Winter Wedding, стр. 21
“Yes. Our pack.” He narrowed his eyes, staring at her as if she just asked the most ridiculous question known to wolf and man.
“I’m just asking because if we are fated, and since we sort of mated, I would belong to your pack, not mine.”
He had the nerve to laugh.
“Why is that funny?”
“The Crescent Moon Pack was charged with defending the Royal Fairies centuries ago. Aria was part wolf, and the pack was protecting their own.”
“Are you suggesting the pack knew Aria was a Wolfairy?” She waved her finger under his nose. “If she was really a Wolfairy.”
He reached out, grabbing her wrist. “Why do you question what you know is true?”
“I don’t know that to be the truth.”
He tapped the center of her chest. “Your heart knows. It’s your intellect that has you questioning what is right in front of you.” He pressed his forefinger against her lips. “I don’t know if anyone knew about Aria. But I read most of those books as well, and one of them discussed how the Royal sisters never left the castle, and it wasn’t just because they’d have no fairy magic to defend themselves from evil.”
She pushed his hand away. “The author of that book said that the sisters had a weird scent that wasn’t fairy and it wasn’t human.”
“It was the kind of putrid scent that scared others because they couldn’t place it. But it was rumored that Aria had to leave the castle once, and she shifted to a wolf.”
“Magic before she left the castle,” Cheryl said, doing her best to keep her voice filled with strength and conviction.
Dayton cocked his head, lowering his chin. “People had to explain the unexplainable because Wolfairies were not a known creature.”
“It was rare for a fairy to mate with other species except for humans.”
“And werewolves.”
“All right. So it’s very possible that Aria was a Wolfairy. But I have a hard time believing that my mom is a fairy and that me and my brothers are Wolfairies.” She held her palms toward the ceiling, staring at the specs of dust bursting from her pores on her command. “We know King Lear lied to his family and that visionary lied to the king.”
“They had to hide all of us, to protect us and the future. It’s that simple.”
“If it was that simple, then we wouldn’t be locked inside this cabin trying to figure it all out.” She rubbed her hands on her thighs, settling the dust down. As her mood changed, so did the kind of fairy dust that emitted from her body, and if she unleashed too much anger, the dust would take on a life of its own. “I had us locked in here, so I could study you. Find out why you were here, and I’m still not totally committed to believing you aren’t out to hurt my family.”
“You’ve seen me as a wolf.” He waved his hand, letting a trail of his fairy dust in the air. “And you’ve…whoa.” He jerked his hand back.
The fairy dust he’d created formed what looked like a portal into another land. Butterflies floated inside the portal. A lush green meadow appeared. Tall yellow, blue, red, and pink flowers waved in the slight breeze.
“What is that?” Cheryl asked, leaning forward to get a better look. “Are we having a vision?”
“I would say so. But is this of the past? The present? Or of the future?”
“Why don’t I get us some popcorn, and we can sit back and watch the show.” She’d seen her share of weird things in the last couple of weeks, so this seemed almost normal. “Oh, there we are.” His magnificent dark wolf form sauntered through the meadow. She walked beside him, nuzzling her snout into his shoulder. He turned his head and licked behind her ear in a protective, tender way.
“You’re beautiful in both forms. I love your white coat.”
“Pain in the ass to keep clean,” she mused. She had to admit they looked good together. She glanced at the man sitting next to her and sighed. “You’re not so bad yourself. This looks like the painting.”
In the vision, Dayton skidded to a stop and lowered his head, letting out a deep growl. Cheryl flanked to his left, taking the same stance.
“Can you see what has the back of our hair standing on edge?”
Pop!
Pop!
Dayton howled in pain as his body jerked inside the vision. Cheryl kept her snout low, inching forward, scraping her paw against the ground in an act of aggression. She stood in front of her injured king. She snapped her mouth twice before jumping out of the vision.
The dust fell to the floor and disappeared.
“Coral has had visions of you hurt.”
“Well, there you go. I get shot again.” He rubbed the side of his neck. “We need to be prepared that this is what will happen when the protective wrap dissolves. I need to give this information to Chaz.”
“We can’t communicate…”
Dayton swirled his finger. A twister of dust spun at high speed until a hole magically appeared to the outside world. “Chaz?” Dayton projected.
“Please don’t tell me you’ve been in contact with my brother and haven’t told me.” She scooched to the other side of the sofa. She breathed deeply through her mouth, exhaling through her nose. A wave of dark fairy dust puffed out of her nostrils and landed on Dayton’s exposed skin right under his ear.
“Ouch,” he said, covering his neck. “That hurts, and I really wish you would stop doing stuff like that.”
“And I wish you wouldn’t lie to me.”
“You were busy reading.”
“So not the point,” she said, pulling her hands back, forcing the dust elsewhere. Intuitively, she managed to control her emotions, which meant controlling the dust, which she now understood was an extension of herself. An organic component of all her emotions. All