Page 96 of Through Battle and Blades (The Wolf Queen 2)

“And what? You want us to complete it now? Bind us together as a pack?” Dane asked, stiffening.

“No.” Nordred’s smile was small, almost fragile. “What passes between a woman and her mates… Well, let’s just say that I’ve learned firsthand just what meddling with that does. You are connected, even those who have not traded claiming marks yet. I can feel it and so can you.”

At his words, the camp, the smoke of the fire and dull hum of chatter amongst the camps fell away and something else came with it. Golden, warm, all encompassing. My hand snapped out, taking Weyland’s hand in mine and he stared in response. Deep blue eyes that saw everything in a way that almost hurt to recognise. Like he saw all of me. But more than that, because as a duke’s daughter, I had been the subject of public scrutiny more than once. Because he looked at me like Nordred did Eleanor. Like his entire world resided in my heart, just as mine did in his.

Gael was the same, though it seemed to hurt him harder. I thought I knew why. The two of us had grown like the weeds Nordred had described, forcing our way through the cracks created in the stone of our families. We hadn’t received the proper care and support a child needs, but we’d grown up anyway, only to face the prospect of giving our battered hearts to another.

But growing up a pampered prince didn’t seem to be a guaranteed easy path either. As I looked across the fire at Axe, the reddish sheen of his hair glowing in the firelight, he watched the three of us with a kind of hesitancy that hurt. Like he wanted to blunder into whatever we’d built between us, but was terrified that he would do just that.

Then there was Dane.

It wasn’t often that the reserved mask slipped, but when it did? He was like an eagle, sharp eyed, hook beaked and fiercely protective. Dane was holding himself at bay right now, patiently waiting for Nordred to explain himself. And when he did? Dane would judge his reply with all of his cool intellect, choosing to throw all of his support behind Nordred, or tear him to pieces for posing a threat to us.

“We can,” I replied finally. “I feel them, here.” I clawed at my chest, the sweetest of pains rising as I gave voice to a feeling I had tried to keep stuffed down. “Always. They are inside me, inside my… heart.”

“We feel the same, lass,” Axe said, shaking his head slowly. “You have to know that.”

“That doesn’t make it any easier.” I let out a fraught little laugh. “Actually, it’s harder, so much harder. When I nursed that ridiculous infatuation with Kris—” A series of growls met that comment. “It was so much easier. I didn’t ‘love’ the real man, as I quickly found out. I didn’t love anything at all.”

I reached a hand out, tracing my fingertips through the stubble of grass in front of me, because I couldn’t look at them as I said this. What it was I felt, it welled up like a spring having forced its way through the earth’s crust, bubbling free now.

“I didn’t know him, understand him, have any idea of what he thought or felt, of who he was as a person. That became clear when he kidnapped me ‘for my own good.’” More dark noises in response. “He was a stranger, a pretty face on which I projected my feelings, my desires for my future. But you?” My gaze shifted from Dane to Axe, to Weyland, then Gael, and that’s where it stayed. “I know you.”

When I set my cup down, my fingers went to my eyelids, massaging the ache that had set up there. My breath was coming in shorter, faster pants now, and I felt like I had to race against my own body’s instincts to get this out.

“I know that Weyland is the golden boy I dreamed of in Kris.” A hiss of breath came in response to that. “But you actually carry with you the light he was never capable of holding. You can be self-absorbed.”

“She has your number, brother,” Axe joked.

“But also so incredibly giving. Of pleasure.”

“Finally, my skills have been recognised.” I cracked my eyes open, seeing Weyland valiantly trying to maintain a smirk and failing, because something much more vulnerable replaced it.

“But also of your time, your attention, your care. You just want everyone together, happy, enjoying everything life has to give and willing to fight like the devil to get things that way, not letting anything stand in your way.” I stared at him openly, catching the way he studied me. “You love like the sun, golden and warm, or hot and ready to scorch everything in your way.”

His lips parted, his eyes shone as he went to reply, to say something, because when would Weyland ever shut up if he didn’t need to? But I watched him let out a breath, spine sagging, before he nodded his head.

“And I love you because of that.”

I held his eyes for a heartbeat, maybe more, before whatever it was that burned inside me forced me to turn to my next mate.

“Gael…” My voice cracked on his name because his eyes burned so bright, his whole body thrumming with a repressed energy, one I felt when his hand reached out and took mine. “You are the fiercest of my mates.” There was a small murmur from the others at that, but I charged on. “The bravest. You know exactly what deprivation is, the worst kind, but that trauma doesn’t define you. You give me everything you have.”

“Everything,” he croaked in agreement.

“Refuse to hold anything back, even when you should, for your own sake. You love with every inch of your being, despite knowing intimately the pain of how trust can be used against you. You love the same way you fight. That’s what I love about you.”

Gael’s fingers tightened around mine painfully, but I was forced to push on, shifting my attention to Axe.

The big man’s smile faltered now I looked at him and I wondered if half the jokes he made were to draw my focus back to him. Anything to get me looking at him.

“You think you know what I’m going to say,” I told him. “That it’s your size, your strength that draws me to you.”

“I keep telling you, brothers,” he said, flexing his muscles. “Women love a strong man.”

“We do, but your strength goes far beyond the physical.” I blinked, seeing, feeling him holding me in the bath and washing me clean as I lay curled against him, the careful way he’d engaged with us on the bed in the cabin. “You could easily grab me up and toss me over your shoulder like a doll.”

“If you knew how often I dreamed of just that…”

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