Chapter 1
Mari shivered with the feeling of another body drawing closer to her. She could see the ripple of muscles as the extremely masculine form took another step closer. The air between them felt like it was charged with electricity.
She drew a slow breath and could feel his passion, tugging at every corner of her body. She had never experienced having someone look at her with such a pure desire before, dream or not, she was certain this was something new.
The man drew another step closer, his face ever in shadow, nearly closing the distance between them. The man seemed to simply embody the darkness around him, making it a part of himself. He was as close as they could be without touching. His chest was a fraction of an inch from her own.
Mari felt if she could just take a deep enough breath, she would feel her breasts brush against his smooth skin in the most delicious way. Every part of her body was aching to touch him. Or for him to touch her, or for any kind of release from the tension that was palpable between them.
He slowly raised a hand, moving to cup the side of her face, to draw her in for a kiss. The man moved slow and deliberately, as if he feared her touch. His hand was massive in comparison to her own.
As his skin brushed lightly against the side of her cheek and neck, Mari felt an immeasurable shiver run through her body and straight into her soul. With a flash of the purest white heat and desire, she felt her entire being truly awaken for the very first time as his lips inched closer to hers. She ached for him in the deepest way and could feel his need echoing back to her. Every fiber of her body crying out for his touch.
˜
“The Council will hear Mari Elwood on the matter of Kiln, the tiger, and his transgressions,” a clear voice rang out through the open, glass walled hall. Eyes shifted around the room and settled on a mess of white-blond hair at the back of the room. The large mass of curls hung over the woman’s face, obscuring much of her body from view, but the form remained unmoving other than drawing heavy, deep breaths. A few uncomfortable coughs slipped through the room.
The council leader on the dais frowned and looked up from his tablet, “Mari Elwood?” His voice boomed, sending a reverberating wave of power through the room with it that caused a visible shudder in the assembled crowd.
The pale, blond, mass of curls jerked up with a gasp, revealing a young woman who looked startled, and rather embarrassed as she flushed a deep shade of red. Her hand grasped at her neck with an odd expression crossing her face. Her otherworldly pale skin seemed to rouge the deepest shade possible from top down. Her bright violet eyes flickered around the room meeting the accusatory glares that met her with yet more embarrassed flushing.
“Yes! Uh, apologies. Coming,” she spouted awkwardly as she made her way through the crowd. She turned sideways attempting to slide through the crowded benches without bumping into other onlookers with her short, but curvy, body.
She felt a small flood of emotions as she passed by a few of the men in the row of seats she squeezed past. There was no good way to pass them in her mind. Either way front or back she was likely to feel their less than gentlemanly feelings projected loud and clear. She frowned for half a second before pushing the thought from her mind, front it would be. She squeezed passed the men, her ample chest the focus of several pairs of eyes.
Focusing on the task of reaching the podium kept her distracted enough to miss the confused and disapproving looks that were passed through the room between some of the female elders. There weren’t many in their area who understood the odd young woman. Her skill was something of a rarity after her mother passed.
Mari Elwood was a well-respected member of the Fae community despite her oddness. She was generally seen as one of the kindest beings that you could encounter, just very distant and a bit spacey at times. Not many understood that it was her own defenses against them that made her seem so odd.
She had soft, blond curls that always seemed to have a life of their own, cascading down to her thin waist. Her hair seemed to give her a rather frazzled and chaotic look even on its best days. She was beautiful, just had an aura of chaos and differentness around her that made it difficult for other Fae to get to know her well.
She was often called before the council to provide evidence incriminating or defending various creatures who were accused of bending or breaking the law. Typically, other empath’s readings could be challenged as their abilities could often be clouded, but the consensus was that if Mari had been party to an arrest and passed on her readings, her word was final.
She was known among those in her region as an incredibly strong empath, capable of picking up on even complex emotions. Despite her rather odd personality, she was not known to be the type to fall asleep on the job, let alone in the middle of a council meeting.
Mari approached the podium and drew a steadying breath before addressing the council before her. She had never enjoyed this part of her job. Standing up in front of a crowd took a tremendous amount of energy for her to not let everyone’s emotions wash over her. Mari understood the necessity, and knew that given her family’s role as a governing family, she was expected, if not required, to carry out this part of her responsibilities.
“Sir,” she said with a solemn bow, “I am here to provide evidence against the shifter in question. Kiln was approached by a team of enforcers after reports of a man who could turn into a tiger were circulated through the town of Gunnison. After questioning, I can attest that he did willfully deceive the enforcement team when they asked if he was the tiger in question. He was overcome with guilt, shame, and fear at being caught. He is guilty of both charges. Endangering exposure to humans, as well as giving a false statement.”
Small whispers were exchanged by a few of the onlookers, while the rest tried to respect the formality of the occasion. The council exchanged a few brief words, acknowledging Mari’s validity as evidence for passing judgement on the shifter. In all, there seemed to be a consensus that the tiger was most definitely guilty.
“Very well,” the head councilman announced in the same solemn voice. His long, thin grey hair hung in two sheets down the side of his face. His dark eyes surveyed the young woman with a perplexed look. He was reading her expression for a little longer than was warranted before he called for the other members of the team who had apprehended the tiger to come forth.
Mari met the councilman’s eyes and faltered for a moment as he gave her an encouraging smile. Confusion crossed her face, which had returned to its natural state of paleness. Her complexion was so white it was nearly translucent, patched with the lightest of freckles all over her body. Mari found it strange that he would break his usual stoic form in the middle of a meeting. It was rare her father showed anything even close to a smile during council meetings.
Mari waited quietly as the team recounted the details of the tiger’s arrest with a factual tone, including his abduction of a human witness, before they were all excused back to their seats without any additional questioning. The council conferred and the tiger was sentenced to having his powers stripped and being sent back to his clan for containment before the meeting was dismissed. Of their laws, risking exposure was one of the most serious. The removal of one’s supernatural powers, leaving the individual a bit like a shell of their former self, was one of the worst experiences that a shifter or Fae could endure.
After the formality of the meeting ended, the social atmosphere broke out. Voices rising as dozens of conversations started up. Bodies milled about the room as everyone began chatting, gossiping, and in general catching up on the latest rumors from the mountain region.
Mari met a few polite greetings with a quiet smile. She hated the council meetings. So many people all in one place. The whole process of shielding herself from so many people was simply exhausting. She was about to slip out of the exit when a hand stopped her gently on her arm.
“I know,” Mari said with a sigh as she turned to meet the head councilman’s inquisitive gaze, “I am sorry. It really was an accident, Father.” She knew the role of leading wore on her father, and she was growing used to seeing his age displayed in the faintest of lines of his face, and a faint shadow of exhaustion lingering behind his eyes all the time.
Her father’s face softened as he listened to Mari. Berengar Elwood still looked like a young man facially, but his once raven-black hair had faded to the lightest grey over the preceding years, and his eyes always seemed to show the deepest signs of his age. More wisdom and power stored behind them, but all just beneath the surface, like a storm brewing in their grey interiors.
“I don’t mean it like that at all, dear. It’s just not like you, and you seemed so out of sorts, but I couldn’t really tell what the matter was with all of this going on,” he mumbled with an absentminded gesture towards the room behind them. The sheer chaos that any council meeting brought to their family was undeniable and anyone with even latent telepathic abilities could feel the strain of it.
Mari inhaled as if trying to figure out how to accurately explain herself, but before she could finish a council woman approached, beckoning to her father. Mari gave him an apologetic smile as she moved to excuse herself.
“I’m just going to go lay down,” she whispered before brushing a quick kiss on his cheek.
Berengar frowned as she slipped out of the room, unable to get a good read on her, but his focus was quickly pulled away to intrusive questions by the woman, who had approached. He often worried over how much pressure was put on his daughter after his wife had passed, but he couldn’t do much about it in that moment.
Mari walked down the hall feeling the tension of being in a crowded room slip from her the further she got from all the people. She headed towards the door that led from the council hall to the courtyard, inhaling deeply as soon as she was outdoors. Nature always helped her feel better. Just inhaling the crisp mountain air was enough to start boosting her energy back up. She still felt drained, but Mari could feel herself grounded to the earth beneath her, energy reaching up from beneath the soil.
The Elwood family was one of the nine Fae families that were spread out through North America to help govern the local magical community. The region they were responsible for spanned across from the southern edge of Colorado where the Rocky Mountains began to the Pacific coast, and clear up into Canada. They had their home built high in the mountains of Colorado, nestled in a valley secluded from humans. The scenery was referred to as the Swiss Alps of North America.
Their home was more of a compound than a home, with an exterior wall patrolled by other Fae pledged to their family, and several buildings contained within. The main house, where the immediate family lived was a large modern home, with large windows and polished metal accents, separated from the council hall, shops, and other housing by a large courtyard with an intricate garden.
Mari loved her home, but it could, at times, feel like more of a prison than a home with the number of people always around and watching her every move. She was appreciating the time in the garden, attempting to collect her thoughts, as she made her way towards the main house.
Mari simply could not explain to her father why she was so drained. She had been spending all her energy blocking out everyone in the room, and keeping any prying minds out of her own, that she hadn’t even realized that she had slipped into such a deep sleep. The sleeping he may forgive, but under no circumstances could she possibly tell her father why she was so exhausted even before the meeting. How could she possibly explain such a dream to her father of all people?
Her hand reached up to the side of her face where the man had touched her in the dream. He had slid his hand so lightly across the skin there, as if she were made of glass and was going to shatter. Mari shivered, just with the thought of it, as her body tightened in response. The skin on her neck was hot to the touch, almost like she had been in the sun too long, but cool everywhere else. She sighed wistfully, looking up at the trees above her, as if they would give her the answers she was looking for.
Mari was enjoying her commune with the trees, though getting no answers, when a hand reached around her waist and shocked her out of her own thoughts. She gasped and jerked out of the hands with an indignant look.
“Fin!” She gasped in frustration as her mind made the connection with who had approached her. Her violet eyes narrowed at the tall, lean man before her. Arrogance rolled off him in waves, and it was oppressive for Mari to even be near him. How her father even remotely thought that he was a viable option for her to marry would never make sense to her. Fin was one of the four men that her father had chosen to court her, and was sadly, the least repellant of them all. He was at least close to her age, and Fin was attractive, the problem was he clearly knew it.
Fin’s pale blue eyes drifted down her small form, lingering far too long on the curve of her breasts above the fitted shirt she wore, before traveling down and back up again. The smirk pulling at the corners of his mouth betrayed enough of what he was thinking that even a human could have gathered the intention in his eyes. He looked at her the way a predator eyed down prey, his eyes full of unseemly intentions barely beneath the surface.
Mari could feel the shift in his emotions from arrogance, to lust, to a need to own and dominate. She stepped back at the physically revolting reaction that he caused. Mari mentally worked to shield herself from him, continuing her retreat as he continued stepping toward her, failing on both accounts as he continued closing in on her. She felt panic rising in her chest as his need to dominate seemed to roll over her as a need to consume her entirely.
“Please, I am really not in any kind of mood to talk right now. I’m tired, exhausted, and I just want to go sleep it off,” Mari pled with him, trying her best to stay polite. She couldn’t afford to offend Fin outright.
Fin’s family had influence. They weren’t a council family, but they were one of the highest-ranking families that defended the mountain region and Mari understood the importance of that. While she understood it, she didn’t like it. In fact, the very idea of him touching her in any intimate way made her want to run in the opposite direction as far and as fast as possible, but she had to at least give the impression of not spurning him outright, though that was becoming increasingly difficult.
“Hmmm, sounds like fun,” Fin purred in a low voice, trying again to close the gap between them, “I could join you.” He grinned as if his suggestion needed some sort of additional layer of creepiness added to it.
Mari wished dearly she could tell him that she knew his intentions loud and clear, and that she wasn’t interested. She could guess that someone as arrogant as he was would take strong offense to being rejected so quickly. Mari took a slow, deep breath to steady herself and remain calm. Fin was trying her patience, but, above all, she had dealt with enough awkwardness for one day.
“Hmmm, not so much. You’ll have to excuse me, I really do need to go lay down,” she said in a measured, polite voice trying to step to the side to go around him to the door that led the main residence.
Fin stepped to the side blocking her way with his large form. He towered over her by about a foot. He seemed to draw more confidence from that fact, enjoying the feeling of overpowering someone smaller than him.
Mari was short, as were most of the women of her family, and she had to look up at him to meet his eyes. Something about having to look so far up to him made her realize it just added to the feeling that he viewed her as an object to be dominated into submission.
Mari felt another wave of his domineering, frankly aggressive, intentions wash over her. With the level of exhaustion she was fighting, she couldn’t stop it from affecting her. She swayed slightly on her feet, as he extended his hand yet again for her waist and tried to pull her towards him. Mari’s face contorted in a look of revolt that she couldn’t help even if she had tried.
Before Mari could even piece what was happening together, her brother, Valentyn, was pulling her away, the large hulking form of her other brother, Magni, was behind him dwarfing Fin. If Mari had felt small compared to Fin, her brothers were another story all together.
The largest of her five brothers, Magni was formidable. Looking more like a human basketball player than anything else. He was lean and muscular, but could easily take someone the likes of Fin, if he had a mind to. They weren’t quite as broad as some of the other shifters she’d seen but were deceptively powerful. Compared to the wiry frame that Fin presented, it would have hardly been a fair fight.
Mari’s brothers had inherited the physical traits that ran through their father’s bloodline, while Mari and their younger sister had gained the more sensitive traits from their Mother’s side of the family. Her brothers were exceptionally strong and had the fastest reflexes she’d ever seen. She was confident that Magni would be able to sort out the situation with Fin in some way.
“You need to be more careful with that one,” Val murmured, as he ushered her quickly out of the courtyard, with an arm protectively around her shoulders, “I don’t hear great things about him from some of the other women.”
She looked up at her brother’s dark eyes with a dry laugh as they entered their home. The benefit of dealing with her brothers was they didn’t even have any latent psychic or empath abilities. She didn’t have to worry about shielding herself from them, at least, she just ended up picking them up loud and clear. She could sense the true concern in her brother and it was reassuring that they looked out for her.
“You have no idea,” Mari sighed, as she attempted to release more of the tension that was weighing her down. She could tell Val was looking for an explanation why, and Mari sensed his need to know, but she just couldn’t handle him in that moment. Mari desperately needed to be alone, and if she was honest with herself, she wanted desperately to fall back asleep and see where that dream left off.
“Mar,” Val said with a tentative look as he let his arm fall, “You ok? You haven’t been yourself all day. Normally, you would be bouncing all over the place trying to catch up on the gossip. I know council meetings are hard, but you look like you’ve been running yourself ragged. Maybe we need to leave you here when we go out for the next assignment.” His eyes were searching hers, genuine concern there.
Mari loved her brothers dearly, and all five were equally protective, but Valentyn was probably the worst. He was closest to her in age, and they had always gotten along well. Even he had the idea that she was someone to be protected, though she had proven herself time and again out on assignments.
She desperately wished she could tell him the truth, but feared even he would think she was starting to go crazy. Mari knew that one of the biggest problems she had was simply not knowing what was wrong with her. The last thing she wanted to do was try and explain something she didn’t even understand, or something that felt intrinsically so wrong and right at the same time.