Page 3 of Through Battle and Blades (The Wolf Queen 2)

“Mother…” Dane didn’t say her name with any kind of love or longing. My destroyed mate was gone, and the prince was back, one who was working out what we were doing, where we were going and how best to get us here. “If you challenge her—”

“Not if. It’s done, Dane,” I said, grabbing more of Axe’s hair and going back to work. “Don’t make the mistake I made.” Separating the strands, so I had a sizeable chunk set aside and then sliding the comb through the ends. “Don’t think she can be reasoned with. Don’t think the myths they tell us about motherhood, about being parents, are true.”

I paused for a second, that painful ache inside me feeling like it just grew and grew, as all the evidence I had to support my words came rushing up.

“Some people are broken. They bring a tiny, little, vulnerable child into the world, raise them knowing that all that child wants is to be loved by their mother and father and…” I blinked then, my eye sockets beginning to ache, just like my heart did, but I wouldn’t let tears fall, not for my parent and not for theirs. I straightened up then, meeting the prince’s gaze eye for eye, knowing that all his careful machinations had a place in what we were about to do. “And they don’t care. They love something else too much. Power, authority, the sound of their own voice, drink, land, something. Something more than us.”

A growl began in my chest, containing all those weird echoey sounds it had when Axe was hurt in the fight in Bayard.

“She assaulted you, each one of you.” My focus shifted from Dane to Weyland, then Axe, and finally Gael. “And she’ll do it again and that can’t stand. I’m taking her down. End of story.”

I expected a fight. A ‘Darcy, you’re not thinking about…’ I knew this wasn’t a wise direction to take, but I was on this road and I refused to step aside from it. I’d do it with or without—

My train of thought was abruptly stopped as arms wrapped themselves around me, so many arms that I couldn’t keep track of which belonged to who. But I didn’t need to. No matter what had happened, what Aurora had sought to do, we were still a pack. My fangs ached as I felt them clasp me closer, harder, wanting to sink my teeth into each one of them and claim them as mine, just to throw her mistake in her face.

But I wouldn’t allow anyone to rush us, not even a bloody queen.

And for a minute, just one perfect minute, I felt perfectly attuned to each man. My fingers ran along their chests, their arms, buried themselves into their hair, my lips trailing after them and they did the same. I felt a burning need to reclaim every inch of them back as mine. To obliterate the scent of those girls and to replace it with my own.

Of course, we couldn’t just do that, could we? We’d set wheels in motion and they were about to start rolling.

“If we’re going to do this–” Dane started to say.

“Gods, brother, shut up. Just for a minute, shut the hell up,” Axe grumbled. He fished me out of the group and pulled me hard against him, balling me up until I felt like a tiny thing against his chest.

And right then, I was exactly where I wanted to be. I wanted to feel small, sheltered, protected, because somehow, I knew what Dane was going to say would slice harder than the edges of my blades. Axe stroked his hand through my hair over and over and then he spoke.

“You did the right thing. You’re right. I knew she was determined to find what she decided were suitable ladies for us to marry, but I never thought… If I’d known she’d go this far, what she was prepared to do, I’d have executed her for a witch before the moon rose.”

I looked up then, seeing Axe stare down at me, the absolute certainty in his eyes helping consolidate one in me too. I nodded, then watched his eyes slide to my lips.

“I should’ve known it was too easy. We’ll work our way towards each other, taking steps both convoluted and complex, I fear, but I have to believe we’ll keep taking them. I was drunk, on beer, on success, but mostly on the elation of being with you. That was the ammunition my mother sought to use against me, but she has no idea what mayhem is coming her way.”

I moved then, putting my hands to Axe’s hair and adding in the small plaits he wore at his temples, taking the tiny metal clasps from the old ones and setting them to the ends before nodding. He watched me with total fascination right up until I was done.

Well, almost.

I put my fingers to his lips, tracing the full shape, knowing someone else had kissed them until they were slightly bruised and puffy, but it was my touch that had him sucking in a breath, his eyes blazing blue. Then I leant over slowly, in little halting movements, before pressing my mouth to his.

He didn’t try to force things beyond this most chaste of kisses, just kept me cradled in his arms until finally I drew away. Weyland reached for me next, with a hesitancy that hurt, so I threw myself against him, wanting to cut through the discomfort. He grinned, but that quickly faded when I did the same for him. Neatened his braids with the practised movements of a lady’s maid, but when I was done it was his hands that surged into my hair. He dug his fingers through it, as if the sheer weight of it pleased him and then he moved forward, tilting his head, eyes burning into mine with obvious invitation.

If I didn’t kiss Weyland, Aurora won. But more than that, I denied myself something I wanted, needed, more than anything else. So I took his mouth like it was mine, like I was the only one who’d ever have the taste of him and going forward, I swore that that would be the case. But when we finally pulled away, we both looked sidelong at Dane, who sat there, perfectly contained, and yet somehow falling apart all the same.

“Come here, my mate,” Dane said, holding out an imperious hand, his voice cool and controlled. “Come to me. Choose me.”

He wouldn’t let on how much he needed that, even as his gaze burned into me, wouldn’t haul me from Weyland’s embrace, even as his brother let me go. Choice, always, but once I made my decision? I slapped my hand in his and then was yanked out of Weyland’s grip and into his.

“I didn’t know,” Dane murmured into my shoulder as he plastered my body against his. “After what happened to Gael, I’ve watched every single one of those fucking bastards, so I thought I knew what was coming. I… I didn’t. I didn’t see this, work out what she was up to. Mother never lets anything go, so I should have. I should have, Darcy!”

And that’s when I pulled back to stare at him.

“Is that how it works?” I asked, blinking now, a single tear falling free. “Is that what you do? You spend all your time trying to work out what the hell your fucking family is going to do and you strive constantly to try and mitigate the worst of it?”

Dane didn’t answer, not right away. He wanted to. I could see his throat work, his tongue flick across his lips, but the words didn’t come, so I looked to the others. Gael looked grim, just as grim as he had when I met him, a hardness I hadn’t wanted to see returning to his expression, but then his focus slipped to his brothers. Axe was flushed, the muscle in his jaw flexing and Weyland’s eyes just dropped to the floor, his fingers worrying the seam of his boot.

“Is this how you live?” I asked in a much smaller voice and then Dane nodded. “But not anymore. Dane, you have to see that. With everything that is going on, both here and outside the capital…”

“I know,” he replied simply. “I knew it when we went to Wildeford. I thought we could take things slower, more cautiously, but…” He got to his feet then, hauling me up with him, the others following suit until the five of us stood there as a pack. “So you challenged Mother in her bedchamber?” Weyland chuckled at that, but Dane shot him a censorious look. “She’ll deny that and try to move against you and soon. We need to find Mother Aeve.”

---