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Tell him we are still choosing a mate. We can take our ‘suitors’ with us with no insult given.
Greg might take offence at that, I said drily.
He will not because it will keep us safe.
Hard to argue with that. Greg would walk across hot coals to keep me safe so he would surely bear some indignity to have extra protection for me. I cleared my throat. ‘I will bring some of my suitors with me, though.’
Harden blinked. ‘I wasn’t aware you were courting. This is excellent news. I’ll let it be known – and, of course, do bring any of your suitors with you to Fellworth.’
Esme, why is he looking happy?
Because we have said we are courting.
And that’s made him happy because…?
At the next moon, we must pick our mate.
WHAT? Are you insane? I demanded.
She ruffled her fur a little. It was the only way to give us extra protection without insulting Staffordshire. If we arrive at their pack with the battle thirteen, we will have to use them and wolves would die. This way we can take a handful of suitors and Staffordshire will be none the wiser.
At any other moment, Esme raising her claws to do sarcastic quotation marks would have been hilarious. Instead, I just groaned. My heart was hammering.
I do not understand your distress. You and Greg have mated before. Now you can do so formally.
You know I wasn’t ready for that, I hissed.
We are to be Queen, she said firmly. We cannot be without a King.
Yes, we can! This is the twenty-first century. Women can wear trousers, have jobs and NOT have arranged marriages.
It is not arranged if we arrange it, she snorted. You are being cow-headed.
Pig-headed, I corrected automatically.
Pig, cow, sheep – it makes no difference. It is all meat to be eaten, she said dismissively.
You’re basically forcing me to marry Greg. And worse – you’re forcing Greg to marry me!
I am doing no such thing. You can marry whoever you like.
Greg is the only sensible choice.
Yes, she muttered mulishly. But we both know you’re not always sensible.
Right, that’s it. That’s the last straw. Just fuck off, Esme!
Why you would care about drinking through small tubes at a time like this is beyond me.
It’s not about— You know what? Never mind. Just go. Shush. Sit in the corner and think about what you did.
What I did is buy us more time to consolidate our power. You’re welcome, she growled. Then, in my mind, she turned and lifted her tail high so that she showed me her asshole.
It was official: Esme and I had just had our first real fight. All the tiffs that had come before were nothing compared to this. I was almost incandescent with rage at her and she knew it. She was a high-handed bitch. How dare she trick me? She was the worst wolf soulmate ever.
Chapter 21
I used my righteous rage to carry me into my private living room, where a cool secret space awaited me. It seemed like the right place to dig into the mysterious ‘seat of power’.
