Prince Wolf
The Saga of the Black Wolf
BOOK THREE
A. Katie Rose
OTHER BOOKS BY THIS AUTHOR:
The Saga of the Black Wolf Series:
In a Wolf’s Eyes, Book One
Catch a Wolf, Book Two
Under the Wolf’s Shadow, Book Four
The Unforgiven
Prince Wolf
The Saga of the Black Wolf, Book Three
By A. Katie Rose
Copyright 2014 by A. Katie Rose
Cover Copyright by Ravven and A. Katie Rose
The author is hereby established as the sole holder of the copyright. Either the publisher (House Anderson Publishing) or the author may enforce copyrights to the fullest extent.
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be resold, reproduced or transmitted by any mean in any form or given away to other people without specific permission from the author and/or publisher. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your book retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to the living or dead is entirely coincidental.
There can be no situation in life in which the conversation of my dear sister will not administer some comfort to me.
~Lady Mary Worley Montagu
Brothers and sisters never fail to see the best in each other.
~Gregory E. Lang, Brothers and Sisters
You remember where I've been, respect who I've become, and encourage me where I'm going.
~ Anonymous
For Barb ~ my sister, my friend
Acknowledgments
Once again I wish to thank for their enthusiastic support, helpful ideas and criticisms ~ Lorraine Williams and Shawnee Bilbrey. You two are the best, always ready to read what I write and tell me what works, what doesn’t. I hope you’ll be there for the next installment. And the one after. And the one after that.
And a very special thanks to my cousin, Allison Renoos Hutchings, for her skilled assistance in proofing my manuscript. She worked hard, and asked for so little ~ a six pack of Miller Genuine Draft. Who says that blood and kinship matters little? It matters a great deal among the sons and daughters of the Greene sisters. Slainte mhaith, cuz! Graim Thu!
I cannot express but the deepest and warmest thanks to Ravven, the talented lady from England who designed the extraordinary cover art for this book. Thank you, thank you, Ravven, for seeing my inner thoughts about my characters and breathing life into them. As a cover designer, as a fine lady, she rocks! If anyone wishes to check out her talents for themselves, she can be contacted at http://www.ravven.com.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Chapter One. The Search Begins
Chapter Two. Wolf Bait
Chapter Three. Into the Desert
Chapter Four. The Black Wolf Tavern
Chapter Five. Treachery From Within
Chapter Six. The Hunters and the Hunted
Chapter Seven. Rygel Guilty, Rygel Innocent
Chapter Eight. A Witch’s Vengeance
Chapter Nine. The Cursed Ones
Chapter Ten. For the Love of Feria
About the Author
Chapter One
The Search Begins
Stunned, I watched Raine wink out of existence.
I staggered, unable to feel my feet under me. He left me. Just like that. He left me. Cold settled into my bones, deepened into an ache in my heart. He left me. I couldn’t stop the numbing refrain inside my head. He left. He left us all. He left me. Without a backward glance he left me.
My anger drained away, leaving behind a hollow gourd where my heart used to be. I felt no fear, no hate, nor love. I felt nothing but the pain that centered itself in my chest and spread its evil fingers through my body. He left me.
Rygel’s bitter cursing broke through my mental tail-chasing at last. Tuatha’s anguished screams overrode the hurt and angry growls of the wolves, the confused mutters of my boys. In a daze, I turned around, still trying to find my balance. Arianne slumped to the ground, sobbing, clutching the howling pup to her thin chest. Her midnight hair concealed them both. Her wolf, Darkhan, hovered close, his anxiety clear in his slack ears and lowered tail.
Wolves prowled about the dead camp, hackles raised, while no few snarled at one another. Silverruff growled continually, his ears flat to his head. I had no idea what they were saying and Rygel was too busy cursing and Arianne too busy crying to translate.
“That stupid fool,” Rygel snarled. “I’ll kill him when I find him.”
Numb, I lifted my eyes from the distraught Arianne and Tuatha. “What?”
“I’m going to kick his furry black ass,” Tashira snorted, his ears also flat, his thick tail sweeping from side to side.
“Good luck with that,” Shardon said. “He still has very big teeth.”
Whirling, Tashira lashed out with his hind leg, kicking his silver brother on the shoulder with one very large hoof.
“What the hell?” Shardon exclaimed, leaping sideways, away from Tashira’s wrath.
“Just shut up!” Tashira commanded. “I’m sick of your stupid comments about his teeth. When I find him, he’ll be one sorry wolf.”
“I’m just – “
“Shut your bloody mouth.”
Turning his back, Tashira stalked away. No one, wolf or human, dared remain in his path. Snorting his fury, Tashira stormed up and down at the clearing’s edge, venting his anger on the hapless earth with his hooves.
“That’s if he hasn’t already killed himself,” Rygel added through his curses, running his hands through his wheaten locks and blowing out his breath in a sharp gust.
His words melted away some of the numbness from my soul. “What do you mean?”
He ceased swearing, and turned toward me, his blood-shot eyes bleak. His hands rose to run through his hair, but dropped to hook his thumbs through his sword belt. “Wizards don’t transport themselves to a place they’ve never been before. How can you know where you’re going?”
Horror dawned inside my thick skull. “Oh, gods – “
“He could have transported himself into the air a few feet beyond a cliff,” Rygel continued grimly, imitating Tashira and pacing up and down. “Or into solid rock. He took off, blind, literally.”
Grief erased the remaining shock from my brain and soul. What have I done? He knew he went to his death and I hurled my hatred into his face. Raine, Raine, forgive me. Oh, Lady what have I done –
“What about your bond?” Corwyn asked, striding forward, his blue eyes under lowered brows filled not with anger, but fear. “Can you feel him? Is he alive?”
Rygel stopped pacing and frowned. Shutting his eyes, he concentrated. I ceased to breathe, watching him. The wolves ceased their snarls at one another. Tashira paused mid-step to gaze at Rygel, his huge brown eyes dark red with anger. I think we all stared at him with hope, with grief, with desperation.
At last, Rygel fetched a deep breath and nodded. “He’s alive, but very far away. He’s at least several days ride to the north.”
Tashira continued his furious pacing. Arianne’s sobs subsided into coughs and hiccups, but Tuatha’s grief did not. He no longer screamed, but his whimpering cries echoed the grief and guilt I felt.
Silverruff growled at Rygel. Rygel nodded in response. “Yes, I will.”
My head rose. Something in his firm tone warned me. “You will? You will what? What did he say?”
“He asked if I was go
ing after him. I am.”
“Despite your oath?”
Rygel smiled grimly. “I am already condemned, cursed. What’s a broken word in the face of that?”
Thunder growled in the distance. The breeze picked up, lowering the warm temperature of the sunny morning. I paid little attention, though, as I stalked around the clearing, my hand on my sword hilt. New will forged like iron in my heart, expelling the grief, as I gazed into the eyes of my warriors.
“You all,” I began slowly, choosing my words carefully, “have sworn your oaths to me.”
Around me, all activity halted. Witraz ceased stroking his piebald’s face, the laughing wolf, who no longer laughed, at his feet. Alun, caught amid the necessary packing of his saddlebags, dropped them to the ground beside his saddle. Rannon, Left and Right wandered closer to me, as though instinctively knowing what I was about to say, their hands on their hilts. Kel’Ratan scowled, smoothing his mustache with his fingers.
While I did not look at the wolves, or Bar, or the Tarbane, I felt their eyes on me. My boys, as one man in strict military formation, stepped forward in a line without glancing at one another. At disciplined attention, they stood stiff and expressionless, backs ramrod straight, their eyes blank. Tor stood between Yuri and Yuras, his head not even reaching their burly shoulders, imitating their stance. Like them, he stood as though he’d had the disciplined preparation the others did, his brown eyes staring, not at me, but past. Like any well-trained soldier, he awaited his marching orders.
Corwyn, his hand on his sword hilt, stood protectively over Arianne, yet his fierce blue eyes watched me with approval. Something sank into Kel’Ratan’s head, for his scowl deepened, and he ceased his rhythmic stroking. I heard him step closer to my back, sensed his rising suspicion, but I ignored him.
“You all know I’m not good with speeches,” I continued on, slowly pacing back and forth before them. “So I’ll say this straight and simply. I free you from your bonds of loyalty. You no longer owe me your allegiance.”
Kel’Ratan choked, strangling. “What – “
I paid him no heed. “You know where I’m going and why. You’re all free to go home, swear your loyalty to my father. I’d not ask any of you to accompany me. Though if you do, I’d welcome you with open arms. I go with Rygel.”
I glanced around at the dozen or so wolves. “And with them, should they so choose.”
Barks, growls and snarls greeted my words. Ears perked as tails wagged, the huge pack ringed me round. I glanced from one to another, stepping around to view those at my back, lowering my hands so they might sniff, lick and wag over them. Had I not previously understood their intelligence, loyalty and sweet natures, I might have feared for my safety. Any one of them might kill me with little effort, yet I felt no fear. They loved Raine and I was Raine’s mate.
Rygel smiled slightly as he translated. “They’re going.”
Thunder cracked again, closer this time. The freshening breeze whipped my hair into my eyes. Impatiently, I swept it back, glancing up at the tree branches tossing about, their leaves whipped by the wind. A bank of dark grey clouds darkened the blue skyline just over the treetops. A bloody storm coming. Just what we need, I thought sourly.
Arianne rose awkwardly to her feet, the now silent Tuatha in her arms.
“I’m coming, too,” announced Tashira, trotting back to the group.
“Where Rygel goes,” Shardon said. “I go.”
Kel’Ratan freed his voice and his anger. “Ly’Tana! You will not. He made it quite clear he doesn’t want us, nor does he need us. We – you, the warriors and me, are going home.”
I faced him calmly. “You don’t have a say in this.”
He leaned toward me, threatening, his finger raised to point into my face. “Don’t I?”
“You don’t.”
“You’ve a choice,” he ground out, spittle slicking his teeth. “Come home with me now –”
While his blue eyes glared down into mine, his finger left me and pointed to my boys. He smiled grimly, his words now soft. “–or don’t. If you choose not to come willingly, I’ll have them tie you to your horse and take you back to Kel’Halla in chains.”
I smiled at my furious cousin. “No. They won’t.”
He straightened, a tiny, evil smile playing about his mustache. “That’s how you want to play, then, eh? Witraz, get some rope. Rannon and Alun, take her.”
In the heavy silence, no one spoke, shuffled their feet, coughed, sniffed, nor scratched an itch. The wolves tensed, hackles raised along spines, as they stood quiet, waiting. Waiting for a leader to emerge whom they’d follow. Only the growling thunder, closer yet, echoed through the clearing.
Kel’Ratan glanced up, away from my face. He looked around at the warriors who neglected to obey his orders.
“Did you hear what I said?” he demanded.
Witraz nodded. “We heard you, m’lord Duke.”
“Well?”
Now Witraz glanced at his companions, his fellow warriors, taking courage from their unspoken support. He took a deep breath and met Kel’Ratan’s glower fully. “We don’t answer to you. M’lord.”
“What?!” Kel’Ratan all but screamed.
“Had Her Highness not released us from our vows,” Witraz went on quietly, “we still would go where she goes. Our oaths were to her, m’lord, begging your pardon, not you.”
“Released or not,” said Alun. “I go with her. The Prince saved her life, her honor, kept her out of Brutal’s vicious hands.”
Alun paused, glancing around the camp, his brother warriors, before finally looking back at my furious cousin. “In saving Her Highness, he saved Kel’Halla from certain ruin. Had she released me and chosen to go home with you, I’d still follow after him. He’s deserving of my loyalty and my life.”
Rannon stepped forward and bowed low. “I don’t wish your enmity, m’lord Duke,” he said quietly. “I pray for your understanding and forgiveness. I’m not released from my bonds of fealty despite her words. I’ll go with her. And follow him.”
I knew what Left and Right would do. Only death would part them from going wherever I went. As one, they snapped identical salutes to Kel’Ratan and, at stiff attention, stalked to stand at my back.
That left Yuri and Yuras. While they didn’t act in unison like Left and Right, they both nodded slowly, blue eyes both sad and grim at the same time. “Alun spoke the words of my heart,” Yuri said quietly. “I refuse her release. I’m still sworn to her and I will ride with her. Even unto hell.”
“Prince Raine needs us,” said Yuras. “He just doesn’t know it.”
Kel’Ratan swung back around to me. “What about your oath?” he sneered. “You swore your fealty, your obedience, to him. Will you damn yourself by foreswearing?”
I smiled. “I will, if it saves his life.”
Kel’Ratan straightened slowly and grinned, an evil, sardonic grin that told me he held an ace up his sleeve. “We’ll see about that.”
He raised his eyes and looked beyond my head. “Bar. You at least have some brains. You’ll help me keep her alive.”
I stiffened. His calling on Bar caught me by surprise. I refused to let that show in my face, however. I didn’t turn to see Bar’s reaction, but stood facing my cousin, my smile still frozen in place. Of anyone present, Bar alone could force me home to Kel’Halla. I mentally bit my knuckle. If Bar sided with Kel’Ratan….
Feathers ruffled as Bar shook his mane. He chirped in a good-humored way.
Dull red, the color of old bricks, suffused Kel’Ratan face. He needed no translation. My huge bodyguard, who, under any circumstances, never permitted me to act rashly. In this, at least, Bar trusted me. I didn’t let any triumph show, for I felt none. Raine was right: we most probably rode to our deaths. But I’ll be damned before I let him die alone.
“Damn you,” Kel’Ratan growled, humiliated, his face suffused with hot blood. “You’ll come with me now.”
He seized my arm.
>
Beside me, Silverruff growled low in his chest.
“He’s warning you not to touch her,” Rygel translated.
Kel’Ratan glared down at the huge wolf. “I’ll not have some beast tell me what I will or will not do. She rides home with me. The rest of you can go to hell.”
“We intend to,” Rygel replied amiably, thumbs hooked in his belt. “While I love you, Kel’Ratan, as I would my brother, you’ll release her. Or by all I hold holy there will be blood.”
Kel’Ratan sensibly had grabbed me with his left hand. With his right, he drew steel. His teeth bared in a demented grin. “Are you threatening me, bastard?”
“Too bloody right, I’m threatening you.”
“Hold, all of you. This is ridiculous.”
Corwyn’s voice, all but drowned out by an explosion of thunder, froze both Kel’Ratan and Rygel in their tracks. Not far away, deep in the forest, the barking crack of lightning striking a tree echoed crazily. Instinctively, I spun around, as Kel’Ratan released my arm. Crikey, that was close. I swept my hair from my face, sizing up the still-blue sky and melding it with the oncoming storm. Too early in the morning for this type of weather, I thought, biting my fingernail.
“Come with me,” said Corwyn, seizing Kel’Ratan by the collar.
“What?” Kel’Ratan asked, confused. “Where?”
“Over here. Come on.”
Whatever Corwyn said to Kel’Ratan, it worked. The tension left his body. He shoved his sword back into its sheath and he combed his mustache with his free hand. Kel’Ratan-talk for: ‘I’m listening’.
“The gods must have an interesting sense of humor,” Witraz muttered, offering me a half-salute as he returned to his piebald. He tripped over the big silver wolf, who laughed as Witraz cursed under his breath. Still shaking his head and muttering, he finished his task of tying his saddlebags to his stallion’s saddle.
“What do you mean?”
He jerked his thumb at the oncoming storm. “Effing last thing we need.”
Prince Wolf Page 1
