Page 82 of The Wolf Queen

“The king will be busy running his country while we run ours.” Weyland’s smile was smug. “We’ll arrange visitations, of course.”

“Or we find a way forward from this.” Dane’s eyes gleamed. “One where Strelans and Granians are no longer at odds. One where—”

“If this is what Darcy wants,” Axe broke in, intent obviously in curtailing his brother’s ambition and bringing our attention back to the now. “Then how do we do this? Allow him to bite her? She bites him?”

“I can’t…” Bryson’s voice broke before he stood tall and eyed the lot of us. “Is that how it was with all of you? You had the woman you’ve been longing for all your life and then what? A bloodless bite. An alliance forged?”

It wasn’t and we all knew it, which left the thing we’d all been skirting around since I walked back into the room, but I wouldn’t any longer. I reached up and jerked open the top toggle of my armour, then the next, before hands went to mine and stopped me.

Bryson felt so warm now, his skin hot where it’d been ice cold. He smiled slightly, rubbing his thumbs over my knuckles, no doubt feeling the same thing I did. A deep pulsing pleasure that washed over me like it did each time any of them touched me, my body making clear how this would be. His lips fell open and he blinked through the waves.

“This isn’t the way I wanted to do this. I dreamed of laying the world at your feet before I came within ten feet of you. I was going to prove myself to you, that I was worthy of your love, but…” His grip tightened. “Fate brought us together, but fate has some strange ideas about how that should happen. This is rushed and I don’t want that for you.”

“What I’ve learned,” I said, nodding over his shoulder, “since I met my mates is what we think and what we need are two different things. You need me.”

He stepped closer then, tracing the shape of the next one of my toggles with his finger.

“Gods, yes.”

“And I’m going to need you too, aren’t I? It’s always been slower for me, I’ll make that clear. They knew everything, but I have to learn things my own way. I’ll need time.”

Bryson was standing toe to toe with me, and I could feel the hot fan of his breath across my skin.

“Whatever you need, Darcy.”

But right now he was offering the promise of his skin against mine, that pulsing heat growing into something else. I felt it in the way he shifted closer, in the way his head dropped down to get closer to mine.

“If you’re not going to be a part of this, you need to get out of the room.” Dane’s voice cut through something, forcing the two of us to jerk apart, but not for long. I saw my mate over Bryson’s shoulder and his eyes held mine. “I’ve always tried to make sure you’re safe during the times we’ve come together. I’ve made sure my brothers held back, didn’t rush you. I can do that now, Darcy.”

“There’s also the matter of them,” I told Bryson. “Weyland is all about pleasure.”

“I knew I was the one you liked the best,” my golden mate said smugly.

“Gael is the feral one that will tear your face off if you hurt me,” I continued.

“You can say that again,” he growled.

“Axe is my defender, my rock and he’ll be the one to hold me close and protect me if this goes wrong.”

Axe’s hand strayed to the hilt of his weapon.

“And lop your fucking head off if it does. Don’t care if you’re a king or a pauper. You won’t get a chance to hurt our mate.”

“And Dane…” I sighed and looked at my mate, seeing him flush, because he knew what was coming, but he was completely unrepentant about it. “He controls everything. You think you want to be joined to me, but you’ll be joined to them, him as well. His father raised him at his knee to take over Strelae, to find a way to take back the land from Grania. That’s who you’ll be allying yourself with.”

I stared into Bryson’s eyes, trying to make him see.

“And what will he do, when I make you mine?” was Bryson’s only reply.

“Tell you what to do and how to do it.” I watched the king frown. “You might rule all of Grania, but you don’t here. They call me queen, but Dane was raised to be king and so ruling us is as natural as breathing. He’ll do the same to you if you become part of this pack.”

“Is that so?” Bryson stepped back from me and for a moment my fingers twitched, wanting to pull him back, the impulse feeling like it came from nowhere. “Well, then, Dane, king of the Strelans, what would you have me do? I won’t walk out of here without making Darcy mine. I can’t. I need to protect her just the same as you do and it’s not a feeling I can deny.”

“That so.” Dane smiled then, offering his hand again. “Well, then, welcome aboard.” Bryson moved forward, clasping the other man’s forearm rather than his hand and the two of them nodded before turning to me.

They were wolves, even if they were of different kinds, and I felt that right now. Those keen eyes that glowed in the darkness. Those powerful bodies, those sharp teeth. I’d fall beneath them before the night was done and my muscles tensed, ready to run, but Dane spoke up.

“On the bed, Darcy, if this is what you want, or walk out the door if you don’t. Whichever way you choose, we’ll find a way, I promise.”

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