Page 21 of Through Battle and Blades (The Wolf Queen 2)

“Do you know where Prince Dane is?” I asked him.

The man took in me and my plate with a quick look, then nodded. “This way, milady.”

But as I came to stand in front of a heavy wooden door, the timber crisscrossed with thick bands of black iron, I wondered at the wisdom of this. Should I have asked the others what this meant to two souled men? But standing around hesitating wasn’t going to help me in any way. I was tired, Dane was no doubt hungry, so I decided to make this all a lot simpler and just knocked on the door.

“Come in,” came the muffled response.

He didn’t look up when I entered, his head bent over a sheaf of documents, his quill in hand.

“Fenster, if you could bring me some wine, I’d appreciate it greatly.”

He sounded distracted. Calm, polite, but focussed on something else, so when I didn’t reply, that didn’t seem to concern him. When I drew close, then put his plate before him, he jerked back to stare at me.

“Darcy…”

I’d had my name shouted, delivered as a terse aside, or used as some kind of curse, so hearing it said in such a reverent tone was still something I was adjusting to. I put his plate on one of the few empty places on the desk, not daring to shuffle the papers out of the way.

“No wine, unfortunately,” I said. “I didn’t think of that. I brought food though.”

I offered him the cutlery I held, but his hand went around my wrist instead, pulling me closer as he pushed his chair back, his quill slotted back into its holder. I let out a little yelp as I was laid across his lap, just as I had been with his brother only hours earlier.

“You brought me food.”

“Well, yes. It was very nice food and if you’ve had a long day like I have, you need to eat. I wanted to make sure you did, that you were able to have a decent meal…”

He reached up and stopped my burble of words with a finger to my lips and then when I was silent, he drew it across the seam of them until they parted. The tip slipped forward, ready to surge in but something prevented him.

“You cared enough to notice I was gone.”

I pushed his hand away then, straightening up from where I was perched.

“Of course.”

“And your first thought was for my wellbeing?”

Dane was always so utterly unflappable, so this slight shift in mood was telling. Those intent eyes, ones that searched my face, seeking to record my every micro expression, they betrayed an intensity I wasn’t used to being directed at me.

“Why wouldn’t it be?” I asked finally, feeling out of my depth, but plunging in anyway. “Isn’t that what you do for us?” It was my turn to study him now, watching the way his jaw flexed under my steady gaze. “Isn’t that what all of this is about?” I waved airily at the building around us.

“Yes, but that’s different.”

He was closing down again, packing everything up behind his mask, but I wasn’t about to let him.

“How is it different?”

“It’s just what needs to be done. Someone has to, so why not me?”

His eyes strayed back to those papers. He wouldn’t toss me off his lap. No, he’d keep me where I was, holding me, keeping me close, but mentally he’d be off again, back to plotting and it was hard to fight that. The rest of the pack and I, we were lumbering from one disaster to the other, but Dane? He seemed to know these things would happen, to be prepared for any eventuality and we couldn’t help but be grateful for that.

So that’s what I decided to be.

I scrambled off his lap and caught the minute flash of pain that came as a result before Dane schooled his face smooth again. He leaned forward, picking up a piece of paper, ready to start reading again when I removed it. I set it gently back on the pile to the sound of his huff of breath and then put his plate before him as I went to stand at his back.

I was frankly intimidated. Dane was the one I’d explored things with the least and his little display in the markets, when he described what he’d like to do if I gave over my control, it still had my mind racing. But I couldn’t do this with that dominant man in mind, or the prince, so just as I had to shuffle through several versions of myself, I searched for the Dane I could connect with here. He jumped when I smoothed a hand over his shoulder and that had me flinching back, but not for long. I’d copped a flogging from the Wolf Maidens all day. I could do this.

He let out a little sigh when my hand returned, my caress firmer, more sure of itself and I was rewarded by his head sinking down slightly. “Eat your food before it gets cold,” I ordered and he snorted in response, right up until I sank my fingers into his hair. I dug them into his scalp, feeling the satin slip of his dark locks through them as I sought the muscles beneath.

“Gods…” he hissed, “I’ll do whatever you bloody want if you keep doing that.”

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