by Quinn Loftis
“I will not harm the females,” he said, knowing it was true. “I cannot say the same about you in complete confidence. But I will try to make sure my wolf understands that you are not to be collateral damage.”
Adam’s brow rose. He hadn’t been expecting that answer. “Uh, that would be appreciated,” the male fae said, sounding skeptical.
Gustavo gave him a small bow—an old-world gesture of respect—and then turned around. “I’m going to go on a run,” he said over his shoulder. “My wolf is feeling a tad frustrated.”
Gustavo was a good way from the clearing but still he heard their voices.
“Did he say his wolf was a tad frustrated? Because I’m pretty sure that his furry butt had passed frustrated ten trees ago.”
Gustavo agreed. His wolf didn’t give a damn. He wanted his mate. That was all. He just wanted his mate with him, home, in their den away from the rest of the world. He wouldn’t be content until he made that happen. His wolf was stubborn and determined and ruthless when it came to those he considered his pack. Anna surpassed everything and everyone in his life. Ruthless was going to look like child’s play when he let his beast loose on the hunt. Our mate, ours to protect. Yes, the man agreed. We will get her and tether her to our side, Gustavo thought. His wolf liked the sound of that.
Adira paced in front of the veil that led to the realm of the draheim. The dragon-like beasts kept to themselves, and there wasn’t a whole lot known about their species. She’d been debating on seeking their assistance in reopening the veil to the pixie realm so she could get home. She was sure they wouldn’t give, but she was getting desperate. It had been over a week since Anna had disappeared with the other gypsy healer named Jewel, and since then, she’d been locked out of her own realm. She’d tried her own magic, and it had been useless, and considering her kind was the most powerful among the pixies, that was saying something. She’d been racking her brain for almost two weeks on what could open the veil, and she’d finally narrowed it down to two things. The draheim were her first resort, mainly because the second resort was, well, to put it lightly, going to be a pain in her tiny rear end to deal with.
Finally, she sucked in a deep breath and walked forward, expecting to pass right through. Instead, she bounced off an invisible wall. She rubbed her forehead and stared at the offending empty space.
“Well, I’ll be brighter than a pixie’s butt. Another realm blocked?” She grumbled as she stood up and brushed off her clothes. Adira held her hand out and stepped gingerly forward. She nearly jerked it back when she felt the malice pouring from the closed veil. Without thought, she began to pace again, her eyes continually travelling back to the location of the invisible veil wall, feeling more and more certain that she knew what was causing the malice to flow through it.
“Where is Perizada when I need her?” She huffed as she attempted to figure out what she should do next. Did she go and find Peri, or did she go back to her home and talk to Peri’s wolf mate? Or maybe she should just throw her hands up and say to pixie hell with it and make a new home in some remote location of some far-off realm. But darkness would spread there eventually, too. No, she couldn’t turn her back on her friends. And she liked Anna. She wouldn’t walk away when her new gypsy-healer friend was in trouble.
“So,” she said, tapping her chin. “Peri or her mate? Or…” Her brow rose as she considered her third option. It was hit or miss. He might help, or he might flick her away like a pesky bug. It depended on his mood. But, she supposed if ever there was a situation to ask for his help, this was it. Now she just had to figure out a way to approach him. She’d need to be tactful, respectful, and, most of all, humble. That would be difficult.
Adira reached her hand out, touched one of the large trees, and closed her eyes. Her particular race of pixies was the only who could travel in such a way, and that fact was a closely guarded secret. Mainly because the other, less powerful pixies would pitch fits if they knew about it. The magic was very similar to the way in which the fae could flash, only Adira traveled through space and time using the energy from nature. The currents that flowed from living thing to living thing were what powered her ability to leave one location and appear in another.
That is how she wound up in Peri’s home, standing on a solid wood table looking at a room full of wolves, a fae, and one bored djinn. She turned to fully face Thad and placed her small hands on her small hips and glared at the old being.
“You claim to be all-powerful, and yet all you do is sit around on your pompous arse spouting off about how bored you are,” she huffed. “Well, I, for one, am sick of hearing about the all-powerful djinn but never seeing what they’re capable of.”
Thad’s face remained passive, betraying nothing of his thoughts.
“Adira, of the pixies.” His voice rumbled as he spoke. “Pray tell, who it is that continually boasts of my all-powerfulness?”
“And perhaps, just a thought, considering his all-powerfulness,” Elle spoke up, “be a tad less hostile.”
Adira frowned at her. “Was I hostile? I was going for tactful and respectful … oh, and humble.”
“Might need to work on your delivery,” Elle suggested.
Adira shrugged. “If you say so.” She turned back to the djinn. “It’s neither here nor there who is spreading rumors about your power. I’m saying maybe it’s time you prove your superiority.”
“Why?” he asked, sounding as bored as ever.
“Why?” she sputtered. “Why? Because isn’t that what all-powerful beings do? Go around showing off their mojo.”
His head tilted ever so slightly to the side, and his eyes narrowed. “What is mojo?”
Adira stomped her foot. This whole encounter had gone very differently in her mind. Then again, in her mind, she hadn’t said he was a pompous arse. Maybe that’s where things had gone downhill. Or had they ever been uphill to begin with?
“Okay, forget mojo.” She waved her hands in the air. “Stupid teenage humans and their stupid made-up words,” she muttered under her breath. “Just say yes, okay?”
“Yes,” he said, only the word sounded like a question. She ignored that fact.
“Great!” Adira clapped her hands together. “If you’ll just come with me, we will be off to open some veils and kick evil in its man parts.”
She reached out to lay a small hand on Thad’s knee, intending to whisk him back to the veil to the pixie realm. But nothing happened when she tried to carry them from Peri’s home.
“Whoa, hold on a second,” Elle said, holding out her hand.
Blasted fae magic, Adira thought to herself as she looked up at the female fae.
“What do you mean open some Veils?” Elle asked.
Adira’s eyes widened. She glanced around to the other confused faces and then looked back at Elle. “Thad’s a djinn,” she said.
“Yes,” Elle said, dragging the word out. “He’s a historian for the supernatural races. We know what a djinn is.”
Adira shook her head and then glanced over at Thad who simply watched. “Yes, he’s a historian. Give him a sprinkle of pixie dust and a medal. But he’s a bit more than that. Didn’t you know? He’s the leader of his kind, the most powerful supernatural race to exist. He can make Perizada look like a human street magician doing parlor tricks.”
Elle’s lips twitched as though she wanted to smile. “Please let me be around when you tell her that. Regardless of his power, djinn refuse to involve themselves in our matters. They simply record. They have rules.”
Adira wanted to smack herself in the forehead. What was with these stinking people and their rules? Okay, so no one had said anything about rules up until that point, but once was enough to get on her nerves. They didn’t have time to be chit-chatting about rules and what exactly Thad’s job description and list of qualifications were. They needed to get moving.
“I’m going to say this once and only once,” she began.
“I dinna know that Perizada was giving lessons
to the wee ones,” a thick Irish accent lilted.
Adira turned her gaze to the wolf. “And you are?”
“Kale.” He bowed. “Beta, of the Ireland pack.”
“I’d say I was happy to meet you, but that would imply that I like you, and at the moment, I do not.” She turned back to Thad. She just wanted to move things along. Time was ticking, and these people were wasting it as if it just grew on trees. “Would you please tell these daft beings exactly what you’re capable of?”
Thad’s entire face was still as he stared back at her. It was as if he were a statue carved of stone. Adira supposed it was easy to learn to sit so still when all you did was store information in your big magic brain. Regardless, her inability to read what he was thinking only frustrated her more.
Finally, the djinn spoke. “Why?”
That’s it, she thought. The king’s brother wasn’t going to be the last male she graced with a male part on his face. It was kind of sad, too. Thad really was something to behold in all his aristocratic, handsome glory. “Shame.” She breathed out a sigh. Okay, so she didn’t really have the power to mar Thad’s glorious face, but thinking about it did give her some measure of comfort, though only for a second.
“Why, why, why, why,” she parroted. “How about because the veil to my home is closed. The veil to the draheim realm is, you guessed it, closed. I need to get back to my realm and they”—she motioned to the wolves—“have people in my realm that they want to get out.”
“And the draheim realm?” the wolf sitting beside Elle asked. “Why do we need to worry about it being closed?”
“Hmm…” She tapped her lips with her finger. “How do I put this tactfully?”
“Tact doesn’t seem to be your strong suit, wee one,” Kale said sounding amused. “Best ya keep it to simple honesty.”
“Fine,” Adira snapped. “There’s some nasty evil flowing off the veil to the draheim realm. Evil that feels a lot like fae magic, only much, much darker.”
All the males in the room perked up, and she imagined if they’d been in their wolf forms, their ears would have pricked and their hackles risen.
“Volcan,” Kale rumbled.
The room was silent until a cell phone rang. Adira turned to look at the large man who stood and pulled the phone from his pocket. He frowned at the screen and started to put it back. Then he appeared to change his mind and growled in frustration before answering the call.
“What,” he snarled into the phone. Then his enraged face went slack as his eyes filled with relief. “Jewel.”
Chapter 11
“I would give just about anything to see her, touch her, smell her, taste her, even if for only a few heartbeats. But I can hear her, and that is more than I had only a minute ago. It will have to sustain me until I can have all of her.” ~Dalton
Dalton felt as though his legs were going to give out at the sound of her voice. It had only been a couple of weeks since she’d left him, yet it felt like a lifetime.
“Are you okay? Where are you? When are you coming back to me?” The questions flew out of him without censor as more entered his mind. “What have you been doing? How did you get this number? Are you okay?”
“You already asked me that once,” she said with a small, pained laugh.
“You’re hurt,” he said.
“I’ll be okay,” she told him, but she didn’t sound too sure.
“Tell me where you are, Little Dove. I’ll come to you.” Dalton turned and headed for the door, leaving the little pixie, djinn, wolves, and fae behind without a thought. His mind was completely focused on the voice at the other end of the phone.
“I can’t do that, Dalton.”
Hearing her speak his name was heaven, but knowing she was out of his reach was hell. But then, he’d been in hell for a while with only brief glimpses of heaven when she’d been with him.
“I got the number from Anna,” she said. “She and Gustavo are mates, and they’ve been able to communicate through their bond.”
Dalton winced as a wave of unwanted jealousy rolled over him. He desired that connection with his own mate. He wanted to feel her in his mind and know what she was truly feeling. “Gustavo isn’t with me. He’s in the pixie realm.”
“Yes, but so is Crina, and apparently, she has, like, every wolf on speed dial or something.” She laughed again, and still it sounded so full of pain.
“Please tell me what’s going on, Jewel. I need to know that you’re safe. I’m dying here, love.”
“I don’t know that telling you will put you out of your misery or only prolong your death,” she practically whispered. “It’s not good, Dalton. I wish I had something positive to tell you. I wish I could tell you something that would make you so proud, but I can’t.”
“Baby, I don’t care about anything but you. Your health, your safety, your happiness. You. That’s it.” He didn’t know what to say to help her open up to him. Whatever she was facing, he didn’t want her to have to face it alone. He knew what it was like to be alone, facing the darkness and evil, and he didn’t want that for Jewel. He wanted her to know that he was with her.
“Don’t you know that, as your mate, it’s my job to not only fight beside you, but to fight for you when you can’t fight for yourself? You don’t have to bear any burden alone ever again. Let me share it with you,” he pleaded. His wolf wanted to reach through the phone and snatch her from whatever harm she’d found herself in and wrap her up in his safe embrace. It was driving them both crazy to hear the hurt in her voice and not be able to give her any relief.
“My mom is dead,” she said after several minutes of silence. He’d only known she was still there because his wolf’s excellent sense of hearing allowed him to detect her soft breaths.
“Oh, Jewel, I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry,” he told her as he felt his heart break all over again. He ignored the tear that trailed down his cheek. Tears didn’t shame him, not when they fell for the right reasons.
He heard her shaky breaths as she wept. “I just wasn’t expecting her and she was there, and then she was telling me all this stuff and then she was just gone. Just like that. There was no preparation, no time to understand. She was just there one second and gone the next.”
Dalton didn’t say anything. He just listened as she cried. He didn’t understand all of her rambling, but that didn’t matter. The woman he loved was hurting and confused, and she didn’t need his questions. She just need him.
“She loved me so much, Dalton,”
“Of course she did. You’re amazing. She knew that.”
“I got to see myself through her eyes. It was … I don’t know how to explain it. I guess … unexpected.” She chuckled. “I mean, I knew my mom loved me. I guess I just didn’t understand what that looked like, from her side. She thought I was perfect but not perfect. Does that make sense?”
“She saw your flaws as a part of your beauty and what makes you unique,” he said.
“Exactly. How did you know?”
“It’s how I see you.”
“You see my flaws?” There was a smile in her voice.
“I would be a fool, setting us up for failure, if I pretended not to, Little Dove. And I hope you see mine and want me still.”
“That’s pretty beautiful, Dalton.”
“I love it when you say my name,” he admitted. He wanted to add that he hoped she’d be saying it for the rest of their lives but forced his wolf to reel it in. “Can I ask how it happened?”
“She died protecting me,” Jewel admitted. “I can’t give you details because I’m not ready to tell you everything else. Not yet.”
Dalton hated that she was afraid to tell him. He could hear it in her voice, the doubt. “What are you afraid of, Jewel?”
More tears came. Her tears were killing him.
“We’ve already lost the mate bond,” she said. Her voice trembled and ripped a hole in his chest. “I don’t want to lose what we have left.”
“Wh
at we have left?” He growled, sudden emotion flooding his veins. “We aren’t broken pieces, Little Dove. We are two halves of a whole, bond be damned. We are not less. You still have all of me. Do I have all of you?”
“What if I can’t give you all of me? Because this is taking me apart piece by piece, and I don’t know how much will be left when it’s all over.”
Dalton wanted to roar in frustration. He hated this. He hated how scared she sounded. He hated that he couldn’t take away her fear and worry. He hated that he couldn’t reach through the bond and soothe her.
“You will give me all of you, even if I have to put you back together piece by piece, Jewel. I am your mate, and I am the one person on this earth who has the right to have all of you, just as you are the one person on this earth who has the right to have all of me. I will compromise on most anything but this. Do you hear me?”
“I hear you,” she said, and it sounded like maybe there was a small smile involved. “Thank you, Dalton. I’m glad that the mate bond being destroyed didn’t end us. I’m glad that you’re mine.”
He closed his eyes as he let her words soak into him. She claimed him. His wolf was howling in delight.
“Why won’t you tell me where you are?” he asked gently.
“Because I still have things I need to do, and if you’re with me you will distract me, and most likely try to stop me,” she admitted.
“Is it dangerous, whatever it is you have to do?”
“Is anything in our world not dangerous?” she countered.
“Touché.” She was right. They did live in a dangerous world. But, as her mate, he was supposed to be protecting her while they maneuvered the wilds together. Soon. He would be with her soon. All he needed was to get Gustavo out of the pixie realm. The Spanish Alpha would be able to hunt for his mate through their bond, and Dalton would just have to follow where he led.
Dalton was pulled from his thoughts when he heard Jewel gasp and then a man’s cold voice.
“Time for round seven.” The male purred. “I’ll admit, I’m impressed with your stamina.”
