by Bianca D'Arc
“I taught you, didn’t I?” Geoff scoffed back jokingly at his nephew.
Gabe had to be in his mid-twenties, but as the youngest of the family, he was treated as if he were the baby. Ray suspected they’d be in for a surprise if a crisis came their way. Gabe radiated a vast power that impressed Ray, now that he was close enough to feel it.
“That you did, Uncle Geoff, but you know my heart isn’t really in reciting long litanies or chanting my head off. I’m a little more…uh…direct than that,” Gabe complained, but Ray could see it was all in fun. The men of Deena’s family had a good relationship vibe among them, which boded well for Josh’s eventual acceptance among them.
Ray shook his head and sighed dramatically. “I don’t think Josh would sit still long enough for me to teach him spell work,” Ray commiserated with Geoff. “At this stage, he’s more a man of action, like young Gabe here. So, I’m teaching him sword work instead.” Ray figured he might as well bring that out into the open since they’d probably seen Ray and Josh earlier that morning when the family had pulled in.
“I’d wondered about that,” Peter admitted. “What’s that all about? Is there a need for a werewolf mage to use a sword in this day and age?”
Josh must’ve heard because he came over, leaving the animals, though some of them followed at his heels, rubbing against his legs. They really loved him, and it was both heart-warming and amusing to watch.
“Deena and I talked about this…” Josh began. “And she decided it’s not her place to say whether or not you’re all told the exact nature of my power. You can confirm this with her, of course,” Josh said politely, “but her intention is to let the Mother of All make that decision.”
“What?” Peter looked confused.
“How?” Geoff asked at the same time.
“At our wedding. If the Goddess wills it, you’ll all see my true nature. And if not, then we’ll know for certain that some secrets are still to be kept,” Josh finished mysteriously.
“Very cagey, young man,” Peter said, giving Josh a side-eyed look.
“It’s only fair though, Dad.” Gabe came to Josh’s defense, somewhat surprisingly. “The Mother of All will decide. That’s the best way to go. You already know She wouldn’t have allowed Deena to mate just anyone. Josh has already got the Goddess’s blessing. That should be enough for us. Anything else is just curiosity on our parts and maybe not any of our business.”
Ray felt his eyebrows rise as the young man spoke. Very wise words for one so young, he thought. This Gabe would bear watching. He had the fey blood, like the rest of his female kin. Perhaps he had a bit of empathy—or some higher calling—that would reveal itself in time.
Josh grinned. “Glad to hear you say that, Gabe. For now, I guess we’ll just say my father is kind of an old guy, and back in his day, things were done with swords. Seeing as how we’ve only just met, I’m humoring the guy and learning something that’s always intrigued me.”
All eyes turned to study Ray again, and he did his best not to fidget. It was Gabe who broke the momentary silence.
“You’re a full-blooded fey, which means you’re pretty much immortal by human reckoning.” Gabe’s voice was hushed with wonder. “The things you must’ve seen. Were you really around during medieval times?”
Ray decided to indulge Gabe’s curiosity. For one thing, he was trying to make friends of these people. For another, it was a good way to take the focus off what Josh might or might not be.
“Back in those days, it was much easier to travel between faerie and the mortal realm,” Ray admitted. “I made regular visits here going back even further than that, but the most time I spent here was during the great war with the Destroyer. Humans call that time the Dark Ages. The only weapons we had back then were the old-fashioned kind. I fought with a dual sword style that few ever emulated, but Josh is doing well learning it. And I fought with magic, of course. Back then, mages were more plentiful, and the magic of this realm bubbled much closer to the surface.”
Peter cleared his throat, drawing attention. “This seems like a natural point at which to confess that I looked you up in the family archive.” His expression was a bit sheepish.
“Archive?” Josh asked. “Deena didn’t mention her family had an archive.”
Peter stood a bit straighter, no longer leaning against the fence. “My side of the family has been producing magical offspring since ancient times,” he said with only a hint of pride in his voice. “The Llewellyn Archive is open to her, and to all my children, but she’s never shown an interest in it.”
“Wait a minute. Deena’s family name is Llewellyn?” Ray asked as, suddenly, pieces of a puzzle he hadn’t known he’d been working on clicked into place. He felt a grin coming on.
“Well, yeah,” Josh said. “I thought you knew that.”
“Actually, I didn’t, but it explains a lot.” Yes, he could feel the grin spreading over his face, but did nothing to stop it as he turned to Deena’s father. “I knew a Peter Llewellyn many centuries ago. If I look closely, I see his influence. You have his shade of gray-blue eyes.”
“Then, you really did know my ancestor?” The modern Peter seemed truly touched, his voice subdued.
“I knew him, respected him, and fought at his side many times over. He was a great man and a superior mage.” Ray walked over to Peter and put one hand on his shoulder. “He was also a good friend.”
A moment passed while Ray’s words hung in the air between them. Peter placed his hand over Ray’s.
“I hope we can also be friends. Especially considering that we’re likely going to be sharing grandchildren.” They all laughed then, and Ray let go of Peter’s shoulder, moving back a bit.
Things were easier between them now. He could feel the bonds of friendship starting to form. It would still take time, but this was a very good start.
“So, what did it say about me in your archive?” Ray wanted to know.
“Well, there was a great deal of information written by my ancestor Peter about his friend, Lord Rayburne. He speculated that you were not of this realm, but he didn’t seem to know for certain.”
“Och, in those days, it was never wise to advertise if you were fey. The townsfolk didn’t like my kind. It was a lot easier to cross the barrier between the realms back then, and some fey who came through did some rather nasty things here. Stealing children. Beguiling people’s wives or husbands. Playing dirty tricks on the humans. A lot of the uncomplimentary old legends about fey have some basis in truth, unfortunately.” Ray frowned.
“Are you really a lord?” Josh asked.
“In a manner of speaking. I was a fighting man, and back then, if you were good at that sort of thing and pledged your sword to a decent king, if you lived long enough, he’d give you a title and some land. I didn’t live on the lands I was awarded for long, but I tried to be good to the people who lived there.” Ray shrugged. “I didn’t care much for titles, but it opened doors and helped me get things done back then. For one thing, it made it easier for me to raise a decent army when Elspeth’s forces came against us. That’s when I first met your ancestor, Peter. He was a powerful mage, and he came in with a fighting force of his own. All the members of his family were blessed with magic…and lots of it.”
“So, not all of Deena’s power comes from her fey great-grandmother,” Josh observed, looking at Peter with new respect.
“No, not all,” Peter said modestly. “Though you should know, I’ll be adding your name to the family archive in due course,” he warned Josh with a grin.
“Now, that’s true immortality,” Ray observed wryly and they all chuckled.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Evie kept an eye on Ray out the window of the farmhouse when she could. The men seemed to be chatting near the barn, though it was cold enough outside that their breath made little clouds in front of their faces. Male bonding, she supposed.
The women had gotten down to serious wedding planning, including creating a ki
tchen schedule that boggled Evie’s mind. They had everything planned down to the minute as to who would cook what and when. A shopping trip was being organized to pick up a two-page list of supplies they’d compiled, and Deena’s mother and aunt had already volunteered their husbands to go along with them on the expedition to the local grocery store.
Evie was glad they weren’t depending on her to contribute too much. She was feeling a little overwhelmed by the organized chaos of their conversation, and she realized she’d missed this after leaving home. Her Pack had been big and boisterous like this too. They’d had their good aspects, though her family’s refusal to accept Ray had been the breaking point.
As a result, Evie had missed out on this sort of thing. She wouldn’t have changed things. She’d gotten Josh, and he’d been more than enough for her. Now, she’d gotten Ray back, too, and her life was finally looking up once again. But watching Deena’s family, she felt a little wistful too.
When the minivan left down the gravel drive carrying Deena and the rest of her family, along with the huge shopping list, Evie felt a little relieved. Ray had come back in with Josh, and they were eating a quick lunch of sandwiches before they went back out to take advantage of the relative quiet to get a bit more training in before the family came back with the supplies.
It was just the three of them—Josh, Ray and Evie—eating a quiet meal together while Deena went shopping with her family. Evie thought she’d have a bit of time to recover from the madness of the morning when Josh broached a subject she’d been dreading.
“Mom, do you have contact information for your parents?” Josh said, using his purposefully-nonchalant voice. She recognized it immediately, even as her stomach lurched at the question.
“Why?” she asked in reply, needing time to sort out her feelings before dealing with this emotionally charged topic.
“Deena was wondering if we shouldn’t at least make them aware of our wedding. It seemed rude to her not to at least send an announcement. I told her you wouldn’t go for it, but I did promise to at least ask.” Josh was examining his sandwich as he explained, pretending that this subject wasn’t as important to him as she knew it was.
Evie looked to Ray for support. She honestly didn’t know what to say, so she started with the simple stuff.
“I know where to find them if they haven’t moved. But you know how territorial wolves are, so I suppose they haven’t moved and probably never will,” she told him.
“Look, Mom. I didn’t ask this to hurt you. I know you don’t ever talk about the past, but just recently, the past has come back to bite me on the butt.” He chuckled wryly, and she knew he was talking about the fact that she’d never told him he was half-fey. “I think there are a few things I need to know about before any of my missing knowledge inadvertently puts my mate at risk. It’s not just me I have to think about anymore, but Deena too. I’d like to know about your old Pack and maybe reach out to them, if they’re at all reasonable people.”
Evie felt sick. She hadn’t been able to talk about the past when she’d thought Ray was gone forever. That included anything about Ray himself and how her family had forbidden her to mate with him. She had kept Josh in the dark about so much. It hadn’t really been intentional. It had just been too painful to bring up all those old memories, and they’d done all right on their own. Just the two of them.
But Josh was right. There was more than just the two of them now. Ray was back—a miracle—and Deena was now part of their family. By extension, that meant all those nice people in the minivan, who were out hunting and gathering at the local grocer right now, were also part of it. At a minimum, Josh needed to know the baggage he brought to them, just through his blood.
“The simple truth is…” Ray said, coming to her rescue because Evie couldn’t speak around the emotion clogging her throat. “Your mother’s Pack forbade her to see me. We eloped. Though at the time, I was in favor of going in and finding out what was wrong with the Pack that they rejected my magic so vehemently. I mean, it’s not unheard of for shifters to mate with humans and even fey. It’s not like some of the forbidden combinations. There was nothing that should have barred our mating. I would have expected a warm welcome for the increased magic I could bring to the Pack, not the cold reception we got.”
“I didn’t want you to fight them,” Evie said, reaching out to capture her mate’s hand with her own. “And it would’ve come to that, in the end. They weren’t listening to me, or to you.”
“There was something wrong there, Evie. You must see that now, with the distance of years,” Ray insisted.
“Maybe so, but we didn’t do anything wrong, and I didn’t want you in any danger. You’ve never seen a wolf Pack when they hunt. Even with all your magic, I feared for your safety,” she told him.
Ray moved closer to her, bringing his chair right up against hers before putting his arm around her shoulders. “Sweet Evie.” He gave her a rueful grin. “And here, I was imagining all these years that you ran away to protect them from me.”
She chuckled with him, knowing from his teasing tone that he was just joking around, trying to cajole her into a better mood. Ray had always been able to sense when she needed cheering up, though it had to be obvious that talk of her lost Pack would make her feel low.
She felt horrible for the way everything had happened. Had her inability to talk about the past put her son in terrible danger? She feared she knew the answer to that question all too well. Maybe Josh was right. He’d always been brave. Even as a little boy, she’d clung to him. Her anchor in the storm of their lives.
But the storm clouds had finally cleared. Ray was back, and maybe it was about time she faced the fears of the past and put them completely behind her, once and for all. And maybe by coming clean with her son, she could avoid putting him in any more danger from the past rearing its ugly head at the least opportune moment.
“I doubt my parents have ever changed their home phone number,” she told Josh. She waited only for him to get a pen and paper before rattling off the digits, and their address, as well. “You should know, your grandfather was the Alpha when I left home, and the Pack was over a hundred strong. Make sure you know what you’re doing if you ever decide to enter their territory. My dad’s word is law up there, and he didn’t like your father at all.”
“Yet you raised our son with your family’s last name,” Ray observed. His voice held a hint of irony, but he didn’t seem mad.
“Really?” Josh asked. “I thought you just made up our last name or something. I mean, fey don’t have surnames, do they?”
“Surnames in faerie are a bit more complicated than here,” Ray explained. “And unless you speak the old tongue, mostly unpronounceable for all except maybe a few of my former Welsh subjects.” Ray’s tone had gone wry again. “I hear Duncan has affected the surname le Fey. Then again, he always enjoyed the region and people of what you now call France.” Ray shrugged. “When I lived in Wales, I went by Sir Rayburne of Glyndyfrdwy or just Ray Glyndwr. Of course, it’s spelled nothing like it sounds in modern English and would cause more trouble than it’s worth to try to stick to the old way. I could probably use something like Glindur here in America, though I suppose that’s not a common surname either.” Ray seemed to be thinking this through.
“How about Smith?” Evie offered, hoping to make him smile.
He frowned at her, instead. “But I was never a smith. I did not work iron or make horseshoes.” He sounded truly insulted, but then, she realized he was teasing her back. “Actually, I’ve given this some thought. My folk originally hail from the mountains, so Gwyllion might be appropriate. It’s the term used for mountain fey in Wales. How’d you like to be Evie Gwyllion rather than Evie Mahigan?”
“Mahigan is just the Cree word for wolf,” Josh said quietly. “I looked it up when I was a kid. Not much of a cover, I always thought.”
“Well, rightfully, your proper fey name and title is too long to fit on a birth certificate, if mod
ern Americans could even spell it. I’ll write it out for you and teach you a bit of the fey language while we’re at it, if you wish,” Ray offered. “The old tongue will help you channel your magic, so it’s something I was going to talk to you about, anyway, but with the wedding, Deena should know more about the fey family she’s getting into. She will gain a title by joining our line, though it’s only something other fey would recognize. Still, she should be made aware of it, since she knows at least three full-blooded fey at this point, and who knows what the future may bring?”
“I think she’d like that,” Josh said, smiling. “Especially since her great-grandmother is going to try to come to officiate at the wedding. Everybody in her family is a bit in awe of Lady Bettina.”
“As they should be. A more formidable woman I have never met. She was ancient when I was a lad, and she has served the Goddess for longer than any of us have been alive,” Ray revealed.
Silence reigned for a moment while Josh finished his sandwich and then cleared his plate. Evie noticed that he tucked the piece of paper with her parents’ address and phone number into his shirt pocket as he rose from the table. She dreaded the phone call she knew he would make. If they rejected her son as they had rejected her and her mate, she would never forgive them.
Evie sent a prayer up to the Mother of All as Josh left the room, saying he wanted to clean up a bit before he rejoined Ray outside for more training. Evie clutched Ray’s hand. Josh wasn’t fooling anyone. He was going to make that phone call.
“I hope they don’t hang up on him,” she whispered as Ray’s arm tightened around her shoulders.
“If they do, they’ll answer to me,” he said, a grim look on his face when she turned her head to look at him.
“I wish he’d wait,” she whispered, moving her gaze to the archway through which Josh had left.
