Woodland Fae: The World of Fae, Book 10

by Terry Spear

  "Bryan has had more time to be one of us and he's doing well with his shifting. Mark couldn't shift on command. As soon as they have more control over it, they will reside with a couple of my bachelor brothers."

  "And they will teach them how to fight?"

  "It's not all about fighting, but playing, showing who's in charge, finding food, and learning how to use our enhanced senses. For them, it's not just about being new wolf-shifters, but about—"

  "Being fae. Fae travel, and everything else they'll need to learn about as fae. When they return to the human world, they'll have an aura that fae-seers will be able to see, so it will be much more dangerous for them."

  "Exactly. They are one of us now, and that will take some time for them to get used to. Though they've been here for a couple of years now, living among the fae, helping the dragon shifters with their battles, and working hard for their keep. We would welcome them to continue to live among the wolf shifter fae."

  "When will they be able to return to Ena and Brett's castle?"

  "They may never return. Not if they find they like it here well enough, living among their own kind. They might even find mates among the females in the pack."

  "Couldn't they take their mates with them?" Letta wondered then if Simon worried about losing a couple of his wolves, should Mark and Bryan fall for she-wolves in his pack and leave.

  "I think we're getting ahead of ourselves."

  Just then they saw the shadows of two dragons flying overhead, and they looked up to see Ena and Brett flying over the village.

  "They're returning?"

  "Ena better not think she's taking you home with her."

  But the dragons flew beyond the village.

  She and Simon reached his cottage, and she thanked him for the escort, then they saw Brett and Ena flying back overhead. This time, Brett had a goat in his talons.

  "What are they doing with the goat?" she asked, horrified, thinking the dragons planned to eat it.

  "From what I understand, the goat went missing. The dragons find objects, missing animals, people, and have any number of other kinds of missions, some taking them to the human world. Their jobs can be dangerous. In this case, it appears they've found someone's lost goat."

  Now she wished she could be a dragon too. She liked the idea of helping others out like they did. Maybe she could go with them on their missions as a healer, if they needed her help. "That's why they have all the treasure. They're paid for their services with it."

  "That's correct." Simon bowed his head to her. "I'll see you at the noon meal."

  She inclined her head and went inside, but she wasn't done exploring. Myla was lying on a couch, sleeping. Letta went over to her, but as soon as she moved, Myla's eyes opened. "Oh, Letta, I hope you enjoyed your jaunt around the village."

  "I did. I was walking with Simon. Are you ill? Feverish?" Letta placed her hand on Myla's forehead.

  "No, thanks, Letta. Just tired."

  "You were injured badly."

  "Yeah, but I'm getting better. I think I just overdid it."

  "What can I do for you?"

  "Nothing, really. You can help me make the noon meal later, if you'd like."

  "I'll do that. I haven't finished exploring the village. If you don't need me or the healer…"

  "No, go on. Enjoy yourself."

  Letta didn’t want to disturb Myla while she tried to sleep if she remained in the cottage. She slipped outside and decided to roam around in her wolf coat. She really wanted to remove the retaining collar too, to show Simon he couldn't control her like he thought he could. If she stayed, it was because she wanted to. She ran through the woods in a different direction this time, racing off as far as she could go, loving the way her wolf legs propelled her so much faster than her fae legs. She ran until she realized she had to be way beyond the boundaries of the wolf village and not once had her collar tingled to warn her it was going to give her a shock. Had Simon lied to her?

  She would have been irritated with him, except that she appreciated that he hadn't really attached a collar that would shock her.

  She kept going farther and farther away, heading in the direction of the dragon territory. If she could, she'd find Ena and see if she could have someone remove her collar. Then she'd transport back to the wolf village, hopefully in time to help Myla fix lunch, and prove to Simon she was safe to be around, and she wouldn't be under his control any longer.

  The problem was she couldn't see Ena's fae dust trail because she and Brett had been flying as dragons. Letta kept going, hoping she'd smell dragon scents, even Alton's, though she suspected he still wasn't happy with her learning his treasure was in the cave in Wolf Mountain territory. Now that she was a wolf, though, maybe he'd believe she would want to help guard his treasure. She would have to earn her keep while living with the wolf pack.

  As far as she'd run, stopping to drink at a creek, and taking off again, she was way beyond where the collar should have worked. She smiled a little. So Simon hadn't been so bad after all. If he could try to make her mind with the collar though, as if he had some kind of control to operate it, she was probably beyond his reach now.

  Then she thought she heard something following her through the brush and she turned to look, but she saw nothing. Still, as she continued to move forward, she kept hearing sounds of movement through the brush behind her. Another wolf? Or something else? She'd encountered one wild boar out in the woods when she first had come to the region, and she had managed to climb a tree before he gored her.

  She couldn't climb a tree as a wolf though. She shifted and stopped. The creature, whatever it was, stopped too. Simon? Following her to see where she'd go? But she didn't think he'd wait. He'd approach her and give her grief for leaving the village.

  Then a tan-colored wolf with a black saddle of fur on her back lunged out of the woods at her and Letta quickly shifted, thinking maybe she should have used her scorpion fae magic instead. The wolf appeared to be in killing form, not intending to return her to the village. The wolf plowed into Letta and knocked her down. Letta smelled her scent. It was Gia. Not surprising.

  This was not the time to show any weakness, Letta told herself, and scrambled to her feet.

  But the wolf attacked again, snarling, biting, and growling. If Gia managed to kill Letta, she thought the wolf would tell Simon she tried to convince her to return, but Letta attacked her, and she couldn't do anything but fight back.

  Letta wasn't going to let Gia win. Right then and there, Letta decided she was going to win Simon's affection, if she could keep from killing the wolf and stay alive at the same time. If she could have fae transported out of there, she would have. That had been the only thing about the collar that Simon had said that was the truth. She tried to leave and couldn't. If she didn't win against the wolf, he could have signed Letta's death warrant.

  Would he care, or would he figure it served her right for running off? And would he believe the lies Letta was sure Gia would tell him when she returned to the village?

  Letta growled right back and attacked the wolf, her scorpion-warrior aggressiveness coming to the forefront. No one tried to kill her kind without paying the consequences. Even so, Letta knew she was at a strong disadvantage since she had never fought as a wolf before. The wolf had already torn at Letta's shoulder, though Letta wasn't feeling the pain kick in yet, due to the adrenaline flooding her bloodstream. She smelled her blood though, and that outraged Letta even more. She tore into Gia, not wanting to prove to Simon she was as dangerous as he thought her kind were, but she wasn't going to let the wolf get away with this.

  Letta had torn into Gia's flank, her neck, her cheek. She knew she needed to go for the throat, but she was trying too hard to keep Gia from grabbing hers and killing her. Then she had the brilliant notion of going for one of Gia's legs. The problem with that was that if she attacked low and didn't manage to bite the wolf's leg and break it before Gia bit her spine, Letta would be a dead wolf.

  A
nd Letta was wearing out. Gia was about the same size as her, but the wolf was good at feints, and dodging her, making Letta waste a lot of energy and not getting anything accomplished, wearing her down. Then Gia was getting in a lot more bites too, and Letta was sure her blood loss was weakening her also.

  Then Letta thought of a good way to take care of Gia without getting herself into much more trouble. Though she knew when she tried it, she might give Gia the chance to make the killing blow.

  Still, Letta knew now, she couldn't get the advantage without some help. She quickly lifted her chin and howled, calling for anyone in the vicinity to aid her. Maybe one of the dragons would be near and could swoop down and carry her away.

  Gia had come in for the charge, but then she suddenly stopped, as if she knew she was going to be in really big trouble now. Then again, it would only be Letta's word against hers, and if Letta was dead, Gia would have the sole chance to tell the story.

  Gia growled at her, trying to figure out what she wanted to do next, Letta suspected.

  Letta was gasping for breath, trying to get ready for the next battle exchange. When Gia didn't come in to fight her, Letta howled again, afraid no one was going to hear her, or know what she needed.

  Gia took the opportunity to attack. Maybe that's what she was waiting for. Letta to make herself more vulnerable so she couldn't hurt Gia any further. It didn't work. Letta jumped away, and Gia bit her in the rump. Letta yelped like a scared pup, and rounded on the wolf, their paws resting on each shoulders, dancing on their hind legs, biting each other's mouth when Letta knew she couldn't last, her bites and growls not as powerful, her legs weakening.

  She tried to bolt away and Gia fell on her like a rabid wolf, ready to kill her. Letta shifted, knowing it was a dangerous thing to do, a fae no match for a wolf's teeth, but she had to try and use her own magic to save herself. She rolled to give her time to cast her electrical charge, the wolf missing her throat and clamping down on her shoulder again. Letta heard movement, lots of movement, but the wolf wasn't giving up and Letta had no choice. Die, or use her magic. She zapped the wolf hard, not enough to kill her, not yet, but it knocked Gia off her. Gia sat stunned for a moment as wolves filled the woods.

  Letta could barely look up to see Simon leading a pack of males, but even Myla was with them, and she felt so bad that Myla had come looking for her when she hadn't fully recovered herself yet. That's the last Letta remembered, her final thought: she needed to live to tell her story, whether anyone believed her or not—everything fading to black after that.

  9

  Simon knew he was going to have real trouble now. The problem wasn't just Gia, but her three brothers. They could be real hotheads and when they saw what Letta had done to Gia, ignoring what the wolf had done to the scorpion-wolf, he knew he was in for a fight. He also knew just whose fault this was. Well, Letta's for running off, but he knew Gia was the one who chased her down and tried to kill her.

  He really couldn't blame Letta for making a run for it either. Wolves didn't like to be incarcerated, free-spirits that they were. Well, truth be told, none of the fae did. But she would have been safe if she'd stayed with them. Gia wouldn't have dared to hurt Letta in the village, and even if she had attacked her, it would never have gotten this far.

  He hadn't wanted Myla to go with them, but as soon as she learned Letta was missing, she thought she could convince her to come back to the pack. When they smelled Gia's scent all along the trail that Letta had left, they knew the wolf was after her, and that she hadn't intended to bring her back to the village either.

  At some point, Gia's brothers had joined up with them. Simon had regretted that, until he thought that it was better that they see the situation for themselves, whatever it was, than letting the other wolves there explain what they had seen.

  He and Myla stripped some fabric off their clothes to make the bandages, then wrapped them around Letta’s wounds the best they could. Gia's brothers had done the same for her, but she wasn't as bad off.

  Carrying Letta in his arms, to show the other wolves with him that he was her protector—and nobody better find fault with her over fighting Gia—Simon headed home.

  Letta was unconscious; Gia was wide awake, and her brother Tomas was carrying her back to the village.

  "She goes now," Tomas said to Simon.

  "Gia?" Simon glowered at Tomas, who was wearing his own stormy expression.

  No wolf told Simon what to do with regard to the wolves of his pack. And for now, Letta was a wolf in their pack, until he said otherwise.

  "She's a danger to our females," Tomas growled.

  "Gia is. Yes."

  Myla was trying to keep up with Simon and he wanted to slow down for her, worried she wasn't feeling well still, surprised she'd been sleeping when he'd returned home to check on what she and Letta had been doing. But he couldn't slow down, not when he was so concerned about Letta’s wounds. She needed to see the healer at once. If she didn't make it, he was banishing Gia from the pack. Her brothers too, if they couldn't live with his decision. That was a strict possibility anyway, even if Letta recovered. He wouldn't allow for anarchy in his pack. What Gia did was wrong and went against everything he stood for.

  Letta stirred in his arms and muttered, "Bad wolf." But that's all she said and then she seemed to be somewhere else far from here.

  He hated the idea that if he'd let her go to live with Ena and Brett, none of this would ever have happened.

  "I know what you're thinking, brother," Myla said, sounding way out of breath, "but you can't think in that way."

  Myla couldn't read minds, but she got darn close to reading his. "Myla, slow down and walk with some of the other men. Or someone's going to have to carry you back too."

  She snorted, but she did slow her pace and their brother Ronan stayed with her to carry her back home if he needed to.

  The women had run a long way and it took them forever to reach the village. Now he had a problem. They had one healer, and two injured wolves. Since he knew Letta wasn't the one at fault and she was injured worse, he wanted her seen to first. But he knew there were already hard feelings that she and Gia had battled each other. Simon suspected Gia’s brothers believed that if Letta hadn't come into the pack, Gia would have been his choice to mate. That would have given them better standing in the pack also, but it would never have happened. If she'd had any notion that she had a chance to mate him after this happened, she had to know she'd blown it.

  He carried Letta into the healer's hut and the healer hurried to take care of Letta's injuries. Tomas brought Gia in and laid her down on another bed, looking furious that Letta would get special treatment when Gia had been a pack member all along.

  The healer continued to work on Letta, removing her bandages, cleaning her wounds, and wrapping them with clean bandages when Myla finally made it to the hut. Simon asked her if she was all right.

  “Yeah, thanks, Simon. I’m just tired, but I was worried about Letta,” Myla said.

  "Gia is a member of this pack," Tomas said, their other brothers trying to come into the healer's hut to see her.

  Ronan said, "Everyone, out, except for the injured women, our pack leader, and Myla." He shut the door on their exodus.

  Simon heard all the grumbling outside and knew he'd have to call a pack council meeting as soon as he was sure that Letta would pull through. "How is she?" he asked the healer.

  "As injured as Myla had been, I'm afraid. I wish I could use Letta's healing abilities to help. Will she stay with us, or will you send her away so she isn't killed by one of our own?" The healer sounded just as irritated that Gia would do this to Letta and glanced in Gia's direction with a hateful glower.

  Gia scowled at Simon. "Okay, listen, I believed she was running off and so I followed her. I thought the collar was supposed to stop her, so I just continued to follow her, thinking she’d scream in pain and turn around. But it didn't stop her. She just kept going."

  "You waited long enough.
You could have returned and told me Letta had run off," Simon said.

  "It would have taken too long. I barked at her to stop. I shifted and pleaded with her to return."

  “Why didn’t you stop her right away? Closer to the village?” Simon asked, knowing all Gia’s words were lies.

  “I thought the collar would work!”

  "How dumb do you think my brother is?" Myla sounded as furious as Simon felt.

  "Do I get to tell my story, or what?" Gia directed the question to Simon as if Myla had no business saying anything.

  "Go ahead." For what it was worth. Simon knew Gia had waited until Letta was far enough away that her howls wouldn't reach far enough for anyone in the village to hear her. The only reason they heard her howls, crying for help, was that he’d already discovered Letta missing and he and several other male wolves had been racing to find her. Then he and the other wolves had realized Gia was following her and he'd figured nothing good could have come of that.

  He knew the confrontation between the women wouldn't have ended well. The healer did all she could for Letta and began to take care of Gia's wounds.

  "Anyway, the scorpion fae turned and growled at me, teeth bared. She has some notion you want her for a mate," Gia said. "And because of that, she attacked me, thinking I had a chance with you. I hadn't provoked her in the least. I wouldn't have. She's an unproven wolf in her fighting skills and I was afraid she'd be seriously injured if we sparred. What was I supposed to do? She attacked, and I had to defend myself. I was only trying to injure her enough to get her to stop attacking me."

  "She howled for help," Simon reminded Gia.

  "She only did so as a ploy to make it sound as though she was the innocent one. She's a devious scorpion fae. They're dark of heart. They killed their own people. Everyone knows that.” Gia took a deep, steadying breath. “She set the whole thing up. I didn't realize she knew I was following her until it was nearly too late. She waited until we were so far away that I couldn't howl and reach anyone for help."