Page 129
Story: May the Wolf Die
“Wait, was this like, a consensual non-return, or…?”
Nantier cleared his throat. “We don’t know how it started, but by the time they were discovered by her sister, Thistle was already pregnant with you two and refusing to go back. Her sister reported the pregnancy to His Majesty, who was deeply interested in the half-shifter twins she was carrying. However, they disappeared soon after. We had long assumed they were dead, to be honest, until His Majesty brought Ezra to court and announced he was Thistle and Jaelis’s son.”
I wondered how they’d managed to escape. Had they found a portal that hadn’t been closed from the war? Or did they create a new one themselves?
“So how does the fam feel about the two of us, then? The bastard half-shifters?”
We made our way down the stairs, the front door in view. I saw Alaroth, Ezra, and a few other guards waiting.
“I loved Thistle,” Nantier whispered. “As her daughter, I believe I shall love you too.”
My heart felt so full. I was about to give him a hug when his expression soured.
“But I do not think I’ll be able to forgive Ezra for what he did to her.”
I nodded. “I know, he was a real jerk to her growing up.”
Nantier shook his head. “No, I mean he killed her, Marlowe. Her and Jaelis both.”
52
ELIAS
We’d managed to take down something that closely resembled a deer, eating our full. As a wolf, it tasted delicious.
Now that I was shifted back, I felt a little nauseous.
We washed up and drank at a stream, the water fresh and cool, while Kian kept watch up high on a nearby branch.
The vamp was growing on me. He was younger than us, but his powers were impressive, and I was a little jealous of how quickly he’d been able to acquire them with Marlowe’s second-hand blood.
I called up to him from the ground. “What do your vampyr eyes see?”
He jumped down, light on his feet. “Just a whole lot of shifter dick.”
“Well, quit staring, then,” I grinned.
At first, it had also been awkward for me to just be naked with my pack like this, but now I barely registered it. Not that I necessarily wanted to go start a shifter nudist colony or anything, but it felt surprisingly natural.
And I could definitely get used to Marlowe hanging out in the nude.
As though she could read my thoughts, her love came shooting through the bond, and collectively we breathed deeply, sending it right back. I wanted to talk to her so badly, but with the King close and with his ability to speak through her, we needed to keep explicit communication to a minimum.
Julian trotted up and shifted back. “I smell smoke and peopleabout two miles that way,” he pointed. “I don’t think they’re vamps, but we could check them out at least.”
Cam grunted. “Okay, drink up and then let’s head out.”
I almost winced at the order. It wasn’t a bark, but it strangely carried the weight of one. For all his blustering, he’d never actually used his position as pack leader to command us to do anything. Was the pressure of getting Marlowe back helping him ease into that role? Or was it something else?
I looked briefly at Archer and Nolan, seeing a similar confusion in their eyes, before shifting and following Cam’s lead.
Kian hid us with his shadows as we spied on the small village. There were fae of all sorts, with different tones of skin color, and strange combinations of animal parts mixed with more human anatomy. They wore simple clothes and went about their daily routines while laughing and talking with their neighbors.
The shadows around us deepened as a child’s toy came perilously close to where we were hiding, but luckily the boy didn’t even look in our direction as he came to grab it and go back to his friends.
Well, we’d found peoplenotimprisoned, but I wasn’t exactly sure what our next move would be. If other vampyrs were nearby, they probably weren’t living in the village since they were “persona non grata.”
“Should we shift and split up?” I whispered to Cam. “Try to sniff out the vamps?”
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 67
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 72
- Page 73
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 78
- Page 79
- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 86
- Page 87
- Page 88
- Page 89
- Page 90
- Page 91
- Page 92
- Page 93
- Page 94
- Page 95
- Page 96
- Page 97
- Page 98
- Page 99
- Page 100
- Page 101
- Page 102
- Page 103
- Page 104
- Page 105
- Page 106
- Page 107
- Page 108
- Page 109
- Page 110
- Page 111
- Page 112
- Page 113
- Page 114
- Page 115
- Page 116
- Page 117
- Page 118
- Page 119
- Page 120
- Page 121
- Page 122
- Page 123
- Page 124
- Page 125
- Page 126
- Page 127
- Page 128
- Page 129 (Reading here)
- Page 130
- Page 131
- Page 132
- Page 133
- Page 134
- Page 135
- Page 136
- Page 137
- Page 138
- Page 139
- Page 140
- Page 141
- Page 142
- Page 143
- Page 144
- Page 145
- Page 146
- Page 147
- Page 148
- Page 149
- Page 150
- Page 151
- Page 152
- Page 153
- Page 154
- Page 155
- Page 156
- Page 157
- Page 158
- Page 159
- Page 160
- Page 161
- Page 162
- Page 163
- Page 164
- Page 165
- Page 166
- Page 167
- Page 168
- Page 169
- Page 170
- Page 171
- Page 172
- Page 173
- Page 174
- Page 175
- Page 176
- Page 177
- Page 178
- Page 179
- Page 180
- Page 181
- Page 182
- Page 183
- Page 184
- Page 185
- Page 186
- Page 187
- Page 188
- Page 189
- Page 190
- Page 191