Page 24 of Through Battle and Blades (The Wolf Queen 2)

“I told you to stay clear of my sons,” Aurora continued. “It’s bad enough to have to see the evidence of my husband’s betrayal every day, but for you to act like you have a place beside my children?” Gael just stared at her mulishly, not looking away for a second. “What did I tell you would happen?”

“Mother—” Dane started to say, taking a step forward, but Aurora just hissed at him.

“Not now! It’s bad enough you dragged this bastard here to my home!”

“You brought Gael here?” I asked.

“I dreamed of my brother, over and over. I went to Mother Aeve to get her to explain it to me and that’s when I worked out who and where he was.” Dane’s voice was clipped now, his words rushed. “I went across the border with some of Father’s men that I trusted and I found him.”

For a moment, as Aurora came to stand over Gael, all I could hear was the ragged rasps of Gael’s breath. The queen clicked her fingers and a handmaiden stepped forward, with what looked like a hunting dog on a lead in tow. That’s when the hairs stood up on the back of my neck.

“I couldn’t see how a two souled boy could stay safe in Grania,” Dane said. “Everything I’d heard about your people led me to think Gael would be shot and killed before he even made it to adulthood, or worse. When I left, I assumed Strelae was a safe place for him. How could it not be? It was for us…”

“What did I say would happen if you continued to disobey your queen, bastard?” she snarled and somehow, some other version of myself sank her claws into the back of the wooden chair, as if that would stop what was coming.

“Mother…!” Weyland said, stepping forward, his brow wrinkled, his eyes pleading. “Gael is one of us. He is part of our pack!”

“That was the death sentence,” Dane said in a flat voice. “So many things died this day.”

“Mother, you can’t!” Axe said as the queen grabbed the dog’s leash and then hauled it close, dragging it up so high the dog’s paws scrabbled at the floor.

Gael stood perfectly still, not betraying what was going on inside him but for one thing. His eyes dropped to the dog, its piteous cries forcing a sob out of my throat, but not his. A single tear fell from what was a perfect eye, but that was it.

“Answer me, bastard!” she snapped, dragging the dog higher, its whines turning to gurgles as the leash bit into its throat. “Answer your queen.”

“Weyland and Axe, they tried to stop her, but I didn’t. Our parents were different with them, allowed them more latitude. I was the eldest, the leader, the heir. I had been groomed to be king since the moment I was born, and I have always been an apt student. But this is when I, we, learned the truth about our family, the people who ruled over us and all of Strelae.”

“LET HIM GO!”

Gael’s voice thundered through the room, even with a boyish reediness to it. The queen, her fingers went lax, loosening her grip on the poor bloody dog, but not entirely. She tried to rally, to fight the whip crack of dominance throbbing in his voice, and that’s when Gael really frightened the queen.

She would’ve hated him anyway. He was evidence of everything she despised. True mates, pack bonds, all the bloody things that seemed to stop the two souled from becoming bullying monsters. But this partial compliance wasn’t enough for Gael. The dog was yanking on his leash frantically now, seeming to know his life was on the line and so did Gael. Claws formed at the ends of his fingers and he swiped out, slicing through the leather like it was butter, freeing the dog.

“Run, boy!” Gael ground out, his throat clogged with tears. “RUN!”

The dog didn’t need to be told twice, careening out of the room like the devil was on his tail. But Aurora, she recovered, lifting her arm, revealing a neat slice through the diaphanous fabric of her dress and then through that, a thin red line, beaded with blood, across her perfect pale arm.

Her other hand jerked up and that’s when Dane started to scream, storming forward, hands outstretched, fur sprouting across his arms, claws snapping out, ready to step in and—

Her claws raked across Gael’s boyish face, blood blossoming immediately, right as Dane launched himself at his mother.

“I couldn’t protect him. I brought him to this bloody place, where everyone treated my brother like he was dirt, everyone but us. We kept him with us always, tying us tighter than four brothers have a right to be. We had to be vigilant at all times, keeping an eye out for direct attacks and subtle ones, and we did so knowing he was in this situation because of me.”

The memory faded and I was glad for it, feeling a need to pull away from Dane, not wanting to be sucked into more pain and yet completely unable to, so instead, we shared it.

“It’s not your fault,” I said in a wobbly voice, so I tried again, gritting my teeth to change my tone. “You didn’t… She did, and I need my bloody swords.”

“You can’t go running up to the castle, weapons in hand,” he said in a terse voice. “You’d be handing her everything she needs.”

I paused, staring down at him.

“You know what this feels like, don’t you?” I blinked, seeing him in a whole new light. “You’ve felt the urge to wipe the woman that bore you off the face of the earth and you’ve had to resist that.”

“Strelae needs a queen,” he replied with a dark look. “Mother Aeve made that much clear, but not a lot else. Somehow, in some way, when a queen sits on the throne, she affords the country some kind of protection. That’s why we lost to your ancestors when our queen went across the border to sue for peace. We could’ve fought. We could’ve held you off, but…”

“But?”

“When I went to Aeve that night, after the others had gone to bed, Gael whimpering in his sleep. When I threw myself down at her feet and the goddess’ and begged for forgiveness, she told me this.” Something shifted in the man then. It was almost as if he grew in size and when he spoke, I heard the caw of a raven from somewhere far outside the stone walls. “That my brothers and I, we had a true mate and that I wouldn’t be king, doomed to repeat my father’s mistakes.” He stared intently at me. “That we would be consorts to a queen. A true queen of Strelae. One who would right the wrongs of the past.”

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