Ishaya stood and walked over to an intricately carved bookcase, and he pulled what looked to be a very old book from its shelves. He sat it on his chair as he moved to pour the tea, and by the time he’d settled back into the opposite chair, Corrine was bursting with curiosity, hungrier for the knowledge than even the sweet cakes in front of her.
He opened up the book. “I could recite the story from memory, as my mother used to tell me the tale as a young cub, but I shall read it to you as it is passed on in the temples of the Dark Fae Dorum, who serve her will.” At her look of confusion, he explained, “The Dorum are the wisest and favored sons and daughters of the Goddess, and the High Dorum are akin to the Alphas of our people if you will.
“In the beginning, just as all the Earth-bound dimensions have their own beings of power, the Fae realm was seeded with glorious life by two powerful Goddesses.
“Two sisters, mirror opposites of each other in all ways. Allyria was the embodiment of the sun and sky, light and laughter, while her sister Ryssana was bound to the Earth itself and all its creatures. She was the shadow and darkness. Together they completed the balance and allowed all life and magic to thrive in the realm.
“But time makes even the most powerful of beings weary, and one day, the sisters decided that they wanted children of their own, fashioned in their image to love and nurture. Ryssana had sowed her forests and waters with all types of wondrous beings that served as caretakers to the realm, but still, they longed for more, and so the race of Fae was born.
“Allyria’s children were fair of skin and disposition just as she was. They loved life with an exuberance that brought joy to her heart, and her purpose was once again invigorated. She blessed her favored with gifts of power and watched as they learned to wield them.
“Ryssana’s children were fashioned as all of the creatures of the forest were, in various shapes and colors, but all were filled with a greater purpose than their own happiness. They were wardens of nature and the protectors of the balance just as their Mother was. Their gifts were aligned with the Earth and all her elements.
“As generations came and went, each race developed and matured, and the two Goddesses watched the journey of their children just as one would set free a flower blossom in a stream and watch its path in curious fascination as the water carried it away.
“They had blessed their children with free will, and the realm flourished as they lived in harmony.
“Until one day, when a Light Fae magician unknowingly created a portal through the Veil to another realm. He became enthralled with this new discovery, his curiosity urging him to explore further as he crossed through and changed the fate of the entire realm.
“The Light Fae became enamored of the beings in this other realm, similar to them, but different in so many ways. They found the complexity of human emotions beautiful and began to bring them back across the Veil to keep as companions. The humans were unused to such raw magic and beauty as the Fae possessed and were powerless to defend themselves, becoming Fae-struck at first glance. Allyria was indulgent of her children as always. However, Ryssana warned her children that the humans deserved protection just as any other creatures and that they did not belong in the Fae realm.
“As the Dark Fae followed their Mother’s word and the Light Fae felt it their right to do as they pleased, a chasm soon was created between the two races.”
Ishaya closed the book. “The Dark Fae withdrew to their own hidden cities, away from the corruption of their Light Fae cousins. The rest of us who followed the Lady Ryssana tried to keep the human realm safe and apart from us. There has been word, however, that the Goddess has called forth her children to correct the damage done to the balance by Frederych and Kheelan.”
“I’m speechless.” It felt like an enormous weight to take in that the entire structure of her spiritual beliefs was only half of what the truth was. “I want to ask, how could our Goddess not tell us this, but that seems rather insolent to imagine she must tell us anything, isn’t it? Especially given the fact how our kind previously behaved despite being armed with knowledge.”
The huge man only gently patted her hand in agreement.
“This spell you speak of,” Ishaya began, peering at her intently, “you cast it on yourself? I can feel dark magic within you where there should be only light. Where did you come across the spell?”
Corrine was embarrassed to admit how foolishly she’d tinkered with an unfamiliar magic, but history was full of fools who did reckless things in the name of love. “The spell book was in Kheelan’s possession. I found it as I was escaping the King’s dungeons.”
“You should have known better than to cast from it, Milady. The Light Fae are not meant to wield such magic. You have yours, and we have ours. It’s not a surprise that it’s gotten away from you.”
“Can you help me to remove it?”
“I’m afraid spells of that caliber are far past my skill levels, but I can take you to a village where there are two Dorum who may be able to aid you. If they agree to help, you can petition the Goddess Ryssana directly through them. They are her High Dorum, chosen amongst our people.”
Corrine felt such a relief inside of her heart at the thought that she may yet be able to salvage the bond between herself and her mates. She would do anything to save them, even if it meant giving them up.
Chapter Five
Gabe was heading for a stroke. His blood pressure had to be nearing nuclear proportions, and his wolf was shredding him from the inside. “Open. The. Portal.” The growl of his wolf was so thick in his voice, his words were almost incoherent.
The constant grumble of the cougar shifter beside him would have been enough to put the fear of the Gods into any normal woman, but then again, the woman standing before them was no ordinary woman.
“I will not,” Erica said in a tone befitting any Queen in any realm. She stood before the place he knew the portal existed, arms crossed over her chest. “Ever since Braxas turned up you’ve been throwing your Alpha around like it’s the biggest butt on the dance floor. You had your chance to convince Corrine that she could be the woman to mate with two dominant Alphas, but no!” Gabe’s left eye began to twitch. “Rather than try to see things from her perspective, and understand why she made the choices she did, you decided to yell at her and talk about your feelings for her in the past tense!” Erica took a deep breath, and then Gabe saw the conflict on her face. “Look, I’m not saying that I agree with her for not telling you the truth, but her visions … Goddess, they have been such a burden to her sometimes. All she ever wants out of them is to protect the people she loves, and I think now she just needs to try and make things right. Maybe you two can just back off a bit and let her.”
Gabe felt a small twinge of guilt burst to life within him before he quashed it. “Goddamn it, I was hurt, all right? She had years to sort out her emotions and talk to me about whatever the fuck was going on. Braxas and I had barely an hour! Then, she drops a bomb about how her actions were to save my life, and before we get the chance to talk more about this as a triad, she runs. We don’t know if she’s hurt, in danger, or what the hell is going on because that beautifully stubborn woman has decided to go beyond the Veil and seek answers to questions she has yet to share with us in detail. And from the message her sister gave to Donovan and Jason, I think her life may be in danger. Imagine how you would feel if it were Leo or Ben.”
Erica hesitated, and her gaze slipped to her mates. Gabe could see that he was getting through to her.
“You don’t know me,” Braxas said to Erica, his voice intent, “and I don’t know you, but at the request of the Alpha who governs over your mates, I brought those who are loyal to me to join the fight for you and your people. I say this not to garner your sympathy, but in the hopes that it speaks to my character. I tried to walk away from Corrine and give her time, and if you cannot understand the sacrifice of that, simply ask your mates.” Again Erica’s gaze flicked to Leo and Ben’s, and what she saw
there had her grimacing. “Corrine is my mate. She is Gabe’s mate. And this situation is not what either of us planned. The three of us require time to navigate our way through this. Now, in order to do that, we need to find Corrine, make sure she is okay, and help her do whatever the hell it is she is doing. So please, open the portal.”
“Okay,” Erica said, dropping her arms to her sides.
Gabe wanted to throw his hands in the air and yell finally, but he thought perhaps that wouldn’t be the best idea. He felt like Braxas hadn’t said anything he hadn’t said to Erica, just a little more … diplomatically, but the meaning had been the same.
Erica turned toward the portal and began to weave her hands in a pattern that still freaked Gabe out a little as it looked odd, especially when you added in the fact that the air beyond her hands began to churn and shimmer out of focus.
“Alpha!” Gabe turned with a growl at the interruption and had to fight the urge to gut his second as he came sprinting in their direction.
“What the hell is it now, Donovan?”
Donovan slid to a halt. “You asked me to meet you here before you crossed the Veil to let me know about a situation.”
The air split with Gabe’s growl and the decidedly feline hiss of displeasure from Braxas, and Donovan held up his hands in mock surrender. Gabe remembered that he did ask him to meet him here, but he was too eager to get to Corrine. He filled his second in quickly on the earlier conversation he had had with Braxas regarding the Rogues and splintering factions. They were on the cusp of civil war, and it would not be long before word spread about their mating.
“Those fuckers want a war? Then that is what they’ll get,” Donovan said, finishing with a fierce growl.
“Agreed,” Braxas said. Turning to Gabe, he added, “But not today. Today is about getting to our mate, making sure she is safe, and having that conversation we discussed. Then, when we come back here to deal with those who think to stand against us, we do it together. All of us, as the fates have decreed.”
He stared at his friend and suddenly saw a surprising fringe benefit to this whole sharing his female thing. Gabe was the type of Alpha who often put his foot so far down his throat, he could kick his own ass for days, but with Braxas beside him, and the way that cougar talked nice to people, he could see him getting Gabe out of trouble on more than one occasion.
Gabe turned to Donovan. “You’ll need to inform the pack and keep them in check. I know some of them are not above doing something stupid. Oh, and try not to act like a teenager who comes in his jeans the first time he sees a pair of naked breasts.”
Leo and Ben both smirked and had to smother their laughter. Donovan was mated to a powerful half Fae wolf shifter, and April apparently had the ability to broadcast emotions to her mates. That was something Donovan had discovered the hard way when April transmitted a rather intimate moment between her and her other mate, Jason. It was so intense, Donovan had orgasmed in the middle of a meeting with Gabe and the other senior members of the pack. Something he was never going to let the smug wolf forget, as was his right as the man’s Alpha and friend.
The sudden death glare Donovan threw in Leo and Ben’s direction had them both fake coughing to cover up their laughter. Even as emotionally stressed as he was and the fact he was mere heartbeats away from either a stroke or a damn aneurysm, Gabe still had it in him to knock a cocky wolf back a step or two.
Donovan’s eyes narrowed on him. “I will do my best, Alpha, and fuck you very much for bringing that up.”
“Get in contact with my second, Katrina,” Braxas requested. “She knows that I am here and that I will be out of contact for a few days. If war is coming, then the cougars need to mobilize, and she will know what to do. Tell her I want every cougar she can gather to be here when we get back.”
Wolves were pack animals, and wolf shifters lived that way as well. The majority of Gabe’s pack lived either on his property or very close by. Cougars, on the other hand, were solitary animals and although they pledged fealty to Braxas, some of them lived quite a distance from him and each other.
“Oh, Alphas?” Erica called, and Gabe turned to see a swirling vortex behind her.
“The portal is open. I have advised the guard on the other side to leave your heads on your shoulders. He will point you in the right direction.”
Gabe stepped toward the portal, biting back his comment. No Fae had ever gotten the drop on him, and he certainly wasn’t about to let one do it now. Despite the niggle of acknowledgment that came at the end of that thought, he refused to factor Corrine in that statement. With a nod at his wolves, he stepped into the maelstrom of space that existed within the bridge between the two worlds. He sensed Braxas making the transition with him, but he could not make anything out in the darkness.
When Gabe finally stopped tumbling, he found himself standing in the Elven realm. The Guard that Erica had spoken of stood a few feet away, and although he hadn’t struck as soon as they materialized in the Elven realm, he certainly hadn’t kept his weapon sheathed. Smart Fae.
Gabe took a deep breath, desperately trying to still the nauseating churn of his stomach and the fuzziness in his head that came with the transition beyond the Veil.
“You okay there, Braxas?” Gabe asked in a voice that remained steady by sheer willpower alone.
“Of course,” Braxas answered immediately, but Gabe noticed his hands were clenched at his sides just as Gabe’s were. “I could do that all day. Haven’t you wolves ever heard? Cats always land on their feet.”
Gabe grinned as he regained his equilibrium completely and could ease some of the tension he’d forced into his muscles to keep from shaking. “Come to think of it, I have heard of that somewhere. Now, let’s find our mate. My right hand is just itching to feel her ass beneath my palm, and by the Gods, it is about time, too.”
Chapter Six
“And how are these Dark Fae different from the rest of the Fae?” Braxas asked Gabe. They had been walking in the forest for about twenty minutes or so after one of the guards pointed them in the direction Corrine had gone. The guard had been cryptic about how they would actually get to her once they arrived at their destination.
These Fae beings were foreign to Braxas, especially the ones who lived in a forest that could have come right out of a childhood fairytale, and Gabe had just informed him of yet another kind during their walk—the dark ones. Gabe had also filled him in on the final battle and subsequent takedown of Alefric’s right-hand man, Kheelan.
“I’m not sure exactly how,” Gabe answered. “I know they have powers beyond anything I have ever seen, powers that Fae like Corrine cannot wield. She told us after the battle that she thought their kind no longer existed.”
“And they don’t turn to ash in our realm?”
Gabe shook his head. Braxas faltered in his step when he thought about Corrine turning into nothing more than ash before his eyes in the human realm. As if sensing his thoughts, just like he did earlier in the den, Gabe added, “She will not turn to ash in the human world either once we bind her to us, my friend.”
Braxas stopped walking and turned to face Gabe. “Bound or not, no one will dare harm her as long as I draw breath.”
Gabe placed his hand on Braxas’s shoulder and looked him in the eye. “Not as long as I draw breath either,” he declared just as passionately, right before he turned his head to the side. “Did you feel that?”
“I did,” Braxas answered. He felt something in the air shift, and it had both men taking a defensive fighting stance. A slight ruffle of the leaves had the back of his hair standing up and his claws coming out. When he looked over at Gabe, he saw the man’s eyes begin to glow and his canines lengthen. The pair of them positioned themselves back to back and made a slow circle, ready to pounce on whoever dared to sneak up on them.
Though shifter kind had made peace with the Fae that did not mean there were still not those amongst them who were still supporters of the False King, not to mention the d
iscovery of these Dark Fae. Braxas knew better than to make presumptions about an entire race, but everyone was a potential foe until they proved otherwise.
He immediately began to strategize in his mind, calculating his next move with regards to the number of attackers, recalling Fae weapons and ways to disarm them. He thought about half shift versus full shift, his brain crunching numbers and scenarios all in a matter of seconds. He also made sure to account for Gabe’s strategies. Gabe was fierce and would no doubt decimate his fair share.
As Braxas continued to plot, waiting for their attackers to strike, he heard booming laughter coming from his right and turned to face that direction, Gabe following suit.
A large bear of a man stepped out as if from the shadows and spoke directly to him. “What did I tell you would happen next time you came into my realm?”
“You told me you’d make me some of your famous homemade brew and we’d drink from sundown to sunup.” Braxas retracted his claws and walked towards the big man with the large moving tattoos on his neck. When he reached him, he clapped the man on the back, who in turn gave Braxas what could only be described as a bear hug.
“Good to see you again, Braxas.”
“And you, Grahame.”
Grahame had fought valiantly beside him against Alefric’s guards, and they each owed the other a life debt, to which his friend had said, “I reckon that makes us squared away, then.”
Gabe had joined them and shook hands with Grahame.
“I have a batch that is perfectly aged for us,” he said in invitation to both Braxas and Gabe.
“I’m afraid the ale will have to wait, my friend, but we can use your help.”
“Do you know where we could locate Ishaya?” Gabe asked.
Bound to Their Faete Page 3
