Mated to the Enemy

Chapter 13

— Danny —

The cold air whipped at my face as we ran in silence towards the portal to Faery. My chest tightened and I felt sick thinking about what I was. A fae. The very creatures responsible for the death of Jet’s mother. The glares, the growling, they all made sense now, and he was taking me straight back to the closest portal, where I belonged.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Ralph broke the silence. “Getting so close to the portal seems like running from one problem only to be stuck in another.”

“One is certain, and one is a possibility,” Jet corrected him.

There was no certainty that any fae were in the area, but it was a blood moon and that increased the risk that going near the portal could have you killed or captured by any powerful fae that decided to use the blood moon to get through the wards placed there by witches. There was a reason we’d escape the Blood Crest pack by heading this way. Any sane wolf would steer clear.

Jet and Ralph were relying on Holden to be sane… he was too hopped up on his power to let us go merely because there was a portal near by. We’d have to pray that he thought we would be smart enough not to go this way.

My nails dug into my palms as I ran. I was running away from my mom, from Christy, and my life. The grass was greener, and the trees became more dense as we continued. Even without those conditions I could feel magic in the air that told me we were getting closer to the portal. A tug within my gut pulled me forward, and I didn’t need Jet to lead me there because it was like Faery was calling to me.

I stopped.

Ralph passed before he noticed, and Jet peered around searching for the reason why I wasn’t moving any longer. Thinking the only reason I would stop was for danger.

My hands were shaking, and I turned them over in front of me staring like they weren’t my own.

Jet stalked the surrounding area, pacing on alert before he came to the conclusion that if there was a danger he couldn’t sense it, and it was best if we kept moving. He hovered over me, concern in those dark eyes when he could see that my limbs were shaking and my eyes were wide with fear.

I couldn’t shake the feeling.

He grabbed my shoulders to steady me, lowering his gaze to draw my attention to him.

“Danny, what am I missing?” He didn’t assume I was crazy, or that my fear was irrational. Jet thought that someone like me, a fae, might feel something about the dangers of the fae that might be in the area that he could not. I wish I could say that I was deserving of that courtesy, but I had no explanation for what was happening.

I was paralyzed.

It took effort to get the words to surface, but eventually my tongue moved to say, “We shouldn’t have come here.”

My vision clouded with a shadow emerging from a large split between tree roots, smoke and steam sizzled from the form and then its head snapped towards me. Those eyes were bright green, glowing… and I knew they were staring at me. But that couldn’t be possible, this was all in my head.

“Come to me daughter,” his voice was haunting, and his hand reached out for me before I was clawing at the arms that were holding me down. He can’t have me, I struggled and lashed out. No, no, no, I repeated. This wasn’t happening. Power radiated off of him, and I knew going to him was the farthest thing from what was best for me. Darkness surrounded his aura so thick that he might as well have been a shadow himself.

He called me his daughter, and as he held me down I could see the shadows clinging to me, infecting me.

“Danny!”

I blinked to see Jet pinning my arms above my head, and a drop of blood dampened my cheek as it rolled from his eyebrow off the tip of his nose. There was a gash, already knitting itself back together across his face. His breath heaved as he slowly released my hands. I lifted one to wipe the blood before it fell again, and he flinched, not knowing if I was going to attack him once more.

This wasn’t how I imagined finally shifting would turn out. That inside me was a monster, not a wolf. I turned my face away from him, and he cupped my cheeks to still me.

“Your eyes they lost their glow, like you were somewhere else. Where did you go?” He demanded, an intensity in his tone that made me well aware of the power he was holding back. I was new to being fae, he could have killed me in my state of delirium. Yet he didn’t.

“He’s coming for me,” I said defeated. It was just like my mom said, my dad was searching for me, but now that I saw what he was… I wanted nothing to do with him. All those thoughts about being abandoned, they were wrong. My mom was protecting me… from him. From a life with a creature that was so shrouded in shadow that there was hardly a man left to see.

Sensing people’s magic was always a gift of mine. I could see the aura of an alpha, or the power clinging to a witch or shifter… but what I saw on the thing that thought he was my father was magic like I never saw it before.

“Who is coming for you?” Jet urged.

I shook my head, and squeezed my eyes shut wishing not to see that thing again.

“Who?” He grabbed me, pulling me into his chest. “What did you see?” His voice was gentler now, as he stroked my hair and his body rocked a bit to soothe me from my shock.

“My father…”