She frowned. “I don’t understand. Who is going to fight me? Or,” she reasoned, “try to hurt me?”
“Anyone and everyone. Weren’t you listening?” he snapped. “The Fae are bored. Constantly. It’s a problem. You’re new, all of you are. Rafe and Mikkel will incite some interest, but you’re a female, bound to a Fae male. You’re a baby-maker, Thalia. That changes the game. You could be the next Queen of the Fae if you give birth to a child, which you’re prophesied to damn well do! Now do you understand?”
For a second, she said nothing, just kept her gaze focused on the hilt in her hand. She tried to release it, to let go, but the hilt felt like it was Velcroed to her palm. She had to focus on relinquishing her grip on each finger. Prying them off was crazy hard, and by the time she released the fourth digit, she was panting.
“That did not want me to let go,” she said, gulping down air like she’d just gone on a fifteen-minute five-mile run.
“No. It won’t. It’s connected to you. This is a good thing in battle. Means you can’t lose it,” Theo explained.
She looked at him, then, having pondered what he said, asked, “Do you think I’m going to have to fight your mother?”
“Perhaps. You heard father. She doesn’t want the throne, but neither does she want to pass it off to just anybody. And you’re not even Fae.”
“So? You’re the Fae. You’ll be the main man.”
He shook his head. “No. Females rule the kingdom.”
“Queendom,” Mikkel muttered. “Sexist.”
Theo snorted, but conceded that with a dip of his head. “You’re right, but we call it the kingdom. We’ve only ever had the one king and that was a shit storm. I would only be your consort, Thalia. You would rule.”
“But I don’t want to,” she snapped. “I have enough on my hands with the National Pack.”
Theo shrugged. “You won’t rule the National Pack forever.”
Thalia considered that but it made an ache gather in the depths of her skull. That ache reminded her of several things at once, and she let out a sharp gasp as she turned to Rafe. “Have you tried to speak to me telepathically?”
“No. There’s no need to.”
“Try! Try now.”
He stared at her. “Why?” When she went to reply, he shook his head. “In fact, no. Don’t make trouble, Thalia. You’ve never needed telepathic communication before, so if it’s a tool that’s lost to us at the moment, it’s not an issue. You’ve yet to come to rely on it.”
“He’s right. Let’s not make problems for ourselves. They’re coming at us whether we ask for them or not,” Theo retorted drily.
She was quiet for a second, contemplative as she stared down at the sword in her hand. As she rubbed her fingers over the hilt, she murmured, “I think we already have a problem.”
“What is it?” he asked, his tone wary but relatively calm.
Her eyes rounded with worry. “That, whatever the hell the gladius did to me…” Her grip on the hilt tightened to the point where her knuckles turned white. “It made me realize something.”
“What?” Mikkel demanded, ever impatient.
“That we already have an issue.”
Theo scowled at her. “What? What is it?”
“It’s been more than four weeks since my last heat.”
****
Theo
“What is it?”
Theo jerked in surprise at his second in command’s presence—she’d slipped into his office without his knowledge. When she shouldn’t have been anywhere near Heden to surprise him in such a manner. “I thought I sent you to monitor the situation.”
Magda cocked a brow at him. “I did.”
He sighed—she could be so damn truculent. “And?”
“Consider it monitored.”
“I don’t see you there now.”
“No. Because I have other plans in place.”
Knowing Magda, that wasn’t a lie. She’d always been far friendlier with the humans than was wise. But he couldn’t judge, not after Brian. Running a hand over his head, he watched Magda for any signs of agitation.
She’d never liked Lykenkind, so she wasn’t the wisest option to send to find out who was behind Thalia’s shooting, but she was the best.
And that was what he needed where his mate was concerned.
“You were right.”
“Of course I was,” he replied grimly, not even smug. He didn’t want to be right.
“The Austin Alphas made arrangements.” She peered at her nails as she slipped into his office and took a seat opposite him. “Lykens are so unoriginal.”
He snorted. “When I make them eat their balls, I’ll remind them of their need to betray their Enforcer with more creative means.”
She huffed and shook out her hair. One of the strands curled around her neck and she reached up to stroke it comfortingly—Theo could understand why Mikkel found her hair disturbing. He was too used to the sight of it to be perturbed, but Magda, and those like her, treated their hair like a living entity.
It was, as Mikkel put it, creepy.
Not that Magda would appreciate her pride and joy being defined as such.
“You have to admit, Theodore, that a mercury bullet is just dull. And their trail was so disgustingly easy to scent, they left markers for miles!” Her top lip curled in a disappointed sneer.
“I’m sorry the game wasn’t more complex.”
“Me too,” she pouted.
“You didn’t stir the timeline, did you?”
Her nostrils flared. “How many times do you have to ask me that? No. I did not. I’m well aware of your little mate’s predicament. Time is still standing, just waiting for her to leap back into the fray.” She sniffed. “Although, why she’d want to is beyond me. She’s better off without the She-Wolf.”
He laughed. “I’ll just take your wings from you and tell you you’re better off without them too, shall I?”
Though she narrowed her eyes at him, she jerked her head in wary agreement. “True.” She patted her chin with her forefinger, and not for the first time, Theo recognized how beautiful the woman was, and how utterly cold she left him.
Her brilliance as a strategist had ensured the safekeeping of his faction in his absence. She was cool, calculating, and so apt with risk-assessment, the human banks would have paid her seven-figure sums to manage their assets. But though her skin was like porcelain and her beauty timeless with high cheekbones that sloped into a sultry mouth, and sapphire eyes which could only be descried as winsome, she was a viper.
That was why he liked her.
It took a viper to match a viper.
“What will you do with them?”
He shrugged. “Nothing. They’re for Thalia to punish.”
That had her cocking a brow. “How very modern of you.”
He grinned. “After she’s dealt with them, I’ll still hand them their balls and watch them dine. But I lived among them for two hundred years, Magda. I’ve grown with the times.”
That had her shuddering. “How you managed to stay there for so long, I don’t know. My little visits are pleasant enough—” The flash in her eyes told him exactly how pleasant they were. “—but coming home is far sweeter after being down there.”
He jerked a shoulder. “It’s different when you find one you love. You knew my situation.”
“By the end, yes.”
“And from the start too.” He cocked a brow at her. “Chela does not…” Theo sighed, pinched the bridge of his nose. “Did not deserve to be eradicated from our annals.”
“He went against our ways,” she countered, chilly as ever.
“I don’t care. He was one of our greatest. Our best artist. But more than that, he was our historian too. It seemed churlish to delete him for deciding he was too weary to carry on. I thought that then, and having fallen for a human myself, I think it now.
“It’s cruel how we treat our eldest. It’s cruel how we expect them to carry on even
though there is little to no hope for them.”
Magda’s shrug was dismissive. “Such is our way.”
He let out a hiss. “You can be very irritating, Magda.”
Her grin was venomous. “It’s why I’m your AydLegios.”
Theo sighed—she wasn’t wrong. “What of our other situation?”
“I told you as I told your mother. There are no stirrings in that camp.”
Tugging at his ear, he rocked back in his chair. The office was quite simple, not the grandiose affair that his mother’s seat of government was, but for his tastes, it was comfortable. A wide desk, a well-padded chair, and his books lining the shelves around him, with the Earth sky overhead illuminating and brightening his day with its inherent light. Still, he found no comfort in the view.
Rapping his fingers against the armrest of his chair, his voice had an edge to it as he said, “It’s been too long.”
“There is no rhythm or rhyme to when they strike. You’re aware of this as am I, Theo,” she told him, her tone silky. Whether she was amused at his concern or dismissive because that was in her nature—which it definitely was—he wasn’t sure. Until… “You’re only concerned now because you have mortals in this realm.”
“Mortals until the ceremony,” he countered.
“If the Queen will grant you leave for one,” came the swift retort. “Which, knowing her temperament as we both do, is no guarantee.”
He grimaced at the truth in that statement. “You know how to cheer a male up.”
Her smile, this time, was far more genuine. “I know.” Then, she rolled a delicate shoulder that was covered in a sheer white toga. “Morningstar depleted his troops after the last battle. I wouldn’t fear him for a while yet.”
“And that’s exactly when he’s prone to strike,” Theo rejoindered, unease slithering down his spine.
“Your mother is ready. Our own troops are always battle-ready. There is no reason to fear, even though you’re trudging precious baggage around.”
“Magda, I swear, you say these things to irritate me.”
Her smirk made him laugh as she stood. “I do my best, Theo.” So saying, she swept out of the room without a backwards glance.
As leader of his faction, the Legios, Magda was his right-hand man as AydLegios. She had been for over six thousand years when she’d taken over the role after her mother had decided to retire.
It was unusual for a male to head a faction—a faction being a collective of Fae families or houses as they were known in Heden—for after Morningstar’s fall, most males weren’t to be trusted in any position of power outside of the Queen’s troops.
Before she’d become the sovereign of the realm, Isaura had held Trierna, the largest faction of them all. Upon her slaying of Mad Aerie, their last Queen who’d fallen to the darkness and had been in dire need of enforced eradication, Isaura had promised the seat of power to her eldest child—who’d yet to be born.
Who’d also just happened to be a male child.
Trierna was precious territory, a key and pivotal landmark in Heden’s defense. Outside of Trierna’s walls were the gates to Heden itself, and if ever Morningstar breached them, Theo’s faction would bear the brunt of the attack.
For a thousand years, Morningstar had been silent.
But things were in the air, and the way the world was stirring, Theo had a bad feeling.
Thalia’s birth twenty-seven years ago might not have triggered any concerns, but if he’d found her through the challenging of the Beta Jason Torres, who was to say a Dark Fae hadn’t?
Morningstar had people everywhere.
One of the reasons he’d sent Magda on her boring task of discerning who was behind the shooting was because he hadn’t been certain if the person behind the attack on Thalia was obvious or more devious.
Now he had his answer Theo thought he could rest a little easier, but then, what rest was there to be had when he took into consideration how many different complications he had in his life now.
A female Lyken who had lost access to her She-Wolf. Her spirit close to feral after years of neglect, who had brought two more males into his life. If that wasn’t enough, today, she hadn’t just been granted any weapon. She’d received Alexander the Great’s. And everyone knew where he’d stolen that from.
Then, he had a Lyken male with no status, his ability to heal beyond anything Theo had seen in a shifter before and the power to talk telepathically. Neither trait fit Raphael’s breed.
Then, there was Mikkel. A human male in the throes of a half-claimed mating bond that could drive him insane if Thalia didn’t find a way to reconnect with her She-Wolf. He was seemingly useless in Thalia’s triad of mates, and yet, Diana’s bow—another important, ancient Fae female—had winged its way to him in the Armory.
Theo bent forward and pressed his elbows to his knees. As he dropped his head, releasing some of the pressure gathering at the back of his neck, he wondered what he’d done to deserve so many complications at one time. And then, as he wondered, he thought about exactly what lengths he’d go to to defend the three of them.
Would he fall?
For them?
Perhaps.
The darkness held no entreaty when the lightness was too warm, too bright, too cosseting.
But without them, there would be only darkness.
The Goddess had granted him his biggest boon and the biggest threat to his soul yet.
He prayed She’d been wise in Her choice.
7
Mikkel
Mikkel ran a hand down Thalia’s thigh. The skin there was silky soft, and had there been a light on, he knew the tiny hairs would be blond. His sisters would be beyond jealous when they met her. They were dark and they were hairy.
So fucking hairy, he had to shudder.
They waxed the shit out of their bodies, but they always bitched about it, and he couldn’t blame them. They were hairier than him, a feat that came from having mostly blond parents.
One of the few girlfriends he’d had, had tried to convince him to tint his eyebrows. In the summer, they went silvery white and with a tan, gave a strange definition to his features. She hadn’t stayed a girlfriend for long after that ‘suggestion.’
With his mind churning, he hadn’t been able to sleep. All around him, he heard the gentle breathing of people resting in slumber, but for himself, he kept thinking about what had happened today.
From the conversation with Kane to the way Thalia had responded to the gladius, then, his own response to the weapon that had selected him: the bow.
As the best marksman of his squad, perhaps it made perfect sense for him to connect with the bow, but it was just one more heap of crazy in a world that was growing crazier by the minute.
Him? Pulling a Robin Hood?
Nah.
Although, Thalia would probably make an epic Maid Marion.
His fingers traced shapeless forms on Thalia’s thigh as he realized the one source of comfort he had was here. In this bed.
Not just from Thalia, but the four of them as a whole.
They were growing into a unit, and if there was one thing Mikkel understood—it was a unit. He’d been in one since the start of his career in the Special Forces. Working his way up from grunt to the leader of his men. Without a unit, a soldier was useless, and he appreciated how they were all pulling together here, all forming a cohesive team that was formed on blood, sex, and the weird ass shit Theo brought to the party.
With a grunt at the thought, he closed his eyes and tried again to fall asleep, but he failed.
“What’s wrong?”
The voice sounded over the top of Thalia’s head. Rafe. He was the only one who didn’t mind having another male at his back. Theo and Mikkel preferred to sleep on the edge, but because he was Lyken, having someone behind him didn’t seem to freak him out like it did Mikkel. It also allowed him to be glued to Thalia every night—the bastard was on to something with that, though. Mikkel and Theo had star
ted taking turns over who slept on Thalia’s other side.
“Can’t sleep.”
“I can tell. You’re huffing like mad.”
“I don’t huff,” he grumbled.
“Yeah, you do,” their mate whispered drowsily. “But don’t stop tickling. It feels nice.”
Lips twitching, he carried on trailing his fingers along the length of her thigh. He’d been doing it to reassure himself rather than her, but it worked both ways if she liked it too. “Sorry, your highness.”
She snorted a little. “My hand is close to the family jewels.”
“Like you’d hurt them. Twice in one day,” he corrected swiftly—the ache was still there even though Rafe had taken away all twitches of discomfort. Muscle memory was a bitch, and his cock was the biggest muscle in his body, he thought with a wide grin.
“I only did that because you pissed me off.” He could hear the pout in her voice.
“Remind me not to piss you off,” Theo said, his voice a low rumble.
Mikkel winced. “I’m sorry, guys. I didn’t mean to wake you all up.”
“Too late for that now,” Theo murmured around a yawn. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I’m just thinking.”
“About what in particular?” Rafe asked.
Mikkel gnawed at his bottom lip, contemplating the various responses he could give to Rafe’s question. “Why do you think Thalia hasn’t gone into heat?”
She grunted. “Seriously? That’s the one thing you focus on?”
He snorted. “Yeah. That’s the one thing I focus on because, surprise surprise, your health means more to me than two thrones, one set of crazy Fae, and rabid Lykens.”
Thalia stilled at his snark. “Oh, Mikkel, I’m sorry.”
He patted her leg. “It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not. I thought you were just thinking about sex.”
“I was. To a small extent. Just not all,” he admitted easily, just so she’d chuckle a little. He hadn’t been thinking about sex, but he wanted to take the echo of tears from her voice.
“I don’t know why she hasn’t gone into heat,” Rafe interrupted. “We’ve been together over seven weeks now. You should have experienced two in the time we’ve known each other.” His tone turned pensive. “I can’t believe I didn’t realize.”
Triad (The TriAlpha Chronicles Book 3) Page 12
