59. Chapter Fifty-Nine
~Evalina~
Being bitten by Felix felt very different than I imagined it would when he first mentioned it. The sharp sting as his fangs pierced my skin hurt, but only for a few breaths. As soon as he began licking at the spot, warmth spread across my skin, radiating out from the injured area. As his tongue continued to move across it, the warmth morphed into something deeper and more heated, sending a throbbing urge through me that settled straight between my legs.
Again? We only just finished being intimate with each other, and already my body craved him as if it had never known satisfaction.
As if he could feel it too, Felix pulled back with a groan. “I would like nothing better than to spend the rest of the day in bed with you,” he promised, his eyes filled with heat and promise. “But it’s getting late. We need to eat. I need to check in with my Alpha and I’m sure you want to see your mother.”
A gasp of horror nearly choked me. How could I have forgotten about my mother? She hadn’t crossed my mind since I woke up and she must have been worried sick about me.
Without a word, I scrambled off Felix and across the bed, searching for my discarded clothes. Behind me, he chuckled at my frantic movements.
“She’s alright. My father kept her company yesterday and if I had to guess, I’d wager he was there when she woke up this morning and has already told her that you’re fine. Take a deep breath, Evalina. Relax. She’s safe and you’re safe. We’re all safe now.”
It had been so long since I felt truly safe, not since my father died, that I couldn’t be sure I even knew how to relax anymore. However, I did as he said and inhaled deeply, letting his scent wash over me. Surprisingly, it did help to slow my heart rate back down to an almost-normal rhythm.
“Your father?” I repeated curiously when I could breathe again. “He can speak to my mother?”
“He can speak to her, yes, but he can’t see or hear her,” Felix explained. “He did his best so she didn’t feel alone while we were gone. Hopefully, she didn’t find him a nuisance.”
Another bloom of warmth spread across my chest. “That was very kind of him.”
“I think so too.” Felix offered me a smile that mirrored that warmth back to me. “I think you’ll like him, and I know he’ll love you once he can see you properly. I bet he’s in your mother’s room now, so you can meet him if you like.”
“I would love that.” The affection that filled Felix’s tone convinced me that I would like his father. Anyone who raised someone as wonderful as Felix and had his respect must be pretty wonderful themselves.
When we were both dressed, had eaten some food he called granola bars that he found in one of his drawers, and I had rebraided my hair, we headed next door to my mother’s room. As Felix predicted, a middle-aged man sat in the chair in the corner, his deep, steady voice filling the room as he read aloud from a book. My mother lay in her bed, propped up on the pillows and looking better than I had seen her look in weeks. Months, even. The colour had fully returned to her cheeks and her hair shone in the sunlight, draping down elegantly over her shoulders. A smile softened her features as she listened to the deep rumble of the older man’s voice.
That smile disappeared when she glanced over towards the doorway where we stood, only to be replaced by a beaming, joyful grin as she pulled back her covers and leapt from the bed, running over to me and throwing her arms around me before I could get a word out.
“Lina, you’re okay.” Her hands patted my head before she stepped back to glance down at my body, needing to see it for herself. “What happened?”
“It’s a long story.” I still had to decide how much I would share about everything Tarron had said and done. “How are you?”
She dismissed my concern with a wave of her hand. “I’m fine. Archer has been wonderful at distracting me from my worry.”
As if summoned despite not hearing a word we said, Felix’s father walked over to join us, his book still clasped in one hand. The family resemblance couldn’t be denied. His once-blond hair now appeared mostly silver, his face creased with lines that Felix’s didn’t have yet. But his blue eyes sparkled with the same energy as his son’s, and his broad frame remained just as solid.
“Evalina, this is my father, Archer.” Felix’s eyes gleamed with pride as he made the introductions. “Maudi, I believe you’ve already met.”
“We have,” my mother agreed, her face still flushed with pleasure at our return as she gave the werewolves a graceful nod of her head.
“Evalina.” Archer said my name with almost as much affection as Felix did. “You’re even more beautiful than Felix described.”
Reaching out, he grasped my hand and brought it to his lips, placing a gallant kiss on the back of it.
Felix, my mother and I all stared at him in stunned disbelief. I was so taken off guard by the warmth of his hand around mine that I couldn’t utter a word.
“Wait… you can see her?” Felix finally stuttered.
Archer blinked as he looked down at me, as if it only just occurred to him that he shouldn’t be able to. “I think I can. She has long, shiny, brown hair, adorable pointed ears, and is wearing a pale blue dress that looks like something out of a movie. I’m not hallucinating, am I?”
“No, that’s what she looks like,” Felix confirmed, glancing down at me as if to double check. “But I don’t understand. Can you see Maudi too?”
He and I both turned to my mother, but when Archer tried to follow our gaze, his eyes glanced right over her. “No, I’m afraid not. I saw the bedsheets move when she got up, but I can’t see her at all. Only Evalina.”
“Did something happen when we returned to the fae realm yesterday?” I tried to guess. “Did going through the portal again make me visible?”
“I don’t think so,” Felix said slowly, considering each word as it came out of his mouth. “You’d already been through twice before that.”
“But what else has changed since yesterday when no one could see me?”
As soon as I spoke the words, a new thought came to me and my hand flew to the tender spot on my neck where Felix had placed his mark.
His eyes followed the movement and he gave a nod of agreement, a new smile spreading across his face. “I think it must be the mark. It binds you to me and, by extension, to this world. You’re one of us now.”
A teasing tone edged into his final words but I didn’t think it was a bad thing at all. It actually sounded rather wonderful.
“Well, that solves one problem,” Felix announced, his grin broad and infectious. “Now, we just need to figure out how to do the same for your mother.”
“And for Jermyn,” I added, thinking of the other fairy who had escaped with us. He’d slipped my mind during all of the activity of the previous day, but with things settling down, I should check in with him too.
“We’ll see if Calista has any ideas,” he promised. “We should go speak with her and Vaughan. Maudi, would you like my father to stay or would you prefer some peace and quiet?”
Again, his tone was teasing, not quite serious, and my mother smiled in return. “We were just getting to the good part of the story. I’d like to hear the ending.”
“She wants you to keep reading,” Felix relayed to his father and Archer bowed his head obligingly in my mother’s general direction.
“I’d be delighted to.”
We left them to return to their one-sided conversation as I mulled over my mother’s quiet smiles in Archer’s presence. I hadn’t seen her smile like that since my father’s death. Maybe coming to the terrestrial world would be a new start for her too.
It had already changed my life in every way possible, and now, with Felix’s mark on my neck and his hand in mine, I felt more ready than ever to carve out my place in this new world.