Page 51 of The Wolf Queen

I smiled as I did just that, trailing my fingers down his neck and watching him shiver, then learning the form of him. His shoulders, his clavicle, the dip of his breastbone, the hard planes of his chest and, all through my inspection of him, I heard him take one shuddering breath then another.

“Lass…” he rasped out as my finger traced the small flat medallion of his nipple. “Darcy. I don’t need this. I feel like I’m only just hanging onto my control as it is. I—”

“But I do.” My admission took me a little by surprise. “When I watch you walk through the castle or astride a horse, you seem as distant as the sun. And just as untouchable.”

“Darcy—”

“No, listen.” I waited the length of a heartbeat or two, to make sure he was going to do as I asked, then forged on. “You were born to rule, raised to be a king and it’s evident in everything you do. You’re always thinking, planning, one step ahead of everyone else, so it seems, but…” I smoothed a hand across his chest, then twisted my wrist to graze his skin with my knuckles. “I can’t take a king as a mate, nor a prince, nor an advisor. Only you, Dane, the man behind those masks. I need you—”

“Grab those cords that hold back the curtains,” he said, ordering his brothers to move.

“Dane—”

“Tie me to the bed head,” he said, putting his wrists together and then placing them up against the plush velvet upholstery with an air of ceremony. “You and I both know I can break free of those cords.” The thick golden ropes of twisted silk thread landed on the bed beside me. “But… it’ll help.”

“Help what?” I asked, picking one up and frowning as I inspected it. Dane had always hinted at this other stuff, but we’d never gone far enough down that track for him to explain it. “Help you do what?”

“Surrender.” He tried to smile but failed, only achieving a wry twist of his lips instead. “I’m terrible at it, I know, and I can see why you need it.” He snorted then. “I feel that need, and this is how I can give it to you. My brain is always working because I can’t make it stop. But you can.” He nodded to the rope in my hand. “You can make me.”

An exchange of power, that’s what he was proposing and I felt like I understood why. I had to force him to do the thing he never could.

And secretly wanted.

I wrapped the rope around one wrist, then paused for a moment, caught up in the way his muscles flexed and his skin contrasted so beautifully with the gold of the rope. I shook my head and continued, pushing the end through the fretwork on the border of the bedhead and tying him to it. When I did the same with his other wrist, he let out a shuddering breath and then his breathing seemed to slow as he fell into the sensation of being at my mercy.

We both knew it was symbolic, that he could get out of the ties if he needed, but that seemed to be enough. A strange haze came over Dane’s eyes, turning them from keen and all-seeing to almost blind.

“Look at me,” I ordered. His eyes widened and flared and immediately he was back with me again.

Chapter30

The need to strive for excellence had been instilled in Dane from an early age, so it made sense he would be perfect now. He waited with a strange kind of quietness that only broke when I touched him. Just a little sigh as my hand collared his throat and I felt his pulse jump under the skin, then another as I slid my hand down, growing bolder.

Even before I had decided to take him as my mate, Weyland had been full of easy smiles and rough embraces. Axe had washed me clean after my training sessions at the temple and remained a silent, hulking presence by my side. Even prickly Gael, so quick to see perceived slights, was less standoffish than Dane. So, having access to his body, to touch him as I wished, gave me a strange sense of reverence. But as my hands slid down his ribs, tracing the way they narrowed down to his hips, a different state of mind took me over. My eyes were drawn to how his cock twitched. How hard it was, and how the head was dark red, flushed with blood, made me think that it must be aching. I stroked my fingers across his abdomen and the muscles tightened and jumped, as his breathing became faster and more erratic, when I heard the sound.

For once, all my usually articulate mate could manage was a thin noise, through clenched teeth. It wasn’t even a groan, and was barely louder than a whisper. A sound of need. My eyes flicked up, meeting his.

“You need me,” I said and he sucked in a breath, then seemed to remember what was said, nodding sharply. “You’ve been needing me for some time.” The knot at the base was swollen and an angry purplish red. I got my answer as I covered it with my hand and squeezed, bringing my other hand to wrap around his shaft.

“Gods…” That’s all it took for him to break his word, the prayer escaping him in a gasp, but rather than intellectualise his experience in thought or words, all he could do was feel it.

The fight to stay in control—not to gush all over my hand as the little spurt of his seed seemed to warn was imminent—to follow the swivel of my hand up and down his shaft with every fibre of his being. The sound of the ropes creaking, the bed head groaning, mixed with the noises he was making that were intensifying in volume and intensity, as all of his considerable muscles locked down tight. He thrust into my hands instinctively, completely ruled by sensation not intellect and it was only then that I felt like I finally saw the real man.

Dane, desperate. Dane, needy. Dane’s teeth sinking into his full bottom lip until I feared it would bleed, his fangs dimpling the surface. But, most of all, Dane holding fast in this heady swirl of pleasure.

“Lass, you might need to go easy on the poor bastard,” Weyland said, his eyes flicking from me to his brother. “He’s fit to burst.”

“I remember what it’s like, to feel the first touch of your mate. It was lightning striking and the first rays of the morning,” Gael told me, holding my gaze until Axe moved forward.

“He’s stronger than me.” Axe nodded to his brother. “If you’d pushed me that far, I’d have had you on your hands and knees, taking my cock like a good girl in seconds.”

“Really?” I smiled at that, and the expression felt strange for the situation yet perfect all at the same time. “Perhaps you should anyway.”

“Really?” Axe echoed what I’d said, but with entirely different intent, and his expression mirrored his reaction. First of all wonder, then curiosity, followed by a dark look that made his blue eyes glow. “But lass, you should—”

“I should what?” I said, cocking an eyebrow. “Be a good girl?” I arched my back slowly, pushing my breasts out as I pulled back from Dane a little, letting his cock go and sliding down his body to run my tongue along his length. “I am your queen and I—”

“Will have whatever you want.” Axe moved behind me with flattering speed and his hand rubbed up and down my spine like one would stroke a cat. “Though don’t blame me if you can’t sit on a horse tomorrow.”

---