Page 106 of Witchbane

“Indeed. I could have taught you more. You’re such a small thing.” Zephyr’s gaze flicked to Wesley, running down the lines of him. Good, focus on the stag, I thought. I wondered if Wesley felt like prey in that moment. He sure seemed like prey. But maybe he was into that.

Zephyr quirked a small smile. “I look forward to learning more about you, little fox.”

“We are bound,” Liam said.

Zephyr shrugged. “Mortal coils only wrap skin-deep.” His gaze shifted to Nick. “Even that one could be taken, though his master has little left to offer.”

I stepped in front of Nick. No one was taking him anywhere. “You’re here for Al, take him and go. You’re in my territory.”

Wesley stepped between us to stop either of us from lashing out. “If you will allow me to give you a ride,” he said to Zephyr. Wesley glanced back at Liam and me. “As long as you don’t need me for anything else at this moment.”

“Not as long as you take Al with you,” Liam said.

Wesley glanced down at the dried husk and nodded. I didn’t miss how Zephyr’s gaze lingered on Wesley as the fae bent and picked up Al like he weighed no more than a small bag of icing sugar.

“I approve,” I told Zephyr, whose gaze found me again with a quirked brow. I waved a hand at Wesley. “As long as he consents.”

Wesley froze, looking a bit like a deer in headlights.

“Because I could not take what I wanted?” Zephyr asked.

“He’s ours,” Liam said. “Given himself to the care of our court.”

“Consent, or nothing,” I said. Even if it meant I had to find some place here in Maple Falls to stash Wesley too. Was that what he wanted? I was not going to throw him at the scary pretty fae because it was convenient.

Wesley seemed to catch that idea fairly quickly. He turned his head to stare at me, frown firm on his face. Yeah, I knew he would not have done the same if the roles were reversed. What he had expected when he’d jumped on the bandwagon ofservingme and mine, I wasn’t sure, but it didn’t matter. I might be young and sort of still learning how to use my powers, whatever the scope of them was, however, he was mine and that came with rules.

“If you go anywhere, it’s because you want to,” I informed Wesley. “If you’re only here because someone else,” I waved at Zephyr, “told you to be, then I release you from that obligation.”

Wesley gaped at me. “You don’t know what you’re saying.”

No, probably not.

Liam added. “You belong to us and this court. That doesn’t change without a formal request from you. But it has to be your choice, not the command of another. You cannot serve two masters.”

Choices didn’t seem like something regular fae had a lot of. Wesley looked down at Al and then back up at Zephyr. He swallowed hard, then said, “I should deliver them back to their court.”

“Only if that’s what you want,” Liam said with a shrug. “I’m sure our friend Zephyr here can take Al on his own.”

Zephyr’s gaze found Wesley again, eyes narrowed, but he didn’t make any demands. Wesley seemed to lose the will to breathe for a second, then swallowed hard enough to choke. He stood up straight, squaring his shoulders and nodded like he was answering a question we couldn’t hear. “I’ll escort them out. Make sure cleanup is done, and head back. Shouldn’t take more than a day or two. We have a baby kitsune to train.”

I was surprised that he wanted to help with that. He hadn’t seemed to care about helping me at all.

“And that’s fascinating,” Zephyr added as he followed Wesley toward the door. “Been a long time since a child was born completely of magic.”

Was it a good idea for the fae to know about Ari?

“What an interesting child we could have created,” Zephyr said.

“Um, no,” I said because I was mated to Liam. Kitsune demanding power or not.

“Perhaps even many, since I could feed boundless amounts of energy to you,” he continued as if he hadn’t heard me. That turned sexual too. Like he was feeding me something else.

Was it hot in here? I turned toward Liam, whose arms tightened around me. “Fated,” Liam reminded me. “You and me.”

“Sorry,” I grumbled into his shoulder, trying to rein in the kitsune.

“Until we meet again, little fox,” Zephyr said, sounding mildly amused. “I’m sure it will be soon.” He and Wesley left, and a few seconds later I heard car doors and an engine.