Page 105 of Tears of the Wolf
“Paega is…” Brynn shook her head. “Ever since the war, he has waited for death.”
Brynn had tried to be sympathetic about his grief, but she was finding less and less pity for him now.
She’d lost her child, yet she still forced herself to keep living. She still took care of the people around her and those who depended on her. She hadn’t just laid down and given up the way he had.
“I don’t suppose you know who might have done it?” There was no accusation in the question, but Cenric’s tone was low, serious.
“No,” Brynn answered. “And it wasn’t me.”
“No,” Cenric agreed. “No, you could have made his death look like an accident quite easily, I imagine. This would have to be someone tired of waiting for it.”
“My mother,” Brynn said without thinking. A sick sensation churned in her gut. Had her mother caused her child’s death?The woman had mentioned she’d assumed Brynn should have had her son with her that day.
“Your mother?” Cenric sounded interested, but not surprised.
“She…” Brynn hesitated a second as she wrestled with how much to tell him.
Cenric watched her quietly, patiently. He’d been trustworthy so far. Maybe she could risk continuing to trust him.
“My mother knew it was Valdari who attacked.”
“I see.” Cenric considered that. He must know as well as Brynn that wasn’t definitive proof. Cenric himself had guessed as much and Brynn probably could have guessed it herself if she hadn’t been so grief stricken at the time. “She and her people have left, but we can hunt them down if you wish.”
Brynn shook her head. She didn’t want to risk Cenric’s thanes for the possibility that her mother had a hand in her son’s death. If she went after Selene, she would need to be sure.
“But I thought she wanted you married to Paega?” Cenric asked.
“She came because she had another husband for me. For after I had another child by Paega.” Brynn looked away. “I don’t want him. I told her I don’t, but…she’s been planning it for some time. She thinks Aelgar will die soon and wants to have someone to take his place.”
Selene had wanted Brynn’s son alive to help her hold onto Glasney, but killing the boy had apparently been all the Valdari. That hadn’t been part of their patron’s plan. Would Brynn ever know for sure? It wasn’t as if Selene would admit to it.
Cenric didn’t seem surprised. “Your mother wants your next husband to be king?”
Brynn’s stomach tightened, but she’d already made the decision to trust him. “No,” she whispered. “My mother wants me to be queen.”
Cenric shifted back, probably thinking through the same objections Brynn had leveled at her mother. Hylden didn’t have queens. There was the occasional tribal chieftain and clan leader who was a woman, but for the aldermen to kneel before a woman and pledge fealty would be more than their pride could bear.
“I can see why,” Cenric mused, scratching at his beard the way he did when he was thinking. “If anyone could be the first queen of Hylden, it would be you.”
Brynn shot him a sharp look. Had she misjudged him? Was Cenric more ambitious, and power hungry than she thought?
“You are clever. Charismatic. And fierce enough that they would come to respect you. Eventually.” Cenric was quiet for a long moment, as if carefully considering his next words. “But Hylden would never accept a queen married to me.” He spoke each word slowly, cautiously. “They only tolerate me because no one else wants the lands this close to Valdar. Aelgar knows this. You know this.”
“I don’t want to be queen,” Brynn said quickly. “I want you.”
Cenric looked up at that, meeting her eyes. The firelight reflected in dark pupils as he studied her. His whole body shifted as his full attention narrowed on her.
That look sent chills through her whole body and made heat pool deep in the pit of her stomach. She wanted to touch him, to reach out and clench her fingers into the hard lines of his shoulder, but she was afraid to move. She had the undeniable sense that something would happen if she moved, she just wasn’t sure what.
“Brynn?” He spoke her name like an invitation, a dare, and a request all at once.
“Cenric.”
That must have been the answer he wanted. Cenric closed the space between them, framing her face in his hands and tuggingher toward him. He kissed her as he had done many times, but this time was different.
This wasn’t teasing, challenging, or questing. This was confident, sure of himself as his mouth moved against hers.
Brynn’s heart raced in a mixture of excitement and fear. She didn’t know what to do.
