Pack Ivory Emerald

by Stunich, C. M.

  I wondered if we'd live long enough to be able to use it?

  Faith's change was not like ours. No, it was messy and bloody and painful. She came to, a relatively small wolf compared to other 'weres', her fur the gray-gold color of Pack Amber Ash, and her teeth snapping at my face.

  She went for Tidus right away, cornering him against one wall of the cage and lunging and attacking at anyone that went near. Her eyes were dark and foreign, the eyes of a frightened animal with very little of my friend left in them.

  I wished I knew some way to make a leash of vines or something, some easy to detain her, but I didn't dare waste any of the magic that was keeping us alive.

  'This isn't good,' Silas said, looking out at the Sluagh swarm as they circled our makeshift little cage. It was a haven and a prison both, and I knew of no way to get out of it.

  “They're night-dwellers, the Sluagh,” Anubis said, blood dripping down Che's back as he finished etching into the other boy’s flesh with a claw. They'd quite literally drawn the map in his skin. Yeah, we were fucking hardcore. Che glared at me with violet eyes, like he was pissed all the way off.

  I didn't blame him.

  This situation sucked.

  Faith wasn't responding to wolfspeak, and the only person she'd allow near her was Tidus. The thing was, she kept, err, presenting herself to him. To my mate. It was slow, awful torture. Magic continued to bleed out of my arm, making me feel light-headed and dizzy, the way some humans described donating blood. I wanted a glass of orange juice, like bad. That, and a big, raw steak.

  Glancing down at the goblet, I considered taking another drink. I mean, why not? It contained decades of power stolen from my own people. But I'd only do that if I absolutely had to. The last time had not been pleasant.

  “If we wait until morning, they'll go away?” Tidus asked, holding up his palms in a placating gesture as Faith turned and rubbed her head against his midsection. He gave her a stroke on the head, but when I moved forward a step, she turned back to me with frothing jaws, and a wild expression.

  “That's … I think so,” Anubis whispered, and then Che just lost his shit.

  “You think so? You fucking think so?! You're supposed to be the smart one here! What the fuck is wrong with you?”

  “Che, that's enough,” I snapped, a growl working its way into my voice. I could only handle so much before my wolf snapped and finally put him on his back. But he wasn't challenging anyone, not this time. Instead, he just turned away and paced a few times, running his fingers through his shadow-colored hair.

  'We don't exactly have many other good options,' Jax added, sitting pretty in wolf form, his blue eyes watching the Sluagh swarm around us. 'Surely, Faith will be back to normal in the morning? That's at least one thing we can check off our list.'

  “She should change back in the morning, yes,” Anubis said, standing there looking stressed as fuck. I mean, he was only a teenager, too. It was hard to remember that sometimes. He was as much the all-knowing, wise seer as I was the all-powerful alpha. We were learning, but we still had a long way to go.

  “Then we wait,” I said as Faith paced back and forth, panting, shaking. I think if Tidus hadn't been there, she'd have tried to kill the rest of us.

  The remaining five boys and I sat together on one side of the circle while Faith finally laid down and allowed Tidus to sit with his knees tucked up beside her. He watched us from across the empty space.

  “How much time has passed at home since we've been here?” he asked mildly, but I could sense the worry in his voice. Faith roused enough to snarl at me, but then laid her head down like she was beyond exhausted.

  “I have no idea,” I whispered, remembering our last, brief visit to Faerie. We'd been here for an entire stretch of night, but had left home early afternoon and returned late evening. “Hopefully not much.” The thought of Montgomery wielding his weapons against The Mother, his parents on chains behind her … It was too much.

  What if I went back and he was dead? Or Nikolina was dead? Majka? My entire pack.

  I closed my eyes.

  Thinking bad thoughts doesn't make them true or untrue. Things simply are. Don't dwell, Zara Wolf.

  My mother's words rang in my head as I opened my eyes back up to study the Wild Hunt as they settled around us, watching with eyes the color of a shadowed grave. That was the only way to describe them. They weren't any color I could put a name to, just … a feeling. Like looking down into that six foot hole just before the coffin is lowered …

  I shivered, and leaned against Jax. Surprisingly, he shifted into human form and held me close. The others pressed around us for comfort and after a while, I fell asleep. It wasn’t intentional, but I was just so damn tired, magic draining from me like blood.

  When I woke up, it was to the sun peeking over the horizon. Well, one of the suns anyway.

  “Zara,” Jax said, lifting me up and looking me dead in the face. “I think they're gone.”

  I scrambled to my feet, Che and Silas beside me in wolf form, and scanned the horizon. I couldn't see nor smell the creatures, but that didn't mean they wouldn't be back. We needed to get the fuck out of Faerie—and fast.

  “How's Faith?” I asked, moving over to stand beside Tidus. He was kneeling by my friend, gently shaking her shoulder. Sorry to say, her camisole and panties had been shredded to pieces last night. She was as naked as the rest of us.

  “Hey,” Tidus whispered, and her eyes cracked just slightly, blinking into the sunlight. Faith sat up slowly, looking around like she was beyond disoriented.

  “Where are we?” she asked, and then it seemed to hit her all at once. Her eyes widened, and she looked down with a little shriek. “What happened to my clothes?!”

  “You don't remember anything from last night?” I knelt down to join Tidus, but Faith was already shaking her head.

  “Nothing. Did I … Did I really …?” I nodded, and she sucked in a sharp breath. I gave her hand a squeeze, and offered a reassuring smile.

  “You really do make a beautiful wolf,” I said, helping her to her feet. Faith stood there with her arms wrapped around herself, trying to cover herself up. Wasn't doing much, but I figured it didn't hurt to let her do it.

  I stepped over to the wall of vines and then, on impulse, I picked one of the blossoms. The entire structure collapsed into ash and blew away on the wind, leaving us standing in a circle of dried blood.

  “Do you think you can navigate us to the Unseelie Court?” I asked Anubis as he studied the design on Che's back. It'd long since healed, but the Pack Violet Shadow Alpha-Son had sat there patiently and let Anubis etch and re-etch the design in place.

  Maybe we wasn't such an asshole after all, huh?

  “I can try,” he said, and then cringed, raking his fingers through his midnight blue hair, crimson colored eyes searching the map. “But I'm not promising anything. It's a vague map, at best. If I were familiar with the territory here then maybe …”

  I nodded.

  We had to work with what we had.

  “Let's get going. We can't waste even a second of daylight.”

  Anubis nodded, and then we all paused again to look at Faith.

  “What?” she asked, shivering, even though the light from two suns warmed her back.

  “Theoretically, she should be able to shift …” Anubis started, crossing muscular arms over his lean chest. I couldn't help it: I was checking him out. I was checking all the boys out. It was a nice distraction from our current situation.

  “Maybe we skip the lesson for now?” Silas said, stretching his inked arms over his head. His gold eyes caught the sun as he glanced over at me. “Did you see what I saw last night? That shit looked painful as fuck.”

  “Painful?” Faith chirped, looking between the two of us. Silas clacked his teeth together in a grimace and shrugged his shoulders. “You said it wasn't going to be painful?”

  “It could be that it was a first-time sort of a thing,” Anubis mused as Jax rolle
d his blue eyes. “Or else, it's different for turned wolves?”

  “Yeah, and we don't have time to experiment. Hop on and let's get going.” Silas stared Faith down, but she was already shaking her head.

  “It was one thing when I was wearing a shirt and panties, but I'm not riding my bestie's boyfriend's furry back with my bare crotch. No freaking way.”

  “First off,” Silas said, running his tongue over his lower lip as he glanced at me with a what the hell did we just get ourselves into? sort of look. “I am not just her boyfriend—I'm her mate. And second, I couldn't be less interested in your bare crotch. I'm more interested in not dying, so stuff your puritanical human nonsense down the drain, and let's go.” Silas shifted right in front of her, this fluid movement of molecules that looked as normal and natural to me as a single intake of breath.

  Faith flinched, but she grabbed hold of his coat anyway and hauled herself on his back. For a wolf, Silas Vetter was big, two hundred pounds of pure muscle. Still, it wasn't easy to carry a full-sized human.

  I was glad we were taking turns.

  I picked up the goblet and offered it to Nic as he shifted, shaking myself out, and trying not to think too hard about the horde of dark fae creatures that had assaulted us last night. If my last ditch attempt at protecting us hadn't worked, would we be carrion? Or worse?

  We followed Anubis through a thick, wooded area, making sure to steer clear of anything living. There were pixies with dragonfly wings and teeth as sharp as knives, tiny fairy girls giggling in dappled sunshine that I trusted even less. We saw several stag-like creatures feasting on long, golden grass in a nearby field. They were nearly normal, except for their eyes. They had four.

  Unnatural, my wolf brain said, and I shook myself to clear the revulsion, padding through the woods until Anubis came to an abrupt stop at the edge of the trees.

  'We're here,' he said, taking a small step back. 'Can you feel it?'

  As soon as he said that, I let my senses wander. There was an unnatural sort of shimmer in the air. A glamour. Another fucking glamour. The fae lived and died by them.

  'I can,' I whispered, but I had no idea how we were supposed to get in. After circling the area and using our noses to search for any possible entrance into the elusive fae court, I gave up and shifted back, taking the goblet in hand.

  If anything was going to draw them out, it was this.

  I threw a handful of the water from inside the goblet and watched as it shimmered and spattered against a field of power that I couldn't see. If I walked into it, I simply walked through more of the forest. It was incredibly powerful, the best sort of illusion: one you could touch, see, and smell.

  “The queen is not coming back here,” a familiar voice said, and I spun to find Aeron standing nearby, her dress in tatters, her face spattered with blood.

  “Aeron, holy shit,” I whispered as she walked over to us, her face dark. I was waiting for a faerie trick, but her smell was right. Her expression was dead-on … and then she spoke. That dry, sarcastic tone of hers was hard to miss. “I thought you were banished?”

  She smiled tightly and shook her head.

  “I told Whitney that my mother was not the same, that I would not be banished forever …” She trailed off and lifted her face to look at me, so beautiful it was almost alien. “I'm surprised you're all still alive.”

  “What happened after we left?” I asked, the words falling out of me in a rush. Aeron looked away, toward the glamour of the Unseelie Court, expression distant and far away. She was more concerned with matters of her own court than she was mine, understandably so. But I had to know. I had to.

  “Coven Triad was chased from pack lands, but your wards are down. Next time they come, you won't have a god to protect you.” Aeron held out her hand, and I passed over the goblet. My intent was always to return it to Faerie, where it belonged. Hopefully it would never find its way back to the other side of the Veil.

  “What about Montgomery?” I pressed. I couldn't help myself.

  “You need to get out of here,” Aeron said, holding the goblet tight to her chest. “The Unseelie Queen and her court have fled. The Seelie own this land now.” Her sloe-eyes snapped over to mine. “I told you before that you could harness your power, or have it wielded against you. We're coming to that precipice, Zara Wolf.”

  Aeron put a small mushroom between her lips, and disappeared in a dusting of glitter.

  “Did she just leave us here?” Tidus whispered, but then we all froze as movement sounded in the trees to our right. Out of the shadows of the wood came the Seelie Prince, hauling a headless thing behind him.

  It was one of the stag-creatures.

  'Jesus Christ,' Che murmured, taking several steps away from Prince Malak as he moved forward and disappeared into the shimmer without seeming to notice us. He left a trail of blood in his wake, and my stomach clenched tight. The copper tang infected the air around us, clinging to the humidity until I felt like I was being suffocated.

  The bushes rustled again, and there was the king. He was hauling a headless thing, too. Only … it wasn't a stag.

  It was a wolf.

  And by the looks—and the smell—of it, it was a member of Pack Amber Ash.

  'No, no fucking way,' Tidus said, moving forward. I quite literally grabbed him by the tail to keep him still. The rage in him was a palpable thing, but attacking the king of the Seelie was nothing short of suicide.

  'We found the rest of the wolves,' Jax whispered, sitting down, the edge of his tail resting precariously close to another pond. I noticed, but not before fingers curled out of the water.

  Jax was grabbed and yanked backward so forcefully that he yelped, and then he was disappearing beneath the surface. I was about to dive in after him when Karma lifted her head up and looked me dead in the eye.

  “Come,” she said, and I looked back just in time to see the Seelie King notice us. He met my eyes, breaking through the queen's glamour.

  'In the water—now!' I headbutted Silas so hard that he rolled right into it. Jax and Anubis were quick to follow orders, but I had to grab Tidus by the scruff to get him to go.

  'I'm not leaving another person behind,' I snapped, knowing that Nic was getting ready to argue with me. Instead, it was Che who growled low under his breath.

  'Not today, Satan,' he mimicked, and then he threw me into the darkness of the water.

  I didn't remember a lot after that.

  Nightmares plagued me, horrible, horrible nightmares. They were so distinct, so dark, and so real that I woke up screaming. I was in the Pairing House bed, surrounded by my mates, their heavy breathing a comfort in an otherwise comfort-less situation.

  Only Tidus was awake, looking out the window into the darkness of a night with only one moon. He turned and came to me, putting his arms around me and rubbing the screams from my chest with a comforting palm to the back.

  The others didn't even wake. That must tell you something right there, werewolves sleeping through their mate's screams.

  “What the fuck happened?” I whispered as Tidus pulled me into his lap and wrapped his arms around me. I rested my head against the tattoo on his muscular arm, and closed my eyes, breathing in his sandalwood and amber scent. A headless wolf being dragged behind a faerie king. It was not an image I'd soon forget.

  “Your rusalka friend pulled us through, and the pack moved us from her pond back to the house.”

  “Faith?”

  “Downstairs in the den,” Tidus added, his voice disconnected and far-away. Something else was wrong. Monty's smell was here, but it was faint. He hadn't been in the Pairing House recently.

  “Montgomery?” I asked, lifting my head to look at Tidus. It was clear from his expression that he didn't know either. I pushed up from the bed and grabbed a robe from the back of the door, sprinting down the stairs with Tidus on my heels. He was already wearing black pj pants (I think they were Silas'), yanking a t-shirt over his head as we padded outside in the dewy grass.
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  Everything looked the same, but it didn't smell the same. It didn't feel the same.

  “You're looking for that useless Ivory Emerald mate of yours?” Majka asked, and I turned around slowly to find her on my porch, rocking slowly in one of the chairs. I hadn't even noticed her. How sad was that? It certainly proved I wasn't in the right of frame of mind. Or maybe that I was just so exhausted I wasn't thinking clearly?

  “Where is he?” I asked, wondering what I'd do if she told me he were dead. No, no, I'd know it if he were, I told myself, moving over to sit on the ground at my grandmother's feet. Like I had as a small child, I leaned against her leg and put my cheek to her knee.

  “He was taken by the Crone,” Majka said aloud, her voice strong in the easy quiet. Pack Ebon Red land was the best, the perfect mixture of modern human convenience and the ethereal quiet of nature.

  I would die before I'd let it be taken.

  “I thought the Crone was dead,” I whispered as Tidus came to lay beside me, putting his head in my lap. My fingers tangled in his amber hair, giving me comfort where there was none.

  “Your sperm donor took care of that,” Majka grumbled, holding her tea cup in thin, frail hands. Her ebon eyes stared into the shadows of the woods, but I was so beyond grateful to be away from Faerie, to feel that connection with Mother Earth again that I didn't even care if something or someone was lurking. “The Crone died, and The Mother rose to take her place. Just like that.” Majka turned to look at me then, releasing her teaspoon. It continued stirring, proving that she had a little magic in her yet. “We were able to retrieve the alphas of Pack Ivory Emerald, but we lost the Alpha-Son in the process.”

  I felt like I might throw up, but instead, I sat there and listened, waited. Trying to rush my grandmother never worked.

  “She kidnapped him?” I was having a hard time imagining that. Montgomery was like me; he didn't go down without a good fight.

  “She spelled him with something old and ancient.” Majka stopped rocking, her spoon stopped stirring. I looked up and met her dark eyes, and I knew then and there that she cared for me in ways Nikolina never would. “These males of yours, they're your weakness and your strength. Make sure that when you see the latter, you engage the former.” With a groan, the old woman set her tea cup aside and stood up. She gave me one, last scratch behind the ears, just like she used to when I was a pup, and then she took off down the steps, glancing back once to look at me. 'How you handle things these next few weeks will determine the future of not just the pack, but our people as a whole. Remember that.'