Page 132 of With Fangs and Claws (The Wolf Queen 1)

“So he’s to do nothing! What do we pay our taxes for?”

“Where is the army on this?”

“We’ll be slaughtered in our beds, and he’ll be sitting pretty, up in that castle of his, using our soldier sons to keep himself and that family of his safe.”

“And where are the princes? Gael’s the only one who’s worth a damn, being the trueborn heir. The king has been bewitched by that wench, Aurora, since he took the throne, forsaking his own true mate.”

“Not Gael. Look at him, look at his mate. They wear each other’s marks, just as true mates should.”

“But the others—”

“They will—”

“And why is it—?”

Nordred had said we needed to be careful, that a mob was a bloody dangerous beast to go riding into battle and now we saw the truth of it. The alehouse was in an uproar, every person there shouting something at someone else. Gael wrapped his arm around me, but when the first tankard was thrown, he climbed up on the nearest table, kicking the contents clear before shouting with every scrap of alpha bark he had, “ENOUGH.”

I watched the barkeep put away his billy club, realising now that he wouldn’t need it, because my Gael, Prince Gael, had stepped up to speak to the masses.

“My brothers feel as I do,” he said. “They’re out in alehouses all across Snowmere answering people’s questions, just as I am going to do here. We want you to know what’s going on. We want you to have the chance to have a say on how we resolve this. We were disgusted when our father dismissed our concerns, ones we share with the commanders of the army. We want you to be prepared for the fight that’s coming, because from what I can tell, we’ll be facing one. A bigger threat we haven’t seen since the humans came to Strelae. But we have survived war, dispossession, the rape and pillage of our people and our land. We can meet any challenge we’re forced to face, because we are Strelan.”

For a second, I wondered how his speech had gone over. I felt like I was thrumming like a struck harp string, coiled tight and ready to fight anyone and anything in response to his words, because Gael was my mate. Then I heard the first tankard thud against a table.

“We are Strelan!” a drunken voice declared and there was a small chuckle from the crowd.

“We are Strelan!” came another though, much stronger and more resonant.

“We are Strelan!” Several voices now and each one punctuated by a thump of their mug against the table. “We are Strelan!”

The sound swelled, becoming a chant now, a primitive one, but no less powerful for it. Over and over they said the words, declared themselves citizens of this country and, hence, willing to lay down their lives for it.

Would they have to? We had so much to learn yet. Would I want them to? War was a glorious idea right up until the first battle and then it was all death and shite, so Magnus, my father’s man, had informed me. But I couldn’t take this moment away from them or Gael. I looked up at him then, stared into the eyes of the man I’d tied myself to for the rest of my life and couldn’t have been more proud. He didn’t want the appellation of prince, but he was one, and now they all knew it.

Gael was helped down and mugs of beer thrust into his hands and mine. People slapped him on the back and cheered, all that fear and anger redirected, for now. Towards the king and queen, against the establishment that was supposed to support the people, but just couldn’t get off their arses to do so. We sat down at a table and found that the seats around us quickly filled, a fiddler starting up a song to keep others dancing, giving them a means to burn off all this pent-up energy. And while that happened, we told our story of what we’d seen.

We’d come hereto find Axe, Weyland and Dane, but as the beer flowed along with the conversation, we somehow managed to forget all of that. We shouldn’t have. When we finally swung out of the alehouse, ready to go home, our heads were hazy, our steps staggering, even as our hearts were full.

“I don’t think…” Gael worked hard to straighten up, forcing me to go and try and shore him up, but my head was spinning just as alarmingly, so we both wavered like newborn fawns in the forest. “I don’t think I’m going to be able to service you again.”

“Service me?” I blinked at him owlishly. “How do you service me? Ohhh… you mean like a stallion does a mare. Though would they put you in one of those slings to stop you from hurting me? They had to do that to Father’s warhorses because they were such vicious bastards. Their bloody penises were like snakes, flapping around, looking for a way in. The men all thought it terribly funny when one of them had to guide them in, and then Linnea found out I’d watched the whole thing.”

“What?” Gael asked me, laughing, then looking befuddled, then laughing again.

“Perhaps it would be wise to get the two of you to bed,” another male voice said, and we both turned around way too fast in response, losing our footing and then staggering around trying to find it again.

“Nordred!” I threw up my arms and went running over, having to clap my hands over my breasts to stop them from bobbing so much. Gael said he liked that, but Nordred probably wouldn’t. When I got close, he stared down at me slightly quizzically and then tilted my head to one side to look at my neck.

“So, you’ve taken the first of your mates,” he said, then nodded. “This is good.”

“So good,” I enthused. I stared back at Gael, feeling tears rising when I did, but I blinked furiously, because they turned my mate into a tall blob. “Nordred, I think I love him. I can’t quite tell, because I have no idea how you’re supposed to feel, but my chest aches whenever I see him and I find myself wanting to rake his hair back from his face all the time, needing to see all of him. I get terrified when he goes to the castle, because the queen might strike him again and—”

“Definitely time to get you home,” Nordred said, putting a hand on my shoulder and steering me back to Gael, then slinging my mate’s arm around me as he led us on.

The walk felt like it took a million years yet two seconds, all at once, but after some time, we stumbled into Weyland’s room, saw the mussed bed and fell down upon it. Gael landed face first, his head buried in a pillow, but I curled on my side to look at Nordred as he came closer. He pulled two familiar-looking swords from his belt and held them up, depositing them and their scabbards on the bedside table.

“You’ll need these,” he said. “You’ll know when. But not tonight. Tonight you sleep, ready for the new day, because you will have much to face, lass, and this time it’ll be without me. I have to leave the city.”

“Nooo….” I whimpered, reaching clumsily for him, but my hand wouldn’t behave, and I didn’t connect with anything.

“Yes, lass. All children need to grow up, stand on their own two feet, and now’s your time. You’ve made your choice, and it’s a good one, if not a hard one. But you’ll need to rely on your mates now, not me.”

I just nodded slowly, the pillow feeling impossibly soft as I turned my face to it.

After that, there was only quiet, and perhaps that’s why the visions came. Not of ravens and ravaging Reavers, but of them: my princes. They stood within each alehouse, having earnest conversations with people, so many people, and in each vision, I was there by their sides. I nodded along to what was said, but didn’t contribute anything of my own, which seemed strange. And my princes? Each one of them looked down at me with eyes as hot as the sun, with a kind of love that warmed my heart through, setting it on fire, just as Gael had beforehand. And in different pubs all throughout the city, Weyland, Axe and Dane, reached over and pulled me in tight against their bodies, held me like I was something precious, mumbled something sweet that made my cheeks flush, each version of me, and then my princes kissed me.

But when my fingers went to my lips, I didn’t feel any of it. And when I reached out for the warmth of their bodies, I felt nothing but one body, one man. As I began to shift, unable to work out what this meant, my mate felt my questing hand and pulled me close, settling me against him. And so I was able to watch what each one of the princes did from a position of warmth and security.

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