by Aidy Award
Had she ever. The pain and agony in the lion’s roar tore at Tia’s heart, shredding it into a tiny little pieces. Ones she wasn’t sure she would be able to put back together again.
That was her lion.
He was real.
He was here.
He was dying.
Five: Sworn Enemies
Fuck the fucking Fates. Fed couldn’t believe he’d come back to this forsaken human base to find his witch.
When he’d seen her pool spectrals around her and use them against the oncoming soldiers for the first time in his life, he’d been dumbstruck. He couldn’t, wouldn’t believe what he’d been seeing.
His mate.
His sworn enemy.
Fucking Fates.
That’s what had him panting and injured and surrounded by spectrals. Because he had to do the right thing and bring that witch to justice.
He also needed to see her one more time.
A spectral dove for him and he swiped his at it with claws even though he knew it wouldn’t do any good.
One infinitesimal moment before it struck his body, Fed’s soul ember lit up again.
She was here.
Fed heard her and another woman Ash gasp as the spectral warrior shuttered into his body. It should have emerged with a second newly born spectral from his soul.
Fed roared spurred by the pain as just the one dark soul re-emerged from his body. He should be a husk of himself staring into nothingness.
He wasn’t. He was alive.
Something or someone had protected his soul... with her own.
He searched for his witch and found her frozen, her face flushed and tears streaking down her face. Anger roiled through him and he pushed to get back on his feet.
What was she crying about? He’d give her something more to cry about than the fact that her minions hadn’t destroyed him and now she would have to face his consequences.
She spoke and Fates he hated how beautiful her voice sounded.
“Ash, help me. I don’t know where these soul stealers are from or where their bodies are, I can’t do anything to stop them by myself.”
Ash had already found her soul magic with her mates. He’d be damned if he would let his witch corrupt her with her lies. If only he could get up off the ground.
Ash replied, buying in too quickly. “We can try to replicate what we did back at Magic, with that explosion. I put some of Kady’s magic into that too.”
Explosion? That was the second battle he’d missed searching for his witch.
She nodded and wiped at the tears. “Yes, please, Ashmiza. I...he’s...”
“Okay, get ready then, we’ll hit them with everything we’ve got.”
Another spectral warrior rose through the floor and attacked him. The light in his ember flickered and he roared. He didn’t want or need her help.
The women grabbed hands and a clap of energy surged through the two of them. Ash closed her eyes, but the piercing brown eyes of his witch stared directly at him.
Ash’s magic shimmered across her skin, joining with his mate’s in a ball of light.
“Now,” she whispered.
They pushed the light forward through the hallway like a blockade in front of them. Several spectrals screeched and dove for them. The first one to hit the magic froze in mid-flight and then disintegrated into a million little pieces. Another took a stab at them and the same thing happened to it.
Fed watched, not understanding a fucking thing. Why would she destroy her own creatures? It had to be part of the ruse. She was working awfully hard to get to him.
He would not be so easily tricked by her feigned worry.
Two more spectral warriors attacked him again and she shot a burst at them, suspiciously not injuring either, but making them miss their mark.
One of those turned its attention on the women. Fed needed to protect Ash. The bears would be devastated at the loss of their mate. He summoned the strength of his ancestors and almost made it to his feet. That small act sapped him of any energy he had and collapsed back to the floor not able to do anything but watch the immanent destruction.
This one didn’t mindlessly attack like the others. It tested their defense, poking and prodding it, looking for a weakness.
In another few steps they reached him, and their shield surrounded them all, cutting off the spectrals’ attack. His witch fell to her knees beside him, letting the magic fade.
That’s when the spectral attacked, which must have been her game all along. Get close so she could end them all with her attack. Fed had no more reserves he could draw upon and let out a shuttered breath and closed his eyes. He couldn’t watch this scenario play out again. Let the spectral take him. He would seek his revenge from the darkness.
He sensed the push of magic from Ash and heard the spectral swooping down to attack. He would find the witch when he’d become one of her creatures and would find a way to make her suffer like all the people she’d taken the spark of life from.
And the shattering concussion of an explosion hit him, but he didn’t think that’s what having his soul stolen would feel like. Debris rained down around them, and another shimmer of magic washed over him.
Kady’s magic.
How he wished he could pull his glued eyelids open. They simply wouldn’t budge. He wasn’t dead yet, though. His hearing was just fine, and he knew the sound of a ship hovering above them.
Wet drops hit his face and soaked into his fur. His witch screamed into the sky. “You killed him, you bastards.”
The bear’s lovely mates must have used their magic and destroyed some of her spectrals. Good.
Pain pricked inside of his skin and her magic exploded behind his eyes. She was on the attack. Two, three, five, seven, explosion.
Enough. He couldn’t let her harm anyone else. She was his responsibility the second he saw her, and his ember and his soul told him she was his mate.
Energy from deep within him pushed out and he growled low. He pried his eyes open and squinted at the light shooting into his brain.
Two figures turned from dark to turned from their silvery black to a dusty white. It must be what the death of a spectral looked like.
They drifted down, like snow and over to the two of them. She reached her magic out, but it had no effect.
One of the spectrals reached through her, dragging a bit of magic from inside of her and shoved it into his chest. He gasped, taking in a deep breath.
“Lion? Dear sweet saints, please be alive.”
Fed blinked and absorbed the magic into his injuries. The alchemy of life in her soul poured into Fed and restored his energy, his power.
Had his witch’s magic taken the darkness from a spectral warrior? Was that even possible? He didn’t understand why she would do that unless she also knew that they mate, if that even mattered to her. Maybe she was demonstrating her power for him in some strange human witch mating ritual. She’d shown him her depth of her black magic and that she had the control to use it however she liked for her own purposes.
He would file that bit of information away for when she was vulnerable, and he could use their connection to destroy her.
He would kill her.
For all the lives she’d destroyed and so that she could not take anymore.
Fed slowly got to his feet and stared down at his mate who’d been kneeling beside him. Her hands flew to her face, covering her sobs.
You are in violation of Star Coalition code which is an offence punishable by death.
He expected her to rise and try to run from him. He’d relish the chase. At the least he’d thought she would strike at him with her magic.
Instead she simply sat there, tears streaming down her face as she looked into his eyes. She must be trying to win his sympathy.
He had none.
He was also not a monster and would make her death quick. He extended his claws and she opened her arms, exposing her heart to him. A sadness and resignation shone in her eyes
. There would be no more fight from her, she was ready to face her punishment.
Fed’s soul ember flashed, and the light drifted around them in swirls. He would mourn the mate he would never know.
The turbulence of a ranger ship landing beside them blew him back before he could reach out and end her. Former Star Ranger Frost jumped out of the hatch and raised his icy sword. Between the two of them she would be obliterated.
Fed lashed out, hoping to cut her throat before Frost did. Her death was his right, his responsibility, his duty.
A soft blue light shot from inside of the ship and froze both of them in mid strike. “Stop.”
Lacey, Frost’s human witch mate jumped out and wrapped her arms around Fed’s mate, lifting her from the ground.
Fed roared but could not move. Frost’s mate would have to face consequences for interfering.
Don’t touch her. She has wreaked havoc on the galaxy and she must pay for her crimes.
His mate glanced at him, but no one else acknowledged his command. Shit. She was the only one that could hear him telepathically. Neither Frost nor his mate were shifters.
A second witch with purple hair jumped from the ship and shot Fed a look like he was dumber than a box of rocks.
“You ain’t the brightest star in the sky, are you, boy?” The purple-haired witch shook her head and tiscked him. “Don’t you know who this is?”
Of course he did. She was the one making a grave mistake.
“Come along, Tiaret.” The witches escorted her into the ship and only then did the spell holding him and Frost release.
Fed swiped at thin air and now healed, shifted into his honese form. “Get your woman under control, Frost. That witch she just saved is responsible for the spectral scourge. She is a war criminal and will be executed.”
Frost laughed at him. Laughed. What the fuck was wrong with everyone? There was nothing funny about any of this. Fed wasn’t sure anyone had ever dared scoff at him, much less outright laugh. Not like he was royalty anymore.
“You don’t understand mates very well if you think I have any control over Lacey. If she and Topper think that girl needs to be protected, that’s what we’re going to do. Fuck the Coalition.”
Fine. Fed would bide his time and strike again when they witch mates let their guard down. He and Frost climbed into the ship and for the first time Fed looked out over the destruction that had been wrought by the Star Rangers on this small human base.
Someone had better contact Scarlet pretty damn quick to send in a clean-up crew.
Wait. Was that her coming out of another ship? It was. She was reaching for Passion. Who had a fucking gun held to the twin bears’ mate, Ash.
Fed didn’t get to see any more than that because Titian, the sneaky fucking fox, came over the comms. “Get your butts out of there, ya dumb bunch of bears. T-minus ten until it blows, and not in the fun way.”
“Uh-oh.” Frost said and jumped into the co-pilot seat next to Star Ranger Stark. “I’m no dumb bear, but that means us too.”
The hatch door slammed shut and the ship sped off, away from the area of fifty-one. Fed secured himself behind the cockpit and as far from the trio of witches as he could.
He would not hurt Frost and Stark’s mates, just to take his, unless she made a move to use her magic against them. She honestly didn’t look like she was in any shape to do much beside sleep for about a hundred years.
Fed could relate.
When they landed back in Magic, the witches hurried his mate off the ship giving him dirty looks the whole time. He followed them, slowly, keeping his distance. They might not understand who and what she was, but he did. No way he was taking his eyes off of her again for even a moment.
Black and Kady were already waiting for them in the garden of the gnomes where they all had strange homes made from shipping containers. Black had his arm around a woman who looked remarkably like him but smaller, older, and pretty. Fed didn’t remember seeing her before.
Kady rushed over and hugged his mate to her like they were the oldest of friends.
No. Like they were family.
Ah, fuck.
He knew he recognized those soft brown eyes of hers. They were exactly like both Kady’s and Ash’s. His mate was sister to the bears’ mates.
No wonder they’d wanted to save her.
Frost sauntered up to Fed and slapped him on the shoulder. “You may want to rethink that crimes against the Star Coalition thing, man.”
If anyone had learned how to ignore Coalition directives it was Frost. Fed was not so easily swayed. “It’s not only the laws of the Coalition she has violated. She created the spectral warriors and used them for her own gain.”
Frost looked over at the women, then back at Fed. “Are you sure?”
His life would be a hell of a lot simpler if he wasn’t sure. “I saw it with my own eyes.”
“What did you feel?” Frost eyed him.
“Feel?” Did this man know the war raging inside Fed about having to execute his own mate?
“Her magic had the touch of Glacier in it.” He demonstrated with a small flash of icy cold wind. “Like Kady and Ash. But hers even more so. I felt it when I thought she was attacking you. I hesitated in striking her down because of it.”
“Why does that matter?” Only justice for those she’d had a hand in destroying mattered. Not even the fact that she was his true mate could influence her punishment. Not that he would let anyone know that’s what she was.
“Kady and Ash are the only witches in Magic, hell, the universe as far as I know, that have the power of Glacier. It’s an old magic. They are something very special and I think this witch is too.”
He refused to believe that. “Her magic is dark.”
“Is it?” Frost tipped his head to the sparkles, snowflakes, and wisps of golden magic floating around like a beautiful dance in the air above Kady and his mate’s head.
Another ship, the bear twins’ vessel landed, and a glowing Ash bounded off the ship and jumped into the love fest going on. The twins strolled onto the field looking smug and satisfied.
They deserved that happiness. Fed had never thought the Fates would allow that for him. Not as a prince, not as a soldier. Instead they dangled the happiness in front of him and smacked him in the face with the horror of his reality.
“She is probably biding her time. She tried to fool me on several occasions.”
The twins stopped dead in their tracks and stared at the small woman by Black’s side. Fed couldn’t hear what Black said to them, but whatever it was it had the twins grabbing her up and squashing them in a bear hug between them.
Frost made a sound that was something between a snort and a hmm. “Is that where you kept disappearing off to? To find her?”
In due time the bears would fill them all in on who that woman was, but they were now approaching his mate, talking to her animatedly. He kept a close watch on her to ensure his team was still safe.
His witch hadn’t yet so much as lifted a finger to work a spell, much less pull the souls from anyone here. In fact, she looked completely overwhelmed by the attention everyone was paying her.
He didn’t like that. Soon, he would intervene and separate her. Get her to himself. Not like he could mark her or claim her like he lion was growling at him to do.
“I was hunting, trying to fulfill my mission while the rest of my team were thinking with their dicks.” Something he could not afford to do. No matter how much his body craved hers. Damn it.
“I’ll be forever grateful they did. Their mates saved Magic more than once. I have a feeling yours did today too.”
There was no use talking to Frost. He didn’t understand. He’d never lost anyone to the spectrals. The bears had, maybe they would understand. Maybe not. If his mate was now a part of their family, they might forgive her. Although, he couldn’t see how. They’d lost as much as he had.
With all these people fooled into giving her the benefit of the doubt he
would not be able to execute her as planned. He couldn’t accept her innocence too.
Even as much as he wanted to. Needed to.
No. He needed a new plan. If they all insisted she wasn’t punishable by him, then he would arrest her and take her to be judged by the Coalition council.
They couldn’t object to a fair trial if they believed in her virtue.
“Fine.” He stalked across the garden and up to the women. He was no match against their magic, hopefully he could match their wits.
Sweet Kady smiled at him and then her eyes went wide. “Whoa. Fed. Your soul ember is glowing.”
Damn. He glanced over at his mate who stared at the necklace just as everyone else did. He should have hidden the thing inside of his uniform. He shoved it under his shirt. “No, it’s not.”
Topper flicked her wrist and the amulet floated back up out of his clothing and dangled in front of his face. “Hard to deny that, you big pussy.”
“Auntie.” Lacey admonished.
“What? He is.” Topper stared him down and raised an eyebrow that Fed recognized as the challenge it was. “A cat, isn’t he?”
Fed grabbed the amulet and shoved it back in his shirt, but even he could see the light from its glow through the shirt. “I still have to take her in. She is accused of violating a lot of Coalition codes. I am a Star Ranger and have to do my job.”
That sounded very official.
Ash frowned “Who? Red and Red number two?”
“I don’t know who you mean, but I’m talking about her.” He pointed to his mate and she shrank back from him. She should be scared.
Black, Russ, and Barret stepped in front of the woman, forming a barrier of brawn and bear growls. Black used his I’m-your-commanding-officer voice on him. “Check yourself, Fed. This woman has helped bring our mother back to us. Which has implications for the entire war.”
Ash poked her head between her two bears and raised her finger to ask a question. “Uh, you mean you want to arrest Tia? What did she do?”
He scowled at all these interfering bears and their women. They may have the souls of warriors, but they were in his way. “She can answer for herself.”
