Fifth (A Cinco Series Book 1)

by Kit Lane

  The air around us changed, light flooding the area despite the night time, and my nostrils filled with sharp ozone. Hairs rose over my body in the presence of such power. The tree seemed to move, and then a woman stood before it in a flowing, midnight-blue dress, and white hair cascading over her shoulders. She was a story-book dowager queen, forest-green eyes boring into us, power radiating outward I was surprised we weren’t knocked off our feet.

  Matt bowed and we all followed, including Alex. I felt relief from Lily that we’d made an obvious show of respect to the Queen. She had a point. Wolves had a habit of being pricks where the hierarchy of other beings were concerned, but we’d have to be idiots to ignore the power before us. When I raised my head, the Queen spoke.

  “You have returned.”

  It was obvious she was talking only to Alex.

  Alex turned to Matt for help. Matt placed a hand on her lower back and I heard a rumble in my head, although I couldn’t hear what he said. Then she looked the Queen. “I don’t understand, your Majesty. I have never been here.”

  I felt a prickle of irritation from the Queen wash over me.

  “You have been here before, child. You do not remember?”

  Alex shook her head. “I don’t remember anything other than my human life.”

  I was as confused as Alex. She knew she’d been to Aunt Ruth’s as a child, but only remembered her being her mother’s friend, not a Fae.

  The Queen beckoned to Alex. The rest of us might as well have not existed for all the attention she paid.

  Alex stepped forward, but so did the wolves; an unsubtle message that we were pack.

  “Your friends are nervous,” the Queen said.

  “They are family, not friends.”

  “You didn’t know them a week ago.”

  Matt curled his lip, but Alex spoke first. “They’re still family.”

  The Queen pressed her lips together in a thin line. “As are we.”

  “That remains to be seen.” Alex folded her arms, her expression unforgiving. “With respect, your Majesty, I don’t remember you. I’ve only just found out my mother was Fae and my father was a wolf. How do I know… oh!”

  Alex stopped as the Queen touched her head. Alex’s knees buckled, and I rushed forward to hold her up. Her tiny form slumped against me. I held her close, my hand cupping her head.

  “What did you do to her?” Matt asked furiously. “Your majesty,” he added in a belated attempt to be polite.

  The Queen bared her teeth in what seemed to be a growl. “I gave her a gift. I gave back her erased memories.”

  From the way Alex shook, it was a poisoned gift. I ignored the Queen and focused all my attention on the woman in my arms.

  “Alex, Quinto, are you all right?”

  The rest of the wolves crowded around me, each one with a hand on Alex. I sensed our touch grounded her, even if she wasn’t ready to speak yet.

  “Alex, talk to us,” Matt ordered, broadcasting through our link. “What do you remember?”

  She sobbed and sucked in a deep breath, trying to calm down enough to speak. “The Queen is right. I’ve been here many times. My mom stayed here when I was little. I think I was about twelve when I stopped coming.”

  “Your memories were erased after that?” Lee asked.

  Alex nodded. “Mom erased them. She didn’t want me to ask questions.”

  “Why did you stop coming here?”

  “I—I don’t know. That’s not clear.” Alex pulled out of my arms to turn to the Queen. “Why did Mom stop coming? What happened to make her stay away?”

  The expression on the Queen’s face was regretful. “We argued. Neither of us would back down. I wanted her to leave your father and stay here for good. I was tired of you hiding because he was a traitor. Instead, she stayed away for good and I never saw her again.”

  I saw the doubt in Alex’s expression.

  “My mom argued with you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Mom was quiet and gentle. She would never argue with anyone, let alone a Queen.”

  The Queen gave her a wry smile. “You and I have very different memories of your mother, child. I remember a spirited, lively child, never afraid to argue when she thought she was in the right.”

  “You knew Rose well?” Matt asked.

  The Queen’s eyes snapped in annoyance at the interruption but she nodded. “Of course I did. She was family, she was my daughter.”

  Chapter 43 - Alex

  My head was full, too full. As if the restored memories were over-crowding my mind. It was too much, on top of everything else. I shuddered, pressing back against a large, solid wolf. This time, it was Matt who held me close, and I took comfort from his broad strength. Ronin, Lee and Kyle clustered around again, their links with me like an embrace.

  I shook my head. “You’re my grandmother?”

  The Queen gave me an odd kind of smile; part sad, part cynical. “You don’t remember?”

  I didn’t want to remember. I didn’t want to go through those restored memories because I was scared of what I might find.

  “Alex?” Matt broke into my thoughts. “I’m sorry, Quinto, but it’s important. If your mom was the daughter of the Queen of the Fae, it could explain why the Elders are after us.”

  “I thought they were after us because Alex is the daughter of a traitor,” Lee said.

  “Wolves! Incoming!” Lily yelled.

  The air crackled around the Queen, sharpening to an almost painful intensity.

  “Come with me,” she ordered.

  None of us hesitated. We knew the consequences if we tried to confront the wolves. Matt wasn’t strong enough to protect us, and I was still reeling from the recent revelations. The Queen—I couldn’t get my head around Grandmother—seemed to vanish. I hesitated, but Matt pushed me forward and the world around me shimmered.

  I ended up in a large chamber with weird-shaped columns, the forest left behind. No, not that far behind. We were inside the tree and the columns were the tree roots. I couldn’t get my head around the dimensions, I knew how trees grew, and this wasn’t physically possible.

  “You just found out you’re related to Fae royalty and you’re worrying about the size of the room?” Lee chuckled.

  “Well, if you put it that way…” I glared at him, but there was no heat behind it and the wolves around me smirked. I let out a giggle too, and that made me relax a fraction. Lee winked at me, and I realized I wasn’t the only one suffering from nerves.

  The sudden boom made me stagger back, and things rattled. Over on the far side, a vase fell off its stand and smashed on the ground. I felt the sorrow from the wolves around me. Yet more of their species had been sent to a pointless death.

  “I’m so sorry, guys,” I said.

  I knew wolves were pack animals and each death was mourned by the whole group. Despite the fact the wolves who had just died weren’t my Quinto’s immediate family, they were still pack and mourned as such.

  “Alex.” The Queen’s imperious voice broke into my thoughts.

  I saw her beckoning to me. “Yes, ma’am?”

  I wasn’t sure how to address her, but, beyond a twitch of her lips, she didn’t seem to object.

  “You need food and sleep. You’ll be safe here until we decide what to do with you.”

  That wasn’t ominous at all, was it? The Queen must have noticed the sudden tension, because she rolled her eyes.

  “Just eat and sleep. Once we’ve gotten rid of your pesky relatives up there, we can decide on your next move.”

  “Is Aunt Ruth safe?” I asked.

  The Queen nodded. “She’s fine. Once you left we sent in reinforcements.”

  I decided I didn’t want to ask what the reinforcements were. It was enough to know she was safe. Caught by a sudden wave of relief and weariness, I yawned, sending a cascade of yawns from the wolves around me.

  “Come with me before you fall asleep where you’re standing.”

  The
Queen led us out of the large chamber, across a smaller room, and along a hallway. There were arched doors along each side. She stopped outside one.

  “Usually, I would give you each a room, but I have a feeling you would prefer to sleep together.”

  I nodded as the wolves did the same. I needed their closeness, their comfort, to relax.

  She opened the door, and we stepped into a small chamber dominated by a bed which took up most of the room. I just wanted to fall into the fluffy pillows and never wake up.

  “I’ll send someone along with food shortly.”

  The wolves bowed their heads and muttered their thanks. I did the same, not sure what to do. The Queen stepped up to me and cupped my face with her hands. She was taller than me, and power radiated from her, through my skin and each nerve in my body.

  “Welcome back, my child. Welcome back to your family.”

  She let me go and departed, leaving me staring at the open door. I wasn’t alone again. I had a family, another family.

  “Well, every time I think I’ve got a handle on you, my little Quinto, you surprise me once more,” Matt said as he shut the door.

  “You’re surprised? How do you think I feel?” I frowned. “She’s not going to tell me I’m about to inherit the throne, is she?”

  Matt burst out laughing. “I doubt it. She has many children, and they’d never let a hybrid rule over the Fae.”

  “Thank God for that,” I said with feeling.

  Lee grinned at me. For the first time I noticed his dimples. He was really cute when he smiled like that. “You don’t want to be a princess?”

  “Hell no. All those floaty dresses and high heels? That would kill me.”

  They laughed at me and sunk onto the bed. I followed suit and groaned as the soft bed swallowed me in its embrace. I closed my eyes and someone, possibly Ronin, stroked my back.

  “Sleep, our Quinto,” Kyle muttered, his hand stroking my hair.

  Around me, I felt the wolves stripping off their clothing. Someone removed my shoes. Then fur pressed into my sides and that was the last I remembered. I was asleep, not even the promise of food keeping me awake.

  Chapter 44 – Kyle

  I gave the plates of food that had been left while we were asleep a disdainful sniff. Plates of vegetables and grains, with fruit on the side. Colorful, pretty, and useless for a carnivore.

  “Where’s the meat?” Matt grumbled.

  “Faes are vegan,” Lee said.

  He didn’t seem fazed by the food and filled his plate high with everything.

  Matt sniffed again. “We’re gonna have to get meat soon.”

  “In the meantime, you need to eat some of this,” Alex said at my side, her tone chiding. She smirked at me. “Hunter, this includes you.”

  I glowered at her, but she nudged me and the glower vanished. I had grown very fond of the young human female.

  Not so human, it turned out.

  As I grudgingly filled my plate with food, I mulled over what it must have been like to be a hybrid. Not one thing or another. Not a wolf, not a Fae. No magic from either.

  “It’s scary,” Alex murmured in my head. She kept her voice down low so she didn’t disturb the others.

  “You spent all this time thinking you were human.” I chomped on a carrot and grimaced.

  “I still do. No, I did,” she amended. “Now I’m not sure what I am. How can that be good?”

  “You are one of us.”

  I said it out loud. I wanted the others to hear it. They all turned, and even Lee nodded, after a moment’s hesitation.

  “We’ve got to get out of here,” I said to the Cinco. “We can’t stay here for long. More wolves will die trying to reach us. I don’t want to be responsible for any more destruction.” I shot Alex an apologetic look, but she shrugged and nodded.

  “They won’t give up while we’re here.”

  Our sleep had been punctuated with periodic booms as more wolves met a grisly end above us. I had shivered, feeling the pain as the wolves snuffed out of existence. Matt’s anger at the pointless destruction was easy to feel through our link. Wolves and hybrid pressed tighter together, Alex’s sweet scent encompassing us.

  We hurt, but no one hurt alone. We were one.

  I sat on the bed and crossed my legs as I finished the plate of food. Alex sat next to me and leaned on my shoulder. Her body was warm next to mine.

  “I could ask the Queen for meat,” she said.

  “It’s okay. We’ll cope. It won’t be for long, and I’ll hunt for us when we’re free.”

  She munched on a mouthful of grains before speaking. “You like hunting?”

  I frowned. I don’t think ‘like’ is the right word. “It’s what I do. My whole existence is bound up in feeding us and keeping us safe.”

  “Why did you employ a caterer to do your freshman dinner? You’re all wolves. Why didn’t you go on a hunt?”

  I chuffed, because that had been my argument. “Health and safety,” I said sourly. “They wouldn’t let us hunt and kill our own meat at the house.”

  “Kyle pointed out he was more than capable of killing, curing, and storing the meat,” Matt said as he joined us. He bounced on the bed, laughing at my scowl and almost upsetting my plate of food. “They ignored him.”

  I leaned over to put my plate down on the floor. I’d suddenly run out of enthusiasm for vegetables. “The woman I spoke to was an idiot,” I declared.

  Alex slid an arm around me and hugged me close. “She was. I’ve seen you hunt and take care of your pack.”

  I kissed the top of her head. Unlike the rest of the Cinco, she was small and didn’t make me feel like a youngster just out of the puppy-pack. I’d snuggled with plenty of female wolves, but holding Alex felt different somehow. She pushed in for a proper hug and for once, I let go, sliding my arms around her and holding her close. “We take care of each other. So do you.”

  “It’s been a long time since I’ve had anyone to take care of,” she admitted in a small voice. “I like being part of the Cinco. You make me feel wanted.”

  Then Matt, Lee, and Ronin crowded around us, and we went down under a pile of wolves. Alex yelped and then started breathlessly laughing. I laughed too. This was what we’d always wanted, the five of us wolfing around in a puppy pile. Matt’s hard body knocked the air out of me. He was a solid wolf.

  “Get your butt outta my face,” I grumbled, shoving at the man on top of me.

  Matt shoved me back and we snickered like the pups we used to be.

  More roughhousing followed, Alex joining in as enthusiastically as the rest of us. I was careful not to overtax Matt, and I noticed the other wolves doing the same. He would kill us if he found out, but I’d just blame Alex’s presence if necessary.

  Boom!

  Boom!

  The whole room shook from the two thunderclaps overhead.

  The voices of fifteen wolves vanished.

  We all froze, then fell apart, getting to our feet and rushing for clothes.

  “We’ve gotta get out of here,” Matt said, his voice grim and alpha-like.

  Alex’s hands were on her hips and she stared at us in a challenging fashion. “Where do we go?”

  “We find your father.” Matt skinned on his boots.

  “How do we do that? We don’t know where Dad is. I think he might be in Maine, but I don’t know. I was a kid when I last went there. I’m not sure my memories are correct. And even if he is in Maine, it’s the other side of the country. We can’t drive there.”

  “You fly.”

  The calm voice of the Fae Queen cut across Alex’s babble. She suddenly appeared, dressed in a cat-suit and long cape. For a woman of her age, she was remarkable. I tried to picture my mother wearing a cat-suit. My mom had the metabolism of all shifters, but dressed like this? I decided not to suggest it to her. If we got out of this alive.

  My stomach churned at the thought. I hated flying and from the sick expressions on the other wolves’ faces
they felt the same way.

  Matt shook his head. “With all respect, your majesty, we don’t fly if we can help it. Wolves have a bad habit of being sick in planes.”

  She shrugged. “You’ll have to get over it, Alpha.”

  One of the other wolves whimpered. Matt ignored them, but he was obviously unhappy. He tried another tack. “We don’t know who’ll see us at the airport.”

  There had to be another way of traveling. Anything but being trapped in a tin-can thousands of feet up. It was unnatural. The Wolf-God had given us paws, not wings.

  The Queen overrode Matt’s objection. “I have a private jet. You won’t be seen.”

  I supposed four wolves hurling in a private jet was better than four wolves hurling in public. I held back my own whimper. It was going to be a long, miserable journey.

  Chapter 45 - Alex

  The Queen vanished, presumably to make arrangements for our journey. In the silence of her departure I became aware of the slumped shoulders and miserable expressions of the four wolves in front of me. Their expressions could only be described as hang-dog.

  “What’s wrong?” I ask.

  “Wolves don’t fly,” Matt growled.

  “Because you get motion sickness?”

  “In planes,” Matt muttered. “We always get sick in planes.”

  I stared at him. “All the time?”

  “All wolves do,” Lee said. He was as grey as Matt.

  “We were made with paws, not wings,” Kyle added.

  I caught Ronin’s miserable expression. “You too?”

  “I don’t even want to think about it.” He clapped a hand over his mouth.

  “Oh lord.” I ran my hand through my hair and grimaced at the greasy feel. It was ridiculous to be thinking of it at a time like this, but the thought of a hot shower and fresh clothes almost made me moan. Focus, Alex, focus. “What do you usually do if you have to fly?”

  “We don’t,” Matt said.

  I stared at him. “Ever?”

  “Never, ever. If we have to travel in the country, we go wolf. If, and only if, we have to travel abroad we go by boat.”