by Tasha Black
The bear bowed forward, and she found she was sad to dismount. His warmth and strength had been an unspoken comfort to her.
She slipped off his back and quickly moved to stroke the fur on his face and scratch behind his ears.
He nuzzled her chest and snuffled with pleasure.
She stepped back when he shook himself briskly, flinging a miniature snowstorm all around him.
When he straightened up into his man form, she found herself wondering about something.
“How do you still have clothes on?” she murmured.
“It’s magic,” he chuckled. “Not like those human shifters who have to scramble for clothing. How undignified.”
Was he serious?
There was no such thing. That she knew of…
Of course, until yesterday she hadn’t thought there was such a thing as a fae prince - especially the kind that could transform into a bear.
“Come, let’s see Mother Alma now,” he said.
She followed him to the door of the cottage.
It opened before he could knock.
“Your Majesty,” a woman said warmly. “Come in.”
Willow’s view was mostly blocked by Heath’s big body, but she followed.
“You’ve brought someone,” the woman said when they got inside.
Willow slipped off the hooded cloak Heath had given her to keep off the snow.
“Gods preserve us,” the woman breathed. “I never thought I would see you again.”
Willow blinked at her. The woman was not familiar at all. She was tall and slender with flaming hair that had strands of silver through it.
“Princess Ashe needs your help,” Heath said.
“Oh my dear, of course she does,” the woman said. “But this woman is not who you think she is. And she needs help more than you can know.”
Willow looked back and forth between them.
“Come, my love,” the woman said, taking both her hands in hers. “Sit by the fire and I’ll tell you what you’ve come to hear.”
Willow did as she was told and sat on a soft chair by the crackling fire.
Heath sat on the rug by her feet, leaning his big body against her legs as if he knew she needed to feel his comforting touch.
“The prophecy said Animosity will grow between Autumn and Winter. A daughter of Winter will bring peace to both kingdoms,” Mother Alma began. “Did you know about this?”
Willow nodded. That tracked. It was all Heath could seem to talk about.
“On the night you were born, a magnificent snowstorm raged,” Mother Alma went on. “Much like the one that approaches now. Your mother screamed out and your father stayed by her side, though it was forbidden in those days to have a man in the room.”
“You were there when I was born?” Willow asked.
“Yes,” Mother Alma said, nodding. “I was the midwife who brought you into the world, sweet lass. And when you arrived, you were pretty as a picture, and the magic flowing through you was so powerful it made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I’ve always been quite sensitive to magical ability, you see?”
Willow was confused, but she nodded, because she knew she was expected to.
“I praised your mother for your powers, told her you might be the most powerful Winter Fae in a generation,” Mother Alma said sadly. “But it wasn’t seen as the good news I thought it was. To this day, I curse myself for not keeping my fool mouth shut.”
Heath put his head in his hands, as if he had just learned something terrible. Willow tried her best to follow.
“You see, the Winter Court does not want peace,” Mother Alma said. “It never has. It was assumed that you were the princess in the prophecy, the one who would bring that dreadful peace, and so a bounty hunter was called in. He was told to bring back a changeling to stand in as princess. They named you Willow, for the tree that weeps by the rivers. They knew you would mourn for the life you had never known. But they hoped that you could live as a mortal, because in the mortal realms your powers would be like a light under a heavy shroud.”
Heath grabbed her hand and held it tightly.
Could it be true? Had she really been born in this magical place?
“The bounty hunter selected a family, waited until dark of night and performed the switch,” Mother Alma went on. “It was a simple spell that made you and the mortal child look exactly alike. Then you were left in your new home and the mortal child was taken to Faerie to become Ashe.”
Willow nodded, playing along, unable to take this in.
“But the bounty hunter made a mistake,” Mother Alma said. “He wanted to impress the queen, so he ignored her instruction to take you as far as possible and instead left you with a family whose child was already named Willow, so that you would be called by the name she had given you.”
Heath nodded, as if he understood something that she was clearly missing.
“His error was two-fold,” Mother Alma went on. “He left you in Rosethorn Valley, where the veil between the faerie and mortal worlds is thin. And of course, Rosethorn Valley is next to Tarker’s Hollow. When the portal in Tarker’s Hollow opened a few years ago, long-forgotten magic surged back into the mortal world. Your powers were likely awakened, even though you were on the wrong side of the veil.”
“So the frozen river was you?” Heath asked.
Willow nodded.
“I’ve never done anything that extreme before.”
“But you’ve never been on this side before,” Mother Alma noted.
“I’ve always had… quirks,” Willow explained. “My ice cream never melted at the pool when I was a kid, I never get cold enough to shiver, that kind of thing. But nothing big. Not until a few years ago, and even then, nothing like a frozen river.”
“Coming into your powers is a great gift,” Mother Alma said. “Here in Faerie, you will have the support of the people, and your prince, of course.”
“Of course,” Heath said. “But Mother Alma, if you were the royal midwife, what are you doing out here?”
She sighed and looked down at her hands. They were elegant, with long pale fingers covered in rings studded with strange stones. “I spoke with the queen, after the changeling was at court. I should not have done so. But as you know, keeping my thoughts to myself isn’t my strong suit.”
“What did you say?” Willow asked.
“I had not been sleeping for the guilt,” Mother Alma explained. “If I hadn’t spoken, they would not have known the extent of your powers, and you would not have been traded away, robbed of the life you deserved.”
The grief was clear in the old woman’s eyes, even all these years later.
“So I expressed my sorrow to the queen,” Mother Alma said. “I told her that I knew how she must long for her lost daughter, and that I was sorry for what I had said before her husband.”
Willow nodded.
“But I was wrong to think she would feel as I did about the matter,” Mother Alma went on. “That night, the royal guards ripped me from my bed. The queen told the court that it was my fault that the princess had no magic, that I had made some crucial mistake in my duties bringing her into this world. My reputation was ruined, and I was banished from Winter Court lands.”
“I’m sorry, Mother Alma,” Willow said softly.
“I was once a highly regarded woman of medicine,” she said. “Now I live at the indulgence of your prince, on lands that are not my own.”
“The land under this cottage will be yours the moment you swear fealty to the Autumn Court,” Heath said.
“I was born to the cold and to the cold I shall return,” Mother Alma said with a shrug.
“The Winter Court is stubborn,” Heath explained to Willow. “They love their silly idioms.”
“Would you swear fealty to us for a piece of land?” Mother Alma asked.
“Not for all the land in the world,” Heath said instantly.
“And there you have it,” Mother Alma smiled. “But we are f
orgetting ourselves. There is still urgent business here.”
“What urgent business?” Heath asked.
“Why the other girl,” Mother Alma said. “Where is Ashe? If the true princess is returned, then how will she receive this news of her parentage? We must find her, and tell her kindly, before she hears it elsewhere, or worse yet, spots her changeling for herself.”
“Oh,” Willow said suddenly as things began to click into place for her.
“What is it?” Heath asked.
“Yesterday, I thought I was dreaming,” Willow explained slowly. “What I saw, it… didn’t seem real.”
“What did you see?” Heath asked, moving to kneel in front of her.
“A woman came stumbling down the hillside, right before you did,” Willow said. “She fell when she hit the parking lot. I went to help her.”
“I saw you,” Heath said.
“But when she looked up at me, I was looking into my own eyes,” Willow said, shivering again at the memory. “She was me. Or the closest thing to me I’ve ever seen.”
“Ashe,” Mother Alma breathed.
“And the bounty hunter was there,” Heath said. “I thought I was saving the princess from him when I grabbed you.”
“You were,” Mother Alma told him. “Here she is. But that other poor girl in the mortal realm, with no magic, and no prince to help her.”
“We will get word to someone,” Heath said firmly.
“You’d better hurry,” Mother Alma said. “Something’s happening out there. Someone has sensed that the true princess is home.”
Willow glanced out the window.
The true princess.
Snow was falling harder now, covering the grass.
Heath stood, and she followed suit.
“Wait,” Mother Alma said. “I have something for the girl. Come with me, dear.”
Willow glanced at Heath and he nodded.
She followed the slender midwife into the dim of her small kitchen.
Dried plants hung from the rough-hewn beams of the ceiling in bunches, making the space into a fragrant jungle.
“There’s something you must know,” Mother Alma whispered to her. “We do not have much time. And I do not yet know the nature of your bond to the prince.”
Willow looked down automatically at where the vines made a pattern from her ring finger up around her wrist.
“That’s lovely, dear, but you’ll forgive me my cynicism,” Mother Alma said. “The bond never lies, but he did not mean to be betrothed to you, if you see my point.”
“He thought I was Ashe,” Willow said softly, realizing that she wasn’t the woman he thought he had chosen.
She had the right role as princess to the Winter Court.
But perhaps he had long admired Ashe, and wished to make her his wife for other reasons.
Mother Alma leaned close.
“Before you go making any decisions,” she confided, “you should know that you already carry his child.”
Of all the news she’d learned today, here was one piece she fully understood.
Willow’s heart stuttered and threatened to stop altogether.
Then she was filled with a sudden sense of peaceful joy.
“Do you need a hand?” Heath asked, sticking his head in the doorway.
“Not at all,” Mother Alma said, pressing a warm loaf of freshly baked bread into Willow’s hands. “I merely wanted to welcome her to her birthright and wish you joy of your bond.”
Heath smiled, but it wasn’t the warm smile Willow was used to.
Her heart sank as she realized three necessary truths.
I love this man.
I’m having a baby with him.
And he didn’t claim me on purpose.
10
Heath
Heath wrapped Willow’s cloak around her shoulders and together, they headed out into the building snowstorm.
“We’re going to the castle, the seat of the Autumn Court,” he told her. “We have to send someone after Ashe immediately.”
She nodded, but somehow the glow was gone from her face, as if he had said something wrong.
“Willow, are you okay?” he asked.
It was strange to use her real name, but something about it felt good in his mouth.
“I’m fine,” she said. “It’s just a lot to take in.”
“Do you feel ready for a long ride?” he asked. “I can take you back to the lodge instead, if it’s too much.”
She shook her head. “No, you’re right, we need to save her.”
He wrapped an arm around her and kissed the top of her head through the cloak.
She smiled, and he felt better instantly, even though it was a very small smile.
When he sank into his bear form, everything seemed to come back into focus.
His princess was here, safe with him. She was overwhelmed but this was as it should be.
There was something…fuller about her scent now. She had accepted him. Any little sadness was just that - a small thing for them to work through over time.
And though the real Ashe was not a Winter princess after all, she had been raised in Faerie and was kind and good. As an honorable man and a prince of the Autumn Court, he could not stand by knowing she was being tracked by a ruthless bounty hunter.
Willow climbed onto him, her weight satisfying and warm on his back. He lumbered off toward the Autumn Court, moving as quickly as he dared with such precious cargo.
Snow was falling much harder now, as if it were racing to the ground, moving faster than something so light had any right to do.
The ground was cold even to his tough paw pads.
He lifted his snout to the wind to see if he could detect the source of the magic that had sent this onslaught of white.
But the air was so cold and clean that it almost hurt his nose.
Surely, there was bad magic at work. The bear never smelled just one scent. There was always a tapestry of good and bad to be picked apart when seeking the truth.
But this snow was blunting his senses. He could not even identify what was different about his princess. Maybe just knowing the truth about her was causing him to view her in a new light. She must be even more overwhelmed to learn so much about herself so suddenly.
She had taken the news with extreme good grace, and a curiosity he found exhilarating.
He could not wait to show her the birthright she had been denied. Watching her embrace her magic would be a privilege.
Everything about their lives together would be a gift. He felt as if a heavy weight had been lifted, just knowing that she had been of sound mind when he claimed her.
She truly wasn’t Ashe.
Which also explained why his feelings for this woman were so much stronger than he had ever thought they could be.
And she cared for him as well. He could tell it from every sound she made as he pleasured her, from the way she responded to his bear without fear during their very first encounter.
Her hands suddenly tightened in his fur, her body crouching close over his neck. She was clinging to him as closely as she could, to keep from being battered by the raging storm.
A cyclone of snow pelted them so that he could barely see a few feet ahead of them. And with its fury whitewashing his sense of smell, he was barely able to pick up the trail.
The world was a blank, white canvass all around them, and the snow drifted nearly up to his belly.
They couldn’t travel to the Autumn Court this way.
They would be lucky to make it back to the lodge.
11
Willow
Willow clung to the bear, wondering how they could possibly make such a long journey in this weather.
The bear had his fur coat, but Willow had only a cloak. She wasn’t cold yet, but in this storm, it could only be a matter of time.
She sensed something looming ahead of them.
The bear lowered himself and she hopped off.
Though her ha
nd was on his massive shoulder, she could hardly see the him. She felt it as he shifted into human form.
Then his arms were around her and he was carrying her into the lodge.
“I’m sorry, my love,” he murmured. “I don’t know what’s happening out there, but we can’t travel in it. I was afraid we might not even make it back here. I’ve never been anything close to lost in my own lands before.”
She clung to him tightly.
The idea that there was anything Heath couldn’t do was already shocking to her, and she had a feeling she had seen only a tiny fraction of his power.
“Don’t be afraid, my love,” he murmured.
She closed her eyes as he stepped across the threshold.
There were so many doubts racing around in her mind at that moment, vying for the top spot on her list of worries.
She was realizing she did not know herself and had never understood where she came from.
She did not know whether Heath was glad that she was his princess for political reasons, or personal reasons, or both. Or if he was pining for Ashe, even as he comforted Willow.
She did not know or understand her powers and a little voice in her head was asking her if the terrible storm might be all her fault, brought about by this sudden jealousy over a woman she’d only met for an instant.
And above every other thought, stood the news the midwife had given her.
Willow was pregnant. And Heath was the father. Every other worry she had thought was important in her life had just lost its relevance, and each tiny detail that might impact the child’s life had been elevated to the utmost importance.
Every worry but that one melted away when Heath slowly removed her snow-crusted cloak, and then her clothing, piece by piece, and lay her down on the bed.
She watched as he stripped his own clothing away, and wondered if she possessed the magic to somehow bewitch him in their lovemaking, so that he would not abandon his child to chase her other self.
She pushed the thought away. That wasn’t how she wanted to keep him.
He crawled in beside her, and she opened her arms to him.