“So…we must do this now. Are you prepared?” Faro asked, ignoring Alpha Jackson’s comment.
Derek didn’t hesitate, nodding his head, even as his muscles bunched up against my front, and I exhaled a shivering sigh against his shoulder.
“Good. To the training fields then.”
The journey was quiet, somber, like a funeral, and my legs trembled as fear seized my insides. Holding Derek’s arm tightly, I struggled to breathe as anxiety flooded my rib cage, and a dense lump formed in my throat. The day around us was bright, happy, but I was paralyzed with an unease that stung my eyes and beat against my skull.
“Derek…” Stopping at the edge of the grass, I croaked softly as Derek instantly responded to my call, and his eyes bored into mine with apprehension and determination in equal value. “If you die…I will die.”
Cupping my cheeks in both his hands, Derek captured my lips hard, and the first of my tears spilled out from beyond my eyelashes. It almost felt like a farewell kiss, and my heart threatened to give out in that moment. But it was over far too fast.
“Don’t forget that I promised to make up for this morning, Linne. I can’t do that if I’m dead.” Swiping away the droplets of tears on my cheeks with his thumbs, Derek pressed his forehead against mine, and I closed my eyes to breathe in as deeply as I could. Taking his scent down – down – deep down into the depths my soul, I hoped desperately that this wouldn’t be the last time I got to smell the scent of my mate. “Go home, Linne. Wait for me. I’ll come for you as soon as I can.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Linne
‘Do you not think that Derek the Lion will make it through the molt? I am confident that he will not fail, Linne.’
Betrayal clogged my throat, and I curled up tighter into a ball as Muss’ soft assurance gyrated against my brain.
‘Linne…please talk to me. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I have only ever done what is best for you.’
“Leave me alone.” My mumble was lost under the blood beating against my ears. Shivering when all of Muss’ eyes scanned my back, I held my wings tighter inwards, as tears dripped from my eyelashes. “Go away.”
‘I cannot. I will not. I did lie to you, but it was for the best. Faro and I did not want to put you under more stress because of the worsening condition of the Unseelie realm.’
Covering both ears with my hands, I clenched my teeth together tightly, as betrayal seared through my veins.
‘You always take more responsibility than what belongs to you. Can you tell me truthfully that you would not drive yourself into insanity in your quest to stop the threat of Bareiijnr? You have always taken things on your shoulders that you should not, Linne. I had the opportunity to make you happy, no matter how fleeting, and I will gladly suffer to see your smile.’
“Shut up – ”
‘Your anger is a small price to pay to be able to witness for these few months, your pure joy.’
I mumbled at him to go away, but Muss paid my words no mind. My blood pounded in my ears, but even with this noise, I could still hear his voice, drowning my heart beats, even as it pounded harder and faster.
‘I will never betray you on a whim, Linne. I never have, and I never will. Even when you are old and dying, you will always be the beautiful, smart, powerful little girl that deserves having the world laid at her feet. Your parents knew it…I know it…’
“Shut up – shut up! Shut up!” I shrieked, rasping from the pain in my heart, as it shot up from my chest and into my skull. My entire body shuddered, and I felt my bones ache and throb.
Suddenly, I let out a gasp, as pin-like needles stuck through into the gaps in my spine. Feathers rustled too loud in my ears, and I clawed at them, digging my sharp nails into my soft, vulnerable skin.
Fear seized my heart, and I shuffled onto weak knees and arms as Muss’ voice finally halted and stopped assaulting my mind. Arching sharply, my stomach flipped violently, and tears dribbled down my nose as saliva roped down my tongue.
The nest moment, the sound of my dry wretches filled the bedroom, and my eyes rolled back sharply.
“D – Derek…!” Rasping hoarsely, my tongue felt too big for my mouth, and I twisted sharply as something soft brushed my lower back. Hope blossomed, squeezing at my weak, vulnerable heart, as I felt the familiar sensation of fur, but just as quickly as it swelled, it soon morphed into cold, uncontrollable horror.
I had a tail – a real tail with a real tuft of black fur at the end, and real bones that tugged at my spine. My panties slid down my thighs as they changed form and slimmed, and my heart dropped like a stone to sink down into my roiling stomach.
Claws burst from between my knuckles, and I jerked up with a pained hiss only to lose my balance. Tumbling to the floor, my brain swam in my skull, and my sharpened, elongated teeth cut into my lips.
‘Linne, you must calm down.’ Taking advantage of my dazed state, Muss’ deep, thick tone was drenched in concern, as I let loose a nasty snarl from my mutilated mouth.
Whirling around, I crouched on my fingers and the pads of my feet to glare hotly at him. Even in my half-deranged mind, I knew this was his fault.
If Muss had just listened to me and left me alone – no, or even if he had just not lied to me in the first place – this wouldn’t be happening. I wouldn’t be going through this pain and anguish.
My eyelid twitched in agitation as he hopped back with a cautious rustle of his wings, and I jerked into action.
Pushing myself off on powerful legs, I tucked my wings tight against my back as I launched myself at Muss. His panicked squawk assaulted my sensitive ears, and he lifted himself sloppily into the air.
Barely avoiding my aching teeth, he flew for the nearest window to fling it open, and a deep, threatening growl burst from my chest.
Squeezing out through the window, I beat my wings hard in an effort to follow Muss as he soared high into the sky. His caws and alarmed squawks echoed through the atmosphere on rays of bright light, and my tail swished dangerously as I raced to keep up with him.
Mindless anger and betrayal branded my heart, and despair clung to my ribs, which shuddered and creaked as if they were about to break.
“Linne! Stop!” Alpha Jackson’s voice boomed through the air, and I stiffened as my body reacted to his threat. Tearing my eyes off Muss, untouchable in the air, I barreled towards the male wolf even as he paused mid-way through his rushed strides.
Apprehension rolled off him in waves, and I could smell it, as I licked my teeth heavily, and he shifted into his wolf.
Bristling as Alpha Jackson bared his teeth threateningly, I stalked back and forth for a few, tense seconds. The dominant part of my mind couldn’t even think to use magic, and I rushed towards him on gangly, unstable limbs.
He dodged me easily, snapping his jaw sharply to warn me off, and tears of frustration welled in my eyes, blurring my vision.
Panting harshly, I arched sharply in a futile effort to ease the tension on my spine, and my vertebra crackled loudly.
Even Alpha Jackson didn’t trust me.
No one trusts me but Derek.
Memories flooded my mind’s eye of every interaction my mate and I had ever had, but there wasn’t a moment where he had ever betrayed me.
Derek had never lied to me.
Derek never decided what was best for me without consulting me.
Derek never pushed aside what I wanted.
I needed him, and he would come. All I had to do was call.
The bones in my face cracked and splintered, and I bellowed. Deep, loud heaving sounds that weren’t human burst from my throat to surge across the clan grounds.
My chest shuddered, and Alpha Jackson barked menacingly. His massive body launched forward in my peripheral vision, but even his fast reaction wasn’t fast enough.
Underneath my hardened palms, the earth itself trembled as Derek responded to my call. Shuffling on sharply bent limbs, my fur bristled and tail swished expectantly, and I held my b
reath as the sun itself dulled in the sky. There were no clouds to block out the star, but the rays grew weak before my mate’s caterwaul reached my sensitive ears. The sound was angry even as it soothed my nerves and coiled deep inside me, and I leaned back on my legs in preparation.
Alpha Jackson’s hard, muscular body slammed into mine, knocking me off my distorted feet, and I rolled across the grass in a flurry of feathers and fur.
But he was too late, and the sky disappeared completely to be replaced with a deep, perpetual abyss.
Blinking hard even as my eyes adjusted to the sudden darkness, I shoved myself to my feet sloppily.
Shock blocked out all emotion, and my body protested my upright position as I craned my neck to stare upward. The sun had vanished completely, and there was nothing beyond the vortex of black that spread as far as my eye could see.
A slight twinkle, so bright in this darker than blackness, shimmered out of the bottom of my vision, and I stiffened. Derek’s eyes glowed silver instead of their usual amber, and it was the only part of him that was visible.
Swaying towards me, mesmerizingly, his eyes blazed as they floated in the darkness. Each step of his heavy paw shook the ground, and I reached out for him; nothing else existed in this piercing void.
Derek’s tongue caressed my fingers, sending shocks and goosebumps racing up my arms, and my knees gave out from under me. Beasts crowded around me as he nuzzled my face, and thin whiskers tickled me everywhere.
I couldn’t see them, but their soft fur, the sensation of their magic rippling across my skin, was all I could feel. Closing my eyelids tight, I buried my fingers in Derek’s mane to soak up his comfort.
“I can’t see – I can’t see anything – ” Alpha Jackson’s voice bubbled up from the abyss, tinged in panic, and I leaned back to draw my mate atop me.
Derek grumbled low in his chest, and his thick, heavy muscles draped me in warmth and security. Carefully lowering himself down, he licked my face tenderly, and he sprawled awkwardly to avoid crushing my wings spread out on either side of me.
“… I knew you would come…” Mumbling softly, my jaw ached fiercely, and I purred in satisfaction as Derek’s tongue caressed the length of it. “I needed you, and you came.”
“Derek – what did you do?” Once again, Alpha Jackson spoke up, and Derek shifted into his human form to hold himself on his hands and knees. Cracking open my eyes, I gasped at the brilliance of his gaze – but it was still liquid pools of silver. They didn’t change back as they had done so many times before when he’d shifted between forms. Reaching up to touch his eyelid, I didn’t dare blink despite the sting that blurred my vision.
“I will always come for you, my mate.” Derek inhaled a deep, sharp breath through flared nostrils, and the void that he had created began to lighten.
Slowly, like the cresting sun on the horizon, the black faded to grey, and his face gradually sharpened. The shadow beasts around us rustled and settled but didn’t cease to exist, and one of the lionesses draped its powerful neck and head over my thigh and his calve.
They’d never really liked me, but, now, they treated me like one of their own.
CHAPTER SIX
Derek
“It is extraordinary…it has only been a few days, but you have an unexpectedly strong grasp of your magic – just as Linne had when I bought her.” Kaslni’s voice was laced with awe, and I glared hotly at her as my lips twisted in a snarl.
Her eyes widened, and something akin to uncertainty flashed there before she shook her head. “Anyway – Faro, what do you think?”
“I think we have bigger issues than Derek’s affinity for Unseelie magic, Kaslni.” Faro’s irritation sharpened his tone, and he pinched the bridge of his nose with a deep scowl. When he’d said that Kaslni was a conceited, power-hungry bitch, he really hadn’t been lying. She couldn’t stop thinking about herself even for one second.
“The witches, Jackson. Tell me about them,” Faro said.
“There’s not much to say, honestly… There’s a few that I think would be open to this crazy plan, but the vast majority will say ‘no’ just out of spite. They’re not a fan of shifters or anyone that is magically threatening to them.”
“Jennifer might help us.” Line glanced at Melinda, speaking up from where she stood beside me, and busied herself with twiddling her thumbs, as I raked my brain trying to figure out who Jennifer was. “She seemed very sensible the last time the Council came here. I do not believe it would be a stretch to make her cooperate to a certain degree.”
“It will take a lot more than Melinda and Jennifer to open a portal across the Veil, though, Linne…no offense, of course,” Jackson’s surmised, causing Linne’s slender eyebrows to furrow, and I leaned over to nuzzle her head.
The buzzing in my veins, through every cell in my body, intensified like crackling electricity, and I relished the sensation.
Jackson continued, “We need at least five witches, and we need a sacrifice. Not to mention, we run the risk of someone on the other side recognizing Linne’s signature residue… This is really the best plan you could come up with, Faro?”
“It is the only option we have. Muss cannot travel through the Veil anymore. It is simply too high a risk that he will be captured. We cannot prepare for Bareiijnr without information. With everything that has happened, I am certain he will come himself – and he will not make killing him easy.”
“Surely the witches understand that Bareiijnr must die. When he is gone, we can go back through the Veil, and everything will return to normal.” Every pair of eyes in Jackson’s office turned to Kaslni, and my eyelid twitched in irritation at the certainty playing on her features. “There is no reason to need another plan.”
“…Just because Bareiijnr will die does not mean you can go back, Kaslni…” Linne spoke cautiously, as if she couldn’t really believe what she was hearing, and her former master frowned in confusion.
“The Veil requires a sacrifice because there is so little wild magic in this realm. You would need another Unseelie. You can kill every witch in the world, and it wouldn’t be enough,” Linne explained, reminding Kalsni of the predicament.
“I know that.” Kaslni’s snap echoed in the crowded office, and prickles shot down my spine at the long, tense silence that followed. Narrowing my eyes on her, my tail thumped softly as my gut tightened at the ominous quiet, and her huff did nothing to appease me.
“Bareiijnr would never come here by himself. Not with the amount of power stacked against him. We will use his mercenaries,” she stated carelessly.
Faro caught my gaze, and I licked the roof of my mouth heavily as a silent understanding exchanged between us. Kaslni had been something of an asset up until now, but her message had been made unintentionally clear in that fraction of a second of silence. She intends to go back, and she’ll sacrifice everyone around her to reclaim her throne again.
“I’ll contact a few witches that I know well, too, if that’ll help. To get anything concrete from across the Veil, we’ll have to sacrifice a shifter, though, Jackson. The higher ranking, the better.” Drawing my attention, Melinda pushed herself off Jackson’s desk with graveness dragging down her otherwise pretty, young face. “I might be able to scrounge up someone, but don’t count on it.”
“I’ll think of something. It doesn’t sit right to sacrifice a shifter, even if it is to protect my clan mates…” Jackson trailed off, his expression twisting in mild disgust, and my chest tightened at the flash of self-hatred in his eyes. “This is way out of my gearbox… Reaching through the Veil that I didn’t even know was a thing up until a year ago…sacrificing actual people…it’s a hard pill to swallow.”
“We can sacrifice Savannah.” Offering her input once again, Linne gave a huff as she frowned down at her thumbs. “She will get in the way, anyway.”
“I’d have no problem with that bitch disappearing.” Jackson responded quick, almost chipper, and I smirked internally even as our little meeting came
to a close.
“Let’s get to work, then.”
There was no actual plan, just checkpoints that we needed to reach. Some people would be utilized, and others, not so much. Melinda was pretty important, but I didn’t even know why Kaslni was in the room.
But I didn’t have time to think about it as everyone filed out of the office, while Linne stayed put, sitting cross legged beside me.
Shifting into my human form, I wrapped my arm around her as I waited patiently for her to say something. Her wings twitched and shuddered at my touch, but she didn’t shy away. Even so, she was withdrawn and had been for days.
Ever since she attacked Muss.
“When this is over…” Mumbling without lifting her head, Linne paused to suck up a shallow, sharp breath. “When this is over, I do not think it would be wise to go with them to the Unseelie realm.”
“I don’t think it’d be a good idea, either. I was hoping to talk to you about it.” Honestly, I’d never considered going across the Veil, but relief surged up through my chest that Linne didn’t want to go, period. “When Bareiijnr is dead, and you’re not being hunted anymore, I was wondering if you wanted to travel this world with me.”
“Travel?” Leaning her head on my shoulder, my mate donned a soft ghost of a smile, and I pressed my lips to her crown. “I would like to travel this world with you. Where would we go?”
Propping myself up on the wall, I growled quietly as my mind whirred, and Linne shuffled down to rest her head in my lap. For the first time, there was a light at the end of this tunnel, and – for the first time – that future was filled with possibilities.
“We could go everywhere.” Too many possibilities. “We should go everywhere. And we’ll take our time, and we’ll see everything there is to see.”
“The human Chad was talking about going to a place called Hawa-ee…we can go there?” My lips quirked at her mispronunciation, and I nodded, looking down at her beautiful, smooth face.
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