Page 83 of Through Battle and Blades (The Wolf Queen 2)

“Ah, Eleanor,” Callum said, getting to his feet, Nordred doing the same, the two of them bowing to her as she approached, her brother vacating the seat at the top of the table. “How are we this morning, sister?”

There was also the inconvenient fact that her feelings were not returned. After she acknowledged her brother and told him she had slept quite well, her focus shifted to Nordred.

“Good morning, Your Majesty.”

Always so proper and precise, Eleanor listened to every intonation, searching for something, anything within his words that might indicate he shared her feelings.

“You look a picture of loveliness.”

Her breath stuttered in her chest at that, a silence stretching on and on as the two men waited for her to respond. Her hand fluttered, coming to rest on her breasts, which could at least be passed off as maidenly modesty, though that was hardly fitting for a queen. She could almost hear her grandmother’s sharp admonitions at that.

“Thank you,” she croaked out finally. “Maisie persuaded me that velvet was suitable breakfast wear.”

“She has a good eye.” Callum eyed his sister like he would a horse at market. “Those packs from the northern regions are coming down to meet with you today. If one of them meets with your approval, they will be an asset in the war. They control much of the iron ore mines in that area.”

“You’ll sell me off so cheaply, brother?” All the sharpness, keenness that her grandmother had sought to instil in her came rushing back as she swept her skirts underneath her and sat down in her chair, elbows placed on the table without a care for decorum. “Don’t forget that we receive a good portion of that ore by way of taxes.”

“So we do.” Callum nodded. “But imagine what we could do with more. But if it’s not a northerner you’re looking for…?”

Callum was always fishing for what kind of man she was looking for, unable to rest while she remained unmated. Since her grandmother had died, he seemed to see it his personal duty to see her tied to a group of men.

“The queen will announce that, when the gods reveal her true mates to her, surely,” Nordred said, his voice perfectly even, betraying a slightly chiding edge to what he’d said.

“Have they?” Callum’s blue eyes bore into hers. “You realise that the longer you wait, the more vulnerable you leave us. When you’re mated, when you’ve birthed a daughter…”

The gods already had, damn their bloody eyes, because when her heart quickened in the way she had been taught it should, it hadn’t been for a group of lordlings or even a squad of staunch soldiers, men who her brother and the other men would support as consorts. She stared openly across the table at her closest advisor and he met her gaze with a cool kind of equanimity.

She was cursed somehow, she knew that. Any single man in Strelae would’ve been honoured if she’d given herself to him, everyone but Nordred, apparently. He maintained his position at court by standing apart from all of the factional fighting, while remaining informed of every bit of it. He was just a man, a single man, and a queen needed far more than even a famed wizard like Nordred at her back. Her pack was her power base: both literally, when she drew power and abilities from them, and politically, in the alliances they brought to the throne.

“So her brother wanted her to marry someone for power?” Jan asked, then looked askance at Del. “You better not try that on with me when I’m a woman grown.”

“If you find a man who’s willing to take you on, he’ll have my blessing,” Del huffed.

“I might be two-souled,” she shot back. “I might have true mates and a pack.”

I remembered the silvery shine in Del’s eyes and wondered at how being two-souled worked.

“Then you’ll become one of the Maidens,” Del replied.

“Not necessarily.” The two of them looked at me. “I’m two-souled. So are many of the women at court.”

“See! I’ll be Princess Janice for sure, with gold and riches…”

“But what happened to Eleanor?” Del asked, and I had to smile at his curiosity. “Did she find love with Nordred the Wise?”

“That’s a story for another night,” I said, going to get up.

“But you just started!” Jan whined. “I want to know more.”

“Go to sleep, princess,” Weyland said, rising to press a kiss to the girl’s forehead. “A grand lady needs her beauty rest.”

“She’ll be sleeping for a year if it’s to make her pretty,” Del sniped.

“Be nice to your sister,” I said, ruffling his hair.

He looked up at me then, and I wondered who he saw: me or his real mother. I was sure he’d been told the same so many times before, but for some reason he just stared up at me. His hands moved to reach for me before he stopped himself. I shook my head and swept in, wrapping him in a tight hug, and he clutched me back.

“I’m just down the hall if you need me, the pack as well. You’re safe here,” I whispered, and he just nodded.

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