Mated to the Enemy

Chapter 15

— Danny —

A numbness came over me thinking about the tension that clamped down on my stomach as the presence crept closer to us. It wasn’t chasing, it didn’t have to. We were going exactly where it wanted us to go. I knew it as sure as a seed knew to grow when given water. It just was. And as much as I didn’t want to admit it, I wanted to go there too.

To Faery.

I could feel the pulse of magic as we drew near to the portal. It called to me, a siren’s song promising redemption, safety… and power.

Jet held me in his arms, and his gait was surprisingly smooth despite his rush to run away from what was coming. From what seemed inevitable. That was the thing about fae magic, it was disarming. My father wasn’t there at all, he was exactly where we were running towards… and I couldn’t let him have his way.

He abandoned me, what right did he have to force me to return to him now?

“You’re getting too close to the portal,” I warned Jet, though my conviction was as strong as a mouse facing the claws of an owl. Two warring sides within me tugging for control. I needed to join the magic of Faery, but I also needed to stay away from the very thing that my mother risked being a rogue with her own pack to avoid.

His grip on me tightened protectively. Jet continued to run, getting us closer and closer to the very evil he was trying to escape.

“He isn’t there,” I tried again to warn him, but my voice was meek if audible at all. Though, I knew Jet heard me, because any wolf with even an inkling of magic in their veins would be able to decipher my whispers. I continued, this time stronger, more assured at what I was coming to realize myself, “It’s a trap.”

Jet couldn’t help the adrenaline coursing through his veins, forcing him into fight or flight, but with nothing to fight… the only option for release was flight.

But that wasn’t the only option. My body told me that much as it stayed unmoving in his arms, frozen in panic with my mind darting between going to Faery and returning to the pack. Either way I was screwed. Either way I might die.

Return to the Blood Crest pack and be tried by the Lycan King, hoping that there are enough testimonials that she’d let me live. King Florance never wanted to be called a queen, and as alpha of the lycans that was her right to be called whatever the moon she wanted to. But, even though I left the community when I was eight, I knew as well as anyone that she was more harsh in her punishments than any medieval king before her. She struck fear into the hearts of every wolf pack in her territory, and no other lycan communities from around world messed with her without consequence.

My mom and me may have been rogues, but she still got news about the punishments for packs that got out of line. King Florance would rather send a team to kill off a pack’s alpha and beta if their rule got in the way of security against the fae. Better to have no pack at all and disperse to another pack to make it stronger than to have incompetency that risks the lives of all the wolf packs.

I was fae, what chance did I have for her to not think I was a risk?

Was going to Faery my best bet?

Jet seemed to think so, if not he believed that I belonged there more than here.

The magic of Faery was getting stronger the closer we got, and that confused me since I’d never felt this kind of power from the portals that were secured by witches before. Not that I ever got this close to one, but should Faery feel so strong when the portals were warded to keep the weaker fae from coming through?

Jet stopped abruptly, some of his senses returning to him despite the pulsing power surrounding us like a heavy net.

“A trap?” he questioned, and I wondered whether my words were only now registering.

“The fae,” I clarified. “He isn’t behind us, if he’s here at all.”

His voice was quiet as he thought out loud to himself, “It’s just like before.” His words were haunted. “Cowards,” he hissed with venom.

Ralph caught up to us, with Lauren at his side. A low growl rumbled from Lauren as he spotted us, Jet’s arms still tightly securing me to his bare chest. Jet’s eyes flashed, a sign his wolf was stirring below the surface, but only his fingers flexed their hold on me indicating his struggle to keep control of his more instinctual urges.

“Why’d we stop?” Ralph ignored the obvious tension between the two as they stood ridged facing off with one another.

Jet sniffed the air, and closed his eyes. His board shoulders rose slowly up and down with his calculated breathing.

“I should have known better,” Jet scolded himself. “The portal messes with our senses, the closer we get the more we can’t rely on them. Our instincts are influenced by our emotions, and the fae prey on that.”

“So, do the opposite,” Ralph suggested casually, unconcerned with our situation. His relaxed, cheerful manner almost convinced me that we weren’t in any danger at all, but it was a testament to his trust in his alpha. His trust in Jet.

Jet growled in frustration. “The opposite is going back the way we came… back to Blood Crest territory where the security, and scouts have been fortified by now.” He looked at Lauren accusingly, and he merely nodded his confirmation that his assessment was accurate. There would be more scouts, and we would be found by the Blood Crest pack if we went back. What was Lauren still doing here anyways? Keeping tabs on us? Keeping tabs on me…?

I was caught staring at Lauren’s amber eyes and the crease between his brow from glaring at Jet softened. And a grin crept up the side of his mouth knowing despite being in Jet’s arms, it was him that had my attention. He couldn’t know why for sure, but he had a big enough ego, from what I remember of our childhood, to think I felt whatever bond he trying to cultivate with me.

A warmth traveled up to my cheeks, and damn it if his charm wasn’t wiggling it’s way in. The first time he saw me since my fae nature was revealed he called me beautiful, and his eyes were full of wonder that made me squirm with discomfort. But, he was anything but repulsed by me, and what I was. Then the black intensity of Jet’s eyes reminded me of his first reaction to me. I shivered in his hold, and his grip on me faltered, loosening just a bit before his fingers dug into my thighs more tightly.

Then Lauren said the most unusual thing that made me question everything I thought I knew about him from when he used to bully me as a child, “What do you want to do?”

He wasn’t asking Jet. He wasn’t asking Ralph. He was asking me. What did I want to do. And something snapped around me breaking the frozen spell that kept me prone and numb. My muscles tensed, and I moved my arms up to wrap around Jet’s neck. My shoulders moved with me so he was forced to either adjust his grip on me to keep me in his arms, or release my legs, and change from carrying me to holding me against his chest. As my face came closer to his, he did what any male would do that thought they were mates, he allowed me to get closer by releasing me.

And when our breath mingled together, and his arms were holding me around my waist to keep our foreheads touching, I finally stared at him with determination to say, “Put me down.”

Lauren chuckled in the background, and I heard an umph of his air being knocked from his lungs. I assumed Ralph gave him a not-so-gentle reminder to keep his humor to himself.

My eyes were still locked on Jet’s and this close they were as gorgeous as the depths of the ocean, a dark deep blue. I could feel my pulse quicken as his arms slid to have his hands grip my hips. Keenly aware of the rip on the side of my jeans that he had once slipped those fingers into to push aside my panties and plunge into my core. Clenching my thighs I tried to keep my breathing steady as my body slid down his torso as he eased me down. Then the cold air of space between us sent a chill down my spine. I gulped. And his hands left me, and he stepped back with nothing but pure detachment in those orbs.

Right, I thought, that was what I should have expected from him. I was fae, after all, and other than getting back to the portal to get rid of me, he didn’t really think we were mates. He was probably like every other alpha and just couldn’t help his possessiveness until he remembered what I was.

I cleared my throat, and adjusted my damp shirt that had ridden up from being dragged across his firm chest as he put me down. And finally, I really had to think about what I wanted. Would he let me make that choice? Or was he just hoping I made the choice he wanted me to make? To choose to go back to Faery. That would be easier for him, wouldn’t it?

Easier for all of them, to let them go back, and for me to go to the portal by myself. That was the safest option for everyone. Jet was an Alpha, he could probably get out of trouble if he decided to mate with one of the wolves of the Blood Crest pack. I could face my father… and find out what kind of twisted he was for my mom to choose to be a rogue rather than have him find out he had a kid that took after the fae side of the gene pool.

“You should all go back,” I said finally, though I didn’t sound very sure of my decision.

Lauren objected first, “Not without you.” His protest was almost a whine, and it broke my heart to hear it. You’d think it would have annoyed me, but his scent wafted in my nose and I swayed. What was he doing to me? I widened my stance and held out my own hand to Jet’s quick reach from coming to stabilize me.

“Enough,” Jet commanded and his alpha aura seeped out of him tingling my skin, sending the hairs of my arms on edge. His eyes didn’t leave mine as he continued, “You plan on meeting up with the fae by yourself?” His tone was harsh, and I had to stop myself from flinching back. It was almost accusatory, and realization flooded me that perhaps they all thought I would betray them. I was fae, and I would meet up with my kind and slaughter them later when I’ve gathered more power.

I would never…

Blood drained from my face, leaving me cold.

Jet has suffered loss at the hands of the fae before, and he wouldn’t allow me to leave without guaranteeing I was safely behind the veil of Faery. I shook my head in denial of what he thought of me. I wasn’t born fae. I thought I was a wolf without power my whole life. I thought my dad must have been human.

He stepped forward, his aura imposing as he flashed his fangs to urge me to answer him.

I stuttered, “It’s safer for me to go alone back to Faery. Whatever fae is waiting for us near the portal is strong.” I didn’t have to tell them it was my father, I cringed in on myself, already feeling grimy. Not even having met the guy yet, and he was already making my life miserable. More so than when I thought my father was low life that abandoned his family. How the hell had my mom made me think she loved him, when she purposely kept us apart?

That was drama for another day, I thought.

Then I added, “Holden’s an ass, but I don’t think he’d kill you if you stepped down as alpha.”

Jet’s fists clenched and then he exploded, “You think I give a f**k about Holden?” His chest was heaving, and he slowly stepped closer to me like the predator he was.

“Jet,” Ralph warned, the worry clear in his voice. Whatever trust and carefree attitude he had vanished. That alone made me even more on edge.

Silence passed between them and I knew they must have been talking in mind-link, before Lauren interrupted the stale air with this own two-cents.

“Danny,” Lauren offered his hand to me, and I hadn’t even noticed that he was already at my side, ready to defend me. He was that fast, or I was that lost in the terror of what Jet was capable of. Would he kill me himself? But before I could accept or deny grabbing Lauren’s hand Jet’s hot breath was on my face, and his arm stretched out to the side gripping the offer with his claws. He had partially transformed, and a small trickle of blood dripped down Lauren’s arm.

They stayed there like that unmoving, frozen in the possibility of taking the conflict to the next level or letting go. The intensity of Jet’s aura bearing down on me didn’t give me much hope that this would resolve without both of them at each other’s necks. Lauren was the future beta of the Blood Crest pack, he would be strong. Stronger than most alpha’s of a smaller pack, or even rogues. Wolves gained more power from how big their packs were, and the Blood Crest pack was a large community.

Was Jet healed enough to hold his own?

Lauren was looking to me like I was his alpha, and waiting for my approval to proceed. I’d never experienced anyone, magical or otherwise, giving me so much power without actually having any power of my own. My courage grew with that control he’d given me, and a smile twisted my lips. I was fae, I reminded myself, no wonder this felt so visceral. My body hummed, enjoying that feeling of control.

Jet was still watching, and his frame towered over me.

“If you don’t agree with me going on my own, then I guess the only option is to take me back to the Blood Crest pack,” I told him, hoping that he understood I wouldn’t allow any of them to continue towards the portal and risk their lives against my father. There was no denying the power that my father had, and the dark intentions that he was more than willing to kill them all once they got close enough. I was only one life, and there was still a chance, even if it was as dim as a starless night, that the Moon Goddess would convince the Lycan King to spare me.