Chapter 16

No sooner had Midas gotten out of sight of Hadley and Ambrose than a hard chuff raised his hackles.

Crimson magic flashed in the grass, and a man formed a dozen yards away.

The alpha who had sold him to the goblin hadn't aged a day, proof of his pure fae blood.

Blood Midas was all too eager to spill, if given half a chance.

"I thought you were dead." His tormentor chuckled. "Perhaps Natisha bred true after all."

Ferro strolled forward, his gold hair tangled around his shoulders, dressed in leather pants and a smile.

"Well?" Humor sparkled in his eyes. "Are you that afraid to face me as a man, halfling?"

Brimming with magic, Midas embraced the change and stood before Ferro in a wash of red power.

"You have grown up well." He inhaled in short pants, scenting him. "You're stronger than you look."

Thanks to the power loaned to him from Ambrose, that was true.

"What are you doing here?" Midas kept his tone neutral. "These aren't your lands."

"All lands are my lands if I say so," Ferro said merrily, "but I am here to await orders from Natisha."

"Here I thought you were the alpha." Midas shook his head. "Yet it is you who obeys her commands."

"You should have stayed dead." Ferro's cheek twitched. "Though now I will have the pleasure of selling you to the goblin twice. His fights have been lackluster without you. He will pay handsomely for your return." He glanced past Midas's shoulder. "Where is your sister? She was a lovely thing when I saw her last. I imagine she has only ripened with age. Perhaps I will put a pup in her. You are all mutts. What is one more?"

"She's an alpha now," Midas informed him, "and she would rip out your throat as soon as look at you."

"How you whet my appetite." Ferro moistened his lips. "I have a mate, but I could always use another." He gazed out over the field. "You smell of a woman, but she is not your kin. Have you brought your mate with you? Perhaps we could share her. If she can handle a real gwyllgi in her bed."

A veil of red filled Midas's vision, but he reined in the urge to lunge for Ferro's throat. "No."

"I don't require your permission. You hold no power here." He spread his hands. "I will see to you soon enough, but first I must fulfil my obligation to Natisha. She has promised me a city, and I must ready my pack for the hunt." He grinned. "Mortal flesh is tender, sweet. It has been too long since we last tasted it."

The city was already promised, to the coven, but Midas kept that tidbit to himself.

Natisha must plan on pitting them against each other and allowing the victor to claim what remained, if anything. He doubted she cared either way. She craved blood, not soil.

"I can't let you pass." Midas planted his feet. "You'll have to go through me."

"With pleasure." Ferro called upon his magic. "Though you still won't trick me into killing you."

Midas had learned the hard way that Ferro was as good as his word on that score. No matter how Midas had struggled, how he had taunted him, Ferro had remained jovial in his efforts to break him. Ferro had mastered the art of torture, and he was indifferent enough not to allow a whelp of a boy to cost him the pleasure of his fun. Any debt incurred to his pride was taken from Midas's hide.

Unsure how well it would work, Midas focused on his bond with Hadley and drew power into himself. He shifted in the blink of an eye, a fraction quicker than Ferro, which earned him a growl of approval from the alpha.

A short yip preceded several more figures who formed a loose circle around them.

The rest of the pack had come to watch their alpha dominate the boy he had already destroyed once.

With the others in place, Ferro instigated the spectacle, darting toward Midas with speed only another fae could match. The past flashed before Midas's eyes, and it was all he could do to get out of the way.

Teeth ripped into his ruff, hauling him through the dirt. The alpha spat him at the feet of the goblin, who rubbed his hands together with glee. The goblin kicked him in the ribs, marking how he took the hit, then beamed with pleasure.

"He'll do." The goblin tossed a bag of coins to Ferro. "He'll do indeed."

Ferro barked laughter the others echoed in a cackle like a clan of hyenas.

Their language wasn't the same as the one spoken by gwyllgi in Atlanta. His pack used a mishmash of warg and gwyllgi words, postures, and behaviors to convey their intent. But he had spent centuries with the goblin, and he had learned the gwyllgi tongue from taunts and jeers screamed down into the arena. He comprehended the language of the goblins, the orcs, and the trolls too.

So, when the pack yelped and barked at Midas, he heard the snipes for what they meant.

And he didn't care.

Not this time.

Not with his mate vulnerable while lost in concentration as she fought to get them home.

The petty threats and insults that cowed him as a child no longer bothered him. He had outgrown them. They, truly immortal beings, had not changed since he saw them last. They were bullies, cowards who followed a cruel alpha with relish out of boredom.

Any pack who would harm a child wasn't worth a second thought to Midas, and the beast within him agreed with a flex of its claws.

Tuning out the pack, Midas focused on Ferro, who wasted time playing to the crowd. The alpha was older, stronger, and faster, but he wasn't used to fighting for his life. His pack was too content, had grown too used to his sloppy leadership that depended not on his teeth and claws but his cunning.

Wheeling away from the cheering bays and stomped paws, Ferro charged Midas again. He must have expected Midas to flee, as he had when he was a boy. As he had moments ago when reminded of what he stood to lose if he failed this time. But Midas feinted left, allowing Ferro a growl of amusement, before he surged right, slamming his shoulder into the alpha's hip and knocking him sideways.

A stunned hush fell before the pack erupted into a chorus of howls calling for Midas's death.

Ferro required no encouragement to leap onto Midas's back and dig in with his claws. His breath hit the back of Midas's neck, but Midas rolled to dislodge Ferro before his teeth found purchase. They regained their feet in unison, both of them panting, each of them studying the other for weaknesses.

As Ferro bunched his muscles for a leap, a reddish-white blur smacked him in the face, and he skidded to a stunned halt with a shocked cry.

Adrenaline blurred Midas's surroundings, drummed in his ears, and saliva dripped down his chin. The fight raged within him, but his opponent had frozen on the field with a crimson smear across his cheek.

It cost him several precious seconds to understand what had hit Ferro.

Natisha's severed arm.

Searching the field for the culprit, he already knew who was behind the act.

"Fight somebody your own size," Hadley called from far too close for Midas's comfort. "Or do you only pick on little boys?" Her gaze touched Midas's. "Not that I'm implying you're little or a boy, but you were—" She exhaled. "You know what I mean."

Crimson magic churned, revealing Ferro's two-legged form as he pointed a damning finger. "You."

"You're looking a bit flush." She leaned forward. "Do you feel okay?"

"Where is Natisha?" Ferro's snarl was echoed by his surrounding pack. "What have you done?"

Ferro paced toward her, his fists tightening until his knuckles popped white against sun-kissed skin. Scars from the beatings he had delivered, to Midas and others too weak to defend against him, stood out in stark relief.

"Stand down," Midas ordered him. "I will not let you harm her."

A derisive snort escaped the alpha, who didn't bother turning. "You cannot stop me."

Midas found he was eager to prove his old tormenter wrong.

Leaping onto Ferro's back, Midas latched his teeth into the base of his neck. Blood poured into his mouth, metallic and sweet, brimming with old power.

With a curse, Ferro morphed his fingertips into razor-sharp claws he sank into Midas's throat.

"Midas," Hadley screamed. "No."

"Your mate will be mine," Ferro vowed to him. "She will pay for what you have done to my mother."

The wind left Midas's lungs as Ferro's words sank in. Natisha was his mother. That explained…a lot. Healthy packs deferred to their healers, in some instances, above their alphas. They were granted the next best thing to immunity from prosecution when their opinions ran counter to the alpha's decisions.

With her son a puppet alpha, his strings hers to pull, Natisha controlled the pack with full impunity.

Jaw gone slack with surprise, Midas lost his grip, and Ferro flung him to the ground.

The hypocrisy of Natisha holding a grudge against Archimedes for founding a pack using their daughters as breeding stock while she birthed a son to act as figurehead of a pack beneath her rule astounded him.

And it confused him.

Had Ferro been a steppingstone on her path to this moment? A loyal protector to watch her back in the present while she turned her eyes toward the future? Or was a son unable to activate her curse?

How many children had she birthed over centuries to refine the stock she used for her vengeance? What had become of the ones who failed her? Had the goblin done more business with Ferro? Did Natisha care?

"What about your sisters?" Hadley yelled, far too close. "Don't you care about them?"

"Sisters? They are dead and gone. The mutts Natisha escorted into the archive are but a means to an end. They are not the first, and they will not be the last, but they are not my kin."

"Oh snap." Hadley's eyes widened. "She was pregnant with you when her man ditched her?"

"Yes," he growled, advancing on Hadley. "I am all she has left in this world or any other."

Which explained why he was exempt from her wrath. She might even think, in some far corner of her mind, she was doing this for him too. For the son who never knew his father, only what his mother told him.

No wonder she left him in Faerie rather than bring him along to witness her glory.

The curse would kill him too.

A few laughed at Hadley, the noise rough in their canine throats, as they watched the drama unfold with the relish of starving men sitting down to a banquet.

Fools.

All of them.

She was the most dangerous thing on that field, and they had no clue. Part of him wished to shout it out, to rub it in their faces that his mate was as ferocious as any of them. But rational thought prevailed, and Midas let her tempt Ferro into another misstep.

The alpha had beaten Midas once, and he saw no reason why he wouldn't again. He was that confident.

No, he had his sights set on a different torment. He planned to take Hadley from Midas. She was a prize worth more to Ferro than a descendant of the man who turned his mother feral and hateful. He would beat her, use her, destroy her bit by bit, and make Midas watch.

Only then would he call the goblin to claim his reward. The goblin wouldn't mind if he had to nurse his prizefighter back to health before unleashing him in the ring.

A tremor of real fear zinged through him, that grim future easy to imagine, to remember. But he wasn't alone this time. Hadley was with him. He hadn't been left behind to fend for himself. His mate had come for him, without her swords, and without Ambrose. She had come with empty hands, and her bravery terrified him.

A boom exploded through the air, and the ground shook beneath their feet.

Hadley's gaze met his in a frantic plea for understanding, then shot back to Ferro twice as quick.

"I'm sorry your mom is a nutjob," Hadley sympathized. "Mine is too. Maybe we could start a club?"

Bellowing, Ferro let his magic splash out in a furious wave that propelled him toward her.

Midas ran full out, his strides eating ground, the grass tickling his stomach, and he craned his neck to snap his jaws closed on Ferro's left rear leg. Bone crunched in his mouth, and Ferro screamed, but he kept hobbling toward Hadley, quicker on three legs than he had any right to be.

"Oh, please." Hadley clucked her tongue. "You're the slowest possible death I've yet to experience." She met Midas's eyes. "What? It's true. I get almost killed all the time. I have standards. This guy's not meeting them."

The insult fueled Ferro's wrath, and he galloped toward her with renewed vigor.

Muscles burning, Midas chased him until his nose bumped Ferro's remaining hind leg. Lunging for the right rear leg, Midas bit down twice as hard and was rewarded with a decisive snap he felt on his tongue.

Infuriated, Ferro dragged himself toward Hadley using his front paws, his useless hind legs limp behind him.

He never once glanced back at Midas. He was too clever. He understood what Hadley represented and that to end her was to end Midas too. He was too keen on keeping Midas alive, especially now that the grudge was personal. For him. It always had been for Midas.

All this time, Midas allowed what happened to him in Faerie to shape the man he had become while the man responsible hadn't given him a second thought. Ferro sold him, collected his earnings, and moved on with his life.

It was past time Midas did the same.

As that understanding solidified in his head, Midas shifted back onto two legs. "You're not worth it."

Ferro didn't have the strength to shift again, yet, but it wouldn't take long.

"I can kill him for you, if you want." Hadley's offer rang with genuine truth. "I don't mind."

"You've taken over enough packs." He made his way to her. "I don't want this one following us home too."

"The Knoxville thing was not my fault." She linked her arm through his, her grip tighter than necessary, and she tugged on him. "I didn't mean to become their alpha. It just happened."

Together, they walked away from the ghosts of Midas's past.

The warmth of her body beside him, the smell of her hair on the breeze, grounded him in the present.

Leaning in, Hadley asked, "Are we out of sight?"

"Yes." He didn't have to turn back to hear Ferro's curses ringing behind them. "Why?"

"I wanted to give you a moment to savor triumphing over your past, but that boom? It was the portal going live. We have to book it if we want to get back to Atlanta. There's no guarantee how long it will hold since I designed it to collapse."

Her eyes said other things, conveyed her worry for him, for what he had done, what it had cost him.

"All the moment lacked were explosives rigged to blow up a convenient car behind me as I walked away, but this is Faerie, and I will never in my life forget his expression when you threw Natisha's arm in his face." Midas bent and kissed her cheek, her nose, her forehead. "Thanks for the production assistance."

"As you're so fond of reminding me, I watch a lot of movies. I wanted you to nail that mise-en-scène."

Each step carried him farther away from his past, broke shackles that had tied him there for centuries.

Hadley had done this, given him this, the strength to silence his guilty conscience once and for all time.

"Race you to the portal," she yelled, noticing his mood. "Last one there is a melted chocolate bar."

Happy to let her win, he smiled at her exuberance. "I don't mind losing."

The Faerie air was giving her a high, whether she realized it or not, the magic infectious.

"That's what all losers say."

"We both know if I were chocolate, and I melted, you would lick me up without batting an eye."

Pumping her legs harder, she yelled back, "I would lick you up even if you weren't chocolate."

The beast under his skin relished in the play and picked up her challenge. Fur brushed the undersides of his skin, prickling with his need to change and be wild in this untamed land, but he wanted to catch her in his arms and steal a kiss—a real kiss—as his prize for winning.

Throaty baying rose behind them, one voice louder than the others.

From the tenor of the song, a challenge to all who heard it, a new alpha was rising, but Midas didn't care.

A glowing circle swayed in grass burnt low with magic, and he pushed them harder to reach it.

"Wait," a voice yelled from behind him. "Alpha."

"You've got to be kidding me." Hadley shot him an incredulous look. "You didn't even kill that Ferro jerk."

"He's fae," Midas reminded her. "Defeating him in front of witnesses might have been enough."

Death might not be a requirement for a formal challenge leveled in Faerie. Alphas bested in battle could, but rarely did, choose to concede and accept banishment from pack lands. Since Midas had never meant to come back here, it wasn't a question he thought to ask. Or an answer he wanted, honestly.

"We have got to stop accidentally collecting packs like those pennies you stamp on vacation."

"Alpha," the man called again. "Wait."

"Ain't happening," Hadley yelled back at him then took Midas's hand. "You ready for this?"

"I was ready to leave Faerie before we got here."

"Good answer." Hadley locked gazes with Ambrose. "Go, go, go."

Hesitating one heartbeat, he clenched his hands, watched his fingers flex, then heaved a great sigh. He leapt into the circle, his expression pained, then disappeared from sight. As he vanished, Hadley staggered and gasped, clutching her chest and losing her rhythm.

"Why did you tell him to go without you?" Midas scooped her up without slowing. "That's suicide."

"He's corporeal," she panted. "He had to go through alone."

The trip through the archive and into Faerie had made Ambrose realer than he had been since the early days of his bond with Hadley. He must have been too solid to fit back inside her. That, or he still held too much magic to rejoin her without short-circuiting them both. Either way, Midas experienced a corresponding pang in his chest that began radiating through his limbs.

Locking his arms around Hadley's middle, he lifted her and made the leap.