AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I started to let go of Peter, but the oarsmen lining the benches on the low deck underneath us thrust their oars into the water and started to pull, sending us forward. Peter tensed and grabbed my arms to keep them in place.
“Oh, so you want to fuck me when you think you look silly for not liking boats, but when the boats move you want me to hold you?” I asked with a laugh.
“Fuck you hard,” Peter grumbled.
“Yes, I will fuck you hard as soon as we have the opportunity,” I said close to his ear, then nipped his earlobe.
Peter giggled in spite of himself. That made me feel good. So did the look of perfect love that Magnus shot us over his shoulder. I was so, so happy with the place that the three of us were in at the moment. Our triumvirate was the most beautiful thing in my life, and it was constantly changing. For the better. The coronation and everything that had happened in its aftermath had brought us closer together as men. We had all faced the unthinkable together. We had fought for our lives side by side, and we had helped each other come out triumphant.
And yes, I was willing to admit it, watching Jace play with Peter had changed my thinking on that whole aspect of Peter’s personality. I still didn’t think I would ever be able to wield the cane or flogger, it just wasn’t my thing, but I’d watched Peter and Jace going at it two other times since then, and yeah, it was kind of fascinating.
I didn’t have time for those thoughts now. Not even a little.
“Take your positions everyone,” Magnus called over his shoulder as we rowed within sight of Hedeon. “Let’s give the people of the Kostya Kingdom something to talk about for generations.”
I let go of Peter and moved back to stand just behind Magnus on one side while Peter stood on the other. Jace and Gennadi went to stand slightly behind Peter’s side, and Lefric and Olympus stood on my side. We were all dressed to impress, and as the sun peeked up over the trees, bathing us all in light, I realized exactly why Magnus had timed our arrival the way he had.
I’d never approached one of the cities by water before. It was one thing to cross the Wolf River by ferry at night, but there was more ambient light around Hedeon and more smoke rising from its chimneys than the parts of Gravlock that rested on either side of our river.
Then again, one of the first things I noted was that there should have been more light. I remembered fleeing from the palace in the middle of that snowstorm last winter, and even though I’d been focused on other things at the time, I remembered the light from the buildings throughout the city. There was less light around the buildings now than there had been then. Fewer chimneys smoked than I’d noticed when Peter, Jace, Ox, and I had arrived that first time.
The only answer was that there was less light because there were fewer people in the city now. Even with new arrivals from other cities that had been abandoned. We’d heard a hundred stories of death and sorrow from the cities since the winter, but it was a different feeling entirely seeing it for myself.
I focused on the people who we could see as soon as our boat came within sight of the dock I assumed we were rowing toward. There were a lot of people out to greet us. So many it had me caught between wanting to laugh and wanting to shake my head. Or turn around and flee in the other direction. I liked people well enough, but maybe not this many, and maybe not when everyone’s attention was on me.
Although really, it was on Magnus. Even from a distance I could see that. Everyone on the dock was wide-eyed and slack-jawed with awe at our approach. I knew we looked good—Magnus and Peter especially—but I didn’t think we were that amazing.
Then again, I knew full well what city-dwellers thought of wolves. Sai had likely come back and told a different story from the one that even I had been raised with, but it couldn’t possibly come close to what the dozens of people on the dock were witnessing.
I nearly shouted in relief when I spotted Sebald standing on the dock close to Sai. He looked different from the last time I’d seen him. He was dressed in rich clothing, for one, but he looked rested and well-fed on top of that. And it was not lost on me even a little that the young man with white-blonde hair standing very close to him was with him. Sebald must have found his lover, Barthold, again after all. I was immediately happy for him, and I had a hundred questions.
All of them were blasted from my mind as I noticed the other group of men approaching the dock, only from behind. Sai and the other men from Hedeon hadn’t noticed them yet. I had a feeling that was on purpose, particularly as Jorgen Iceblade and Hati walked proudly at the front of the group.
“Mother!” Jace let out a strangled cry and lurched forward.
I dragged my attention away from Jorgen’s approaching contingent and glanced first to Jace, then to the dock. Sure enough a woman about my mother’s age and three younger women with her looked as though they were about to fall into hysterics. They were weeping and crying and waving at Jace.
“Settle yourself,” Magnus told Jace, catching him and holding him back. “Do you want the people who know you murdered Gomez to see you as a wild, reckless boy or as the powerful man you have become?”
Jace snapped his mouth shut and stared at Magnus for a moment. Since he was on Magnus’s other side, I could see the torment in his eyes. I could also see the pride Jace gathered that made him stand straighter.
“That’s it,” Magnus said with an approving smile. “That’s what you want them to see. Now go stand with your beloved and show them right from the start that you and Gennadi belong together.”
I grinned slightly, my heart filling with love and pride for Magnus. No one could have handled that outburst from Jace better than he had. He’d calmed Jace and built him up in exactly the way Jace needed it without much effort at all.
As the boat came very close to the dock and the boatmen and dockhands both started their work to moor us, Magnus noticed Jorgen and Hati’s contingent as well.
Magnus squinted, then raised a hand to shield his eyes from the morning sun as he glanced across to Jorgen and Hati. He laughed, shook his head slightly, then called out, “Jorgen, Hati, you old devils. You’re scaring our hosts.”
The reaction from Sai and his contingent was immediate. Sai whipped around, his expression registering shock as he saw the other group of wolves. I could feel the ripple of panic that broke out from the boat, but I actually thought Jorgen’s group looked about as unthreatening as I’d ever seen a group of wolves look. They didn’t carry any weapons, for one. And for another, there were two young men walking right up front with Jorgen and Hati.
“I didn’t realize Jorgen and Hati had found themselves pups,” I said.
“Nor did I,” Magnus said, then chuckled. “And here we thought three in a relationship was unusual. I know Jorgen and Hati and what they mean to each other. They’ve trumped us by forming a relationship of four.”
Part of me thought that was ridiculous and outrageous. But I was one to talk. I sent Peter a wry look and found him grinning back at me.
Our humor only lasted a moment, though. On the dock, Sai had ordered his guards to line up against Jorgen’s group, and Sai himself called out, “Who are you and what are you doing here?”
