Page 63 of Through Battle and Blades (The Wolf Queen 2)

“I’m exactly where I want to be.”

“But perhaps not for long,” Gael said, moving to the other side of the bed and then positioning himself alongside me. His hand landed on my flank, feeling like it burned into my skin like a brand.

Which just left Axe.

It was strange to see the big man looking discomfited. He looked around the room furtively, then down at his brother.

“Dane, I’m not there with Darcy, not yet.”

“That’s not what I asked,” Dane snapped. “In or out, brother. If you’re out, go and grab some firewood because this place is cold as the grave. Or…?”

Axe’s eyes swung towards us, taking in the way we were all clustered close, and the look of longing on his face broke my heart. I moved then, away from his brothers and to him, crawling on all fours to the edge of the bed before reaching out.

His hand and mine linked and I drew him closer. I ignored the very frightening dimensions of his cock, not letting myself even look as I pressed a small kiss to his hipbone. His skin was hot, taut, and his hand went to my hair, digging in, keeping me just where I was for a few heartbeats before he advanced, driving me backwards. He moved to the back of the bed, then threw himself down onto it, the frame creaking as he did so.

“Gods, don’t do that too many times, you big lummox,” Weyland said. “If the bloody frame breaks, it’s a long walk back home to find somewhere else to sleep.”

“You’ve always felt cowed by my size,” Axe said with a chuckle. “Now I know why.”

The banter was ready to start, the mocking back and forth that might or might not come to blows, but Dane’s voice cut through it.

“Enough.” Our focus returned to him. “If there’s anything you don’t want, anything that will make you uncomfortable, you need to say so. Between now and when the sun rises, if you feel out of your depth, or on the brink of something that will do you harm, you need to say the word ‘Arden’.”

“What’s Darcy’s horse got to do with it?” Axe asked.

“It’s a word you wouldn’t normally say in this context,” Dane explained. “So you won’t moan it accidentally when passions are high. I’ll know that you’re saying it deliberately.”

“Why not ‘no’ or ‘stop’?” Gael asked with a frown and Dane smiled.

“Because people say those things, even when they don’t mean them.” His eyes slid over the four of us. “Because they’re caught up in that moment of too much and not enough. Using a different word forces you to come out of that sensual state and be clear about what you want and don’t want.”

“So… clinical,” Weyland said with a grin.

“Structure,” Dane insisted. “Something to keep you safe when you decide to step past the usual ways of lovemaking. Sex is always about power, but never more than now. Surround Darcy on the bed.”

“I like this plan,” Weyland said, dragging me backwards and sitting me in the middle of the mattress and that’s when I felt the power thing Dane was talking about.

The three men moved closer, shifting on their knees. They loomed above me, dark shadows in a room lit only by the wan moonlight coming in through the windows. Heat radiated off their bodies, creating a cocoon-like space, one I was locked down inside. My fingers dug into the bedcoverings then, because right at that point, I felt like all the stupid rumours about the wargen were somehow true.

Back in Grania, women had spoken of the beastly Strelan men, about their animal appetites and proclivity for mating in packs. We used to shiver as we sat by the open fire in the sitting room, or in the kitchens, or out near the clotheslines, imagining just what that would be like. Wild men, ready to devour you, though was it with their mouths or with their teeth? We’d all theorised, some of the maids replying much more frankly than I ever could, correcting themselves when they realised I was there, describing just what the wargen would do if they caught a hold of us.

The reality was so much more.

No laundress could have described the taut muscles in my mates’ thighs as they knelt before me, or the rough cobblestones of their abdomens. None had known about those swollen lumps at the base of their cocks, nor had they anticipated their rapt stares.

“The way you look at us…” Weyland rasped, his voice little more than a whisper. “I’ll never get used to that as long as I live. Now, your taste—”

“Stop.” Dane’s voice had his brother pausing where he was. “Hands behind your backs.”

“All of us?” Axe asked.

“All of my brothers,” Dane confirmed, before turning to me. His eyes were twin flames in the darkness, lighting the way towards… what? We were about to find out. “Tease them, my queen. Make them hard.”

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“Already there, brother,” Gael muttered with a sigh.

“Make them ache for you,” Dane continued.

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