Chapter 2 #2
My sister must have seen the path of my thoughts, because she shook her head, her messy fall of black hair shifting across her shoulders to blend with her leather armour.
“Do not,” she warned. “We will get her back, but you cannot start a war to do it. Think of the court. Think of what the high king will do.”
I growled as I recalled how the seelie had threatened my court and how Saphira had done what she could to keep it and everyone in it safe—including me. As deeply as I wanted to go after her, as fiercely as my soul screamed at me to take her back, my sister was right and I could not do it.
I could not squander the sacrifice my little wolf had made.
“You were supposed to protect her,” Morden barked as he stepped forwards, snaring my attention. The wolf’s grey eyes grew stormy, flashing like lightning at me as he bared emerging fangs and shrugged out of Chase’s grip as the alpha wolf laid a hand on his bare shoulder.
“Dangerous to ignore the command of your superior, wolf,” I drawled at him, darkness purring in my veins, goading me into taunting Morden and provoking him until he attacked me and I could unleash all my rage on him.
“Even more dangerous to think you have a right to speak to me without being given leave.”
“Brother,” Vyr whispered, a warning note in her voice that I ignored.
Riordan dusted off his arms and rolled his shoulders, and his hand came to rest on the pommel of the sword that hung from his waist. The vampire was ready for any command I might issue, ready to have my back should the wolf do more than merely bare fangs at me.
Vyr scowled at my third in command.
Beyond Riordan, Malachi crouched with his black leathery wings curled protectively around the redheaded female wolf he held in his arms. She sat on his thigh, one hand clutching at the black leather that protected his chest, her head turned towards his neck.
Away from me. I studied how that hand against his chest trembled, how her scent perfumed the air, coaxing my darker side to the fore with promises of seeing that fear that coated it in her eyes if she dared to look at me.
It was the reddish-purple corona that blazed in the depths of my spymaster’s black eyes that had me pulling my focus away from her though.
A warning that my outburst had scared the little female, and that if I did so again, the demon would find his voice to put me in my place, and this time he would not pull his punches.
I tilted my head back, gazing at the void above me, and drew down a slow, deep breath into my aching lungs.
A brave star punched through the veil of darkness to glitter at me.
To make me think of Saphira, so bright and beautiful, so courageous despite her fear.
I flexed my talons, crushing the urge to slash them down Morden’s chest when he huffed.
“You were supposed to protect her,” the wolf muttered.
A brittle scoff burst from my lips and I angled my head towards him, keeping it tilted towards the night sky, sliding him a look that told him everything I was about to say before I put voice to it.
“Temper, wolf. I warn you to remember who you are speaking to, and that I know everything you did.” I slowly lowered my head, pivoting to face him and taking a slow step towards him that had him going rigid as he forced himself to stand his ground.
I grinned at him, flashing my jagged fangs, and purred, “A pack protector should protect, should he not? He should not betray the one he was charged with protecting. He should not lie to her and trick her, or intend to hand her over to her enemy. An enemy who came to claim her tonight. An enemy I suspect gave you directions to my castle. It is the only plausible reason for your being able to understand the written fae language to follow it to Falkyr. I did not buy your lie about listening to the people of my court. You do not speak their tongue.”
The wolf’s stormy eyes darkened and his hands curled into fists, fingers tightening to press his short claws into his palms as he weathered each verbal blow, each accusation, and did not deny them.
So my suspicions had been correct. Saphira’s beloved protector and friend had been given information on my court by my enemy, and he was the reason she was now in their hands.
Morden’s bare torso tensed and his naked feet shifted in the dirt, moving further apart.
“Thinking of fighting me, wolf? I would warn against it. I am in no mood to play. There would be no fight. Only your blood splattered across this wretched land.” Black mist glittering with gold swirled around me and when it dissipated, I was right in front of him, relishing his sharp intake of breath as I hissed, “You would not see me coming.”
I silently moved around him and snarled in his ear.
“She forgave you. I did not. She did not question what you told her. She believed it. I did not. Do you think I have not imagined a far different outcome to that day in the woods when she revealed what you had done? That I have not imagined it a thousand times since I discovered what you intended to do to her? That I do not hunger to make you pay for how you had come to my court to take her for that bastard wolf—for the Summer Court?”
Morden tensed, going rigid, his breaths ceasing.
Vyr looked as if she wanted to chastise me.
Malachi watched me closely.
Chase loomed at my back, but said nothing in defence of this wolf who had been born to protect Saphira, but had chosen to betray her at the first opportunity.
Morden found his courage, turning on me with a low snarl.
“I had no choice! I didn’t know this is what would have happened if I had given her to Lucas.
I had to protect my sister. I had to keep her safe.
That was all I could think about as those fae told me everything I needed to know in order to find Saphi.
I had to protect my sister. She’s just a kid, and now they have her, and I have to stand here wondering what the fuck they might be doing to her.
She’s too young. Nowhere near maturing. I…
it doesn’t excuse what I did. I fucking know that.
I did the right thing in the end, and I paid the price.
I lost my sister, but I protected Saphira. Can you say the same?”
A growl burst from my lips as my shadows lashed at Morden’s legs and the wolf nimbly leaped back, evading the strike.
“I wanted to protect her.” I had meant the words to come out unyielding, fierce, but my voice broke, and something inside me shattered with it. “I wanted to protect her, but she made her choice.”
“Her choice?” Vyr blinked at me.
I looked at everyone, their expressions a blend of confusion and concern, but not Chase’s. The alpha wolf’s pale blue eyes did not show shock or worry. They held another feeling, one I could not name.
I rounded on Chase—on Saphira’s cousin, her flesh and blood—and snarled, “Did you know?”
He was quick to shake his blond head, but I was not convinced.