Triumph

by A L Fogerty

  “Welcome to Smoke Mountain,” Colton said with a grand gesture from his throne beside her. “The queen and I are pleased to see you, and the gifts you’ve brought are most agreeable.”

  Colton looked at her with an expectant expression. She smiled, showing her teeth but not brightening her eyes. She’d hoped that Aaron’s presence would spark something in her and awaken whatever memory lay at the edges of her consciousness, but as he bowed and fussed over Colton, she lost all hope of that happening.

  As they spoke of the business and deals between the packs, Kayla looked out the window of the lodge, her mind drifting. In the distance, she saw a figure bent in the field. The slight form of his body was so familiar. How, she did not know, but she couldn’t shake the feeling of recognition. She felt compelled to stand up and go toward it. With her hand pressed against the windowpane, she tried to make out the figure’s face.

  “My queen,” Colton said from behind her, breaking her out of her trance. “Alpha Windspear asked you a question.”

  “Oh, yes. What was that?”

  “I asked when you two were going to produce an heir. It’s all anyone in the region can talk about. Felicity and I are expecting our second in a few months. Got to keep up with the Joneses. Wasn’t that a saying back before the cataclysm?”

  “Felix would know,” she muttered to herself, looking back out the window. She blinked rapidly several times and examined the figure. He was walking with a stiff gait that suggested an injury or pain.

  “Who is Felix?” Colton said through clenched teeth.

  “No one. Just a boy I used to know.”

  “My darling, let’s focus on our guest.” Colton grabbed her arm and turned her to face him and Windspear.

  “Refreshments will be provided for your entourage in the communal kitchen. Let us retire to our house to continue this conversation.”

  His grip bit into Kayla’s flesh as he guided her out of the lodge and across the street to the alpha’s house. They went inside and sat in the comfortable couches and chairs in the living room. A servant brought them tea and oatcakes. Kayla wasn’t hungry but tried to eat something to satisfy Colton. He would say something embarrassing if she didn’t eat.

  Aaron and Colton continued to converse about trade agreements while Kayla listened quietly. She should have cared more about the topic. It was her pack and her territory, after all, but she was too distracted by her reaction to the sight of that man in the field. It was as if something had broken open inside her and she finally could see the light of day.

  “I’ll be back in a minute,” she said, standing from the armchair.

  “Kayla, we have important business to discuss.”

  “You're doing just fine without my input,” she said, turning to the door.

  She stepped out into the bright day, shielding her eyes with her hand, and continued down the street to the oat fields on the outskirts of the village. Reaching them, she stood at the wooden fence and peered into the distance. The workers had moved on to another section of field, turning over the soil with shovels and picks.

  She began to climb the fence, carefully pulling her long, heavy skirts up over the rail. Her soft shoes sank in the damp, loose soil, but she didn’t care. Something drew her to the figure standing among the other workers. Many of them had come from Mist Valley after Colton killed their alpha and witches raided the village. Their working conditions were not good, but Colton refused to do anything better for them, insisting that he was already giving them more than most alphas would.

  The figure stopped working and looked up at her. Their gazes locked. She still couldn't see his face—it was shadowed by the harsh sun behind his red mop of hair. But she was sure he could see her in perfect detail.

  He dropped his shovel and began to walk toward her. Soon, they were running, and they met each other in the middle of the muddy field. The smell of fresh soil filled Kayla's lungs. She could see his face. She knew his name. He was Felix Blackfang, the brother of the Mist Valley alpha.

  She reached out and touched his arm. He placed his dirty, calloused hand over hers. Their eyes met.

  “Kayla,” he whispered through parched lips.

  “Felix.”

  “What are we doing here?”

  “I don’t know. We shouldn’t even know each other.”

  “I know you like I know my own name,” he said.

  “Hey, you, why are you bothering Alpha Redclaw?” the foreman barked.

  “I have business with this man,” Kayla yelled back. She took his hand. “Come with me.”

  She pulled Felix through the field as he limped along behind her. She didn’t care about the consequences, though she knew there would be many. Colton Irontooth was not a forgiving man. But he could take no more from her than he already had.

  They approached a gate in the fence line and continued through until they were under the shade of the hemlocks, whose wide trunks shielded them from the sight of the foreman.

  “Alpha Redclaw,” Felix said, making to bow.

  “Don’t,” she said, stopping him, her hand on his shoulder. “I need to speak with you.”

  “Anything.”

  “Please. I need to understand what is going on.”

  “It’s all so fuzzy,” he said, his posture relaxing. “One moment, I seem to remember everything that has happened for the last year, and the next, my life feels completely foreign to me.”

  “I’m having the same experience.” She looked over her shoulder, making sure they weren’t being watched. “This life… it’s not right. I know there is something else. I’m supposed to be doing something, but I can’t remember what it is.”

  “How do we know each other?”

  “I don’t know, Felix. But I feel more connected to you than to anyone else in this world. Just looking at you makes me feel like my entire world is going to open up at any moment, and we will find our way back home.”

  “I have no home to go back to. My brothers are all dead.”

  “That can’t be true.”

  “What do you care for my brothers?”

  “They are important to me. How? I don’t know. I wish I could remember.” She placed her hand on her forehead. The cool shade of the hemlock did little to reduce the fever of her mind. She looked back at him, desperate for answers, and squeezed his shoulder. “I need to know what is going on. If you know anything…”

  “I don’t know any more than you.” He slumped against a tree, obviously in a great deal of pain.

  “How do you feel when you look at me?”

  “I feel like…” He looked away, his face growing redder.

  “Tell me.” She forced him to look at her.

  Their eyes met, and his lips quivered. “When I look at you, I can’t help but see how beautiful you are. My every instinct is to grab you and kiss you hard and fast and never let you go.”

  “Maybe you should.”

  He stepped away, breaking her grip, his face cast down. “If Alpha Irontooth ever found out… no. I need to go back to the field. For both our sakes.”

  “Wait.” She caught him and pulled him to her.

  They fell into an embrace, and before he could object, she pressed her mouth to his. Heat surged between them, and she pulled him closer. His body responded in kind, and soon they were groaning at each other wildly as if they were each other’s only air.

  “Felix,” she whispered between kisses, sliding her hands under his sweaty shirt. Her fingers glided over his damp skin. His manhood rose against her. His tongue flicked between her lips. Her heat swelled and flowed between her legs. He pressed his thigh against her, and she met his offering with intense desire.

  “This is all wrong,” he said. “I’ll be killed for sure.”

  “Nothing in this world is more right than this.”

  They pressed their foreheads together, breathing each other’s air. He took a sharp breath, squeezing his eyes closed. “I feel like the answers are right at the edge of my consciousness,
but my mind is so muddled with drink and sun. My body is broken. I'm not the man I once was.”

  “I’ve had my own share of pain," Kayla said. "But I know that you and I belong together.”

  “This is some kind of delusion. We’ve both had losses.”

  “You know about the child?”

  “Everyone knows.”

  Kayla stepped away, the pain of losing her baby slicing through her heart. Felix’s hand gripped her shoulder, and he gathered her in his arms, kissing the back of her neck. She leaned against him, looking up into the canopy. The smell of the forest beckoned her forth. If only she could run away with Felix Blackfang and leave everything behind. They could make a new life together. All they had to do was leave.

  She turned back to him and grabbed his arm. “Let’s go,” she said, tugging him deeper into the forest.

  “Where are we going?”

  “I don’t know. Away from here.”

  She ran, holding his hand. He tried to keep up, but his body betrayed him, and after about a mile of rushing over logs and bushes, he bent over and gasped for air.

  “I can’t keep up,” he said, sitting down on a log. “I told you I’m broken.”

  “No. Never. You are the most intelligent person I’ve ever known.”

  “Little use that is anymore.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “They don’t allow me books," Felix said. "All I do is break my back in the fields.”

  She sat beside him, the truth of his suffering sinking in. She shook her head, not understanding why she hadn’t done something about the living conditions of the workers from Mist Valley. She’d been too caught up in her own suffering to care enough about them to stick her neck out with Colton.

  “That’s all over now. I’m taking you away from here.”

  “I don’t think I’ll make it far. I’m so tired and thirsty. I can barely walk from all the sores on my feet.”

  “Come, there's a stream near here.”

  He hobbled behind her to a stream hidden in a grove of young beech trees. The two of them stepped out onto a wide bank of gray stones. Felix bent to sip the fast-flowing water from the palm of his hand. Sunlight played in his russet hair and flickered over the red splotches on his fair cheeks.

  “We should wash you,” Kayla said.

  “I don’t know…”

  “I’m your alpha. Do as I say,” she said, bending to remove his muddy shoes.

  Soon she had him down to his hemp underthings. She bundled her skirts up around her waist and walked him out into the water. “Dunk yourself. Then we’ll apply a mud pack to your feet.”

  “Kayla…” He looked around nervously but finally complied.

  After rinsing himself off in the deep stream, he sat on the bank while Kayla applied a mud pack to his feet.

  “I have to admit, I feel a lot better. Can’t remember the last time I had a bath.”

  “Your feet are in bad shape. And your clothes are in tatters. I’ll have to get you something better before we leave.”

  “We can’t. Colton will find us. He’ll kill me. Only the gods know what he’ll do to you.”

  “He can’t hurt me," Kayla said. "I’m stronger than he is.”

  Felix searched her face.

  “What?” she asked.

  “Nothing.”

  “Just say it.”

  “It’s rumored that Colton is taking over as alpha—that you’ve lost your power since the baby and he will soon be our leader in all things.”

  “It’s not true. I still have my magic.” She threw a rock across the creek, and it jumped four times before dropping into the water.

  “But do you have the will to use it?”

  She sat beside him, looking at the light glistening on the rippling water. “I don’t know. I haven’t been myself since…”

  She felt a tear threatening to fall. He reached out and wiped it away as it rolled down her cheek. Kayla wrapped her arms around him, and he held her. The smell of his skin after the bath intoxicated her. She felt closer to him than she’d ever felt to Colton.

  Looking up into his face, she pressed her mouth to his. The surge of her need, her emotions, and her loss all crashed together like an avalanche. She climbed on his lap, kissing him deep and hard as the hot sun beamed down through the branches. He caressed her back, his cock thick and hard under her. She slipped over him, their mouths consuming each other, their minds binding.

  She pulled her skirts around her waist and slid his underwear down, finding his shaft damp and throbbing below her. He pressed himself inside her, and their bodies devoured each other as their kisses had. He thrust deep, holding her tightly to him.

  He growled as he fucked her, pounding all of his despair, confusion, and need into his alpha. Felix flipped her over onto her back, gripping her thighs as he took her body in the sand. She clung to him, feeling their connection vibrate like the plucked string of a mandolin.

  He leaned down, his eyes bright and his teeth sharp. His fangs were on her neck. His tongue slid over her throbbing vein.

  “Yes,” she whispered.

  “You are mine.” He bit down as she bit into him. Blood flowed between them. Their mate bond snapped into focus. Her mind became lucid like the view from a mountain on a clear day.

  “Felix,” she whispered as they fell from the height of their passion. They held each other, panting and sweaty in the heat of the day. “This isn’t our life, Felix. We’re trapped in an illusion.”

  Chapter 24

  The first signs of Mirage City came into view out the front window of the bus. Sid and Gloria stood behind Stan as he drove along the highway. A massive sign spread out overhead, welcoming visitors.

  Gloria and Sid looked at each other nervously as the bus bumped along on the road. Rows of shops and restaurants lined the streets. People in brightly colored clothing walked along the sidewalks. As the van moved farther into town, it passed large parks full of trees with huge leaves the likes of which Sid had never seen. If Felix were with them, he could have told him the names of the trees. Stan continued along the wide street, past the outdoor cafés with bright umbrellas over the tables in yellow, red, and blue so rich it made Sid do a double take. They passed a public pool as big as a lake and full of bright-blue water. He’d seen a pool before in Dark Haven, but it was nothing like this.

  They turned a corner and stopped at a light. The streets were full of cars. It made Sid wonder where they had all been while the four of them had been traveling. But as Gloria said, the rules in hell were different from those in the real world.

  At the end of the street, Stan pulled into a huge parking lot in front of a massive building with a sign for Mirage Mall. They parked in a big spot at the back of the lot and stepped out into the heat of the day.

  Stan and Marla whispered to each other behind Gloria’s and Sid’s backs. Sid glanced over his shoulder. The elderly couple had to be planning something.

  “We should go,” he said to Gloria, taking her arm.

  “Yep.”

  They walked quickly through the parking lot, dodging and weaving around the parked cars. Stan called out behind them, but Sid and Gloria lost the couple in the maze of cars. They reached the entrance and hurried inside.

  The mall was cool and bright. High glass ceilings rose above them several stories, casting daylight down on the shoppers. The halls were packed with people carrying bags with symbols and store names on them.

  “Hurry,” Gloria said. “I don’t want them to catch us. There’s no telling what they’ll do.”

  She and Sid sped through the throng of shoppers, past the pie shop and the cigar store, past the pet snake emporium and the roller rink. They came to a central hub with a fountain. There was some kind of celebration happening. Jugglers in yellow-and-red jumpsuits smiled behind bright-red face paint. Singers and dancers twirled as the band played. Sid was caught in the commotion of sound and movement and stunned by the flashes of color and the intensity of the noise.
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  “Come on, Sid,” Gloria said, pulling him away from the scene.

  They ducked into a dark hallway leading to the bathrooms and sat down on a bench at the end, near some pay phones.

  “I think we lost them.” Sid craned his neck to look out at the crowd and caught sight of Stan and Marla passing through the hall with a uniformed police officer in tow. Sid rolled his eyes. “This place,” he grumbled.

  “We can’t trust anyone.”

  As soon as the couple and the officer had passed, Sid and Gloria snuck out the other direction.

  “We’ve got to get out of here,” she said.

  “Where are we going to go?”

  “What about what Stan said about the big cities on the coast? There has to be a reason people are going there.”

  “Hell is a weird place,” Sid said.

  “Do you think it has anything to do with the fissure opening? Maybe the souls can get out that way.”

  “Or maybe it is a way station that leads people deeper into the lower layers of hell.”

  “Hmm. Could be either, I suppose,” Gloria said. “But it’s our only lead.”

  “We don’t have any leads. We need to find Kayla and Oksana and go home.”

  “But if we get somewhere that Kayla and the others might go…”

  “You’ve got a point.” Sid looked over his shoulder as he hurried past the Sour Grapes Smoothie Shop.

  “Maybe we can get transportation there.”

  “How? We don’t have any money. You know how psycho everyone is about money around here.”

  “We stole a car. Why can’t we steal some cash?”

  “I hadn’t thought of that.” Sid stopped and looked at her as a distracted shopper smashed into his shoulder.

  “It’s worth a shot.”

  They made it to the exit of the mall, and the heat of the day blasted them as they walked out onto the sidewalk.

  “I can’t stand this place,” Gloria said, shielding her eyes from the sharp sunlight.

  “Where do you think we should go to steal money?”