Page 24 of Wishing for a Werewolf (Ferndale Falls Forever #2)
Rune
After breakfast with Autumn, I spend the rest of the day finishing preparations on the house, seeing her in every room. If this is a home, it’s only because of everything she helped me with yesterday.
I keep falling into memories of the night before, the scent of her arousal, the taste of her skin, the way she screamed my name when she shattered around my cock…
Goddess, she’s the most bewitching female I’ve ever known. Instead of slaking my hunger, last night’s taste of my fire has only stoked it higher. I’m ravenous.
An irritated pounding on the front door jerks me from my thoughts.
“I haven’t found anything yet.” Lukendevener scowls at me, his folded wings stirring restlessly. “Severin complained that I never updated him enough, so I wanted to let you know.”
“Thank you.” I hover in the doorway, uncertain, then swing the door wide. “Come in. See if you can figure out this blasted human contraption.”
He grunts and follows me into the living room, where we spend the next hour trying to set up the television so it will show something other than a black screen.
It turns out I asked the perfect fae for assistance, because Luke gives me a translation crystal to set on top of the device, which allows me to read the menus.
After much swearing and watching various how-to videos on my phone, we finally get the television to play several of the cartoon channels Autumn says my niece and nephew will love.
The dragon keeps flipping through channels, his black claws clicking against the buttons on the remote.
He stops on a close-up of a human woman with a wide, tan face and long, curly brown hair.
Her hazel eyes fill with delight as she says, “I think I love him! I know it’s really fast. But you know what they say: the heart wants what the heart wants, and mine wants Julian. ”
“Too soon to be in love? Do humans worry about these things?” I ask. I’ve been drawn to Autumn since the first moment I saw her. Even though I told her it was her hair, it must be something more, for there are other redheads in town, and none of them attract me like she does.
None of them are my fire.
Luke grunts and settles onto the couch, which Autumn had me move to face the television.
I sit down beside him as we both get lost in the events on screen, which are all about human mating rituals on an island.
My phone rings, the noise startling me from my thoughts.
“Rune, we need you on the town green!” Diamond says. “Hurry. It’s sprites. They’re trying to enchant all the humans. I just lost half my customers!”
“On my way.” I pocket the phone and look at Luke. “Did you hear?”
He grunts a yes, his fae hearing especially acute in his weredragon form.
We hurry outside, and he launches into the air, his red-scaled wings snapping wide. “Meet you there.”
I let my magic rush through me and shift into my faster werewolf form as I dash into the trees, heading straight toward town.
The sun dips low in the west, the light dropping to the warmer gold of evening.
Birds cheep, settling in for the night, and I startle a rabbit, which bounds into a cluster of ferns, its tempting scent beckoning for a hunting chase.
Ignoring it, I continue on at full speed, soon cutting past the library and onto the green, where a small crowd of humans stands on the grassy area.
In the middle, a flock of sprites hovers over the busted remains of a pumpkin.
Only six-inches tall, all of them have flower-pink skin and white downy hair that sticks straight up.
They wear a mixture of clothing, all made from green and blue leaves that coordinate with their multi-hued butterfly wings.
Magic shivers through the air, and sparkling glitter falls from their wings to bespell the pumpkin waiting below. “Come, humans! Come, eat our Faerie Fruit! Come, dance.”
A pair of humans roll on the ground, kissing and grinding against one another with the frenzied motions of eager teens even though they have to be in their forties.
Another man heads for the Faerie Fruit, and Luke throws out an arm to bar the way. “I wouldn’t, not unless you have a partner—” He nods at the writhing couple. “—or want to dance until you drop.”
“I love to dance,” the human says, voice a bit dreamy, eyes latched onto the sprites.
I stop a woman from darting forward, my hand fisting in the loose fabric of the back of her shirt. She keeps straining toward the bespelled fruit, but I’m so much stronger I barely notice. Then I have to use my other arm to hold back two others.
Glaring at the sprites, I bark, “Why are you here? The last I heard, you were searching the realms of Faerie, looking for elves.”
“Curse you, wolf, for reminding us of our lost elves!” a male sprite cries out in a high voice, the others joining his lament.
“They’re not lost.” I point to several shadow fae walking along the sidewalk on Main Street.
“Those aren’t elves.” The sprite darts toward me, a tiny silver sword appearing in his hand. “How dare you say such a thing!”
“The Dark God turned elves into shadow fae centuries ago.” I bare my fangs, which are most impressive in my werewolf form. “I dare because they’re the closest you’re going to get.”
“They’re nothing like elves. They don’t hold parties. They don’t hold balls!” The sword disappears, and the little sprite tugs at his hair in woe. “The one they call king doesn’t even have a proper court!”
A huff of laughter escapes me. “Don’t let Severin hear you say he’s not a proper king.”
“Oh, don’t worry,” a sardonic voice says as the fae in question steps up to my side. “They’ve already said as much to my face.”
I glance over at him. “And you let them live?” I’m only half teasing.
“What can I say?” He gives a nonchalant shrug. “Marriage has mellowed me.” His gaze lifts to where Hannah, Autumn, and the other witches hurry toward us from the direction of the bookshop.
“What’s going on?” Hannah asks.
Severin and I explain about the sprites and the effect Faerie Fruit has on humans.
As they listen, Autumn’s face blanches, her freckles standing out against her unnaturally pale cheeks. “So this Faerie Fruit makes people feel things they don’t want to feel?” She sounds horrified, and her gaze flickers to me and away.
I frown, not liking the haunted look in her eyes.
“No! It doesn’t create attraction,” the head sprite says.
“It simply encourages you to act on what you’re already feeling.
If you’re not attracted to anyone nearby, you dance.
” He spins in the air, and the rest of the flock swirls around him, their wings flashing with iridescence in the last rays of the setting sun. “And we love to dance!”
Clothing rips, and the couple takes their amorous activities to the next level.
“Yeah, what you’re saying sounds great and all, but Mr. Drexler and Mrs. Bernstein have worked with each other for years without anything like this effing happening.” The redheaded witch jabs a finger toward the moaning couple.
“I don’t know.” Skye says. “Remember how we all used to gossip that they had the hots for each other? Looks like we were right.”
“Teen gossip isn’t the same thing as blowing up your marriage!” Autumn gestures toward a shell-shocked man staring at the couple rolling on the ground. “Just look at Mr. Bernstein.”
I wince. That can’t be easy for him to see.
Then Mr. Bernstein leaps forward, scoops up a piece of pumpkin, and shoves it into his mouth before anyone can stop him. Spinning back around, he grabs the shoulders of the man standing beside him. “Daniel, it’s you. It’s always been you.”
“Oh, James, you don’t know how long I’ve waited to hear you say that!”
They surge toward each other, and as soon as the second man ingests some of the Faerie Fruit lingering on his new lover’s lips, they fall to the grass in their own rather enthusiastic show of physical affection.
Hannah steps close to her husband to murmur, “Getting kind of R-rated over here. Can you do something about that?”
Shadows shoot from Severin to form an obscuring bubble of shadow around each couple. Then he casts a silencing spell around them as well. His eyes narrow as he takes in the head sprite. “Remove the spell on the fruit.”
“No!”
With a scowl, Severin sends more tendrils racing forward to form a shield around the pumpkin so no other humans can get to it.
I let go of the woman’s shirt, and she falls to her knees, fists pounding on the barrier around the Faerie Fruit. When I drop my other arm, the rest of the people I’ve been holding back join her.
“See!” The sprite jabs a finger toward the display. “The humans want to play with us. Don’t deny us this.”
“No, Faerie Fruit’s not safe for humans.” For fae, eating the fruit is about as intoxicating as a few ales. But humans either dance until they fall unconscious or have to climax multiple times to shake off its effect.
“But I want it.” The woman looks up at us, even as her hands still paw at the barrier. “I want to feel that… excited.” Her cheeks darken, but the blush isn’t as alluring on her as it is on my fire.
Severin pinches the bridge of his nose and sighs.
With the worst of the threat over, I call up my magic and shift back into a man, grateful to lose the discomfort of my tail being constrained by my jeans.
The humans trying to get to the Faerie Fruit moan, their voices full of longing.
“Severin,” Hannah says, her tone firm, her lips pressed into a thin line. The mayor’s clearly worried about her people.
“As you wish, my wife.” He waves a hand, and a shadow sphere surrounds the sprites, carrying them away toward the waterfall and the door to Faerie. Then he squeezes his other hand, and the shadows enwrapping the bespelled pumpkin collapse inward, shrinking until nothing is left.
With a pop of released pressure, the humans on the ground fall forward, hands thumping onto the grass. They shake their heads, dazed eyes turning puzzled as they scramble to their feet.
“Are you guys okay?” Hannah asks. “You got kind of dizzy there.” She glances over her shoulder at Autumn and Skye, giving a little grimace before turning back to the humans still on the ground.
Soon all of the witches surround the affected townspeople, Autumn in the front, making sure everyone’s all right. As soon as all of the confused people have been comforted and sent home, the witches join us.
“Did you banish the sprites like you did the kelpie?” Autumn asks.
“What I did is temporary.” Severin shakes his head. “They didn’t do enough harm for a permanent banishment to hold.”
“We can’t let this happen again,” I say.
“Yeah,” Autumn says. Worry haunts her eyes as she glances at me before looking quickly away. “No more magic making people do things they don’t want to do.”