28. Weston
Chapter 28
Ibarely remembered getting back to the wagons. My thoughts were so frazzled I wasn’t thinking clearly, something that had never happened to me as an alpha, not even in the demon dungeons. My fear had me spiraling—I was worried about losing her, guilt-ridden that I’d left her to fend for herself without some sort of plan to keep her safe, and knowing I’d neglected my primal duty. What happened to her was my fault.
“Get me the phoenix elixir,” I shouted, the intensity of the command forcing my pack into action immediately.
It was Sylvester who went running as others hastened toward me, reaching for Aurelia to help me get down. I didn’t want to give her up, but I forced myself to hand her over long enough to dismount, grabbing her back and clutching her closely again the second both feet hit the ground. I carried her to the edge of camp, kneeling amongst a cluster of green shrubs with her in my arms. She’d like seeing nature when she woke up.
Please, mighty gods, let her wake up.
“What did you do to yourself Little Wolf?” I asked softly, smoothing her hair back from her burning forehead. “Why did you take it?”
A cluster of padded footsteps arrived in camp and within moments Hadriel was crouching down near us. He was too close for my comfort but when I looked up to tell him to fuck off, his expression of abject terror gave me pause. Dante and Nova kept close too, everyone having just shifted and looking on in worry.
“She would’ve wanted to see what was different about the product,” Nova said, looking around. “Where is the fucking elixir? It’s not that bloody hard to find.”
She took off jogging. The second we got back to the castle, she was absolutely getting a promotion.
Dante was nodding, looking on. “Nova’s right, she would’ve wanted to see what made Granny’s product different from hers.”
“She was probably trying to figure out a way to fix the situation,” Hadriel said, picking at his nail in worry. “She belongs in the dragon court with Finley and Arleth. They’re fixers, too. Give them a problem and they’ll try to fix it. They’d fix the world if they could.”
“Make ready to get underway,” I said, rocking Aurelia in my lap, my hand on her heart. It was beating too quickly. Her breath was too shallow. She was losing her fight. “We need to put as much distance between us and that town as possible. We’re going to alter our course. Granny’s organization is clearly looking for Aurelia, and now they have her last known whereabouts. A royal guard might investigate the attack on the town. We don’t want to run into either.”
“What about her?” Dante pointed at Aurelia. “We can’t travel with her like that.”
“We have to. We’ll give her the phoenix elixir and she’ll ride with me.”
“They’ll keep her prisoner,” Hadriel said, the words tumbling from his mouth laced with fear. “They planned to take her to the place where they package everything because the production village was compromised. That’s what the guy at the tavern said. He sent for Granny’s dog to come and collect her.”
“We were looking in all the wrong places for information,” Dante said as Nova returned with the little vial of glowing elixir. She removed the vial’s stopper and carefully handed it to me. Dante continued. “We were looking too close to Granny’s home near the castle. People were tight lipped there. Out in these backwoods towns where the product is flowing freely and they don’t have as much competition or trouble, they’re a lot freer with their words.”
“Agreed,” Hadriel said. “I think it would be better to send in a few people masquerading as merchants to visit pubs and taverns and talk to the locals to work out the location, rather than moving in a big pack that draws too much attention. Get the location, then send in the muscle.”
“Hindsight,” someone in the back muttered.
I tucked all that into the back of my mind for later contemplation as I prepared to pour the elixir into Aurelia’s opened mouth.
“Wait!” Hadriel put out his hands to stop me. “No, no, this is wrong. She’s unconscious. She won’t swallow it. Inject it!” He clapped a few times, looking around. “You have to inject it.”
I froze. He was right. Stupid, I berated myself. We’d been in this situation in Granny’s cottage. We had precious few of these elixirs left, and I almost wasted one of them.
“I’ll do it. I got it,” someone said, and a moment later Niven stepped up, kneeling down beside us and taking the elixir from my hand. I stopped rocking so he could work. Niven hadn’t really been on her side since she’d cleaved him with the axe, but he hadn’t been thoroughly against her, either.
He pushed down the plunger on the syringe and stepped back, holding the empty materials and looking down on us.
“That’ll fix her,” Hadriel said softly, reaching forward to take her hand. Once again, I kept from growling at someone else touching my true mate when she was in this state. He cared for her. He only wanted to help. “It will. It’ll fix her. Finley and Hannon don’t make mistakes. They don’t put out bad medicine. It’ll fix her.”
“Get loaded up. We need to go,” I said while remaining still, intending to wait until the very last moment before I had to move her. She needed rest. She needed a bed. Unfortunately, those were two luxuries we didn’t have, not anymore.
It took three hours. I’d held Aurelia in my lap for three hours as my horse walked, having decided against travel in a cart in case someone attacked. I wanted to be in control of my mobility and be able to usher her away to safety immediately, if need be. It was three long hours before her eyes fluttered open and she moaned in obvious discomfort.
“Whoa,” I said, stopping the horse and dropping my focus to her beautiful face. Some color had returned to her cheeks along with a sheen of sweat, both good signs pointing to an eventual recovery.
I’d thought about releasing her animal to help her heal, but surprisingly, my wolf told me to hold off. If she planned to stay in this kingdom—something I dared not think about lest panic grip me—she shouldn’t have her animal’s power on full display. She should still hide it until she could get settled and find a pack to protect her before yanking it out. Either way, she’d have suitors a mile long. She was too pretty, too charming, too balanced and charismatic, not to mention smart and talented and funny...She’d have no trouble finding a mate Outside, as she called it.
Imagining her with another man was something else I couldn’t allow myself to think about. It wasn’t panic that reared its ugly head at those thoughts, but blind rage. I wouldn’t ever be able to see anyone else touch her, not without killing that person. She was mine, and mine alone.
Too bad she didn’t agree.
Her eyelids fluttered again just before a crease formed between her brows. She groaned, her head turning to burrow into my shoulder. Her other hand reached up weakly to clutch my shirt. She wiggled a little closer.
“Weston,” she whispered. “You came for me.”
“Of course I did.” My arms constricted around her. “I’ll always come for you, Little Wolf.”
Her relieved sigh made my heart soar before her hand relaxed and she fell back into unconsciousness.
Nightfall came early in the dense trees. We were forced to walk our horses single file, choosing a path barely large enough for our supply carts but too small for any larger wagons that might try to catch us. We planned to take a path that looped around, heading south for a while before returning east. It would eventually connect with a larger road not too far from the port where our ship waited to take us out of here. I’d already sent someone ahead with word that we were delayed but on our way.
Now we just had to get there.
Royal guards wouldn’t be a problem on a path like this; they didn’t travel light. Any sort of guard from the town where we’d rescued Aurelia or their allies also wouldn’t be a problem, not against my pack. They didn’t have enough power or people. It was Granny’s organization that worried me.
They now knew Aurelia’s last location, and it wouldn’t be hard to figure out we were heading east toward the ports. There were only a few options to travel—a large road, a few smaller ones, and this path. I’d need to plan for them sending out scouts. It’s what I would do. I’d also station my people on that large road by the port and wait there until our eventual arrival. I’d do it using all my connections with the king and queen, too.
As I was about to stop and make ready to camp for the night, Aurelia’s eyes opened. Her brow furrowed in discomfort, her accompanying moan emphasizing just how awful she felt.
“I don’t feel great,” she said softly, closing her eyes again. “You might want to put me down. I think I’m going to be sick.”
“It’s okay, just let me know. I’ll dangle you off the horse the same way you do it.”
Her little smile was a welcomed sight. It disappeared quickly.
“You were right all along.” She opened those beautiful eyes again, her long black lashes catching a tear. Her voice trembled. “My product is doing exactly what you said and more. It’s full-scale addiction—people aren’t eating, they take too much at a time, and it makes you very sick, bad enough it could probably kill you.” I didn’t tell her how close she’d come. Her expression filled with pain. “My touch is stamped all over Granny’s setup. Even the design is mine. I drew the picture on a birthday card I gave to Granny a long time ago. Did you notice the fucked up butterfly?”
I thought for a moment before shaking my head a little. “I don’t recall.”
“Why does no one notice the butterfly? The original was a fairy. Same wings, she just swapped out the body. All the product is mine, every single one. She’s putting some sort of waxy overlay on it and cutting it or squishing it or something to make it look nicer, but it’s mine.”
“Is that why you took it, to see if it was yours?”
“No, I could tell when I broke it open or scraped off part of the waxy stuff. I took it—multiple kinds—to see what kind of effect it had. How it changed the original product, you know? I think the waxy stuff is the same on all the products, it’s just dyed a different color. They made it look like candy. Snack boxes—what a fucking joke. It’s some sort of... chemical, or something. It’s not natural, whatever it is. It’s not meant to be consumed. Honestly, I almost think it’s some kind of poison. The first one made me feel sick, but it went away as soon as the product started to affect me. The second one made me feel much sicker, which was odd because there wasn’t more of the waxy stuff on that particular product. I wasn’t sure what to make of that. The third one was like some sort of terrible explosion in my body. I felt hot and then cold, with horrible pains in my stomach—“ She shivered. “I’ve never felt that sick. I think what happens is an accumulation effect. The more you have, the sicker it makes you. You need to wait until it is completely out of the system before having more or the compound effect poisons you. I would bet that’s why people are dying—they’re taking too much.”
“They’re taking too much because it is addicting,” Tanix said in a gruff tone.
“Yes, and it is cutting out their hunger, as well. I have yet to feel the hook, as they call it. Three back-to-back doses doesn’t seem like enough, unless it comes on slowly. I remember you saying two doses could hook someone, so I’ll monitor it to see. I would imagine the compound effect would affect the intensity of addiction, as well. What I don’t understand is why people are taking it. It’s very expensive and that sickness is incredibly unpleasant. Why go back for more?”
“They can’t help themselves,” Tanix returned. “It’s out of their control.”
She sat up a little more, wincing, her gaze going over my shoulder. “I have a couple things to say about this and I’m not going to be delicate, because I feel like shit and you need to hear it. First, in the beginning, they can absolutely control the situation. I had multiple people warn me away from taking Granny’s product. They told me how it would snare me. They told me not to touch it. There is no risk for addiction after just one dose. No risk for three doses, apparently. But the adverse effects are felt immediately. Taking it again would go against someone’s better judgment. It is not, at all, out of their control to continue taking it recreationally.”
She paused for comment and received none.
“Second, your precious dragons have a cure for that addiction, but it’s too expensive for purchase by the common man. Only the wealthy have the coin to buy the cure and save themselves. Make no mistake, your court is profiting off Granny’s snack boxes. They call it a crisis, but they have their hand out to collect the gold all the same. They are just as complicit as this kingdom’s court.”
She paused again, her tone hard. Still no one commented.
“In saying that,” she said, “I will gladly accept my blame in this. I will accept a harsh punishment. I have a lot to answer for, and I know that. My first apology is to you, Tanix. I am sorry for the part I have played. I spoke to people in that alleyway and saw firsthand what sort of horror I’ve caused. I’d intended to go back to them and offer to pay for the addiction cure but was taken before I could. That said, I will go to your dragon court and stand in judgment for what I have done. In so doing, I will return judgment and demand they do better.”
She took a deep breath and leaned heavily against me, and I wanted to take her away and hide her. I wanted to dote on her and fulfill her every desire. Anything but my duty to the dragon king and queen.
At the same time, I couldn’t have been more proud. She was standing up for herself, yet when confronted with her perceived guilt, she did not shy away from the consequences. Her pride in her product and her willingness to stand in judgment of what it had become was admirable.
I’d hoped that she wasn’t as evil as I’d often thought myself to be. Now I had my answer. She’d been through hell, lived a hard life, and still she maintained her honor and her dignity. I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect true mate.
“Lastly,” she said, “I will figure out how to take Granny’s organization down. I’ll figure out what that poison is and find a way to combat it. I’ll make this right, somehow. Let me down, Weston. I have to throw up.”
After our defenses were set up and the camp was awkwardly arranged within the dense trees, I found Aurelia amid a drifting group of emberflies, sitting at the base of a thin trunk, staring out at nothing.
“They seem to congregate around you,” I said as I sat beside her, giving her space even though I wanted to immediately pull her into my lap.
“What’s that?” She glanced over at me, blinking quickly and then focusing her gaze.
I waved my finger at the glowing bugs. “The emberflies seem to follow you. We never had them around until you were in our camp.”
“Oh.” She frowned at them before looking out at nothing again. “That’s strange. Maybe they always thought of you as a danger until now. They don’t hang around danger.”
“And yet they hang around you.”
Her left eyebrow quirked up. “I guess I can fool bugs, then.”
“I wasn’t right about your product.” I entwined my fingers and dropped them into my lap. “I was right to let you go. Granny was the one creating the danger, not you. I found the production village—yours—but not the packaging headquarters. We’re still not sure if it’s a village or a town or just a house. We don’t know.”
“It’s in a town, I guess. The guys who grabbed me didn’t say which one. I’m going to go back through my journals. Maybe Alexander mentioned it...” She shrugged and I could tell she was at a loss. “I don’t know, maybe I’ll find something you missed. That’s where he is now, anyway. Or was, I guess. On his way to collect me.” She shivered. “I’d rather be put to death by the dragons than end up in his hands.”
“You won’t. I won’t let either of those things happen to you.”
“You won’t have a choice. If the dragons sentence me to death, I will accept the punishment. There’s not a damn thing you can do to stop it.”
“Aurelia, I—” I gritted my teeth. This was the wrong thing to be stubborn about. I had time to talk her out of it, though. There was something more pressing we had to discuss. “Listen, it doesn’t sound like this kingdom will ever be safe for you.”
“No, it sure doesn’t. Thank you for coming for me. They happened upon me as I was shedding the influence of the first product. I didn’t have any weapons. Once I got into the house, I was able to grab a metal letter opener and kill one of them, but that was it before they threw me into the room. How’d you know I’d been taken?”
“Hadriel is pretty incredible at finding out local goings-on and gossip. He overheard it from someone in a tavern.”
“Ah.” She nodded. “I’ll remember to thank him. He—well, all of you—saved my life. I won’t make one more product for Granny’s organization. If you hadn’t come, I would’ve had a lot of beatings and eventually death in my future. Probably a loss of dignity as well. I doubt Alexander would keep his hands off me now that I no longer have Granny’s protection.”
I bent forward as a rush of rage stole my breath. Alexander would already answer to me for what he’d done to her in the past, but hearing something like that made me want to rip his spleen out and beat him with it right now. The desire to find him and end his life was overwhelming.
“Please don’t ever say something like that again,” I said in a rough voice. “That will never happen.”
She looked over at me, her expression bemused yet grateful. “Okay,” she murmured.
“I wanted to talk to you about your animal.”
She held up her hand. “I don’t want to talk about that right now. I want to meet my animal, I want magic... but I don’t want even more reasons for people to notice me. I don’t want to be a lone wolf, as you said, and I definitely don’t want to end up kidnapped by this kingdom. I just...” She licked her lips. “Honestly, I just want to close my eyes and ignore the messy parts of my life until I can get out of here and process everything.” She turned to me, her eyes glassy. “I want to be the damsel in distress, Weston. I want my big strong alpha to protect me and keep me safe until I can leave these shores. Maybe that’s not very courageous, but I’m just so tired. I’m tired of all this. I’m broken.” A tear slipped down her cheek. “I want to take a break from surviving, if only for a minute.”
A strange sort of lightness filled my chest. I wouldn’t be just protecting a damsel in distress, I would be protecting my true mate. Everything in me rejoiced at officially playing that role. It was what I was born to do—protect what was mine.
“It would be my honor.” Primal power surged through me.
She shivered and I watched a spark light within her eyes. Her body swayed toward me, feeling that primal rush.
“Do you want to fuck your Little Wolf, Alpha?” she murmured, her heated gaze on my lips. “Do you want to take what is yours?”
Adrenaline coursed through me. I grabbed the back of her neck, pulling her toward me.
“Are you healed enough for this?” I ran my lips down the side of her throat.
“Be gentle,” she sighed as she angled her head to give me access. “Protect what is yours.”
My balls tightened and it took all my willpower not to throw her down and fuck the screams out of her. I liked this better, though. I liked laying her down slowly, my lips moving against hers, pushing her legs wide and fitting myself between them. She’d given me complete control, total dominance. It made my desire pound hard in my gut.
“Take what is yours, Alpha,” she murmured again, mewing softly as I covered a breast with my palm. “Do with me what you like.”
Shaking with the effort it took to not rip her clothes off, I continued slowly. Delicately. I unbuttoned her shirt and kissed down her chest, sucking in one nipple and then the other, hard. She moaned, her hands in my hair, massaging and caressing, not directing me.
I slid her pants down her legs and tasted her, my hands light, the suction hard. Her groan was louder as she wriggled beneath me. I removed the rest of our clothes before kissing back up her body, still a little warm and not fully healed, but almost there. Taking care, I worked my way back between her thighs, my eyes closing in pleasure at the feel of her soft skin sliding against my sides.
She wrapped her legs around my middle. I groaned as I sank into her depths.
“I’ve missed you,” I said as I filled her again and again, pulling out just to slide back in. “It was only a short time, but I missed you.”
Her kiss intensified as she hugged me tightly, moaning against the building onslaught. “The moment I had a choice, I didn’t want to walk away. I wanted to get to know you more, to explore this incredible feeling I have when I’m with you.”
A spark of guilt twisted my gut. She had a right to know that the feeling was primal, because of our true mate bond. I wasn’t sure how to tell her. I wasn’t sure what she’d do if she found out. There was a good chance she’d be furious to know I had kept it from her all this time, that a large part of her attraction was something neither of us could control.
I refrained from mentioning it even now because I wanted her animal to weigh in. I wanted our animals to help us determine what came next, whether I could claim her and keep her, or if the betrayal would send the delicate tightrope we walked up in flames. As it was, the tether between us would be incredibly strained when she realized the entire truth.
I pushed into her, but avoided burying myself inside her completely. This wasn’t the most comfortable place to be knotted together. That would have to wait until another time. I reached between us and massaged her clit as I pumped, chasing my climax, feeling her tighten.
“Weston,” she said, clutching me, gyrating against me. “Oh my—Weston!”
She was still using my name instead of calling for the gods.
A thrill ran through me and I worked faster, taking her higher, nearly there myself.
“Oh—“ She shuddered, her insides clenching around me.
I exploded into her, the orgasm rolling through my body. I groaned as I stroked inside her one more time and held myself there, letting her insides milk me dry. She shivered as my body quaked, the climax lasting longer than it ever had. I had just enough awareness to wonder why that was.
We held each other as the aftershocks came and went. Only then did I sit up, dragging her with me. I had to build something solid between us on our way to the dragon kingdom so that what we had wouldn’t break when she finally learned the extent of my betrayal.