Winter Wedding

by Jen Talty

  “So, big sister, what do you suggest we do?” Chaz asked.

  It was rare that an alpha of any pack, much less the most powerful one on earth, would ever ask someone’s opinion on what to do. However, her brother had been a leader like no other. A role he fulfilled as if he’d been doing it his entire life. But she sensed he wanted to step away from the Royal Fairies and concentrate on their pack and the Twilight Crossing Council, ensuring peace amongst all species.

  “Let me study the wolf,” Cheryl said in her best confident and assertive tone.

  “That’s a death wish,” Nico said.

  “It doesn’t have to be.” Chaz paced in front of the coffee table. “We just need to know a few more things before we get too close.”

  “It’s a crazy idea,” Nico said.

  “The crazy part is I don’t want you to tell anyone that I’m studying the wolf. No one. Not a single soul. Especially not Aron,” Cheryl said. Aron had gone through most of his childhood homeless. Her father had found him scrounging on the farm, so he gave the young man a job. When Nico went off to train to be an officer with Twilight Crossing, her father pulled a few strings to help Aron get in. Since then, he’d been loyal to the family, but he wasn’t the best officer the Twilight Crossing Council had ever seen. He wasn’t lazy so much as he didn’t have any drive or determination.

  Except for when it came to Cheryl.

  “Aron has a crush on you,” Chaz said. “He’d do anything to get your attention. And he’d be a good person to put on your charge because of that.”

  She let out a long breath. “No. He’d be distracted, and I’d be annoyed.”

  “I can’t believe we’re having this conversation,” Nico said.

  “Cheryl has a point. We don’t know what the wolf wants, but so far, he’s done nothing. So, if we let you do this, he can’t get on the farm, but we could lure him closer and watch him safely from our property,” Chaz said.

  She swallowed her deception. She’d already lured the beast, and she would do it again. “Not we. Just me,” Cheryl said. “You three would be a show of force.” She held up her hand, forcing her brothers to keep their mouths closed. “Coral has had enough visions of me and this wolf along with seeing me inside the painting.”

  “We don’t know it’s this wolf,” Nico argued.

  He had a point.

  She had a retort.

  “We don’t know it’s not. Besides, I don’t have children, or babies on the way. I’m the best person to sit on the edge of the property and bring this creature closer.”

  “You can’t do this alone,” Nico declared.

  “I can, and I will,” she said. “We all have our roles, and as historian, it’s my role to find out how this wolf with no human form fits into the world where Wolfairies exist.”

  The front door burst open, and Aron crashed through.

  “What’s wrong?” Nico asked.

  “It’s the wolf.” He puffed out a few gulps of air as he bent over with his hands on his knees. “He killed Ralph.”

  “What?” Cheryl bolted upright. “How?”

  “Are we sure a wolf killed him?” Coral asked with wide eyes.

  “Aron, tell me what you know,” Chaz demanded.

  “I found his body at the very north end of the property.”

  “Inside the protective wrap?” Nico asked.

  Aron nodded. “It looked like he might have crawled back inside after being attacked. He had bite marks that are too big to be anything else.”

  Green and red fairy dust zoomed out of Isadore’s stomach like a freight train and wrapped itself around Norse.

  Drew raised his arms, collecting the particles between his hands before shooting them back at Isadore. “Why am I the only one that can do that?”

  “Actually, your mother has been able to with Finn and Ivy,” Isadore said. “But as far as these two go, they tell me that they like it when you cover them back up with the dust.”

  “So, what you’re saying is I should stop?” Drew asked.

  “God, no. It keeps them from kicking the hell out of my insides.” Isadore took a seat next to Coral who had gone all white eyes as she searched for a vision. Just weird.

  “I say it’s time we put that wolf down.” As leader of the pack and a Twilight Crossing Officer, Chaz had the authority to make that call. Cheryl should agree with him, but she didn’t. Something about that soulless wolf was important to making sure the Wolfairies and all the Royals could use their powers outside of the farm, so they could protect themselves.

  Coral groaned, slumping over.

  “Shit, what’s wrong with her?” Nico said.

  “Nothing,” Coral said softly. “Searching for specific visions exhausts me, but I keep seeing the wolf and Cheryl walking on the farm together. We can’t destroy it. Not until we know more about him.” Coral rested her head on Drew’s shoulder.

  “We can’t let him roam free, either,” Chaz said.

  Every time Cheryl walked the perimeter, she saw the wolf. He kept his distance, but he also kept his eyes on her, walking in whatever direction she went. She’d gone out three days in a row just to see if he’d show up.

  And every time he did.

  “I’ll tranquilize him, and we can cage him,” Cheryl said.

  “I don’t want that thing on the farm.” Chaz folded his arms. “It’s too dangerous, and I won’t take my children off the farm. That would be worse.”

  Cheryl once again had to agree with her brother, but they needed to act. Waiting around for something bad to happen wasn’t an option. Besides, it would get her out of her own head where she felt useless. “What if we used the cabin on the northwest part of the property? We can have Coral put that protective shit around me and the wolf.”

  “That doesn’t last too long,” Nico said gruffly.

  “True. But if we can’t get what we need from the wolf, we tranquilize him again and put him back in the woods.” She swallowed. “Or put him down.”

  “All right. But I’ll be the one inside with the wolf,” Chaz said with an arched brow.

  “No. You need to be here for your family, the pack, and the fairies.” She pointed to her two other brothers. “You all have roles and families to protect.”

  “Our jobs as Twilight Officers are to protect everyone,” Nico said.

  “And you can’t do that inside a protective fairy dusting. I’m the most logical choice. Besides, I’m the historian. I know more than any of you.” She held her hand up before they could argue. “I do tell you everything I find, but I know how to put the puzzles of the past together. It’s my gift to this family. I’m going to do it.”

  “I hate to say it, but she’s right.” Chaz put an arm around her and squeezed her shoulder.

  “Perfect. We’ll do it tonight.” Her pulse pounded between her ears. Excitement tickled her senses. In that instant, she came to terms with what Gerri Wilder had told her about her lack of a mate. It didn’t matter anymore. This was her role, and she welcomed it.

  2

  “Why do you need all this crap?” Drew asked as he dumped a stack of books on a dusty table.

  Cheryl waved her hand across her face, trying not to swallow the thick particles. “Some are different languages, including dialect from some ancient creatures from King Lear’s time.” Carefully, she picked up the long cylinder and placed it on the table. “These are paintings that show the end of King Lear’s kingdom and all the legends that came from that time period.” The images showed her brothers, their mates, and the Wolfairies.

  But not her.

  Chaz stepped into the cabin carrying the vase. “I don’t like leaving this in here with you.” A rainbow of purple, yellow, and orange circled the vase as it continued to shake.

  “Coral said she saw it in here with me and the wolf, so it stays.” Cheryl stared at the vase as the fairy dust rose into a point like a finger taunting her, ready to engulf her and suck the life from her limbs. She feared Norse right now more than the wol
f rattled her nerves. She could handle her own kind.

  She nearly choked on the thought. That wolf had no human form, so he wasn’t a werewolf. But he wasn’t a normal wolf either. He stood nearly six feet tall on all fours.

  “What do you want or need?” she projected to the half fairy spirit bottled inside the vase like a prisoner. It broke her heart that Norse had developed some powers, but the second Apep had been taken out, and the farm was safe once again, Norse stopped communicating, and weirder things started happening to the vessel that held him.

  “Are we still trying to communicate with Norse?” Cheryl asked.

  “All the time.” Chaz took two steps back and planted his hands on his hips. “Ralph thought his spirit was fading. He was never cast into a human soul, not like Coral, Isadore, and Daphne were.”

  “It’s too bad we couldn’t have figured out how to cast him into something.” Cheryl had read every book she could find on King Lear and his legacy, and nothing explained how Norse managed to keep his spirit when having to share the host with his sister.

  “You know he has to be a whole spirit,” Chaz said. “Besides, weren’t you the one who told me that he couldn’t become that unless he’d been born?”

  “Makes me wonder if we cast him into a baby still growing in the womb, then maybe he’d have a chance.” Cheryl stretched her arm out toward the vase. The hot dust shot around her arm. Her flesh turned red, and she groaned from the pain.

  Drew rushed between her and Norse. “Why must you piss him off?”

  She shrugged, rubbing her arm. “Why doesn’t he like me? I’ve done nothing but try to help him.”

  “No idea and that’s why I’d rather not leave him with you. Who knows what he’ll do. Maybe he can get out and he’s playing us.”

  Cheryl laughed. “Why would he help us with Coral if that were the case? Apep wanted Norse for a reason. He has to fit into this legend somewhere past defeating Apep.” She glanced at her pink flesh. That time, the dust actually did damage. She was going to have to make sure she kept a safe distance.

  “You have to accept that his only purpose might have been to keep Coral safe. She’s our visionary. An all-powerful oracle. Without her, the Wolfairies die.”

  “Where is Coral, anyway?” Cheryl asked. She didn’t need a lecture from her baby brother, but she couldn’t just let Norse die. There had to be something else about him in the legend.

  “Outside, waiting.” Drew pointed to the door. “Once we get the beast in here, we’ll step out and she’ll put the wrap around you. You won’t be able to communicate with anyone on the outside, not even with the two-way radio.”

  “How long will it last?” She knew the answer, but it calmed her nerves to go over the details of the plan once again.

  “Bare minimum will be four hours. But it could last up to eight,” Drew said.

  “Guess fairy dusting isn’t an exact science,” she mused.

  “Good to have a sense of humor.” Chaz made his way out the door.

  “All right. Let’s get this party started.” She breezed past Drew with a confident stride and her head held high, ignoring the vase violently shaking on the table. Damn fairy didn’t hate anyone else but her. Cheryl couldn’t help but wonder if that was the past visionary’s deception. If King Lear knew his unborn son would be trapped in a jar for the rest of his spirit life, he might not have agreed to the visionary’s special magic.

  The nice thing about the protective wrap around the farm was those on the inside could see out, but it was like cutting through thick fog to see inside. That left her with the question of how did Ralph’s body end up inside the property lines if the wrap kept creatures out? The witch doctor from the Coven of the Raindrops said that one of the puncture marks in Ralph’s neck was not only made by a wolf tooth, but it hit the carotid artery, and Ralph bled out pretty quickly, so the theory that he crawled back in didn’t work for Cheryl.

  Or her brothers.

  Besides, Ralph was a Royal Fairy. If he left the farm, he’d have no powers to protect himself, so why would he leave?

  “Are you ready?” Nico had joined them and handed Chaz a rifle.

  “You do realize we could have a traitor working on the farm,” she stated the obvious.

  “Mom and Dad are checking into the backgrounds of every single person here. There are only five people on the farm that are relatively new and not either a Royal Fairy, a member of the pack, or on the Twilight Crossing Council.”

  “Doesn’t mean someone doesn’t have it in for the Wolfairies,” she said. Her entire life, she’d experienced different forms of sex and racism. Many humans feared paranormal creatures, even the ones who posed as your friends.

  Something she’d learned the hard way.

  Chaz nodded. “We’ll deal with that while you figure out this wolf.”

  Nico pointed to the east. “I’ll be near the old lookout, and Chaz will be on the bluff. Drew will be right here watching everything, ready to intervene if necessary.”

  “Let’s do this,” she said.

  Drew raced behind the cabin and shifted into his wolf form as her other brothers took off to their posts in the woods. The wolf would probably smell them, and he might not show himself since every other time she’d encountered him, she’d been alone.

  Drew returned as a wolf. He grunted, standing at her side.

  She patted his head. Drew had always been a little different from their other brothers. A little less alpha, but no less a powerful wolf with a deadly bite. He nudged her with his snout.

  She inched toward the property line. Chaz and Nico had taken cover, ready to put the wolf to sleep long enough to drag him into the cabin. In the distance, the bushes rustled. The smell of death crept closer and closer. A chill settled in her bones. She swallowed her fear and stepped into the forest, leaving behind the safety of her family home and Drew. When she glanced over her shoulder, all she saw was the thick, gray clouds.

  “Drew? Can you still hear me?”

  “It’s muffled, but yes. And I can see you as clear as day,” he projected back.

  “Here comes the big-ass wolf,” Chaz said.

  The whites of the wolf’s eyes glowed under the brightness of the moon and stars. It only served to make his dark eyes more menacing.

  “Hold off,” she projected to her brothers.

  “Are you crazy?” Chaz responded.

  “No more than you.” The hair on the back of her neck rose. The desire to shift grabbed ahold of her system. If the beast attacked, she’d be more capable of defending herself in wolf form. “I want to try to communicate with it before you maim it.”

  “We’ve already done that,” Nico said.

  “We’ve only threatened the creature.” Leave it to Drew to be on her side. “I’ve got her back, so give her a little time.”

  “I’m going on record as not liking this idea,” Chaz said with a long breath. “But I’ll give you no more than five minutes.” Chaz had been the kind of Alpha that listened to the members of his pack. He didn’t rule with a heavy thumb, but when he made a decision, it was final and arguing would only prove to piss him off, forcing him to show his power and strength.

  The only wolves that could even come close to Chaz were Nico and Drew. Their bloodline the thickest and strongest of all the packs on earth.

  Smoke puffed from the dark wolf’s nostrils. A deep growl echoed in the night. He stopped twenty paces away with his head in the air as he sniffed.

  “Can you hear me?” she asked, keeping her projection open so her brothers could hear as well.

  If she wasn’t mistaken, the wolf nodded.

  “Can you speak?”

  The wolf cocked his head, lifting one ear.

  “Do you understand me?”

  He tilted his head in the other direction before he lowered it and took two tentative steps forward.

  “I’m taking my shot,” Chaz said.

  “Wait.” She held out her hand. “Come here,” she whispered. “W
e just want to understand you.”

  “Sister, that’s not entirely true. If he killed Ralph, he’ll go before the council, and we’ll all vote to have him put down,” Chaz said.

  She knew it to be true and even though the beast smelled like a dead deer left on the side of the road for two days, he had a right to be heard as the accused.

  “Talk to me,” she said a little louder.

  “Why do you want to lure that creature closer?” Nico asked.

  “I sense he’s scared,” she said, holding her hand out as if he were a puppy needing to get a whiff of whoever was about to pet him.

  “I don’t know what the fuck he has to be frightened of. The damn thing is huge. Bigger than Uncle Aldo, and that’s saying a lot,” Nico said.

  The wolf stopped a few feet away. He raised his snout, getting a good whiff of her scent. He lowered his head, scuffing his foot on the ground.

  “That’s an act of aggression,” Chaz said. “I’m not going to wait anymore.”

  “All right.” She took her gaze off the wolf and glanced toward the tree.

  The ground beneath her rocked with the force of a powerful earthquake. When she looked up, the wolf was on his hind legs about to tackle her. In a second, her brother Drew, in his wolf form, knocked her from the wolf’s path.

  Pop!

  The wolf howled a desperate cry for help as the tip of the tranquilizer nailed him in the side of the neck. The wolf jumped to his feet, shaking his head, and lunged forward.

  Drew, who was a big wolf, dwarfed in comparison to this creature, but Drew stood his ground.

  “I’m going to hit him again,” Chaz said.

  The wolf’s eyes grew wide before lowering over his dark pools of emptiness. Only, in a flash, she thought she saw some indication of life. Of humanity.

  Pop!

  The wolf jerked, falling to the side. He tried to stand, but his legs wobbled before he fell to the side. He growled, scratching at the ground with his front paws. Smoke and water shot from his nose. His eyelids blinked as if in slow motion.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered, not understanding why she felt so bad for the wolf. He wasn’t a werewolf, and he had no pack. Whatever he was, he wasn’t of this world, and he should mean nothing to her or her ecosphere.