Chapter Five
Starla listened to Scepter defy his Boss when he’d ordered him to protect her and Aurora. She had a feeling he’d rejected the command simply because it was her. He obviously figured he’d face Savage’s wrath rather than do anything that showed he cared for her.
She’d been fine with his snub, truly. She’d admire the big man from afar and be the best auntie to the little ones, her sister, and the crazy vamp who claimed Aurora had. However, she couldn’t control her wolf as the Fey threatened the male named Scepter.
She watched in horror as Aurora’s eyes widened. Her sister jumped back. The ground shook. Starla looked down, seeing massive wolf feet the color of silver under her. Shoot, the paws were huge, much bigger than Yukon’s and those of her sister’s when she’d been in her wolf form.
“Biddy Bee,” Aurora whispered.
Starla turned to stare at the male across the room, then back at her sister. Her heart ached worse in her wolf form.
“He rejected me, Aurora,” she said through their link, finding it easier to connect now.
“It’s not that simple, Biddy Bee.” Aurora tried to reassure her.
“Don’t try to deny it. Are you on his side because you are with his Boss?” She growled the words, wondering if they came out in her wolven form or in her mind.
“Never. You are my sister. I will always have your side.”
Starla tasted the lie. Her sister had a new priority now that she had a mate. She didn’t respond. She couldn’t. That was the way of life. She wouldn’t, and she couldn’t begrudge her sister for finding her Truemate. Or bonded mate, whatever vampires called their mates.
“Jenna, can you take Starla somewhere safe?” Aurora asked, hating the thought of being separated, but knowing it was best for her sister at the moment.
The Fey Queen inhaled deeply and nodded. “She has much to learn, as you did from the great trees. While your path was forged out of necessity, hers appears to be one of the heart. Here.” Jenna paused and placed her finger on Aurora’s forehead.
Starla floated into their link, a silent watcher. Aurora thought she’d been too young, but the tree gave her gifts. She’d honed them silently.
Through their touch, information and knowledge merged, forming a bridge between what Aurora thought she knew and the actual truth.
Her sister allowed the female to see their past, including that fateful day all those years ago.
The terror and pain of watching the massive tree kill their parents as it slammed onto the top of their SUV and crushed both of them was horrendous to relive.
Starla bit her lip to keep from crying out.
“I’m so sorry, Vita Mea,” Savage whispered.
Starla felt his presence in the link as well. He’d been a silent observer to their heartache, but he’d also be there to hold Aurora when Starla left. It was a good thing her sister didn’t want to claw his eyes out.
“You’re going to go with—what do we call you? Are we supposed to curtsy or something?”
The two males who’d come with Jenna laughed. One of them muttered, “Please don’t.”
Starla took a deep breath and let it out. Wherever these three were going, she’d go. It would give her a chance to lick her wounds. Maybe her heart could heal, and then she could come back and face the loss of her other half.
Jenna flipped them both the bird, but she smiled.
“So, you’re the Fey Queen. Are you a Goddess?”
Starla bumped her side with her wolven head.
“I am me, Jenna. You do not need to curtsy to me unless you’d like to do that when I introduce you to my bestie, Lula. That would be amazing. I’d love to see her face as she watches someone do that to me.” Jenna cackled and rubbed her hands together.
“You do realize that Lula and Belle are both royalty on their home worlds, don’t you, my love?”
Jenna stuck out her tongue and then reached out to pet Starla. “Come, I don’t have time to stand around and blabber all day. Aurora, you have the ability to reach out to your sister at any time. Don’t forget that your wolf needs more freedom as well,” she said, shaking her finger at Aurora.
Aurora bent and pressed her face against Starla’s. She knew she should shift back to human, but she felt safer, heart-wise, in her shifted form.
“I love you, Biddy Bee.”
“It’s not letting go but watching her grow. She’ll thank you for allowing her to spread her wings and lick her wounds without an audience.” Savage held her sister.
“I want to gut your friend Scepter for hurting her,” she bit out.
“Where did he go?”
Starla felt some odd murmurs and knew he was speaking to her sister inside their minds. She shifted away, giving them space.
“We good?” Savage asked.
“Our father wants to speak with you.”
“You’re hybrids like Starla and me. What is your father?”
“He’s a pureblood like him.”
“And why does he want to have an audience with Savage?”
Starla heard their conversations from across the room as if they were next to her. She didn’t turn to look at them. Her ears perked up as she heard Scepter moving around in the other room. She knew he was listening, too.
“Shit. He needs to know whether Savage and his clan are a threat to our family.” Blood dripped from both males' noses.
“You’re very powerful, Aurora.” Jenna put her hand on both males' faces. The blood disappeared instantly.
“What did I do?”
“You need to learn how to wield your Fey powers correctly. If you did that to a human or a lesser being, you could kill them,” Jenna admonished her. “Maybe you should come to Fey with us, too?”
“Over my dead body,” Savage growled.
Starla sat down and watched the scene before her.
“I...I don’t want to leave right now. I’m sorry, Damien and Lucas. Please forgive me.”
The twins smiled, their teeth elongated.
“We’ve suffered much more at the hands of beautiful women and lived to speak of it.
However, I will reiterate what our Hearts Love said and tell you it’s in your best interest, as well as any you come into contact with, that you get control of your powers.
You don’t want to fuck around and kill an innocent, only to find yourself in deep shit. ”
“That’s a whole lot of FAFO as my bestie Kellen likes to say. Oh my Goddess, I can’t wait for you to meet him and his pack. Speaking of the pack.” Jenna tipped her head toward the shifters.
“Have you read their minds, yet?” Savage asked.
Jenna gasped, placing her hand over her heart in a dramatic pose.
“Well, care to share with the rest of the class?”
“I’ll let you handle that as long as you pinky swear you’re not going to kill any of them.” Jenna held out her pinky toward Savage.
Starla wanted to laugh at her antics. She was funny in a crazy, unhinged way.
“Thank you, Starla. I think you’re super cute, too. Hey, you can’t break a pinky promise, and you can’t make a pinky promise if you don’t in fact use your pinky.” Jenna wiggled her pinky in the air.
“Oh, I like that. Totally gonna use the term fun-size from here on out. So, whatcha say, vamp?”
“Did I say that out loud?” Aurora asked.
“Nope,” Jenna said, popping the p.
“My name is Savage, not vamp, Fey. Fine, I pinky swear.” He reached forward with his large pinky finger extended.
The female actually moved Savage’s entire arm with her strength, making his body move forward with Aurora in front of him. They stumbled, but he caught them before they fell into the trio and Starla.
“See, it’s sealed. All right, we are outta here. Give me a holler and don’t forget to be honest with her about them.” Jenna nodded toward the male shifters. “She’ll make you bleed if you FAFO,” Jenna whisper-yelled the last bit.
Starla didn’t want to, but she couldn’t help looking back, hoping for one last image of the man who’d shattered her heart.
The world disappeared as a new one reformed in front of her. She stood on her legs, amazed to see they were human, not wolven.
“Welcome back, Starla. How are you feeling?”
She looked over at the Fey. “I don’t know. Broken.”
“It will get better,” Jenna reassured her.
Starla shook her head. “How do you know? Can you see the future?”
Jenna brushed her hand down Starla’s back. “I don’t need to be able to see what will happen to know. I went through something similar.”
The two males growled. “We’ve made amends,” one of the men said.
“We were fools,” the other said. Both spoke at the same time, but Starla let out a shuddering breath, unable to figure out who was who. She really wanted to lie down and sleep for like a year or ten.
“Come, let me show you to your cottage while you’re here. It’s right next to the main house. Lula will be by later this evening, but if you don’t want any visitors, I’ll show you how to keep them at bay.” Jenna reached for her hand.
Starla looked over at the two males. They wore lovesick smiles, as if they knew their female would return to them, and they’d live happily ever after.
She stopped in her tracks. Looking up at the pink sky with shades of purple and blue. “There are two suns,” she said.
Jenna nodded. “Yes. We get beautiful rainbows when it rains. The unicorns love it.”
She swallowed audibly. “I fell and hit my head, didn’t I? Or I must’ve been given some shrooms by those bastard shifters. I thought the jerky tasted a little too good. Dammit. I’d hoped I really was being whisked off to some magical fairytale place.”
Her hands covered her face, wondering when reality would return. Her hands didn’t feel tingly, but she should’ve known something was wrong when she’d thought she was a silver fucking wolf with massive paws.
“Starla, you’re not hallucinating. You didn’t take any drugs, and you’re truly a beautiful silver wolf. Also, those wolves who took you weren’t all bad. The alpha, he was, and a couple others, but you were right about the funcles.”
The hope she’d thought life had distinguished flickered back to existence. She swallowed hard, unable to fully believe life would become as good for her as Jenna’s. She’d lost her parents when she was seven. Now at seventeen, she’d lost the male who was supposed to be her mate.