Feathered Touch (Wyrd Bound Book 2)

by Shen Hart

  I could be free of all of it. I could fly wherever I felt like.

  Something tugged at me within my chest. I glanced down and realised it was the bond with Dan and the other boys. I’d miss them. The raven huffed but allowed the jaguar forward. I landed a little clumsily with the confusion between them, but the jaguar shook itself off as it shifted before it bounded off into the tall stems of the dead flowers and old grass.

  The rough and spiky foliage scratched at my legs and bent beneath my weight, but it was of no matter. We ran around the garden like things possessed, we pounced on each other before we bounced away, our tails in the air and grins on our faces. It felt too good to be in my jaguar form again, to be running and forget about everything that had happened. All of the pressure of being a broken alpha was gone. There was nothing but the glee of play. That is, until Alex appeared.

  Every muscle was tense, his eyes held the dark amber of the coyote, he pulled his lips back showing sharpened teeth and his hands were balled into fists. I sat and looked at him with my head slightly cocked. Lee and Dan sat just in front of me. I didn’t like where this was going.

  Alex took a deep breath in through his nose before he exhaled slowly and said, with a quiver of anger in his voice, “What do you think you’re doing? Do you have no respect for the time and effort Ark put into healing her?”

  I bared my teeth at him. How dare he act as though I didn’t have any control over my actions? He looked away. I watched as Lee’s hackles rose on the back of his neck. He shifted slowly, with purpose and control. Alex’s eyes never left him. They were openly challenging each other. I nuzzled Dan’s shoulder to try and ease his tension some. There was no reason for him to suffer the consequences. He was following the orders of Lee and me. Lee wasn’t a member of the pack, but he out-ranked him as a Wyrd Bound creature. I would defend Dan against Alex’s wrath.

  Lee said, with an icy tone, “She was going stir crazy, she needed to stretch her muscles. Keeping her cooped up would only make things worse in the long run. You know as well as I do that she would have broken out of her cage at some point. This way it was controlled and close to home.”

  I snarled and shifted myself. My muscles ached, but I stood tall and ignored the pain. “Do not speak about me as if I am not present, as if I am some invalid fool.”

  They both looked at me, Lee’s eyes softened and he brushed my hand in a small apology. He was just trying to defend me, I could understand that, but I wasn’t going to sit around and have them talk about me in that manner. Alex looked down at Dan who was in the process of shifting back to his human form, his eyes darkened.

  I cut him off. “Do not dare raise your voice or reprimand Dan. He was out here because I told him to be. He was obeying his alpha.”

  “His alpha should have damn well known better, Thalia. If you keep breaking yourself, then you are offending Ark and taking yourself away from your alpha role for longer, or is that your goal, here?”

  He glanced away after those final words, his muscles softened, his eyes widened a little, but it was too late. He’d said too much.

  “I am not a perfect alpha, nor are you, but I am doing my best. Do not fucking insinuate that I am intentionally harming myself to be free of that role, the role that I take greatest pride in. While we’re on the subject, do not tell me what Ark would and would not think of this.”

  Alex looked to Dan. “Leave us. Please.”

  I ground my teeth a little, but accepted that he had least been polite about Dan’s dismissal. Dan gave a small nod and headed into the house, he kept his head a little low. Lee moved closer to me as I stared Alex down.

  “Thalia, I am trying to look after you. You know I hate seeing you cooped up and injured.”

  The pain in my thigh was beginning to show on my face. I was stubborn, but there was only so much I could hide.

  Lee wrapped his arm around my waist. “Let’s get you inside, Suriel; we had a good run, but we don’t want you caged any longer than necessary.”

  I smiled and leaned on him, accepting his help. Alex stepped to one side and let us pass, but followed closely behind us as we returned to my bedroom, my cage, as Lee had so aptly reminded me. Nik and Ryan glanced at us but kept their heads down when we passed. They stood close to Dan in the kitchen. I was surprised that I didn’t see Ark or Adam. I did feel a twinge of guilt as I walked up the stairs and felt the shooting pain down through the muscles. I shouldn’t have pushed it so hard, it wasn’t fair on Ark. He had been very good to me, and he’d risked his life to heal me. I sighed softly and leaned a little more heavily on Lee. My bit of fun had turned into something less pleasant. Ark greeted us in the bedroom. Adam was standing looking out the window. He paled a little when we walked into the room. Lee helped me sit on the bed, but Ark shooed both him and Alex out before they could argue.

  Adam slowly walked closer. His hands were tucked into his pockets, and he kept looking away from me, but at least he seemed happy that I wouldn’t eat him. Ark tsked and didn’t ask what I’d done. Instead, he made quick work of the injured area with a sickly-sweet-scented purple salve. I didn’t dare wrinkle my nose.

  I opened my arms for a hug and pulled Ark tight once he was done. “Thank you, dear elfie. I hope you understand why I did what I did.”

  He couldn’t keep the smile off his face and soon burst into soft laughter. “I’m surprised it took you this long!”

  I grinned back at him before I looked at Adam, who had come to stand near Ark. “I hear that you were the one that found Ryan and me. Thank you.”

  Adam blushed and looked away while trying to bury his hands deeper in his pockets. “It was nothing.”

  I smiled and tilted my head to one side. The raven was very curious about the meek little thing. The jaguar and wolf both behaved themselves and restrained their prey instincts.

  I patted the bed. “Tell me a little about it?”

  I’d spoken to a seer in the past, but I found them interesting. The link they had with the energies and the threads of life was fascinating. The raven needed to know more. It hopped about within my mind, but had the good sense to not try and shift.

  Ark gently pushed Adam forwards and smiled. “She won’t bite, promise.”

  I grinned at Ark and held my tongue. Making a glib comment wouldn’t do the shy little thing any good at all. Ark sat next to me, and Adam joined him. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before he finally met my gaze.

  “It differs depending on the situation. Sometimes I have weird dreams with odd symbolism, other times it’s a crystal clear vision that stops me dead. With you and Ryan, it started with nightmares and grew more clear from there.”

  Shouting from the hallway cut off any questions I might have had.

  I heard Lee snarl, “She is not some object that you own and control!”

  Alex growled back, “Do not frame my concern for her wellbeing in such vile terms!”

  I sighed and looked at Ark. He shrugged and said, “Men.”

  I dragged my fingers through my hair. “Could you open the door and tell them to shut up and stop for me? I assume I can’t walk and do it myself…”

  He nodded and Adam’s eyes went wide. Ark seemed to take some glee in the task.

  He cleared his throat as he opened the door. “Shut. The. Fuck. Up! I don’t care if you are alpha males, this is not acceptable behaviour. Thalia is a living breathing creature who makes her own stupid decisions, now behave yourselves and act your fucking age!”

  He glanced back at me. “Old furballs, the lot of you.”

  I looked at him in mock shock. “You’re only one year younger than me!”

  He grinned and motioned for Adam to join him before he left the room. I only had a minute’s peace.

  Chapter Six

  Alex had his teeth gritted and his shoulders back. He kept flexing his fingers as he breathed sharply through his nose. He glanced back over his shoulder at Lee, who looked quite calm, on the surface at least. His bright green eyes
glittered and his feline grace was a little more stiff legged than usual, but the small smile remained on his lips.

  Alex took a long deep breath and squeezed the bridge of his nose. “Did Ark say that you will heal ok, Baby Girl?”

  I looked between the two of them. I could almost taste the blood on the air. The jaguar edged forwards, teeth bared. The tension ran through my muscles and made me cringe as the pain rippled under the salve Ark had applied. Small wrinkles formed around Alex’s eyes as he looked from my face down over my leg.

  I flared my nostrils a little and gave a firm nod before saying, “I’ll be fine. You two snarling at each other like a pair of rabid cubs is not helping anything, though.”

  Alex glared back at Lee, his lips parting, showing his sharpened teeth. I cut him off, knowing exactly what he was going to say. I had known him a very long time, after all.

  “Lee is staying here. This is the pack home. That makes it at least half mine.”

  Alex’s shoulders tightened, and his pale brown coyote ears formed flat against his head as he held Lee’s calm, cool gaze.

  Finally he spat, “He causes too much trouble. He’s bad for the pack.”

  I felt my own teeth elongating and sharpening. “Alexei, he is staying here until I am better. He is helping me, and I have no doubt that the cubs could learn a lot from him. He is very experienced as a Wyrd Bound, and he has a lot of knowledge to share.”

  “Such as how to slaughter innocents?”

  Lee’s calm facade shattered. His green eyes took on golden hints, long pitch-black claws formed out of his fingertips, his face became more angular as his teeth sharpened into those of a full-fledged dark fae.

  I growled, “Enough! Both of you! All of us have blood on our hands. None of us can honestly say we’ve never killed an innocent. We are murderers. We prefer to wrap it up in pretty gauze, but the fact remains.”

  It pained me to say it, but it was a painful truth I had accepted long ago. I took no pride in it, but it was part of my role, despite what the Sisters would say. The choker tightened around my throat, adding a far more physical and real pain to the words. A tingling electricity crawled down my neck, a sharp reminder from the Sisters. I spat a few choice curses at them in varying languages. They made me what I was. I looked back to Lee who had regained his composure once more. His lips remained in a firm line, but he was his beautiful human self once more. Alex had the remnants of the coyote left, but stepped forwards and sat next to me.

  He placed his hand on mine and looked into my eyes, as he had so many times in the past. “I only want what’s best for you.”

  I nodded but kept my face blank. I wasn’t in the state to give him any more than that. The aggression and the pain from the Sisters sat firmly in the back of my mind and clouded any potential there may have been for me being a little softer on him.

  He looked away, refusing to look at Lee before he said, “Do not think me a monster.”

  Lee smirked before he moved around Alex to sit on the other side of me. “You keep her in a cage, you deny her nature.”

  Alex stiffened. “I help her. I look after her. You lead her down a dark path for your own twisted amusement.”

  I shifted my claws and sank them into the back of their respective necks. “Enough.”

  I breathed slowly and deeply, trying to keep control so as not to undo Ark’s careful work.

  “Alexei. Lee did not drag me down that path. I willingly embraced my bloodlust. It was you who abandoned me and began that part of my life.”

  He swallowed hard as his eyes went wide before he looked down and away.

  “Lee. Alex is my soulmate. He has always done what he can for me. We both made mistakes. I may not have forgiven all of them, but I am not free of blame.”

  I found myself becoming oddly defensive of Alex, but I bit my tongue before I said anything more.

  I released them both of my grip. “None of us is perfect. We have all fucked up, but I am not some mindless cub who is incapable of making my own decisions. If I have to remind either of you of that again, then I will castrate you. Understood?”

  They both gave small nods but remained tense. I felt very firmly stuck in the middle of an aggravating territorial fight that I had no energy to endure.

  The memories that they had brought forward refused to leave my mind, so I continued on, “I am not proud of what happened, of the blood I shed, but that is a very real part of me. Lee removed the restraints that had been in place for so long. He helped me embrace and understand myself.”

  The sobbing echoed around the back of my mind as the memories of the pleasure I had taken in dragging out their agonising deaths sat firmly in my mind’s eye.

  “You are better than that, Baby Girl.”

  “She is a predator. It was slowly killing her to lock herself away, to deny her nature.”

  “We hunted. I embraced her for what she was.”

  “You caged her. I love her in her entirety.”

  “Stop! Both of you!”

  The back and forth between them, the refusal to give in and let things drop was quickly growing tiresome. I understood it, the fight was older than I cared to remember, but I had no energy to endure it.

  “What is done is done. Leave me. I want some time alone.”

  I tried to keep my voice calm and even, but I suspected that the sadness at the situation, at the past, added a waver to my words. Lee leaned in and kissed my cheek tenderly, sending a small shiver down my spine. I had a fleeting moment where I wanted him to stay, to wrap me in his arms and send away the darkness, but I knew it wasn’t the right time. Alex ran his fingers over my inner wrist as he had done so many times before, the small gesture of soothing and solidarity between us.

  “I will always do my best for you, Baby Girl.”

  They each stood, both of them refusing to acknowledge the other before they left. I stretched upwards and flopped back onto the bed as I tried to pull everything together. I’d managed to get myself into yet another ridiculous situation, and once again, it came down to my very nature. I had never denied the absolute pleasure I had taken in the torture, how I gleefully dragged it out over days. The way their piteous cries and whines for mercy made my heart flutter and swell with lust. I refused to believe that that was all that I was. I took a deep breath and pushed it all back into its box. It was in the past, there was no going back and changing it. Instead, I tried to focus on a state of calm relaxation. I needed to heal and move forward before it drove me insane.

  Chapter Seven

  Alex avoided me the next day. I sat and looked out of the window, trying not to regret what I had said and done. The thoughts chased themselves around my mind. On one hand, I had done nothing but be honest, and they were being territorial fools who had no right to speak about me in such a way. I felt the anger beginning to rise again. I had done nothing wrong. Perhaps Lee had been right, and Alex was just caging me. Then I remembered Alex’s eyes, the pain. He had never done anything to hurt me, never knowingly brought me to any harm. He was my Prince Charming, I couldn’t have asked for a better alpha. I curled my lip—Was being the key word there. I went to stand and begin pacing, but the door clicked and broke my circular thinking. Dan stepped into the room, his eyes a little lower than usual and his shoulders slightly hunched. I cocked my head and watched him approach me. His usual pride and confidence was flickering. I couldn’t help the protective feelings that blossomed within me. Some part of me wanted to douse them, to remove them before any harm could come to me. I shrugged off that feeling and focused on Dan.

  He offered me a small smile before he sat in the wicker chair next to mine. We both gazed out of the window for a few minutes before the raven just had to know what had happened, what was wrong. The jaguar had its ears pinned back ready to attack whoever had dared hurt one of my boys.

  “What’s wrong? Your usual swagger has faded.”

  He raised an eyebrow at me. His lips mouthed the word swagger, but the word never came to fr
uition. His mouth flickered into a smile before he leaned back into his chair, trying to replicate his usual facade. “Nothing happened, per se. Things are just tense around here.”

  I pursed my lips and leaned forwards. The jaguar’s protective and territorial instincts were kicking in fully.

  “Don’t bullshit me.”

  He looked away from me before his hands began fidgeting. “I can’t shake the feeling that I don’t fit in here.”

  “Have the boys done something? Was Alex a dick to you?”

  I felt a pang of guilt at speaking of Alex in that way; he was my alpha, but it slipped out.

  Dan smiled properly at that. “Alex gave me a firm dressing down after yesterday. Lee added in a few words in my defense, but that only started them arguing again. Ryan and Nik have retreated into their established pair while Alex and Lee continually snipe at each other. I have no problems with my own company, but I thought this was supposed to be a pack.”

  My lip curled and I snarled at the prospect of the fighting between Alex and Lee causing a rift within the pack. Dan sank back in his chair a little before I realised that I hadn’t voiced the reason behind my snarl.

  “I will castrate the pair of them if they continue to damage this pack. I never asked for you, the gods knew I didn’t want you, but you are my pack and I will not allow anyone or anything to damage that.”

  Dan’s eyes searched my face, small wrinkles formed on his brow before he finally smiled. “I’m glad to see you back to yourself again. I, we, were all worried for a little while.”

  I stretched. “It takes a lot more than a dance with death to harm me.”

  “So, when is your next daring escape attempt?”