Page 94 of The Wolf Queen

“Silly girl.” He shook his head slowly. “You thought you were holding your own here? Don’t you know that every man that allows you into his meeting, his war band, his throne room, is doing so to flatter your feminine ego.”

He tilted his head to one side to look me over.

“He wants your presence by his side, validating his power. Your attention being focussed on him and only him.” His eyes slid down my body. “Then there’s the feel of such a tight little body under his, right as he ruts into you, filling you with the only thing you really need: his seed. You’re a receptacle that’s got ambitions above its station and that’s all you’ll ever be.”

“Really?” I croaked, my hands clawing at the earth. “Look behind you.”

Bryson stood on the battlements of the keep. Well, I’m fairly sure that dark hulking shape was him. We both looked closer to be sure. But in that moment, the figure launched themselves off the parapets, then landed on the ground with a great boom that had everyone standing stumbling back.

But I was already lying down.

Black paws appeared at the four points around my body and I looked up at the softest, thickest black fur, right before I heard a terrible growl and when I scrambled to my feet, I saw others do the same to get away from him.

Bryson, my mate, the king of Grania, wasn’t here, but the wolf that ate the world? I heard the ragged calls from the battlements and was sure it was Higgins and his crew. The moon had risen and the wolf had risen with it.

Chapter54

Bryson wolf snarled and that’s when Callum went very white, then very red in the face.

“Found yourself another pet wolf, did you?” Somehow Callum’s voice was all I could hear in the cacophony. He grinned then, and never had he looked more like the corpse he was. The tendons in his face stood proud, the hollows in his cheeks pronounced. “I am trying to be jealous.” His eyes slid up and down Bryson wolf’s form. “But I don’t think he’s worthy of such an emotion.”

“Oh, I don’t know.” Callum’s brows creased as I stroked my hand through all the velvety fur, the smoke curling off it wrapping itself around my wrists, there and gone again. “I think he’s rather impressive.”

The wolf dropped his head and I was treated to the pleasure of a massive beast presenting his nose for scratches.

“Hiding behind a man,” Callum sneered.

And our bond reminds you of the terrible loneliness you’ve felt every day since you died on that field.Bryson’s voice was disembodied. I could hear it inside my head and by the way Callum jerked, so could he.You’ve burnt half the world down trying to get to her and still you are empty handed. The wolf took a decisive step forward.And that’s how you’ll end the day.

And with that, Bryson’s wolf lunged forward, grabbing Callum by the scruff of his neck and whipping him back and forward like a dog would a rat he’d caught.

The sound of Callum’s screams, the crack of his bones, it was savage music to my ears, everything I needed to hear right now. Reavers instinctively pulled back, some even losing their wolf form, looking down to see they’d become thin, naked men again and running off as a result. Bryson wolf let out a muffled growl, then tossed the broken form of the Reaver king off into the burning fields like yesterday’s rubbish.

“By all the bloody gods, he did it.”

I spun around to find my mates had appeared beside me.

“What the hell are you doing out here?” I snapped. “Get back behind the walls!”

“Where it’s safe?” Gael asked, cocking an eyebrow up. “You first.”

“I’m not what’s important—” I started to say.

“Now, that’s where you’re wrong, lass.” He nodded to the keep walls, to the people in silhouette watching from the walls, still others pressed against the portcullis. “All of this is because of you.”

He didn’t realise how that stung, because that was true in more ways than one. But my link to Callum was over, right? Right? I sought reassurance like a child that the abuse was over.

But of course, it wasn’t.

Bryson wolf stalked forward, his head dropping down low, those terrible jaws opening and that’s when I saw it. My knee gave way and I was forced to tighten my muscles to stop myself from falling, but while my mates called my name, the other gave way as well. I fell forward onto the churned up earth and my mates swept in to drag me back up onto my feet, when they fell too.

“Darcy…!”

I protected you. Callum’s voice, the Morrigan’s voice slid into my skull, feeling like it left a greasy residue.You hurt me over and over and still I kept this back from you.My hand slapped down over my side, feeling the bone deep ache of an old wound that just wouldn’t heal. I screamed as I felt each one of the wounds I’d left on him open on my body…

And the bodies of my mates.

“Darcy…!”

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