“He saved your furry neck! Tried to tear the amulet right off Nickelova, and if I might add, delivered a few impressive blows before she knocked him out. I’ve never seen a man take so much magical abuse and continue breathing.”
“But, I thought—”
“Alex may have bamboozled him into being his tool, but Nate did the right thing in the end. He needs help. I can get us to Bojingles Fae Hospital but I have very little energy left. I can’t do it twice.”
Laina hobbled over to Nate, desperately wanting to ask where Bojingles Hospital was. She’d never heard of it, but then, she knew very little about fairies. There was no way she was going to be able to lift Nate—the man weighed 300 pounds if he weighed an ounce—so she hooked her hands beneath his rounded shoulders and dragged him to the others. If the process hurt him in any way, it was not enough to rouse him. Laina only knew he was alive because his chest rose and fell at regular intervals.
“Very good,” Gerty said, pressing a hand to her belly. “Now link arms and pray this old tree has another ring in her trunk.”
With a wave of her silver wand, Gerty gave Laina her first taste of fairy magic.
Perched on the edge of the chair beside Kyle’s hospital bed, Laina focused on the weave of the white blanket that covered him. The craftsmanship was exquisite as if woven from spider’s silk by the spider herself. Then again, maybe it was. One of many marvels of the Bojingles Fae Hospital.
The doctor, a blue man not more than two feet tall, had told her that if Kyle’s supernatural side weren’t dormant, the fire lily juice they normally used on wounds would have healed him in no time. Jason, whose injuries were twice as serious as Kyle’s, had already been healed and discharged. But because Kyle’s supernatural inheritance was buried deep within his human form, the fire lily juice helped very little. They were counting on human medicine—stitches, antibiotics, and painkillers—to heal him and his brother, Nate, something the fae doctors had very little experience with.
Kyle wasn’t doing well. He’d lost too much blood and his skin was pale to the point of harboring a subtle gray tinge. As she stared at him, memorizing his profile, the line of his body under the spiderweb blanket, she was surprisingly numb on the inside. On an intellectual level, she understood she might lose him and that this loss would be similar in magnitude to losing her parents. But she observed the situation from a distance with an icy, cold detachment, a stranger in her own body.
“How’s he doing?” Silas said, entering the room.
“Worse. I think he’s dying.”
“Gerty and Arthur won’t let that happen.”
Laina focused on her brother. “What is she? Why couldn’t I sense she was supernatural?”
“She’s Kyle’s fairy godmother, a woodland fae. From what I understand, Kyle’s father offered to buy and protect the land where she and her husband’s host trees grow in exchange for her protection of the boys. All woodland fae must return to their trees at regular intervals. Arthur didn’t have knee surgery, he’s been rejuvenating there. Apparently the property is still owned by their family.”
“The cabin in Red Grove.”
“Kyle and Nate wondered why their father went there to die. That explains it. It was Gerty’s enchantment over Kyle’s house and Milo was a gift from her people.”
“What happened to Kyle’s real mother?”
“No one seems to know. I’m a detective, but if Gerty knows, she’s an excellent liar.” Silas scratched behind his ear. “What are you going to do about this, Laina?”
“What do you mean?”
“I know you love him and it is painfully clear he loves you. But you are a werewolf princess targeted for assassination by a rogue wolf with a dragon fae girlfriend, a dragon fae strong enough to slip through a woodland fae’s protection spell and live next to her undetected for two months.”
Laina said nothing, but hung her head and stared into her lap.
“If you love Kyle, truly love him, you have to end this now. You can’t walk away from who you are and if Kyle tries to be a part of your life, he’ll always be a pawn in this violent game we’re playing with Alex.”
“Alex was dying. I tore his liver in two.”
“Nickelova will heal him. He’ll want revenge. He’ll want my head. As a human in the public eye, Kyle will be a sitting duck. Alex will pick him off at the first opportunity to circumvent Gerty’s defenses. And thanks to Nickelova, he now knows more about those defenses than ever before.”
“If I abandon Kyle, do you think Alex will leave him alone after what happened last night?”
“A madman’s thinking is hardly prone to logic, but it seems that Alex’s goal is revenge on our pack and the Lycanthropic Society. I think Kyle has a much better chance without you, don’t you?”
Everything Silas said was true. She’d known this day would come. Her pack needed her and it was well past time for her to return to her old life. She did love Kyle, loved him so much that she would sacrifice her selfish desire to keep him in her life, in order to keep him safe.
“Maybe someday, when Alex is truly dead—”
“What, Silas? Are you suggesting we could have a future if Alex wasn’t around?”
Silas shrugged.
The pain that radiated from Laina’s heart was unbearable. “Excuse me.” She stood and rushed from the room, plucking a Kleenex from the box at the nurse’s station as fresh tears poured from her eyes. She headed for the privacy of the bathroom.
“Laina?” Jason snagged her elbow, pulling her into the alcove of vending machines.
Laina stopped crying long enough to grab Jason’s upper arms and scan his dark T-shirt and jeans for any signs of the devastation his body had once endured. “Goddess, you’re as good as new.”
“Fire lily juice. Who knew?”
“Apparently, our pack needs to improve relations with the fae.” She dabbed her eyes.
“Why are you crying?”
“Oh”—she waved her hand dismissively—“just realizing that I should have listened to you. Kyle is lying in that bed because…” She drifted off, the tears running anew.
Jason pulled her into his arms. “I get it, all right? I slept with Nickelova. I’m the reason Alex was able to find us to begin with. There’s plenty of guilt to go around.”
“What?” Laina pushed him back by the shoulders. “Who told you that?”
“I did,” Silas said. He slipped a silver coin into the coffee machine and pressed the button for black. Laina had a moment to appreciate that the offerings in the vending machines behind him included sardines and chrysanthemum flowers but not a single bag of Doritos. “Nickelova was probably searching all the supernatural safe houses in the country when she came across Jason. She would have sensed he was a wolf immediately but she’d never met him in person. Once he got naked, the phoenix tattoo gave him away. Monty would have sniffed her out in an instant. So she took the job at Hunt Club, knowing Gerty’s magic would mask her own. Then it was just a matter of finding a way to lure you out of hiding. When Monty sent you to Hunt Club, he handed you over to the enemy.”
“But why didn’t Gerty sense what she was?”
“Gerty’s enchantment only extended over the east wing. Nickelova stayed in the west. She was only able to cross over the day you saw her because Gerty had to adjust the enchantment for Jason’s arrival.” His bushy eyebrows sagged and he fished the coffee from the machine. After one sip, his face twisted, and he frowned into the oddly colored brew. “Acorn coffee. I should have known.”
“So, you think this is Jason’s fault,” Laina said to Silas, incredulously.
“No. This is Alex’s fault. He’s a psychopath with a brainwashed, dragon-powered sidekick who will stop at nothing to have his revenge. We didn’t make him what he is. He did that to himself.”
“I don’t want to do this anymore,” Jason said, his eyes finding Laina’s. A tortured expression marred his face. “I just want to go home.”
“Me too,” Lain
a said.
With a shrug, Silas tossed the full coffee into the garbage and gathered them both into a group hug. “Good news. Rivergate Manor is fully protected and open for business. Cameron has agreed to let us stay there, together, until we end this thing with Alex.”
“You mean until we find him and kill him.”
“There’s no other way.”
Laina glanced back toward Kyle’s room.
“Do you want to leave him a note for when he wakes up?” Silas’s tone was soft and kind.
“No,” she said. “I think the less that is said, the better. Besides, I’d never find the words.”
Silas kissed her on the temple. Without another syllable, they left for home.
Thirty-One
Kyle stared at the spoon in front of his lips and shook his head. Some part of him understood he was acting like a child, but he didn’t care. His body may have healed over the last weeks, but his heart was irreparably broken.
“Milo,” he called, patting the bed beside him. The mastiff crawled onto the mattress and snuggled in close, resting his head on Kyle’s chest and whining softly. “You miss her too, huh boy?”
“Not this again,” Gerty said, plunging the spoon back in the bowl of enchanted oatmeal she’d made for her patient. “It’s time for you to move on.”
“But how could she just leave like that?”
“It was for the best, Kyle. She’s a werewolf princess with a price on her head. You’re a human entrepreneur. She understood there was no future for the two of you. You should be thankful she was brave enough to do the right thing and end it when she did.” Gerty rolled her eyes.
“We could have worked things out if she’d given us a chance.”
“How would it work out? Her people need her. She had to go home. Your business needs you. You need to stay here. What type of relationship would be possible under those conditions? Besides, she knew you would never be safe so long as Alex is still out there.”
“That’s why she left, isn’t it? To keep me safe. Just like she took that bullet for me.”
“I’m fairly sure that bullet was meant for her, but yes, I’m sure your safety had much to do with her wise decision to leave. Now come. You must eat. You’re wasting away.”
He shook his head. “I’m tired. Why don’t you take the rest of the day off?” He curled on his side away from her and closed his eyes.
Gerty made a disapproving grunt and left the room in a huff. Several minutes later, footsteps entered the room again. “I told you I’m not hungry.”
“Move over,” Nate said. “My back is still killing me.”
Although Milo protested, Kyle managed to scoot the mastiff over and make room for Nate’s considerable girth. “You feeling better?”
“Yeah. Practically good as new. Can’t you tell?” Nate held up his right arm, still in a cast, and flopped back on the pillow.
“How ’bout you?”
“Gerty says the scars on my face won’t ever go away.” Kyle pointed to a bite mark that ran from his left cheekbone to his jaw and continued under his chin. He didn’t remember the moment the bite happened or precisely when he’d passed out from either pain or blood loss, but after weeks of magical treatments, the shiny silver scars had proved there to stay.
A rumble of laughter bubbled from Nate’s chest. “Don’t worry, kid. You’re still prettier than me.”
“She left me, Nate.”
His brother sighed deeply. “I heard. I had to threaten Gerty with breaking her wand but she told me. Obviously, she feels this is the best way to protect you. I mean, the chick took a bullet for you. Why? I will never understand. Personally, I’d find that level of commitment suffocating. Not you. You seemed to enjoy monogamy. Bleck.”
Kyle turned to stare at his brother’s amphibious head. “Of course I enjoyed it. I had real intimacy, Nate, for the first time in my life. She loved me for me, not for what I had, not for who I was, for me. I’ll never find that again.”
“Most people never find that at all,” Nate said toward the ceiling. There was a long stretch of silence. “What do you plan to do now with all your free time?”
Kyle furrowed his brow. “Free time? You mean while I recover?”
“No, I mean now that you can’t work at Hunt Club. The board is asking for your resignation. You effectively quit your job before this all went down, and the general consensus is that Hunt Club can get along without you.”
“They can?” Kyle knew damn well that he’d been an integral part of leading the company and not just because he had a pretty face. But what was Nate up to?
“Yes. And actually, I was thinking that, since you are not exactly useful to us anymore, maybe you should take some time off at full pay and go to New Hampshire to manage the cabin Dad left us and the property with Gerty’s trees.”
“Yeah? You think I should?”
“And maybe, while you’re at it, you should stop at this address.” He pulled a piece of sparkly blue paper from his pocket and handed it to Kyle. “I had to pay a pretty penny to the nurse at Tinkerbell Memorial Hospital for that one.”
“Tinkerbell Memorial?”
“Hell if I know the real name of the place. I’m just glad to be somewhere they don’t sprinkle rose pollen on everything. I was still hopped up on fairy dust when Gerty brought us home. Anyhow, that address was expensive, so it would be great if you, you know, checked it out.”
“Whose address is this?”
“Who do you think?” The corners of Nate’s wide mouth spread almost to his ears.
“I can’t just show up on her doorstep. She left me. What if she doesn’t want to see me?”
“You know what the problem with you is? You’ve always been the pretty one. You’ve never had a girl tell you no, so you don’t understand that sometimes you gotta, you know, sell the goods. Chicks tell me no all the time. But I get more fox than a chicken coop because I’m persistent.”
“What are you trying to say?”
“I’m saying, you go after her, shit-for-brains. And considering she’s a werewolf, I wouldn’t do it gently. Be the alpha. Take her back.” Nate crossed his arms over his chest and closed his eyes.
Kyle turned the sparkly paper between his fingers, then bound from the bed and started shoving clothes into a duffle bag. In less than twenty minutes, he was heading out the door.
“Don’t you dare leave this dog here. I’m not taking care of it,” Nate said, pointing at Milo.
“Milo, come.” Kyle slapped his thigh. The mastiff bound from the bed, tail wagging, and jogged after him. Man and dog slipped into the world like fallen sycamore seeds spinning on the wind, searching for a welcoming place to lay down roots.
Thirty-Two
“You’re going to look like a snow queen,” Becca said.
Laina’s human friend and assistant finished zipping the tight waist of her fur-lined dress. The first snow of the year had blanketed Rivergate Manor in a thick layer of white that morning, hiding every imperfection in the garden that would serve as her aisle and altar. She supposed Becca was right; the white fur cuffs and hem of her dress, along with the diamond tiara that held her veil, fit the winter wonderland royalty motif. But even Becca had no idea that the chill in the air leeched straight through Laina’s skin, all the way to her heart.
“Thank you for doing this,” Laina said.
“Are you kidding? I wouldn’t miss it for the world. Since I found out you were a wolf, I’ve been dying to see this place. I’m so happy for you. All the time you were gone, I prayed they’d catch that asshole and you’d be able to come home. I never thought you’d find a husband too.”
Laina gave Becca a small smile and nodded toward the door. “It’s time.”
Her human friend led the way to Rivergate’s courtyard, the snow-covered garden overflowing with flowers brought out minutes before. They’d only last for the ceremony in this chill, but they were beautiful. Over Becca’s shoulder, Laina saw Cameron in the traditional belted wool
robe of her people. His was deep blue, Rivergate pack’s signature color, the insignia of three parallel lines on the back to match his tattoo. She knew the ancient garb was probably scratchy and uncomfortable, but it was necessary for the ceremony. Both her dress and his tunic had one detachable sleeve that would be removed so that once they were married, the Preotka, or priestess, could carve Cameron’s Rivergate tattoo under her phoenix tattoo and vice versa, forever uniting their packs through marriage. Children of their union would be able to choose which of the original packs to belong to upon their first shift.
The music started and Becca strode down the short aisle, an icy breeze stirring up her hair. Laina picked up the pillow holding two enormous fangs, one from the original ancestor of Fireborn pack, the other from the original ancestor of the Rivergate pack. Resting it on her upturned palms, she carried it to the altar and set it down beside Preotka Artemis, who was dressed in her crimson ceremonial robes.
When the music stopped, Artemis raised her hands. “Welcome wolves to the binding of Cameron James of Rivergate lineage and Laina Flynn of Fireborn pack. It is my honor to—”
The door at the back of the gardens slammed shut and a large man with a very large dog stood at the top of the aisle. “Stop this, Laina,” Kyle demanded, staring her right in the eye. “You will not marry him.”
Inside her head, Laina’s wolf whimpered, not out of fear but out of the desire to submit to Kyle’s demands, to go back to that place where she felt warm and safe in his arms. “What are you doing here, Kyle?” She meant to sound firm but the words came out like wisps of smoke.
“I’m here for you. You can’t marry this guy.” He stepped forward, Milo heeling perfectly at his side without a lead.
“Why?”
“Because you love me. You’re mine. You promised yourself to me.”
“You’re human,” Laina said. “It will never work.”
“How is he here?” Artemis asked softly, referring to Rivergate’s enchantment.
“I don’t know,” Laina whispered.
Vice (Fireborn Wolves Book 1) Page 20
