11. Chapter Eleven

When I woke up, I knew Landon was in the house, below me in the kitchen with Heath. After so long, I didn't really notice the werewolves with my territory magic unless they were doing something out of the ordinary, or I was purposefully watching out for them. Landon being in or around my home for the second time in a week was out of the ordinary.

The second thing I noticed was Heath's scent on the pillow next to mine. He'd come up at some point and laid down when he'd told me he wouldn't. I didn't know whether to feel elated about that or upset, so I decided to ignore it.

I showered before thinking about doing anything, taking my time to face the potentially angry second werewolf and son of my lover. Today, I knew I had to pay attention to him. Landon and I were easy enough around each other. I respected him, and he respected me. He trusted me with a couple of his secrets, and he was willing to help me if I needed it, but we were not really friends. Allies through his Alpha was probably the most apt way to look at it. He would never let me run off with his father without making sure I knew what I needed to help his father or to keep his father alive. I knew he disagreed with the relationship I had with Heath. He thought it was stupid and dangerous.

Maybe this would finally cross the line.

The running water in my shower kept me from hearing any conversations. I wished I could scrub out the fae magic. Waking up, knowing I'd made a fae bargain that could blow up in my face, left me feeling weirdly dirty. I remembered how it hooked into my heart and bound me.

I blow-dried my hair for speed once I was out of the shower, then dressed in something comfortable I could easily move in. While on Duty, I needed to be ready for violence at any time. That line of thinking made me grab my holster and my sidearm from the bedside table drawer.

I heard nothing from the werewolves in my kitchen as I walked out of my bedroom and went downstairs. They would know I could hear them and had stopped talking. Instead, I heard and focused on the rustling of plastic bags, ignoring the sleeping Fiona and Rian in the living room. Fiona's son had taken the floor as an adult son should, leaving the couch for his mother. I could hear what Hasan would say about that if he saw it.

Good boy, taking care of your mother.

I stopped when I could finally see into my kitchen and saw it wasn't only the werewolves. Dirk was with them, silently emptying bags from a local grocery store and stocking my home. Heath's nostrils flared, and he turned with a smile.

"Good morning," he murmured, coming to me. "You haven't been down as long as I thought you would be."

"You came to bed," I whispered, eyeing him.

"Landon knew I wouldn't sleep and came over so I could get some shuteye. He took Carey to Dirk and Oliver's. They watched her until the stores opened and Dirk could pick up supplies. Landon woke me, so he could help Oliver with Carey while Dirk went out."

"Where's Carey right now?"

"At the bar with Oliver. I wanted her out of my hair. She doesn't know what's going on except that you were called to Duty as she had once done to you."

"You're keeping us apart," I said, knowing he was dancing around that.

"I don't want you to have to decide between saving Carey or saving Fiona," Heath said, swallowing. "I don't want to be in that situation, either."

"There would be no decision. We'd save Carey and break the bargain with a fae king," I said, huffing. "Yeah, keeping her out of this is…definitely for the best, isn't it?"

"I can manage Carey," Landon said, coming up behind his father. I expected to see him angry and to say something pithy about the ill-fated relationship I had with Heath. Instead, his eyes were sharp, as if he was ready to go to war.

But not with me.

"Thank you," I whispered. "For helping."

"Anything for family," Landon said, nodding to me.

"Am I family? Are we finally at that point?" I was genuinely surprised, my mouth dropping open. Heath reached out and closed it, gracing me with a smile, then went back to helping Dirk.

"Yes, we are at that point. You are part of the pack, and you are part of the family," he said as he emptied another bag of groceries.

"I'm not a werewolf," I reminded him. He looked up and gave me his perfected blank stare.

"I would never dream of treating you like a werewolf. If I could, I would have already smacked you all around the county to keep you out of trouble."

"Landon," Heath said, his warning filled with humor. "Be nice."

"He is," I mumbled. That made everyone in the kitchen laugh. I jumped in to help them, and we got everything put away quickly. Fiona and Rian didn't move, our noise not even rousing them. Once everything was done, I looked out at them, frowning. "They must have been exhausted. I should have realized it last night. They've been running for their lives."

"We were taken off guard," Heath reminded me.

"It doesn't matter; I should have noticed. She's in my protection." I didn't bother trying to hide the touch of guilt I felt.

"I noticed," Heath said softly. When I gave him a sharp look, he continued, "After you went to bed, I'm the one who got them the blankets and pillows. They'll be fine. Fiona is human, but I think she understands this didn't happen the way things should. Normally, Duty doesn't need a fae bargain to hold it in place."

"A fae king would never leave anything to chance," Landon commented. "He's going to do anything in his power to keep what is his safe. So, he added another layer of protection."

"Dirk, do you know anything?" I asked, turning to my human, and he sighed heavily.

"Well, I could, but I would have to reach out to Niko. I know how to bargain. I've seen them pass through home, talking to Niko about things. He's the most outgoing of the family when it comes to other species. He told me how he had a fae as a lover for about twenty years, but it was well before I was born." Dirk pulled out his phone and put it on the counter. "You decide. Do I call him?"

"No, that wouldn't end well for us," I answered, only needing a moment to think about it. "He would have to tell someone else in the family, and it would get back to Hasan."

"Then Hasan, ruler of the werecats and member of the Tribunal, would join the fight," Heath said softly. "We've already discussed what happens if we go down that path."

"We have," I agreed. "This is just us. We make do with who and what we have. Luckily, Rian is a fae, so maybe he has some tricks up his sleeve if we need them. He might be able to answer more questions." Although I didn't even know what to ask.

"He doesn't even know his brother's name," Landon said with a growl of distaste. "He's as useful as far as I can throw him. Family doesn't hide from each other. Brion was a fool."

"Landon, let's not call an ancient fae king, first of the sidhe, a fool," Heath said, his words full of patience and an undercurrent of Alpha power—an order wrapped in the tone of a loving and indulgent father.

"What does that mean?" I asked, crossing my arms. "First of the sidhe?"

They all looked at me, but it was Heath who dared to ask the question.

"How much do you know about fae history?"

"Not enough and less than my father would have probably wanted me to go into the world with." I looked at Dirk, who shrugged.

"Not part of my education."

"Of course, and there's been no reason to break it down for you since we've met," Heath said with a heavy sigh. "I know some general facts about their ancient lore. It's required for an Alpha werewolf to have a basic understanding in case they ever find themselves dealing with the fae. Oberon and Titania are not sidhe. They're the parents of the sidhe, god-like beings who were once a couple. They had several children as they moved around, which created terms like Irish fae and Scottish fae. Their children used to stay in the places where they were born...mostly. Brion is their firstborn, the first of the sidhe. For a time, he was alone, the only sidhe if you think about it before that name was even applied to their children."

"You should know the sidhe are the youngest but most powerful of the fae," Landon added.

"What?" I blinked.

"Brownies, trolls, goblins…all real. All fae," Landon said, shrugging. "But anything that comes from the fae lands is fae. So, that's what we call them."

"Like we're all technically human, but we're moon cursed humans, making us werecats and werewolves." I needed the real-world example from my own life.

"Very close," Heath agreed. "So, the sidhe are one type of fae, coming from the union of Oberon and Titania…and others. At some point, Oberon and Titania went their separate ways and found other lovers. Humans. Now, the royal family is specifically only the children from their union. The children they had separately with humans are what you could think of as clans. They each started a line of different powers. Those children are the ones you would think of as light and dark or summer and winter fae, whatever lore you wish to pull them from. Most people go with light and dark, but it's more complicated. I wouldn't recommend becoming a fae scholar at any point. Believe me, it would make your head explode."

"I mean, it sounds like it should be pretty simple. Royal family, clans."

"Interbreeding, loss of power in this world, bad mythologies from around the world," Landon said. "Added to that, only the purest of the fae from each clan really care about their clan and hold any power. Most of the sidhe have lost track of those bloodlines or are too weak to care anymore, and no one cares about those fall-offs and who they marry which it sounds as though Brion and his family were pretending to be."

"This is made more complicated by their lifespans and the realms they live in," Heath continued. "They're not from our world. They're from the fae realms, where time moves differently. I don't know how, but I once met a child fae at the Market with her parents. She wanted to meet her first werewolf, and after some discussion, her parents realized I wouldn't eat their child and let me. Three years later, I was back in the Market, and she was an old woman with grandchildren. She saw me and asked if I could be the first werewolf they could meet." Heath had this distant, heartbroken look as he traveled through memories I hadn't heard yet.

"See, her family lived in one of the deepest fae realms. If they were in the Market, that meant they weren't law-abiding citizens. In my three years here, her entire life had passed. At first, I couldn't believe it was her. Her entire life, she had wondered if she would ever see me again. She had seen decades pass. She wasn't a long-lived sidhe. There was too much human in her blood and not enough power. That also made passing between the realms difficult. I never saw her or any of her family again."

"Oh…" I found one of my dining chairs and sank into it. "I see. So, Brion might be the first, but there are fae who are potentially…generations away from the origins of their clan."

"Hundreds of generations," Heath whispered. "And they've fallen through the cracks. Then there are those who have come here and lived their entire lives in our realm. These things are slippery with the fae. That's why you can't ask how old they are. Brion might be four thousand years old on our calendar, but how many centuries has he seen pass in the blink of one of our years while he resided in the fae realms?"

"Holy shit." I nodded. "And there are others, other fae."

"Yes. The sidhe rule what we know, as the children of Oberon and Titania, and they have the most connection to this realm, I think because many of them have a human origin, but no one really knows who and what rules on the other side and how. Most who go to the fae realms either don't come back or don't have the chance to explore to get those sorts of answers. It's a completely different world, Jacky, and we've only scratched the surface."

I kind of wanted to be sick.

"Father, you were telling me about Rian. Did that fae smell more human than him?"

"Definitely. If I knew him under other circumstances, I would say he's a pure fae, but not a royal fae," Heath answered. "He's not as pure as his father or Alvina and Oisin, but he's certainly not half-human. I've met a handful of the more powerful fae who follow their clans. He's like them."

"So, the more powerful the fae, the less the human means to them?" I asked, looking between the werewolves.

"It seems like it," Heath answered, shrugging. "Most clan fae are considered pure, even though there is one human in their origin. Oberon and Titania were so powerful, it left no humanity in them. They don't care about who their human side came from, only how close they are to the source of their power and which parent that was."

"Okay. Well, thanks for the crash course in fae…sidhe history," I corrected. "And the other types of fae…not our problem?"

"I don't know enough fae politics to tell you that," Heath answered, grimacing. "I wish I did. Maybe one of them knows, but…" He looked pointedly at our sleeping guests, then shook his head. "I think they're pretty useless at this point if they couldn't even name the very famous last son of Brion."

"I can't believe they didn't figure it out after all these years," Landon said, glaring in the same direction. "Though he's not the last son of Brion now, is he? And if they were visiting the Market, they would have never run into him."

"Because law-abiding fae don't go to the Market," I mumbled, more of a reminder to myself than to anyone else in the room. The Market, which I had yet to visit, was a pocket realm that served a particular purpose, like the Tribunal Chambers. It was originally a fae black market, but other species got involved, and it became an open secret. The fae weren't allowed to freely use it unless they wanted to break their own laws, but the Tribunal as a whole didn't discourage its use because it was too useful.

"What do we do now?" Dirk asked, looking between us.

"We go about our days," I answered. "Heath and I can't really go anywhere, which puts you two in charge of everything. Dirk, you'll be working with Oliver, and I'll call if I need something brought here."

"Landon, you know the protocol if your Alpha is unavailable," Heath said softly. "Go on, you two."

I watched them leave and had that feeling I couldn't describe. For some reason, I felt like I wouldn't see either of them for a while.