Winter Wedding, стр. 20
“I’ve been doing a lot of reading,” she said with excitement as she shoved some of the books around. “I think the wolf that Aria’s maid saw was actually you.”
“Why do you say that?” He’d bombarded his head with half the books and papers on the table until it all gave him a killer headache. He had only one charge right now, and that was to keep his queen safe. He could leave the safety of the cabin, sealing her inside, but he knew her well enough to know she’d never forgive him for that.
“Look at this.” She opened a large book to an image of him as a wolf. “This is what she described.” She pushed that book aside and held up another painting. “That’s you.” She tapped the canvas with a nervous rattle. “And that’s the vase we had Norse in. It’s also the vase that Coral kept hidden that housed many of the Royal Fairies living on the farm today, including their father, Ralph.”
He took the painting in his shaky hands.
“The maid, who wasn’t killed, had someone paint this. It’s what she saw. What I don’t know is what exactly happened to the vase, but it doesn’t matter. Norse was tucked inside—”
“The maid,” Dayton finished her thought as he sat down. “That makes me one very old dude.”
Cheryl laughed. “We can either say you’re a few centuries old. Or a day old. Or just call you thirty-five and be done with it.”
“Whatever makes my Queen the happiest.”
“I’m not a queen,” she said softly as she lifted the image of them walking side by side on the farm. “Another large wolf has been added to this image, and it looks as though we are going to battle with it.”
“Any idea who he is?”
“He looks an awful lot like an old family friend, only twice the size.” She rested her hand on the table. “There’s one more thing.”
“What’s that?”
“I found another painting that shows this wolf taking off with two Wolfairy pups in its jaws.”
7
“Over my dead body.”
Cheryl curled her fingers around Dayton’s massive biceps. His anger ricocheted off the walls, pinging around the room in a fit of rage. Dust lined the inside of the cabin as if it had gone up in smoke and all that remained were the ashes. “It’s just a picture.”
“It’s more than that. It’s the potential future.” Dayton slammed his palm down on the table. It rattled the floor.
“The key word is potential.” She tugged at his arm, pulling him toward the sofa. A creamy stream of fairy dust floated from her body, covering his. She could only hope she wasn’t crushing the poor man again. “I’ve consumed every word of every book, random page, journal, and diary along with examining every image. They are changing constantly, which is both good and bad. We can’t get too hung up on what they show. What we need to worry about is what we’re not seeing.” She hadn’t been this excited since she’d gotten the lead in the school play.
Or maybe her first day on the job at the museum. She always enjoyed the discovery of new things. The thrill of immersing herself in a puzzle and finding the answers in a faraway land had been replaced with a deep hole when she thought she might not have a bigger role in her family.
Her pack.
The Royals.
And especially, the Wolfairies.
But that all changed when she mated with Dayton.
Oh boy. She just totally accepted that hook, line, and sinker. Rejecting him now would be more than a slap in the face.
It would bring him shame with his pack.
What pack did he belong to? By mating, if they weren’t members of the same pack, her allegiance would revert to his. Archaic and sexist, but that was tradition and while she would never stop being an independent woman, she did value the customs of her heritage.
“So, what you’re saying is we can prevent everything those images predict,” he said as he slumped back in the sofa. Dark circles lined his eyes. He carried the weight of the world on his shoulders. No matter how strong they were, he’d been roaming the land by himself for too long.
He needed his Queen.
Shit. She was totally drinking the Kool-Aid. The rush of knowledge made her drunk.
And stupid.
“That’s one way to look at it, but then we are constantly in prevention mode, which can end up being our demise. If we can figure out the things we’re not seeing, then maybe we can put an end to all those who seek us harm.”
“That would be a perfect world. And we’re never going to live in one of those, even when we handle this threat. There will always be someone who wants to hurt the Royal family, a Wolfairy, or even a member of our pack. The world is filled with—”
“Our pack?” She dropped her hand to his thigh. His thick muscle twitched under her touch. Desire, passion, and admiration filled her soul, overflowing into every crevice of her being. Chaz had described the mating process as standing on the railroad tracks and having a freight train running at a hundred miles an hour smash into you, only it doesn’t crush you, but takes you to a place you never thought existed.
Nico said it was like jumping from the top of the highest peak and free-falling, not caring if you splattered your guts all over the earth.
Drew’s experience had been a little different, since Norse had been living inside his fated, but he still said it was nothing he could have imagined.
While she had to admit all of what her brothers said was true, she wanted to put the brakes on. She wanted to talk to Gerri Wilder and get confirmation. It didn’t matter that Dayton had merged with Norse and carried Norse’s knowledge. That could still be some kind of