33. Chapter Thirty-Three
~Evalina~
Felix held my hand as we returned to the large house where I’d spent the night, the ‘pack house’ as he called it. In basic terms, he explained werewolf packs to me and how the house was both the home of the pack’s leadership team, like the royal residence in Etta, and an administrative building for managing pack business.
Most importantly, it was his home. I couldn’t wait to get a chance to explore his private rooms and learn more about him through the things he chose to keep close to him. Everything about him fascinated me, and I didn’t see that changing anytime soon.
First, though, we still had business to attend to, and when Felix suggested we first visit the medical facility where my mother had been meeting with the pack’s healer, I jumped at the chance.
“Mama!” We found her sitting on a crisp, white bed, looking even better than she had first thing that morning. Calista stood next to her and gave me a warm smile as I walked in, stepping back as I approached my mother on the other side of the bed. “How do you feel?”
“I feel wonderful,” she assured me. “Twenty years younger, actually. I think the air is good for me here.”
“That’s amazing.” Grasping her hands in mine, I beamed up at her before turning to the woman scribbling some notes on a piece of paper. She seemed to be the one in charge. “What was wrong with her?”
The woman didn’t answer me, didn’t react at all, and it took Calista’s gentle reminder for me to remember why. “She can’t see you or hear you. She can’t see your mother either, so this has been an interesting examination.”
“Shit, I forgot about that,” Felix groaned. “Were you able to act as a go-between?”
“For the most part,” Calista confirmed. “They’re going to run some blood tests to look for anything obvious that might have caused her illness, but the doctor has never dealt with fae blood before. It might help if they could take a sample from Evalina too, for comparison purposes.”
“Yes, of course,” I agreed without hesitation, though how they would compare our blood, I didn’t fully understand. It must be some kind of werewolf magic. “Do you have a knife?”
“Whoa, whoa. No. Stop. No knives.” Felix stepped in front of me, his handsome face lined with concern. “The doctor will use a small needle to pierce your skin, you don’t need to cut yourself.”
I glanced over at my mother for confirmation and she nodded, looking impressed. “Their magic is quite remarkable.”
“No magic,” Felix contradicted her with a smile. “Just technology. But please, for my sake, don’t be so quick to volunteer to slice your veins open, okay?”
His protectiveness might have bothered me coming from someone else, but from him, it felt sincere, as if the thought of me in any kind of pain literally hurt him. Did the bond between us do that? Or did it just come down to him?
“I’ll be the one taking the sample, since I can see you,” Calista explained.
“Are you trained to do that?” Felix wondered.
Her lips quirked into a wry smile. “As a hunter, I learned all kinds of skills. Evalina, you just need to hold out your arm, like this.”
I followed her lead, and the Luna inserted a small, sharp needle into my arm, drawing some of my green blood into a small container through a translucent tube. It might not have been magic, but it seemed pretty close to it.
“Can the doctor see the blood?” Felix asked.
“No, I can’t,” the woman herself answered. “But the machines register it. It’s fascinating.”
That was a good word to describe a lot of what had happened in the past few days.
“I’ll go run these tests now and see what I can find out,” the doctor continued, taking the container from Calista. “You don’t need to wait here. I can contact you when I have some news.”
She left the room and Felix turned to Calista. “Where’s Vaughan? We have some information to share.”
“In his office. I’ll ask Darius to come and meet us and he can take Maudi back to her room, since he’s the only other one who can see her.”
The other werewolf who’d helped us escape met us at the staircase in the pack house, and though I didn’t like leaving her alone, my mother insisted she would be fine. Following Felix and Calista down a long hallway, I found myself in a large room with a stone fireplace and large, clear windows looking out over the surrounding forest. Vaughan sat at a big desk, full of papers and more machines I had never seen before. Calista went to sit next to him behind the desk while Felix and I sat in two large, comfortable chairs in front of it.
“Did you find a portal?” Vaughan asked, getting straight to the point.
“We did.” Felix told him about our trip to the fae realm and our encounter with the elf, including the way that the elf recognized the connection between Felix and me.
The Alpha’s face turned stony as Felix talked and I could sense his displeasure long before he spoke. “And you thought it would be a good idea to venture into an unknown world where, for all we know, you’re now a wanted fugitive, all on your own?”
“It worked out, didn’t it?” Felix asked with a shrug, his tone not entirely serious.
Vaughan raised his eyes to the ceiling in exasperation. “One of these days, Felix, your curiosity will get the better of you.”
“Let’s focus on the elf,” Calista suggested, putting a calming hand on her mate’s arm. She seemed so confident and utterly sure of her place, while I’d never once known the Etta queen to take part in discussions of strategy or diplomacy. “From what I know of them, they’re less emotional than fairies, more ruled by logic. Evalina, would you agree with that?”
I nodded slowly. “I don’t know any personally, but that matches with the stories we’ve been told. They say that if you get into trouble with an elf, appeal to their reason rather than their mercy because they might not have any.”
“Why is that important?” Vaughan asked, his deep brown eyes moving between me and Calista. “Do we need to be worried about them using the portal?”
“I don’t think so, but I am worried about how much information you gave them.” She sent a sympathetic grimace my way, obviously not wanting to scold me but stating the facts as she saw them. “He now knows there’s a fairy from Etta, in the company of a wolf, who came through the portal on their land. If the people looking for her reach out to the elves, what incentive do they have not to share that information?”
“You think they’d betray us?” Felix asked through gritted teeth.
“I think they wouldn’t see it as a betrayal,” Calista countered. “They might simply share the facts as they know them, and what the fairies might do with that information is hard to say.”
Guilt flooded through me as I realized that my actions might have inadvertently placed the whole pack in danger when they were only trying to help me. “I’m sorry,” I whispered to Felix.
He shook his head, reaching over to take my hand and giving it a gentle squeeze. “Don’t apologize. I’m just as much to blame.”
“What do you know about the relationship between this elf kingdom and your own?” Vaughan asked me. As much as I respected him, it also slightly terrified me when he turned his piercing gaze on me. He radiated authority in a natural way Tarron never could. “Are they allies?”
“As far as I’m aware, Etta has no allies.” I glanced around the room, wondering if any of them thought me disloyal for so easily giving up the secrets of my home, but no trace of disapproval registered on any of their expressions. “We used to when I was younger but Tarron has made many enemies. He considers himself better than his position as prince of a minor kingdom, believes he should hold a place at the table with the high princes, and hasn’t been shy about making his views known. His father the king spends most of his time mollifying the people Tarron has offended.”
The royal family probably would have been shocked to hear my assessment of their situation, but they forgot servants had ears. They spoke freely in front of the serving staff who carried the gossip back to the kitchens where I heard all about Tarron’s arguments with his parents and the troubles he caused for them.
“So, he can’t call on their loyalty to track you down,” Vaughan mused. “But it doesn’t mean he can’t make them an offer that would appeal to their sense of logic. He doesn’t sound like the kind of guy to live and let live.”
That was putting it mildly. Felix shifted in his seat, his whole body coiled with tension. “What do we do now?”
The Alpha didn’t hesitate. “Establish a barrier around the portal that will alert us immediately if anyone comes through it. We’ll feel the intrusion on our territory, but I want to know for sure that it came from that portal.”
“Should I disable the portal, like I did with the one on the Vermillion pack territory?” Calista asked.
“Not yet. If these elves respond to reason, maybe we can get to them before Tarron does and make them an offer that would help to protect us in the long term.”
“You want to negotiate?” Felix asked, sounding intrigued with the idea.
“I’d like to think about it,” Vaughan agreed.
“What should I do?” I piped up. After causing more trouble, I wanted to be helpful.
However, Vaughan shook his head. “You’ve been through quite a lot, and I’m not sure either of you are thinking strategically right now.” He shot a meaningful look at Felix next to me. “Why don’t you take a break and get some rest, and I’ll send for you when I need you?”
Felix opened his mouth, looking ready to protest, but when his eyes met mine, something warm flashed within them. His mouth closed and he sat back in his chair. “If those are your orders, Alpha.”
For the first time since we got there, Vaughan almost smiled. “I had a feeling you wouldn’t mind. Go. I’ll let you know when you’re needed.”
Without another word, Felix got to his feet, offered his hand to me and pulled me up with him. Once we were back in the hallway, he turned to me, his eyes dancing with anticipation.
“How would you like to come and see my rooms?”