Page 50 of The Wolf Queen

He answered me with actions, not words, surging forward with a fierce growl to stand as close as he could and cradle my head in his hands.

“You are everything to me,” he ground out, and my heart leapt. But before I could answer, his mouth slammed down on mine.

This was Dane at his most raw and unrestrained—not the controlled man nor the controlling one. The wolf seemed to have broken down those barriers just leaving a man who simply took my mouth. He kissed it open, not allowing for anything to stop him from plunging his tongue inside and claiming as much of me as he could.

But he needn’t have worried, because I wanted him just as much as he wanted me. No, more. He was so infuriating and domineering and smart—and always thinking. To see him like this—just feeling—freed something inside my chest. It was as though there had been chains around my heart that I hadn’t even known were there. But they had broken in response to Dane’s passion.

In response to everything he did. His hands raking through my hair. His lips mumbling sweet words about how beautiful and brave and clever I was, right before going back to kissing me. And then he pulled away, sucking in breaths as his eyes burned bright blue.

“Get on the bed,” he ordered, the control back again. But I shook my head.

“No.Youget on the bed.”

“Darcy—”

“The words ‘I will do anything and everything you wish, my love’ better be the next ones out of your mouth,” I warned. “Or you can do exactly as you suggested before. Scuttle back to the guard room on your own, and listen to Higgins singing a very off-key rendition of the Maid of Hillcrest, while we—”

“Do everything our queen commands.” Weyland said, as he finished undressing and flopped down naked on one side of the bed with a mocking smile. “You don’t see me arguing with her.” He patted the bed beside him. “Come here, lass. I’ll give you everything my brother is too stupid to surrender.”

“No.”

That growl, it seemed to come from the depths of Dane’s soul and he pulled one hand from my hair to drop his arm down and wrap it around me, tugging me closer. The kiss he placed on the crown of my hair was much softer, gentler. “No, lass… unless that’s what you want.”

“I want you.”

That admission broke me in ways I hadn’t really anticipated. I’d thought I was beyond this, having got to know them, fought beside them, then claimed them. I had assumed all of my defences had been lowered because of what we’d shared. But then I realised that I’d been carrying a different sort of fear. After Snowmere, I’d been hurting so deeply and completely it was hard to even take a breath, the pain like a nagging stitch in my side, making every breath agony. Because while they had introduced me to the joys of sex—turning the church’s lectures about it being for procreation and men’s pleasure only on its head—with it came something else. The possibility of conception. If we touched each other, things might escalate. I bit my lip as I remembered Weyland’s attempts to push his seed back into me.

“You might be with child,”Weyland had said.“You could be carrying Gael’s child already, but if you’re not…”

I stood there for a moment, feeling everything—joy and loss, need and desire—until they all became tangled into a messy ball rattling around my head. The sense of confusion in my mind only stilled when I took a deep breath in, looking up at Dane and seeing that exactly what I wanted… was him. As I slowly exhaled, confident now that I’d made my decision, I raised an eyebrow.

“I want you on that bed,” I said, pointing an imperious finger. “Now.”

My other mates might’ve scrambled to do as I asked, but Dane just moved slowly, lazily, to do my bidding, his eyes flashing with all the fire of a predator restraining itself from its true nature. His brothers smirked as they cast amused glances at each other, then looked back to see what he was going to do. I wasn’t totally sure if he was going to obey me, until he did. He sat on the edge of the bed, removing his boots, then his shirt. Then he threw himself back and sprawled out on the centre of the bed to work his trews open. I watched dry-mouthed as he pushed them down his legs and tossed them aside, perfectly naked for me.

Rather, perfect for me.

I blinked, then swallowed. and Stripping off the rest of my clothes with some haste, I crawled across the bed to him. For a moment, I sat back on my heels to take him in.

Focused on him, my mind wasn’t flooded with images of blood, or of Reavers, or of the Morrigan. I didn’t see what I’d lost, because—finally—in this moment, I could focus on what I’d gained. I lifted a hand toward him then stopped. My fingers flexed in the air, suddenly shy. Dane sucked in a breath, ready to start giving orders, but I smiled and shook my head, and moved my way up his body. It was only then that I had his full attention. His breaths were coming in slow and shallow, no doubt creating a burn in his chest, right before I leaned forward.

Staring into his eyes, just grazing his lips with mine, I teased him, and the bond between us, as much as I teased myself. I heard a growl of hunger start in his throat, but when he lunged for me, I pulled my head backwards with a little smirk on my lips.

“Someone needs to learn to do as he’s told,” Weyland said, with a smile, leaning on one elbow beside us. “Drive him mad, lass. Make him need you so much he can’t string a thought together. Make that fucking brain of his stop.”

“Already has,” Dane grumbled.

“Not quite.”

I leaned in again, hovering over him, waiting for more comments, for more thoughts to whir inside his head. But this time, the entirety of Dane’s formidable attention was wholly focused on me. When I moved, his eyes followed and when I reached out to touch him, he leaned into the caress. We were perfectly attuned. I smiled then as I stroked my hand down the perfect slope of his cheek, then traced the gentle swell of his lips.

“You want to tell us all what to do, moving us around until you’re happy that all possible risks are mitigated, but that’s not what’s going to happen now.” I lifted his chin slightly so our eyes were level. “I needyouhere: the man, not the planner, nor the plotter. For at least one night, I don’t want to have to be the queen for you and I need you to not be the prince.”

I dropped lower as the need to touch him, kiss him, burned brighter.

“I need you, Dane.”

“You have me,” he replied. “You’ve always had me. Since the moment we saw you on the moors, I knew. You’re the other half of my heart, lass. You just have to reach out and take me.”

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