Page 53 of The Wolf Queen

A skeleton of a woman, standing on a pedestal. Dark, night-blooming flowers drowsed from where they had wound their way through the bony rib cage. I blinked at the sight of it, but didn’t stay there for long. My view abruptly shifted to see Callum and his body sprawled across the king’s bed, a shivering girl curled up as far from him as possible. His eyes flicked open, as if sensing my presence, blazing bright blue. My lips peeled back from my fangs and I roared my disgust, right before my jaws snapped down and I was back in my mother’s suite, my teeth sunk deep into Dane’s neck.

I’d claimed each of my mates differently: in desperate love, in hot sweetness and in bittersweet melancholy. And I claimed Dane in righteous anger, snatching him from the teeth of the Morrigan and from Callum himself. My mate’s arms went around me, holding me right where I was, prolonging the pain of the connection until I pulled my teeth from his flesh and looked down at him.

“Mine,” I snarled.

“Always was.” That wild smirk was back. “Was just waiting for you to realise that.”

I shook my head, unable to stop myself from grinning back, even as Axe collected me up and held me close, but when he laid me down on the bed between all of them, it wasn’t them or the Morrigan or even Callum who I saw. As my eyelids fluttered closed, I saw a long golden figure sprawled out on a bed just down the hall, his muscular body seeming out of place amongst all the floral bedding and striped wallpaper. Moreso because Bryson’s hand was moving preternaturally fast, edging himself closer and closer, his eyes gleaming bright gold and staring into mine, right as he erupted all over his hand.

Chapter31

“So, yesterday’s mission was a successful one,” my grandfather said the next morning after we’d all sat down to breakfast. “But we need to think to the future. Reavers are real.” He blinked, as if still coming to terms with that. “And pose a threat to both of our countries. Bayard is so close to the border.”

I stifled a smile at that blatant self-interest. It was unfortunate that he viewed it that way, but it was a strong impulse I could manipulate in Granians to get them on our side. I nodded as Jan scrambled onto my lap and then started pointing to what she wanted to eat.

“You stopped the attack?” Del looked us all over with eyes that seemed far too old for his age. “You beat them and no one was hurt?”

“Not badly,” Gael told him, who was sitting at his side. “And I healed those that were.”

“I stayed up,” Del replied, a slightly accusing edge to his voice that had him flushing as he realised it. “I wanted to wait with the other men…”

But he’d been deemed a boy and sent to bed.

“That is our fault,” I told him. “We went to the guard house, as people often do after a fight, and we should’ve come straight to you and reassured you that we had won the day.” I looked directly into his eyes. “For this, we are sorry.”

He nodded sharply, then turned to the spread before us, but shot me a sidelong look when I reached across and squeezed his hand.

“You had quite the night it appears,” Bryson said, but his focus wasn’t on us. It was on Dane. His eyes seemed to trace the shape of the bite I’d left on my mate’s neck. “But—”

“My apologies, Your Highness, Your Grace, milady…” The butler broke into the room, looking somewhat flustered. Striding in behind him was a man dressed in fine livery. His uniform was the same as Rake’s, but with gold piping to declare his status. “A messenger has arrived from the capital,” the butler continued.

“Highness.” The messenger marched up to Bryson and then bowed low, holding a scroll out to him. The prince took it with a frown, then sent the man down to the kitchen for refreshments as he started to read the message.

“My father’s condition worsens,” Bryson reported. “If I’m to be considered in the succession, I have to present myself to the court before he dies.” The paper was screwed up in a ball and then thrown at the wall. “Gods be damned!”

My children went stiff and still as Bryson got to his feet, starting to pace.

“Your Grace, I’ll need your fastest horses.”

“You’ll have them,” my grandfather replied.

“And even then…” I saw Bryson twist his lips, but it was a poor attempt at a smile. He shook his head. “I’ll be too late. I thought I had time. I should’ve… We should’ve…”

“What does it matter?” Dane asked. “You are the eldest son.”

“But my father must endorse me before he dies,” Bryson replied, grimly. “I had hoped to have this business sorted in time to arrive back in Aramathia, but…” His sigh came out in a long shudder. “My brothers and their supporters will be circling. This is their chance to press their advantage.”

“The vultures are gathering around, waiting for your father to die,” my grandfather said.

“I must go at once,” Bryson declared.

“But you won’t get there in time.” Dane’s tone was pitiless as was his gaze. “Will you, Your Highness?” The acerbic way he used the prince’s title made clear that it might be a temporary one.

“You should hope that I do,” Bryson snapped back. “Reavers are real.” I saw it in his eyes, the struggle to accept what had become our reality. “But my brothers will do little about them until they have to. Let the beasts clear out the north—that will be their way of dealing with things. If Reavers turn Strelae, even northern Grania, into a wasteland, well…” My hands tightened around Jan’s middle. “That will give them the luxury of eradicating the dreaded warg and removing recalcitrant northern lords, allowing them to install new ones that are loyal only to them.”

I sat there for a second, wanting to clap my hands over the children’s ears and prevent them from hearing a thing, but that urge came too late. Both of them watched what went on with solemn focus.

“If getting the princeling to the capital fast is so important…” Selene spoke up from the other end of the breakfast table. “Well, it’s lucky we have a means to cross the country at a rapid rate.”

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