Page 125 of With Fangs and Claws (The Wolf Queen 1)

There were days of this, with everything becoming a haze. I worked with the pack and I was cared for by the men. Pepin, Nordred, Del and Jan, and Arden, everything else fell away, until finally the day of the festival.

“Rise with the sun as a wolf,” Selene had told me. “Start the day the way you mean to end it. You are one of the Maiden’s chosen and you will take her form.”

My eyes flicked open that morning, the first rays of the sun coming through the windows in the bedroom and that’s when I shifted. A much more fluid process now I’d had a chance to practise it so often. I’d gone running with the Wolf Maidens up along the hills that surrounded Snowmere, sprinted across the plains, only to come back to the temple and find one of the men waiting for me, ready to return me to their bed.

Which was where they lay now. I cast an eye over each man, cataloguing the ways they sprawled across the massive bed platform, their heads buried in their pillows. Part of me wanted to stay here, wriggle down between them and see what happened when I put myself at their centre.

But I wouldn’t.

I jumped off the bed on four paws rather than two feet, padding through the suite until I got to the front door and then pulled the lever handle down by rearing up and grasping it with my teeth. Then I was out and into the silent halls, no one else up this early. No one but the other wolves that would participate in the rite. I saw them in the hallway, trotting down the carpeted stairs, our nails clacking across the marble floors, our legs stretching when we got clear of the castle and onto the roads proper. We ran as one massive pack, just as Selene had said we would, until we reached the temple. Mother Aeve stood on the steps, staring down at us all with an inscrutable expression, hand on her cane.

“Come and be welcome,” she said, “to the Festival of the Triple Goddess. Maidens, mothers and crones alike. She sees, she accepts all.”

What transpiredafter that was a whirl of activity. Selene and the Wolf Maidens met those of us who would be participating with voluminous black robes that would keep us covered until night fell. Returned to our human form and dressed, we were put to work.

Our labours included decorating the temple and the courtyard with bunches of flowers and strange little dolls made from corn husks, setting out tables and chairs, sweeping the cobblestones yet again, placing lanterns at key points around the temple and then we were all directed to the massive kitchens where a feast was being prepared. I was given a knife and some vegetables to chop, and chop I did, until a strange silence fell over the kitchen. It took me a while to recognise it, because I seemed to sink into food preparation like I did everything else here, my focus narrowing, narrowing, until the world was only small cubes of carrots, celery and onion. But as I felt someone approach, my head jerked up and there was Queen Aurora.

“Walk with me,” she said with a regal smile, then turned without looking to see if I walked after her. I snorted as I laid my knife down, recognising a power move when I saw one, but off I went. I followed her long purple robe, similar in style to mine, but exquisitely embroidered all over and in much more majestic colour.

“Selene tells me you have the capacity to become a Wolf Maiden,” she said when I approached, the two of us walking down one of the open courtyards that ran along the sides of the temples, filled with carved columns that depicted various religious scenes. “That is a rare gift. I admit, when my sons brought you to my court, I thought you some tedious little outlander, but… twith your defeat of Malia, the swiftness with which you found your wolf and your performance here in the temple. The reports back are that you’re goddess-touched.”

“I don’t even know what that means, Your Majesty,” I replied, barely able to keep the irritation out of my voice.

“I thought it self-evident.”

She turned to actually face me, and it was then I could see the evidence of her sons in her. Dane’s colouring, Axe’s sharp eyes, and Weyland’s full mouth, though on her it sat quite differently.

“The gods have placed their hands on you, a lowly Granian, daughter of our usurpers. That’s clear in the way you’ve been able to turn my sons’ heads and I appreciate that. Perhaps it was their destiny to bring you here? Would you have discovered you were two-souled if you hadn’t? You’d have been locked away in marriage to one of those repressed bastards in this newfound noble class they’ve created from those who’ve occupied our land the longest. But here, you can transcend the rubbish you were raised in and transform into something so much more.”

It was then I saw her actually become a queen. She seemed to swell up, becoming more than just a woman and, instead, evolving into a leader.

“Without the Wolf Maidens at our backs, we wouldn’t be able to rule Strelae peacefully. Every knife would be turned against us, the throne reduced down to a brass ring that every family scrabbled to try and grab. They keep peace, order, allow us to make real changes for the betterment of the Strelan people. And you could become one of their greatest. A Maiden with the hand of the goddess herself on her shoulder, willing to lay down her life to protect my sons during their reign.”

“And Malia,” I supplied helpfully. “Or whoever else you deem acceptable as queen. Is there anyone? Is she just a pawn you’re playing, allowing you to curry favour with what I assume is a powerful family, all while you’re dangling your sons under the noses of the other big players, like a whoremonger displaying their wares?”

“You dare!”

She wanted to say more, do more, as her hand whipped up to slap my face, but that was the problem. I was a Maiden on some level or another and she was damn lucky none of them had decided to direct their ire at her.

Though perhaps they could be persuaded to.

I caught her wrist in my hand before it got anywhere near my face and when she went to slap me with the other, I captured that one too, holding the queen of all of Strelae in my grip like she was a naughty child.

“This is the real problem, isn’t it?” I asked. “Because there’s another interpretation of the facts as you present them and it’s this. If I’m goddess-touched, whatever the hell that means, then that could signal something else altogether. That the gods favour your sons, yes, but not as faithful penitents, waiting for the moment when the two of you are ready to step down. Maybe, instead, it means this: that the gods have turned their faces against you and your husband; that your days are coming to an end; that the stupid savagery you entertain in your court to divide and conquer is a hindrance to what needs to happen. We’re facing a threat, a real one, which could obliterate every single one of us…”

My voice trailed away as I saw that bloody raven swoop up to fill my field of vision, its golden head cawing its challenge.

“That the strength you’ve fostered in your sons, that you’ve allowed me to develop in this temple, can be used against you, first, before we meet our enemies in battle.”

“Is that what you think?” Her eyes narrowed, and the regal mask didn’t just slip, it was completely obliterated, replaced instead by a rabid wolf. “That you’re the chosen one? You silly little girl. You understand nothing and that would be proven in the first week of your reign, if you managed to claw your way into my place on the throne. They’d tear you to shreds.”

“Not before I ripped them apart first,” I said, baring my fangs. I thrust her arms away from me, sending her stumbling back and something inside me liked that very much. “But you shouldn’t be worrying about your courtiers. You should be worrying about yourself.”

I got a moment, a single moment, to treasure the look of real fear on the queen’s face before it was quickly smothered by a smug smile.

“Well, then, this is the Festival of the Triple Goddess. We can argue this back and forth, but only they know their true will. Perhaps by the end of the night, we’ll know for sure.”

She didn’t say goodbye to me then, just flicked the folds of her robe free as she turned on her heel and swept away, leaving me standing there, trying to process. Vegetables, I finally decided, unwilling to be caught up in the queen’s games. No matter what, we still needed diced vegetables, so I turned and went back to the kitchens.

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