Page 25 of With Fangs and Claws (The Wolf Queen 1)

Chapter 11

So, I wasn’t exactly smiling when he started to disrobe. I watched in alarm from Poll’s back as he yanked his jerkin up and off his head. He laughed when I forced my eyes away, but I caught a glimpse of muscle, so much muscle, and a sprinkling of hair across a broad chest. Poll shifted restlessly as the jerkin, pants and then boots were tossed across his withers, then shoved deep into the saddlebag.

“It’s safe to look now, little huntress.”

It really wasn’t. I caught sight of a whole lot of pale skin as he crouched on the earth, but his bollocks and everything else was hidden. All I was treated to was the sight of his back and a very firm, very white arse.

“You want to see me take fur?” he asked, turning back to stare at me, his eyes blazing bright blue now. I nodded slowly, Poll cropping idly at the grass. “Then watch closely because it doesn’t take long.”

But it wasn’t entirely painless. He let out a long shout, his voice echoing about the place, his body snapping tight before every bone broke, only to be instantly reformed, leaving a massive grey wolf in his place. He panted then, gazing up at me with the same blue eyes that would identify him as wargen even in fur. Grey wolves had been hunted into extinction in Grania for fear they would turn into wargen and by the time they worked out the eye colour difference, it was too late.

Axe-wolf yipped at me now, Poll jerking his head up in response. He whinnied to the wolf and then tugged on the reins. I felt like a child sitting on the horse’s back, barely able to nudge his sides with my heels, but he seemed to be waiting for a signal, any signal. Now that he had it, he took off, Axe trotting beside us with that effortless gait of a wolf. He looked up at me as we went, the wind starting to tug at my hair, a smile spreading across my face as I loosened the reins, really letting Poll have his head. The big horse took the bit between his teeth and then those massively big hooves started to thump down onto the ground. Axe let out an excited howl and then ran after us.

Racing across the grasslands always felt like flying. Every one of Poll’s strides threw me slightly up in the air, only the grip of my hands and my knees keeping me on his back. That precariousness, it should’ve triggered one of my attacks, my heart beating faster and faster, in time with Poll’s massive one, but it never did. This was the time I felt the most alive, where every worry was driven out of my head, when I was entirely in the moment.

Right up until we reached the keep.

“Wolf!” a knight shouted as we stampeded up towards the gates of the keep. I was forced to simultaneously pull Poll up and swerve him in front of Axe, the war horse rearing up and pawing the air as the knight drew his spear, but the man wasn’t aware of me or the horse, just Axe. I threw myself at the knight from off the horse’s back, shoving the man to the ground with ease, his heavy armour making him simple to topple with the momentum I had gained.

“That’s Prince Axe, you bloody idiot!” I shouted at the knight, but for a second all I saw was blind anger. See wolf, kill wolf, that had been ingrained in our men for generations and it was a hard thing to overcome.

“My thanks, lass, but I’ve got this.”

I looked behind me to see a very naked Axe looming over both of us, forcing me to groan and slap my hands over my eyes.

“Yes, you’ll be making that exact same noise the next time you see me naked,” Axe promised. “Now, sir knight, you seem intent on doing harm to a member of the royal family of Strelae. I’d appreciate you calling me out in the customary way and not while I’m in the company of the Lady Darcy.”

“Wargen scum,” the knight grumbled, but he rolled upright and helped me to my feet. “Milady, I was trying to be of assistance.”

It was then that I saw his meaningful look and knew exactly from who this offer of help had come from, just as he came strolling through the gate.

“Being undressed in full view of the keep and in front of a lady, warg?” Kris said. “We know you’re all a beastly lot, but even this has to be beyond the pale for one of your kind.”

“It was either that or stay in my human form and ride with the lady’s arse rubbing against my cock the entire way,” Axe shot back with a lazy grin. “So you’ll excuse me if I used my other form to thwart His Grace’s heavy-handed schemes. Not that it’s any of your business, little tin man.”

My eyes jerked around at that and thankfully Axe had his pants back on. He might have been bare chested, his hair falling long and free over his shoulders, except for those few plaits, but somehow I was shocked to see how small Kris looked, standing in front of the warg. Kris had always seemed so tall and gallant, the picture of the perfect knight, but right now it was hard to work out how we’d beaten back the wargen. Axe had more than a full head on Kris and as he looked down at the knight, he grinned, crossing his arms, not even bothering to reach for a weapon.

But my unspoken question was answered. Knights came piling through the gate, weapons in hand, like children when they were aware a schoolyard fight was in progress.

“Stand down!” I shouted, but no one paid me any mind and Axe, he fell into a loose stance, ready to take on one of the knights or all of them, and that’s when I knew what would happen.

I’d seen the men fight in little skirmishes, sat in the barracks and watched them drink and sing and do whatever it took to look death in the eye and decide to go and fight anyway. It was a special kind of delusion that only men seemed to possess, though part of me longed to be that bloodthirsty, that thoughtless. But not right now. Whatever Kris was thinking, this was not the way. We’d draw the wrath of the crown down on our heads no matter what we did, but we might have a better chance of escape if the two of us slipped away. Get to the coast and onto a ship, then sail away from the continent and perhaps back to the mother country. A better plan than this.

Axe let out a gods-awful howl, because he had shifted into the legendary half-form from which the name warg came. Half wolf, half man, and twice as strong as each of them, he snarled with a wolfish muzzle, then held up sabre like claws, ready to strike.

Poll was starting to snort and paw at the air. He was battle-trained and knew exactly what to do in a skirmish, and he was just what I needed. I took off at a run, launching myself onto his back, the horse seeming to know when to still and when to surge into action.

“Darcy!” Axe snarled at the sight of me, but I was intent, clinging to Poll’s back like a burr as he wheeled around and then put those powerful haunches to good use, kicking out at the mass of men, causing chaos.

“Are you listening to me now!” I shouted, dragging Poll back around to face the mayhem. Some men still had their weapons drawn, but just as many were lying scattered across the ground. “This man entered the keep with my father’s permission, at the king’s behest. You strike him, you strike the king himself.”

“Darcy, you don’t—” Kris began to say, and the knights swarmed to his side, forming a wall of armour and weapons.

“No, Sir Kristoff, you don’t,” I snapped. “My father will kill you for this.”

“Kill?” Everyone went perfectly silent then at the sound of my father’s voice. “That’s yet to be seen, but face my wrath? Why, most certainly.”

Father stepped into the keep gateway, surveying the mess, including me, with a pinched expression. But for the first time my boyish attire and behaviour wasn’t the issue, nor was Axe. His fury was directed at his men.

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