Page 19 of The Wolf Queen

Each one ofmy mates was now washed and cleaned. Weyland and Axe had gone down to the soldiers’ quarters and Dane had used our bath. By the time they returned, I was laid down on a big bed, Gael beside me. That had been a strange experience, even though it shouldn’t have been. It had felt like the first time, as though Gael’s body and mine were strangers to each other. We’d struggled to find the way we fit together at first, both of us making small sounds of frustration, until he’d laid back and let me work it out. I stared down at him, seeing that same shuttered expression which I now knew hid hope and need. I touched the side of his face, feeling that sharp slope and the bristles of his stubble, and he sucked in a breath. It was as though he couldn’t stand my constant observation, as he turned his head and pressed a kiss to my palm. Then I was leaning down and kissing his mouth, chastely, but with no less passion than if we were about to make love.

“Got some of that for me?”

Several sets of footsteps approached. Weyland appeared by the bed first, hair damp and scraped back.

“Of course it’s you; demanding more attention,” Gael groaned, but he chuckled as he held me close. “Put the poor bastard out of his misery, lass. He’s insufferable when he thinks he’s being ignored.”

“Typical middle child,” Dane said.

He watched with keen eyes as Weyland lay down beside me, tilting my body gently his way, yet content to just place my head on his chest. I moved slowly, as if out of practice, slinging my arm around his waist and then nestling in.

“That’s it.” Weyland’s voice was part croon, part sigh, as if he was satisfied for both of us, and I found myself sighing too.

“This is what’s needed.” Dane nodded in satisfaction. “And perhaps we should leave you—” He turned to Axe, but I interrupted.

“No.”

“Darcy, you’re not there with us, yet. Not like you are with—”

“No.” I moved to lean up on my elbows and, while Weyland grumbled about Dane not being able to keep his mouth shut, I felt the strangeness of having a very serious conversation while completely naked. “You know I love each and every one of you.”

But they didn’t because, as soon as the words were out of my mouth, they stared at me in surprise.

“Well, no—” Dane said.

“You do?” Axe looked completely taken aback by my words, and I felt a pang of pain. I couldn’t let that stand. “Darcy, we still have a way to go—”

“And we still will,” I said, sitting up and drawing my legs to the side. I stared intently at them both. “You must know that I didn’t claim Gael or Weyland because they were the only ones I cared about… As soon as I accepted all of you as my fated mates, my heart was… taken.” I shrugged my shoulders. “The claiming marks are really just a commemoration of a moment, when that feeling rose up way too hard and fast for me to hold back and I just…” I looked quickly from one to the other. “I’ll bite each one of you now, if it helps.”

“So practical.” Dane was one part amused, one part proud. “No.” He glanced at Axe, who nodded as well. “Call us selfish, but we want one of those moments—where you can’t hold back—for ourselves too and I think we’re willing to wait.”

“But we’re not willing to wait much longer for sleep.” Weyland sounded as plaintive as a weary child.

We all felt that exhaustion once it had been acknowledged, and we collapsed together down onto the bed in a big puppy pile, the likes of which my former countrymen accused Strelans of sleeping in. But they didn’t understand the pleasure, the solace, that came from resting within the arms of people that love you, who you love back with every fibre of your being.

“But how many cul—”Dane stopped himself as we conducted a meeting with the wolf cultists and our people across the breakfast table the next morning. “How many adherents to the dread lord do you think exist within Granian borders?” he asked Higgins.

“More than you could easily count, my lord,” he replied, with a smug smile. “The reach of the brotherhood is great. And now that your lady has wakened the souls of some, surely she can do so with others?”

Turning ordinary Granians into people ripe for indoctrinating into his cult, I thought, but kept it to myself. I had other problems to worry about. Everyone who was gathered around the table, which included General Rath, the lords and some of the officers, were staring at me, waiting for my answer. I’d had one night of peaceful sleep, but my burdens had awaited me at the door when I got up.

“I believe I can,” I told them. “Though the question remains whether or not I should.”

Every man’s throat worked at once, all of them ready to tell me their thoughts and opinions, but before any of them could speak, one of the knights I’d transformed came clanking into the hall with a sheepish expression.

“Apologies for disturbing you, milady. I mean—”

“Your Majesty,” Dane corrected stiffly.

“Majesty, but there’s a messenger—”

The messenger himself hadn’t waited, instead he’d already scaled the steps and strolled into the great hall, like he had a right to be there.

But that wasn’t what had me stiffening.

What power had been gifted to me by the blood of my child, I had caught a glimpse of this.

It was him.

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