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

fifty. Dozens of fae sat, stood, and lounged at a long wooden table that blocked me from her.

The chain around my neck, however, had disintegrated. So I guessed that was a good thing.

Not so good, though, when Kale and Hazel remained at the center of attention. “Children?” The Queen’s voice was as sharp as broken glass. “You think children will make up for your treason? You’ve been gone a long time, girl. I’ve borne children of my own and dismissed both of them. They were boring.” She leaned forward, considering the new addition to her household. “You, on the other hand, will amuse me for a very long time.”

“Your Majesty,” the Guardian started, only to go silent as the Queen turned to face me.

“Her name.”

And now the Guardian laughed. “Tara doesn’t know my true name. No one knows my true name.”

To be entirely honest, she was right about the first part. But not about the second.

And I didn’t feel any need to be entirely honest, not here in the midst of so many fae.

“Oh?” This time, when I paced forward, the Queen didn’t stop me. That dratted table lay in my way, though, and I didn’t want to lose sight of either the Queen or the Guardian long enough to go around it. Instead, I nudged aside a fae who looked more human than the others then used that gap to vault up onto a platform of my own.

Now I was forty feet away from the kids rather than fifty. Still too far to help them physically. I could only hope my buddy’s oversized brain would kick in fast.

“Kale told me your name,” I continued, raising my eyebrows at the twelve-year-old. Because he’d need to be the one to speak the Guardian’s true name. Latin tended to slip right out of my head.

“I did?” Kale’s brows drew together. But before he could jump to any conclusions, the Guardian slapped him.

“Silence!” Then her eyes narrowed. “And you, Alpha-wannabe. You’d better stay on my good side if you want my assistance with your pack mates. You won’t get far without me, not as blind as you are.”

“Blind?” My feet sent bowls rattling off the table as I stalked down its length, aiming for the Guardian. But I didn’t look down and the fae didn’t stop me. Drama, it appeared, worked in my favor. Anything that broke the boredom, it appeared, would be allowed.

“Yes, blind.” The Guardian grabbed Kale, pulling him close in a parody of an embrace. “All your life, you’ve avoided seeing what was right in front of your nose. You missed the way I designed the system for my own benefit, splitting mate duties between the Consort—a brood mare—and the Beta—for sexual gratification. You’ve lived with the result since birth and never guessed.”

The toe of my boot caught on a fae elbow. That, I told myself, was the only reason I stumbled. Not because of what the Guardian was telling me.

Was it true that Willa had been my father’s lover? How would that rewrite my entire understanding of the past?

“And your little Ash,” the Guardian continued. “He craved to slot himself”—her words reeked with innuendo—“into the Beta role.”

I swallowed. I’d thought I knew my pack, but perhaps the Guardian was right. Perhaps I did need help. I’d never guessed any of this....

“You’ve burned so many bridges,” the Guardian continued. “But I’ll help you rebuild. Bring me back to your earth and it will be just like before, only better.” Her voice hardened. “Say my true name, though, and I’ll slice this girl’s throat.”

The dagger Kale had used to send the Guardian back to Faery was in the fae’s hand now. But Kale was less shellshocked than I felt.

“I’m a boy,” he growled, sounding just like one of my wolves at their most territorial. “And you can’t mess with Tara’s mind. She’s a better leader with both arms tied behind her back than you’d ever be.”

I blinked, the Guardian’s haze lifting. Well, part of it. My mind, I realized, had been muddled for my entire life by catering to a fae parasite. All week, I’d been hunting someone charmed by the fae, but the most charmed wolf had been myself.

I needed to rid myself of the final remnants of that charm, but I needed more to get out of Faery and back to my pack. And that required Kale spitting out Latin without the Guardian realizing he knew her true name.

So I re-channeled the conversation. “Kale is a boy,” I confirmed, starting with the obvious. “He’s a devoted brother and an excellent phytobiologist.”

In reaction, Kale’s eyebrows drew together. He was used to me standing up for his preferred pronouns, but not to me using fancy scientific terms.

Come on kid. I widened my eyes briefly, then drew the Guardian’s attention back to me to give him time to think.

“And you’re nothing more than a flimflam artist,” I continued. “I won’t bind myself to you. In fact, I hereby rescind any connection between us that might still exist.”

There. The last haze cleared as a tether I hadn’t even realize existed slid out of my gut like a root releasing itself from the shadowy recesses beneath a boulder.

“You,” the Guardian spluttered.

Around us, the Court tittered. “This is amusing,” the Queen hummed. “Our pet was right.”

Unfortunately, the Guardian still had one very solid weapon. Her grasp on Kale tightened, the tip of the knife sliding down to menace the baby. “This is your final chance to bring me with you back to earth.”

I had no cards left to play. I opened my mouth to make one up anyway.

And Kale spoke. His voice was high and clear when he spat out the Latin I’d been trying to guide him toward. “Veronica, let us go!”

VERONICA. RIGHT. That had been the Latin name I was grasping for. The one linked to the little blue flowers dotting the Whelan forest, the flowers our Guardian imbued with unearthly beauty. She used to pout whenever we crushed any type