Page 81 of The Wolf Queen

Because he realised Bryson felt the same thing.

“You could just as easily kill her with that power of yours,” Gael snapped. “You want her to control you—”

“Not control. Anchor.”

That quiet admission was all it took. Each one of us knew what it felt like, to be lost in your own power, riding the thrill of it even as you wondered where the hell it would take you.

“Callum doesn’t need one,” Weyland added with a mulish look Bryson’s way.

“Callum wouldn’t.” Dane stared into space, his eyes flicking back and forth, as if he saw something I couldn’t. “He doesn’t want to preserve anything. I’m not sure if he even intends to rebuild once he’s driven out the Granians. Vengeance is all he can think about.” His attention flicked back to Bryson. “If we do this, we’ll need to test your power and the way Darcy handles it.”

“We won’t get that,” I told him. “The attack on the keep is imminent. We’ll need to move troops, weapons—”

“Then if we can’t do a controlled test of the way you two fight together, we’ll need to control this.”

When Dane held his hand out, Bryson just stared at it, not able to understand what was being offered.

“Each one of us had to prove that we were worthy of becoming Darcy’s mate,” he told Bryson. “And every day we get up and do that again and again.”

“I’d welcome that opportunity,” Bryson replied, ever the politician, but his delivery was ruined by a ragged voice. “You know I would, because you felt the exact same thing the moment you saw her.” He scanned each of my mate’s faces. “And you are also aware of the need to serve her, in any way, every way possible.”

“Dane, you can’t be considering—” Gael snapped.

“Of course, he is.” Weyland smiled but it was a twisted thing. “Darcy just handed him the biggest baddest weapon he can deploy on the battlefield against that bastard, Callum. Our brother could never look past a useful asset.”

But that’s not what Bryson would be. I felt suddenly shy as I realised what this would mean. We’d all jumped at the chance of deploying an equal and opposite force against Callum, but to use it, I’d…

Did he scent me like my other mates did? Bryson shot me a sidelong look and then held my gaze. His nostrils worked, breathing me in with slow, steady breaths.

If we decided this was our only way forward, I’d be claiming the king of Grania as my mate before the sun rose again.

Chapter47

“Tell me this is what you want.” Gael had moved past anger and into concern and right now he had me pinned against the wall, my head in his hands. “If this isn’t it, we’ll find another way.”

I closed my eyes then, resting my cheek in his palm.

“It’s not as if I’m unused to fate pushing me into connections with strange men,” I replied with a smile.

“Darcy…”

My eyes opened again.

“And I’ve yet to regret it.” I touched his face, feeling the tension thrumming inside him. “Not one day. We’re fated, yes.”

“Written in the stars, love,” he told me, that soft, sweet tone of his back. He edged closer, his mouth drawn to mine like a magnet. “Until death and beyond even.”

“Let’s have less talk of death, yes?” We both smiled then. “But if fate is at work here. If this is how it’s meant to be…”

In some ways he and his brothers had it easier. They’d all known I was the one for them, and they could wait patiently for me to come to the same realisation. This was their first time experiencing the vagaries of fate, of feeling forced down a path not of their choosing, of having to find a way to deal with it with grace.

But if I could, so could they.

“Tell me this is what you want, lass, that’s what I have to hear.” Gael turned me around then, kept me cradled in his arms as he directed my gaze back at the king. “I’ll make room for anyone if that’s what you wish.”

“Not much more room.” Weyland’s smile was bright, cheeky, all him, but there was an edge to it. “We never have enough time with you as it is.”

“But that’s what this is about, isn’t it?” I said, clinging to this idea, even as I outlined it. “Freeing us from Callum. We don’t have to deal with your parents anymore. Once he’s defeated—”

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