Hook's Pan

by Marie Hall

  Peter nodded. “Yes, it is true. I’ve traveled between worlds. And do you swear to leave when the time comes?”

  If she were being honest, she liked Hook. She did. The man was smokin’, he was also a fantastic lover. Her stomach twisted remembering how he’d drawn that hook down her body, it made her insides tingle and her heart flutter. But she’d walked away from good bed partners before.

  None had ever been as great as him, granted, but she didn’t belong here and great sex wasn’t going to make her change her mind.

  She was a human, Earth was her home. Not Neverland, just thinking it was silly. This place belonged in books, living in a world where she had to worry constantly about being kidnapped by demon bugs and even more devilish children just didn’t rank up high on her list.

  “I’ll leave.” She nodded firmly.

  “Hmm…” he rubbed his chin.

  And just when she thought that maybe, just maybe she’d gained ground and that the tide had turned he asked the one question she knew would get them salivating again.

  “Swear your oath of fealty to the Lost Boys, agree that Captain Hook is evil, and you shall not be sentenced to death by tickling.”

  Licking her lips, she closed her eyes and gave a tiny snort. She refused to be tickled, but she also refused to tell a lie.

  “The only bad boy I’ve met here has been you. I do not swear that oath, and I do not think he is evil. I like him.”

  Peter jerked as if he’d been slapped, then his hands curled and with a shout of, “Tickle her,” rushed her.

  Everything that happened after that was a blur. The Lost Boys were running, their small determined faces more frightening than they should have been, and Tinkerbell was yanking onto the neckline of her spider silk dress and dragging her toward the cliff.

  Tinker whispered words quickly into her ear. “You will not tell Hook we were here, you owe me, I saved you once before, I’m saving you again. When you fall yell for Danika, she will find you. Now go!”

  Then with a mighty shove Trisha was falling over the edge of the cliff.

  Screaming, she flailed her arms and legs and prayed with all her might that a demon bug could be trusted to save her, because there’d be no stopping this fall. A glassy wall of water was rushing up to meet her, wind blew past her face, and her heart was permanently lodged in her throat.

  “Danika!” she screamed. “Help!”

  Chapter 12

  Danika heard her name, even as it traveled through realms. Heart clenching she recognized it as Trishelle and immediately extracted her wand from her vest, tearing open a fabric of time. Pulse pounding, hoping she’d be in time, she tore through the worm hole, arriving to witness Trishelle seconds away from splatting into the Never Sea.

  Shooting out a beam of power, she ensnared Trisha in a pink net and then heaved a ragged breath, clutching onto her breast as the enormity of all that’d just happened sank in.

  Drawing the sobbing, heaving woman to her, Danika shook her head. “What in the bloody hell is going on? Why are you not with Hook? And why are you dressed in fairy garb?”

  And then like the flick of a light she knew.

  Trisha’s eyes were red, her nose swollen, and as she rubbed her face with the back of her hands, she shuddered and then laughed. A great, big booming sound full of disbelief and sheer relief.

  “That little devil kidnapped me,” she hiccupped. “Tinkerbell saved me, I think.” The muscles in her thighs were literally snapping and hopping like a Mexican jumping bean.

  “Why did he take you?” Danika hadn’t meant to stay away so long, normally she liked to peek in, be privy to the romance as it blossomed, see the tangible proof of all her hard work, but circumstances had prevented her being around much this time.

  In fact, she needed to get back quickly, hating the thought of not being able to help Trisha make an easier transition.

  Being a godmother, she knew when love was growing and something still felt off. Staring into Trisha’s beautiful face, she sensed emotion—great emotion, but also confusion and indecision.

  Trisha shook her head. “Because he’s a spoiled brat and Tinkerbell is about the most useless excuse for a mother figure there is. She pushed me off the cliff. Couldn’t she have at least used her magic to stop them?”

  Panting, she looked up at Danika, her cat-shaped eyes wide with disbelief.

  “Tinker is a fairy best left alone. Why she’s chosen to stay with a gang of wild hyenas is beyond me,” Danika agreed, “she’s got very little control over any of them, which is probably why she pushed you off. Pan had had his fun and would likely not follow to save you. Which clearly,” she clenched her jaw, “she was right. Though I will surely have a talk with the fairy council about her. Mark my words.”

  The need to hurry back to Alice impressed itself upon Danika’s mind. But Hook was also her priority and now so was Trishelle. “But tell me, do you love him?”

  “Who?” Trisha’s face scrunched. “Hook?”

  She nodded.

  “Umm…no. And he doesn’t love me either, so you can settle yourself on that score. You picked the wrong girl, demon bug.”

  Bristling at the term, Danika hissed. Normally she kept her fangs blunt, for the sake of the humans who seemed to find the sight of them off putting, but Trishelle didn’t seem fazed. In fact, she merely smiled and rolled her eyes.

  “How can you expect anyone to fall in love in three days? That’s ridiculous.” She giggled.

  Jaw dropping open, Danika shook the net a little, rocking Trisha just enough to get her attention and force her to stop laughing. “The heart always knows.”

  “Pu-lease. That’s just sentimental fluff. I know he’s hot, and I know I like him, he makes me smile. But I don’t love him. And I probably never will because I will be returning to Earth.”

  Blinking back the shock, Danika wondered how this had gotten away from her so quickly. By this point most women were at least questioning their heart, realizing there was something there.

  “Does he entice you at all?”

  Trisha shrugged. “His body, yes. Absolutely. And I do like him. I really do, but I don’t believe in love.”

  “But…but…”

  “Danika, I’m sorry. I told you I’m not the right woman. You obviously chose the wrong girl.”

  Grunting, Danika rolled her eyes. “Listen to me and listen to me well, you are his. You absolutely have free will in this, Trishelle Page, but should you choose to walk away you will never find a love like him again. Contentment, friendship…maybe, but passionate, all-consuming need and love, no. Are you willing to leave all that behind?”

  “So says you.” She crossed her arms, jutting out her lower lip prettily. “And besides, that kind of love doesn’t sound like love at all. It sounds like obsession and that’s ugly and terrifying and not at all what I want in my life. So if you want to just send me back now, then do it, but there is no love, and never will be.”

  “I cannot believe you’ve hardened so much. What has happened to you, Talia?” Hot tears burned the corners of her eyes. She couldn’t understand how she’d gotten this so wrong.

  Miriam had told her truth with all the others.

  “I’m not Talia,” she screeched. “I’m so sick and tired of everyone saying that to me.” Breathing hard, she was silent for several long tense moments.

  Danika didn’t know what to say. At its core, a soul remain unchanged. Perhaps the memories were gone, but surely the love remained?

  Sighing sadly, Trisha shook her head. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, Danika. It’s not your fault, it’s just that I feel so bad for him. I like him, a lot, okay. I’ll admit that. I really do and it hurts me what Peter did to him. And maybe I’m even to the point that I can believe I may have been a mermaid at some point in my life, hard as it is for me to say that, but I just can’t be what you all want me to be for him. I’m sorry.”

  Danika hated conceding defeat. After all the times she’d failed Hatter she’d
sworn to herself, never again. Never again would she bring a woman to her men if they were not absolutely the right ones and deep in her gut she knew, knew with every shred of her immortal being that Trishelle truly was Hook’s destined mate. “Even Betty knew, and she had the same amount of time as you.”

  Eyes sad, Trisha shook her head. “No she didn’t, Gerard came to Earth. Even though the days are stupid long here, in my head, they’re only three very long days. Betty had three months. Days and weeks to get to know him. I’ve got three days?”

  “But you can’t leave him, Trishelle, if you care for him at all...”

  Closing her eyes, she shook her head. “He is a good man, I do see that. But no one person should have to bear the responsibility of being the sole source of happiness for another. That’s toxic and in the end, it never works out.”

  Just then Alice’s scream ripped through Danika’s brain like an ice pick, making her cringe and nearly lose her hold on Trisha’s safety net.

  It felt wrong to leave now. Wrong to walk away, all her boys had found their mates, Hook deserved her attention just as the others had, and had it not been of such great importance, she would never leave until she figured out a way to make Trishelle see the truth.

  But Alice needed her now, and with love, she knew, sometimes the road to getting there was bumpy and riddled with holes. Some choose a difficult route, and still others didn’t realize they’d had it until it was gone.

  She’d known from the very beginning Trishelle would be difficult, because of her past. Because of how love had grown to be a thing considered vile and tainted in her mind. This was a time when blind faith was called for, Miriam had told her truth and it was up to her now to hold fast. Hook and Trishelle were fated to be and she’d believe that and hold tight to that truth with all her heart. In the end she knew it would be all right.

  “Then it is here we must part, dear Trishelle. Hook is able to travel between lands, even to yours. When the time comes for you to leave he will take you. You can find happiness here, with him. But I will not push, because that is not how love works. I wish you all the best. And now,” she inhaled deeply, very content even in the face of Trishelle’s obvious confusion, “I’ll return you to the Jolly Roger, I’d imagine Hook has grown slightly insane by this point.”

  Trisha laughed and looked around at the empty stretch of the Never Sea below her. “I doubt it, he sure didn’t try to find me. Peter couldn’t have taken me that far.”

  “Peter took you very far, my dear.” She pointed to the land mass floating away in the distance. “Tink designed that home for them, she hid it deep within the air kingdom, only one of them can find it. No matter how much he might have looked, he would never have found you there.”

  Then turning into the wind, Danika flew toward the ship. Trishelle didn’t talk again, she simply grabbed onto the net and stared straight ahead and Danika’s smile grew wider because she saw what Trisha denied. Anticipation glittered in the depths of emerald green eyes, whether the girl admitted it to herself or not she was more than fond of the villainous Hook.

  Whistling softly to herself, she nodded.

  Miriam had been right after all.

  Chapter 13

  Hook tore into his hair, frantically stomping the length of his deck from one side to another. They’d sailed to Chief Flying Eagle’s camp, who’d denied seeing Pan in some time, next he’d traveled to the Western realm of Kingdom, neither the trolls, nor the dwarves had seen them. The only part of Kingdom left unexplored was the Seren Seas and the cloud realms. The sea because they would never welcome Peter, the clouds, because it was so vast it would be near impossible to find anything or anyone within it.

  “Captain,” Smee tapped his shoulder.

  “What?” he snarled, twirling on his heels.

  He grabbed his skull. That Pan would dare to take her from his ship made rage boil inside him like molten lava. Hot and thick and vexing, making him feel reckless and wanton with a passion for violence. Wanting a moment’s privacy he marched to the stairwell, intending to head back to his cabin, to see if there was anything he might have over looked. Also, he was afraid if he opened his mouth once again he’d say something he regretted, and Smee did not deserve that.

  “But, sir,” Smee said quietly, following him down, “Callum has spotted something from the crow’s nest. A small object moving at a great rate, carting a glittering pink bundle.”

  Glittering pink, Danika’s colors.

  Relief washed through him. “Thank you,” he gripped Smee’s shoulder and then brushing pass him, ran back up the steps.

  The moment he was back on deck he saw her. Danika was just turning to go back, when she gave him a two-finger salute, opened up a slice of blue in the sky and disappeared quickly within its fold.

  He just stood there, not sure what to do. So many emotions swirled inside him at the moment. Impossible, thick ones. The need to grab her up, to make absolutely certain she’d come to no harm, the need to roar his fury to the heavens and curse Pan to the bitterest depths of Davy Jones’ Locker.

  She sat in the middle of the netting, long, lean legs outstretched before her, the spider silk gown covering her body, but barely. Leaving very little to the imagination. Her wild mane of blonde hair curled becomingly around her perfect pixie features. She looked a siren the way she sat and in that moment reminded him fiercely of Talia, hair wind-blown and skin pinkened with a seductive flush. That was when he became aware of the others.

  “Back to work!” he snapped at the men who’d turned to look her over, lascivious greed glittering in the depths of their hard, cold eyes. All but Smee returned to their duties.

  “Trishelle,” he said with a voice grown hoarse from so much yelling. The moment of mute numbness passed, he walked up to her and held out his hand.

  When her small one slipped in his, he could finally breathe again. Disturbed by the depths of his reaction, he scowled. She stared at the ship with a blank look, then said, “Can we go back to your room? I don’t feel like being around anyone right now?”

  She didn’t want to be around anyone, and yet she wanted him to go with her? The thought made him warm. Nodding, he held her hand as they walked back to their room. When he opened the door, she gasped.

  “What happened in here?”

  The sheets had been ripped off the bed, the curtains were on the floor, books were strewn all about. He’d torn the place in two during his search for clues.

  Smiling, she patted his arm. “Aww, Hook, did you do this for me?” Her green eyes glinted with laughter and his lips twitched. Stepping inside, she looked around again. “Did you happen to see a gown before you worked the room over? Sirenade gave me a gift and I tucked it into that dress, I really don’t want to lose it.”

  He shut the door behind him. “The gown is hanging in the closet, and what gift did she give you?”

  She spread her fingers. “A little seahorse.”

  “If she gave you one, she must truly like you. Those are her familiars. It is a great honor.” He wondered whether Trishelle realized how quickly she beguiled those around her? Drinking her in, he looked over her body, making certain Peter hadn’t hurt her in anyway. The only reason why that boy still lived was because she was here with him now, had anything happened…none would have been safe and Danika couldn’t have stopped him this time.

  “I sort of thought it might be.” She smiled. “It’s good to see you again.”

  The region of his heart both heated and went soft. He couldn’t understand why, but in the short time he’d been around her, he’d come to enjoy her presence. “I tried to find you. I scoured the globe.” He took a step forward.

  Her lashes fluttered and a soft smile graced her full lips. “You’re just saying that because I gave you great sex.” She laughed and again he felt like they’d never been apart.

  He’d spent nearly all of an entire day searching for her, not understanding why he was so obsessed with finding her, knowing after tomorrow she’d l
eave and that’s what he wanted too. It truly was, he’d grown to enjoy Trishelle, but he never wanted to open himself to the possibility of such crippling pain again. After today, he knew the possibility of it happening with her was strong.

  He did care. Too much. But she was here now and he’d enjoy it for however long they had. “You did at that.”

  He grinned, taking another hesitant step forward.

  “Hook,” she whispered.

  “Yes?”

  She stepped toward him, the flame of the gaslight on his wall flickered in her eyes. Suddenly the room felt hot and cloying, crawling with tension and snapping with sexual heat. His body responded with a rush of blood.