17. Chapter Seventeen
~Felix~
It didn’t take me long to find the portal thanks to both Evalina’s directions and the fact that several fae warriors stood guarding it, their scent strong and unmissable now that I’d become more accustomed to the scents of this world. Maybe they wanted to be sure no one else would be coming through it after Darius and I showed up unannounced, or maybe they wanted to stop people from leaving.
Either way, I had no intention of letting their presence impede me, so I employed a little old-fashioned distraction.
From my spot to the left of the portal, I let out a loud howl that had them immediately scrambling in my direction while I made a wide circle, ducking through the trees until I had a clear shot at the barrier between this world and my own. Readying myself like a runner at the start line, I broke into an all-out sprint.
The fae warriors’ footsteps thudded against the velvet forest floor as they spun back around, their shouts cutting through the air. I pushed my body harder, weaving between trees and keeping low, my heart pounding as the portal shimmered in the distance like a lifeline.
Thankfully, no arrows hit me that time as I dove through the portal and emerged back on the Vermillion pack land. It didn’t take long for their wolves to find me, and I shifted and identified myself before they let me head back to the pack house.
I arrived just as Vaughan’s truck pulled up, Calista in the front seat next to him. While I pulled on some spare clothes, they both got out and came over to me, relief written clearly across their faces.
“I’m glad you’re okay,” Vaughan said before giving me a rough shove to the chest. “What the fuck were you thinking? Calista said not to go through that portal without her.”
I rubbed at the spot where he’d pushed me. “Nice to see you too, Alpha.”
He shot me a warning glare I’d seen used on many pack members over the years, a look I knew was rooted in genuine worry. As Alpha, his concern extended to everyone in his care, even if he sometimes had a funny way of showing it.
Calista stepped between us to defuse the tension. “Let’s go inside and talk. I want to hear what happened.”
We found Darius waiting inside, pacing the kitchen, and his shoulders relaxed when he caught sight of me. “Thank the goddess. I honestly thought we were going to have to go back for you.”
“It’s not over yet. I’ll tell you everything, but I really need something to eat first.”
Just the thought of Evalina’s food had my stomach growling again. The others waited patiently while I grabbed a bottle of water and some food, scarfing it down as we made our way to a small, unoccupied meeting room. Other pack business had called the Vermillion Alpha away, giving me a chance to bring my own Alpha up to speed first.
“It looks like you didn’t eat anything in the fae realm,” Calista remarked, trying not to smile as I shoved another bun in my mouth.
With a hard swallow, I cleared my throat as much as possible to answer her. “I didn’t, but the temptation was there. More importantly, my mate was there.”
The room went deathly quiet as all three of them stared at me.
“Say that again with your mouth empty,” Vaughan ordered. “It sounded like you said you found your mate in the fae realm.”
“That’s what I said.” I took a long drink from the water bottle to make sure they didn’t misunderstand anything else. “She’s a fairy, I think. Elves are taller, right?”
My eyes went to Calista with that question and she nodded. “Elves would be the same height as you or taller. Fairies are shorter. So I’ve been told, anyway; I’ve never seen either.”
“Because you haven’t been to the fae realm.”
“Right.”
“Are we seriously just going to skip over the fact that your mate is from another world?” Vaughan interjected, looking between me and his mate incredulously. “How did you find her?”
“I actually smelled her first. I know it sounds crazy, but trust me, her scent hit me like a lightning bolt. There was no mistaking it even though I couldn’t see anything. I tried to follow her, but I lost her when she went through the portal. I didn’t realize what happened at first; I thought she just disappeared.”
“Why did she come here?” Calista asked.
“She’s looking for silver.”
“So, she’s the thief?” Vaughan guessed.
“No. The thief is her prince, the guy Darius and I followed through the portal.”
Our Delta nodded his agreement. “We caught him red-handed. Like I told you on the phone, he called for back-up and Felix drew their attention so I could escape.”
“Then what happened?” Vaughan and Calista asked the question nearly in perfect unison.
I summed up the day’s events as succinctly as I could. “They shot me with something and put me in a prison cell. They sent food from the kitchen and my mate was the one who brought it to me. That’s when she told me she came here looking for silver but didn’t get any. She helped me escape and she’s going to come and meet me here tonight so I can give her the silver she needs.”
Although I covered all the important points, Vaughan still looked confused. “What does she need silver for?”
“To heal her sick mother, apparently.” It didn’t make much sense to me, but there were probably a bunch of things about my world that wouldn’t make sense to her either.
“So, you get her the silver, and then what happens?” he pressed. “Is she going to come and live here with you? How would that even work if nobody can see her?”
He made a good point, but I couldn’t help grinning at the image my mind conjured. “An invisible mate would be pretty cool, don’t you think?”
Calista tried not to smile while Vaughan raised his eyes to the ceiling in exasperation, “Seriously, Felix. What’s your plan?”
“I don’t have one,” I admitted. “Every instinct I have says we belong together, but first, she needs this silver and I promised to get it for her.”
“I can call some of my hunting contacts,” Calista offered. “Someone somewhere might have heard of werewolves and fae mating before.”
There was one small problem with that idea. “There’s no cell service here. Aside from the Alpha’s satellite phone, we’re on our own.”
“What about the prince?” Darius chimed in. “Is he going to be angry that you escaped? Will he try to come back and find you?”
“I think he knows he doesn’t have any authority outside of his own territory and that’s why he wanted to keep me there. He was really eager for me to eat something so he must know that would have bound me to their realm. But no, I don’t think they’ll come for me here. Honestly, I’m more worried about what he might do to Evalina.”
Glancing around the room at my three friends who had dropped everything at a moment’s notice to come to my aid, my heart swelled with the recognition of how lucky I was to be part of such a close-knit pack. Did Evalina have others who would help her if she ran into trouble before our arranged meeting time? Every moment that passed was another where Tarron might discover her role in my escape, or where her mother’s condition might worsen, and my need to help her gnawed at me as fiercely as the hunger I’d ignored in the fae realm.
A soft smile spread across Calista’s face. “Is that her name? Evalina? It’s pretty.”
“It really is.” Pride accompanied my words, even though I had no idea if she’d accept being my mate, or how we would make it work if she did. So much was still up in the air, but I knew one thing for certain: I would see her again that night no matter what I had to do to make it happen.