Chasing Faete (Beyond the Veil Book 1) (2 page)

Chapter Three

Impossible,
Ben thought.
Wolves do not have Fae mates.
Nevertheless, his wolf, as of this moment, would accept no other. He saw fire mixed with panic in her eyes as she stared the two of them down, and yet an aura of pure courage surrounded her fear. Ben figured she was trying to discern whether he and Leo posed a threat. His heart thumped and melted, drunken blonde forgotten. He was actually quite disgusted with his behavior as of late and wondered what his mate would think of him for it … that was if she lived through all of her injuries.

Ben was about to let her know that she was safe when he noticed her eyes rolling back. Within seconds, her entire body went slack, and he and Leo both sprinted toward her, managing to catch her before she hit the concrete. They then gently laid her on the ground.

Blood. Oh, gods, there was so much blood! If she had been a wolf or a human even, he and Leo could heal her with their bite. Mates had the ability to do that, but the physiology of Fae was still foreign to his kind. He feared what his bite would do to her. Suddenly, a clawing, choking feeling in his gut took hold at the possibility of seeing her disintegrate before his eyes.

“Fuck that!” Ben spat. “Put pressure here so that she doesn’t bleed out,” he ordered his brother, going into full medic mode now. He sent up a thank you to the gods for his training, though he scarcely got to use it since being bumped up to Enforcer status.

“We’ll get her to Corinne,” Leo replied calmly, his tone belying the panic and barely suppressed rage clearly visible on his face.

That was his big brother though—calm and collected, always rational no matter the circumstance, and he did just make a very good call. Corinne was the only Fae his people trusted. She had sought out his Alpha when the wrongful Fae King stole the throne, and begged for his help. She then went into hiding and was under their pack’s protection because if she was ever caught, her death would be far from swift and painless. The False King and his goons liked to make examples of traitors.

Still, despite assisting them, she had remained secretive about her kind, and he could understand this very well. In a time of war, it was hard to trust. How could she know the wolves would not use the Fae secrets against them when a rightful king was appointed? There existed just as much greed for power and corruption amongst the wolves as amongst the Fae. He just hoped that Corrine would help her fellow Fae. Since their little pixie had just fought with men wearing the Royal Guard emblem on their clothing, Ben concluded that she was more than likely no friend to the False King either.

They needed to get her stabilized before they could move her, however. While Leo put pressure on the large, gaping gash in her right side, Ben tried to staunch the bleeding from yet another deep wound in her stomach. He had seen the bastard stab her before he fled like a fucking coward. If they couldn’t stabilize and move her quickly, she’d bleed out. Once again, the image of her turning into nothing more than ash assaulted him.

“M-move,” their little pixie stuttered barely above a whisper, her eyes still closed.

“Shhh,” Leo cooed. “It’s going to be all right. My brother is going to stop the bleeding, and then we are going to take you somewhere safe.”

“I d-don’t want to … to—”

“Don’t try to talk now,” Ben commanded gently. “There’s no need to overexert yourself.” Trying to speak seemed to only cause her more pain.

“…to hurt you,” she finished, finally opening her eyes. “P-please move.”

“Hush now. Let me take care of—” Before Ben had a chance to calm her down again, he and Leo were thrown backward by a glowing ball of clear white light. He had never seen anything like it. Within minutes, a rosy color came rushing back onto their pixie’s face. A few minutes more, and Ben watched with no little fascination as her wounds began to close, until there were no more wounds left to speak of. The only evidence that she had in fact been mortally wounded was the copious amount of blood—not fully dried—on her clothes and skin.

She sat up slowly, put her head in her hands, and let out a strangled sob. Just as quickly, she composed herself and looked up at Ben and Leo with her big, beautiful, blue tear-stained eyes. “Thank you. I would have died tonight if not for the two of you.”

Leo lifted his hands slowly, a sign he meant to approach her without harm. She nodded. Leo stood and walked over to their pixie, and Ben followed suit. They then both knelt beside her, after which Ben asked, “Are you still in any pain, pixie?”

Their pixie chuckled, followed by a wince. Despite not having any visible wounds, she was clearly still in pain. “Although being called a pixie is amusing, you may call me Erica. And to answer your question, I feel a little sore, but hey, that beats still being sliced open, right?”

Ben was not amused at her nonchalance at nearly dying. “Can all Fae do that?” he asked, regretting it right after. Erica’s guard, which she had lowered for them, immediately went back up. “I’m sorry. I’m not trying to pump you for information. I am just curious.”

And I want to make sure that the bastards who want to harm you will die when I mortally wound them and they turn to fucking ash!
He also held back the fact that she was a mate to him and Leo, at least for now, until he could ascertain what her reaction might be.

Erica cocked her head to the side and looked him in the eye. She then bestowed her penetrating gaze on Leo before locking eyes with him again. “No … not all of us can do what I can. I’m … a little different.”

Ben sensed that for now the subject was closed and let it be. Fae or not, she was their mate. She would have to trust them eventually, but he and his brother would have to let it be on her own terms. He found that he already trusted her. He might not always be as intuitive as his big brother, but his gut told him that she was pure goodness, while his wolf growled for him to strip her, fuck her until she knew who she belonged to, and then track down every single bastard who had ever tried to hurt her, and kill them all.

Calm the fuck down!
he mentally chided his wolf. He also saw Leo’s lips twitch and could sense that his brother’s wolf was misbehaving just as much. “We need to get you somewhere safe in case the False King decides to send more goons.” Ben stood, holding out his hand for Erica to take.

“False King, eh?” Erica nodded her approval. “That’s exactly what Alefric is.”  She reached up and took his hand, but nearly lost her footing on the way up.

“Whoa, easy there,” Ben said catching her in his arms. “You’re still a little weak. Let me carry you.”

“I am not going to be carried around by two overgrown wolves when my feet work perfectly fine. Just give me a minute, will you? It’s not every day a girl gets nearly stabbed to death, and then lives to fight another day.”

Ben did not like the sound of hearing his woman fighting another day and neither did his wolf. He and Leo would be taking care of the fighting from here on out. “As much as it amuses me to be called an overgrown wolf, I’m Ben, and this here big guy is my brother, Leo.”

Leo chuckled, and Ben was glad to see a ghost of a smile from Erica.

“My truck is parked a block away,” Leo stated.

Ben scooped Erica up in his arms. The look of shock on her face was priceless, but she did not have time to protest as he and Leo immediately high tailed it out of the alley toward the car. “I am very glad to hear that your feet are working, by the way,” he informed her. “I look forward to your demonstration later.”

Erica opened her mouth to say something but shut it just as quickly. She was definitely going to be a stubborn one. He could already sense it, and his excitement bubbled over. She was safe in his arms. That’s what mattered. He and Leo would soon claim her, and as she had pointed out, they were all alive to fight another day.

Chapter Four

“So this is home for you two, huh?” Erica asked as she sat down on the surprisingly comfy if overly large leather couch. The apartment the two shifters brought her to was located at the west end of Vancouver. It was large, mostly all open plan, with lots of windows allowing for spectacular views of downtown, and a glimpse or two of English Bay.

Ben grinned as he placed a tall glass of water on the coffee table in front of her and sat down beside her. “We have a couple of places we call home, but this place is available to anyone in the pack to stay when they are needed in the city. Leo and I prefer the place we have up near Lynn Creek. A wolf’s gotta have a place to roam and howl at the moon, babe.”

Erica reached for the glass and lifted it, a move that had more to do with filling in the silence than it did with thirst. “Are you part of the pack here in Vancouver or one of the smaller packs from the outlying areas?”

“Why do you want to know?” Leo asked from his position by the windows opposite the couch. Of the two brothers, he was the more introverted and serious. “Have you been sent here by your
King
to find out more about the packs in this area? What’s your mission here? Get as much information as possible to help him win this damn war? Because I gotta tell you, pixie, if that’s your plan, you’re shit outta luck.”

Erica felt her anger start to build, and she took a slow sip of water, mentally counting to ten in an effort to calm herself down. She got as far as eight before she could hold her tongue no more. “Have you had this problem with your short term memory for long? Or perhaps you’ve suffered a severe head injury lately?” Erica reveled in Leo’s immediate confusion. “Not that I owe you any type of explanation, but I will say this. Have you forgotten that little scene you encountered outside that bar tonight? If so, let me sum up for you. They were the King’s guards, and they were sent here to either return me to the Elven realm or kill me. The long-haired fucker I was tangling with, the one that made off like a damn thief in the night, is the Captain of his guard.”

Ben leaned forward from his place beside her, making a
T
out of his hands. “Time out, guys. Why don’t we take a few moments and—”

Erica interrupted, completely ignoring Ben attempt at peacekeeping, her eyes never leaving Leo’s as she impatiently asked, “Did you think that the fact he was trying his best to slam his sword right through my abdomen was part of his performance appraisal process? Oh goddess, can you use your brain for a moment and try to think before you accuse me of any kind of wrongdoing or espionage? You yourself called Alefric the ‘False King’, which tells me that you must have Fae friends in this realm who have told you about that prick and the atrocities he is responsible for against
my
people.”

Leo made a sound of pure frustration as he ran his hands through his hair. Erica had to fight her physical reaction to the man as the muscles in his arms rippled. He pushed off from the window and began pacing in front of her. His movements were so fluid and graceful that even if Erica hadn’t known he was a shifter, she would have suspected it in that moment.

“Look, Erica,” Leo began, taking a deep breath before moving to sit on the coffee table in front of her. He was sitting so close to her, his knees rested on either side of hers. Erica’s heart began to race just that little bit faster. With Ben sitting so close to her on the couch, she felt as if she were completely surrounded by them. “Ben and I are Enforcers for our pack, and that means we have taken an oath to protect our people and enforce the laws of our Alpha. At his request, we have been investigating the rise in the number of Fae who have ventured into our lands. The increase in number is proportionate to the number of missing humans, and we don’t think that’s just a coincidence.”

Erica gasped. “Do you think I had something to do with this? That I am somehow kidnapping humans for some nefarious reason?”

Leo grimaced slightly, and Erica felt her heart drop to her stomach. “Well, despite the fact that I am going to completely contradict what I said earlier, no, I don’t. I … hell,
we
don’t think you would do that, or be capable of it.”

Erica frowned. “That makes no sense. How can you accuse me of being here on a fact-finding mission for that fucking Alefric one minute, then turn around and tell me you don’t think I’m capable of kidnapping and hurting humans the next?” She reached forward and placed the glass gently back on the table. When she went to pull her hand back, Leo caught it in his. A sizzle of awareness tinged with the electricity of attraction shot up her arm from her hand, making her gasp.

When she looked up to meet his gaze, she shivered at the heat in his eyes.

“I’m sorry. I went into Enforcer mode back there, despite what my heart and gut were telling me.”

“What were they telling you?”

“That the Fates would never have given us a mate who would be capable of that.”

Erica’s jaw dropped as she replayed his words over in her head. Surely, she had misheard him?

“Erica.” Ben spoke from her left, and she turned her head to look in his direction. He smiled at her as he lifted a hand to gently lift her jaw and close her mouth. He then reached forward and gripped her left hand in his. The sensation was exactly the same as when Leo took her hand, and Erica drew in a deep breath at what that meant. “Do you know about wolf shifters and their mates?”

Erica nodded. She did know. Wolf shifters were often mated in triads, two male wolf shifters destined to be mated in truth to one female. That female would be the one to complete their bond, and the wolves would want no other than their fated mate. These two stunningly hot wolf shifters, with bodies, which despite being covered in clothing, Erica could tell would have a woman weeping for joy and pleasure just by looking at them
—they
were telling her that she was their fated mate.

“That’s good. It makes it a little easier for you to know about our kind and what it would mean to be mated to us. But there is another thing that we need to share with you.” Ben looked to his brother for a moment, and then returned his gaze to her. “When we were younger, a Fae woman came to Vancouver and befriended our pack. Although she never shared a whole hell of a lot with us about the Fae, claiming that it was not her place, she had the gift of foresight, and she told us a little about our mate.”

“She told us that she would be unique among her people,” Leo said, picking up where Ben left off. Erica turned to watch him as he spoke. “She mentioned that our mate would be hunted by her own kind. That she would possess an ability that would be coveted by many, and that we would need to keep her safe.”

Erica sat back against the couch as her mind whirled with what she was being told. She was in no doubt that these two men were her Fated Ones, despite the fact it was rare for Fae to be mated outside of their own kind. Her head told her that it made sense, and what they were telling her resonated with what had been foretold about her own future many years ago. Her heart, already softening toward the two men, declared these two had the potential to fill the void that had existed within her heart since the day she lost her family.

And her body? Well, all the important girl parts were sizzling with the need to let them have her in any way they wanted. Now. Repeatedly.

“Well, I guess that’s that then,” Erica spoke softly, the importance of the moment not lost on her. “You are my Fated Ones, and I am your mate.” She looked between her two men and smiled at the look of joy that spread across their handsome faces. “If Corrine gave you that much detail about me, then I guess she knew you were destined for me from the very beginning.”

As soon as Ben and Leo began speaking of a Fae woman with the gift of foresight, defecting from the False King, she knew the woman had to be Corinne.

“You know Corrine?” Leo asked, surprise in his voice.

“Yeah, I do. In the Elven realm, she was my nanny and the confidante of my mother.” Erica took a deep breath and made the decision in that moment to trust these men with whom she really was. “The Elf Queen.”