Page 118 of With Fangs and Claws (The Wolf Queen 1)

I took the mouthful dutifully, resisting the urge to make a sound now, but it didn’t seem to matter. He watched every chew with rapt attention.

“I can’t eat with you watching me like that,” I said.

“I’d apologise,” he replied, “but I wouldn’t mean it. My wolf has been a very good boy, considering what the hell he’s been pushing me to do to you, but seeing you eat food we prepared is satisfying him in ways I find difficult to articulate.”

He spiked more eggs on his fork and offered them to me, dragging my plate closer when I went to get my own. I began to laugh at this, but then saw the intense look in his eyes.

“You’re being awfully controlling about what I choose to put in my mouth,” I said, reaching for the fork.

He grinned then, his fangs flashing as he relinquished the utensil, then as I began to hoe through the food, he stood up, moving behind me, strong hands pressing into the muscles of my neck as I ate. I felt like groaning then, at the way they ground into knots I didn’t know I had, forcing them to relax.

“Now, how long do you want to keep this illusion up. Am I going to go upstairs and warm up a bed for us, or do you want to go back to the castle?”

I never wanted to go back to the castle, ever, I realised. I’d skip between each man’s property if that’s what it took to avoid the court. Gerald seemed like a nice man and his wife was surely just as nice. She’d love to have a house guest here, wouldn’t she? But then I felt Weyland’s thumb sliding up my neck.

“Weyland…”

There was a question and a warning and a plea in his name and I wondered if he would be able to decode it, but he did.

“We won’t take you to bed to explore your body in every way we can,” he told me, his hands digging into my scalp. “You’re not ready for that yet.”

I set my fork down, turning around to face him then, Weyland feeling so big and so tall, looming over me in the near dark.

“You all say that, but how do you know? Are you going to wake up one morning and say, ‘Darcy’s ripe for plucking now?’”

He laughed at that, but quickly sobered.

“We’ll know because you won’t be able to hold back anymore. You’ll know we’re your mates and you’ll be ready to express that bond in a more physical way.”

Yet despite his cool words, his fingers slid down my neck and into the small hollow at the middle of my collarbones, about to go lower until I caught his hand.

“And you?” I asked. “Are you ready?”

He let out a long hiss then, tossing his head back, his braids falling over his shoulders. His hand went to my shoulder, almost pinching down on the muscle there.

“Don’t ask me questions like that, lass.”

“Why not? Is that why you were in such a foul mood in Bayard? Because you were ready and I wasn’t?”

“No future, no past, remember,” he insisted.

“Tell me,” I countered.

He dragged over a stool, sitting down so he faced me, then he motioned for me to go back to my dinner. I did, despite myself. I’d gone too long without food. It also meant he could tell me his truth without looking me square in the eyes.

“It felt like you were always slipping through my fingers. First your father and his bullshit, then your Kris trying to steal you away. When I saw you come out of your father’s room… the state you were in.” Claws raked across the very nice wooden table, leaving deep furrows in their wake. “Then when you woke, in Strelae, when you were safe and there was no Granian bastard to take you from us, you were up and on that horse of yours, running off with young Pep to the foothills.”

He stroked the grooves now, with fingers, not claws.

“Dane made clear it was just selfish desire clouding my judgement, but…” He shook his head. “I’d spent my life waiting to find my mate and, when I did? In my head I think I saw it as oh-so-easy. We’d see each other across a crowded room, then fall into the other’s arms and that would be it. I’d rut her, bite her, claim her…”

Those last few words were like hot brands against my skin, making me feel flushed then ice-cold by turns. I turned to stare at him.

“All of that described what you would do,” I said. “What would you see your mate doing?”

He paused, a small frown forming, momentarily filling me with alarm, but it smoothed away so quickly I wondered if I’d ever seen it. He blinked, then smiled.

“Whatever she damn well wanted.”

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