Fighting Faete Read online

  Alak had just finished watching Gabe place his order with the online merchant in his den when Braxas walked into the room, shaking his head.

  “Corrine is so mad at you right now, Alak. She’s considering placing a ‘no swords in the house’ rule.”

  “Truly?” Alak grasped the hilt of his sword protectively. He wasn’t about to let anyone take it from him.

  “Nah, I’m just kidding. Aeron is pretty pissed that you aren’t back out there helping them clean up that mess though. In the meantime, Kat checked in. I think we’d better put in a call to the troops. She didn’t find the hyena we’re looking for, but she did get a tip on the place Nyx and Zayden have been getting these dark magic weapons from. She should be back by morning, so we need to figure out how we’re going to deal with this.”

  Finding the source of the dark magic weapons had been the top priority given to them from their Goddess, but much to his dismay, a lead on the Shadow Market wasn’t what caused a strange excitement to unfurl in his blood. No, it was the news that a certain golden female was to return tomorrow. They hadn’t seen the Lady Katrina since the night of the battle, and her presence had caught Alak fully off guard to the point that his mouth may have gotten away from him. He still didn’t know that he trusted her, but by the Goddess, he knew that he wanted her. Which was only all the more reason that he should stay away.

  Chapter Three

  Aeron had hoped that the next morning’s wake up would be far less dramatic, but once again, he had been startled out of sleep, only this time it was to a surly man sitting at the edge of his bed, brooding.

  “What in the Goddess’s name do you think you’re doing, Alak?”

  “She’s here.”

  “Who?” Aeron asked.

  “Lady Katrina,” Alak replied. His expression intimated that the answer should have been obvious. “She walked right past me without a word when I opened the door for her.”

  The sun had barely yet risen, Aeron noticed. He could have used at least another hour of sleep, but sleep had apparently eluded his brother. He decided to focus on that first and not the golden female for now. “Couldn’t sleep, brother?”

  “I saw a darkness in my dream, Aeron, one like I had never seen before.”

  “Aye, I saw it, too.” Aeron got out of bed and walked over to the window. He felt the warmth of dawn caress his face. Darkness was natural. It balanced out the light, but the kind that he had seen, the kind that his brother was speaking of, was not the kind to be found in nature. It was born of pure evil, and Aeron feared where that darkness would eventually lead. “Our Goddess does not yet know how to fight it,” he said, though she would have imparted that knowledge to Alak as well, Aeron knew. The fact that he, his brother, and the Goddess Rysanna herself, were still at a loss at deciphering the makeup of what they were dealing with was quite daunting indeed. How does one fight an enemy they do not know and cannot see?

  Despite the threat they would soon be forced to face, whether they would be prepared to or not, Alak sulking at the moment had nothing to do with it. He turned to face his brother and couldn’t help but smirk when the real reason for his brother’s presence in his room dawned on him. “I’ve never known you to hide from anyone before, Alak.”

  Aeron continued to smirk as his brother’s brooding expression was replaced with one of ire. “I am trying to avoid the spell she casts, Aeron, until I know how to better fight it. Do not tell me you are unaffected.”

  Aeron sighed and shook his head. Then he walked over to the dresser to change out of his nightclothes, giving him a few moments to stew over what his brother had just said. He normally preferred to sleep in the nude, but given the dangers lurking in this realm, no, in this very house, he thought it best if he were decent in case he had to spring into immediate action as the events of the morning prior had proven. When he was dressed, he finally responded. “No, I am not unaffected.” He puffed out a long breath. “I do not think she has put us under any kind of spell, however.”

  Alak widened his eyes in disbelief. “No? You do not think perhaps she is part of that same darkness we have foreseen? I will ask our Godd—”

  “I already asked her,” Aeron interrupted.

  “And what did she say?”

  “Nothing.” Aeron shrugged. “She said absolutely nothing, but she did wear a very satisfied smile, as if she knew a secret, but wasn’t willing to share.”

  “What is she not telling us?”

  Aeron sat on the bed and faced his brother. “She doesn’t need to tell us what you and I already both know. What I am pretty certain I knew from the moment I laid eyes on Katrina.” Images of the feline beauty danced in his mind, from her long blonde hair framing her perfect heart-shaped face, her seductive, dark golden eyes, fierce expression, to her long shapely legs. There was no doubt she was a warrior, dominant and strong, but he saw a softness and vulnerability buried deep within her that most people probably missed.

  Alak stood, holding his hands fisted at his sides. “You cannot possibly think that stubborn, impolite temptress is our mate.”

  Aeron barked out a laugh. “You think the Fates would intend a docile female for us?”

  He received no reply. Instead, Aeron sat back and waited for the maelstrom of emotions to pass through his brother as he paced the room. He’d stop on occasion, open his mouth, shut it, and then resume his pacing, until finally his brother said, “She doesn’t even want us. I saw only contempt on her face.”

  “Perhaps it was confusion,” Aeron suggested, though he felt an unfamiliar emotion, akin to a punch to his gut at the possibility of her rejection. He’d never thought himself susceptible to these kinds of feelings. He was not a man without compassion, desires, and emotions, but he thought and led with only his mind and he had always figured he could override any matter of the heart with his head. He wasn’t so sure of that now.

  “We should leave,” Alak suddenly said, interrupting his thoughts. “We could work on unearthing this threat from our own realm.”

  “You know what our Goddess said, Alak. We cannot go.” Light and dark needed to work together if they had any chance of defeating this threat.

  “Then we must steer clear of the female for now. I’m not convinced she isn’t casting some sort of spell on us.”

  “Afraid of her, are you?” Aeron asked tauntingly.

  His brother harrumphed. “Though I am pretty sure she bites, I’m hardly afraid of a little kitten.”

  “Whatever you say, brother.” Aeron got up and strode past him out of the room. He told himself that he was going down to the kitchen in search of some breakfast, even if he had to make it himself in that beeping contraption, but not so in the back of his mind, he hoped to have a run-in with a certain statuesque kitty.

  He could try to stamp out seductive thoughts of her, like the ones that had occasionally crept into his mind over the course of the last month. He could try to fight the Fates and reject the woman they had deemed to be his and Alak’s mate, but why fight a battle that he so badly wanted to lose?

  Chapter Four

  “Welcome home, Beta.”

  Katrina turned from where she’d been standing head first in front of the fridge, to stare at the wolf Alpha who stood before her.

  She tilted her head in a way she knew was very catlike and stared at him, unblinking. “Alpha, you’re looking better than the last time I saw you.”

  She’d found it surprising at first to hear Braxas had exchanged blood with the wolf Alpha, but she shouldn’t have been. She’d known Braxas all her life, and the man never failed to help where and when he could. That created a slight problem though as now she was also Beta to a wolf. Something she never even thought possible.

  Gabe grinned at her and slapped a hand on his flat stomach. “Funny how a hole in your abdomen can ruin your day. What are you getting there, Kat, a little milk before starting your day?”

  Kat held up the glass in her hand and grinned. “Didn’t your mama ever tell you that milk
cures all that ails you?”

  Gabe grimaced, staring at the milk with a look of pure disdain. “Nah, I can see how it is for you felines, but for a wolf, there’s nothing a hunk of rare steak can’t fix.”

  Kat took a seat at the table and watched as the huge man moved around the kitchen with ease. It was clear he was preparing breakfast for more than just himself, which would make it easier for her to update all of them at once. Just then, Corrine walked into the room with the smile of a woman who knew she was loved, and had been recently. She was followed in by Braxas, who by the grin on his face, told her it had been very recently indeed.

  “Katrina,” Braxas said, and she could hear the relief in his tone.

  It surprised her when Braxas stepped in, pulled her out of her chair and embraced her. Kat patted him on the back awkwardly. It would appear the usually aloof cougar was picking up more habits from this wolf pack than she had expected. When he let her go, she was hugged by his mate. The Fae woman might have been smaller than Katrina, but she gave it her all when she hugged a person.

  “So good to have you home,” Corrine said as she pulled back smiling.

  Home? Kat wasn’t sure she knew where that was at the moment. Just then she caught the scent that had haunted her dreams for the last month. A second later, the doorway was filled with the image of the man who accompanied that scent. Or at least one of the two. He was huge and had to not only duck to clear the top of the door, but turn to get his impressive shoulders through the doorway. She had known it was Aeron before he’d even appeared. Most would know because he was clean-shaven, but for Kat, she would know by scent alone.

  As soon as her gaze locked with his, she felt her body react to his presence, just as it had the day they met. She had recognized the two as her mates, but there was no way in hell she would admit that. Not when neither of them seemed to be in a hurry to acknowledge the bond she’d felt locking into place that day, and especially not when she had no idea of what deciding to mate with two Fae warriors would do to her previously, perfectly laid out life. She hadn’t seen them coming, and Kat didn’t particularly like surprises.

  “Lady Katrina, it is good to see you have returned safely.”

  Damn it. Even his voice did things to her that were probably illegal in most places, she thought.

  His twin stepped into the room behind him, his goatee really the only thing that visually differentiated him from Aeron. That and the scowl that seemed to always grace his handsome face whenever he looked in her direction. She had to fight the urge to flip him off as she took her seat at the large kitchen table.

  “So,” Braxas said as he took the plate from Gabe, piled with food, and joined her and Corrine at the table. “You’re back, which means you’ve found something, so spill it.”

  Kat looked up at the two Dark Fae, who now held steaming cups of coffee and were staring at her. “You sure we can talk freely?”

  The tension in the room rose, but she didn’t drop her gaze. Both Aeron and Alak set down their cups, rising to their full heights.

  “Lady Katrina,” Aeron began, but was immediately cut off by his brother.

  “You think to cast shade on us? Aeron and I have done nothing but help you and your brethren. We do not pretend to be anything more than what we are and have been truthful and forthcoming from the moment we arrived in this realm. Nor have we used dark tactics to achieve some hidden goal. Can you say the same?”

  Kat stood slowly, allowing her anger to swell in her body. “That’s the second time you have accused me of employing some kind of dark magic. You want to accuse me of being something, then you had better be prepared to back it up.” She started to move around the table, ready to throw down with the surly gray bastard. She thought perhaps that might help to expel some of the pent-up energy just being around them stirred within her.

  “Sit down, Katrina,” Braxas snapped at her, and she froze, the essence of his dominance locking her in place. She frowned when she felt another forceful spirit fill the room. There were similarities to the dominance that would roll from her Alpha, but much stronger.

  “You do not speak to her in that tone,” Aeron growled as he wrapped his hand around Braxas’s throat. Kat had been looking right at him and Alak but never saw them move, but now that Aeron had Braxas, she was free of Braxas’s hold, and Alak stood in front of her.

  Protecting me?

  “What the ever loving fuck are you two assholes doing?” Gabe snarled as he, too, rose from the table.

  Fuck! This could escalate quickly.

  “It’s okay,” Kat whispered, reaching out to place a hand against Alak’s back. Kat felt him inhale sharply at her touch and thought she might be going crazy when she saw the tattoos visible on his arms and upper neck move against his skin.

  Stepping around him, keeping her hand on his back as she reached out to touch Aeron and saw the same reaction in him. “He is my Alpha, and I was being a bitch.”

  Aeron turned to level her with a stare, his unusual dark gray eyes locking gazes with her golden ones. “I do not care. You may speak to us how you wish. My brother however, needs to take greater care when he speaks to you, and no one, not even your Alpha will speak to you with disrespect.”

  She could feel the tension between the two brothers. Clearly, Alak did not like to be corrected by Aeron. His displeasure was written on his face, but he did not contradict Aeron’s statement.

  Braxas had been growling for the past few moments, but cut off abruptly. “I did not disrespect my Beta. Not that I need to justify my actions to either of you. Her role in my pard was earned the way it has been for generations. She fought and bled for it. But I will step in and discipline anyone in my pard when lines are crossed, and you will do well to remember that. Now take your fucking hand off me.”

  Kat knew that tone. When Braxas was about to go nuclear, he didn’t yell. His tone turned to steel. “Aeron, let him go. I have news, and I think you and Alak might be able to answer some of the questions it raises.”

  She reached out and took Aeron’s wrist, gently pulling it from Braxas’s throat and the room drew calmer when he let go and allowed her to tug him around to take a seat at the table beside her. Alak took the seat on her other side, but he still would not look at her and she did her best to ignore how right it felt to be between them.

  “Well,” Corrine began with a smile, cradling her coffee in her hands. “This has been an eventful start to the day. Kat, why don’t you carry on with what you wanted to tell us?”

  Kat nodded and picked up her glass. “The hyena I spoke to in Detroit had turned down Nyx’s request to go rogue and run with them. When I asked him why he turned them down, he eventually admitted that he was uncomfortable with the tactics they wanted to employ.”

  Gabe frowned. “That doesn’t sound right. Why would a hyena be uncomfortable with strong arm tactics? They live for that shit.”

  “His concern was more for the weapons they were planning on using,” Katrina said. “He wanted nothing to do with the stuff they were getting from their underworld Fae friends.” Kat saw Alak and Aeron both flinch. She turned to look at one then the other. “Do you know about this Fae underworld he talked about?”

  Aeron stared at her for a moment. “Were those his exact words?”

  Katrina closed her eyes for a moment as she thought back to that moment. “Not exactly. He said, and I quote, ‘the shit from the Underfae was full of black magic, and that shit will fuck a hyena up.’”

  “Ellunhiyk!” Alak spat out what sounded like a curse.

  “That explains a few things,” Aeron growled.

  Kat shot him a pointed look. “Well, share with the class, because it explains nothing for us.”

  Aeron dipped his head in acknowledgement. “As you wish. The day of the battle for your return, we encountered two things from our world that should not have been here. The cuffs they bound you with, which inhibited your shifting were one, and the second was the magic-infused blade used on Gabe. If thi
s Nyx and Zayden were in contact with Underfae then they would have access to weapons and magic that could create a problem for us.”

  “The Underfae are a scourge in our world,” Alak said in a tone filled with disgust. “We have long thought their numbers to be so few that they lived isolated from all others for survival, having been mostly wiped out in the last war.”

  Aeron pushed back from the table and stood. “We will need to travel back to this Dee-troit and find this man you talked to. I will want to read his mind and discover everything he might know of the Underfae. It is my hope he may know where to find them and their trading post.”

  Kat winced as she stood from the table. “Do you think you can find this place without him having to physically talk?”

  Aeron frowned. “It might be a little more difficult, but I can pull the thoughts from his mind.”

  “Good,” Kat replied as she carried her glass to the sink, “because when I cut out his tongue, I didn’t exactly leave him in any kind of state to talk … or breathe without medical assistance.”

  “You took his tongue?”

  She turned at Alak’s question to see him staring at her with a look in his eye she couldn’t quite read.

  Kat shrugged. “Yeah. Bastard thought to fight back when I was convincing him to tell me everything he knew. He made a mistake during the one moment he had the slight upper hand by stabbing me in the side, but he didn’t twist the blade for maximum damage. When I was pulling it out, he got a little handsy, then ran his tongue down my neck, and tried to bite me.”

  “That fucker tried to claim you?” Gabe snarled.

  Aeron and Alak both turned grayer, which she was coming to see as something that changed with their mood. If she had to hazard a guess what it might mean, she would have to say they were pissed.

  “I guess,” Kat replied in a bored tone. “Maybe he figured if I were bound to him I wouldn’t kill him? However, he attacked when my back was turned. He had no honor, and what kind of a dick tries to mark a girl in the middle of a fight? That’s messed up. I figured it would be more insulting for him to survive than to die. Cost me more than half the purse I won that night in damages to the owner of the bar and for payment to make sure that bastard was taken care of, which was a lot more upsetting.”