It didn't bother me to be totally naked under my loose sleep shirt. There were ragged slits in the back for my wings, which I still wasn't inclined to put away, and I was comfortable.
Of course, knowing I was without underwear and still slick with arousal would be driving Arlo to near distraction.
“Fucking creepy bitch,” he muttered again. His glamour was back in place, and he'd tugged on his leather vest displaying the Wild Hunt patch.
As he passed me, though, his fingertips trailed over the tips of my wings and an involuntary moan escaped my throat.
Bastard.
Two could play at that game. If he didn't want to roll over and take this punishment like a man—fae, god, whatever—then this meeting with his president was about to get very uncomfortable.
At least, I hoped it would. Come on patchy memory, don't fail me now.
I padded down the stairs and into the common room, finding Reece, Killian, Donal, Fionn, and a woman I didn’t recognize waiting for me. I could’ve felt something like shame or embarrassment at my undressed and aroused state, but I didn’t. Half of me said I should; the other half was confused as to why I’d even consider something like that.
Arlo came up behind me where I was blocking the doorway, and growled low in his throat, reaching down to put his hands on my shoulders and move me out of the way. I let him, watching the woman’s back carefully.
Her leather jacket said Property of Fionn mac Cumhaill, but when she turned to look at me, red lips curving up in a smile, I got the feeling that that was just a front. This woman … didn’t belong to anyone but herself. In fact, the more I looked at her, the more the words on her back felt like a joke.
“Hello Veil Keeper,” she said, her voice this husky purr that made me shiver. There was power in that voice. “My name is Sadhbh.” She pronounced it like the number five, but with an S. I tried it out on my tongue.
“Sadhbh,” I repeated as she made her way toward me in leather pants, motorcycle boots, and hair as red as blood. Her green eyes bored into mine as I looked up to meet her much taller gaze.
“Dis here is my Mère,” Reece said, lighting up a cigarette. I could feel both him and Killian watching me the same way I could feel Arlo doing everything in his power to not watch me. He wanted to look and it was killing him to avert his gaze.
That made me smile.
“His Mère, my old lady,” Fionn said, rising from his chair and moving over to the bar. He gestured with his chin in Arlo’s direction. “Pour me some Scotch, boy,” he told the horned god, and I saw Arlo’s jaw clench. He was an alpha male through and through, and he didn’t like being told what to do by anyone—not even his president. Maybe he had an easier time of it when he wasn’t coming down from a scolding?
I smiled a little wider.
“Old lady,” Sadhbh said with a scoff. “You best shush, old man, before I get angry.”
She flicked her eyes in her husband’s direction before looking back at me. But my eyes had wandered over to the two hound dogs in the corner, watching me with a certain level of intelligence that was far above your average Irish wolfhound. There was something almost … human about those eyes.
I tore my attention away from them and found Killian watching me, his sinful lips twisting into an inviting sort of smile. His blue eyes locked onto mine and I found that my heart rate sped up, my palms sweated, and I was distinctly aware of the fact that I wasn’t wearing panties.
Lifting my wings up off the floor, I moved over to the edge of the cracked leather sofa and sat down, letting the heavy limbs rest along the back side. The muscles in my shoulders and back didn’t feel strong enough to hold them yet.
Sadhbh sat down on the other side of the couch and snapped her fingers.
With a growl, Reece flicked his cigarette into an ash tray and moved over to the bar, grabbing her a drink and placing it into her outstretched fingers. Hmm. Yes, definitely a different dynamic than a typical motorcycle club. I couldn’t remember a lot from … before, whatever before all of this had been, but I knew that there was often a displaced power dynamic, with women on the bottom and men on the top.
Neither the ancient voice inside of me nor my own thoughts imagined that’d be much fun.
I liked this dynamic.
“So, Veil Keeper, how are you faring?” she asked me, her voice tinted with a hint of a Cajun accent, but more like she’d absorbed it from living here for so long rather than being born here. I just looked at her, but I didn’t know how to answer. I could talk now, but so many years of not talking seemed to make natural conversation slightly more difficult.
How was I faring?
I didn’t know.
So far, I’d slept with two men, torn a man’s soul to shreds, and grown wings.
Was that a sign that I was doing well?
“I don’t know,” I said, licking my lips carefully and looking around the room at the bearded Donal and his president. They were watching me with a certain level of interest … and expectation. Not sexual, I didn’t think, more like … they expected great things from me. Important things.
“I see you’ve been getting to know some of the men here,” Sadbh said, but her words didn’t sound judgmental, just curious. “I hope you found my son pleasing to take to bed.”
Reece laughed and shook his head, tossing back a drink and muttering something under his breath. I guess it didn’t matter how old or tough a man was, when his mother set out to embarrass him, she could do it with a certain amount of flair.
“He was lovely, thank you,” is what I said, because I wasn’t sure what else to say. Sadbh laughed and Fionn made a rough sort of coughing sound like he was trying to remind her of something. She snapped a green glare in his direction and then turned back to me, reaching out to take my hands in hers. Her eyes were sparkling as she looked into mine, full of hope. Hope for what, I wasn’t sure, but it shone so brightly that I had to look away to catch my breath.
“I imagine this is all very strange to you,” she said carefully, and I nodded because fuck, I couldn’t lie. I felt like at one time in my life, I had that ability, but not anymore. “But you’re in the right place at the right time, my friend,” she continued, her words ringing so brightly with truth that it made my breath catch. “You were meant to come here and find us. This,” she gestured a hand at the men standing in the room with us, “this is your Wild Hunt, and your destiny.”
Truth, truth, truth … everything this woman said was true.
“Do you know what you’re here to do? Do you know who you are?”
“The Veil Keeper,” I answered her, but the words were somewhat empty because I didn’t entirely understand what that description entailed. I was the Veil Keeper; I could feel it in my bones. But … how did I keep this Veil? What was it? Where was it? Or was it a who? I didn’t even know that fucking much.
“I wish I could tell you this was going to be easy or that there was some way to bring all your memories rushing back but … I can’t do that. Ciarah, you were chosen by the last Veil Keeper to be reborn into this body.” She paused and reached out a single finger to touch my chest. “This is the same body that’s been the Veil Keeper for millennia. The soul inside changes, but the memories and the feelings and the knowledge of power, those stay the same.”
Her words were true, I knew that beyond a shadow of doubt, but they didn’t make sense.
How could what she was saying be correct when I had so few memories to speak of? And those few that I had retrieved from the murky darkness of my mind, were they mine? Hers? Did it even matter?
“I can see I have confused you, and this worries me,” Sadbh frowned, cocking her head to one side as her intense gaze raked over me. “Why don’t you tell me more about that?”
My gaze flickered around the room, landing briefly on Reece and Arlo, two men—two sidhe—I’d so recently allowed inside my body. Her body. Fuck, this was a mind trip. Killian watched impassively, his face smooth and unreadable. Beyond him, Donal
and Fionn, two huge, bearded men who clearly ran this show.
“You can trust everyone in this room, Veil Keeper,” Sadhbh informed me, seeming to read my mind. “We are all invested in your well-being. We have wanted for nothing, these past hundred and eighty-six years, than for the Keeper to resurface and the Veil to be restored.”
I nodded, cautiously. Again she spoke the truth.
“I don’t…” My voice cracked a little and I cleared my throat before trying again. “I have few memories, and no knowledge of power. Why?”
“We don't rightly know.” Sadhbh’s voice was quiet, saturated with pain and sadness. “But I understand you have regained … something?”
“Barely. Fractured shards of memory at best. Echoes of pain and torture, of despair and desperation. My knights did as they were commanded, and preserved the secrets of the Veil.” As I spoke, my voice had shifted into that lower, sultry tone that I was growing accustomed to. She was both her and me, but we were not yet joined enough to share one mind. “Knowledge is power just as dangerous as power itself, and the risk was too great.”
Sadhbh nodded, pursing her vibrant red lips while the five enormous fae watched me with unblinking stares.
“That makes sense why you are this way. How can we help you retrieve the secrets?” She raised her eyebrows and the hope that reflected in her clear green gaze made my heart hurt because I already knew the answer to her question.
“You can't,” I replied softly, my voice once more my own.“Only I can unravel a spell of her—my—creation. Only me, and my knights.”
“Dem Fae Lords,” Fionn muttered, “dey long since gone from dis world, almost as long as you yerself, Gardien.”
“Not them.” I frowned, chasing the soapy bubbles of memory in my mind. “They were hers and when she ceased to exist, so too did they.”
“Ahhh,” Sadhbh nodded and gave me a knowing smile before she sat back and grinned at her husband. “Fionn, mo grá, get us some drinks would you? You're being a terrible host. If we're to aid our Gardien, we can't be expected to sit here with dry mouths, no?”
The red-haired MC president raised an eyebrow at his wife's order and flicked a hand at Donal, who obediently disappeared into the kitchen.
“Now then, I suspect you have already claimed my son to be your Lord of Autumn?” Sadhbh narrowed her eyes at me shrewdly and words escaped me. She had withdrawn completely, leaving me vacant minded and sweating under this intimidating woman's stare.
“Um.” My eyes wide, I glanced over at Reece but he seemed just as interested in the answer to this question as his mother did. Shit.
“Boss.” Donal interrupted our Mexican standoff as he came back into the room. How I knew what a Mexican standoff was, but not how I'd come to be in this body, I had no idea.
“What is it?” Fionn snapped, looking annoyed at this intrusion into my decidedly awkward moment.
“Someone's here to see Le Gardien.” Donal scratched at his bearded chin and shrugged his leather clad shoulders. “Want me to tell her to fuck off?”
“Her?” I asked, despite the question not having been directed at me. They were talking about me and that seemed far more rude than me butting in.
“Yeah.” Donal nodded, acknowledging my question. “The Louisiana Wolves Delta, Amelie.”
“Let her in,” I ordered, with a steely note of command in my voice.
Donal hesitated, glancing from me to his president and back again. When Fionn said nothing to contradict me, Donal shook his head slightly.
“Naw, girl. You don' get it, see? The Louisiana Wolves are a club all in of themselves, ya? It's not good manners to be goin' turnin' up at each other's clubhouse uninvited.” Donal clicked his tongue, like I was the stupidest fucking thing alive.
Maybe I was.
But one thing I knew for sure … this Hunt belonged to me. How dare he question my orders?
“Let her in,” I ordered once more, pressing a careful mental finger against the little glowing orb that was Donal.
That was all it took. Just the reminder that I was the Veil Keeper. Memories or not. And I was never to be disobeyed.
“Of course, Gardien, right away.” Donal dipped his head in obedience and retreated back out of the room. His face beneath his beard was pale, and his gaze skittered across the floor like a horse in a thunderstorm, but instead of regretting my actions, I felt almost a sense of satisfaction.
“Good.” Sadhbh murmured, watching me with the intensity of a falcon on a mouse. “The unity between old and new is still happening. It's slow. But it's happening. There is hope for us all yet.”
This time, I knew exactly what she meant. I could feel it happening. Feel my mind … shifting. With every word we spoke, every magic we used, we became closer to one.
“Delta.” Fionn stood as the dark wolf-woman entered the room with an animalistic grace.
“President.” She nodded in return, then turned her golden brown eyes to me. “Veil Keeper.”
She flashed a bright grin at me, moving into the room and past Reece’s scowling face. Arlo growled at her, but Killian just watched impassively, like he didn’t much care either way. I saw right through him. Nobody in this room liked the werewolf.
“Can we help you?” Sadhbh asked with a cocked brow, pushing red hair over her shoulder and turning to face the newcomer. “You’re breaking every rule in the book right now.”
“Rules?” the girl said with a laugh, scooping her waist-length braids forward and moving around Sadhbh to take a spare seat. “What rules? The Veil Keeper’s back; there are no rules.”
“Like hell dere ain’t,” Reece snarled, but his mother lifted a hand to shush him. He growled low under his breath and I flicked my eyes his way, watching as his snarl shifted into a slight grin. “We don’t need no wolves prowlin’ around da clubhouse, Miss Ciarah.”
“Why are you here?” I asked, because I wanted to hear for myself. That, and I was intrigued by the alpha we’d met outside the bar. “What do you want?”
“What do I want?” the girl asked me, her honey-brown eyes locked onto mine. Her skin was the color of roasted pecans, her clothing not dissimilar to what Sadhbh was wearing, only more colorful. Underneath her leather jacket, she had on a bright pink shirt that she’d paired with holey jeans and brown boots. “I want what everyone here wants,” she said, and I tasted the truth in the air as she spoke, wetting my lips for a moment. “I want back across the Veil,” she said, like her voice was strained to the point of breaking. “I want to see what else is out there beyond this shit …” She trailed off, snapping that last word off the end of her tongue and scowling as she turned away.
“You’re a child, too young to miss the Veil,” Fionn said, but the Delta girl—Amelie—ignored him.
“You’re not the same Veil Keeper,” she said, chewing her lower lip. “That’s good because we need someone modern to deal with the modern world, not some old bag of bones.”
“That’s enough!” Fionn roared, but Sadhbh reached out and put her hand on his belly.
“That is quite enough,” she whispered and I swear, for a moment there, I saw his glamour crack. Either that, or I could simply … see through it to the man underneath. I turned back to Amelie.
“Rafe has sent me as his representative, to ensure that our pack isn’t left in the dust when the time comes.”
“How arrogant,” Killian said, his arms crossed over his chest, his leather trench coat hanging down past the seat of the bar stool he was perched on. He leaned forward, putting an elbow on either knee and steepling his fingers together. “The fact that your alpha thinks you even deserve a representative. This is gentry business.”
“The Veil is everyone’s business,” Amelie ground out, flicking her eyes briefly to Killian and then turning back to me. “The last Veil Keeper didn’t think so, but maybe this one is different?” She scooted toward me. “Are you different, then? You feel different. You might be in her body, but you’ve still got a mind of your own, don
’t you?”
“I …” I started to say, but Arlo interrupted, clearly still upset at not having been able to finish mating. I had the bull by the horns so to speak.
“Let’s toss this bitch out on her ass,” he growled, stalking across the room.
Amelie was up and out of her seat, spinning around to stand behind the couch.
“You touch me and it’s war,” she snapped, her teeth much longer, much sharper than a normal human’s. But then, she wasn’t human, was she? She was werewolf.
“Touch you? You come in here and try to manipulate the Veil Keeper? I should rip you to pieces and feed you to Reece’s goddamn gator.”
“Try me,” Amelie snarled, but I was already rising to my feet.
“She stays,” I blurted and saw Arlo’s green eyes flicker over to mine, the color of wet leaves after a rainstorm. He looked ready to kill the wolf girl. “I want to know what else she has to say.”
“What else?” Arlo snapped, gesturing wildly in the girl’s direction. “She doesn’t know shit. Killian is right—this is gentry business.”
“You mean faerie business,” Amelie purred, a menacing note in her voice.
“I mean gentry,” Arlo growled right back.
It took my fractured mind a moment to put the pieces together. Faerie, fae … any creature born on the other side of the Veil, sharing one intrinsic quality … they cannot lie. And gentry? The elite, the ruling class, like the sidhe.
“I can’t take anymore shouting,” I whispered, because shouting brought to mind other things, endless nights of torture and pain, of iron teeth and claws, being berated for memories that I didn’t have, that I didn’t know. This was almost the same as that—everyone wanted to know what I knew, and they wanted me to do something about it.
I didn’t know a fucking thing.
And I also knew there was a damn good reason for that.
I rose from my seat at the same moment I heard a car pull up outside the clubhouse, tires loud against the gravel driveway.
“Fuck me, that’ll be Caley,” Arlo said, glancing at an old clock on the wall, its plastic face cracked right down the middle. The room went silent for a moment as Arlo’s sister entered and then went completely still.
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