Charmed Wolf by Aimee Easterling (best ereader for pdf TXT) 📕

thankfully, gave me the perfect opening to change the subject.

“Is that what you were doing when you laid your head in my lap without letting me know you were a shifter?” It had been our introduction. Me, crying in the forest soon after my father’s death. A unicorn prancing out from between the trees and kneeling down to comfort me.

Or so I’d thought. Given what I knew now.... “You perv.”

Erskine huffed, ignoring my insult and focusing on the actual question. “I’m not a shifter. The unicorn is a spiritual casting. It’s barely physical and is nothing like your wolf form. All of my senses are muted while I’m stuck Between.”

His reason for feeling me up moments earlier became clearer. I softened. “Am I the first person you’ve touched since ending up here?”

Erskine’s eyes slid sideways. “Maybe.”

“And how long has that been?”

His voice grew smaller. “Months.”

As a wolf, I understood how hard it was to go days, let alone months, without hugging someone. So I forgave this brother Rune didn’t want to admit to. Forgave him...even as I resolved not to turn my back on him until Kale, Rune, and I were all safely home.

“The door,” Rune interrupted, “will open when a decision is made. What decision?”

It was almost as if Erskine had been waiting for that question. Because his chest puffed right back up and he purred in a manner than sounded more feline than equine.

“The Queen of the Unseelie Court, our mother, has sent me to find you. She’s bored. It’s time for you to come home and amuse her. The door will open for no one other than you.”

Chapter 19

“Not my problem,” Rune shot back while I blinked, trying to take in the new information.

Rune was the son of the Queen of the Unseelie Court? And the Queen in question wanted him back?

That didn’t sound good.

Erskine’s answer was even less good. “I believe I have a boon coming to me and I’m not picky about who provides it,” he declared, the weakness he’d shown earlier now totally invisible as he threw my recent mistake back in my face. “Either I can offer your kitten to the Queen and see if that’s enough collateral to free me from this prison, or you can save us all some trouble and open the door yourself.”

“You want me to save you,” Rune countered. “Again. But that didn’t work out so well last time.”

“Last time was a gift,” Erskine countered. “This is the repayment of a boon. Do you really want to do this the hard way?”

“For old times’ sake,” Rune said, words as rough as sandpaper, “I would have thought you’d warn me about the Queen then let the matter go.”

Erskine’s eyes widened. “And be stuck Between? For an eternity? You want me to sacrifice myself so you can play in the mud?”

“Which,” Rune observed, “brings me back to my original point. You haven’t changed a bit.”

Their bickering rolled over me as I assessed the situation. Erskine had taken us Between at my bidding, to save Kale from the magical wind. Unfortunately, it appeared he wasn’t about to carry us back out again.

Luckily, I had another fae on call.

Kale must have come to the same conclusion. Because his eyes met mine as we sank down to the ground together. Then we started to dig.

The first layers were easy to push through. Moss then fluffy soil. The trouble was, even when my finger stubbed up against a root, the being didn’t bite.

So perhaps the standing stones kept the Guardian out just like they kept Erskine in, at least in his human form? I swallowed. I didn’t really know the laws of Faery. Didn’t know if calling on the Guardian had any chance of working here.

Meanwhile, Erskine’s voice had turned sweetly seductive. “Remember the pleasures of Faery? Haven’t you missed it, living in your cold, gray world? The cakes. The nectar. Beautiful bodies, ready and willing.”

Rune, to the best of my knowledge, possessed no such hedonistic urges. Still, the boon I’d tossed at Erskine must have weighed heavily upon him. Because my Consort started to bargain.

“Before I consider opening this door, I’d require proof of Lupe and Ryder’s safety. Plus, Tara”—his voice caught on my name—“Tara’s pack must be protected against all fae intrusion.”

“You ask more than I promised,” his brother countered. “I drew the danger away from the ones Tara asked me to. I’ll pop your kitten and her pet over into the mud world before you and I head home. But that’s the entirety of my offer. Take it or leave it.”

Kale was digging sideways along the root now. He hadn’t given up, so I couldn’t either. I brushed his hand aside and followed the route he’d suggested.

The instant I did so, the harsh greeting of the Guardian bit through my skin.

“I NEED YOUR HELP.” I murmured my request aloud, hoping Erskine wouldn’t hear me. But I trusted Rune to prevent anything from happening while I knelt, eyes closed, communing with our family ally.

To my surprise, I received an answer in words rather than sensations. “Why should I help you?” The voice in my head was female, throaty. I could almost see a silhouette of the Guardian against the insides of my closed eyelids.

Did that mean this stone circle was closer to Faery than the grove where the Guardian and I usually met? Did that even matter? Clenching my eyes closed more tightly, I muttered my reply.

“Because of our family Bargain. We provide you with a foothold in the human world and you protect our pack.”

She snorted. “But you haven’t lived up to your side of that Bargain. No Heir. No Beta. I don’t make deals with power-hungry wannabes. I make deals with sworn Alphas.”

“So that’s why you let strange wolves trespass on our territory? Why you allowed fae to invade our factory?”

The Guardian was silent. Her root slid away from me, but I grabbed it between my thumb and forefinger before it could fully retreat.