Prologue
NICO FERGUSON tapped on the wood door. His mother would have his wolf head served on a platter if she knew what he was doing just two days after his brother’s wedding and what it meant for his pack.
And for the world.
The Legend of the Princess and the Wolf, which unlocked the powers of the Royal Fairies, sealed Nico’s fate as protector of his brother’s family until the twins were born. A boy and a girl.
Wolfairies.
He shook his head at the name. Not a cool name for a brand-new species. This new being created by his brother, Chaz, the Alpha of the most powerful pack, and the dormant Fairy Princess, Daphne, was both revered and feared. Never before has a Royal Fairy mated with any other creature, and the mixture of power has created quite a stir in the paranormal world.
Other than the name, Nico couldn’t wait to see what a Wolfairy would be capable of.
He accepted his new role with pride. He’d do whatever it took to make sure no witch would repeat the history of the past, banishing the Royal Family.
But it didn’t mean he had to do it alone.
“Welcome, Nico,” Gerri Wilder said as she pulled open the back door. Gerri had matched his brother, Chaz, with Daphne, setting in motion a fate predicted many moons ago. If anyone could find him the perfect woman, preferably a wolf, it would be Gerri. “Come in.”
He followed the short woman with white hair down the hallway. He’d heard all sorts of stories about Gerri and how she could make any man blush.
“Sit,” she said, pointing to a chair in the living room.
“I have your word, you won’t tell my parents.”
She laughed. “I won’t need to after I’ve matched you. Tell me, what is it that you think you want?”
That was easy. “Someone who isn’t afraid of a little adventure. Likes to bend the rules but has a strong sense of duty to family.”
“That’s all fine, but what about in the bedroom?”
“About the same,” he said, trying to hold back the heat rising to his cheeks. He wasn’t going to tell this nice, old woman anything about his sex life. “Willing to try new things.”
She waved her finger. “But loyal to one.”
“Exactly. I do want love.”
Her lashes fluttered slowly over her eyes. “And I have the perfect match for you, her name is Isidore, and she’s a spunky little thing. Might even be too much for you to handle.”
“I doubt that,” he said, biting back a smirk.
Gerri handed him a piece of paper with a phone number.
“That’s it?”
She nodded. “I’ve known your family forever. I know your mates. This is yours, and it will be that magical mating that happened to your brother. She is your destiny.” Gerri leaned in, pressing her hands on the table. “But you must put your faith in the fact that she will be true to you, even when you think she’s not.”
“What?” He didn’t like the sound of that.
“Shoo.” Gerri waved her hand. “Go call Isidore, get things going.”
“But—”
“No buts. Go. I have another appointment.”
***
“You’ve not only disrespected your father, but our entire coven!”
Isidore Crowe waited for the bigger blow. The one that would give her a black eye. At twenty-one, the only reason she stayed at home was because of her little sister. As soon as Coral turned eighteen, and Isidore had enough money, she was taking her sister out of this hell hole. Her father would have no say once they were both of legal age.
And she wanted to make sure Coral came into her full powers before leaving. If they left before Coral’s Branding Ceremony, she could lose her powers altogether and when you come from the wickedest Warlock, you needed every piece of magic you could get your hands on.
“Do you have any idea what we are facing?” Her father towered over her with his hands planted on his hips, glaring. His orange eyes turned fire red. “You’re a warrior, start acting like one.”
“I never wanted to be one,” she muttered. “And I don’t hate fairies.”
“You’ve never met one, how do you know?” her father inched closer.
With all the courage she could gather, she lifted her chin. “Have you ever met a Royal Fairy? I mean, really, Dad, all this crap about how horrible their magic is, it’s ridiculous when you consider what our coven does half the time.”
He smacked her face with the back of his hand, sending her flying from the chair in the kitchen onto the floor. A sharp pain stabbed behind her eye.
“Your sister would never dare question me.”
That’s right, she wouldn’t. Coral was the good child. The happy one. She did as she was told, but only because she learned by watching what would happen if she didn’t. Isidore would take every slap to make sure her sister never had to know what it felt like to have a man lay their hands on her in anger.
“She understands the ugliness of fairies and our need to destroy them, and this new offspring.”
Actually, Coral didn’t believe that at all. She’d once confided in Isidore that she’d had a premonition that their coven had it all wrong, and this new creature would bring the paranormal world together. Isidore told her to keep her thoughts to herself and do her best to block out anyone who might look into her mind.
Those kinds of thoughts would get her killed.
Isidore rubbed her cheek, the pain now at a dull throb.
“Killing creatures, of any kind, is against the law of all covens,” she said, pulling herself from the floor, a wave of nausea making her legs wobble. Her coven hadn’t had a seat at the annual witch convention for over a hundred years because of their practices.
“You’re wrong.” He curled his long fingers around her biceps, squeezing until her skin turned white. “Our coven has the right to destroy this new species and ban the Royal Fairies. It’s been foreshadowed and tonight, at the ceremony, the one you missed, we chose the witch warrior who will kill the mother of the Wolfairy.”
She swallowed, hard. She hated the Coven of the Unseen Moon. A bunch of crazy witches who lived in the past and in fear of a creature that had never done anything to them.
Ever.
She couldn’t wait until she could turn her back on the whole thing. Other witches had left other covens, and some had formed ties with new ones, but even if she didn’t, anything would be better than this.
“Aren’t you going to ask me who?” He stood behind her, bending over her shoulder, his hot breath burning her swollen cheek.
“Who?” she said softly.
“You.”
“What!?” Her heart beat so fast she couldn’t breathe. A swirl of gray fog filled the room, blurring her sight. “Why me?”
“Did you think I wouldn’t know about your visit to the matchmaker?”
Her lungs deflated. She’d gone there a month ago and had yet to hear back. Gerri told her it might take a little time, but to be patient. She’d find her the perfect man.
The man that would help her and her sister out of this insane life and give her a fresh start.
That text had come earlier this morning and in three days, she’d planned on meeting her mate. He had no idea what she wanted him to help her with, but if was the man for her, then he’d do anything, because he loved her.
She had to believe this and have faith in her sister’s weak visions.
“What does that have to do with all of this?” She pressed her hands flat on the table for support, while she tried to blink away the double vision.
“The man you’re being set up with, Nico Ferguson.”
“How do you know his name?” She snapped her gaze in her father’s direction as he sat on the chair across from her with a sinister smile. She couldn’t remember a time, even when her mother had been alive, that her father showed her any kindness. In all her years, she could never do anything right, and when she turned fifteen, she’d stopped trying. The one time she tried to leave, he’d told her he’d hurt Coral in unspeakable ways.
Isidore believed him.
He’d taken his anger out on their mother, and she ended up killing herself. Another shameful act their coven didn’t take lightly, one that had taken him off the Coven Circle of Leaders. Her father, of course, blamed her and hence the hitting began. He used to apologize, but that didn’t last long. When her father had been reinstated on her sixteenth birthday, she thought maybe he’d stop.
He didn’t.
Reaching across the table, he cupped her chin with his thumb and forefinger, pinching hard. “Shouldn’t you be asking why his name is important?”
She held very still. “Why?”
“He’s the vehamante,” her father spoke in their ancient language.
“The protector,” she whispered. All through her training, they drilled into her head that the protector would lay down his life to make sure the offspring of the most powerful wolf Alpha and the Princess Fairy was born.
The elders also warned all the warriors that once the Wolfairy was conceived, the vehamente’s strength would triple, and he’d develop new powers no wolf had ever had before and not even the sharpest of seers could detect what they’d be.
“Yes. And you, my child, will kill him and the mother of the disgusting creature by the dawn of the Spring Fling.”
“You can’t make me,” she said, sucking in a deep breath, bracing herself.
He laughed. “If you don’t do it, I’ll kill your sister, and then I’ll hunt you down like an animal and bring you to the circle to be burned at the stake for her murder.”