Once Upon A Midnight

by Stephanie Rowe

  Mina watched as the bullet flew directly to her. It was the moment she waited for. The moment for her to end it all.

  Chapter Thirty Four

  Two minutes. Rafe bit back a howl. Another two fucking minutes and he’d be beside Mina where he belonged.

  His lungs burned from exertion. He pushed his wolf to run faster than he ever had.

  Panic filled his mind, his heart. If anything happened to her, he’d never forgive himself.

  Doubt filled his mind with should haves and could haves. He should have ordered Lucas to take Bree to Erin’s, but no, he had to be the obstinate one.

  Gunfire erupted in the distance. Through the pack connection, Rafe saw Griffin shooting at Mina. He watched as his stubborn mate charged straight ahead.

  Rafe breathed a sigh of relief as the first bullet went wide, so did the second one.

  He tried to open his mating connection, but Mina found a way to block his thoughts, his commands, his pleas.

  His wolf was on the brink of insanity. Which could only mean one thing.

  A Berserker rage was fast approaching.

  He’d never felt so helpless, so tightly wound in a battle.

  His connection bounced through several pack members, picking up scrambled sections of the war being waged a short distance from his current location.

  “Mina,” Rafe screamed in his mind as he watched the third bullet head straight for her.

  “Oh Gods. No!”

  Through Lucas’s connection, he watched helplessly as Mina dropped to the ground.

  Lucas leapt into the air, finally within striking distance of Griffin, but was unexpectedly sideswiped by two enforcers from Twisted Tail. The blow sent him flying into a tall oak. He stood, shaking off the hit, his fangs bared. The hackles on his back rose as the enforcers circled him.

  His wolf, tired of the bullshit and games, lunged for the closest target. His fangs sinking deep into his enemy’s shoulder, shattering bones before ripping them free from his opponent.

  Reveling in the Berserker rage burning through his body, Lucas turned to his next victim, latching onto his thigh.

  The wolf cried out in pain, trying to shake Lucas’s grip, but Lucas only dug in deeper, mortally wounding the wolf before moving onto the next one.

  Griffin tossed his rifle to the ground and shifted to his wolf form, making a mad dash for Mina’s crumpled form.

  “Mina, can you hear me? Baby, please,” Rafe pleaded for his mate to answer him as he closed in on her location.

  “I love you, Rafe.”

  Rafe rounded the corner just in time to see Griffin’s wolf approach Mina.

  Why is she still in wolf form? That shot, a direct hit, should have forced her to change back to human—unles it was a fucking silver bullet.

  His wolf snarled when Griffin nosed his mate, sniffing to see if he’d succeeded with his shot.

  Disbelief filled his very being when he saw Griffin fly backward, as if by majik, away from Mina’s disappearing body.

  Rafe skidded to a halt. It can’t be.

  Mina leapt out from behind a large evergreen, landing directly on Griffin’s chest. She wasted no time in sinking her fangs into his throat, coming away with a snout full of his meaty flesh that she dropped to the ground.

  The Alpha approached his mate slowly. Ripping out his throat wasn’t good enough. She wanted more.

  Mina worked her way down to his chest and clawed at his heart. Her fangs tearing at his flesh.

  Rafe rubbed up against his mate. “It’s over now. Griffin is dead. He can’t hurt anyone ever again.”

  Slowly, Mina stepped away from Griffin and faced Rafe, her muzzle covered in blood. Astonishment coursed through her when he licked the blood from her mouth.

  “You must have pleased Freyja for her to lend you her Seidr majik for the fight.”

  Freyja had indeed answered her prayer and lent her the power of astral projection. It was the perfect plan to bring Griffin down. He tracked what he thought was her, never expecting that she, of all wolves, would be blessed by the goddess, Freyja.

  “He killed my sister, Rafe. He killed Bree.” Saying the words through their mating connection nearly tore her heart out. Her wolf filled with sorrow and hurt at the loss of her sister.

  “This is all my fault. I failed her, and now she’s gone.”

  Rafe rubbed up against Mina. “Bree’s fine, honey. You didn’t fail anyone.”

  “What? What are you saying? I watched her get shot. I watched as she collapsed.” Mina frantically questioned Rafe.

  “Griffin only grazed her with a silver bullet. It’s a superficial wound that’s probably healed by now. The reason Bree collapsed was because he hit her with a tranquilizer dart. She’ll be as good as new after a nice long nap.”

  The sounds of the battle ceased as the fighting came to an end. Rafe glanced around the field, taking in the carnage of what remained of the Twisted Tail fighters.

  The Alpha’s long sorrowful howl filled the air. Followed by his mates, then the rest of the pack.

  Rafe was saddened by the sight of so many fallen wolves. Though none of the dead were Black Paw pack members, the burden of death still fell on the Alpha’s shoulders.

  It was considered a great loss to lose any wolf, even as corrupt as Griffin and the Twisted Tail members who fought with him.

  The bodies of the fallen wolves disintegrated one by one.

  “Rafe, what’s happening?” Mina jumped backwards as Griffin’s body disappeared.

  “Our majik dries up when we die. Surely, you’ve seen one of our kind perish before?”

  “I’ve witnessed the death of many of our kind, but never before have they turned to pixie dust.”

  “How were they killed?”

  “Mostly with a silver bullet.”

  “The silver was what kept their bodies intact. When the silver was removed, they would have gone through the same disintegration process.”

  “I had no idea. What will happen now?”

  “Now we relax and head back to the Yule celebration. I’ll deal with the Council tomorrow.”

  Chapter Thirty Five

  A series of sharp yips followed by a long howl sprung from Rafe. With the danger extinguished, he called for his pack members to shift back to human form.

  Crowds cheered their victory as they approached the main house. Mina and Rafe were met with warm embraces by Beth and Grace.

  “I’m so glad you’re both okay. I was so worried.” Beth wiped the tears from her face.

  “It’s over, Mom. He can’t hurt us anymore.” Mina hugged her mom tightly.

  “I’m so proud of you.”

  “Where’s Bree? I have to see her.” Mina was anxious to see her baby sister, with her own eyes.

  “She’s up in her room sleeping. Erin’s with her. She said it would be a few hours before she wakes up. We need to let her rest.”

  Rafe wrapped his arms around Mina and pulled her to the side. “I was so worried about you. Why did you go after Griffin like that?”

  Not so long ago, Mina would have planted her eyes firmly on the ground, not wanting to meet the hard stare of the Alpha. Those days were long gone.

  Mina placed her hands on her hips to deliver the scolding. “Rafe, I love you. I swear I do, but I will not be bossed around, coddled, and kept. I will fight by your side when it’s called for. You may be the Alpha, but I still have some majik of my own.”

  “Oh, you do, huh?” Rafe chuckled. “Maybe I’ll just tie you to the bed next time so you can’t escape.”

  “You are such a barbarian,” Mina teased.

  “You have no idea.” Rafe tossed Mina over his shoulder and headed to the bedroom.

  ***

  Mina moaned as Rafe kissed his way down her neck, her chest, and in between the rift of her breasts, pausing only to nip at her luscious mounds.

  “Oh, Rafe. That feels so good. I need to feel you inside of me,” Mina begged.

  Rafe shifted positions, his
cock rubbing against Mina’s warm, wet entrance.

  “Is this what you want?” He teased Mina, slipping only the head of his cock inside of her.

  “Oh, not this again. I need more!” Mina wrapped her legs around his back, locking her ankles and digging her nails into his ass.

  “Who’s the bossy one now?” Rafe moved in and out slowly, knowing it was driving his mate to the brink.

  Mina twisted her arms around Rafe’s neck when he leaned in to kiss her. Their tongues danced back and forth, passion exploding between them.

  Rafe picked up the pace, pumping in and out of Mina’s tightness.

  “I want to feel your pussy squeezing my cock, milking it.”

  “Oh Goddess, yes!” Mina held on tight as Rafe slammed his cock in and out of her. Flames lit through her body as her climax neared.

  “Come for me, Mina. I want to feel your sweet juices covering my cock.”

  “Rafe, I—uhh. Yes.”

  “That’s it, baby. I can feel your pussy squeezing me. You’re so fucking tight.”

  Rafe pulled Mina’s legs around his neck, going deeper, pounding her harder as her orgasm crashed over her.

  Her body shook with wave after wave of pleasure. Her fingers grasped the sheets, the pillows, anything she could find to hold on to.

  She gasped each time his cock rubbed her sensitive spot, prolonging her orgasm. Mina tried and failed to use her words. Coherent thoughts dissipated from existence with each deep thrust.

  Rafe, no longer able to hold back, moaned as his seed jetted deep inside of her.

  Epilogue

  The Yule celebration was still in full swing when Rafe and Mina emerged from their room.

  Genuine warm smiles filled every face in the pack when Mina and Rafe rejoined the celebration.

  The Alpha and his mate took the time to meet with each family in the pack. They joked with one another, they laughed, and teased.

  Together, they presented each man, woman, and child with a small gift in honor of the Yule celebration.

  An honest to goodness smile never left Mina’s face. It warmed Rafe’s heart to see the ghosts of the past disappearing from her ice-blue eyes. With time, love, and patience, he knew he could chase away the rest of her fears.

  As for him, he had never been happier. What he thought was happiness before was nothing more than loneliness making excuses for not needing a mate.

  Now that Rafe had found his true mate, he had no idea how he ever lived without her.

  The End

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author, Melanie James, is the author of more than two dozen books. She grew up in western Pennsylvania before heading off to Chicago, seeking new adventures. She found life in a big city fun for a while and even met the love of her life there. Melanie quickly tired of the hustle and bustle of the concrete jungle and settled down with her one true love in northeast Wisconsin.

  Melanie has two kids, three step-kids, a beautiful daughter-in-law, and the cutest grandbaby. She also has two dogs and two cats that often make appearances in her books.

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  Aaibhe—Shee Queen

  By Claudy Conn

  http://claudyconn.embarqspace.com/

  Copyright © 2011 by Claudy Conn

  Edited by: Karen Babcock

  Cover Artist: Kendra Egert

  All rights reserved

  Thank you for downloading this free ebook. Although this is a free book, it remains the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be reproduced, copied and distributed for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to download their own copy at Smashwords.com, where they can also discover other works by this author. Thank you for your support.

  Names, characters, and events depicted in this book are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, places, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author.

  Dedication

  To my readers with thanks for their continued support. You wrote wanting to know the Queen’s story. Here it is.

  ~ Prelude ~

  YOU MAY ALREADY know who I am, but if not, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Aaibhe, and although I am a Daoine Fae, which is the highest caste of Seelie Fae, I was appointed Queen of the Tuatha Dé when their good Queen Bridget was mortally wounded in the war with her consort and king and our world Danu was reduced to rubble.

  Danu had fallen into chaos, and the different factions used all their varied might to bring one another down. They succeeded, but they also succeeded in destroying our beloved world. I watched in those final hours as it crumbled beneath our feet…

  The king, whom we now call the Dark King, was not strictly evil, and therefore when he realized what his politics had wrought he sank into himself with remorse. He was sick with the full knowledge of what he had done, and he banished himself to a lifeless world of mist and darkness, created by his own hand years ago, which we now know as the Dark Realm.

  His life in the Dark Realm was supremely lonely. He created a paradise for himself, but he was overcome with a feeling of ‘emptiness’. Thus, he began creating life without benefit of the Wheel of Being—and without the benefit of the Wheel of Being, those creations were abominations.

  Our Queen Bridget was able, before she died of her wound, to imprison these abominations within the Dark Realm—Dark because his creations ate everything into bleakness.

  She weaved a wall whose threads are made of magic knots—Seelie Magic that Unseelie Fae cannot penetrate.

  However, although she tried to whisper the secret of that magic, Queen Bridget died before she was able to impart to me the exact wording and design of the magic threads that held the prison of the Dark Realm in place.

  I still, after all these centuries, struggle with my Druids to forever keep that prison wall intact.

  We, the Daoine, and the Tuatha Dé, with that gruesome Dark Realm attached to our atmosphere, had no choice but to look for a world that compared in essence to our own. We discovered Earth, and in particular Ireland and Scotland, and to the inhabitants appeared Godlike—indeed, I suppose we were.

  You could say that as a whole we fell in love with the land.

  Word of mouth whispered and spread, telling the tale of how we arrived on a cloud and in a mist, and that as we emerged we were seen as a tall, golden-haired, beautiful race. Later, it became the written word as your poets told of our exploits and our beauty. Some who got a glimpse of me in the early days told of my white-gold hair and iridescent eyes… and there was a great deal of truth to much of what was said about the magical Fae.

  My race—the Fae of Danu—are certainly fair of looks (in varying de
grees). Most of us are tall, and all of us are magical and very skilled in the sciences, arts, and music. We adore music. Those of us who are royals have immeasurable powers, and as queen, I am quite formidable. We are also immortal.

  In appearance, our females age from birth (and those births, sadly, grow fewer each year) until we are about twenty-four or twenty-five (in human years); our males age until they achieve the equivalent of twenty-eight or twenty-nine years of human age. I appear to be twenty-four, but I am in fact more than seventy thousand years old.

  Humans are quixotic, and as it happens, time brought changes; humans no longer enjoyed our rule. Leaders amongst the humans decided they no longer wished to be ruled by our race.

  We tried reason, but again, humans are not always logical, and thus war ensued. Humans hold up an ideal and grow mad with that ideal—that ideal being the notion of ‘freedom’. They would have died to the last man to be what they called ‘free’.

  I could not allow them to fight to the near extinction of their race. I could not allow my race to commit such an atrocity as to wipe out the humans to the point where they could no longer fight, although that was what some of my Council wished to do.

  I suggested a treaty. The humans—led by the Milesians—actually refused, and so I sent a frost over their crops. They needed to know that it was out of consideration for their race that we retreated—not because we could not win.

  They accepted the treaty.

  Thus, we created the Isle of Tir, what so many humans call the land of Faery. It was our own world, and for the most part we forgot about humans as we got busy with our own affairs.

  However, I enlisted humans to aid us in keeping the human communities safe from the Dark Fae who escaped in small numbers from time to time. Those trusted humans became the ‘keepers’ of the copies of the Treaty between Fae and Man.