I sat up as a wolf broke into the clearing with us, panting and frothing at the mouth, familiar and terrifying all at once.
My mother, the current Alpha Female of Pack Ebon Red, Nikolina Castille.
She stood there, her red-brown coat catching the weak light as she moved toward the Forest Spirit … and he took a careful step back.
I didn’t need to ask questions or clarify. The Horned God, my father, he was an extension of Mother Nature, one of her direct descendants. He only had the balance of nature, of the earth, in mind. He wasn’t evil but he wasn’t what I would call good either. If the complete annihilation of my people would serve the world better, he’d have done everything in is his power to get rid of us—even if it meant killing his own daughter.
Those motivations though, I could understand them. The Forest Spirit acted out a very specific set of ideals. He was neither selfish nor gracious; he simply was.
As I stood up and backed away from the strange interaction in front of me, an image flashed in my mind, a flash of forest that I recognized from Majka’s lesson: the den of the rusalka girl, Karma.
That’s where the cauldron was now.
As I moved away from my biological parents, I saw something in my mother’s face that I’d never seen before. Affection. Need. Lust. Love? I wasn’t sure, but even though the Horned God was moving back, my mother would not stop moving forward. Before I turned and ran from that clearing, I saw him pause and then go to her, licking the side of her face before he circled around behind, and then mounted her.
Uh.
Even with the ethereal beauty of the clearing and the moonlight, my anxiety over Faith, and the fear that took over me when I thought of entering Faerie again … that was seriously not something I wanted to see. I might be werewolf, and sex might be beautiful and natural, but there was enough eighteen year old girl in me that I did not want to see my parents mating.
Still, that moment, it made me feel so much smaller, so much more insignificant in the scope of the universe. And that was a good thing. It reminded me that the world was bigger and more complex than I would ever understand, that there were plots and stories woven by the fates that I might never see the beginning, middle, or end of.
That calmed me down a bit, enough so that when I found the boys—five of the seven of them—in the forest afterward, I was able to enjoy their company, the dark woods, and the feeling of freedom that my wolf form granted me.
When I got back, plodding in the door naked with mud between my toes, I found Tidus and Anubis sleeping in the bed with Faith, guarding her for me. I crawled in next to them and fell fast asleep.
Faith woke me up early the next morning, before the sun was even up, thrashing and sweating and calling out in her sleep.
“The toxins are getting to her already,” Anubis said, putting a cool cloth on her forehead and helping Tidus keep her restrained. She was flinging her arms and legs around so wildly that she was bound to hurt one of us—or more likely, herself.
“The Seelie Prince didn’t show up last night without a reason,” Jax growled, still naked and sitting in a leather chair on the opposite side of the room. He had a knitted wool throw just lightly tossed over his junk. Not to hide it, of course, since he was a werewolf after all, but probably just for comfort. Most of us slept with blankets even though we never got cold; it was a comfort thing. “He won’t just let her die; that won’t suit his purposes.”
“We’re going to Faerie,” I said after a moment, my words so stark and final that the entire room went silent. It was just us in here tonight, my mates, Faith, and me. Our three outcast girls were still with Nic’s parents; there was no point in having them here if even Aeron couldn’t help with this.
“Like hell we are!” Che roared, shooting to his feet, memories of that ice-cold river washing over his face as he glared at me. “Why on earth would you think that was a good idea? Do you remember what happened last time? And we were there for all of a few hours. You want to go hunting around there for a prince?”
“The Forest Spirit wants us to return the cauldron to Faerie,” I said, exhaling slowly. I couldn’t just sit here and watch my friend die, now could I? But going into that world again, especially without Aeron to guide us was dangerous as hell.
“You can’t give that thing to the Seelie,” Nic said, inserting himself into the conversation as Montgomery reappeared with some water and tried to get Faith to drink. She was too busy babbling and thrashing to take a single sip.
“Certainly not,” I said, touching the black-green rose tattoo on my left wrist. I wondered if I had enough magic in there to save Faith? I supposed it was worth a try, at least. Before we crossed the Veil again, I’d see what we could do. “But the cauldron is a Faerie treasure, and that’s where it belongs—on the other side of the Veil.”
I stood up and shook out my tired limbs, stress sitting so heavily on my shoulders, it felt like I might collapse. There were so many angles to this, so many factions, so many people counting on me that I couldn’t bear to let them down.
“We’ll take the cauldron back to the Unseelie Court, talk to the queen about it. If we pit her against the Seelie Court, we’ll have one less enemy to worry about. Maybe then she’ll take her daughter back and we’ll have a liaison between our world and theirs.”
“I’m not going back there,” Che said, glancing away and shaking his head. “And I’m not letting you go back either. That place is a death trap. This whole idea is a nightmare.”
“I’m the Alpha Female, Che,” I said, trying to get him to look at me. He refused, keeping his gaze on the floor in a defiant gesture. He looked beautiful in that moment, his big muscular body draped in a black hoodie and sweats, the pants hanging so low a good portion of his taut lower belly was showing. “You don’t get to decide what I do or don’t do.”
“Really?” he asked, lifting his gaze finally and locking tight to mine. Several of the other males growled or shifted uncomfortably as he challenged me. “So we’re either your subordinates or your equals, which is it?” I kept my attention on him until Tidus stepped between us, holding his palms up in surrender.
“The Forest Spirit wants us to take the cauldron back?” he asked, and I growled low in my throat. I didn’t have time to deal with challenges from Che … or the fact that his words made complete and utter sense. He was right: did I want subordinates or did I want equals? My wolf side was positive that the former was the correct answer while my human half declared fervently that I needed the latter.
But I was neither human nor wolf.
What did the werewolf in me want?
“The Crone is using every resource she has to look for it. It doesn’t belong here anyway. If we take it back, then the chances of it finding its way over to this side of the Veil again are slim. Once the fae get it back, they’ll guard it fiercely.” I backed up toward the shower, and turned, heading into the warm water, unsurprised when Tidus joined me.
He was naked and beautiful, his skin tanned from so much time in the sun, his hair a golden amber that turned dark in the water. I bet he was a sight to see, out there in the water on his board, riding the waves with dark blonde hair dripping in his face, water sliding down the thick muscles in his chest and arms.
“Do you want someone to stay here and guard Faith?” he asked as I did my best to blink past his beautiful form and focus on the task at hand. I now had to figure out if that contract I’d signed with Whitney prevented me from taking the cauldron back, and if Aeron would give us enough mushrooms to cross over and back safely.
“I’ll ask Lana and Leslie to do it,” I said, naming Nic’s parents yet again. At this point, I had no idea what I’d do without them. I could even ask Nikolina, I thought as I remembered her mating with the Forest Spirit. She seemed to like him; if he wanted the cauldron returned, and if it helped out the pack, surely she’d protect my friend for me?
Then again, she’d probably tell me to let Faith go and
move on. My mother was a cruel, cruel woman. There was little chance she’d see any value in protecting a human from anything, for any reason.
“You look so stressed,” Tidus said, watching me carefully with eyes the color of storm clouds. He’d wanted our mating to be organic. And yet, we’d had a threesome together … and an orgy. I wanted him, just him. I needed to show him that I didn’t think he was an extra or an add-on; Tidus was sunshine in a dark sky.
He stepped toward me and reached out for my upper arms, turning me around and making my heart thunder as I imagined him pushing me against the shower wall and mounting me from behind. It wasn’t in his personality to do that though, now was it? Instead, he clamped his hands over my shoulders and began to knead my flesh, working the taut muscles with a sure, steady grip.
“Give me a surfing metaphor,” I said, closing my eyes as scalding water poured over us. Vaguely, I recognized the other boys carrying on a conversation in the den, but I ignored them. That was one of the cool parts about being a werewolf: not only did we have amazing hearing but we could also shut out anything we didn’t feel like listening to. “Tell me how sometimes, when you ride the waves, you just have to focus on the … surf … or something, and not the whole ocean.”
Tidus laughed and stepped close to me, pressing his naked body against my back. If Faith weren’t in the other room suffering, I’d have sex with him right here, right now. I wanted some private time with the Alpha-Son of Pack Amber Ash.
“Let’s just start with what’s urgent,” he said, his voice slightly hollow and distant. I wondered if he was thinking about the twelve missing Amber Ash wolves that Allister had just sold up shit creek. Finding them, and the rest of Montgomery’s family, was pretty goddamn urgent. But I had to put the whole health of our people first—and that meant getting rid of the cauldron. Once it was gone, the witches might still have a spell to draw our magic out, but they’d have no way to store or regulate it. Sure, they’d drain it when they could—in the middle of a fight, for example—but they couldn’t horde it all.
No, inevitably, without the cauldron in their grasp, some of that delicious earthy magic would return to my people.
“Faith is dying, and she’s your best friend. Best friends are family so …” Tidus paused as I glanced back at him and then turned fully around so I could see his face. “Let’s take the cauldron back and see if we can’t find that prince. He was baiting you, so he’ll know you’ll be coming for his blood.”
“He’ll want to trade for something we can’t give,” I growled, raking my fingers through my hair. Tidus caught my hand in his and brought it to his lips, his touch soothing through me, like hot sunshine staining my skin on a lazy afternoon.
“We’ll figure it out,” he said, his words almost like a promise. When he let go of my hand, I turned away to grab the shampoo, but Tidus stopped me with a hand to the side of my face, cupping my cheek and holding me in place so he could lean down and touch his mouth to mine. There was a kiss of wolf in there, but also a whole lot of boy.
Our mouths worked together gently, my tongue probing his until he opened completely and joined me with his own. My fingers splayed open on his chest, hands trailing down the muscular curvature of his arms, over that black and gray tattoo.
“If we survive this,” Tidus told me, our mouths still pressed close, “then we’ll go surfing. As soon as we get back, if you’re down.”
“I’m down,” I said, but it wasn’t easy to admit that I wasn’t sure we would survive this. If there were some way for me to go alone, I would. I’d leave my mates behind and take the full risk on my shoulders. That’s not how werewolves work though … not werewolves, or equals. If that’s what I even wanted. “Come with me to talk to Whitney and Aeron? You’re one of the few men in this house who doesn’t start shit right out of the gate, you and Anubis and Monty.”
Tidus grinned at me, kissed me again, and then grabbed a loofah to ‘help me’ scrub my back. If he washed a little further down and cupped my ass, I wasn’t complaining.
The door to Beta House stuck when I tried to open it, so I braced my shoulder against it and shoved harder, letting the early morning sunshine into the old, dusty building. There were piles of leaves on the floor, bits of vine growing through the edges of the ancient wooden windows, but it wasn’t a total gut job. There were original hardwood floors, cabinets that stretched to the high ceilings that I was positive had been built onsite for the house, and two full bedrooms—just in case an alpha pair wanted to stay with their betas at any time during the Beta Pairing.
“You want us to clean this place up?” Harlem asked, her arms wrapped around her midsection, pushing her breasts up. She stepped inside after me before pushing her sunglasses up her face and pulling down the gray hood of … was that Levi’s—Nic’s brother’s—hoodie? I gave a quick sniff and found confirmation of my suspicion. “He let me borrow it,” she scoffed when she saw me looking, pushing past and wandering down the narrow hall through an arched door into the living room area.
“The Alpha doesn’t mind if we stay here?” Whitney asked, smoking a cigarette, her brown eyes narrowed in suspicion as she opted to take a sharp left into the small kitchen area. The countertops were old butcherblock that could use a sanding and re-staining. There were no appliances, but the plumbing and electricity worked.
“She’ll allow it, but don’t think for even a second that there won’t be a guard on the place.” I exhaled, tangling my fingers with Tidus’ as he pulled me into the kitchen with Aeron trailing behind us. We moved through the quiet, dirty space, kicking up dried leaves as we drifted into the dining room and then completed the circle by heading through another curved arch to find Harlem peeping into the downstairs bedroom. “And you won’t be allowed to come and go as you please, not while we’re gone. All I’m asking is that you stay here, clean this place up, make it your own. Whatever you need, ask Lana. And then when we get back, we’ll figure out our next move.”
“Where are you going?” Whitney asked, putting her hand on the dusty banister and glancing up the stairs. She didn’t bother to go up them though. No, the former Maiden of Coven Triad was too smart to be distracted so easily.
“To Faerie,” I said, because beating around the bush just wasn’t in my nature.
Anubis and Monty were the last to come into the room, pausing in the doorway of the small house, their eyes focused wholly on me and the witch girl, just in case she got upset enough to retaliate. I didn’t think she was stupid or rash enough to attack me on pack land, but you never could tell with people, could you?
“Why the fuck would you do something that stupid?” she asked. “You think the Seelie Prince …” Whitney trailed off, raising her chin. There were little gold sigils painted onto her skin this morning. Even though most of the windows in the Beta House were boarded up, the marks shimmered with a light of their own. Magic teased the air and Anubis let out a little warning growl. “You’re not taking the cauldron.”
“You want to return the cauldron to Faerie?” Aeron asked, going completely still, almost like a Blood for a moment there. I swear, she forgot to breathe.
“You signed a contract with me,” Whitney said, reaching out her right wrist and flashing me the interlocking moon shapes, the same design that I had on my own wrist … that the Forest Spirit would also have etched into his skin.
“You asked us not to retaliate against your Coven,” I said, everyone around us tense and quiet, watching our interaction while the stink of magic perfumed the air. “I’m not. I’m taking the cauldron back to where it belongs.” I flicked my attention over to Aeron. “If I bring it to the Unseelie Court, will your mother see me?”
“She’ll see you because you’re the next alpha, but she won’t like you showing up in Faerie unannounced.” Aeron paused, looking for just a moment there like a young girl instead of a wild, feral creature from another world. It seemed that any mention of the Unseelie Queen brought it out of her. “Give me a
few days to send word, to arrange a proper meeting.”
“Faith doesn’t have a few days,” I said, feeling my heart thunder inside my ribs.
“You think you’ll find the Seelie Prince if you go? That’s what this is about?” Aeron asked, voice low and skeptical. “Only if he wants you to find him. If you’re going to Faerie to save your friend, you might want to rethink your plans. You could end up losing one of your mates instead.”
Majka was waiting outside the Pairing House as Anubis, Montgomery, Tidus and I trudged through the brush and paused at the bottom of the porch house steps. Somebody had prepared my grandmother a cup of tea—probably Nic—and left her alone to rock and creak on the porch.
The old woman’s eyes were shrewd, her body tiny and wrinkled, but still full of a secret strength that I could only pray I'd have when I was her age. She was dressed in a long red gown, the same color as her hair, watching me with aubergine eyes.
“I will never understand why you young people choose to traipse through the forest as humans. You are shifters by blood: shift when it makes sense.” And then she said something in Croatian that was better left untranslated. Fortunately, the three mates I had with me were the ones I could count on not to start shit.
“Alpha-Mother,” Montgomery said, bowing low and backing up, heading around the side of the house to use the back door. Both Tidus and Anubis lowered their chins in deference and followed after him. They knew better than to try to slink past my grandmother and into the front door of the Pairing House. Although they were technically equal to her in dominance at this point, it was always best to tread lightly around an alpha-mother with as much sway over pack politics as my Majka.
“You forgot about your own invitation to have tea, didn’t you, Alpha-Ki?” she asked, as I strode up the first two steps and struggled to keep my patience in check. All I wanted was to go inside and check on my friend, make plans to get the cauldron … use the mushrooms in my pocket to get to Faerie. Aeron might not have agreed with the way I wanted to do things, but she’d given me the mushrooms anyway. She wanted the cauldron restored to her people—even if I was stupid enough to put my own at risk to do it.
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