Into the Fae

Chapter 3-1

Chapter 3

“If you are a villain, eventually there will come a day when you finally admit that you like the taste of all things evil. You like doing evil deeds, you take joy in others pain and you seriously struggle not to turn every i***t you meet into a beetle that you can then step on with a satisfying crunch. But when the day comes that you finally encounter an evil darker, and fouler than your own, the taste you so dearly cherished becomes bitter ash in the back of your throat.” ~Lorelle

“Why have you come to my home, Lorelle?” Volcan’s voice echoed off the cold stone walls. Lorelle looked around her, feeling vulnerable because she couldn’t see him and yet he could somehow see her. “I found myself in need of new lodgings,” she told him casually.

She heard his chuckle and knew the nonchalant tone in her voice hadn’t fooled him.

“Come now, it’s rude to be dishonest when you’re a guest.”

“Isn’t it always rude to be dishonest?” she asked.

“In the face of murder,” he let his words set in before he continued, “what’s a little dishonesty?”

Lorelle immediately pushed up mental walls to cloak her thoughts from the ancient fae. She hadn’t even considered that he might be able to read her mind. “If you already know the answers, then why even bother to ask me questions?”

“Perhaps I wanted to see if you would be honest with me.” There was another pause and then he finished with, “And perhaps I wanted to see if you could feel my presence.”

“How is it that you…,”

“Ah-ah,” he interrupted. “No more questions from you until you begin to answer my own. It seems the Fates have brought you to me. I cannot leave this place thanks to the Fae Council and their bloody binding spell.”

Lorelle chuckled but tried to quickly cover it with a cough.

“Is something amusing?” Volcan asked her.

“Well it’s just that you called it a bloody binding spell and I couldn’t help but find that ironic since it took blood for the spell to work,” she explained though her humor had dried up by the time she was done.

“Yes, well, I imagine your sister had something to do with that part of the spell. She was always quite powerful.”

Lorelle bristled under the praise of her sister and couldn’t believe that even after she’d killed the egotistical wench, she was still getting more accolades than her.

“Now, tell me the truth or I will rip it from your mind and it won’t be pleasant,” the voice of Volcan growled at her.

“Hence the whole ripping part,” Lorelle muttered.

He made an exasperated sound and Lorelle could almost picture in her mind the face he would be making.

“I guess I should start with hi, my name is Lorelle and I killed my sister.”

∞

Lucian stood outside of her door, his hand poised to knock. He hadn’t seen her since their encounter in the library and he was hungry for the sight of her, but something stopped him from knocking. Instead he stood there listening for her movements, and not for the first time feeling very unsure of himself. It was not a feeling he was used to and he found more and more that he did not like it.

“You are acclimating well to this environment,” a soothing voice came from behind him. He turned and knelt all in the same motion, bowing his head to his creator.

“Great Luna,” he rumbled.

“But for all your acclimation, you hesitate at the door of your true mate. Why?”

Lucian didn’t miss the reprimand in the Great Luna’s voice and fought the urge to cringe at the picture she painted. He, a dominate male, and an Alpha in his own right, stood like a scared pup outside the door of his mate instead of claiming what was his.

“She doesn’t fully understand the bond and I won’t push her before she is ready,” he explained and though it made sense to him, it sounded like an excuse as he said it out loud.

“Perhaps you aren’t giving her enough credit. Peri is a strong female, which is why I picked her for you. She has shouldered many burdens and dealt with much evil in her time. I have a feeling she is plenty up to the challenge of an Alpha male werewolf. Stand, Lucian,” she commanded gently.

Lucian rose from his position on the ground and looked at the Great Luna. His eyes met hers briefly but then dropped in humility. He decided to voice what he knew his creator already knew. “What if she doesn’t want me? What if she doesn’t want the mate bond?”

He felt her hand on his shoulder and her warmth, love and comfort from that simple touch.

“You aren’t asking the right questions. What you should be asking is what if she does?” She tilted his chin up so that he had to look at her. “I know that you were in the dark for a very long time and that has affected the wolf you are, but do not let it affect the man I created you to be. The struggles that you endure in your life can either chip away at the goodness inside of you, or they can cause you to grow stronger, fortifying your character. Don’t let that time in the Dark Forest ruin the good things I have in store for you. Don’t allow yourself to be robbed of joy because of fears that might never come to fruition. I made you wolf, I have a purpose for you but I cannot fulfill it. That is something only you can do. I gave you a true mate; now you must claim her. Love her as she needs, be the servant male that she has never known and watch the walls that she has built up around herself come crashing down only for you.”

Lucian stood there looking at the empty hallway for several minutes after the Great Luna’s departure. Her words struck something deep inside him and he felt his wolf stirring, answering his creator. He turned to look at the closed door he had been standing in front of full of indecision and saw it for what it was, a barrier between him and his mate. He was done with barriers.

∞

Peri paced the room checking the clock for the umpteenth time and growled in frustration when she realized that only three minutes had passed since she checked it last. It was only eleven o’clock, she still had a bloody hour until she would meet up with the others. She hadn’t seen or heard from Lucian, not that she had attempted to reach out to him through their bond, but it would have been nice if he had checked in on her.

“Oh hell,” she groaned as she sat with a gracelessness that was uncharacteristic of her race, on the edge of the bed. “I like him,” she admitted out loud, granted only she could hear her admission. That could be the only explanation to wanting to see him or hear from him. Well not the only, she conceded, but she refused to even give thought to the other four-letter L word. Liking him wasn’t the end of the world she decided. He was, after all, a nice male and nice to look at, that certainly didn’t hurt.

She had figured after their little interaction in the library he would seek her out, but to her surprise and irritation he hadn’t. He had said that he would go with her when she left, now she was beginning to wonder if maybe he had changed his mind. Just as she stood up to resume the pacing that seemed to be her tendency of late, the door knob on her door twisted until the lock in it popped and broke. Peri gathered her power but before she could strike out at the intruder Lucian walked in.

Peri’s breath caught in her throat as his eyes met hers. He was cloaked in his usual confidence but there was something more, something stronger seemed to shimmer on the edges of his being. He stalked towards her and didn’t stop until he had a strong arm around her waist and a large but tender hand held her chin still so she was forced to look at him. She could feel him in her mind, searching as his silver eyes stared into hers.

“You missed me,” he finally spoke. There was no smugness in his voice. He was merely stating what he had found when he used their bond and she didn’t deny it.

“Yes,” she told him.

“Why did you not seek me out?”

Peri’s lips parted but no words came out. What was she supposed to say? I’m too proud to admit that I need you, that I want you near me? And even as she thought the words, she realized they were true, and she felt so very ugly in that moment. Standing there in the arms of a man ready and willing to be whatever she needed of him and she hadn’t even had the courage to ask him how he was when all she had done was think of him nonstop.

“I don’t know how to do this,” she finally blurted out. She tried to look away but his hand held her captive.

“Do what?” He asked gently.

“This,” she indicated with her hand between them. “I don’t know how to be a mate. I’ve been number one in my life for thousands of years, and now suddenly there is someone else who has feelings I should consider.”

“So, you are saying that you are selfish?” A slight smile danced on his full lips. “We all are, but the beauty of having a mate is that they will love you regardless. I want you, even with all of your selfishness. With all of your ages of baggage, I want you. Do you want me? I know that you are unsure about doing the blood rites, and completing the bond, but in this moment looking at me, can you say that you want to be with me?”

“Yes,” Peri didn’t hesitate, what would be the point? She couldn’t lie to herself any longer and she was sick of denying the ache inside of her chest. She wanted Lucian. She didn’t know where it would go from here or how quickly she would let it progress, but she was done pushing him away.

He closed his eyes and let out a low, possessive growl as his arm around her pulled her more tightly against him, her body flush against his igniting a flame of desire in her that no other ever had, and she knew without a doubt ever would. “Finally.” His eyes snapped open and then his mouth was pressed to hers. Peri swore she could hear all of nature shouting, a chorus of angels singing and quite possibly even that Elvis guy from the grave singing that falling in love song, as Lucian, her mate claimed her lips, her heart and her soul. He deepened the kiss as he tilted her head to the side and her lips parted without a conscious thought. The sensuous stroke of his tongue on her own woke urges that she didn’t even realize she had. Peri felt her arms raise and her hands wrap around his neck, her fingers tunneling through the hair on the back of his head drawing a deep moan from him. She lost herself in him. All rational thoughts flew out the proverbial window as his hands gripped her hips. Holy hell, when had his hands made it there? He lifted her and she automatically wrapped her legs around his waist as he walked until her back was pressed to the wall.

Lucian pressed closer to his female, holding her effortlessly against the wall as he drank from her lips. Her scent was swirling around him calling to his wolf. He felt his canines lengthen and he had to be careful not to cut her as he kissed her. He needed to get control of himself, but as he felt her thighs tighten around him, he felt his resolve for that control slipping. He could have her here, now, she would give herself to him, he could feel it in her mind and his wolf urged him to claim her. Bite her, his wolf growled in his mind, she is ours, she should bear our mark. Lucian’s lips slid from hers down her jaw and neck to the tender place below her ear. He licked her and kissed her several times until Peri’s head fell back and she submitted to him. He stared at the spot calling out to him through a haze of lust, need, want and instinct. He felt a snarl rising in him as he fought his wolf for control as the thoughts of the man broke through. Not like this, he told the wolf.

“Lucian,” Peri’s needy voice helped clear his mind and he looked up from her neck into her pale green eyes.