Woodland Fae: The World of Fae, Book 10

by Terry Spear

  “All right. When will you leave?”

  “First thing in the morning.”

  “Okay, safe travels.” Simon hoped she wouldn't be coming back, and he wondered if Tomas was feeling so much heat from his earlier actions that he wanted to leave for a while. He might even want to see about leaving their pack for another, but once news traveled to other packs about what Tomas and his brothers had pulled, the other packs might be unwilling to take them in.

  15

  The next day, Ena considered the beauty of the waterfall cascading into the pool below and how it wound around the gardens with little stepping stones or bridges traversing it. She was envisioning the fish swimming in the water and found Mark looking over the rose garden.

  “Are you ready to find some koi and bring them here?” Ena asked Mark.

  “Yeah, absolutely.”

  Jacob hurried to join them. “Can I go too?”

  Once Jacob had joined her staff, he’d been kind of lost with not knowing what to do as far as a job went, yet he wasn’t one to sit idle. He’d needed work to earn enough money to save to provide for a family, though he hadn’t found a wife yet and he hadn’t wanted to leave Ena and Brett’s employ. Once he began helping Mark and Bryan in the gardens, he’d found his new job and he would take over when Mark left to join the wolf pack.

  “Sure, you can go with us, Jacob,” Ena said, smiling. She’d never regretted taking him into her family. She only wished Bryan could go with them on this adventure. She knew he’d appreciate what they were doing. Not to mention that the queen would want koi in her gardens next. Still, Ena wanted them in hers first.

  When the three of them arrived at a strip mall in Dallas, Texas, in their invisible forms, she watched people coming and going. Then she saw what she wanted to grab. A man had just finished texting on his cell phone. When he pocketed it, she hurried to follow him to his car, slipping her hand in his pocket, and pulling his phone out. She whipped around, turned visible, and hoped he hadn’t noticed her stealing his phone.

  Mark and Jacob had turned visible and were watching her, smiling. The man got into his car and backed out of the parking space while Ena handed the phone to Mark. She didn’t know how to access the phone since she’d never lived in the human world. She only knew what they were used for.

  Mark looked eager to have a phone in his hand again, after having lost his own that wouldn’t work in the fae world. He did a search for koi shops while Ena and Jacob looked over his shoulders.

  “That is amazing.” Jacob had rarely been to the human world before Mark and Bryan had ended up living with them, so it appeared he hadn’t seen a phone up close.

  “This pet shop.” Ena pointed to the one that was closest to their location, at least according to the listings for shops selling koi.

  Mark sighed. “Man, what I wouldn’t do to have a phone again.”

  Ena folded her arms. “Yeah, but it wouldn’t work in our world. You realize you really are part of our world now.”

  “Yeah, not that I wanted to ever return here for good. It’s been such an adventure in your world. And now having your fae abilities and being a wolf shifter life couldn’t be better.”

  “It’s your world too now.”

  Looking pleased, Mark smiled.

  The way Jacob was eyeing the phone, Ena swore he wouldn’t mind having one too! “Look how antisocial everyone is.” She couldn’t imagine being with her friends or others and ignoring them to stare down at a little device all day.

  They glanced in the direction she was looking. It was a café where people were sitting, eating with others, but everyone was on a phone, tapping away, or swiping a finger across the phone’s screen.

  “If you had one that could do all that a phone could do, you’d be on it too. Just think, you wouldn’t have to return to the quest board to see what had been posted that needs to be taken care of: missing goats, rings, people. You could look on the internet and easily find quests from all over the fae territories. Not just from your region,” Mark said.

  She scoffed. “That’s not what they are using the phones for. Not for work.” She turned invisible and walked over to the café and peered at the phones people were using. “Games. Love texts.” Though that part she wouldn’t mind. She could text Brett to let him know where she was and…well, the love stuff she wouldn’t want to share over a phone. That had to be done in person.

  The couple at the table where she was looking over their phone messages glanced around, trying to see where her voice had come from.

  Mark was smiling. She knew he would never get used to seeing the fae at work, only now he saw her as visible instead of just seeing her fae aura around an invisible fae, and he was himself invisible. She could tell he thought that was pretty cool.

  Mark began looking over someone else’s text and swiping his finger across the screen. No one could see that he was there, and when his finger swiped across the man’s, the guy’s fingers would become numb. Ena and Jacob joined Mark to see what he was doing.

  The man kept trying to type something and Mark kept changing the letters on him.

  “Damn autocorrect,” the man grumbled and pocketed his phone.

  Mark laughed and the man glanced around to see who was laughing at him.

  Ena strolled off and Mark and Jacob followed her. “Okay, now that we’ve had some fun, we need to do what we came here to do.” She normally wasn’t one to waste her time playing with the humans. She didn’t get paid any treasure to do so, and as a dragon, that was her sole purpose in life. To collect as much as she could. Except for being with Brett, she had to admit. And now she was going to have twins and she knew her priorities would change once again. Still, the fae were born with an innate need to play mischief, and she had to admit she’d have fun with Mark and Jacob over the phone business.

  When they arrived at the shop carrying the koi, she lost Jacob, who had to get into the pen to play with a bunch of puppies. She shook her head, but he loved taking care of the horses back home, and he seemed to have a real affinity for animals.

  She and Mark continued walking to the area where the fish tanks were on display.

  Mark was again on the phone and she looked down to see what he was doing. He was reading all about koi. Okay, now that was related to work and since they didn’t have koi back home, she could see how important it was to learn how to care for them.

  “My foster parents had a koi pond and I used to care for them. So I know something about it. But this is important.” He showed her an article about selecting the healthiest fish.

  “Oh, good to know, Mark. I never really thought of that part of the equation.”

  Mark asked a clerk to help them, and they selected five of the koi. The clerk bagged them up for them.

  “Let’s get Jacob.” Ena led Mark to where Jacob was holding a sleeping puppy. “Do you want to stay here and play with the puppies longer?” She really didn’t want to leave him alone in case fae seers showed up. She knew he didn’t want to give up the puppy. She sighed and relented. “Do you want the puppy?”

  He smiled at her so brilliantly, she didn’t have the heart to say no. She knew everyone at the castle would fall in love with the adorable puppy, though she reminded herself she was a fierce dragon warrior and having a brand-new puppy under foot wasn’t something she would normally agree to. But everything had changed when Brett came into her life.

  “You’ll need a dog bed,” Mark said.

  “We can make one,” Ena said frowning.

  “Dog food.”

  “We can make our own. Cook may not be happy about it though.” But Ena suspected she would be thrilled.

  “Dog dishes. A dog leash. Collar. Chew toys.” Mark handed her the bag of koi and hurried off down the aisle featuring dog merchandise so he could get the other items. Price wasn’t an issue because they just took what they needed and…vanished.

  “All right, Jacob, you can keep the puppy.” As if she felt she had any say in it now. She could
just see Mark with all the dog supplies and her telling him he had to put them all back. She ended up carrying the fish while Mark had his hands full of dog stuff, including a bed because he said they couldn’t make one fast enough for the puppy, and Jacob, carrying the puppy, transported to their world. She was thrilled her fish pond would be complete. She wasn’t sure about taking care of a new puppy. Not that she’d be the one responsible for it. She suspected everyone on her staff would pitch in to take it out for potty breaks and clean up messes it accidentally made.

  When they arrived in the gardens, Mark said, “You know the queen will want a koi pond too as soon as she learns you have one.”

  “At least you know where you can find some koi now. If she wants some, just let me know, and I’ll go with you. I don’t want you going alone.” Ena carefully released the fish into the new pond.

  “Yeah, sure. I’m going to teach Jacob how to take care of the fish, and Muriel wanted to help too. That way when I’m living with the wolves, the koi should thrive.”

  “Okay, good, that sounds perfect.”

  Brett came out to join them. He raised a brow at the sight of the puppy, and at all the dog items Mark was still holding. “Did you get any fish?”

  “Very funny,” Ena said. “We read up on them before we picked out the ones we brought home, healthy, not just pretty colors, but they were some of the prettiest ones.” She turned to Mark. “You and Bryan are going to the Gathering of the wolf packs, right?”

  “Yeah,” Bryan said, suddenly appearing in the gardens. “I had to see what Mark and Jacob did with the gar—woah… love the koi. Where did you get them?”

  “Your former world. I suspect we’ll have to make another trip there for the queen’s water gardens, if she hears about them and wants some too, but for now, we need to feed you so you can return to the wolf pack before the Gathering begins,” Ena said.

  Muriel came out to see the fish but she grinned at the puppy and wanted to hold him. “Oh, how adorable. You only brought one home? He will be so lonely. He needs a litter mate.”

  “We’ll be his litter mates,” Ena said, frowning.

  Brett smiled at her.

  Right. Saying she was going to be a litter mate to a puppy didn’t sound dragon-like at all. “You know what I mean.”

  Muriel looked crestfallen.

  “All right, all right. One more puppy. No more than that. Just one.” Sheesh, Ena was going to have to work on her I’m-a-dangerous-dragon, hear-me-roar-and-take-heed role.

  “I’ll help you,” Mark said. “We’ll need more dog supplies.”

  “I’ll go with you too so we can find just the right puppy for you,” Jacob said.

  “You can’t take the puppy back there.” Ena could see them getting caught with it.

  Mark handed Brett the supplies and Jacob held out the puppy to Ena. Everyone, including her mate, waited to see what she would do. Letting out her breath, she took hold of the puppy and it licked her chin.

  She couldn’t help loving it. The puppy was adorable. She cuddled it and headed for the castle.

  “I’m going too,” Bryan said.

  Ena called out over her shoulder, “Just one more puppy.”

  “Are you sure the four of you will be all right without us?” Brett asked Mark and the others.

  “Piece of cake,” Mark said.

  Then he and the others transported back to Dallas as Ena went inside the castle and Brett followed behind her with all the dog supplies. Everyone was excited to see the puppy, but Ena didn’t give her charge over to any of her staff. Even Ryker came to see the puppy and smiled.

  “Someone will have to housebreak the puppy,” Ryker said.

  “Yes, everyone who sees that the puppy needs to go out, will have to rush” –Ena held up the puppy so she could see what sex it was—“him out.”

  It didn’t take long before Mark had returned with more dog supplies, Muriel had another puppy that looked like the other, and even Jacob had picked up more dog supplies.

  “Where’s Bryan?” Ena asked, worried that he hadn’t returned with the others.

  “We helped him pick out some more healthy koi and he’s taken them to the queen’s gardens. He said she would make him go get them when she learned you had them in your garden.” Mark handed off an armful of dog supplies to Cook. “I’m going over there to teach some of her staff how to take care of the koi and then Bryan and I’ll be back to eat before we return to the wolf pack.”

  “What are the puppies’ names?” Ryker asked.

  “Duke for the male,” Jacob said.

  “And Duchess for the female,” Muriel said, “because they’re part of a royal dragon family.”

  “Wait, the other is a female?” Ena should have said to get two of the same sex. No way did she want to have oodles of puppies.

  Jacob and Muriel smiled. All fae were devious and they’d just pulled a good one on Ena.

  “Figure out where they’ll sleep, where they’ll eat, and be sure they’re housebroken quickly.”

  It didn’t seem to matter what jobs her people were supposed to be doing. Everyone wanted a say about where the puppies went to sleep.

  When Mark and Bryan returned to eat with them a couple of hours later, Bryan said, “You wouldn’t believe how happy the koi made the queen. She was ready to give us both knighthoods.”

  “We were careful not to mention the puppies though or we were afraid she’d want some too,” Mark said.

  “Good.” Ena was glad for that much anyway.

  After that, they all went in to eat the nooning meal.

  “They’re little dogs, right?” Ena asked, as they sat down to eat at the dining table.

  “St. Bernards,” Jacob said. “You don’t want a dog that’s so small everyone would be stepping on it.”

  “Or so little that it would get lost in the big castle,” Mark said.

  “Well, before they get to be big dogs, be sure to housebreak them.”

  Brett smiled at Ena and she had to admit, despite not wanting to, the puppies were fun. Until there were squabbles about which room the puppies would sleep in. Then everyone, but Ena and Brett, were drawing straws about which puppy would sleep in the staff members' rooms on which night.

  16

  Later that day at the Wolf Mountain pack village, Letta left the cottage to get some potatoes. Every time she walked outside, she felt she was on guard constantly while Gia and her brothers were still in the pack. Though she suspected none of them would try anything while the brothers were unable to transport anywhere on their own. She dug up some potatoes from the garden and brought them in to Myla, who was preparing lunch for them.

  Letta was excited about the upcoming wolf gathering where pack members would be in several different competitions—matching speed, stealth, and prowess in hunting, strength games, and teamwork. Even food competitions were being held. That's what Myla wanted to participate in. Letta was going to help her, but she really wanted to do some of the other activities. She wasn't really ready for competing as a wolf with others though.

  And no one would be there to compete with Letta if she used her magic skills. Three winged wolf packs were there that had teams in the winged wolf competitions. She wanted to watch them, well, and a bunch of other activities also.

  Days of preparations had begun, people preparing food and those participating in the games were practicing for the games. Letta would just be an observer so she could see what it was they all did. Every day as wolves, Simon ran with her in the woods as a way of courting her, and took her to the dragon village to eat at a pub, and other restaurants in the human world, even taking in a couple of movies. But the next day the festivities were to begin.

  The most beautiful music had been playing all morning as wolves practiced for the competitions. It was as if the goddesses above had turned the whole village into a symphony of seasons and sunrises and sunsets, the most awe-inspiring musical combinations that made her want to sprout wings and fly high above.


  "Enchanting, isn't it?" Myla asked. "I always feel I can do twice as much work when they play their music for days on end."

  "It's beautiful. I can create music, but only through my magic."

  "Really?" Myla began to cut up the potatoes and Letta helped her.

  "Like the Pied Piper, drawing people to me, or like the fae of old who made people dance forever."

  "Oh, so it's more of a way to conquer your enemies, to control them."

  "Or to make your friends fear nothing as you lead them into battle."

  "But wouldn't it affect all fae in the vicinity?"

  Letta shook her head and put the potatoes into the skillet. "I can target certain fae, and everyone else will just enjoy the music."

  "Can you do it without targeting any fae?"

  "I can, but I'm still using my magic to do it."

  "Can you put a fae to sleep with your music."

  "Yes, that too."

  "Wow. Play some music while we make the meal."

  "I can just see your brother banning my use of magic."

  Simon entered the cottage. "What am I missing?" He had to have overheard some of their conversation.

  Myla smiled. "She can make her own music. I command you to play it so we would enjoy making the meal."

  Letta motioned to the window. "If I play my music, we won't be able to hear the fascinating sounds out there."

  "Oh, come on, you have me intrigued," Myla told Letta.

  "They will stop playing their own," Letta warned.

  "Then you will be influencing them?"

  "Not through my use of magic. They will be as captivated as you to see who is playing it. And really, it will be cheating."

  "Did you have to learn how to use magic to create the music?" Simon asked and he sounded so much like his sister.

  "Every bit of it, yes."

  "Okay, so they had to learn how to create their music with their instruments and their voices. It's the same difference. It might just seem to you like it's cheating, but for one who has no musical talent whatsoever, I applaud you. Well, I would, but I need to hear your music first."