Page 8 of Faerie Fate (Fae Academy for Halflings #7)
Every line of his suit lay pristine against his strong frame, each hair meticulously in place, as always. Only those shadows were changed.
And underneath it all, I recognized the tics. The tiny tells no one else sees unless they know my uncle. The vein at his temple throbbed, his jaw tight, and his posture shifting slightly to the left.
He was furious.
What had changed between him and Kendrick? They were buddies the last time I saw them together. Uncle Will definitely stood against us when we’d broken into his house, searching for Livvy’s journal.
That was only a few months ago. So what happened to make him want to fight for me now?
“Grimaldi!” Will barked out the name and Kendrick finally relented. “I said let her go.”
“You know what happens to wolves who become a pain in my fucking ass, William.” He spat out the name in retaliation. “Don’t make me regret our partnership.”
“Partnership?” Will scoffed as Kendrick started undoing the mail around my arms. “Is that what you call this sham?”
“You and the council agreed that Tavi is my fated mate. Don’t tell me you’re having regrets?”
Kendrick was boastful. Goading my uncle into provoking him. Kendrick held his change in check but his wolf was desperate for the taste of blood. His desire echoed in my head like it belonged to me, accompanied by fury, swift and lethal.
I stared over his shoulder at Will, begging him to see me. To see the warning signs as breath pushed out of me now. A panic attack loomed strong and clear and if I didn’t get myself under control?—
What did it matter? What did any of it matter?
“Second thoughts are very different from regrets,” Will clarified. His fingers curled on Kendrick’s shoulder, white-knuckled. “I’m not sure you’re capable of treating her right.”
“You have a problem with the chains? They’re a precaution. She fucking bit me.”
Kendrick found this uproariously funny. Especially when the command through the mate bond forced me into stillness. He didn’t want me to move, so I couldn’t, rooted in place and powerless. He didn’t want me to speak, so my lips froze in place and the words died.
In a blink, the world exploded. Not literally but it might as well have, because Uncle Will threw himself against Kendrick’s chest. The surprise force knocked Kendrick back a step but he retaliated the moment he recovered.
He swiped out a claw-tipped hand and shredded through the buttons on the front of the suit jacket.
Will glanced down at the damage and smirked. “Luckily this isn’t my favorite suit.”
He attacked without warning and lunged for Kendrick’s throat, shifting his face until his nose lengthened into a muzzle. There was more to him than met the eye. I hadn’t seen him engage with others, but the pack structure depended on dominance.
Kendrick was an alpha.
So was Will.
He’d won the position somehow and held it, keeping me out of the bulk of the fighting done behind the scenes to actually keep the position. Kendrick might be scary but I halfway wondered what kind of tricks my uncle kept up his cufflink-adorned sleeves.
Kendrick’s distraction loosened his control on me and returned my voice.
“Kill him!” I yelled to Uncle Will. “Kill him.” My words ended in a sob.
Will snapped at Kendrick’s throat and snagged a bit of dark tattooed skin between his fangs. Kendrick pulled away and the skin came clean off him, leaving a patch of bloody muscle the size of a lemon behind.
Rather than panic, Kendrick laughed.
“Is that the best you’ve got? You’re out of practice, old man. Better to let me handle your pack and your bitch from now on.” Kendrick charged Will and knocked them both to the ground.
Will roared, somehow managing to switch their positions. He hauled Kendrick over him and the other wolf lost his breath with a grunt, the air driven out of his lungs. Will repositioned himself on top and shifted his claws, scratching at Kendrick’s sensitive belly.
Laughter grated on me, digging into my ears, lodging there. The mate bond thrummed. Kendrick still wasn’t worried. He found this amusing. He’d been in worse fights before, against better men.
Will stumbled off of Kendrick after bloodying the other man. The raw patch of muscle on Kendrick’s neck had already started to knit together.
“Won’t give up?” Will asked, breathless.
He crossed to one of the abandoned desks in the room and threw his fist down on the top. The wood splintered and he freed one of the legs, ripping it free from the last few bites of nails.
Kendrick rolled on his side, spitting out a mouthful of blood.
“I’ll put you down like a fucking rabid animal.” Eloquence was one of Uncle Will’s gifts and what made him a damn fine lawyer. He ate weaker men for breakfast in front of a judge, but here, there was only me, my terror expansive enough for both of us.
He brought the desk leg down on Kendrick’s skull again and again, slamming wood against bone until Kendrick’s head slumped forward on his chest, going still. My lips trembled as I watched, holding my breath to catch a glimpse of movement.
Uncle Will had knocked him out.
He dropped the desk leg and swiped his forearm across his face to clear the sweat, his eyes narrowed. “Tavi? Are you okay?”
He worked deftly to undo the chains. The last bit of metal dropped from around my leg and Will held out a hand to help me. For an instant, my body failed to move, still caught in the web of Kendrick’s last commands.
But with him unconscious, the force of the bond slowly weakened enough for me to fight it. Gritting my teeth, I slapped my hand against Will’s and let him pull me free.
“I’m so sorry. I’m sorry for everything.” He crushed me to his chest in a tight hug. “I never should have let him get in my head. I never should have promised you to him. I made a mistake.”
I clung to him and to the familiarity of the man who’d raised me after my parents died.
Uncle Will hadn’t had to step up and take me in.
He hadn’t had to give me everything I needed to not only have a good life but a happy one.
I had moderate rules at home, where it was just the two of us, and he’d helped me shift for the first time.
He’d stepped up to keep me safe and hidden, as a halfling. I had a place in his pack and a place in his law office.
“I love you, Tavi.”
He held me tight enough to push the air right back out of my lungs and we clung to each other. He smelled normal. He smelled…clean.
“You have to know I’ve always loved you.”
I didn’t answer at first. Then finally, I cleared my throat. “I love you too, Uncle Will.”
“I was drinking too much,” he explained, resting his chin on top of my head. “I had a problem. Kendrick knew, and he manipulated me. He got right in my head.”
“But you came for me.” My throat worked and the skin of my scar pulled tight.
He pulled back only long enough to take my face in his hands. To force me to look into features so like my own.
“You’re my niece. I’m always going to be there for you. Family , Tavi. I don’t want a world where women are slaves to men, and where men aren’t taught empathy and kindness like my mother wolf taught me,” he finished. “Now let’s get the fuck out of here before he wakes up.”
Will sent another kick flying toward Kendrick’s midsection before pulling me out of the pool of chains.
“What happened?” I asked breathlessly. “Since I ran away?”
“The shifters back home are at war.” Will tugged me past the door and only the slightest mental pull at the mate bond flared in reaction. “Kendrick’s followers are attacking the rest. Even the Alderidge pack has split down the middle. I’ve lost control.”
I gawked at him. “What?”
He drew us down the hallway and out of the classroom. My neck throbbed with the distance between me and Kendrick.
“That’s why we have to get you out of here, as far away and as fast as possible. You need to go where he can’t touch you. I fucked up, okay? I fucked up royally. I’m not going to let anything else happen to you, honey. It’s my job to protect you.”
I winced at the dead wolf in the hall. My eyes traced the corpse and Will stepped over it with a frown.
“I can protect myself,” I insisted.
“Not against him. He’s much more powerful than we ever thought. He has spies everywhere.” Will paced ahead, his fingers latched with mine. Then he stopped and grabbed my Faerie key from around my neck before I could react. “You run, Tavi, and you never stop running. I’ll be right behind you.”
Will held the key out in front of him and twisted, opening a portal.
“No! Stop! You can’t?—”
Horror dawned because I knew what he was going to do. I wasn’t fast enough. I screamed, reaching for him as he stepped through the doorway. Will couldn’t open a door and use it, not with my key; it would kill him.
And it did.