“What’s he doing?” asked one of the dire wolves in the party. “He looks like he’s threatening Lady Lilliana.”
“No doubt he is.” Rauth’s voice cut through the morning air. “And knowing her, she wants to tear him to pieces. Pity that she’s so young yet.”
“I need to get to them.” Gwynne couldn’t hold it in anymore. Something inside her dictated that her children were in grave danger. Perhaps her father wasn’t intending to use her children as pawns after all.
“Don’t give yourself away, Gwynne,” said Freya from behind, taking her daughter’s hand. “Have faith in your twins. They’re more talented than you know.”
But a moment later a firm hand thrust itself over Gwynne’s mouth to prevent her from screaming.
Her daughter’s small form had been unleashed into the open air and was falling rapidly towards the earth far below.
* * *
As Drake released Lilliana into the abyss, he let out a horrible laugh. This was his test, Rohan knew: either Lily would fly, which meant that she could be of use to her grandfather, or she would fall like a stone, a useless wolf in a dragon’s world. A female runt. And he didn’t care one whit if she died; that much was clear now.
At first, Rohan had frozen, pleading silently and watching in horror as his sister was held up like a rag doll, but now he found himself filled with a fury unlike anything he’d experienced in his short life. A searing heat radiated from his every cell and time itself seemed to slow as his body took over, some unseen creature crying out from within him.
As Lilliana’s body flew through the air, Rohan attempted to scream his twin’s name. But his voice choked in his throat, caught up in a new network of muscles and tendons, and suddenly he was lifting away from the hard rock below his feet and swooping downward over the cliff’s edge as she fell below him.
He swept towards her, his feet, or paws, or talons—whatever they were—plunging first, aiming for his sister, and caught her up just as she was about to make contact with the earth.
Rohan—whatever he was now—laid her down softly, her bare feet landing on the ground. She looked at his face and smiled, seeming to have forgotten the trauma of a few seconds before. “I knew it,” she whispered as he took off to fly upwards.
Rohan landed before Drake on the cliff’s edge. The man had not shifted; he had simply waited to see what the boy’s reaction would be to the attempted murder of his twin sister. And now the man looked pleased with himself, which aroused further fury in the Rohan.
“You are an awful man,” he blurted out when he’d found his way back to his human form. “There is no kindness in you, and I wish you nothing but bad things.”
To his horror, Lord Drake laughed again, this time sounding delighted with himself.
“And the young shifter speaks, too!” he said. “This really is a day of surprises. It’s only too bad that your sister has proven useless.”
Rohan clammed up then, not wanting to give this monster a moment more of satisfaction by protesting. Lily, he knew, was more powerful than Drake imagined.
“Now go get your pointless little twin,” said the man, his voice growing impatient. “And don’t make me ask you twice, or I’ll burn you both to death.”
Rohan stepped to the edge of the cliff, wondering if he could grab Lily again and fly off without Drake catching them, but he knew it was unlikely at best.
He closed his eyes, telling himself to shift, to find his déor once more. But a moment later a soft sound stopped him, like that of wind sweeping repeatedly through thick cloth. His eyes popped open and were met with the vision of a great ball of fire surging upwards towards him from where Lily had stood. At first he thought she’d shifted herself and that he was seeing her déor, but this…thing…was far larger than what he’d seen in the barrow. This was not his sister.
The phoenix, shades of pink, blue, yellow, crimson, floated before him, Lilliana on its back. As much as it appeared to be made of solid, searing heat, his sister did not burn. If anything she looked quite pleased with herself.
The creature flew up above him and took him rapidly in its own talons, swooping then to its left and away from Drake, who only had time to yell, “You!” before the all-too-familiar déor disintegrated before his eyes. She hadn’t flown away. She’d pulled one of her tricks and moved through time, that witch.
And he was alone again.
* * *
Dragon Queen 15
“We need to leave him be,” said Lachlan as Gwynne looked upwards from within the cover of trees. “He can’t do any harm from there, not unless he becomes aware of our presence. The twins are with Freya now, and we can go home.”
The cwen’s father remained stationed on the edge of the rock, staring toward the place where Freya had disappeared into thin air. Gwynne wondered what was in his mind, or if in fact there was any sanity remaining within him. For a rare second she pitied the man; he was pathetic. A shell of a human with the heart of a beast.
But then she recalled what she’d seen and the horror in the pit of her stomach. Her daughter, her beloved Lily, falling like that. And Rohan…shifting into his new form, rescuing her as her alphas had saved Gwynne so many times. A protector. Every shifter Gwynne knew had that aspect to them, except for her father. He protected no one; he only destroyed. But why? How had he been so corrupted?
The man changed then, his body morphing rapidly, repulsively, into his tarnished dragon form as his clothing tore away.
The party below could hear the flapping of his great wings as he took off in the direction of his home, the isolating Castle Carrfyr on top of its mountain of onyx stone.
They turned away towards the camp. There was nothing more to do here. To take Drake down in this place would be too difficult, and Gwynne wasn’t concerned with him. Now, her thoughts were with her children.
They’d grown since she’d seen them last, but thankfully not too much. Their ageing had been mostly the kind that was brought on by experience. Rohan had shifted—the twins were coming into their maturity. Gwynne didn’t know if it was his first time, or even what his déor was.
“Gwynne? Are you all right?” Lachlan walked at her side now.
“I’m…I don’t know,” she said. “The children are safe with mother. Though how she’ll have explained showing up in another place and time, mostly naked with two children, I don’t know.” She laughed to think of it. There was rarely a problem Freya couldn’t solve. “But my father is still out there. I have to face the truth that we’ll have to confront him, and soon.”
“For now, let’s get back,” said Lachlan. “We can discuss all of this from camp.”
“There is more as well, that we need to discuss,” said Rauth from his position at the head of the group. He had obviously heard the conversation behind him. He turned and looked at Gwynne and Lachlan. “Now that our children are in safe hands. There is the future of our clan.”
Gwynne stopped in her tracks as party of dire wolves proceeded around her. Lachlan stopped as well and turned to face her.
“He talked to me about this,” said Gwynne. “But I thought…I don’t know…I thought it would blow over. I told myself that it was his stress and worry about the children that was making him irrational. I thought we’d be together, always. I need you both…you need me, too.”
Lachlan took her hands in his. They were hot, and he knew that the strain of her inner drake on her human form was great. “I know, Gwynne. We do need you. Rauth even needs me, though that will be the last thing he ever confesses. I regulate his moods. I bring him to earth. And he leads when I cannot. We complement each other; we always have.”
“So what are we going to do?” asked Gwynne. “What about the children? They’ll be devastated if our family splits apart.”
“You’ve been through enough for one day. Let Rauth calm down and we can do the same. Then maybe we can discuss this further.”
“All right,” said Gwynne, defeat in her voice. What could she do
to change Rauth’s mind? Her heart, which had just been mended, was broken again.
* * *
“Quickly,” said Freya, draping Rohan in an oversized sweater, which they’d found hanging on a conveniently located clothesline in someone’s back garden. Freya had found a well-fitting dress befitting a grown woman for herself, though she found herself glad that shifters had hardy feet, as shoes were not an option.
They’d arrived near Trekilling in the year 2015, Freya transforming into her human form as their time shift had taken place.
The three made their way by the side of the limestone cottage casually, as though it were the most normal thing in the world to spring forward hundreds of years and pop up in a small town in Cornwall.
“Where are we going, Nana?” asked Lilliana.
“To see an old friend and to have a talk,” said Freya. She couldn’t help but smile, the unscarred side of her face lovely with its laugh lines and expressive features. She was growing used to exposing her scar, though it brought her unwanted stares. It was ultimately becoming a source of pride; a trophy from a long-ago war, and proved that she was a survivor, a mother. A protector.
She led them down a lovely country road surrounded on either side by high, trimmed shrubs. Everything was green and vibrant, even under a grey, cloud-filled sky, and after a time the children seemed to forget all the negative aspects of the morning’s experience and began to enjoy the fresh air.
“Did you see Rohan, Nana?” Lily asked. “He changed into his déor. He flew!”
“I did see, sweetheart,” said Freya. “And I was impressed, though not surprised, Rohan. You saved your sister.”
“She could have saved herself, I know,” said Rohan. “She shifted before I ever could.”
“Did you, Lily? Tell me: what form did you take?”
“I don’t know. Rohan said I’m like you.”
“A phoenix? That’s good. Very good.”
“Well, sort of a giraffe-dragon-phoenix,” said Lilliana. “He says I have a long neck.”
“She’s beautiful though,” smiled Rohan. “Like you and mother.”
“And so Rohan, do you know what you are?” asked Freya.
“I know I have wings,” he replied. “But I would like to see myself reflected in a mirror. Was I a bird?”
“Not exactly,” said his grandmother. “But something like it.”
“You had a wolf’s head,” said Lilliana. “When you were coming towards me I thought I was looking at father Rauth. A wolf’s face and the wings of a giant eagle.”
“So…what does that make me?” asked Rohan.
“A winged wolf,” said his grandmother, looking ahead as she walked. “Pterolycus, if you want to be dull and technical about it. You can run like your fathers and fly like your mother. And in all likelihood you are capable of a good deal more, or will be when you come fully into your powers.”
“When will that happen, Nana?”
“Normally it hits around the age of twenty, though you two have advanced so quickly, it seems that it could happen anytime now,” laughed Freya. “Now stop asking questions. We’ve arrived at our destination and I want you two to get some proper food in your bellies, and some rest.”
She turned and led the twins onto a dirt path which led away from the road just as a car whipped by behind them. Rohan turned to look at it, exclaiming, “Whoa.” He had never seen such a machine, though his mother and father Lachlan had described them to him. In spite of his capacity to turn into a flying wolf, it seemed like nothing in comparison to a motorized vehicle.
“We’re going to see Dr. Evans,” said Freya, “and stay with him until your mother comes. He’s the man who helped bring you two into this world.”
* * *
Dragon Queen 16
Lachlan’s Camp
Back at the camp, Gwynne told the alphas that she was going to seek her mother and their children.
“I’ll take them back to Dundurn,” she said, her voice tight in her throat. She felt almost as though she were saying farewell to the men, or at least to her family as she’d known it. “It’s not entirely safe out here for them.”
“Very well. We’ll take the men back to the castle. I intend to leave the other camp set up by Carrfyr,” said Rauth. “We’ll need our wolves there when we attack Drake’s castle.”
“So we’re actually going to do this,” said Gwynne. “We’re going to take on my father at last.”
“And we intend to help as well,” said Cynric, who was standing close by. “With your permission, my Lords.”
“We can use all the help we can get,” said Lachlan, shaking his hand. “Right, Rauth?”
The other alpha grudgingly shook Cynric’s hand as well. “Indeed,” he said. “The gift of flight is not one that most wolves share. We would appreciate your aid.”
“Of course. I’ll assemble my flyers and we’ll make our way to your camp.”
“Thank you, Cynric,” said Gwynne. “You’ll find the Lady Bree with the others,” she added, knowing that the flyer had a sort of attachment to the one female dire wolf shifter.
“I shall look forward to seeing her,” he said before turning away to assemble his men.
“Be safe, Gwynne,” said Lachlan, who looked at Rauth and then headed into their tent.
Rauth walked up to her and took her right hand in his left. “Things will be different from now on,” he promised, or threatened. “There will be changes.”
Gwynne pulled her hand away. “I’m not sure I want the changes you propose. Everything on your terms, yet you purport to act based on love.”
“Everything I do is based on love.”
“Even pushing away Lachlan? Is that for his benefit or mine? No, don’t reply—I can answer: it’s for neither. For no one but you, Rauth. You, or that wolf inside you is too threatened by another male of your strength. I suppose it’s nature at work. But I manage to fight off my dragon; I fought her off today when all she wanted was to tear Lord Drake to pieces. To grab my children and hold them to my breast. Yet you…you’re just like my father. Ruled by your animal.”
With that she turned away from him, convinced that it was for the last time.
* * *
Dragon Queen 17
Cornwall, 2015
The children were having a cup of hot cocoa when the front door of Dr. Evans’s cottage flew open.
Freya, who was seated by the fire with her old friend, watched as they rose and sprinted to the door yelling, “Mother!” in unison. She’d never had the experience of reunions with her grown daughter when she was little , but watching Gwynne enjoy it was almost as fulfilling.
Both children hugged their mother at once as she crouched in front of them.
“Were you worried, mummy?” asked Lilliana.
“I was and I wasn’t. I know you two, and how you protect each other,” said Gwynne. “And I know that, for all the powers your fathers and I have, you are more than we are. You have the blood of three shifters. The Lord Drake is no match for either of you.”
She rose and walked to Freya, who rose in turn as Gwynne embraced her.
“Thank you,” she whispered, holding back tears. “For my children.”
“No need,” said Freya, avoiding tears of her own. “I did what you would have done, for you and for them. Nothing any mother wouldn’t have done. Now come and relax for a moment.”
Gwynne spent the next two hours in the company of the people she loved without complication or conditions as Dr. Evans entertained with stories of medical misfortunes in the twenty-first century. It was so easy, so simple to love Freya and the twins, to offer them devotion.
So why did the alphas make it so difficult? Each time she felt herself settle into happiness with them a new drama seemed to rear its head. Perhaps the simple life meant marrying a farmer and settling in, rather than committing to life with two powerful wolves whose very blood told them that life was a constant fight for superiority.
Finally, when the
children had exhausted themselves properly, she said, “I think it’s time to go back. To go home,” though internally she added, “Even if I don’t know what that is anymore.”
“I’ll be along soon,” said Freya, who seemed to be enjoying her own sort of relaxation in the presence of Dr. Evans.
“All right, mother,” said Gwynne, standing to embrace her once more.
She took the children’s hands and in a flash they stood in the courtyard of Dundurn. Gwynne had grown skilled at judging her movements through time and space and at pinpointing a destination, a talent she hoped to develop in the children one day.
“Go inside, children,” she said, “And look for Ygrena. She’ll be so happy to see you.”
“Yes, mother.”
“And stay away from windows!” Gwynne yelled as they stormed off, their small bodies managing to sound like a herd of elephants as they sprinted.
“Any word from the alphas?” she asked a guard who stood at the gate.
“None, my Lady, except that a flyer came by to tell us that a party of wolves is on its way back.”
“Good. Please let them know that the children are safe when they arrive.”
“I will, my Lady.”
Gwynne entered the castle again, feeling less than usual that she was in an impenetrable fortress. It had been infiltrated by a would-be assassin and by her father, after all. Some changes would need to be made in future in order to protect its inhabitants.
She made her way slowly to her chamber, knowing that Ygrena would keep the children safe, most likely taking them to a windowless room. She wanted her old friend to feel that she hadn’t been at fault the day the twins had been taken; that there was nothing she could have done. Besides which, the twins would be dying to talk her ear off.
When finally she arrived she lay down on the bed, exhausted. She shouldn’t have a care in the world at this point, she knew: her father had been temporarily dealt with. Her mates were on their way back. All was well. But a threat nagged at her gut, reminding her that things were far from perfect. Nothing was settled, and a battle was looming on the near horizon.
Sought by the Alphas Complete Boxed Set: A Paranormal Romance Serial Page 33