Page 5

I flung out my arms in panic and shrieked when the unconscious shifter laid me flat, effectively crushing me beneath him. Only a growling snore indicated he had been disturbed by the event at all.

Hissing my agitation, I spat out the hair his chocolate scented snores had blown across my face and peeked around his massive body to glare at my shadows. “I do believe you did that on purpose!”

My shadows, sentient in nature, danced excitedly around us with silent laughter. I did not need words to understand that they were highly amused. I could read them as well as they could read me…after all, they had been with me since my birth.

Unlike my other shadow fae family, who controlled dormant shadows casted by light, my powers were alive, sentient…

infinite. The elemental fae seers called it a dark omen, the shadow fae called it a blessing.

Neither really knew where or how they came into be ing or why they chose me in particular.

Even my own mother, who was a powerful ancient with the gift of foresight didn’t quite understand why I gained such a power although she considered them a loving blessing all the same.

“A mothers greatest wish,” she would say, “is to make sure their children would always be safe even when they were no longer able to protect them.”

Then she would laugh and joke that perhaps the shadows were really a blessing for her rather than one for me.

Closing my eyes, I shut down the well of grief that threatened to overflow and focused on my current problem.

Pushing at the shifter's heavy form, I attempted to disentangle myself from his massive body but my movement only caused him to nuzzle closer, straight into my cleavage. The prickling stubble of his beard on my vulnerable skin sent my heart racing.

“Help.” I gasped, frantically shoving at the shifter and wriggling my body away from his touch.

My shadows, sensing my panic, threw the shifter across the forest floor.

Gasping, I rolled to my hands and knees. Gulping air through my panic.

“Sorry. Sorry.” I choked, controlling the trembling within me.

In what seemed like hours but was mere minutes, I was finally able to breathe and sat back on my heels to gaze up at the night sky. The coolness of the shadows embracing me calmed the tension in my shoulders.

Looking at them, I gave them a wry sad smile. “Not your fault, my loves.”

A few moments passed before I chanced looking over my shoulder at the large fae male snoring contentedly in the dirt. I groaned, rubbing a hand down my face. How was it that his back was just as sexy as his front and that even in my panic, I still felt desire for him?

With a shaky sigh, I rose and waved dismissively at my shadows.

“Just for that you are carrying him.” Kicking over one of the shifters bags, I sniffed with disgust at the contents.

Black lace underwear—disgustingly stiff from the goddess only knew what, molted dried provisions, and an odd string of… goddess were those teeth?

My eyes traveled over to the last dead shifter, shredded to bits by his own companion, still bleeding all over the forest floor. “For Goddess sake clean that up! Damn bloodlust ruined a perfectly good kill.”

Bloodlust. A shifter's curse as well as his greatest strength.

When pushed past their emotional breaking point, a shifter's power was amplified.

It was said to be the sole reason why the old shifter king had fallen—so driven by it from the loss of his soulmate, his own son had to put him down to take over the throne.

A shame. He was a worthy foe during those times and I regretted never meeting him in battle.

My lips pulled back over my teeth when my gaze fell on the blazing fire.

Fire in these woods drew unwanted attention—attention I could already feel was moving towards us.

I had managed to live in these woods for over one hundred years without detection…

many of the beasts here were my friends but that didn’t mean I trusted anything in the Wildwoods. They were called wild for a reason.

Summoning nearby dormant shadows, I doused the fire in a blanket of black, and allowed the moonlight to fill the small clearing.

Inhaling deeply, I tilted my face up to the glow of the three moons of Faerie and basked in the peace their presence brought me.

I would need it for whatever was to come next.

Cool wind blew playfully at my loose hair, whispering its secrets—a friend not foe was nearby. Then the subtle creak and groan of a werewood tree echoed in the clearing and I smiled.

“Hello old friend.”

Opening my eyes, I gazed at the rare monstrous tree towering over me with its silver leaves and graying gnarled branches. Its sharp, thorny teeth grinned widely at me, slick amber sap oozing from each pointed tip, and dripping down his gigantic trunk of a body.

One drop of that sap in my system would render me cursed forever. Bound to the weretree for all eternity as a starving, restless, wolf, guarding its master.

Except, I did not fear this one, we had met once before. Back when I was a young fae of ten summers with a fanciful goal to spend the rest of my life as a wolf with a powerful werewood tree. Together we would rule these very woods. Free and vicious. All would fear us.

I spent three weeks in the Wildwoods, dodging my mothers guards at every turn, in search of werewood tree that would agree to bite me. When he finally revealed himself to me, he laughed and told my faeling self that we would one day meet again, and that my request of him would be much different.

I smiled back at its thorny grin. “So the time has finally come for us to meet again has it?”

His gnarled silver glowing eyes blinked and his body creaked with his deep laughter. “Little shadow, you have grown. Do you still wish to be a wolf, I wonder?”

I shrugged. “As fun as it does sound, I do believe the goddess has different plans in store for me.” I hitched my thumb over the unconscious shifter suspended in the air by my shadows.

The weretree’s large canopied limbs, full of lush silver leaves stretched over us, and shrouded us from the rest of the forest. “So the trees tell me. But yes, the goddess does have other plans for you, little shadow.”

I narrowed my eyes on him. “What do you know?”

His silver eyes flashed. “You will have all your answers soon enough.”

I sighed with resignation. “If you won’t tell me then at least take this nuisance off my hands. He might be a tasty bite. What do you suppose happens to a shifter when bitten?”

He shook with silent laughter and circular silver spiked leaves fell from his quivering branches.

I plucked one from my hair and watched it fall to the canopy floor.

The gnomes would appreciate this boon. They particularly loved werewood leaves.

Their spikes made the perfect weapons for their tiny war games.

“We don’t bite shifters. They are difficult to control during transition and never taste pleasant enough for us to risk it.”

I sniffed. “No I suppose not, they are scum after all. It may be easier to just kill him.”

More leaves fell from laughter and I brushed them off with mild annoyance. Yes, the gnomes were going to have a field day. I’d have to prepare myself the next time I traveled through these parts.

“Except you have not killed him, unlike the others that met your blade here.”

“ Yet . I have not killed him yet, werewood.”

His silver eyes flared knowingly again. “There will be a time where you crave to be with this one more than you crave his death and even your own. In this, you will find it very difficult to kill him.” The werewood groaned before a brown leather satchel appeared before me, hanging from one of his great gnarled branches.

“ Take this. I have fulfilled my promise to the Golden One and kept it safe. I will give it to you for safekeeping until he awakens.”

I raised a brow. I had so many questions but I took the shifter's traveling bag anyway. My fingers twitched to look inside. “You know him then? This Golden One? Who is he and how do I not know of him?”

The thorny mouth of the werewood tree spread into a predator-like smile and his silver eyes glowed with dark humor.

“Did I not tell you that you’d ask something much different the next time we met?

” His great silver branches groaned loudly as he chuckled.

“We will not meet again, little shadow, but I will be watching.”

I frowned. “Watching?”

The werewood chuckled mysteriously again, “All of Faerie is watching you, little shadow.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” I narrowed my eyes on him.

The great weretree just stared back. Awkward silence filled the eerie Wildwoods and then, in a flash, he was just gone. Dissolving into the darkened woods as quickly as he came.

Gripping the satchels strap with annoyance, I growled. “Do your best not to watch too closely, old friend, you’re creepy enough face to face.”

In the distance the groans of the werewood could be heard once again…laughing at me.

Slinging, the brown leather bag over my shoulder, its weight remarkably light for someone as big as him traveling, I turned to look at the sleeping shifter floating on a black cloud of shadows.

Looking at him now reminded me of a human fairytale I heard once.

Except that was a princess and ended with a kiss.

I rolled my eyes again— humans.

“Let’s get this over with.” I waved at the shadows and I steered off into the direction of my hidden cabin.

My shadows rushed to my side, twirling around me playfully in spirals of black smoke and I snickered at their antics only to stop short at a loud thump behind me. Pivoting, I turned to see a dumped shifter sprawled unceremoniously on the forest floor. Remarkably, he was still fast asleep.

I snorted, trying to hold back my amusement and sternly addressed the shadows.

“Pick him up you foolish beings. You know he's coming with us. Hopefully he will wake soon and tell us who the goddess he is.” Turning away from them, I muttered.

“If he doesn't wake up, I’m not kissing him. I have no need for a prince.”

Shimmering with laughter they rushed to pick up the shifter again.

I gave them one more glance back to make sure they understood my seriousness. “Be sure not to drop him again.” I said sternly. Only seconds passed when I heard another loud thump—this one sounding like the handsome shifter’s head slamming into a tree.

A wide smile split across my face, highlighted by the three moons in the dark silvery forest. My shadows were playful tonight.