Chapter 7
THE SUN BEAT DOWN across the still lake as it began its descent into the late afternoon hours. Chaz floated on a raft a few feet from where Daphne sat on the edge of the dock, feet dangling in the cool water. A couple of families frolicked in the swimming area. Teenagers screamed and laughed as they dove from the sundecks.
The morning had passed in a fog of tension that he couldn’t figure out how to ease. He understood, more than Daphne realized, how hard it was to accept. If there had been a way to reverse the mating, he would have done it the second it happened. But now that he felt so deeply protective of her, as if they were cut from the same cloth, he bowed to tradition and when his father was ready to step down, he’d step up.
With Daphne.
But she fought the connection so hard that it made his bones ache.
Movement at the top of the hill caught his attention. Not only did he see Cosmo and his crew, but strolling down the path were his parents, his little brother, and Aron.
Fuck. He hadn’t expected anyone other than his father.
“Shit,” Chaz muttered, paddling his float toward the dock. “We’ve got company.”
“Who?” she asked, glancing over her shoulder.
“My parents, one of my brothers, and a guy I work with.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me?” her voice screeched a couple of octaves higher than normal.
“It gets worse.” He hoisted himself up on the dock, helping her to her feet. “Don’t look, but up on the hill, Cosmo and his buddies are watching and I’m fairly confident they’ve seen my tat and I’m sure they recognize my father.”
“Where is the nearest boulder? I want to crawl under it.”
“In this instance, I don’t blame you.” This is not how he wanted to introduce his mate to his family. To really make matters uncomfortable, his parents would know just by looking at him that he’d taken a mate.
He laced his fingers through hers and held on tight.
“Hey Mom, you look good.” Chaz used his free arm and pulled his mom in for a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek before shaking his father’s hand. “Dad, you on the other hand are looking a might rough around the edges.”
“Must be like looking into a mirror for you, son” his father said, with an arched brow, giving him a sideways glance.
“Daphne, I’d like you to meet my parents, Ellen and Titus.” Chaz pointed to the young man with white hair. “That over there is my baby brother, Drew, and the dude next to him is a buddy from work, Aron.”
“Nice to meet you,” Ellen said with wide smile, yanking her in for a hug. “I guess a welcome to the family is in order.”
Daphne coughed.
“Mom, don’t go there, please. It’s a difficult situation and I’ll explain later,” Chaz said, channeling only his parents.
“Sorry, I didn’t know,” his mom responded. “But really, considering how you’ve avoided this—”
“No one can avoid it, especially not a Ferguson,” his father said.
“Um, Chaz, why can I hear this entire conversation?” Daphne’s voice bellowed through his mind.
“What?” he asked out loud, staring at her.
“You heard me?” His mother stepped forward, cupping Daphne’s face. “And my husband?”
“I think I need to sit down,” Chaz said, tugging Daphne toward the picnic area.
“The Legend of the Princess and the Wolf,” Drew said with a snicker as he sat on the bench across from Chaz and Daphne. “Who would have thunk it.”
His father perched himself on the far end, keeping an eye on Cosmo, who had retreated to his front porch. Aron leaned against a tree and Chaz’s mother plopped herself down next to Daphne.
“How is it possible I could hear all of you?” Daphne asked, her eyes pleading with him for understanding.
“If you thought mating was crazy, you’re going to think this is utter lunacy.” Chaz took in a deep calming breath. He could handle a mate. He could even handle being next in line to lead all the wolves. But no way could he handle being the father of the royal bloodline of Fairies, essentially making him King.
“You’re freaking me out,” she whispered.
“Your story is thousands of years old,” his mother said, patting Daphne’s hand.
“My story?” Daphne asked with an arched brow.
“Stop beating around the bush and just tell the damn girl, because we’ve got other things to deal with,” his father said.
“The Fairies have a royal family that went into hiding after nearly being destroyed by a group of witches who believed a Fairy’s magic was unholy.” Chaz couldn’t believe he was actually sharing this ridiculous narrative. Many wolves believed it to be an old wives tale. A legend that would never come to fruition.
“Fairies?” Daphne blinked. “As in Tinkerbell?”
That caught a laugh from Drew. “No wings and they aren’t tiny. They have a special kind of magic that scared the witches many years ago and rumor has it that they sparkle rainbows with an electric field that looks like snow.”
Daphne closed her eyes, shaking her head, remembering how she watched their love making in the mirror, and the slow fog that lifted from her skin. “What does this have to do with me and hearing your voices?”
“Legend has it that the only way the Fairies could save the royals, was to send them here, making their powers dormant in human form.”
“But there are Fairies living here and I’ve heard they can use their magic,” Daphne said, her wide eyes searched his.
Chaz swallowed the thump in his throat. “The royals couldn’t live anywhere but in their castle. If they left, they lost their magic because it was so powerful. So, when they left for diplomatic reasons, with no way of protecting themselves, a group of witches started killing them. In order to save the Royals, and their bloodline, they sent them here, erasing their memory of who they are and we wolves have protected the Fairies for generations. The legend is that one day a wolf would mate with one of the royal descendants—”
“Not just any wolf and not just one of the royals,” Drew interrupted. “The prince of the all wolves and the princess of the Fairies.”
“Unbelievable,” Daphne whispered.
“The point is, this union will unlock the royals and their powers.” Chaz let out a long slow breath.
“You’re trying to tell me I’m some royal Fairy and you’re a real Prince?”
Chaz nodded.
“My parents are going to kill me, right after they kill all of you,” she muttered.
“Why is that?” his mother asked in that concerned, but dark tone that made him want to turn and run wild in the woods. “One of them is a fairy and their powers will be unlocked too. This is indeed a good thing.”
“Her parents are Havernites,” Chaz said. Might as well get it all out in the open.
“Oh, I see.” His mother clasped her hands in her lap.
“That’s a problem,” Drew said, placing his hands on the table, leaning over.
“The bigger problem is her great-grandfather is Albert Lee Jadenson.” Chaz took both Daphne’s hands into his and held her gaze. “It’s going to be okay. I promise.”
“You can’t promise that.” Her face had grown pale. “Can everyone hear me?”
He glanced at his parents, gauging their potential awareness. “Only if you project to them, which you’ll learn how to control, but you’ll be able to hear all internal conversations by all wolves and Fairies if you focus on them.”
“I think that will suck.”
“Legend has it that you will be able to turn that off and on.”
“I hate legends.”
“Your last name is Jadenson?” Chaz’s father moved from his perch, motioning toward Aron, who shifted positions.
Chaz glanced up the hill and frowned. Cosmo had been joined by three other wolves, making eight total.
“It’s Jade now. My great-grandmother changed it after her husband was murdered.” There was a thickness to her tone that indicated anger more than anything else.
“This is why you wanted the files?” his father asked, standing over him with his arms folded.
Even though Chaz was a grown man, his father had the ability to reduce him to a whining puppy with just a look. “Yes. I wanted to show Daphne the truth, since we mated.”
“That makes Daphne’s mother a Fairy and her father has dormant wolf blood His father took in a deep breath, puffing his chest out before releasing it in a low howl. “Daphne, I imagine this is overwhelming.”
“You have no idea,” she said.
His father knelt at the end of the table. “I don’t know what you’ve been told about your great-grandfather, but I can assure you, he was not murdered, but you’ll need to read those files and that will take some time and right now we don’t have it because I don’t know what those wolves up there have planned, but I don’t think it’s good.”
“Aron,” Chaz called. “Did you find anything on Cosmo?”
“Just that he’s a rogue leader and doesn’t like humans, but other than a few barroom brawls, we don’t have much on him. His mate on the other hand was accused of killing a human mate, but there wasn’t enough to charge her,” Aron said.
Chaz glanced toward Cosmo’s cabin. Their standoff had been what triggered his mating, though it would have happened anyway. Wolves don’t choose their mates, fate does, a hard, cold fact he knew now to be true. When you have two mated wolves go rogue, their offspring can create a large pack of wolves living by a different set of rules.
Knocking off any of the pack leaders of Crescent Moon would be a big coup for this group of bandits, but killing the Chief, or the Chief’s son, who just mated with a Princess, and together would produce a mixed wolf, with greater powers, that could potentially destroy all that the Twilight Council had been trying to protect.
“We’re outnumbered,” Chaz said.
“Not to mention we’ve got two humans with us.”
“Thought I was a Fairy,” Daphne said, sarcasm dripping off every syllable.
“She’s right. She can hear them if she focuses,” his mother said.
“No. We’re not using her like that. Besides, just because she can hear her mate’s family, doesn’t mean she’ll be able to hear Cosmo, much less keep from projecting back to them,” Chaz said.
“Don’t talk about me like I’m not sitting right next to you. I have no idea what half of this shit means, much less want anything to do with it, but if I can help prevent a crime or anyone’s death, then I’m going to try to listen to their projections.”
Chaz dropped his head to the table. This was an argument he’d never win. “Yes, dear.”