Prince of Wolves: Autumn Court #3 (Rosethorn Valley Fae Romance)

by Tasha Black

  Prince of Wolves

  Autumn Court #3 (Rosethorn Valley Fae Romance)

  Tasha Black

  13th Story Press

  Copyright © 2020 by 13th Story Press

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Cover design by Sylvia Frost of The Book Brander

  13th Story Press

  PO Box 506

  Swarthmore, PA 19081

  13thStoryPress@gmail.com

  Contents

  Tasha Black Starter Library

  About Prince of Wolves

  Prince of Wolves

  1. Ashe

  2. Varik

  3. Ashe

  4. Varik

  5. Ashe

  6. Ashe

  7. Varik

  8. Ashe

  9. Varik

  10. Ashe

  11. Varik

  12. Ashe

  13. Ashe

  14. Varik

  15. Varik

  16. Ashe

  17. Varik

  18. Ashe

  19. Varik

  20. Ashe

  21. Varik

  22. Ashe

  23. Ashe

  24. Varik

  King of Midnight (Sample)

  1. Sara

  2. Dorian

  3. Sara

  Tasha Black Starter Library

  About the Author

  One Percent Club

  Tasha Black Starter Library

  Packed with steamy shifters, mischievous magic, billionaire superheroes, and plenty of HEAT, the Tasha Black Starter Library is the perfect way to dive into Tasha's unique brand of Romance with Bite!

  Get your FREE books now at tashablack.com!

  About Prince of Wolves

  This brooding fae bounty hunter is hot on the trail of a changeling princess. But what will he do when she captures his heart?

  Varik has traveled entire kingdoms trying to lift a curse from himself and his wolf cub, Ronan. Now the crown has offered him one chance to make all his problems disappear: Capture the runaway changeling princess and bring her back to Faerie, and the curse will be lifted. But the big bounty hunter finds himself helpless with lust from the moment he lays eyes on the princess, and getting to know her only makes the infatuation worse.

  Ashe was raised as a fae princess, but she is determined to redefine herself in the small town in the mortal realm where she was born. She strikes a bargain with the handsome fae bounty hunter who is chasing her, allowing her forty-eight hours to try life as a human, as long as he can stay by her side. If she can stop drooling over him long enough to concentrate, she is sure she can make the mortal life work.

  As Varik helps Ashe get to know the realm of her birth, it becomes clear to him that she is his fated mate. But with monsters from Faerie closing in to steal his prize, Varik and Ronan are running out of time. Now Varik needs to convince Ashe to come back to Faerie with them, before falling in love with her makes him lose him everything he’s ever fought for.

  If you like strong women, hunky fae men, wild adventures, steamy sensual scenes, and happily-ever-afters, then you’ll love the world of Rosethorn Valley Fae!

  Autumn Court Trilogy:

  Prince of Cats

  Prince of Bears

  Prince of Wolves

  Prince of Wolves

  1

  Ashe

  Ashe clutched the small leather pouch and gazed at her homeland one last time.

  She was almost at the border that separated the kingdom of Autumn from the Winter Court. In the distance, she could see the icy mountaintops overlooking marble castle where she’d grown up, moonlight playing off the surface of the frozen lake below. A sweet wind carried that familiar winter chill to her, even from so far away, drying the tears that brimmed in her eyes, threatening to overflow.

  Faerie was the only home Ashe had ever known, but she had no place in it anymore. Her sister had committed a heinous act, and died in the trying. And though Ashe had nothing to do with it, she was implicated by virtue of being her sister. Without even trying, she’d earned the hatred of two powerful kingdoms.

  And yet somehow, Ashe felt a wave of relief at the thought of leaving it all behind. She had never truly felt at home in the fae realm, even among her own people.

  She didn’t have the stomach for all the political machinations that consumed the life of a fae royal. And there was no point being a fae princess when you didn’t possess even a hint of magic. Power was everything when it came to a faerie court, and Ashe had none. Yet her royal position made her a default part of every half-baked scheme and power grab concocted around the Winter Court.

  Ashe hated being a pawn.

  Which was why she decided that she was finally taking control of her own life, starting tonight, and it felt damned good.

  She turned her back on the view of the distant palace.

  The leather pouch was warm in her hands, as if it held a living thing. It had cost her dearly to procure such magic, and it would only work once, so she had to use it with care.

  She loosened the cord that held it closed and a few dark grains were released into the swirling wind.

  It was now or never.

  She took a deep breath and dumped the contents of the pouch into her left hand. A small pile of dark powder, not unlike volcanic ash, landed on her open palm.

  Ashe closed her eyes, blew on the dust, and stepped forward concentrating on her goal.

  She felt a strange sensation, like she was sprinting against the wind. Her ears popped, and she opened her eyes in spite of herself to see the world blurring before her.

  Suddenly, the motion stopped and the world came back into focus. For a moment, she thought the magic hadn’t worked. She was standing on the same hilltop.

  But it wasn’t the same.

  The air here was thinner somehow, with a stale aftertaste. And the sky was a hazy, starless gray instead of velvet black.

  She spun to find a blanket of artificial lights behind her instead of a moonlit palace.

  A mortal city.

  Panic clutched her heart and she looked down at her hand.

  Ashe did not have a talisman for crossing the veil. And the dust was gone. It was a one-way ticket, she had known that before she set off. She was never going back to Faerie.

  Still, she could not bring herself to head for the electric city.

  Instead, she turned and slipped into the woods.

  It was quiet here and more like home. Though the scraggly trees were a poor echo of the lush foliage of the fae realm, it was still beautiful, even in darkness. And the scent of pine needles was familiar and comforting.

  She picked her way between the trees, enjoying the song of the nightbirds, which was louder here than at home.

  The slope of the hillside did not trouble her much. The fae folk were light on their feet, and Ashe had spent her childhood exploring the woods of the Winter Court with her three daring brothers.

  She felt a pang of guilt at leaving them behind.

  But war was afoot in the fae realm. Her brothers would be tied up in battle for the foreseeable future. And when that was done, they would all be marrying off and having children of their own. They would be far too busy to miss their luckless sister.

  “I’m free now,” she murmured to herself, thrilling at the words.

  That was when she noticed the birdsong had stopped.

  She froze against a tree trunk, willing her
heart not to beat too loudly. A predator must be afoot, and she hoped it was not large enough to be interested in a meal her size.

  There was crunching in the woods behind her - not an animal sound, but the footsteps of a man.

  A bounty hunter.

  She had known they might send someone after her, but she never expected it would happen so quickly.

  Her feet were moving before she had time to think.

  There was no way she would surrender herself back to the fae realm. She would be free, or die running.

  The foliage around her thinned out considerably. She had just enough time to realize what that meant before she was tumbling down the steep granite cliffside.

  She hit the dirt and undergrowth again, scrambling down into a softly lit clearing.

  Ashe landed hard on her hands and knees on a smooth rock surface.

  No, it was a paved lot, and the light above came from another electric light.

  She could hear the movement of her pursuer in the woods behind her. He had slowed to manage the steep terrain.

  “Are you okay?” a very familiar voice asked from in front of her.

  Ashe looked up into her own face.

  She blinked, thinking maybe she had been shaken up by her fall.

  But it was real. The woman had the same dark hair and eyes, the same tiny freckle on her cheek.

  And she wore the same shocked expression.

  Her exact double. In the mortal realm.

  The truth hit Ashe like a punch in the gut.

  But there was no time to take it in. A shivering of the trees on the hillside reminded her of why she was fleeing.

  “He’s right behind me,” she whispered to her doppelgänger. “Run.”

  Ashe took off for the light of the building whose parking lot she had fallen into. There would be witnesses there. It would be more difficult for her pursuer to snatch her.

  The world blurred around her as she ran, her whole life unfolding and retelling itself in her head.

  Ashe was not a fae princess.

  That was why she had no magic. She wasn’t an anomaly. She wasn’t a dud.

  She was a changeling.

  And the true surviving princess of the Winter Court was right behind her, about to be swept back to Faerie by the man who had been pursuing Ashe.

  The rightness of it all landed on her just as she pushed open the door to the little restaurant the other woman had been leaving.

  A press of mortals surged against her.

  “There’s a bear out there,” one man yelled. “Did you see it?”

  She shook her head, afraid to speak for fear of giving herself away.

  “Willow, are you okay?” a young man asked, running up to her. “Sit down. I’ll get you a glass of water.”

  “What happened to her, Ramón?” a female servant asked the man.

  “I don’t know,” he replied on his way to the counter.

  “There are leaves in her hair, she looks dazed,” the servant said insistently.

  Ashe touched her hair and pulled away a stray leaf.

  “Did she change into that outfit for the Renaissance Faire?” the woman whispered.

  She looked down at her torn gown, which was clearly quite out of place in this realm. Even the women being served wore breeches and simple blouses.

  “Here, Willow,” the man called Ramón said kindly, handing her a glass of water.

  She took it gratefully. If she was drinking, she wouldn’t have to talk. He clearly knew her other self. Perhaps she could get him to help without giving away her secret.

  “You left your purse again,” he said with a warm smile, holding up a strange leather satchel dyed the same blue as the birds of the Summer Court.

  “That’s kind of you” she said politely, taking it.

  The leather was soft to the touch and shiny in places, as if her other self had carried this same bag for years. It was also mysteriously heavy.

  It took everything Ashe had not to open it and search the contents for coin and keys, and anything else that might unlock the changeling’s existence.

  “Willow,” the young man said again, placing a hand on her knee. “Do you want to talk about what happened? Was there actually a bear out there?”

  She shook her head, trying not to show her horror. Commoners did not touch royalty. But she reminded herself that she was not royalty. And traditions would be different here.

  “I’m fine,” she said quietly.

  He observed her with concern in his dark eyes. “Would you like a ride home?”

  “Yes,” she said, relieved and hopeful that the bag she held might contain keys to the gates of her changeling’s home.

  He nodded to her and headed back toward the glass doors she’d entered from.

  She followed in his wake, clutching the enormous purse.

  He held the door open for her, impressing her with his chivalry. She had heard that mortals were wildly rude, but this one seemed civil enough.

  Once outside, he glanced around the lot.

  People were already wandering back into the diner or heading to their mechanical coaches.

  The bounty hunter following her must have snatched her double instead, leaving Ashe to enjoy her newfound freedom.

  She tried not to celebrate openly, but she felt light on her feet with joy.

  Ramón walked up to a decidedly humble looking coach.

  “Your chariot awaits, my lady,” he said with a strange smile.

  She blinked at him. This was not a chariot. It was a battered looking hunk of metal standing on four round rubber feet.

  “Kidding,” he said, arching one eyebrow. “You really are shaken, aren’t you?”

  “I’m fine,” she said for the second time.

  He shrugged, and she watched as he opened the door to the coach.

  She pulled up on her door handle and felt the click as it unfastened.

  She was a natural. This mortal thing was going to be a breeze.

  The man did something to the wheel of the vehicle, and it coughed to life.

  She clung to the seat.

  “Don’t forget your seatbelt,” he said, pulling something out of the wall near his head.

  She followed suit and found a bit of waxed canvas with a metal piece on the end. She watched him pull his out and click it in and she managed to do the same after only two tries.

  Nailed it.

  However, she was unprepared for the sudden velocity of their departure.

  She gasped and grabbed her seat with both hands.

  “You, okay?” the man asked.

  She nodded, unwilling to say I’m fine for the third time in a row.

  They drove on in silence and she tried to focus on the horizon, like her parents had taught her to do when she was seasick on a boat in the choppy half-frozen lake.

  The people I thought were my parents…

  She tried to remind herself to be grateful for the information she had literally bumped into tonight.

  Knowing she was a changeling made her lack of magic understandable, natural… not my fault.

  “Here you go,” the man said politely, pulling the coach up in front of a small building.

  “Have a pleasant evening,” Ashe said.

  “Uh, thanks,” he replied, looking a little bewildered.

  She got out and heard him chuckling. “What?”

  “Oh, I’m just glad that you remembered your purse this time,” he said with a twinkly smile.

  She smiled back, though she had no idea how her counterpoint could regularly forget such a commodious rucksack.

  The coach pulled away in another foggy explosion and she faced the building head-on.

  The first floor appeared to be a grocery shop. A hand painted sign in the window read CLOSED.

  She walked around to the side where a rickety outdoor staircase led up to a door with the number 2 emblazoned on it.

  She looked around, but there was no one to witness her, so she crept up the staircase
, which was made of painted metal, not wood - so less rickety than she had originally thought.

  When she reached the top, she shook the purse.

  Something inside it jingled.

  She stuck her hand inside gamely, feeling things that were soft, pointy, smooth, and at last the chattering metal teeth of a ring of keys.

  It took a moment to locate the proper one, but it slid into the modern looking knob with a satisfying click and opened the door smoothly.

  Ashe stepped into her new life.

  2

  Varik

  Varik hid in the shadows at the edge of the woods, catching his breath and cursing himself silently for letting the girl slip into the crowd inside the diner.

  Varik was a professional. He crossed the veil regularly, and was prepared for such distractions.

  But the last thing he expected was to be shoved aside by a giant bear as soon as he set foot on the parking lot. And not just any bear - it had clearly been a fae creature.

  He had no idea where it had come from, but he’d been ready for a serious fight over their shared quarry. He assumed it was there for the same prize he was seeking. And there was no way he would let his competitor win the bounty of Princess Ashe.

  Varik was the most dangerous bounty hunter in the Seasonal Courts. The idea that some bear-fae had seen him in his natural form and kept coming was almost unthinkable.