Page 60 of Through Battle and Blades (The Wolf Queen 2)

The general straightened up, daring everyone at the table to look away.

“It’s been an adjustment. Those affected have had to learn control that they would’ve normally learnt when they were striplings, just come into their dual nature, but with the assistance of Prince Dane and Prince Gael—”

“Prince Gael?” Aurora’s tone was harsh enough to cut through stone and she jolted upright, her claws raking across the table top.

“Hush,” the king said with barely a sidelong look, which drew my attention. I caught the moment when words failed her, when she cast her eyes up and down the table, looking for support. And when she didn’t find it? I saw the moment she slumped back in her chair with all of the expression of a sulky child, right before her eyes found mine.

She hated me right then. Before she was angry, affronted, her pride bruised by me catching her off guard and putting a sword to her throat. But right now, if she’d been able to leap across the table and slash her claws through my flesh, she would’ve. But she didn’t, which was telling. Because she’d realised something the general was about to explain.

“We have someone in our midst who can potentially change battle-hardened soldiers into two-souled killing machines,” the general said, staring up at me with the kind of intensity I usually only saw on my mates’ faces. “Someone who might actually turn this… war in our favour. If Prince Callum is transforming men into Reavers through a means we don’t understand—”

“Lady Darcy may be able to do the same for us,” the king said, and then he smiled.

I realised then why his stare put me so at odds, because that look, it wasn’t one I’d experienced this side of the border, but I had many a time back in Grania. It wasn’t the sweet possessiveness of my mates, and my hand reached out blindly for one of them at the feeling of awful coldness that came with the realisation. The king looked at me like I was a possession. A useful one, one that needed to be treasured, looked after, but still just a possession.

Then the general drove the last nail in my coffin.

“Right now, the person who needs to be protected at all costs is the Lady Darcy, because imagine what would happen if the Reaver prince gets his hands on her?”

I couldn’t feel my face, my body, because everything went numb. And right as the thunderous beat of my heart pulsed louder and louder, I heard that sharp, acerbic caw cutting through the white noise inside my head.

30

Dane held things together until a decision was made. I would work with the soldiers in the army, it was decided, train with them and see if more couldn’t be awakened. I didn’t agree to any of that because I wasn’t given the chance. The idea that they would consult with me seemed utterly ludicrous to everyone at that table, or in the queen’s case, repellent. But as soon as was practical, Dane removed us.

“What the hell was that!” Gael snapped as we stood in the stables. “Tell me that’s not what you were planning all along, brother.” He shoved himself into Dane’s face, fur bristling across his skin until he took a shuddering breath. “Tell me you didn’t just sell Darcy out.”

“Do you think I’m capable of it any more than you are?” Dane bit the words off, stepping up to Gael and pushing back until I moved to split them up. Axe grabbed me, pulling me against him and shaking his head when I looked up at him. Dane chanced a sidelong look at me, but he couldn’t seem to bear to do it for long. “She holds my heart, too, just as she does yours.”

“But who’s got your head?” Gael’s finger jerked up, poking his brother in the temple, something Dane batted away. “Where in your fucking labyrinthine plans was the point where you let us know what you had planned?”

“I planned on keeping that little fact quiet,” Dane snapped, then pulled away from his brother, his hand going to his hair as he paced back and forth. “I asked the officers to hold that information back, but General Rath… He’s looking down the barrel of a guerrilla war and he no doubt is willing to sacrifice whoever it takes to ensure we come out on the winning side.”

“Including me,” I said flatly, stepping away from Axe, squeezing his hand when he tried to stop me. “Of course he wasn’t going to stay quiet about that, and you shouldn’t have either.” I glanced at all of them then, one at a time. “What… what else happened that day?”

“It was probably a result of healing everyone,” Weyland said, holding his hands out to placate me. “You healed so many other things, more than just wounds people received in battle. We have a theory that it healed… whatever was stopping the soldiers from reaching for their beast.”

“There were some young fellas in the village who discovered that they were two-souled that night,” Axe said with a sheepish smile. “And a couple of girls. Selene was pleased.”

“Well, as long as the future of the Wolf Maidens is secured,” I said, the hysterical edge to my voice apparent to all. I lifted a shaking hand to my brow, smoothing back my hair. “What...?” I stared at them now, needing an answer but not wanting it, not really. “What am I?”

“The same as you always were,” Dane replied in a much softer tone, then surprised me by pulling his shirt up and over his head. “And perhaps it’s time to spend some time with the other part of who you are.”

The wolf inside me, she manifested rarely, her feral instincts bleeding through in times of arousal, sexual or otherwise, but I would hardly say we were well acquainted. If the Strelans were truly two-souled, one ruled the roost and the other seemed to be deployed as back-up when needed. I watched Dane unlace his boots but looked away when he went to undo the ties of his trews.

“You’re the heir to the trueborn queen. Eleanor’s daughter in every way,” Dane said carefully. “Probably the result of some intermarriage between the queen’s progeny and your father’s house. Perhaps from your mother’s side?”

At that I blinked, seeing her, wreathed in all that golden light, as he said the words. But like a dream, when I reached for it, it slipped away.

“But most of all, you’re who you always were. You escaped Grania and its ridiculous rules. You found the other side of your soul. You’re discovering your strengths every day, but sometimes we Strelans take fur, to let go of all of that and just be for a time. Can you do that with me, Darcy?”

I saw it then in his eyes. This was an olive branch being offered and damn me if I didn’t want to take him up on it. I moved closer, stopping myself when his eyes widened, then muttered, “To hell with it…” and flung my arms around him. The way he slowly did the same to me, had a reticence to it that hurt me, that had the potential to hurt everyone else.

“If you want this,” I whispered in his ear. “If you want this pack, if you want me… You have to let us in.”

His grip tightened then, holding me hard against him with a passion that helped settle something inside me. Perhaps I was being terribly naive, but when he held me like this, it was hard to imagine him doing me wrong.

“I will. I promise, I’ll—”

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