I fought against the wolf’s dominance, hearing him whine in response. His body ached, his mouth dry from lack of water, but he trotted on. The guards should’ve seen a wolf of my size approach and thrown the gates open, welcoming me into their midst. I was a warrior, just like them. I belonged by their side. Instead I heard the creak of bowstrings being pulled taut.

“Halt!” a sharp voice said. “No closer!”

I thought I was going to have to wrestle the wolf for control, but the beast sat down on the dusty road, panting to catch our breath.

“That’s the one, sir,” a man said after poking his head above the wall and peering down at me. “The white wolf they’ve sent word about. All of the beast men are locked down tight in the stockade.” Our jaws widened. A wolf couldn’t laugh, but my beast was damn close to it. That was evident in the way the man shot us wary glances. “He won’t get in here, spreading dissension.”

But I didn’t need to. The disconnect between my mind and the wolf’s resolved itself abruptly, as we threw our head back and howled.

Humans don’t like the yodelling songs of wolves. It reminds them that the night has teeth and not blunt ones like them. Instinctual memories rose at the sound of it, of huddling closer to the fire, to keep them warm and also to keep us away. But my fellow wolf shifters? They heard something else altogether.

I was tired, so damn tired and I couldn’t remember the last time I’d slept. Something drove me on and on, over hill and through dale, always searching for this. I thought it was for her, our fated mate, the heart that beat hot and hard and true in my chest, but if that was true, how was I here? I asked that question and so many more as I howled.

Why did we submit to the rule of humans?

Why were they allowing themselves to be confined within the stockade by them? One wolf shifter could tear most of the men within those walls apart, so why obey their orders? Why remain within the palisades at all?

Each question within my song appeared to strike true, if the sounds of growls, then roars were anything to go by. The fierce music of shouts, then screams, filled the air, right before the gate was shoved open.

And there they stood.

Comrades, brothers in this fight that wasn’t ours in the first place, emerged from behind the palisade barely having raised a sweat, which was something the humans couldn’t claim. I saw men splayed across the garrison floor, some groaning, some with hands clapped down on bleeding wounds, but not my fellow wolf shifters.

“You’re the one,” the leader said, shaking his head to dispel his beast, the fur receding from his skin. “You’re the one that’s stirring everything up.”

“I’m the one that brings you news,” I said, the wolf relinquishing his grip on me and letting my man form emerge. “The king led an attack on the packlands.” More wolf shifters strode forward, stopping only when they got close enough to hear me. “During the mating games.”

“You lie…” one growled, but we all heard the doubt in his voice.

“Was anyone hurt?” Another said. “My Lily?”

“And my Juniper?”

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