Page 104 of With Fangs and Claws (The Wolf Queen 1)

I felt myself clamping down on Axe’s finger hard, but he kept pushing through each wave of pleasure and somehow that made it so much better. My nails bit down through the fine linen of Weyland’s shirt, becoming claws and drawing blood.

“For fuck’s sake,” Gael growled. “Now I’ve got to front up to the temple with a raging erection.”

“Worth it,” Axe declared as I collapsed down onto the bed, completely boneless. He winked at me as he licked the finger he’d retrieved, creating more questions in my mind, but they were ones I couldn’t give voice to yet. I just sucked in breath after breath as Weyland inspected the damage I’d done.

“You’ve given me my first mark,” he said, seeming inordinately pleased by this. He pulled his shirt away and then swiped the welling blood away before pushing his fingers between my parted lips.

Granian Darcy had been appalled at this kind of transfer of blood from one person to the other, Dane licking my fingers clean, Weyland forcing his blood between my lips in my room, but not Strelan me. I could smell the scent of it before he even got close, my mouth watering, then my hands went around his wrist before I licked his fingers, just as Axe had.

“You’re making me think some very inappropriate thoughts right now,” Weyland said in a low husky voice. “That kittenish little tongue…”

“And you’ll need to explain to the Maidens exactly what she was doing with it if they find us here,” Dane snapped. “Everyone out but Darcy and Axe.” He turned to us. “You have two minutes to get ready or I’ll come in and throw the cold bathwater over you.”

And with that the door was slammed shut behind him.

“Mm…” Axe said, grabbing me as I went to get up, and pulling me on top of his hard body. “This was a most pleasant way to wake up. We’ll need to do this again tomorrow morning.”

“Axe!” came Dane’s muffled response.

“But not now. My brother is about to blow something internally. Something in that big brain of his and I fear we will need it. Though perhaps if we woke earlier and you started on him first…”

I blinked then, scrambling off the bed and yanking on my clothes, it never really occurring to me until then that the men would welcome my touch as much as I seemed to like theirs.

“So I should what?” I asked, tugging on my boots. “Just wake him from his sleep with a touch? How can I be sure he’d like that?”

He answered in the bluntest of ways, which I was beginning to think was Axe’s way. He pulled back the sheets and then stepped forward, making clear just how much his body responded to mine. I just blinked, my eyes widening as I tried to take him all in, then his hand slid down in a way that seemed entirely sensual, cupping all his hardness before giving it a few swivelling tugs.

“You know how a man expresses his desire?” he asked me, and I nodded. “Well, I can guarantee you the four of us have been in this kind of rampant state since the first time we clapped eyes on you. A man exists to please his mate.” The amused tone in his voice had trailed away for a second, but it came roaring back quickly enough. “And to give her children, to keep the pack safe. To chop logs and keep the hearth-fire burning.” He shrugged then. “Whatever it takes to keep them healthy, safe and happy. But what do we want in return? Right now, it's to know that the raging fire of need that burns inside us isn’t just one sided.” He nodded then. “Dane would like it just fine if you woke him up like that.”

A sharp knock at the door jerked my focus away from Axe and I opened the door to find the three of them waiting.

“Gods, Axe,” Weyland said, clapping a hand over his eyes. “I did not need to see that.”

I looked over my shoulder to where the man was standing there, still naked and a big grin on his face.

“You’ll see a whole lot more when Darcy agrees to become ours,” Axe replied with a wink.

“No, no, I won’t. My focus will be entirely on our mate as we–” Weyland began to say, smiling down at me.

“Move our fucking arses,” Gael said as he glanced down into the almost empty alehouse. “The Maidens are here.”

Selene walked in the door, the blonde-haired woman and the one with the light brown hair from yesterday at her side.

“We’ll meet you at the temple steps,” Dane told Axe, moving now.

“You were told to report to the temple in the morning,” Selene said to me when I approached her. “It’s gone ten now. For that, you won’t get breakfast.”

“Yes, she will,” Gael snapped, pulling a paper wrapped package from his jacket and handing it to me.

“The privations of the Maidens are not my mate’s, not until she decides once and for all that she wishes to join your order,” Dane added, stepping between me and the women. “She will take breaks, drink water regularly, eat her meals and train as you dictate. One of us will be present in the temple each day to ensure this.”

Selene snorted at that, then shook her head slowly.

“You don’t understand. You think you do, but you don’t.”

“And you are being my mother’s puppet in this, though for the life of me, I can’t work out why. Everyone gets irrational, on edge, when deprived of life’s essentials, and you’re doing it deliberately to someone who isn’t even an acolyte. One who’s being forced to train with you. The queen wants Darcy to break so she can put her down like a rabid dog, and she’s using you as the wheel to break her on.”

Selene’s smile faded then and she glanced at the others, who looked similarly discomfited.

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