by Vivian Wood
Didn’t make it hurt less, every single time Aeric talked to her. The simplest joke or reference, or even just looking at her with longing, and Alice flushed with guilt. He was longing plenty these days, too, because he couldn’t exactly sweep his mate off her feet and take her to bed. He was a handsome, charming stranger to her still, nothing more.
It ripped his heart out of his chest, without fail.
“Alice,” he called across the library.
She was standing by the window, wearing a low-backed black silk dress that clung to every inch of her perfect body. Her long black hair was piled atop her head in an elegant updo, showcasing the back of her neck and her bare spine. She turned at the sound of his voice, and there was something about the way she looked at him…
“Alice?” he asked, surging toward her.
“I’ve been waiting for you,” she said, her beautiful hazel eyes sparkling. “Mere Marie and I did quite a bit of work today, and… Well, let’s just say that I keep my promises. I told you I’d come back to you, didn’t I?”
Aeric’s arms were around Alice’s waist before he could comprehend it.
“You remember?” he asked, staring down into her eyes. Seeking answers.
“A little spell, a little scrying,” she said, flapping a hand. “It snapped back into place. I’ve been wearing a hole in the floor, pacing, waiting for you to come back from patrol—”
Aeric’s lips crashed into Alice’s, drawing a surprised and pleased sound from her throat. He picked her up by the waist and carried her to the sturdy oak table, using a hand to sweep all the paper and pens from the surface before he sat her down. He kissed her deep and hard, fingers ripping at her dress, desperate to strip away all that lay between them.
Alice didn’t hold back, either. She unbuckled his belt, shucked his pants, tore the collar of his t-shirt as she undressed him. They were naked and gasping in mere moments, Alice panting and whispering soft words of encouragement in his ear all the while, spurring him on and on. He was inside her in a heartbeat, groaning at the feel of her tight heat, the way her nails raked his shoulders, the way she bit her lip to stifle her cries of passion.
“Open your eyes, Alice,” Aeric whispered. That gorgeous hazel gaze was revealed, searing him. “Fuck, I’m not going to last. You’re too good…”
Alice tightened around him, keening. Aeric drove a hand into her hair and bent her back until he filled her again and again, impossibly deep. Her body shuddered and clenched as she came with a wild cry, nails scoring his neck.
“Aeric,” she groaned, and it killed him, killed him.
He shouted her name against her neck as he came, gripping her body hard, holding her as close as he could get her. He sought her lips again, kissing her lips, unable to catch his breath. This, he’d missed this… not just the sex, but the pure connection he felt with his mate.
It was intoxicating.
Pulling free of her at last, Aeric picked Alice up and carried her straight into their bedroom. He laid her out on the bed and wrapped them both in a bundle of soft, downy comforters. Neither of them said a word, clinging to each other, kissing and touching and sighing with a kind of joy that Aeric had never experienced.
“You’re crying,” Alice said after the longest time, pulling back with a watery laugh.
“You started it,” Aeric teased, then sobered. “I thought… I thought you were lost to me. I thought I got every bit of you that I was ever going to have, and I—”
His voice broke, and he shook his head.
“I didn’t think dragons cried,” Alice teased, twining her fingers with his.
“I’m not a dragon anymore,” Aeric said slowly. For a moment, he thought that perhaps she didn’t remember that part, that he’d given up his dragon to save her.
“Maybe not all the wings and scales and stuff,” Alice said, wrinkling her nose and tapping his chest, just over his heart. “But in here? Nothing could change this, and in here you’re dragon through and through.”
Aeric couldn’t form a good response. Getting Alice back, hearing her talk to him with such love… it was almost too much for his aching heart, dragon or no.
“I made a promise to you, that I’d always come back to you. That one word, that defines us forever,” Alice said, laying her cheek against his chest. Her finger drew lazy circles against his skin, and he got the idea that she was tracing the letters of it into his flesh, over and over.
“Forever?” he asked, a smile tugging at his lips.
“And always,” Alice affirmed, snuggling closer.
“Forever and always. I like the sound of that.”
Aeric settled back, content for the first time in his entire existence. Those three words were now permanently etched into his heart, just like Alice.
Bear Razed
Prologue
The Faerie Realm
Long, long ago
Kellan stood before the great wild throne of his Aunt Maeve, his chest heaving with the exertion of not launching himself at her, attacking the new Queen outright. She sat on the throne, her elegant white-blonde hair piled high on her head, her blood-red dress pushing her lovely breasts up toward her face, two dark spots of blush painted on her cheeks. She considered Kellan for a long moment, running her tongue over the deep red of her berry-tinged lower lip. She was so exquisite, one could almost forget all she’d done. Or the silver dagger that she held in one hand, running a fingertip over a blade as sharp as her cunning smile.
Her pale green eyes gleamed with excitement, which only riled Kellan up more. He wanted her dead. It seemed an impossible thing, two teenaged Princes against the mighty Faerie Queen, but he longed for it more than he could ever say.
His fists were clenched so hard that his fingers were nearly numb as he stared at the verdant grasses and slithering vines of the Queen’s throne. He glanced around the moonlit forest clearing that served as a throne room and looked at the beautiful, shining Fae gathered to watch the events, every shape, size, and shade of seductive loveliness. Anything to keep himself from staring right into Maeve’s emerald eyes, for he couldn’t begin to hide the gleam of murderous intent that would be found there by anyone who knew him well.
He knew this, because his twin brother Kieran was only a dozen paces away, wearing that exact same expression and not making any attempt to hide it. Already, the other Faeries slowly drew near, sensing conflict in the air. Kieran, ever the Dark one, ever the outcast… he would bring down Maeve’s anger, it was clear as the tolling of a bell to all present.
The tall, ethereal Fae of the Seelie Court were beautiful, but their looks were all smoke and mirrors, glamour used to impress and flatter others. With their shapely bodies, dark eyes, and light skin, their looks were every bit as misleading at that of the dark, frightening Fae in the Unseelie Court. Both kinds of Faerie could be kind and vicious at turns.
And right now, the Fae 0f the Summer Court could sense blood in the water. They crept forward, forming a circle behind Kellan and Kieran, the two remaining Princes in the Seelie Court. Once, there had been many Princes and Princesses… before Maeve had killed them all, sneaky and power hungry as she was. Princesses poisoned by mysterious corsets given as presents. Princes found dead, stabbed in the throes of passion with some unknown seductress. Children taken into forests for a pleasant picnic and somehow lost, never to return…
One by one, Maeve charmed and betrayed them all. Even her own sister and brother in law, Kellan’s parents, had fallen under her spell and paid the price. No one could resist the Queen, no one but Kellan and Kieran.
So here they were, ready to fight to the death. To avenge their parents, their brothers and sisters, their cousins. All the deaths that Maeve had caused would come back to her tenfold. Tonight, or a thousand years from now, it did not matter. That was the way of things.
Finally, Maeve took a breath.
“Do you know, when you were born, we wondered which of you would be the Light and which the Dark,” she said, almost as if m
using aloud. Of course, at the same time she projected her melodic voice, making sure her followers in the Court could hear every word. “We didn’t know a thing until you each used your magic for the first time, which took years.”
Kellan merely arched a brow, his fingers itching to draw his sword and run her through. End this all, right here and now. Maeve’s lips curled up, as if she knew his thoughts perfectly, and they merely amused her.
“That lovely white magic you have, Prince of Light. Bringing life to everything you touch, making things grow and thrive, making them pure…” she said to Kellan before turning her gaze to Kieran. “And then there is you, our Dark Prince. If I hadn’t seen your birth, I wouldn’t believe you to be Kellan’s flesh and blood. Your magic is dark as night, freezing everything it touches. I remember the first time you saw a pretty bird in the sky, you raised your hand to point it out to your brother. It dropped from the sky like a stone, falling dead at your feet.”
She chuckled at the angry flush that lit Kieran’s ruddy cheeks before continuing.
“I tried to get my sister to drown you that day, did you know? I told her to kill you, or take you out in the world and exchange you for a lovely human boy. You’re a wild one, maybe you could have survived as a Changeling,” she said, cocking her head and narrowing her gaze. “Too late for that now, I suppose. So what shall I do with you, Prince of Shadows?”
Kellan reached out a hand to his brother, trying to stop the response he knew was coming, but it was too late. Kieran’s notorious temper flared bright, threatening to burn them both to ash.
“What will you do with us?” Kieran growled, drawing his sword. The sound of the sword leaving the scabbard rang in the air, the finality of it sending a chill across Kellan’s skin. “I think you are asking the wrong questions, my Queen. Perhaps you should ask what we will do with you. You murdered our parents in their sleep, throats slit in their own bed. There is a cost to be paid for that, dear Aunt.”
Maeve’s amused smile spread into a deadly grin.
“And you imagine yourself the one who will extract that price, nephew? How terribly exciting for us all.”
“You cannot think to kill the last of your family line, my Queen,” Kellan broke in.
Her brows arched in surprise.
“I would do no such thing,” she protested, giving a beat’s pause. “You will still be quite alive, Kellan. With the Prince of Light as my consort, my heirs will be many. The royal Seelie bloodline will multiply, with a quickness.”
The last was said with a teasing, flirtatious wink that made Kellan’s stomach flip-flop.
“Never. I will never lay with you, Aunt. Nor will I allow you to take my brother from me,” he said, glancing at Kieran, who now glared at Kellan in turn. As if Kellan had brought this about, somehow.
“You think to defy me?” Maeve hissed, rising from her chair, dagger in her fist. “What will a pair of lads do against the strength of the Summer court?”
She gestured, raising her hands to beckon her supporters, who drew closer with a collective hiss. There were many who envied the royal family, who thought themselves a better match for the Queen’s consort and confidante. Let them have it, Kellan thought. Could they not see that this was the Queen’s true nature, that they would only be in the same position in the not-terribly-distant future?
“Last chance,” the Queen taunted, waving her dagger at Kellan. “If you strike the blow, take the Shadow Prince’s life, take his power to combine with your own, you can have everything you’ve ever wanted. Never again will anyone mistake you for him. You will rise as Queen’s consort, rule the Faerie realms by my side. Your children will have power beyond imagining…”
Kellan faltered for a moment, trying to imagine a world without his twin. Where he alone rose to be powerful, respected, beloved. Where his trickster brother never stole another woman from his bed, never made him feel guilty for being more loved and admired than Kieran, less feared. That moment’s pause drew a growl from Kieran, who launched himself toward the Queen, sword raised high.
The Queen raised a hand, smacking Kieran down with an invisible wall of magic, as easily and casually as she might swat at an insect buzzing about her head. Kieran crumpled, his sword tumbling to the side as he collapsed. He fell in place, and didn’t move again.
“Kieran,” Kellan whispered under his breath, looking wildly between the Queen and his twin.
“Do it!” the Queen urged, thinking Kellan was tempted to attack his brother. Her smile was so wide that Kellan could see every tooth in her mouth, all sharp, gleaming, and eager.
He took a step toward Kieran, slipping his hand into his pocket and produced a dagger much like the wicked blade the Queen held.
“Yes,” she hissed. “Only the Light Prince may kill the Dark, tip the scales of the Faerie realm. Finish what I have started, my Prince, and we can be together for eternity. Imagine…”
Kellan dropped to his knees to shield his brother, flinging the dagger straight at the Queen. It missed her heart by inches, burrowing into the flesh below her shoulder and drawing a long, high scream from her lips.
“Traitor!” she screamed, power flooding her voice. Kellan knew that if her words were true, she couldn’t kill them… but she could banish them to another plane. Power gathered and shimmered around her as her face contorted with rage, and he knew her next words before she screamed them. “You. Are. BANISHED!”
Gripping Kieran around the waist, Kellan closed his eyes and gritted his teeth as the spell ripped him away from the fabric of the Faerie realm. The monarch’s word was law, and in Faerie that meant the whole world bent to her will. Her words became reality the moment she spoke them…
A flash of light, and then Kellan and Kieran were dumped in a broad, grassy moor of sorts. Miles and miles and miles of nothing but heather and grass. Not a house or a person or even a tree to be seen. Kellan couldn’t be sure, but he had the idea that the Faerie Queen had favored them a bit by dumping him here in the human realm and not one of a hundred other exceedingly unpleasant planes of existence.
Still, it was something of a shock. For the first time in their royal lives, Kellan and Kieran were truly alone. As interesting as that was, this was hardly the time to wax philosophical about their situation. Kieran needed healing, and from the looks of this place, any food or medicine worth having was a long, long way away.
Picking his brother up with a grunt, Kellan tossed Kieran over his shoulder and began to walk north.
Toward what, he had no idea…
1
Chapter One
New Orleans, Louisiana
Present Day
“I should have left you to Maeve, you backstabbing son of a goat,” Kellan drawled, casting Kieran a scowl as they strode through the Marginy on their way to the Manor. His Irish accent always thickened when he was irritable or excited, and just now it would be nearly incomprehensible to a passing stranger.
“You’re honestly that upset? She’s just a girl,” Kieran said, huffing a laugh. His twin could be downright melodramatic at times. “Not terribly loyal, either. Really, I did you a favor.”
“A favor, is it now?” Kellan growled. “You fucked the girl I’ve been seeing for the past three months. According to her, you didn’t say a word, and she didn’t know you weren’t me.”
Kieran rolled his eyes.
“Liar. She knew we weren’t the same person, she just wanted to walk on the wild side. No matter how far we get from the Court, people just seem to know. Just like the ones I try to date always gravitate to you, blathering about the goodness in you and all that nonsense. It goes both ways, eh?”
Kellan’s lack of response was enough for Kieran. His brother would get over it soon enough.
“At least she wasn’t your fated woman,” Kieran said, clapping Kellan on the shoulder as the Manor came into view. “Who you’ll never meet if we’re late to this meeting. Rhys runs a very timely program, here.”
It was true. Kieran and Kellan
had spent over a thousand years rollicking and rolling, narrowly escaping danger, and generally doing anything they wanted — all over the wide human world, and a few other planes. Every century or so they’d have a terrible fight, then spin off in their own directions, having adventures on their own. Always, though, they gravitated back toward one another.
Two halves of a whole, as their mother used to tell them. It might be true enough, but that didn’t make the concept any less tiresome.
Now that they’d been recruited as members of the Alpha Guardians, or rescued as Rhys Macaulay referred to their abduction and brief imprisonment for the good of the city… now, they had to live by rules. The Gray brothers, as they’d taken to calling themselves, didn’t really follow rules very well.
“Rhys and the lads are already outside,” Kellan said, nodding toward the Guardians gathered on the front steps of the Manor.
“Waiting for us, I suppose,” Kieran grumbled. “Not like we just did twelve hours of patrol or anything…”
“We did sign up for this,” Kellan said with a shrug. “Did the ceremony and all.”
“The only other option was to let them imprison us at the Manor until they felt the big bad threat over New Orleans had subsided. Not much of a choice, that.”
They strode up the front lawn and joined the circle where Rhys, Gabriel, Aeric, and Asher stood discussing the state of affairs.
“What’d we miss?” Kieran said, by way of greeting.
“Took you long enough to get here,” Gabriel groused.
“Alright, alright,” Kellan said, waving him down. “Just because Cassie’s due any day now and you’re a bundle of nerves doesn’t mean you should jump all over us. We were dispatching a bunch of Trillah demons in the Central Business District. Ease off.”