Page 109 of With Fangs and Claws (The Wolf Queen 1)

“You walk a difficult road, Darcy of Grania, but I think you’ll take the right steps in the end.” She clapped a hand down on my shoulder and gave it a brief squeeze. “Now, those men of yours didn’t turn up for the afternoon session. You can stay here in the dorms, if you like?”

She sounded hopeful, in the way one does when you don’t want to show it.

“I’ll find them,” I said, somehow knowing that was true.

When I walkedout of the training room, I did so on legs that were pretty rubbery, with joints that ached, but as I’d not done anything like this level of activity for so long, that made sense. I needed to find an ice bath like Nordred used to make for me, to try and ease the aches. It was these mundane thoughts that filled my head as I went to the doorway, then heard them talking.

“Weyland, you know it could be so good—”

“I know nothing of the sort, Leia.”

“Do you forget what it was like?” Her question was delivered in a silky voice I could almost feel across my skin, so I was sure he could too. I peered just around the wall to see my ‘mate’ standing there and the blonde woman with the poisonous smile looking up at him. “Do you forget what I could do to you? She’s not giving you anything, is she? Uptight little outlander like her wouldn’t know how to see to your needs, my prince.”

He stared down at her, as if caught up in her spell. My heart began to thud, my breath becoming raspier and shallow as I watched, waited for him to pull away.

“And even if you do manage to break her in, you’ll never have all of her, not like you had all of me.” Her voice broke then, and I heard a real note of pain in it. “I didn’t hold anything back, not from you. I let you take me everywhere and anywhere you wanted, and I’d do so again. You don’t have to tell anyone. It can be our little secret.”

I watched her hand rise, elegant and long fingered. As it did, I felt a growl form in my chest in response, but I stifled it. I needed to know. Would he let her touch him or would he…?

His hand wrapped around her wrist and, for a moment, she thought she’d won, a radiant smile spreading across her face, right before he threw her hand away.

“If Darcy only ever gives me tiny little scraps of her time, of her love, then I’ll count myself a king among men. She’s mine, and I’m hers in every way possible. Mind, heart, soul and, especially, body, and you’d know that if you found your true mate.”

All that beauty soured so quickly it was hard to believe it had been there in the first place. She screwed up her face, bared her teeth, and then snapped at him.

“That’s where you’re wrong. I met him. He’s a stable hand on my father’s estate. He wanted me to run away with him, and for what? So I could scrabble around in the dirt with him, living hand-to-mouth as I spit his brats out year after year until my body fails?” She shook her head abruptly. “You’ll regret this, just as I would’ve regretted marrying Stuart. We’re not animals, Weyland. We can choose to be happy rather than being like them, led around by their instincts.”

But Leia’s last plea fell on deaf ears, and she saw that, her shoulders slumping as she pulled away from Weyland.

“Wait until the festival,” she said over her shoulder. “You might change your mind then.”

“I won’t,” he replied with a sigh, “but I hope you find what you’re looking for, whatever that is.”

I froze where I stood, just blinking as I tried to process what had just happened, then stiffened and swung around the corner, like I’d just come to find Weyland. That look on his face, a glorious smile that virtually glowed with pleasure had me moving then, running towards him and he reached out, sweeping me up into his arms and holding me tight.

“What’s all this for?” he asked. “Were the stuffy Maidens riding you too hard today? I’m sorry I couldn’t come to you before but—”

I silenced him with a kiss and he had a small moment of hesitation, as if he couldn’t believe this was happening, followed by a determination to take everything I had to give. He stepped forward, pressing my back against the wall as he plastered my body against his. He kissed me and kissed me until finally we pulled free.

“For the love of all the gods,” he said, his eyes hazy now, “tell me what I did to deserve this, so I can do it again and again.”

“Nothing. I just… felt like it,” I said, unable to say anything else.

“Well, will I get more kisses if I take you to see Pepin and Nordred? They’ve been working rather hard on our… project and I think they’d like to report back on their progress,” he asked with a wicked smile.

“Definitely more kisses. Double if we can stop and see Del and Jan.”

“Double for each child, at least,” he said, letting me slide down the wall, then taking my hand. “I could be getting you drunk in an alehouse, then washing your nubile body in a bathtub, but I chose to share something much more meaningful with you.”

“You talked about that?” I squeaked as we walked out of the temple, nodding to the holy mothers as we passed.

“Of course, we did. Axe was a smug bastard about it all day long, grinning like the cat that got the cream until I popped him in his fat mouth. Father took us to task for fighting, but I made clear my thoughts on what he did.”

“Are you… jealous?” I asked as we walked out into the early evening air. “Is that how it works in a pack?”

“I’m bloody envious as hell,” he said, shooting me a sidelong look. “I don’t want Axe to miss out, but I want to be there too. I was fuming. Father kept me in the palace while sending Gael on some ridiculous task. He knew where I wanted to be, needed to be, and he refused me permission.”

Weyland stopped me there on the tiled courtyard of the temple and then stepped in closer, his hands burying themselves in my hair.

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