I stood in a storage room stacked with barrels and bags of barley. His scent led me into the main hall of the tavern. I didn’t have to guess where he was, following his foul aroma to the bar.
“You can come out, Gael, or I’ll drag you out.”
Suddenly, he popped up and threw a dagger at me before taking off for the front door. I swatted the dagger away and dove for him, tackling him to the floor.
“This is how you want to die, my lord?” I held him down with one hand wrapped around his throat. “Running and hiding. I should’ve known. You parade yourself around like a great cat, but you are nothing more than a tiny mouse.”
He struggled and kicked, trying to pry my hand free from his throat to no avail.
“You can have her,” he choked out.
I loosened my grip. “What did you say?”
He must not have heard the warning in my voice, for he prattled stupidly on.
“You can have her. Jessamine. She means nothing to me. You want to get some pups in her, I’m sure. She’s healthy for breeding. I’ll even throw in some coin. Just let me go.”
“She means nothing to you?” I struggled to keep from digging my claws into his throat.
“Nothing at all.”
I leaned forward, bearing my fangs. His eyes went wide as I growled, low and feral, “She means everything to me.” My grip tightened. His eyes bulged. “She isn’t a horse to be bred, you fucking bastard. She is my gods-given mate. My heart and my soul.”
A nearly silent step behind me was my only warning that someone approached. I rolled to the side, the blade of an auburn-haired guard clashed with the wooden floor of the tavern, barely missing Gael who scrambled away quickly. His broken wings dangling behind him, he limped for the door.
I picked up a table and threw it at the guard. He cried out as he tumbled to the ground with the table landing on its side on top of him. Leaping across the room, I leaned all of my weight on the table, pinning him to the floor. Using my tail, I dragged his sword on the floor to my hand and then plunged it into his stomach, straight through the wooden floor.
Wasting no time, I ran after Gael, finding him hobbling quickly back toward the fighting.
“Guards!” he cried out. “Help!”
I stalked after him. He came out of the alleyway, his breath dying in his throat as he called out again, “Guards!” He limped a few more steps and stopped, staring.
There was little sound coming from the battleground of Mevia’s town center. And I knew why. When I exited the alley, it was to find the town center empty of all the fae folk. The Mevian guards were all dead on the ground, and the beast fae warriors who’d joined me to save Jessamine stood over them, bloodied and whole. Not a single warrior had fallen.
Breathing hard, spattered with the red blood of our enemies, black-steel blades in hand, they stood facing Gael. Bezaliel, Leifkyn, Dayn, Brohm, Haslek and every warrior of the Vanglosa clan, as well as Behrvyne and Walgar with a party of each of theirown warriors. They all stood strong, our wolves surrounding them, staring at the last enemy to be put down.
“You see what happens,LordGael.”
He spun to face me, his eyes wide with fear.
“When you take what is not yours to take from the beast fae.”
He swallowed hard, glancing back at the line of beast fae warriors that stood taller than any moon fae, armed and ready should any more come barreling out from behind buildings. But I knew there would be no second assault. The people of Mevia were learning a valuable lesson. They were watching from behind closed doors and shuttered windows.
“You should not stir the beast that lives within us,” I called loud enough for those hiding in their homes and shops to hear me. “If you make us your enemy, you will die.”
That was all I had left to say. With two long strides, unsheathing the sword in the scabbard across my chest, I made quick work of Gael, severing his head from his body with one hard strike of my blade, my sword clinking against the stone beneath. Bezaliel met me halfway across the cobblestone courtyard, a granary sack in his hand. I dropped the still-dripping head of the moon fae lord of Mevia into the sack.
“Do we burn the bodies for them?” he asked me.
“No. This is as much their mess as it was their lord’s. They followed him. They can do the work of disposing of their own dead. Maybe that will let it sink in.”
“Let what sink in?” asked Behrvyne, now gathered near me with Walgar.
Behrvyne frowned as he looked at the buildings behind us. He had never been to a town in Lumeria, and he didn’t know what to expect of their people.
“That when they follow an evil lord, they are complicit in the seeds he sows.” I gestured to all of the fallen Mevian guards,every last one now dead. “This is as much their mess as it was their lord’s.” I pointed to the sack Bezaliel held in his fist.
