by Jen Talty
“Study you, for one.” She plucked the pencil from between her lips and set it on the notebook. Red knowledge dust floated gently over the table.
“That sounds kinky.”
She cocked her head and smiled. The way her eyes sparkled turned his insides to mush. He’d do anything to make sure she had everything she desired, and more. For days, his wolf side paced the property, desperate to find her again while his fairy self bounced around inside a bottle trying to tell her the wolf was safe.
That the wolf was him.
“What do you know about kinky stuff? You’ve been a man for less than an hour.”
He opened his mouth, then slammed it shut with a loud snap of his teeth. The only thing he knew was what he’d absorbed while stuck inside someone’s body, which when it came to being with a woman, was absolutely nothing since his hosts had been children. As the wolf, no animal would go near him. His heart hammered against his chest. Perspiration lined his palms.
“Oh, my God. You’ve never had sex.”
“And you have?” he asked with a deep growl. Jealousy boiled the blood in his veins knowing other men had been sniffing around his queen. He would have to get past that because she’d lived her life not knowing he existed. He had no right to expect she would have waited.
Her dark eyes widened. “I…I…”
“Never met a grown man who had absolutely no experience with women?”
Raising her hand, she traced a finger across her slightly parted lips. “But you kiss so good.”
“Is that shocking to you?” Since he merged together as one being, all the knowledge his two halves had gathered filled his mind. A lot of information shifted through his brain. Some that he’d carried with him, some that he instinctively knew, and some that he’d learned from the books Cheryl had brought with her.
And then there were things he just knew. He had no idea how or why, but he knew them to be the absolute truth.
Maybe sexual relations would be one of those things he just knew. How hard could it be? Everyone had to have a first time.
“It’s just weird. I mean, you look as if you’re in your thirties.”
“I’m not sure I have an age.” He pushed from the door and made his way to the sofa. His life experiences had been limited to a wolf with no form of communication and a fairy locked inside the back of a child’s mind. He might have a ton of wisdom and knowledge, but what good did that do for him when it came to making sure his woman was so satisfied, she’d never turn her head for another.
“I’ve been doing a lot of reading,” she said with excitement as she shoved some of the books around. “I think the wolf that Aria’s maid saw was actually you.”
“Why do you say that?” He’d bombarded his head with half the books and papers on the table until it all gave him a killer headache. He had only one charge right now, and that was to keep his queen safe. He could leave the safety of the cabin, sealing her inside, but he knew her well enough to know she’d never forgive him for that.
“Look at this.” She opened a large book to an image of him as a wolf. “This is what she described.” She pushed that book aside and held up another painting. “That’s you.” She tapped the canvas with a nervous rattle. “And that’s the vase we had Norse in. It’s also the vase that Coral kept hidden that housed many of the Royal Fairies living on the farm today, including their father, Ralph.”
He took the painting in his shaky hands.
“The maid, who wasn’t killed, had someone paint this. It’s what she saw. What I don’t know is what exactly happened to the vase, but it doesn’t matter. Norse was tucked inside—”
“The maid,” Dayton finished her thought as he sat down. “That makes me one very old dude.”
Cheryl laughed. “We can either say you’re a few centuries old. Or a day old. Or just call you thirty-five and be done with it.”
“Whatever makes my Queen the happiest.”
“I’m not a queen,” she said softly as she lifted the image of them walking side by side on the farm. “Another large wolf has been added to this image, and it looks as though we are going to battle with it.”
“Any idea who he is?”
“He looks an awful lot like an old family friend, only twice the size.” She rested her hand on the table. “There’s one more thing.”
“What’s that?”
“I found another painting that shows this wolf taking off with two Wolfairy pups in its jaws.”
7
“Over my dead body.”
Cheryl curled her fingers around Dayton’s massive biceps. His anger ricocheted off the walls, pinging around the room in a fit of rage. Dust lined the inside of the cabin as if it had gone up in smoke and all that remained were the ashes. “It’s just a picture.”
“It’s more than that. It’s the potential future.” Dayton slammed his palm down on the table. It rattled the floor.
“The key word is potential.” She tugged at his arm, pulling him toward the sofa. A creamy stream of fairy dust floated from her body, covering his. She could only hope she wasn’t crushing the poor man again. “I’ve consumed every word of every book, random page, journal, and diary along with examining every image. They are changing constantly, which is both good and bad. We can’t get too hung up on what they show. What we need to worry about is what we’re not seeing.” She hadn’t been this excited since she’d gotten the lead in the school play.
Or maybe her first day on the job at the museum. She always enjoyed the discovery of new things. The thrill of immersing herself in a puzzle and finding the answers in a faraway land had been replaced with a deep hole when she thought she might not have a bigger role in her family.
Her pack.
The Royals.
And especially, the Wolfairies.
But that all changed when she mated with Dayton.
Oh boy. She just totally accepted that hook, line, and sinker. Rejecting him now would be more than a slap in the face.
It would bring him shame with his pack.
What pack did he belong to? By mating, if they weren’t members of the same pack, her allegiance would revert to his. Archaic and sexist, but that was tradition and while she would never stop being an independent woman, she did value the customs of her heritage.
“So, what you’re saying is we can prevent everything those images predict,” he said as he slumped back in the sofa. Dark circles lined his eyes. He carried the weight of the world on his shoulders. No matter how strong they were, he’d been roaming the land by himself for too long.
He needed his Queen.
Shit. She was totally drinking the Kool-Aid. The rush of knowledge made her drunk.
And stupid.
“That’s one way to look at it, but then we are constantly in prevention mode, which can end up being our demise. If we can figure out the things we’re not seeing, then maybe we can put an end to all those who seek us harm.”
“That would be a perfect world. And we’re never going to live in one of those, even when we handle this threat. There will always be someone who wants to hurt the Royal family, a Wolfairy, or even a member of our pack. The world is filled with—”
“Our pack?” She dropped her hand to his thigh. His thick muscle twitched under her touch. Desire, passion, and admiration filled her soul, overflowing into every crevice of her being. Chaz had described the mating process as standing on the railroad tracks and having a freight train running at a hundred miles an hour smash into you, only it doesn’t crush you, but takes you to a place you never thought existed.
Nico said it was like jumping from the top of the highest peak and free-falling, not caring if you splattered your guts all over the earth.
Drew’s experience had been a little different, since Norse had been living inside his fated, but he still said it was nothing he could have imagined.
While she had to admit all of what her brothers said was true, she wanted to put the brakes on. She wanted to talk to Gerri Wilder and g
et confirmation. It didn’t matter that Dayton had merged with Norse and carried Norse’s knowledge. That could still be some kind of trickery. She’d read about a couple of cases where creatures used black magic to mate with werewolves or other beings. It was rare, and often that kind of magic had dire consequences.
“Yes. Our pack.” He narrowed his eyes, staring at her as if she just asked the most ridiculous question known to wolf and man.
“I’m just asking because if we are fated, and since we sort of mated, I would belong to your pack, not mine.”
He had the nerve to laugh.
“Why is that funny?”
“The Crescent Moon Pack was charged with defending the Royal Fairies centuries ago. Aria was part wolf, and the pack was protecting their own.”
“Are you suggesting the pack knew Aria was a Wolfairy?” She waved her finger under his nose. “If she was really a Wolfairy.”
He reached out, grabbing her wrist. “Why do you question what you know is true?”
“I don’t know that to be the truth.”
He tapped the center of her chest. “Your heart knows. It’s your intellect that has you questioning what is right in front of you.” He pressed his forefinger against her lips. “I don’t know if anyone knew about Aria. But I read most of those books as well, and one of them discussed how the Royal sisters never left the castle, and it wasn’t just because they’d have no fairy magic to defend themselves from evil.”
She pushed his hand away. “The author of that book said that the sisters had a weird scent that wasn’t fairy and it wasn’t human.”
“It was the kind of putrid scent that scared others because they couldn’t place it. But it was rumored that Aria had to leave the castle once, and she shifted to a wolf.”
“Magic before she left the castle,” Cheryl said, doing her best to keep her voice filled with strength and conviction.
Dayton cocked his head, lowering his chin. “People had to explain the unexplainable because Wolfairies were not a known creature.”
“It was rare for a fairy to mate with other species except for humans.”
“And werewolves.”
“All right. So it’s very possible that Aria was a Wolfairy. But I have a hard time believing that my mom is a fairy and that me and my brothers are Wolfairies.” She held her palms toward the ceiling, staring at the specs of dust bursting from her pores on her command. “We know King Lear lied to his family and that visionary lied to the king.”
“They had to hide all of us, to protect us and the future. It’s that simple.”
“If it was that simple, then we wouldn’t be locked inside this cabin trying to figure it all out.” She rubbed her hands on her thighs, settling the dust down. As her mood changed, so did the kind of fairy dust that emitted from her body, and if she unleashed too much anger, the dust would take on a life of its own. “I had us locked in here, so I could study you. Find out why you were here, and I’m still not totally committed to believing you aren’t out to hurt my family.”
“You’ve seen me as a wolf.” He waved his hand, letting a trail of his fairy dust in the air. “And you’ve…whoa.” He jerked his hand back.
The fairy dust he’d created formed what looked like a portal into another land. Butterflies floated inside the portal. A lush green meadow appeared. Tall yellow, blue, red, and pink flowers waved in the slight breeze.
“What is that?” Cheryl asked, leaning forward to get a better look. “Are we having a vision?”
“I would say so. But is this of the past? The present? Or of the future?”
“Why don’t I get us some popcorn, and we can sit back and watch the show.” She’d seen her share of weird things in the last couple of weeks, so this seemed almost normal. “Oh, there we are.” His magnificent dark wolf form sauntered through the meadow. She walked beside him, nuzzling her snout into his shoulder. He turned his head and licked behind her ear in a protective, tender way.
“You’re beautiful in both forms. I love your white coat.”
“Pain in the ass to keep clean,” she mused. She had to admit they looked good together. She glanced at the man sitting next to her and sighed. “You’re not so bad yourself. This looks like the painting.”
In the vision, Dayton skidded to a stop and lowered his head, letting out a deep growl. Cheryl flanked to his left, taking the same stance.
“Can you see what has the back of our hair standing on edge?”
Pop!
Pop!
Dayton howled in pain as his body jerked inside the vision. Cheryl kept her snout low, inching forward, scraping her paw against the ground in an act of aggression. She stood in front of her injured king. She snapped her mouth twice before jumping out of the vision.
The dust fell to the floor and disappeared.
“Coral has had visions of you hurt.”
“Well, there you go. I get shot again.” He rubbed the side of his neck. “We need to be prepared that this is what will happen when the protective wrap dissolves. I need to give this information to Chaz.”
“We can’t communicate…”
Dayton swirled his finger. A twister of dust spun at high speed until a hole magically appeared to the outside world. “Chaz?” Dayton projected.
“Please don’t tell me you’ve been in contact with my brother and haven’t told me.” She scooched to the other side of the sofa. She breathed deeply through her mouth, exhaling through her nose. A wave of dark fairy dust puffed out of her nostrils and landed on Dayton’s exposed skin right under his ear.
“Ouch,” he said, covering his neck. “That hurts, and I really wish you would stop doing stuff like that.”
“And I wish you wouldn’t lie to me.”
“You were busy reading.”
“So not the point,” she said, pulling her hands back, forcing the dust elsewhere. Intuitively, she managed to control her emotions, which meant controlling the dust, which she now understood was an extension of herself. An organic component of all her emotions. All of her knowledge.
“What’s up?” Chaz’s voice echoed between her ears.
“I opened the communication to your sister. We had a vision that shows me getting shot in the field between here and the main house.” Dayton rested his hand on her leg.
She kicked it away.
“We were both there. We didn’t see who shot me, but Cheryl went into attack mode and leapt out of the vision, which then disappeared,” Dayton projected.
“I’ll give the information to Coral. She’s been in and out of consciousness lately. Drew is wigging out over it,” Chaz said.
“What’s Coral doing?” Cheryl asked, trying to break the open communication so she could speak to her brother privately.
“I can take a hint.” Dayton stood, tossing his hands wide as he stepped into the kitchen. The sound of clanking rattled her nerves, but she was determined not to let him get to her.
She had every right to be mad, and he had no reason to pout about it.
“How goes things out there?” she projected in a whisper.
“Not good. We’ve got two more Royal Fairies who have been murdered. One on the property, and one just outside. Both have identical fang marks.”
“How fresh are the kills?” she asked.
“Fresh enough that we know it’s not the man inside with you. How are you holding up? Find out anything interesting?”
“Well, I’m able to produce fairy dust, and according to Dayton, we’re all Wolfairies.”
“That actually explains what’s going on with Drew. We thought all the dust he collected had penetrated his body and then decided to come out and build a crate around Daphne and the twins for fun. But it doesn’t explain why Mom is all of a sudden blinking fairy dust. Damn. I thought I’d seen it all.”
“Dayton and I found some information that leads me to believe that Mom is indeed a Royal Fairy and that Aria was also a Wolfairy. I can’t confirm it all, but I’m starting to believe it.” In the hole th
at Dayton created, Cheryl saw Chaz step into the stream of light. “Can you see me?”
“Faintly.” He paused about fifty paces away. “There is something you should know.”
“What’s that?”
“Gerri Wilder called and wanted you to know that she found your fated and he’s Dayton.”
“I already know that,” she said, trying to hide her excitement, which was quickly squelched as a rumble of trepidation rolled through her heart and mind.
The one true Queen.
Holy fuck. That was too much to deal with.
“And we’ve mated,” she said.
“You don’t sound or look thrilled.”
“He says he’s the one true King of the Wolfairies, making me his Queen,” she admitted. She and Chaz had always been close. They had been the ones to leave the nest first, not wanting to deal with who they were in relation to the rest of the pack. Chaz had sworn he’d never step up as Alpha, and all that changed when he went on a blind date with Daphne.
“That’s a big pill to swallow.”
“In the back of mind, I’m wondering if he’s full of trickery. He didn’t tell me he could communicate with you, and that doesn’t sit well with me.”
“At the time, I think he did the right thing. I’m going to go back to the main house and find Coral and Drew and see if one of them can home in on that vision so we can make a plan for when the protective wrap dissipates.”
“If we can do this, then I bet Dayton and I are strong enough to punch through the wrap at any time.”
“I’m sure you can,” Chaz said. “But I want you to stay put. No one but us knows that the wolf everyone fears is locked up with you. I want to keep it that way for as long as possible. I’m hoping it will help flush out who it is before anyone else dies.”
“Where does everyone think I am?”
“Holed up reading and researching with strict orders to be left alone.”
“That’s a good plan. But I’m warning you, if Dayton knows we can bust out, I’m going to crush him until he begs for mercy.”
“Go easy on him. He’s been either alone in the woods or trapped inside something or someone. He’s doing what he thinks is best.”