Ronan

Ronan

The human village had none of Neela’s wild restlessness, her writhing tomcat energy.

It was dull and uneventful, filled with uninteresting people whose hair and eyes were mismatched but not distracting the way Neela’s were. Every last one of them scurried away when they saw me, displaying none of the tomcat’s fierce determination and courage.

I’d never given much thought to humans. A few dozen lived in Verda, and occasionally one popped up in the city streets, but I didn’t give them a second glance.

Until that night in the bar when Neela had taken me so by surprise. Part of her attraction had been her supreme humanness, the constant motion, the desire and emotions written plain across her face.

That sparked my curiosity. So I came here to investigate, to see if I’d been overlooking a source of pleasure and intrigue my entire life, but I was disappointed. Neela was different from all these humans, perhaps because of her fae nature mixed with her mortal upbringing, a mere fluke of circumstance.

Then she was there, right in front of me, standing in the human village.

I’d thrown her some shade, but she’d thrown it right back and then walked away, leaving me angry and aroused. Damn that female.

Thoughts of her followed me all the way home. When I finally reached my front door, a spellbird hovered patiently above the threshold. A letter, a piece of paper folded into a bird shape and spelled to fly to its intended recipient.

I put out my hand, and the spellbird landed gently on it and stopped moving. The spell was complete.

My heart rate picked up as I unfolded the paper.

Common fae are gathering outside the Rose Palace. Come fast.

Shit. Word had gotten out that the Floran Bracelet had been claimed and the last remaining descendent of House Flora had returned. Double shit.

I made my way to the Rose Palace, using the familiar moonways I’d walked so many times. Sebarah and I had spent so much time together. His palace was like my second home.

The guardian hedge caught me off guard. Sebarah had Ascended a few years back when I was only twenty, and to nobody’s surprise, he’d chosen to Ascend into Grower. He immediately got to work growing protective shrubbery around his family estate that would only part for family or welcome guests. Otherwise, it remained thick and thorny, impenetrable.

He’d spent months growing that hedge, imbuing it with the perfect mix of Grower magic and spells to get the right effect.

I’d been the one to come up with the name guardian hedge, and he loved it. He never got the flowers just right. He’d always wanted blooms that changed to reflect the visitor’s intent.

“You just want it to show red roses when Gabrelle visits,” I’d joked, and maybe I was right. But he never admitted to loving Gabrelle and never got that part of the plant working. The spellwork was too complex for him, and he didn’t want to engage a Weaver; he wanted it to be his personal masterpiece. So the blooms remained stubbornly small and pink and never changed.

When I arrived, the hedge was wide open, and fae were pouring through. The courtyard and the grass beyond were packed with a throng of fae, with tiny winged faeries fluttering overhead.

Neela appeared on a second-floor balcony, looking startled. Good, she was uncomfortable with the attention, so she wouldn’t seek it. Hopefully, she’d be stupid enough not to realize the common fae’s love could be her greatest weapon.

A cheer erupted at the sight of her, turning her confusion into a surprised smile.

Gabrelle appeared beside me, her black dress flawless. “This is an interesting turn of events,” she remarked mildly. If ever there was a time to show emotion or disappointment, this was it, but the beauty queen was her usual icy cold.

“We need to stop her.”

“Yes, but how?”

Leif and Dion soon found us. The four of us were among the tallest fae, not hard to spot in a crowd, and Dion’s long curly hair was bright orange today, making him even more distinct.

“Orange juice after lunch, dude?” Leif asked.

Dion nodded. “The real question is, what will we do about this?”

The whoops and cheers continued, and when they died down, Neela, if she had any sense at all, would make a speech. Something about how pleased she was to see everybody, how glad she was to be back, and how much he looked forward to learning everything she could about Verda and leading it to a prosperous future. Blah, blah, blah.

“We need to distract her,” I whispered urgently.

Leif bounced up and down. “I’ve got this.” He bounded away into the crowd before I could grill him on his plan. He’d better come up with something decent—his strategies weren’t always foolproof. One time he’d tried to catch fish in our lake by blasting the latest Fanged Five album, and Seb and I had sneaked up on him and pushed him in. He didn’t catch anything but seaweed.

Leif’s silver head weaved through the crowd, then he let himself in the front door and moments later appeared on the second-floor balcony behind Neela. This was a rare moment when the wolf wasn’t bare-chested, and his light gray T-shirt and sweatpants, topped with his flowing silver hair, made him look like a glowing column of silver.

I knew that was her bedroom balcony, and the thought of Leif passing through her most intimate space made my teeth grind.

Neela turned around at his sudden appearance behind her, frowning, but he motioned her to return to the crowd and begin her speech.

“Hi, everyone,” she began, and I could see she had that sweet-curious newcomer vibe going on that the crowd would lap up. I hoped she would accidentally show her true brutal self, the determined bitch who never did as she was told—that would turn the common fae against her in an instant.

Hopefully, Leif had something good up his sleeve. She turned to him, distracted, and I scented her arousal from across the space. I knew that smell, human musk laced with vanilla, but that scent was for me only. Mine.

He was using his sexual magic to distract her, and it was working. She could barely string two sentences together, and she was losing the crowd fast.

It was a genius plan, and I fucking hated it. I hated her dilated pupils, her fluttering heart, and how she kept glancing over her shoulder at Leif.

“E-excuse me,” she stammered to the assembled fae and turned indoors, fisting Leif’s T-shirt and tugging him in behind her.

I roared. My fingernails drew blood from my palms, and I plunged into the crowd, scattering fae left and right. I sprinted indoors and swallowed the stairs three at a time, then burst into Neela’s bedroom with an angry bellow, expecting to find them entwined, embracing, passionate.

But they weren’t. Neela had clearly slapped Leif and was lecturing him to “piss off and leave me the hell alone.”

Her blue eyes blazed when I burst into the room. “You’re not welcome here either, princeling,” she spit at me, and I glanced at the space between their two bodies, my anger abating.

It wasn’t jealousy. No way. She could bang whoever she wanted as long as my buddies kept to our no-sex-among-the-heirs pact. She was an heir, so technically, she was part of the deal too, and I had to make sure Leif realized that.

That was definitely it. Nothing to do with the way her writhing ass had felt so damn perfect on my lap.