by A. B Lee
“I don’t want a wolf for a mate.” I looked anywhere but at her.
“It’s not about what you want…”
“I’m sorry, what?” For a moment there I felt as if I had that cake stuffed back in my mouth again and was choking on it.
“It’s about what fate wants for you…” Mother assured me.
“Fate wants me to be miserable and away from my Glen, my home, my people. Glad to hear it. I might just as well lose my wings then.” I shrugged my shoulders accordingly.
She was never going to listen. Mother was old school, a mate was a mate, was a mate, and that’s all that she would ever see.
“It’s not like you couldn’t come back to see us…” she smiled. “Unlike if you lose your wings.” Mother made a point of emphasising the last part as that smile dropped.
It was true. A faerie without her wings was just a human. A short human, but a human nonetheless.
It was akin to being a fallen angel, not that I’d met any of those, they tended to keep themselves to themselves, and they had wing envy- so they didn’t play well with Faeries, but still…
I got to my feet with a purpose. I might not have known exactly what that was yet, but getting away from my mother would be a start.
“Where are you going, Jasmine?” Mother asked in her softer voice.
“I might as well use my wings while I still have them.” I informed her; silencing her tongue before she got back into lecture mode.
“You know when I was a wee girl…”
And there was the story mode. I had to escape.
“I’ll be back later.” If my wings hadn’t dropped off by then.
I headed for the door and sanctuary. Anywhere that wasn’t going to involve a lecture from my mother was definitely sanctuary right now.
“A shifter for a mate?” Dougal pounced on me the moment that I closed the front door. I huffed.
“Good news travels fast.” I bit out in annoyance, eyeing the landscape for either one of my so-called best friends to give them the stink eye.
“My sister has loose lips…” Dougal chuckled.
“Lucky she’s not a mermaid then.” I snapped back. He frowned hard. “Sinks ships…” I urged him to get the joke. He did, finally, with a snort of laughter.
“So, you’ll be leaving us, Jazz.” Dougal offered and I groaned inwardly at the thought.
There had been a time when Dougal and I were inseparable. Scraped knees and fisticuffs, slaying dragons, or as humans know them- dragonflies, not that we ever slayed them, of course- but, then I got boobs and he got handy, and a broken nose may heal, but we sort of went our separate ways after that.
“One way or the other.” I muttered as I put my best foot forward, spotted The Faerie Godmother, and made an abrupt turn in the other direction.
“Jasmine,” she called. Her voice was soft and lyrical, and it floated towards me, pinning me to the spot and making me groan inwardly.
I turned back towards her, and she gave me that look- totally serene in everything that she does- unless she’s battling up for war, which didn’t happen often these days, about four times a year, but still occurred.
She floated towards me with barely a flutter of her magnificent wings.
“My Queen.” I nodded accordingly, maybe not dipping my head down as far as I might have, but I was miffed at being caught- less red handed and more rainbow winged.
“A mate…” she said and smiled like the sun had come out on a rainy day. Good for her, because it was certainly raining on my parade.
“Yes.” I shuffled on my feet.
“A wolf…” She inclined her head and that smile grew wider.
“My… the rumour mill is buzzing today.”
I shot Dougal a death glare. His eyes widened- he knew that look, it was the one that I’d given him before I’d broken his nose.
“People are excited.” The Queen informed me.
“Me, not so much.” I shot back before my brain was even in gear. She raised those perfect eyebrows.
“Fate doesn’t make mistakes…” She bestowed her wisdom and I felt like head-butting a tree, neither of us got the chance to say more when Sybal came at us at full speed with her wings all a fluster and her mouth in overdrive…
“My Queen, there are wolves afoot.” She announced, much to my amusement.
“Imagine that.” I couldn’t help myself.
Sybal and I didn’t see eye to eye about much of anything. The woman was annoying; annoyingly beautiful, annoyingly up her own backside, and annoyingly always in everyone’s business.
“Someone’s mate is sniffing around…” Dougal gave me a smirk and I offered him an elbow in the ribs. He grunted at the stabbing pain and I smirked back at him.
“Oh- my- gosh, your wings…” Sybal stopped in mid-flight and hovered there with her beautiful green eyes wide and her mouth much the same.
I flapped my wings just to annoy her. It felt good.
“You have a mate?” She gawped. Those eyes turned decidedly colder.
“How dare I?” I announced with glee at seeing my arch enemy turn green with envy. If only it had been over anything but finding a mate, a wolf mate, I might have been happier. “And before you.” I finished on a smirk.
“Yes. Well…” Sybal’s wings were certainly clipped at that one, but then so were mine for entirely different reasons.
“It’s a wol…” I elbowed Dougal in the ribs again to stop him from ruining the moment. I wanted to savour the fact that her nose had been put out of joint, it was just a shame that it hadn’t been on the end of my fist.
“Don’t worry about the wolves, Sybal. They have their reasons.” Mirahbel, my Queen, offered gently.
“But…” Sybal couldn’t take her eyes off of my wings.
“Did you want to touch them?” I teased her, having a little flutter to give het the full effect, and she snapped out of it with a look of envy that met a look of disbelief.
“No!” She snapped back.
“Then stop staring.” I scowled at her.
Dougal sniggered into his hand and I rolled my eyes in his direction.
“Are you her mate?” Sybal demanded of Dougal and the man practically swallowed his tongue- whole.
“No!” He shook his head fast. That thing between Dougal and I had long since been put to bed, so to speak.
“But… then who?” Sybal demanded as if she was owed an explanation.
“Why don’t you go about your duties, Sybal?” Mirahbel offered more graciously than I would have. I wanted to tell her to butt out, and would have, if the Queen wasn’t standing there.
Still, Sybal huffed, slightly put out, and that was the icing on my cake. My stomach pitched at the thought of cake… No, I couldn’t, not after the last chocolate gooey one was still trying to settle in my stomach.
“Of course, my Queen.” Sybal tried for a smile but her nose was just to put out of joint, still not literally- unfortunately, so she grimaced instead. Then she took to flight, and I cheered inwardly with relief, and sighed with the knowledge that I hadn’t gotten the opportunity to really dig the verbal dagger in her non-existent heart.
“Now, Jasmine.” Mirahbel started again and I felt nothing but envy for Sybal in that moment, at least she’d been told to fly away. I was stuck under my Queen’s gentle eyes.
“I know, my Queen. I have a decision to make.” I informed her.
I wasn’t stupid or reckless, but neither was I considering mating a wolf shifter.
“Jasmine.” There was an element of sadness to her voice as she understood my words and my train of thought. “To lose your wings…” she warned, and I nodded, showing her my understanding. “Think hard then,” she offered, and then she fluttered gracefully away.
“Jazz, come on. You can’t deny your mate.” I groaned inwardly at Dougal’s words.
“I can and I will.” I informed him.
Why did everyone believe that they had a say in how I lived my life?
“It might be nice to stretch my non-existent wings and see the outside world as a human,” I lied.
I didn’t want to leave the Faerie Glen. I didn’t want to leave the Faerie realm… not really.
“You don’t believe that.” Dougal grunted in annoyance.
“Do I have to break your nose again?” I turned my frosty stare on him and his head snapped back on his neck.
“I’d like to see you try…” he challenged- and so I punched him, right on the nose.
His head went back a lot further than Seth’s had, and his hand went up to cover his face.
I cursed under my breath and shook my poor hand out for the second time that day. It hurt a lot less to make contact with Dougal’s nose than it had with Seth’s, but still…
“Your wish has been granted.” I snapped back, before I turned on my heels and stomped away from him.
“I don’t believe you sometimes, Jazz.” He called after me, but really, after all these years- he should have known me a lot better by now.
CHAPTER FOUR
~
I sat on a branch half way up a tree and watched the whole scene that spanned out below me. Faeries came and went, eager to get a look at the wolf shifters as they circled back and forth over our land looking for some clue to where our realm was hidden. They were… persistent.
I cuddled my knees against my chest and leaned back against the trunk taking it all in. There were three of them now, and if I had to guess, I would say that the newest one was the alpha of the pack. His given name was Finlay, I’d gleamed that from their conversations, and Finlay was leading the charge in looking for… me.
I snorted my contempt for them and their efforts. They could search until their feet ached and their stomachs were empty, and they would never find the realm. Not yet anyway.
Four times a year our village rose up in the light of the moon. Each Solstice and Equinox all Faerie realms became visible to the outside world until the morning sunlight, and then they would be covered by magic once more to slumber from the human and supernatural eye until the next cosmic event.
It was a dangerous time for the realm. A night when hunters eagerly roamed the land in search of Faerie blood. Of course, those hunters were vampires. Despicable creatures of darkness that they were- scavenging for the blood of my kind for the power that it afforded them.
In food terms, we were a delicacy. In reality, we were taken, grounded to the earth in our human form, and bled, slowly, and for as long as we lived in the human realm. A hell on Earth.
I couldn’t help the shudder that ran through my body at just thinking about it, because on the nights of a cosmic event, we were without our magic, unable to help ourselves in conventional terms, and we had to use other, more human tactics to keep the hunters at bay.
Then my Queen came into her full glory. A warrior for her people- her sword in hand, she rose to defend the realm and its people. We all played a part, but she was our spearhead, our guide, our glory, and the throwback to the past when warrior clans roamed the human world.
I couldn’t help but wonder what the past had been like. Our ancestors would trade magic for protection- a favour granted for a favour earned.
Our blessings would ensure that they were victorious in their human battles against their kind and sometimes kin, and they fought for us against the vampires and any other supernatural hunter that wanted to capture a Fae.
Then things changed over time, and the Faerie world became hidden to the humans as humans turned on us, or turned a blind eye to us, and this was called progress. But the vampires never stopped coming, and we never stopped fighting.
“A bright shiny trinket for your thoughts.” Bree chuckled as she fluttered close by.
I hadn’t noticed her. I was too intent on watching Seth as he scoured the land looking for me.
“It’s not worth that much.” I lied again.
I was doing that a lot lately, lying, and I didn’t like it. I heard Bree sigh and yet I couldn’t drag my eyes away from the wolfman. He was just so gloriously handsome, and I had to wonder what all those muscles and good looks would look like on a Faerie.
“He’s definitely a keeper.” She announced with glee, and my eyes snapped to her this time without hesitation.
Bree had a wide grin on her face, glee at the thought of my mating probably; she was as old school as my mother- bless her. Her dark eyes were alight with excitement, but I couldn’t share that sentiment. I’d already made up my mind.
“Too small- I’ll throw him back and hope for a bigger fish,” I snorted my contempt for him.
I heard Bree sigh again as my eyes went back to Seth.
“He’s your split-apart,” she sounded sad. I couldn’t look at her. I knew what those dark eyes of hers looked like when she was down, and I hated that I’d made her feel like that, but this was my life and I had to live it as I saw fit- not for another person.
“So my wings tell me.” I sighed again.
Why on earth would fate decide to give me a wolf shifter as a mate?
“Then go with the flow. Embrace the new day.”
“If I’m going to spend my life as a human then it might as well be of my choosing, don’t you think?”
“No,” and there was Piper. “Answer me this, Jazz. Why do you always think you know best?”
“That’s Bree’s department, not mine.” I snorted my contempt for that accusation.
“Well then…” Bree announced, and I knew what was coming before she even said it. “Mate with him.”
Yep, there it was.
“Keep my wings and my magic, but lose my mind… Hmm, let me think.” I put my index finger to my lips and pretended to ponder that thought.
“You are being selfish,” Piper announced out of nowhere.
“Excuse me?” I gave her my frostiest stare of the day yet.
“Think of us, think of your mother, Grace will miss you terribly if you’re human,” Piper announced all lofty and superior, as usual.
“Think of me, mated to that…” I tossed up a hand towards Seth and my eyes followed. They held there, unable to let go as he nudged a pile of balanced rocks with the toe of his boot and they tumbled to the ground. “Idiot,” I had found my word.
“You love him…” Bree offered, and my head snapped around on my neck so fast that I heard the bones grate. I glared at her in disbelief. “Well, not yet, but you will.” Bree corrected herself.
“Sure I will,” I said dryly. I found no humour in my situation.
“Of course you will. He’s your mate, doh.” Piper was inspecting her fingernails again.
“I don’t want to live with shifters.”
“At least if you mate him then you’ll keep your wings, you’ll be able to return and see us…” Bree offered, and that thought had crossed my mind, but how unfair to me and to him would that be? Just to mate with him to keep my Faerie wings?
“You haven’t even given him a try,” Piper announced.
“He’s not a new dress…” I snapped back.
“No, but you still have to spend some time in his company to see if he suits.” Piper sounded wiser than usual.
It was true, the only time I’d spent with him was taken up with me trying to damage him or to get away. But still…
“I just wanted some peace and quiet…”
I wanted to be alone. Selfish, yes, kind of. But I had enjoyed the peace as I watched the shifters searching for the Faerie realm. In some strange way it was kind of… surreal that people would go to the trouble of looking for me.
I know why they needed to do it. An unmated shifter would eventually turn into a rogue wolf, devouring anyone he fancied in his path. Like a newborn werewolf or a just turned vampire, hungry in their bloodlust and full of the need to kill.
I grimaced at the thought of the man I had met earlier, all handsome smiles and puppy dog eyes turning into a killer… it couldn’t be helped, well, it could, if I were to mate him, but still…
“Tough. Th
is is what best friend’s do…” Bree announced.
“Annoy me so,” I said.
“That too,” Bree chuckled, “but, we’re here for you.”
“You mean my mother sent you to persuade me to mate with him.”
I nodded in Seth’s direction, my eyes still felt magnetised to him, especially when he bent down and his nice, taut backside was…
“Kind of, yeah, maybe…” Bree shrugged.
“Tell her that starting the prepping for the hand-fasting ceremony would definitely be premature.” I offered back as the sound of a deep growl rolled through the air towards me.
“This is ridiculous,” Seth announced and I had to nod in agreement with that sentiment, “we’re never going to find the realm,” he growled again. I had to double agree with him on that one.
“The solstice is coming, Seth. We’ll find her.” The alpha announced and nearly knocked me clean out of the tree.
“Oh, poop,” my eyes widened at the thought, “I’d forgotten.” I looked to Piper as she chuckled.
“Fate will have out,” Piper gave me a pointed look and I groaned.
“That’s not… comforting,” I snapped back.
“But it’s true. Fate will lead him right back to you…” Bree smiled.
“Fate didn’t lead me to him in the first place, your bloody backside crashing into me did.” I reminded her and she frowned.
“True, but still. I know fate had a hand in it somewhere,” she shrugged.
“Gave you the sweet tooth so you’d devour all of that chocolate and get a fat backside, no doubt,” Piper grinned.
Piper wasn’t being mean, not in the way that Sybal would have been; we’d always teased each other about our different attributes. Bree was a large girl, had always been curvy. Piper was stick thin to the point that all of our mother’s had tried to overfeed her at one point or another. And I had been blessed with big boobs, huge in Faerie terms, to the point where my tops had to be specially made to accommodate my girls.
“It’s not fat, beanpole, its c-u-r-v-y…” Bree put her hands on her hips and shook her backside.
“Careful you don’t swat Piper into the tree with that bootie,” I sniggered and Bree chuckled.