Page 121 of With Fangs and Claws (The Wolf Queen 1)

Chapter 48

Dane woke me the next morning. I wasn’t conscious of it being him, initially. All I felt was something stroking across my forehead and my hair, over and over. It was soothing, making me feel like I was floating along in this great, soft, warm cloud. But it was also rousing, that same cloud slowly but surely lifting me up and out of sleep and back to him. I opened my eyes, expecting to see Weyland gazing down at me, but he remained lying by my side, an arm tossed across my waist. I lay there, pinned down to the bed, staring up at Dane.

His eyes were so soft at first, like I’d caught him with his mask down, and that moment of vulnerability had me shoving what remained of my sleepiness off like a blanket. But then he seemed to notice that I was becoming conscious, and with that awareness came something else: almost a wariness. Dane was everywhere, organised everything, but that put a distance between us. He still wasn’t any less of a stranger than he had been when we first met. Though, as he continued stroking my forehead, catching every moment of my return to consciousness, I couldn’t help but feel the ghost of his mouth around my fingers, licking my blood clean.

“I’m supposed to be at the temple,” I said, not really knowing what else to say. “How did you know I was here?”

“I always know where my brothers run off to,” he said with a slightly mysterious smile. “And you will have to present yourself to the temple, but not yet. I thought you could have breakfast with me.”

“Breakfast…?” I said the word like it was one of the Great Mysteries of the Eilithians, not an everyday occurrence.

“Breakfast,” he confirmed.

I could do that, couldn’t I? The tiny little twist of his lips, a patient smile, said he noted my hesitation, but he just waited for my answer, not really exhaling until I did. I agreed, but there was a hurdle to be overcome before I could join him. When I went to pull away from Weyland, his grip on me tightened.

“My brother never likes to let go of what he sees as his,” Dane said with a shake of his head, grabbing a pillow from the head of the bed, then gesturing for me to make a break for it. As I did, he shoved the pillow into Weyland’s arms, leaving him to snuggle back down. Pulling me free, Dane smiled down at his brother for just a second before tugging me out of the room and back down the stairs.

“So where are we…?”

It was early morning, the sky still grey, the sun a faint yellow stain. But people scurried from here to there, going about their business, just like we did.

“The marketplace,” Dane said. “It’s on the way to the temple. You haven’t been eating enough, nor getting enough water, despite my directions to my brothers, so I decided to take things into my own hands. We’ll get you some breakfast and something to take with you for the midday meal as well, along with your own waterskin.”

“Always so practical,” I said, and his footsteps slowed as he turned to look over his shoulder at me.

“Women rarely say such things as a compliment.” Those blue eyes studied mine. “I appreciate that must seem stifling—”

“Or caring. Maybe you want to control our lives. Maybe you just want to show how you feel in the way you’re most comfortable with.”

He stopped then: such a prince. Everyone was forced to walk around us to get where they needed to go, but he didn’t seem to notice any of them, simply staring at me.

“There’s no ‘maybe’ about it,” he replied crisply.

His hands went to the collar of my crumpled shirt, straightening it, then adjusting the way my jerkin sat. He brushed off non-existent lint as I waited. Yet when his fingers went around my wrist again, this time it hit completely differently. I felt his grip, firm, but not uncomfortably so, yet heavy as an iron manacle.

“And it’s not a matter of just caring or just a need to control. It’s both, unfortunately. Now, as much as I’d like to stand in a public space discussing my predilections, I’d like to avoid Selene having to send out a search party for us.”

So on we went, my feet seeming to stumble over every slight variation in the cobblestone’s heights as I tried to process his words. I felt like a lamb being led to slaughter until finally Dane stopped, releasing his hold on my wrist, then watching me rub at the skin there. There weren’t any marks or bruises. Dane was always careful in the way he gripped me. More careful than the others.

“Forgive me,” he said, steering us over to a stone-walled planter that had been built at the entrance of the market. “My confession… I hadn’t expected to say anything about that side of me until we got to know each other a little better. It just slipped out and now I’ve made you uncomfortable. If you’d prefer to have your breakfast alone, I’ll go. Do you have coins?”

He didn’t wait for me to answer, touching the small bag tied to my belt, somehow reassured by the clink he heard before going to pull away. But this time my hand circled his wrist. I wasn’t able to get all the way around, but I gripped him as best as I could.

“Control?” I said, the word curdling inside me. I’m sure my eyes flared so much brighter then, my tongue flicking out to lick at the sharp canines that had appeared. “My father sought to control me. So did Kris. So did the priests and their damn sermons. If you’re thinking you’re going to become the next man with a birch branch in his hand to hold over me, you’d be mistaken.”

He smiled then, but there was an edge to it I’d never seen on Dane’s face before. He stared down his nose at me, a strange light dancing in his eyes.

“We have a problem with accuracy of terminology then,” he replied, that same cool, clipped tone I’d heard him use so many times now directed at me. “Control? They coerced you. Held whippings and a fall from the gods’ grace over your head to make you comply, along with the threat of losing a home to try and force you to do what they wanted.”

He stepped in closer, making me all too aware of how big and tall he was. My heartbeat skittered in a way I hadn’t experienced since being in Grania and I didn’t welcome the return of that feeling.

“When I say I like control,” he said, leaning over me as I inched backwards until my butt collided with the planter’s edge, then he placed his hands on the bricks on either side of my hips. “It’s not to brutalise you, to force you to accede to my will. I want you to give it to me.”

“What?” I squeaked. Any trace of the Maiden that I’d carried with me last night was gone. I was the Mouse now, well and truly.

“Relinquish control to me,” he said, his inscrutable words playing across my skin like the trailing lashes of a cat-o’-nine-tails. “When you get to a point when the trust is there. When you want to give up and give in for just a moment. When you want to hand all those decisions of what to do, and when, to someone else. Your surrender, that’s what I want. Because when you do, that’s when I’ll know you’re mine. Mine to please. Mine to tease. Mine to bring to the heights of ecstasy and not allow you to tip over. Not until I’m ready to let you fall.”

He pulled away then and that had my eyelids fluttering manically, as if it would help me to process the way he packed all of… whatever the hell that had been. I didn’t get to enquire further, because Prince Dane, contained Dane, was back.

---