by Kimbra Swain
“Yes.”
“How long have you been away?”
“A little over seven years.”
“Shit. That’s a damn long time.”
“You know my father?”
His eyes darkened. I waited for him to ask me to leave. “You don’t know.”
“Know what?”
“Finish that one, and I’ll tell you.”
I finished the beer, savoring every drop before moving on to the next one. He popped the cap of another and handed it to me. I took it from him and waited. He turned off the television, giving me his full attention.
“Francisco Meyer was killed two years ago in a pack dispute between your pack and the Oberlin wolves,” he said.
My father was dead. I knew it would happen, and I knew it would be my fault for running away.
“What about Regina?” I asked.
“Your mother?”
“No, she wasn’t my mother.”
“She went down with him. The pack was incorporated into the Oberlin pack. I’m sorry.”
I leaned back into the leather couch and sipped the beer. More than anything, I hated that Regina died, too. She deserved better than him.
“I think I should get some sleep and hit the road in the morning.”
“You could just stay here for a while. It’s not like you have a pack anymore, and I need help at Crescent Moon,” he said.
I didn’t answer him, but I did put the final nail in my own coffin. “My mother was a fairy.”
Sully said nothing else. I curled up in the nice bed he’d provided and slept better than I had in ages despite the news of my father’s death. I wondered if other members of the pack had died. I wondered why my mother didn’t protect them. But none of these things could prevent me from sleeping.
Ten
The sun assaulted me through the gap in the curtains. I groaned, turning over to look at the bedside clock.
“Holy fuck! It’s 2 pm!” I said, jumping out of the bed. I slipped into the jeans I had on the night before and ran into the living room. “Sully?”
He didn’t answer. I walked into the kitchen. A note laid on the counter. “Sully, you need to stop leaving me love notes.” I picked it up. It said that he had to go down to Crescent Moon and that he would be back this evening. He instructed me to be here when he got back, or he would be pissed at me forever. All I needed was a bromance. For the first time in a long time, I wanted to stay. In a small way, I knew I’d let him down if I weren’t here when he returned, and the end of the note said there was roasted chicken and other food in the fridge.
I piled up a plate of food like I hadn’t seen in years and ate every bit. I drank one of the Crescent Moon beers as I ate. After dozing on the couch for an hour, I decided to run off some of the food.
Looking out the back door, a dense patch of trees stood behind the house. My wolf wanted to run.
When I returned, Sully hadn’t returned, but there was someone in the house. I stepped quietly through the back door, grabbing clothes I’d left there. I slipped into them quickly and relied on my sense of smell.
A low growl behind me caught my attention. I’d hadn’t heard the wolf sneak up on me. I should have known better. I turned to face a dark grey female with piercing blue eyes. She snarled as I stood transfixed by her.
“I’m Nick. Sully is my friend. He let me stay the night,” I said.
She stepped toward me, releasing a powerful bark.
“Whoa! I mean it. Don’t come after me. You will regret it, and you would be wrong. It would probably make you feel very bad to know you attacked a friend,” I said.
She stepped again, daring me to shift to face her. I didn’t.
Sully walked in the front door and looked at the wolf, then at me.
“Please tell me you didn’t doggy style my sister,” he said.
“What? No!”
I looked back to the wolf, but she was gone. A moment later, a carbon copy of Sully, only hotter, walked out of the room I’d slept in last night. My mouth fell open. Sully pushed it back closed.
“Nick, this is Suzanna Harloe Talbot, my twin sister,” Sully said. “You know, we are twins. If you want to fuck her, then…”
I shoved him away from me. “Is he always this vulgar?”
“Mostly,” she replied. “My friends call me Suzi.” She offered her hand to me. I took it and squeezed it lightly. Her soft skin woke something inside of me. Her eyes widened, then her eyelids dipped over her bright green eyes hiding her interest. She could not hide from me. I saw it. I could smell it on her. Desire.
“Isn’t that interesting?” Sully said, staring at the exchange.
“For the love of Pete, shut the fuck up, Sully!” she screamed at him. She marched past me to the fridge, and I heard her pop the top on a beer. Suddenly, beer seemed like a great idea.
“Did you get something to eat?” Sully asked.
“Eat her, what?” I paused. “Fuck. Yes, I ate. Not her. Chicken. I had some of the chicken.”
“How long has it been?” he asked.
“Too long,” I answered. “Even then, paid sex is well, paid sex.”
“So, that’s where all your money goes,” he said. “My sister is off-limits for you. It’s not that I don’t think you are a good guy. In fact, I think you are, but with your past, you’d damage her far more than just breaking her heart.”
His words sank into me. He was right. My reputation would spoil any chance I had at mating. As much as I hated the word, because the way it was represented in my father’s home, I still wanted someone to grow old beside. Wolves lived extended lives, but we were far from immortal. However, I would live much longer because of the fairy blood in my veins.
“You are right. I won’t touch her,” I said.
“Did you decide how long you are staying?” he asked.
“If I stay, I have to work. I have to be useful. Don’t give me some bullshit made-up job. I thank you for the charity, but I’m pretty sure my manhood shrank in the last 24 hours,” I said.
“Well, I’m sure you gained it back the way you looked at Suzi,” he said. “I’m serious about her. I told you that I don’t want this Alpha bit. I think she deserves it, but until my father dies, I’m the heir. I won’t disrupt the balance.”
“I disrupted the balance at Whiskey Chitto when I left,” I muttered.
“No, your father disrupted the balance when he slept with a fairy to make an heir. That’s not your fault, even though you’ve had to live with the consequences. One little happenstance and you could have been me.”
“Unless your mother is fairy…” Suzi returned to us carrying to extra beers. She gave one to me, then one to him. “Wait. Is she?”
Suzi sat down in the recliner, and I sat next to Sully on the couch with the required space referred to as the hetero zone. Maybe Suzi had friends, and I didn’t need her telling them that I was knocking boots with her brother.
“She is, and she lives in the big house with father,” Sully replied.
“And me,” Suzi added.
“Are they married? Does the pack know?” I asked.
“Yeah, they know, and yes, they are married. She’s a pretty talented fairy, because she can shape-shift. She becomes a wolf when needed,” Sully said. “She’s an exile from the Otherworld. My father harbored her, and when they came looking for her, he married her to keep her safe. She fell for him after that.”
“I wonder if my mother could have done that. Shape-shift.”
“Probably not. Fairies have various powers and gifts. Unless it’s a fairy queen, then it’s a whole different ballgame,” Suzi said.
“What’s the difference?” I asked.
“Power. A fairy queen has many resources at her disposal. A royal has ties to lands and subjects who adore her. Both can fuel their power,” Suzi explained.
“What do you need me to do for Crescent Moon?” I asked.
“I’ll take you down there tonight. It’s a pretty busy place on the
weekends. We have a full-service restaurant which Suzi manages, and I head up the bar and brewing. You can sit back, drink beers on me, and check the place out before you commit to work,” Sully said.
A knot formed in my throat, and I couldn’t speak. It had been a very long time since someone took an interest in me. Even longer since I’d had someone, I would consider a friend.
“Give him a minute,” Suzi said, watching me closely. I dared to make eye-contact with her. She could see my pain.
“I’d love to see your business,” I managed to get out.
“You find it difficult to believe that after so long you could find people who understood you. People who aren’t afraid to befriend you. I’ll hold you accountable, Dominick. One day, we might need you,” Suzi said.
“And I’ll be there,” I promised without hesitation. Finally, I was doing something that felt right.
Eleven
Suzi stood with her hands on her hips, daring me to protest. I looked down at the clothes she had given me, then back up to her.
“I don’t want to hear it, Nick. This is an important night for Crescent Moon, and if you will be there as our guest, you will look the part,” she said. Had she stomped her foot for emphasis, I wouldn’t have been surprised.
“I’ve never worn a suit,” I protested anyway.
“About time you started,” she said, leaving the room and slamming the door.
Sully had conned me. Crescent Moon was hosting an event for the locals and a few out-of-town guests. They tried to explain it to me, but I wasn’t up on my fairy lore. Sully said Lammas had to do with bread, and his beers were full of wheat and hops. He had instructed his sister to pick up appropriate clothes for me. The suit wasn’t the only new thing in the room. Several shopping bags sat around the room with clothes in them. I’d stayed too long, and now I’d gotten myself into debt with an heir wolf that I really didn’t know. My wolf growled inside, telling me that Sully and his sister were good people.
Which might be even worse. If some of the old pack found out I was here, they could harm the stability of the Houma pack. After this obligation tonight, I’d come back here, grab my duffle, and head out, leaving this generosity behind.
I’d trained myself over the past few years to heighten my senses. While at this shindig, I’d wear my eyes, ears, and nose plus the suit. Putting it on piece by piece, I stared at myself in the full-length mirror in the bathroom. I almost looked respectable. My ears ticked just before a light tap at the bedroom door. My nose smelled a male.
“It’s not locked,” I said.
Sully came in wearing a suit almost identical to mine, although mine was definitely black where his was charcoal. He wore a black dress shirt and mine was white.
“Looks good on ya, Nick.”
“You tricked me into this,” I scowled.
“That I did, but you will enjoy it. I think you need to let the past go and live your life. I’m just gonna show you what it could be.”
My life couldn’t be like his. The money and power would never be mine. I don’t know what his pack thought, but I knew packs outside of Houma looked down on the Faeborn even though we were stronger members by providing enhanced senses. Some Faeborn wolves had magical powers. I didn’t, but I’d heard tales of them jumping from one place to the next like a teleporter and conjuring storms. It sounded like nonsense to me, but it was enough to make the regular wolves fear and hate the Faeborn.
“My life will never be like yours,” I said.
“Maybe not the specifics, but I choose my life. I’m not forced to be the heir, and no one will force me to keep it when I hand it off to Suzi. You have a choice. You choose to spend one night here. Now you will stay another, and if you only make the choice day to day, then it’s still you making the choice. And if you choose to leave, do it because that is what you want. Not because you are used to running or because you are trying to save me from something. Trust me. Nothing can break the hold my family has on the Houma Pack. We’ve proven ourselves to them repeatedly without need. If you prove to us you are willing to be a part of this in whatever way you choose, then we will accept you with open arms.”
“You can’t just invite me into a pack. It doesn’t work like that.”
He walked to me, and I felt the power in his Alpha staring me down. He clamped his hand on my shoulder. “Don’t be a coward and run. I’m inviting you to accept a new reality instead of wallowing in the old one.” He stepped away, releasing me. His demeanor shifted immediately. “We leave in five and don’t make me remind you that my sister is off-limits.”
“I won’t touch her. I have some dignity,” I said.
“She doesn’t.” I barely heard him say it, but he definitely said it.
I slipped the cuff links into place. I’d never worn them, and it took me a minute to figure out how they worked. I looked at myself again in the mirror.
“You can do this,” I said, but I didn’t believe it.
“Let’s go, Stray!” Sully called out.
I trotted down the hallway to find him at the kitchen counter, finishing a beer. He had several items laying out on the table. When I moved closer, I realized they were boxes.
“Okay, look. I know this will piss you off, so I’m going to pretend to be a superficial, rich kid and whine that you will damage my reputation if you don’t accept these gifts. Clear?”
“No.”
“Nevermind. These are yours. Just accept them and don’t be difficult,” he said, nudging the boxes toward me.
I shook my head but picked up the first box. It cracked open to reveal a silver watch with a crescent moon on the face.
“All my employees have one. You should, too.”
“I don’t work for you.”
“Yet.”
“I would listen to him if I were you,” Suzi said, behind me. I looked over my shoulder at her, and my jaw dropped again. She wore a shimmering blue gown that had a split to reveal the sparkling silver shoes underneath. She piled her brown hair up on her head, leaving tendrils to fall down around her face. “You are drooling, dipshit.”
“Sorry,” I muttered, turning my attention back to the watch. I sat down the box and picked-up the next.
“This one, you have to give back to me,” Sully said. I opened what I was sure was a ring box to find a silver ring with a family crest on it. “It’s platinum, and it’s my family crest. It will identify to anyone at the party that you are under our house protection. If they harm you, it is like they harmed their own Alpha.”
“Shit, man.”
“You are worried about protecting us from your past. Stop doing that. Let us protect you. Even if it is just for tonight.”
I picked up the last box. “You keep this one,” Suzi said, moving entirely too close to my side. Her floral perfume danced around in my nose, but it couldn’t mask the scent of a very fertile woman. Wolf. Both. Inside the box, I found a new cell phone. I’d never seen any reason to have one. I didn’t know anyone I needed to call.
“I noticed that you didn’t have one. I programmed our numbers into it. If you do decide to leave, you can always call us. I want you to call us and let us know how you are doing. Call me if you need help. I will come.”
I backed away from their gifts. My eyes cut to the front door. I could be out it in a second, then shifted a second later.
“Nick?” Suzi questioned.
“I can’t,” I said, feeling like my lungs had forgotten how to work.
Sully stood up, and I felt the Alpha roll off of him again. “I am Sullivan Manchester Talbot, and I swear to you, Dominick Conell Meyer that I have no ulterior motives. I offer these gifts with no expectations. I also swear that as long as you are in my town, you will not be harmed. I swear on my life.”
The house shook with his oath. I couldn’t calm the beast inside of me, clawing to get out. My anxiety had driven it to protection mode. Suzi slowly moved toward me.
“Look at me, Nick,” she said in a smooth voice like a vel
vet ribbon. My eyes popped to hers. “You are going to have a panic attack if you don’t take a deep breath and calm down.”
I heaved out a breath, then sucked in another. She stood before me, bold and unafraid.
“Why?” I asked. My voice came out barely above a whisper.
She looked over her shoulder to Sully who nodded giving her permission to tell me.
“Two days ago, I was running through the woods near Mandalay, and I came across a couple of men talking to a fairy woman. I used my connection to our territory to mask my scent and presence. The two men were looking for a man named Dominick Meyer. Something about unfinished business. The fairy refused to tell them where you were. After the two men shifted and headed north, the fairy called me out of my hiding place. She swore not to harm me.”
I shook my head. I already knew what she was going to say. She had talked to my mother.
“No. Whatever she told you was a lie.”
Suzi reached up and touched my cheek. A cool calm spread across my body, and my mind stopped reeling. “She said her name was Araxia, and that her son, Dominick was on the run. She knew who I was and asked our family to protect you when you arrived. She required nothing of me and gave me no incentive to help other than to say that you were a good man that deserved better.”
“We didn’t intend to tell you this, but since you are freaking out, it’s probably best that you know that we were expecting you. Suzi told our parents about her encounter. My mother didn’t know anyone by the name of Araxia, but she said that commonly fairies pick different names while here. It makes it harder for their enemies to track them. My parents agreed that we would decide when you arrived what to do about it. So, my forwardness was trying to scope you out.”
“Are you doing this because you are afraid of her? Fairies can do nasty things.”
Suzi giggled. “No. Our mother is pretty powerful in her own right.”
“Really?”
“Yes, she has asked to meet you, and you will see.”
“Are you delivering me to my death?”
“Of course not. It would be a waste of a suit,” Suzi smirked.