The stab of pain in her back had Totters shrieking in rage and panic.
Nina’s eyes flew open, and blood bubbled from her mouth. She looked down to see the thick wood sticking out of her stomach. Her familiar was screeching, and ramming himself into the barrier over and over again, adamant to get help. From the hazy view that the young woman had, she could see that one of his wings was bent in an odd manner.
Tears of pain fell down her cheeks, but she focused her energy. She had to get through the barrier. Chanting inside her head, she summoned the elements to her, and her face went white with the rapid loss of blood. The barrier started weakening.
In her head, Totters noticed the opening as well, and he dove for it. Sustaining her spell with his own magic, he let Nina crawl in, and he followed.
The scenery changed altogether. The trees were less dense, and flowers bloomed on the greenest grass that Nina had ever seen. However, her attention was not on the stunning beauty of her surroundings, but on the blood that was dripping down from where the piece of wood pierced her.
“Totters.” Her words were a harsh whisper. “I need magic. Give me your–”
She was sitting on her lower legs, her breath coming out in pained gasps.
“Take what you need, master!” The distraught fear in her familiar’s words seemed so far away at that moment. Nina grasped at his strength and tried to fix the damage, but it was too much. She would not make it. She blinked stupidly as the tears fell down her face. She did not want to die. She was not ready to die!
It was then that she felt the strange energy bubbling inside her. It was a foreign power, and she knew it not to be hers. But at that moment, she did not care. She channeled it, and with both hands on the wood, pulled it out and screamed.
The pain was so intense that she nearly blacked out. She gritted her teeth and pulled her thoughts together. She chanted the healing spell in a rough whisper, trying to get the words out of her throat. She felt the two sources of power moving through her, one familiar and the other unknown. When she felt that the most dangerous of the damage was dealt with, she allowed her focus to lapse and fell onto the soft ground, blacking out.
***
Not twenty miles away from her, Kevin Hunter collapsed in front of his alpha, his face white.
“Kevin!”
Cassie’s voice was worried, and she walked toward him. Her mate, however, was not pregnant, and thus he was a bit quicker. Kneeling by his best friend and senior lieutenant’s side, he helped him stand and then put an arm around him when Kevin’s legs gave way.
“What’s wrong?”
Kevin shook his head and muttered. “I feel like all the energy just drained out of me.”
One hand on her protruding belly, Cassie scowled at him. “I told you that you should be taking it easy. You’re overworking yourself.”
“Cassie’s right.” Luke’s eyes narrowed. “Take a few days off. The den’s security is tight enough. Take some down time.”
“I’m not over worked, and what will I do with myself if you relieve me of my duties?” Kevin argued back, but his voice was shaky and he suddenly felt very hungry. “I’m going to go have something to eat. In the meantime, do not even think of calling Jeremy back from his roaming.”
Jeremy was a senior lieutenant whose family had died in the panther attack. He was more feral than any one of them, except, perhaps, Luke. But Shadow Claw’s alpha had calmed down considerably after mating Cassie. Jeremy took a few months off every year to roam around in his animal form. It helped him hone his focus from what the huge, hulking man had confided in Kevin.
Luke leaned against his desk and settled his mate in his arms, one hand curved possessively over her pregnant belly. “I’ve already called Jeremy in. He checked in with me last night, and I told him that I needed him here.” He scowled. “Fergus said he’s hearing some rumors about trouble along the West Coast.”
Kevin looked up, alert. “What kind of trouble?”
Luke wore a troubled look on his face. “Two shifter packs turned on themselves over night, they were completely wiped out. The details are not clear, but there was one survivor. Fergus is working on getting the details. Meanwhile,” he said, picking up a paper from behind him and handing it over to his first lieutenant, “we’ve got our own network working on finding out what happened.”
“You’re using the Sewer Crocs?” Kevin looked surprised. “I thought we weren’t on good terms with them.”
The Sewer Crocs were something akin to crocodile shifters. Incredibly powerful, they liked to live underground. However, they were very docile beings and preferred not to get involved in the affairs of shifters. Luke had developed a good relationship with them before he accidentally insulted their alpha. In return for Shadow Claw extending their protection over the Sewer Crocs, the latter acted as Shadow Claw’s spy network.
“You look at them and they are so inconspicuous,” Cassie said, shaking her head. “I had a contact among them, so we worked things out. They are sniffing around. We’ll find out what they know in a few days.” She pulled away from her mate. “I need some fresh air. I’m going to go see whether Abigail wants to run with me.”
Dropping a kiss on her mate’s cheek, Cassie waddled out with Luke frowning after her.
“You want me to go with?” Kevin asked, knowing how protective his Alpha was of his mate. They all were, to be honest. Cassie’s status as a Silver Omega made her a target, especially with her expecting a child.
“No,” Luke said as he rubbed his hand over the back of his neck. “Abigail will watch over her like a hawk. The way that woman fusses over Cassie, you’d think it’s her child.” He looked at Kevin in the eye. “Actually, I do have to talk to you. Sit down before you keel over.” He scowled.
Kevin grabbed one of the chairs and swung it around so that he could straddle the back. “Okay, shoot.”
Luke crossed his arms over his chest and looked serious. “I’m thinking of calling back all members of the pack from their posts.” At Kevin’s startled look, Luke raised a hand. “We need to strengthen our home base first. You already know the four rogues that joined our pack last month. I want them trained as sentinels. Every free man and woman who is not a submissive should be able to fight and protect the pack.”
Kevin studied his alpha in a considering manner. “You think there is a threat approaching.”
Luke looked wary. “I do not know what’s coming, but I want us to be ready. Cassie is overseeing the training of the submissives and the juveniles. Well, she was. Until the cub comes, I want her to take it easy. We have people spread out everywhere. It’s time everyone comes home and we fortify our forces.”
Kevin agreed with him, and as he got up, feeling a little drained but better, he remarked. “So, you and Fergus, huh?”
The paper weight that came flying in his direction, had him ducking. It shattered into a million pieces and scowling, Luke shouted. “Kayla!”
Laughing, Kevin left the room and patted the teenage girl as she hurried in with a broom and a mutter. “This is the fourth paper weight this week.”
Chapter 2
The pain was still there. Drifting in and out of consciousness, Nina could feel something wet touch her wound. It was a blurry figure of a young boy with green eyes.
Was she dreaming?
He was talking to her, but she could not follow his lips. So, she closed her eyes again and drifted into the dark abyss.
A man with brown eyes.
Screams. So much blood.
The man’s eyes shining with happiness as he wrapped his arms around her.
“Do not do this, Nina! Stay! Stay for me if nothing else!”
Those heartbroken words echoed in Nina’s head as she came back to reality. Her temples were wet. Had she been crying?
Opening her eyes, she saw herself staring at a purple ceiling. No, wait. It was not a ceiling. Those were flowers – long vines of hanging, purple flowers with miniscule beams of sunlight sneaking throug
h. For a few heartbeats, Nina did not realize where she was.
“You’re awake.”
The owner of that beautiful melodic voice came into view.
It was the young boy she had seen.
Forest green eyes and a shock of hair that was as golden as the sun, the boy could hardly be ten or eleven. He was the most beautiful child Nina had ever seen.
And he was floating.
His face was supported by his palms. He lay in midair, looking on at her in curiosity. “I was starting to think you would never wake up.”
Nina blinked as she ran a hand over her stomach and winced. The wound was still there, but it did not seem as bad as before.
“This wisteria was crying for you, so I brought you here. And your familiar begged, so I helped speed up your healing process,” the boy said conversationally. “You’re intriguing. It’s not often that a witch manages to break through one of my barriers.”
Nina opened her mouth to speak, but it was too dry. She saw the boy raise his brow at something by her side, and she slowly edged herself into a sitting position. She bit her lip to hold back the cry of agony caused by the piercing pain that lanced through her. Looking to where her mysterious companion had motioned, she saw the bowl of water.
Taking her time, she reached for it, and then greed overcame her as she drank in large gulps, quenching her thirst. The bowl fell into her lap, and her eyes found their way to the young boy. “Who…Who are you?”
The boy flipped over until he hung upside down and grinned. “I have many names. Some call me Oberon, but I really hate that name. It just sounds so pompous. But you,” he said, suddenly flying right into her face, “you can call me Kalen.”
It was then that Nina noticed the almost transparent wings on his back and she realized what he had called himself. “You’re the fairy king.” She breathed.
Kalen grinned. “Not what you were expecting, huh?”
Nina shook her head. From what she had read in the books in the main library, the fairy king was a stunningly handsome man, but cruel. This child looked nothing like the portraits she had seen. She watched Kalen float down to sit on the ground cross-legged.
He remarked offhandedly, “I was going to slit your throat, but your life tree was in so much pain that I did not have a choice but to let you live.”
He studied her for a few moments. “Did you know that the last life tree that grew in the fairy kingdom was over ten-thousand years ago? That witch came to my kingdom when she was on her last breath, and she lay at the base of her tree and they both withered away peacefully. When this wisteria grew overnight, I was quite taken aback.”
Although, Kalen looked harmless, Nina knew that there had not been a new fairy king for the past fifty-thousand years. That meant that this tiny body hosted a terrible power within it. She could sense it, and like a prey in front of a much larger and dangerous predator, she sat stock-still. “Why is that?”
Kalen bared his teeth at her. “I do wonder what it is about you that your tree was born here.” He dove into the air and then floated above her in a circle. “What is it about you that makes you so special, Nina Raven?”
Nina looked at him and chose honesty. She had been looking for the fairy king when she had set out. She knew she would find him near her life tree. In her dreams, she had seen an immense power standing alongside a tree. And now, as she watched Kalen sit in one of the branches of the wisteria, she realized that it was him she had foreseen. He would be the one to guide her to the Council.
“I am looking for the Council.”
Kalen’s smile did not change in the slightest, but his wings fluttered for a few seconds, or maybe it was just her imagination. “Now, what kind of business could a young witch like you have with the Council?”
Nina watched him as he lowered himself to her level and smiled. This time, she could see how dangerous that smile was. She swallowed. “There is a war coming. And I want to prevent it.”
He scoffed, his green eyes lit with amusement. “A war? The Council doesn’t involve itself with a simple–”
“Species will be eradicated. Fairies, shifters, vampires, and every supernatural being there is out there will all be subjugated under the witches.” Nina’s voice was quiet. “I saw their downfall. I saw the leader of the fairies bow his head to the clan.”
She cried out in pain when Kalen simply looked at her and made a sweeping motion with his hand.
Bending over in pain, she gasped and forced the words out of her throat. “The Master of Vampires, the Council, they were all subdued. I saw it! I have the gift of prophecy!” Her words became garbled as Kalen twisted his hand and Nina nearly screamed in agony. “Rip my mind open and see for yourself! I do not lie!”
“Master!”
Totter’s voice shouted in her head, and she saw through her dim vision as he attacked Kalen, only to be suspended in midair, helpless.
“Stay still, Totters! He needs to see!”
Nina had not anticipated how painful it was for someone to rip past her defenses and look into her mind. The sheer pain of it had her eyes rolling into the back of her head, and she collapsed, her body convulsing. The images she had seen in her dreams rolled into one another, and she could feel Kalen’s presence in her mind as he sifted through the visions. The intensity of the trauma was such that Nina passed out.
When she came to, Kalen sat next to her, looking vaguely annoyed. “Your familiar feels that I should apologize for harming you.”
Totters sat near her head, eyeing the fairy king warily. Nina could feel the anger coursing through her familiar, and she lifted a hand to run over his feathered head, her voice a croak. “Calm down, Totters.” She lifted herself up with some effort. “He did what he had to do. Do you believe me now?” She looked at Kalen wearily.
Kalen glanced at her. “Your mind is a very intriguing place. You have a complex layer of inbuilt shields – a very thick barrier to cross, and they are impregnable. Your shields were protected by another being’s shields, like a black fortress. At first, I thought it was your familiar’s work, but it is someone else. Whom have you given access to your mind?”
The fairy king seemed genuinely curious, and a trickle of alarm flowed through Nina. “Nobody has ever entered my head. Mother – that is, the High Priestess – attempted it once, but she failed as well. I thought…” Her voice was hesitant. “I thought it was something I was born with.”
“No.” Kalen shook his head. “There was another presence within your mind – a dormant mind. If I were to guess…no.” He shook his head, talking to himself. “It’s not possible.”
Nina wanted to pursue this topic. What did he mean that there was someone shielding her? However, there were more pressing matters at hand. “The Council. Can you get me in touch with them?”
When Kalen glanced at her, those green eyes held an age-old wisdom, and were touched with power. “Ah, child. I am one of the Council. But there are seven of us. And one of us was Morrigan, your High Priestess.”
Nina paled. “How is that possible? I mean, you saw–”
“What I saw was seven powers combining their strength.” He let his wings lift him in the air to settle into one of the gnarled branches of the wisteria tree. “I granted access to a female bear shifter a year ago. Her role was that of a catalyst. Of what, I do not know. Find her, and you might find what you are looking for.”
Nina looked down at her wound, put a hand over it, and chanted the healing spell. However, nothing happened.
“It won’t work.” Kalen commented lazily from his spot on the branch. “This is dark magic. Your life tree helped in getting rid of it, but your wound will have to heal at its own pace.”
Nina stared at the fresh blood on her hand, and then she looked up at him, frustrated. “You saw everything! Why are you not willing to help me? Are you willing to submit to–”
The fairy king was in her face in a heartbeat, and the power that radiated from him had her struggling to breathe, its pressu
re unbearable.
“I am Oberon! I have seen kingdoms rise and fall! I have seen your kind lust for power and then fail! I do not bow down to anyone.”
Nina bit her tongue and waited for him to leave her.
Kalen flew into the sky, parting the curtain of flowers. The sunlight, which had been playing hide and seek disappeared, and a cold wind began to blow, followed by thunder. Nina dragged herself to her life tree and settled into one of the crevices there with Totters on her shoulder. Her tree thrummed with power and recognition, and if Nina had a choice, she would have stayed there. In the sunlight, the shade had been purple, the sun reflecting off the flowers. Now was no time for her to be admiring her life tree.
She watched Kalen unleash his anger on the skies. The earth trembled with his rage, and the wind lashed out.
“He certainly has a nasty temper, doesn’t he?”
Nina could not help but agree with her familiar. She let him huddle into her as they waited for the rain to subside. The one benefit that she got was that being this close to her wisteria let her heal faster and as the hours passed, the young witch slipped into a deep, healing sleep.
***
“Kevin.”
Kevin turned his head slightly to glance at Samuel. “This is some storm, huh?”
Samuel wore a strange expression on his face. “It sure is. Though it makes me wonder.”
The lieutenant wondered if he should ask what was wrong when he saw Abigail enter the stronghold that Luke had built quite a while back. It was hidden in the foliage, invisible to the naked eye. Having wanted to be alone with his thoughts, Kevin had made his way here when the storm had struck. And what a vicious one it was.
Abigail looked troubled, and she leaned against the wooden wall and stared out into the rain. “It sure is coming down hard.” There was an undertone to her voice, and Samuel glanced at her. They communicated something with their eyes, and Kevin scowled, “I wish you guys would stop being so secretive. I get you have your Council secrets, but it gets really annoying when you won’t tell the rest of us what’s going on.”
Loved by Alpha Wolf Page 59
