Winter King

Chapter 3

3

Cade

I hadn’t expected movement in the middle of the night, but sure enough, the female human left her apartment building in a hurry just after four in the morning. She hugged a thin jacket over a tee and sweatpants. A second later, a taxi showed up and she boarded it.

Where in the freezing ice was she going at this time?

Regardless of my thoughts, I changed into my wolf form and followed her.

Just like I had done all day long.

Right after Mahaera told me how to save my people, I used my medallion to teleport to the human world. Mahaera had helped. She cast a spell over me, saying I would end up near the one I needed to save my court.

A selfless, pure-hearted human.

When she told me that, I scoffed. A selfless, pure-hearted human? Those were myths. They didn’t exist. But Mahaera assured me I just had to get near the human and I would know.

The moment I saw Amber leaving the restaurant after being fired, with her long, black hair whipping in the chilly wind and her bright green eyes looking up at the clear skies full of hope and wonder, I knew it was her. Not because she was absolutely stunning and I couldn’t take my eyes off her, but because the pull I felt deep in my core told me that she was the one I needed.

She was the only one who could save my people.

That idea only got stronger when I saw her stopping by a homeless man and giving her jacket and lunch to him. Then she'd walked around town in a thin sweater and later had just a coffee, as if that was enough to keep her healthy.

If that wasn’t selfless, then I didn’t know what was.

The taxi stopped in front of a pub. Amber got out of the car. “Wait here, please,” she said to the driver before running inside.

I shifted back into my fae form and clenched my fists. I had been to the human world a few times before, and I knew what happened inside these places. It wasn’t much different from the taverns in my fae realm, but I still didn’t like seeing Amber walking in there alone in the middle of the night.

I told myself it was just a natural protective feeling. What if something bad happened to her before she could save my land? I couldn’t allow that to happen.

So I started toward the pub, but she stepped out a moment later with another female draped around her shoulders, clearly too drunk to stand on her own.

“Come on, Kimberly,” she hissed between gritted teeth. Kimberly was taller than her, making it difficult for Amber to carry her. “Help me here, please.”

But Kimberly didn’t hear her, or she didn’t care. Amber continued bearing most of her friend’s weight, shuffling toward the taxi. Snow above, couldn’t the driver step out and help? What kind of manners were humans taught?

I started moving again when three men stepped out of the pub and surrounded Amber and her friend.

“Hey, pretty little thing,” one of them drawled. “How about you bring your friend and we go play?”

Amber’s arms tightened around Kimberly. “We’re fine.”

“Come on,” another one said, his voice even more slurred than the first guy. He tripped over his own feet as he reached for Amber. “It’ll be fun.”

Amber took a step back, almost falling down with Kimberly’s dead weight.

The third guy was right there, at her back, and he closed his hands around her shoulders. “We’ll show you a good time, pretty girl.”

Something vile, something powerful coursed through me. I wanted to ram into those men and shred them to pieces with my claws and teeth, but I didn’t want to scare Amber more than she already was.

Going for another tactic, I stopped just out of sight and channeled my magic. I sent ice to envelop those men's legs and arms, so they couldn’t move, so they couldn’t touch Amber without her permission.

The moment she realized she had an opening, Amber jolted forward, dragging her friend with her, and slid inside the taxi as fast as she could.

The taxi drove away while the men shouted at them.

“You frigid little b***h!” one of them hollered.

Like a predator, I stepped out of my hiding spot and stalked to the men.

“Having fun?” I asked.

The three men sneered at me. “Mind your own business,” one of them spat.

Well, Amber was my business.

I called on my magic, and more ice and frost rose, covering every inch of the men’s bodies. My will was to kill them, or to at least punch them until their teeth fell out, but I couldn’t risk it. The human world was too different than mine, and I had to try not to cause any problems here.

The men whimpered, trying to move and speak, but with my ice all over them, all they could do was bug out their eyes and make some sounds.

“Stay away from innocent women,” I told them through gritted teeth.

Then I walked away.

In about fifteen minutes, when they were close to hypothermia, the ice would melt away. The men would probably need to go to an ER, but after what they did, they deserved it.

I continued down the street with long, sure steps, though I wasn’t feeling so sure anymore. This was supposed to be a simple task: come to Earth, find the one with the pure heart, take her back to Wyth.

That was all I was supposed to do, and yet, here I was, walking back to Amber’s apartment to make sure she had gotten there all right.

“Snow above,” I cursed, tugging at my pants. These human clothes were too thick and tight. How was one supposed to walk and simply move in tight jeans and a fitted shirt?

Relief washed through me once I arrived at her building and saw the light of her apartment window come on. She walked in front of the window before closing the curtains.

She was safe.

For now.

From me.

But time was running out.