Page 10 of Against the Veil (Endangered Fae #3)

Chapter Seven

Wolf in the Fold

It’s not so much having a kinship with wolves. I am a wolf. The wolf was born with me and will always remain. To try to separate the Fomorian from the wolf would be to take a saber and slice me rather messily in half. —Faolchú Earthshaker, during a televised interview, CBC

D iego finally persuaded Danu to let them search at first light. She had spelled the doors to the embassy shut, adamant that she would allow no one out to hunt for Zack and, as she put it, her ‘thickheaded, arrogant Champion’.

He knew she worried for them. Her anger said as much. But she would not have anyone else endangered to help someone for whom it was already too late.

“It’s never too late, Zack,” Diego muttered as he trudged behind the hunters. “Don’t you let anyone tell you so.”

“Did you say something, light-wielder?” Angus straightened from peering at the ground, his eyes red-rimmed from tears and lack of sleep.

“Nothing. Just worried.”

Angus nodded and raised his face to the sun. His body melted, feathers blossoming on his skin until a golden eagle stood before Diego in place of the sidhe herald. “We are all anxious,” the eagle said with a clack of his beak. “I will fly ahead and perhaps spot something from the air.”

“Fly well, Farseer,” Sionnach whispered to the speck of raptor disappearing over the dunes. He buried his face in his hands and began to cry.

“Hey.” Diego pulled him close, letting him sob into his jacket. “He’ll be all right. Angus is well out of reach up there.”

“I…know…” Sionnach sobbed. “But Zack… He’s… It’s not…”

Ever since his time as a government-held experiment, Sionnach had become fragile. He buried it most of the time, showing the world his cheerful, cheeky face, but when emotions ran high, he would fall apart again.

“I know.” Diego stroked his hair. “Zack’s a good man and he didn’t deserve this. It’s not right. And we’re all worried. But we’re going to help him through this.” He pushed Sionnach back far enough to see his face. “Aren’t we?”

Sionnach nodded, breaths shuddering as he tried to compose himself. A few steps ahead of them, Faolchú lifted his head from the trail, his gray-furred ears twitching. “I smell wolf.”

Golden feathers glinting in the sun, Angus returned on powerful sweeps of his wings. “They’re coming! I see them!”

“Both of them?” Diego called up.

“Yes! Together!”

Despite the obvious joy in Angus’ voice, Faolchú thrust the smaller fae and Diego behind him. His jaw tight, he watched with narrowed eyes as two figures crested the nearest dune.

Lugh waved to them with a bright smile as he strode toward them, his other hand buried in the neck fur of a huge wolf.

The animal’s shoulder was at Lugh’s waist, its tongue lolled out in a lupine grin.

It had fur the color of a certain sergeant’s honey-blond hair and expressive gray eyes that were altogether too familiar.

“Zack.”

The wolf broke from Lugh’s side, loping toward them. At Faolchú’s growl, he skidded to a stop, ears flat, front feet splayed, lips pulling back from his teeth.

“Wolves.” Nathair sighed and stepped between them. He swatted Faolchú on the nose. “Be nice. This is no time for threat displays.” Then their little garden snake turned to Zack. “Put your teeth away, golden one. You know this wolf. You’ve slept together. Played together.”

Zack cocked his head to the side, listening to Nathair with his ears pricked forward.

He trotted forward, tail wagging hesitantly and proceeded to sniff at Faolchú’s crotch.

In turn, Faolchú crouched down to sniff at Zack’s fur until both wolf heads, gold and black-and-silver, were nuzzling at each other, licking and nudging in greeting.

“Welcome back, Sergeant,” Faolchú murmured with a suspicious hitch in his deep voice.

Diego turned away with a lump in his throat, the truth hard to face and harder to bear. He looked up at Lugh instead and reached out a hand in concern. “You’re hurt.”

“Scratches, little man. A few bruises, perhaps.” Lugh rubbed gingerly at the gashes on his neck. “We had a bit of a tussle before we came to an understanding.”

“Did you hurt him?”

Lugh’s dark brows drew together and Diego knew he had offended his friend. He waved a hand to where Wolf-Zack jumped up to put his paws on Nathair’s shoulders and lick his face. “Does he appear mortally injured, Consul? Do you think me such a brute that I would harm someone so dear to me?”

“No. Of course not.” Diego put a gentle hand on Lugh’s arm. “I’m sorry. We were scared to death for both of you.”

Lugh drew in a slow breath. “Forgive me. I am… It was a long night.”

“So he’s not like the thing that attacked him? He gets to be this pretty wolf instead of a monster?”

“Not precisely.”

Lugh sank down to sit on the sand, knees bent so he could rest his arms on them. It was a perfectly natural posture except he was stark naked and exposing just about every asset nature had given him. Diego fought against the need to blush and sat beside him.

“So what then?”

Angus had returned to the ground and to his sidhe form. He threw his arms around Zack’s furred neck and soon the lot of them were rolling in the sand, mock wrestling.

“I know, or have known, precious little about Weres.” Lugh managed a smile as Zack pinned Sionnach, who squeaked as his ear was quite thoroughly licked. “When we did see them, it was in their monstrous form. I didn’t realize the raving beast was transitional.”

“Transitional?”

“Yes. Between the human and the wolf. I’m not certain if it had to do with time, if the change to wolf was inevitable, or if it was the satisfying of certain conditions that allowed it.”

“You’re not speaking too clearly.”

Lugh rested his forehead on his arm. “I’m not feeling terribly clear, either. Werewolves are so dangerous because hunger consumes them. Until last night, I thought that hunger was only for flesh and blood.”

Diego pondered that a moment. Lugh’s apparent weariness, his unclothed state… “ Dios , you didn’t. You and him? While he was…”

“Yes.” Lugh’s head jerked up. “I mean, no! I did not. That is I did, but not for me. His needs had to be seen to. I did not take him.”

“Ah.” He had never seen Lugh so rattled. “So he’s safe now? For another moon cycle?”

“I don’t know. I truly wish I did. It is my hope that he will be wolf until the moon wanes again. But what if he becomes the beast again at moonrise?”

Diego chewed at his bottom lip, considering. “I suppose we need to be prepared, then. From what we saw last evening, we should have plenty of warning. We’ll check to see when moonrise is tonight—”

“Seven-twenty-six,” Nathair called over.

“Ah. Thank you. We’ll get him to a locked room no later than seven and make sure we have restraints ready. I don’t want him running off into the wild again where we have no idea what’s happened to him.”

“I will stay with him. If he does shift again, he will be dangerous,” Lugh said as he drew spirals in the sand.

“You look like you need to rest, big guy,” Diego said.

“I am fae. You do recall that? I am able to go months without sleep.”

Diego shook his head. “Doesn’t mean you should. Go take a nap. Leave him with his friends today. They’ll watch over him.”

As if to illustrate the point, Faolchú left the little group lolling in the sand. “Diego, would you mind if we raided the kitchen? Zack is hungry and there is precious little game on the island.”

“And do we have a brush for fur?” Sionnach added. “His pelt is simply full of sand.”

“Yes, to the kitchen raid, and the brush is in the drawer under the microwave.” Diego stood and held out a hand to Lugh to pull him up. “Try to keep him away from Danu and don’t let him wander around the offices, please.”

He left the quartet of fae in the kitchen debating whether to give Zack a steak whole or cut it up for him, and led Lugh by the hand into the little common room at the back of the embassy.

Though he knew Lugh would heal quickly, he still brought a clean washcloth and dabbed the blood and sand from his cuts before urging him to lie down.

“Look, I know you’re the toughest badass out there, but we might need your strength later.

Just rest a while. I’ll make sure you’re up before dinnertime. ”

Lugh’s huge hand closed over his forearm. “Diego…”

He leaned in to kiss Lugh’s forehead. “I wish I could say everything was going to be okay.”

“Why not?” Lugh asked plaintively. “Tell me you have all the answers, as you always do. The little man who brought me back from the brink of death, who opened the way through the impenetrable Veil. Who holds the wild heart of a pooka in his hands. Surely you will have answers.”

“The little man is at a loss and respects you too much to lie to you,” Diego said gently. “We’ll all put our heads together on this. We’ll find a solution that works as best we can. But I can’t promise to cure him.”

“I know.” Lugh lay back, closed his eyes on a weary sigh and let Diego cover him with the blanket from the back of the sofa.

Except for the boisterous chatter from the kitchen, silence pervaded the embassy.

The human staff, prevented from leaving the previous evening, had slept in the fae caverns downstairs—far preferable to trying to sleep in office chairs.

Diego went to his office and sank down in his chair, running a hand over his stubbled cheek.

Carol had printed out his schedule for the day and had set neatly on the corner of his desk.

There would be order, apparently, in the face of any chaos, if she had anything to do with it.

“My love?” Finn’s thoughts reached him, warm and worried. “ Is all well?”

“He is home, mi vida .” Diego sent in return. “ Safe and unharmed. He is quite a handsome wolf.”

“Oh.” Finn was silent a long moment, then his thoughts took on a wistful note. “I wish I could see him.”

“He’s having breakfast right now, but I’m sure he’ll be happy to come upstairs later.”

“Do you think so? And should he, since he is a shifter now as well?”