by Limelan Z
He shook his head. ‘Not that they would come to me. Omega is expected to fall in line with new order.’ Omega?
‘You have proved yourself more than that today,’ she said. ‘I have never seen an omega fight when their alpha is so injured.’
I watched Wolfe. ‘Do we wake him up?’
Cara shook her head. ‘Leave him in this state for as long as possible. He will heal faster like this. But no one leaves this room. I trust you two with him,’ she told us, meeting our eyes in turn, ‘but we have no view on what will next pass through those doors.’
The next thing turned out to be a human called Prince who brought lunch and arranged clean-up of the bodies. Every hour, Cara tried to call London. And every hour, no one picked up. Whatever battle was going on there, it was still raging.
‘I tried to turn,’ I admitted as we ate far too delicate finger sandwiches. Mine was coronation chicken. It was nice. I ate about twelve triangles. ‘Earlier, after the car accident. And then again when we came in here.’
‘You are new to it,’ Cara dismissed. ‘It takes time.’
‘That wasn’t it. She wasn’t there at all. Am I no longer a wolf now that I am fae?’
She held my eye a good long while, one hand still pressed against the seeping bandage at her side. ‘I don’t profess to knowing as much about it as others, but I can still scent Ariane,’ she said. ‘And she is restful.’
Sleeping was what Wolfe had said. I made a mental note to ask Ossi when I next saw her, which wasn’t until late afternoon. She resurfaced in her pyjamas with a large mug of coffee.
‘Morning, sis,’ she said with a yawn. ‘Wanna join me for coffee?’
I glanced at Wolfe. ‘Someone tried to kill our alpha,’ I said, ‘and we think there’s a fight ongoing now in London.’
She blinked and pointed down the hall. ‘The kitchen’s like three doors away.’ At my reticence, she continued. ‘No werewolves are coming in this house. They’re not exactly friends of the fae. Come get a coffee. If anything changes, you’ll hear it and can go back.’
I glanced at the others. Cara gave a nod and I stood. I wasn’t pack – I didn’t have to do what she said – but I was on her side. I wanted Wolfe to be okay. I wanted everyone in London to be safe.
‘Seriously, I think I’d never have survive the fifties without this stuff,’ Ossi said as she poured me a mug and topped herself up. We sat on stools around a counter in the large country kitchen that was otherwise deserted.
‘What happened in the fifties?’
‘Ugh, bad breakup. Really bad. She tried to claw my eyes out in the end.’ She glanced at me. ‘She was an artist. We’d wake up tangled on her canvasses and covered in paint. I was still finding burnt sienna under my nails decades later.’
‘I’m sorry to hear that,’ I said.
She shrugged. ‘That’s the problem with humans. Their minds go all mushy, especially with all the chemicals. We were together sixty years, would you believe? Took me over a century to date again.’
‘Sixty years! I guess she knew what you were.’
‘Gods, no. There are rules about that sort of thing.’
‘But what about that guy on the roof?’
‘Who?’
‘The one who nearly fell off a load of times last night.’
It took her a moment before she clocked it. ‘Oh, Freya’s guy. He’s mortal but not human. Part fae, part sprite. When you mix lines, the result tends to have certain limitations. He’s mortal and he can’t fly, which must suck. But I understand he’s really good in bed. Like insanely good.’
‘Does that mean I’ll never be as strong as a fae?’
She tipped her head back and laughed. ‘Are you kidding me? After blasting a werewolf your first day? That’s grade A fae stuff. You can tell we share a bloodline,’ she said, proudly. ‘The fact that you’re Ariane is kinda weird, though. First time I’ve heard of a mix being more powerful than an original. Maybe you’re just special.’
Great. I sipped my coffee. I was getting tired of being special. I missed the days – mere weeks ago – where I’d been unremarkable in pretty much every way, save the lifespan.
Speaking of…
‘How did you hide that you didn’t age to your girlfriend?’ Miracle face cream was hardly going to cut sixty years.
‘Fae illusion. Magick. I’ll show you one day. With training, you can change your appearance to be whatever you like. Wanna walk into a bar as a big hulking brute? Sure. Fancy growing a set of gills? Also fine.’ Now, that would come in handy. Maybe not the gill thing but the general transformation. To demonstrate, before my eyes she suddenly became Judy Dench. A moment later, Ian McKellen. Then Idris Elba. ‘I’m not very good at the voice, though.’
An unexpected laugh bubbled up in me. ‘That’s incredible.’
She dropped the mask and grinned. ‘Thanks. Freya and I were in the States last year and decided to crash the Oscar’s. There was an awkward moment in the loo when there were three Scarlett Johansson’s.’
‘And you live here?’ I wanted to know as much about her, about the fae, as possible.
‘Ew, no. It’s way too cold. I like the energy buzz but we prefer to fly south for the winter. I usually have a suite at the Peninsula in Manila – that’s where my Queen is. But lucky for you I was in Paris when I felt you shine. Flew straight over.’ She smiled. ‘Excellent timing too, if I say so myself. The odds were not in your favour.’
There was a queen? For another time, I reminded myself. I had more pressing issues. ‘I couldn’t turn,’ I said. ‘When we were out there in the field. I couldn’t bring my wolf out. I’m new to it all anyway but usually she’s there to help me.’ Ossi drank. ‘On the train when I shone, Wolfe said that she was sleeping through it. Why would she do that?’
She shrugged. ‘There’s no rulebook for fae-werewolf hybrids. I think you’re the first. So your guess is as good as mine.’ She frowned at the look on my face and leaned forwards. ‘But from what I gather about werewolves, they only rest when they feel safe. She’s probably been looking out for you for a long time whereas here – with the Northlands amplifying your energy – she felt she could take a break.’
We talked a lot about history. I shared some potted tales from my time alone, as well as a slightly abridged version of more recent days. I wasn’t quite sure how much was pack privilege so didn’t want to go blabbing wolf secrets, even to my newly found family.
She told me about our parents. After our mother had died, our father had pledged loyalty to Queen Saengdao, the head of a powerful fae faction out east. In return for her protection, he had to pass a series of tests but was eventually admitted. Then he and Ossi and Erik had shipped out, barely returning save a few select missions. Like the Reckoning that killed him. And whatever Ossi had been doing in France.
‘Which faction did they belong to before?’ I asked.
‘They didn’t. It’s a dangerous position to be in.’ She sent me a look. ‘At some point you’ll probably want to evaluate your choices. I can defo recommend the kare-kare down Manila way!’ I didn’t know what that meant.
‘Surely there must be some who go it alone. Like lone wolves. It’s not ideal but has to be possible, right? Otherwise they wouldn’t have been out here alone.’
I wasn’t looking forward to the prospect of having to follow yet another person’s rules. I hadn’t liked control when Wolfe was doing it; I was hardly going to like the same from Queen Saengdao. I didn’t even like it when my supervisor pressed too hard about a paper outline.
‘Yeah, there are some psychos, I guess.’ Then she caught my eye and shrugged. ‘You do you, you know? But if you’re not teamed up, then you’re gonna want to try not to stand out. That’s when you become fair game.’
Ugh. Not standing out was hardly my strong point of late.
‘Aaaanyway,’ she said, kicking back her stool. ‘This is getting morbid, and I need to pee and wash off the stink from yesterday. A few pointers on the exploding wo
lves trick.’
I stood up as well.
‘So, basically you were telling the guy to stop and he wasn’t listening. Which makes him a dick, right? It also made you angry and left you with like this flood of adrenaline. You stick out your hand and ashes-to-ashes, blah blah blah…’
I gave a sort of nod. That was what it had felt like.
‘Whenever you get that kind of bubble feeling, that’s your light getting ready.’
‘Wait – does that mean that any time I feel excited or scared, I’m going to blast somebody?’
She stopped and tipped her head back to laugh. ‘Sex would be super hilariballs if that were the case. Can you imagine? Talk about a race to the finish! Blast or be blasted.’ When her giggles had lessened, she continued. ‘It’s just sort of charging, you know? If it just feel like regular excitement, you’re probably fine. It’ll take a while for you to tell the difference. And to bring it on at will. Like this.’
She snapped her fingers and a little flame of blue light appeared, hovering at the end of her thumb. She moved her hand away and it stayed there. Then she started to tug at the light with her fingers until it was a spinning ball about the size of her coffee mug.
She glanced around. ‘I’m going to need to open a window. The mother ship has given me one more strike for destroying property and I get grounded for a decade.’ She pushed the window open over the sink and then seemed to change her mind. ‘Wanna play catch first?’
With the fire? ‘No.’
‘Sure you do.’ She grinned and with a little waft of her hand sent the ball in my direction. I jumped and lifted my hands instinctively. ‘There you go.’
Something was tickling my palms. The floating ball was dancing a few centimetres in front of them. I stared at it and then her, wide-eyed. ‘Now what?’
‘Pass it back. You’ve played throw and catch before, right?’ Never with fire.
I gave it a little tap and it shot away from me towards the toaster. ‘Woah!’ she grunted, leaping just enough to catch it. ‘Careful there, sis. Anything you do goes against my name too.’
She patted the ball back and this time I stopped it more confidently. After a few more goes, I was starting to get the hang of it. I smiled at her.
‘Is this how I send the light without touching someone?’
‘It’s how you send it, how you guide it. Actually shooting it at someone uses the same movement but it comes from your core.’ She patted her flat stomach. ‘Think of it a bit like a sneeze, right? When you feel that buzz coming over you, tense and flick.’ She caught the ball and sent it out of the window. ‘It will come with practise, so you should try it. Outside,’ she added as she pulled the window closed. ‘Ideally somewhere wet and people-less. But right now, I really have to pee.’
Chapter 27
By nightfall, there was still no response when we dialled London. The sides of my chair by Wolfe’s bed were starting to dig into my hip. I was beginning to weigh up the pros and cons of moving to the floor, when a low growl snapped me to attention.
Wolfe.
We all raced to him. He was definitely awake. A wave of scorching pain swept the room. How was he keeping that to himself? How was he not screaming? Crying? I would have been in sobs by now.
‘Cara,’ he grunted low without opening an eye. She immediately gave him a rundown of events. ‘You are injured,’ he said.
‘It is nothing.’
He stretched out a hand in her direction and she moved to catch it. ‘It is not nothing. You were with child and it is gone.’
I stared at Cara. Was that true? She bore an incredible loss. God only knew what she was going through. She had fought to protect so much.
‘We mourn with you,’ he said and I felt a rush of emotion spread through her. It was as if she were letting herself feel it. Wolfe’s touch helped to anchor her through it.
‘You need to drink. Are you able to eat?’ she said after a while.
He clenched his jaw and then attempted to sit up. In unison, we all rushed to help raise him against the headboard. ‘Yes.’ Vince left for the kitchen. We dimmed the lights too to make it easier on his eyes. When he finally opened them, they were clouded and bloodshot. And still they gave me relief.
‘What do we do now?’ I asked when Vince returned and slowly Wolf began to eat. It was clear he was struggling to lift his arm, so I placed my hand on his and took the spoon from him. He met my eye a moment and then nodded, giving in to let me help him.
‘We wait. And we hope no good blood is shed.’
At the end of his third bottle of water, the difference was remarkable. Whether it was the hydration or the food or his wolf healing, he was starting to look more human and alert.
Another hour passed. And then another.
‘Sleep,’ he said to the room. ‘We do not know when we will get another chance.’ Vince threw some cushions onto the floor; Cara stayed in her chair. They were both asleep within minutes. I looked at Wolfe. ‘Rest, Ceri.’
‘Did you know I was fae on the train?’
‘I suspected.’ He lifted a bottle of water to his lips. ‘What you did – what happened to your body – it is called—’
‘I Shone.’ I gave a nod. ‘But Ariane hasn’t come out since then. Twice, I called to her to help me. Both times she ignored me.’
He was quiet a moment. ‘I have never heard of a fae-turned-wolf. On the train, I telephoned Elvira. She has a fuller view of the chronology of different species than I do. She was not aware of any precedent of fae and wolf partnering.’
He was being too cryptic. ‘Does that mean she will never come out again?’ I felt a kind of jarring panic, a feeling of ominous dread. We had been through so much together. She had respected my fears when fighting Victor and let me run with her after the Intervention was removed. And she had trusted me when I had promised I would not keep her away again for as long.
He took my hand. His touch was more controlled now as he healed. Stronger. Reassuring. ‘It means there is no precedent. But, Ceri, your entire existence is without precedent.’
I clung to his words with hope. I suddenly realised I was gripping him back and let go. ‘I’m sorry. You are healing fast but it must still hurt.’
‘Only the parts with skin.’ He gave a wry smile. Nerve endings, I thought.
‘Is there anywhere that doesn’t hurt?’
‘The muscle torn from my leg is still growing. But I believe the bone is healed so I currently have no pain there.’ I glanced down at it.
‘Should we loosen the bandage?’
He gave a slight shake of his head. ‘Not just yet. Perhaps by morning.’ He reached out a hand to touch my cheek and I leaned into it instinctively. ‘Sleep, Ceri. I will sleep too.’
I slept. My dreams were their usual violent selves. Crushing memories of Ariane’s ruthlessness. But they were growing more familiar now. I was riding with her when she ran, I was snarling with her when something threatened. I dreamt of Wolfe too.
Ariane was wild and restless, following a stream and snorting at the river. And then some sensation thundered through her. I felt it strike me too as a passenger. Like plunging to the bottom of a lake. Only the feeling was not unpleasant.
I felt her ears prick, she sniffed the air and we were running. Then there he was. I immediately recognised his wolf. Ariane froze when she saw him. He had been running towards her too and froze in echo.
An army of wolves appeared behind him. Ariane bared her teeth. I growled with her.
A few of them started to charge forward, ready to attack. We readied ourselves for the strike and then—
Wolfe. He charged his own and pushed them aside before they had a chance to crack. Then he turned and pushed the others aside too. He was not drawing blood. He was not using his teeth. But he was strong. And determined.
Ariane lifted herself from her ready position and watched as he growled and howled and forced them away. Giving her his back. In protection. In trust.
Wolfe.
My Wolfe.
The piercing ring of the sat phone shot us all awake. It took me a while to orient myself. Wolfe placed his finger to his lips and let it ring once more. We all gave a nod at the command for silence.
He hit accept.
‘We are done,’ came the voice. A woman’s voice. Who was that? ‘It took longer than we expected but we have the house and Carlos has been informed. Did Ariane die or will she fight with us?’
Silence.
‘Talin?’
Silence. A long silence.
‘Wolfe?’
Chapter 28
‘Carlos?’ Cara’s eyes were wide with anger, ready to fight and barely keeping her beast at bay. The cool, calm doctor was increasingly ready to kill. We all echoed her sentiment. ‘This plan must have been in place a long time.’
Wolfe was deceptively calm. He had killed the call immediately after hearing his name and was now carefully removing bandages from the better healed places.
‘And Leonor at the head?’ she shook her head. ‘We thought her ambitions were to be an alpha’s mate, not destroy an alpha.’
‘They may yet be that,’ Wolfe said. ‘Carlos is unmated.’
Carlos the Viking.
Leonor the wolf with green eyes who Ariane had attacked.
Who else was part of it? What had happened to Trevelyan? To Patrick? To Frankie?
‘Only days ago he was at our table, Wolfe. If he wanted to challenge you, why not do it then?’
Wolfe removed the bandage from one arm and touched the skin underneath it. It was pink and raw and streaked with scars yet to iron out. But it wasn’t seeping. ‘Ariane, perhaps? He was scared her unpredictable nature would end him before he had a chance to take the throne.’
‘Then why not before?’
‘Perhaps because he knows I am stronger.’ Was that bravado or the truth. I hoped it was the truth. ‘What happened to Grigor sent a wide message.’ Grigor Romanov. I remembered the name. Wolfe’s last challenger a few years ago. What had he done to him to send a message? It must have been particularly brutal to scare an alpha.