Authors: Penelope Fletcher
“
Kill the female,” a reedy
girl cried. “It is fair.”
“
I am in the middle of a
bargaining, Sabine.”
“
My father is dead,” she
hissed. “Screw any pact.”
Byron’s head spun round and he fixed
his eye on her. “Your father was half mad and more than likely
invited his own demise.” I was sure the pupil had changed shape to
become a catlike slit. “You will quiet yourself,
youngling.”
The skinny girl, Sabine, recoiled from
the authority in his voice and backed up a pace. A few of the
shifters next to her shifted away, disassociating themselves from
the hot head.
“
He laid hands on what is
mine, Alpha,” Breandan said calmly. He spoke in a low voice, but
one that carried across the Pack to Byron and those in the inner
circle. “If you had seen what I had you would have done the
same.”
Byron said nothing; he rubbed a large
hand over his beard. “It is your word against a dead body. Fairies
cannot lie, but you are a tricky sort, bending the truth until it
breaks. Making a person hear one thing when it means
another.”
I untangled myself from Breandan, who
immediately clamped a hand around my wrist when I stepped forward.
Conall placed a hand on my shoulder, and I heard Alec growl low in
his throat.
I wiggled. “Let go of me,” I ordered.
“I can hurt him as much as he can hurt me.”
Conall released me, and so did
Breandan, but not before giving my arm a warning squeeze. Alec
tried to transmit ‘be careful’ with his eyes. I sent him a
reassuring look then trotted over toward the Pack Alpha. Halfway
across the space I doubted my plan. Gods, but he was huge. I
stopped a pace away from him and slowly looked, up and up and up
until the back of my head touched my neck.
“
Hai,” I said, even though
we had been introduced earlier I felt as if showing good manners
could not hurt.
He stared down at me. “You are brave,
little fairy. I could squash you like a bug, even in man
form.”
The brief yet ferocious urge to defend
myself was swallowed by the logical thought that Breandan would
never let anything of the sort happen to me. I shook my head. “No
doubt you are powerful Alpha, but I’m strong too.”
I tried to push some of the gruffness
I had heard in Conall’s voice and puffed my chest out. I do not
think overall it was convincing.
He leaned back and rubbed at his beard
some more. “I can believe it.” Byron’s eyes flashed with something
I might have been able to mistake as admiration. “Feisty, aren’t
you.”
“
Damn straight. After all
I’ve been through speaking my mind is better than lying down and
dying.” My frustration bubbled over and had a familiar tide of
stupid rising in me and had me blurting, “You shouldn’t give up,
the right to hope for a better future, I mean. You tell Conall how
hard it is to keep your people safe, but it’s a problem everyone
has, not just you. If you give up your enemies win. Your territory
will be invaded and your Pride obliterated. Is that what you want?
I am sure your daughters are waiting for you, hoping their Alpha is
getting ready to save them. If they saw you now they would be
ashamed.”
The older man seemed to suck in enough
air to fill the lungs of three men. His chest expanded, and his
eyes changed shape. They glowed. “So be it, little fairy. You will
help me get my daughters back and I will help you track down your
rogue lord.”
I blinked. Then my face creased in
panic as I held my palms up. “Wait–”
“
This fire in my belly was
of your making. You best prove you are as fierce as your words
would have me believe.”
I shot a look at Conall who bobbed his
head. Breandan was exasperated, but he too inclined his head giving
his support.
It seemed simple. Save the
shifter-girls from the Temple and return them to their Pride. I
could see no major downside to this deal. It would win us the best
trackers nature had to provide. Devlin would be mine and I would
have my revenge.
“
Agreed,” I said more
confidently than I felt.
“
A fairy’s word is law,” he
announced satisfied. “You will help me get my girls back home
safely, I feel it.”
Grimacing, I thought now was not the
time to mention I still had some wiggle room on that particular
rule of magic.
“
And now to deal with the
blood spilled,” Byron continued. “I understand why you have come so
close. Do you know that unlike my Pack mates I can partially shift?
Will you still do what you came to?”
Meaning was I aware that if he – a
great hulk of a man – wanted to, he could turn his meaty hand into
a paw, and scratch half my face off in one swipe? Yeah, I was all
too aware of that and hoped that these shifters were politely
ignoring the stench of my fear no doubt radiating off me in waves.
In answer, I took a deep breath, and stepped forward.
“
Your Pack Brother tried to
mark me.” I said. A surge of anger rumbled down the bond, and a
couple of rapid breaths helped to calm my nature’s instant
response. I lifted my head back to expose my throat to Byron. The
gesture was simultaneously submissive and defiant. “I have been
taught shifters are master trackers. No other being, human or demon
can match you. I can prove my life was in danger. Your Brother
tried to suffocate me and take my innocence. If you don’t believe
the bruises, which hurt like hell – thanks for asking – believe
what your own senses tell you.”
Byron did not waste any time. He
wrapped his large hands around my upper arms and yanked me forward.
He buried his nose in my hair, sniffed down my neck. Then, instead
of bending down to smell my thigh where the shifter had straddled
me, he simply lifted me up high above his head, and sniffed the
spot.
Satisfied, he carefully set me down
and stepped away.
“
The male’s scent lingers,”
he announced loudly in a voice that brooked no rebuttal. What fool
would try to defy a proclamation from their Alpha anyway?
Squirming, I felt in need of a hot bath. “From the marks on her
body he tried to take what was not his. Attacked her from behind
which is not behavior worthy of a Pack Brother. The fairy is
telling the truth. It was a fair kill.”
I exhaled.
“
But it was not his
place.”
I spun round. Seriously, there was a
fool dumb enough to take it there? Sabine, whom I was fast
recognizing as troublemaker, piped up again. “Their laws are not
our laws. You will let these demons from outside the Pack flaunt
themselves and dishonor our way?”
A grumble of agreement rumbled from
the watching Pack. Pressure, even I felt it. These people were his
people and if they were unhappy, the Alpha must listen.
Byron nodded, if somewhat
reluctantly.
“
But you know Breandan was
only trying to protect me,” I said, frustrated with their narrow
mindedness. “I belong to him of course he would react that
way.”
I struggled to think of another way to
salvage this situation. I needed these shifters to help me track
Devlin, and so there had to be a way to resolve this. I did not
want Breandan and Conall to start killing them for that would
achieve nothing, and we would be back where we started. And I was
starting to like it on the Pride.
“
That is true, so I have
made my decision. The fairy Breandan, shall fight a champion chosen
by the fallen ones kin.”
I started. “Uh, that’s it?” If Byron
wanted Breandan to kill another of his Pack that was fine by
me.
“
You look happy,” the Alpha
said to me, cocking his bushy eyebrow.
I shrugged. “Your loss, not
mine.”
“
Oh?” He looked at me with
pity when he called over his shoulder. “Sabine, I relinquish my
right as Saul’s Alpha to name the champion. This burden falls to
you. Which male do you pick to champion your father?”
The skinny girl marched forward and
grinned wickedly. “Alec,” she said loudly. “I choose Alec our Omega
as my champion.”
“
What?” I blurted,
incredulous.
A thundering roar of the Pack
hollering Alec’s name barely registered in my mind.
I turned and darted back to where he,
Conall and Breandan stood. They seemed calm, as if they had
expected this.
Alec sent me a weary look and spun on
his heel. As he walked his body twitched then he fell to his knees.
I turned away, no longer in anyway curious to see him Change, but
as is with all gruesome things I couldn’t help but keep turning
until I faced him again to watch.
Face contorted in pain, Alec bowed,
convulsed once then his spine cracked and a long length of bone
jutted forth. Skin wrapped around the new appendage as a thick and
dark sweep of hair sprung from the new pores. His hands thickened,
wicked sharp claws snapped out, and his head whipped back. A feral
snarl tore from this throat as his mouth and chin lengthened into a
muzzle filled with dagger like teeth. His nose flattened as his
ears moved to the top of his lengthened head. Eyes wide and glowing
with a pain and beastly fervor I was strangely ratified to
recognize. He hunched over completely, his arms morphing into
powerful forelegs ending in fat heavy paws, even as his legs
shorted and broadened, rippling with compact muscle. Torso bulging
and waist shrinking he shuddered as his glossy coat covered his
dark skin, ebony black and gleaming with perspiration. His rolling
eyes settled – the pain retreating to leave deadly focus and raw
passion.
Breandan hissed, low and long, baring
his own teeth. Rather than fearing him in such a dangerous state of
mind, I stepped forward, the urge to grab his head and claim that
proud mouth with my own the most compelling thing I had
known.
Breandan stiffened under my touch and
seemed surprised when I crushed my mouth to his, but he did not
pull back. Instead, he met my ferocity with his own, his lips
daring mine to take more. I started the kiss but he ended it,
breaking away from my mouth to kiss my forehead.
Breathless and flushed I said, “You
can’t hurt him.”
“
That,” he said faintly,
“may be difficult. He certainly will try to hurt me.”
I glanced over at Alec who now paced
back and forth in cat form. His sleek face was focused, in the
zone. He growled, the hair on his back standing up in stiff clumps
and paws scratching up clumps of earth.
“
Say-so,” I agreed. “Just
don’t kill him then.”
I tugged his head down and lightly
brushed my lips across his, blushing a deeper red all the while. I
stared into his silver eyes and lost my train of thought. A small
smile played on the corners of his mouth and he arched an eyebrow.
I blinked and glowered at him, not impressed with his ability to
confound me by just existing.
“
Be careful,” I
begged.
The smile became a cheeky grin, a
spectacular show of dazzling white teeth. “Alright.”
A smile that lit his whole face up,
and made him blaze with white light. How could I leave him when he
looked at me like that? He seemed to sense my reluctance to leave
his side since he handed me off to Conall who dragged me a few
steps before picking me up, and taking us both over to stand beside
Byron. He set me down and I scowled, feeling all flustered and hot
under the collar.
“
I hope that fairy is
strong,” Byron sounded amused. “Alec is the best I have. My Omega,
second-in-command.”
“
Breandan is a warlord, he
was a Guardian of the Wylds. I hope your Omega chose has no
dependants.”
Byron opened his mouth to retort then
his face paled at the look of rueful apology on Conall’s face. My
brother was certain my fairy-boy had this in the bag. Before I
could tell them both to stop making light of the situation, Alec
roared and leapt at Breandan’s face, claws slashing.
Chapter Three
I stood on the balls of my feet, ready
to throw myself in there. Conall kept a restraining hand on my
shoulder, as I bounced up and down.
Alec lunged forward and Breandan
side-stepped him easily. Twisting, Alec lifted up unto his hind
legs to drag his paws across Breandan’s torso. His claws ripped
into flesh drawing blood and my fairy roared. When Alec jumped,
sank his teeth into Breandan’s shoulder, I snapped and spun around
Conall to dart into the fray. I had zero idea what I was going to
do to help in this situation, I only knew I could not stand by and
watch these two boys tear each other apart.
Before I got two steps Conall was in
front of me swinging his huge hand toward my face. I tried to block
him, but the swing altered mid flow and jerked down to thump me in
the stomach. Realistically, I knew if he wanted to hurt me, Conall
could have hit me hard enough to break ribs. Instead, all the air
left my lungs and my legs seemed to lock up. I staggered back and
looked up at him wide eyed.
Breandan shot me a cursory glance out
the corner of his eye. He made a low noise toward Conall, and my
brother rolled his eyes. He came at me again and I rolled back,
gaining my feet stand before him, hands fisted.