Page 131 of With Fangs and Claws (The Wolf Queen 1)

“Don’t worry about him, he’s just greedy. He’s always wanted more than his share of any pleasure we might discover, and now there’s you.”

Gael set his hand down low on my stomach and even after everything I’d experienced tonight, I felt a lazy pulse of pleasure.

“Will it…? Will I always feel like this?” I asked. “Or is this just the Maiden riding me?”

“What? Like your skin is just about to turn inside out with bliss and then you feel yet another stab of it?” he said, and I could hear the amusement in his voice before he pressed a kiss to my forehead. “No, this is your fate now.” Another kiss and another. “Poor little Granian girl, foully dishonoured by a Strelan savage.”

“If Granian women knew what was in store for them, they’d be massing at the borders, looking for their ‘wargen’ man,” I replied.

“Stop with all your sweet words,” he said with a grin, then rolled away from me. “As if it isn’t hard enough to get up and out of bed to go and find my brothers.”

He pulled open Weyland’s wardrobe and pulled on a shirt before putting his pants back on. If I wasn’t struck by the fine figure he made, I’d have mourned the loss of the sight of his naked body, but this was not the time. I went and did the same, getting dressed in the clothes one of them had left for me, unmolested until I went to put my jerkin on.

“Leave that, just for tonight,” he said, smiling when I gasped in shock.

“My breasts will be flapping around like an old mother’s washing,” I said, hearing Linnea in my voice.

“They’ll be bobbing oh-so-sweetly inside your shirt,” he countered, “reminding me of just how they looked when you rode me. You’ll see nudity and all manner of things in the Hind on festival night. Letting me have free access to my mate’s charms will be nothing by comparison.”

I stared at him, trying to gauge the truth of his words when I let the leather garment slide from my fingers, but it was worth it to see the look of triumph on his face as he led me from the room and out of the house.

We strolled over to the Hind and saw many a reveller celebrating the Mother’s charms in the streets. People rutting against walls and in alleyways in combinations that made me blink, but Gael just laughed and dragged me on. But the minute we walked into the alehouse, I remembered the purpose of tonight.

“Prince Gael!”

Many men stood then, holding out their tankards, full or otherwise, at the appearance of my mate. My arm wrapped itself around his when I saw women looking him over appreciatively. I hadn’t seen it before and I don’t think he’d noticed it ever, if his abashed expression was anything to go by.

“Not prince,” he said, but he was quickly drowned out.

“Your Highness, have you heard word of this Reaver business?” A man from behind the bar came bustling over.

“Aye, I’ve more than heard of it. I’ve seen evidence of their work with my own eyes,” Gael replied.

“With his own eyes!” the man said, looking back at the room. “Y’see there, Murgo. Those poor little mites that came through here, face all sliced up like a pig on market day.”

“And the men. I’ve known the Hinch family for some time,” another man said. “If Jimmy Hinch tells me this is what’s happening, then this is what’s happening.”

“And what’s it to us?” an obstinate man sitting at the bar said. I think he was the aforementioned Murgo. “They’re not here, are they?”

“What’s it to us?” the barkeep said, returning to his bar, pumping beer and handing it to people lined up, taking their coin. “What’s it to us?! You’ll be singing a different song if those bloody bastards start tearing through the land like in the tales of old. There’ll be no beer for one. All my hops come from the provinces, as does the wheat.”

“No beer?” men howled, thumping their tankards on the table, one cracking from the effort of it. A barmaid rushed in, sweeping the remains away and the man leered at her suggestively before she gave him a shove in the chest, making clear her thoughts on the issue. His friends all roared with laughter as a result.

“And what’s the king doing about it? That’s what I’d like to know,” a foul-tempered man said. He cast a harsh eye over the crowd, then his gaze came to settle on Gael. “What’s your father think about this, ‘Prince’ Gael?”

“Not a prince,” Gael reiterated. “We all know I’m not the queen’s son. And as for my father…” It felt like the air in the alehouse grew taut, wound tighter and tighter as he thought about what to say. We’d talked about this before, knew what we wanted to do, but actually doing it? What he was about to say was akin to treason and could bring the entire might of the king’s power down on my mate’s head.

“Gael…” I said, my grip on him tightening before he could speak. But he was going to say something. I just knew it. Of course he was, that was the plan, but for some reason, my mouth opened first. “We told the king what we found when we went out to Wildeford.” My voice rang out through the pub, everybody falling silent all of a sudden. “Women, children, men, all butchered like animals, sliced and diced like meat for a stew. The place was ravaged and for no reason we could see, except for the sign we stumbled upon. A raven with a golden skull was painted there.”

“The Morrigan…” someone whispered and at that, people made superstitious little movements, designed to ward off the evil eye.

“That’s what we think,” I said. “It’s some kind of worship. Destroy everything they find, people, fields, crops, houses, and doing so in Lady Death’s name. To build their own power base or just as a bizarre act of piety—”

“So where are these Reavers now?” someone shouted. “If they want death, Snowmere’s the most populated place.”

“You think they don’t know that?” another replied. “They’re testing the waters, seeing how we respond. And how do we respond? What did the king say when you brought him the news?”

“He thinks the Reavers are an old wives’ tale,” Gael said in a rueful tone and from the sound of it, some agreed with the king. But not many. More eyes went wide with anger and fear, a potent mix, and that’s when the crowd exploded.

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