Grae kissed the top of my head, his voice cracking as his arms tightened around me. “I was so afraid of loving you.”
I lifted my head, my mouth finding his in a soft, sleepy kiss. “You don’t have to be afraid anymore.” I knew they were the words he so desperately needed to hear, and I meant them with every ounce of my being. My lips skimmed his stubbled cheek. “I’ve never felt stronger.”
I rested my head back on Grae’s shoulder as I thought about the conversation Ora and I had that day—of who I’d unearthed.
Merem. One little word had made everything open up—a calm, steady assurance washing over me. Every choice that had wavered suddenly felt clear. I didn’t need to lessen myself any longer. I wouldn’t make myself smaller in order to fit into the Wolf world. It was such a brand-new thought, and yet ancient, inevitable, my brain racing toward this change and slowly easing into it all at once.
I glanced up to find Grae’s eyes closed, his breathing slow and steady. He shifted me closer in his sleep, his smoky forest scent enveloping me. Another quiet moment would come, I promised myself, and when it did he would hear me and understand. I closed my eyes, forcing away the swirling nerves. For now, we both needed to rest with our mate by our sides.
Twenty-Nine
“I can barely see in this thing. What if we’re attacked?” Hector snapped, adjusting his mask for the hundredth time.
“No one will recognize us.” Sadie kicked her brother in the shin. She wore a matching simple silver mask, studded with pearlescent beads.
Ora had procured the masks for us from one of their costume boxes. There seemed to be a treasure trove of ensembles for every possible occasion. We wore the masks in the sleigh as we rode to the palace on the off chance anyone was around who would recognize Grae. The rest of Galen den’ Mora split up into two more sleighs to fit their instruments, and the Wolves followed in our own sleigh.
I glanced at Grae to find him already looking back at me. He wore a black mask with twisting midnight horns that made his cheekbones and jawline seem even sharper.
“Why would the Silver Wolves be at an Ice Wolf masquerade?” Sadie tipped her head to Grae. “We have a tentative relationship with them at the best of times.”
“She’s right,” Grae said. “I doubt my father garnered an invitation, and sending his scouts would be most unwelcome. Queen Ingrid already hates my father.”
“Why?” I asked, wiping my sleeve on the fogged glass and peering out onto the pristine streets of the Wolf quarter. “I mean, not that I blame her.”
Grae pointed out the window at three black-cloaked figures marching down the street. Rooks. I watched them patrol down the perfectly shoveled paths and past the glittering white buildings carved in the phases of the moon. Whereas the human quarter was filled with color, the Wolf quarter was nothing but black, gray, and white. It was tasteful and cold, no sign of personality to denote which Wolf family lived in which home.
“Ingrid let Sawyn’s Rooks into Taigos pretty quickly after her razing of Olmdere,” Grae said. “She didn’t even try to push back, maybe out of fear of the sorceress, I don’t know. The Rooks occasionally bleed over the border into Damrienn, causing trouble, but my father pushes them back into Taigos.”
“I’m sure your father had something to say about her breaking off her engagement to Luo, too,” Hector said.
My eyes darted to Hector. “Luo?”
“She was betrothed to the King of Valta for a time,” Hector replied. “The second princess to shirk him.”
“He must be a real delight,” Sadie snarked.
“What happened?” I asked, thinking of my own possible engagement with his brother.
Hector shrugged. “When Ingrid started letting the Rooks into her borders, she cut off her alliance with Valta. The kingdoms still trade, though, so it couldn’t have been that uncivilized.”
“Of course, my father hated that.” Grae snorted. “If the other kingdoms accepted princesses as heirs, then Briar or Calla could claim the throne of Olmdere and threaten his grab for it.”
“I can hear him prattling on about pack tradition now,” Sadie scoffed. “Funny how he was only sanctimonious when it came to a kingdom with gold mines.”
The group chuckled, but the sound was tinged with bitterness.
I watched as Sadie flexed her hand. She hadn’t shifted so the scar would remain, and I looked down at my own hand.
Grae must have caught all this, because he said, “I still can’t believe you let Sadie pledge her blade to you before me.” He lifted my hand and kissed the thin wound across my palm. His hot breath made the hair on my arms stand on end. “I’m supposed to be your mate.”
“You are my mate,” I said, the words filling me with heat—a claiming of sorts every time they were uttered. “And she is my knight. She offered and I accepted.”
“So you’re really going to do it, take Olmdere’s throne?” Hector asked, pursing his lips.
“Only if we can get this nitehock and kill Sawyn with it. But if by some miracle we do, then . . . “I glanced at Grae. We hadn’t discussed this—what our future would be.
Grae threaded his fingers through mine. “The Queen of Olmdere,” he said, lifting my hand and softly kissing my knuckles. “And I shall be your consort.”
“What? Not King?” Sadie gaped. “You’d give up your Silver crown and the Gold crown beside hers?”
“Damrienn holds no happy memories for me.” He squeezed my hand and the memory of all he told me that day in the woods flashed into my mind. “And Olmdere isn’t mine to claim. It should be a Gold Wolf on the throne, just as Ingrid is on hers.”
I swallowed, tracing his masked face with my eyes. As a man and as my mate, by Wolf law, he had the right to all that was mine . . . and he’d just promised he wouldn’t take it. He’d do the hard things because they were the right things. It was the last piece, that little question still hanging over me, and now, I knew for certain that there was nothing holding me back from this bond.
“This is all well and good, if you can find a way to rescue Maez and defeat Sawyn.” Sadie looked between us. “And so far, the plan consists of us riding into the castle with a bunch of musicians and then hoping for the best?”
“That’s why we’re here now, isn’t it?” I asked, turning to her brother. “With the nitehock we might actually have a fighting chance to rescue Maez.”
“Sawyn will be too busy panicking about her failing powers to stop us rescuing Maez,” Hector said. “I promise.”
“I need another promise from you,” I said, looking at the two siblings. “Once you get Maez, you two need to take her and flee.”
“And leave you two behind?” Sadie’s eyebrows shot up.
The sleigh turned a tight corner and we all pitched to the left. “You need to get Maez back to Damrienn. She needs to break Briar’s curse.”