Page 219 of Settle Down, Princess

“Let’s take this back to the guard’s quarters. There’s no one there to see what happens or hear the sounds our girl is likely to make.”

“What sounds…? Oh!” She sighed as he kissed her neck, moving slowly as he kissed every inch of that slope, his hands going to the neck of her dress. It was the sight of him peeling the fabric back an inch that had me scooping her up and carrying her forward. “Arik, I can walk. Arik!”

“You’ll never need to again,” I assured her, the pathway to the guard’s quarters feeling too long and too winding, but I was kicking open our door moments later, only to find a feast before us.

“Well, well, you have been busy.” Silas sauntered in the door, but when he reached over to pluck a piece of fruit from the table, Jessalyn wiggled free and slapped his hand away.

“You’ll ruin your appetite,” she said.

“Oh no.” He moved closer, pressing her against one of the chairs now set up around a table in the room. “I won’t.” Did she catch the moment his hands shook slightly as he reached for her? I did, as well as that reverent look. Silas seemed to eat her up with his eyes, an urge I knew well.

“None of us will.” Roan winked at her as she spun around. The prick crunched on an apple before pulling her closer. “Not when you’re around. Can you come and interrupt more meetings, please? I’ll bring you pretty flowers and sweet scents to wear if you do. I was just about to rip out the throats of those idiots.”

“Not before me.” Creed pulled out the chair at the head of the table, then escorted her over to it. She inclined her head and smiled prettily, right as he tucked it under her. He didn’t straighten up though, his beast bleeding through as was evident in the claws that now clutched at her arms. “I’d kill every one of them if I thought it would help us. Jessalyn…”

He breathed her scent in, eyes falling closed as his nose grazed her neck, then his fangs were bared as he fitted them to the scar on her neck.

“Oh… oh!” Her hands slapped down on the table, forcing the cutlery to rattle, her fingers clawing at the tablecloth as he sucked at the mating mark he’d left. “What is…? Ohh…” Her last sigh was almost sad when he pulled away, a look of triumph in his eyes right before he sat down beside her. “What was that?”

“A mark given during the peak of pleasure will evoke that each time it’s touched,” Creed replied, which was news to me. To prove his point, he reached and swiped a thumb over the mark, forcing her to shiver. “It proves our bond was forged truly, that the gods meant us to be together.” She nodded in response to his words, eyes heavily lidded, but he turned to the table. “You have brought us a fine meal. We must not let the dishes grow cold.”

“Dishes…?”

I saw traces of the little demon we’d found in Stormare just then. That dangerous flash of her eyes, I liked it a whole lot. Part of me had feared we’d never see it again after what she’d been through, but this morning the sweetness between her and Silas gave me hope.

This gave me more.

“I mean, we couldn’t let all of this good food go to waste,” I added. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m starving.”

Roan and Silas met my gaze, their lips twitching, making clear they knew exactly what I was doing. This lightness, this room, locked away from the rest of the palace and free to tease our girl? My soul sucked that up hungrily. If I tried hard enough I could forget we were hovering on the precipice of a war that would wage for generations, causing untold death and destruction. I smiled down at my plate, shoving that aside for just this moment before helping myself to some food.

“You want to… eat?” she asked. I pretended to ignore her, my smile growing wider. “You don’t want to…?”

“Don’t want to what, Princess?” Silas asked, a brow arching upwards.

“I’m not sure about you idiots,” Roan said, spooning great fluffy mounds of mashed potato onto his plate. “But I am starving. Who knew planning a war was harder than fighting in one.”

“So afterwards, we’ll…?” Jessalyn’s voice trailed away, and I had to laugh. After everything we’d put her through, she still couldn’t actually ask for what she wanted. For us to clear the table and spread her out upon it, the only meal we truly needed to eat.

I was prepared to do it. I’d break every dish, every plate, send cutlery falling like rain if she said it. If she just told me she wanted me. They might call me Your Highness, but she was always my princess.

And now she would become my queen.

No matter what title she wore, I would tease her, always. Because it made the colour rush to her cheeks and her eyes glitter like the finest sapphires, just as they did right now. She was glorious and beautiful, but most of all she was mine.

Ours.

That mental correction was a sour note inside my mind, and not because of what it meant. I had reconciled myself to the idea of sharing the one woman between us since we formed a pack, even looked forward to it. With my brothers by my side, I could be sure the woman we chose as mate could be cared for when I was abrupt, absent or gods, even rude. They would step in and provide everything I lacked, as I would do the same for them.

But how would the country view that?

Fallspire had already talked to me about the issue and so had the general.

“How will the people know your child and heir is legitimate?” Fallspire had said. “We’ve already had the problem of your own legitimacy clouding the issue of succession. The country can’t deal with that again.”

“The child will be mine,” I had growled. “Whether born of my seed or any of my pack mates, he or she will still be mine in every way that’s important.”

They hadn’t been convinced, but they didn’t need to be. I was. I turned towards Jessalyn now, ready to tell her about everything, only to catch sight of her staring at me, at all of us with a hunger that would never be satisfied by what was on the table. It didn’t matter how hard the cooks had worked, it would always taste like dust compared to her.

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