The Mating Destiny: Werewolves of Montana Book 7 Read online

  But she would not die with her back to this bastard. Emma ran and grabbed a lance, staring at him. Closer, closer.

  She threw it. It bounced off Maurice’s silver scales.

  He reared back his head, smoke pouring from his twin nostrils. So this was it. Felled by a dragon, all because she had dared to love the handsome prince.

  Life truly sucked at times.

  Suddenly a blast of pure blackness shot out of the air and struck Maurice in the chest. The dragon gasped and flew backwards.

  Another ball of black, woven with iridescent amber and white, slammed into the dragon. He roared and then plummeted to earth with a mighty crash. Emma hurried out of the way.

  A man materialized out of thin air. A tall, elegant man clad in a black tunic, with black leggings and black boots. He had long ice-blond hair, hard, brown eyes and a cynical look. Her heart raced and panic surged.

  Jaeden. The Dark Fae.

  Forget the insane Maurice. This Fae was far more dangerous, and he had warned he would return for them.

  As Alex flew down and landed in the courtyard, Emma raced toward him. She backed up to the injured dragon, and flung out her arms.

  “Don’t touch him,” she screamed as Jaeden advanced. “I’m the one you want.”

  “Relax, I’m not going to touch either of you. I’ve filled my quota of slaughter for today,” the Fae said with a cynical look.

  Jaeden withdrew a long silver sword from the sheath at his golden belt, and loped off Maurice’s head. He murmured a chant and the head vanished.

  “That will fetch a pretty price on the black market. Ogres believe dragon’s teeth are more potent than Viagra.”

  She lowered her arms, but watched him with wariness as Alex shifted back to Skin. She turned, saw the terrible wound on his side streaming blood. Nude, he licked his palm and slapped it over the injury, but it continued to bleed.

  “I’ll be okay, Em,” he told her. He glared at Jaeden. “Is that why you killed my cousin? For a trophy and money?”

  “No.” Jaeden looked down at the dead Maurice, blood streaming from where his head had been. “I would never allow him to kill my only daughter.”

  Emma stared, her pulse racing. Dear gods, it could not be true?

  “Oh, don’t think I’m a good person, Emma, because I saved you and your prince.” He glared at Alex, who looked as shocked as she felt. “I am a Dark Fae and will always remain as such.”

  “My…father? You can’t be my father!”

  “Search your memories, child, and you will know this is true.”

  A distant memory flickered. The man with the waist-length white-blond hair who had lifted her into his arms and laughed as they twirled around outside the cottage in the woods. Maybe she had pushed aside all those memories to justify her mother’s leaving him.

  She shook her head, frantic with grief and joy. A father, but one who was Dark Fae, and cruel. “Why did you save me now? You had me sold into sexual slavery!”

  “I bought you from those four scum who kidnapped you, not to sell you, but save you.” Jaeden drew himself up. “I trade in flesh, but willing flesh. And I vowed long ago that any Other of mixed blood would find refuge in my house.”

  “You call keeping us prisoner in the basement refuge?! You were going to sell those girls, Father.”

  “Was it a nasty basement?” he inquired.

  Emma went silent. It had actually been quite accommodating, but for the lack of sunlight.

  “I wanted my staff to believe the girls were being sold as virgins, so they would not assault them. I have ogres and Lupines who are always sampling the goods, so to speak. I was going to return the girls to their families, but you freed them first.”

  He aimed a severe look at Alex. “Your friends, Prince Alexander, have operated a profitable side business trafficking, or traffucking. They abduct half-blooded females and sell them as prostitutes. When they tried selling one to me, I made them a deal. I paid gold for all the girls they would sell so they would not find another purchaser. Then after a few days, I returned the girls, untouched, to their families, who keep them in hiding.”

  “That’s why Drust and Tristan didn’t want the brothel closed,” Alex murmured, looking at her. “Your father has been protecting the girls, not selling them.”

  Jaden turned to Emma. “I never would have allowed the one who purchased you to go through with despoiling you, Emma. I had instructed my guards to rush inside your room and break his kneecaps before any action began. And then I overheard you and Alexander talking.”

  “The camera in the room…” She looked at Alex. “It was off.”

  “Yes, but the listening device on the nightstand was not. Fae magick. It was glamoured as a lamp. When I overheard you talking, I realized you and Alex were meant to be together. I instructed my guards to allow you to escape.”

  It made no sense. “But you killed Simon!”

  Jaeden shrugged. “I had no choice. Simon stole from me. I do not allow such transgressions.”

  “You bastard,” Alex breathed. “You killed him in front of his daughter, the girl you were going to put on the auction block.”

  The Fae laughed and pushed a hand through the air, weaving silver runes that danced in the moonlight. “I had no intention of selling her. She was a bargaining chip to hold over Simon to keep him honest, which turned out to be a very bad idea. Simon was the one who actually mentioned selling her and splitting the profits. It was his idea. I suppose he had a last minute attack of conscience when he handed her over to you.”

  Alex growled deep, smoke pouring from his nostrils. “That still doesn’t excuse your threats to Emma or me. You have my ring.”

  “Oh. That.” Jaeden dug into the pocket of his tunic and removed a circlet of pure gold. He tossed it to Alex, who caught it with one hand. “Here.”

  Alex looked uncertain. “Why are you giving this back?”

  “I never meant to keep it. Take over your kingdom? Hardly. I have enough troubles of my own, running a brothel with Fae and Lupines who are too horny for their own good. I threatened both of you because the walls have ears, and I have a reputation to protect.”

  Jaeden stepped forward and took Emma’s chin in hand. His touch was warm, despite the dark magick swirling about him in a cloud. “You have your mother’s eyes. I loved her. It was not a good thing for either of us. She could not live without her people and my people could not accept my half-blood, nor a daughter of my half-blood.”

  He dropped his hand. “Never allow anyone to tell you how to live your life, Emma. Being a half-blood with a mind of your own is better than going through life as a mindless ghost, trying to gain acceptance you will never have. Power is everything.”

  “You’re wrong,” she said softly. “Love rules over power.”

  For a moment he looked haunted at her words. Then he blinked and his expression grew cynical and hard once more. “Love is for poets, not realists like me. Gold is better than love.”

  His gaze shot to Alex’s still-bleeding wound. “You have much to learn about temperance, young dragon. But my daughter will teach you. Her magick is pure and healing.”

  “I have no healing magick,” she protested.

  Jaeden took her hand and unfurled her clenched fingers like flower petals. He touched the center of her palm. “It remained hidden inside, for you courted the dragon. Now that your dragon has gone dormant, you may learn to tap into your Fae powers. Close your eyes and imagine a ball of pure, white energy.”

  Sucking in a breath, Emma did. She sensed no threat from this Fae, only patience and despite the darkness swirling about him, a flicker of long-lost concern.

  But for Alex, and Sabrina, she had not felt such concern in a very long time.

  Emma envisioned holding a ball of pure white light pulled out of her body, energy created from Fae magick.

  “Open your eyes,” Jaeden said softly.

  When she did, a ball of white glowed in her palms. It was small as a golf ball,
but she sensed its power.

  “Now, heal your dragon.”

  Emma sent the energy floating over to the wound on Alex’s belly. It sank into his skin. He gasped and went pale, and then the bleeding stopped. Alex lifted the cloth from his body.

  The wound had vanished.

  Jaden smiled, and the smile made him look younger and less cynical. “It was within you all this time, daughter. Your mother feared you embracing the darkness, as I had, and that is why she stressed you must be dragon.”

  Shadows danced in his brown eyes as he gazed into the distance. “If she had loved me enough and had been willing to stay with me, perhaps I would not have opened the brothel. I became a Dark Fae because my own people rejected me. Your mother loved me despite my dark side, but it was not enough. Perhaps there is hope yet for you, if your young prince is willing to stand up for you.”

  “I love her,” Alex said quietly. “I will never let her go, or abandon her.”

  “Then there may be a chance for both you.” Jaeden glanced at the closed courtyard door. “I must leave. Guards approach.”

  Her father touched her cheek once more. “Good-bye daughter. If you ever have need of me, call out to me and I shall be there. And do not hesitate to embrace your own Dark Fae self. It will call out the dragon.”

  He vanished before their eyes, not leaving a trace, not even smoke. Alex slid his arms around her as she finally released the emotions churning inside her. Emma cried as her prince embraced her, for the father she had never known and lost, and the mother who had abandoned him to darkness.

  She wondered if she would ever see him again and deep inside, suspected she would.

  Chapter 12

  An hour later, Alex’s former friends had been found hiding in the rose garden. The king himself had corralled them, and called for his guards to lock them up. It seemed they had been hiding there all along, turning themselves into large lizards in order to evade escape.

  That’s why Alex’s father had been absorbed in the garden, Emma realized. He was tracking down the criminals.

  Now she stood with Alex in the king’s formal meeting room. Both the king and queen were gathered in the throne room with all the couriers, awaiting the outcome of this meeting.

  And Alex’s decision.

  But first, justice must be addressed.

  Chains shackling their wrists and ankles, Vincente, Nils and Clayton stood before them as Alex and Emma sat at the large wood table where generations of Drakon royalty had made decisions affecting thousands. They awaited the arrival of the only one who could deliver true justice—the new Coldfire Wizard.

  Alex’s great-grandfather.

  Both the king and queen said this was Emma’s case and they prudently removed themselves from the process. Emma had been violated. Their fate rested in her hands, and she requested the wizard to deliver the final decision. Alex agreed.

  It weighed heavily on her shoulders as she clutched Alex’s hand. Two security guards, their weapons drawn, flanked the prisoners.

  Blue smoke filled the air. Drust appeared in the room’s center. A shiver raced down her spine. Alex’s great-grandfather resembled him with his piercing blue eyes, but Drust had a black beard and mustache, and power glowed around him in a white-blue aura.

  “I have come to deliver justice, as requested by King George and Queen Alyssa. Seeing these three are full-blooded dragons, former friends of the prince, the king and queen have asked my intervention for an impartial ruling of their fate. I have no vested interest in the outcome.”

  “That’s not true,” Vincente screamed. “Alex is your great-grandson!”

  “You have a point.” The Coldfire Wizard seemed to consider. “I shall consult with my mentor. Tristan!”

  The Silver Wizard appeared in a flash of silver smoke. “You rang?”

  “These dragons protest that I cannot deliver justice impartially because Alex is a decedent of my bloodline. I request your guidance.”

  Tristan sat cross-legged, floating in the air as if considering Drust’s dilemma. “The punishment must fit the crime, regardless of the bloodlines of the guardian and judge wizard. But dragons like these, who dishonor the good name of their clan, and beat upon another dragon simply because she is different do not deserve death.”

  All three prisoners sighed with apparent relief.

  “They deserve worse, for it is the only way they shall learn, either in this lifetime or the next.”

  Vincente paled considerably.

  “Unless the one who is wronged has a request.” Tristan looked kindly at Emma. “Do you?”

  Emma looked from Tristan to Drust. “I leave the decision in your wise hands.”

  Alex’s great-grandfather gave the faintest of smiles and nodded. “Yes. I have taken your advice into consideration, Tristan. Thank you for your guidance.”

  “That’s what a mentor is for. Now, if you no longer need me, Nikita has dinner waiting for me. Fresh rabbit in red wine sauce. My favorite. Has been my favorite for 800 years.” He winked at Emma, waved a hand and vanished.

  Emma looked at the three former friends of Alex’s and then at Drust.

  “It is my judgment that the three of you shall not die.” Power glowed around Drust, a blue-white pulsing magick that made him difficult to look upon. “No coldfire shall burn your innards. But you, pureblood dragons who boast of your heritage, shall know the humiliation of being lower than the lowest.”

  With a snap of his fingers, the trio vanished. Emma gasped.

  In their place were three small curly-tailed lizards. Tongues probing the air, they stood there.

  Drust waved another hand and the lizards vanished. She found the courage to speak.

  “Where did they go?”

  “I sent them into the forest, where they will remain for a hundred years or so. By then, they should have learned their lesson, the shame they brought upon their clan will be lifted and they can return to their families.”

  Shuddering, she wrapped her arms around herself. No way would she wish to offend this wizard, relation to Alex or not. But his gaze was kind as he looked down at her.

  “You care deeply for my great-grandson.”

  “Yes. I love him.”

  Alex squeezed her hand.

  “And you are a half-blood.”

  Irritated she scowled at Drust. “I’m a Fae and a dragon. Got a problem with that? Everyone else does but Alex.”

  “And that is what matters most.” Drust smiled, the facial gesture reassuring. “If you are to marry and mate with him, he must come first in your life, and you must come first in his. By bringing his friends before me to dispense justice for you, he has proven his worth to marry and mate with you.”

  Uncertain, she tried to gather her courage. “And what about me? What must I do?”

  “You already did it. You love him for who he is.”

  Then he grew stern. “But the outcome may not be as you desire. Are you willing to face the consequences of your union?”

  That sounded mighty grim. Emma drew in a deep breath. After living on the fringes of society for years, she wasn’t certain about continuing to embrace that lifestyle. But she loved Alex and wanted only him as her mate.

  “As long as Alex is willing, and as long as we’re together, I can handle whatever happens.”

  Alex nodded. “It’s fine with me too, Pops.”

  Drust sighed. “Will you quit calling me that?”

  Alex grinned. “No.”

  “Headstrong,” Drust murmured. He turned back to Emma. “You are a good Other, with a kind and pure heart. You will make an excellent mate for my great-grandson. You both have my blessing. But it is not my blessing you require.”

  “But that of my parents,” Alex said slowly. “Em and I will talk with them now.”

  Drust squeezed his shoulder. “All will work out as it must, son. Have courage and believe in yourself, and Emma.”

  In a puff of blue smoke, the Coldfire Wizard vanished. Emma exchanged glanc
es with Alex.

  “That was almost anticlimactic. I was expecting him to zap your former friends into turtles or make them vanish in a cloud of blue fire,” she murmured.

  “I am not a circus act,” a voice boomed from above.

  Alex laughed and pushed back his chair to stand. “Right, Pops.”

  A tiny bolt of blue current sailed through the air and hit Alex on the buttocks. He yelped and rubbed his bottom.

  Emma grinned. “Good shot!”

  “Thank you.”

  Her grin faded as Alex nodded at the door. Time to face the real music.

  The King and Queen, who would decide their fate.

  Alex gripped her hand as they entered the enormous throne room. Never had he felt more determined. Or scared.

  In all his 150 years, he’d been spoiled. Always treated with privilege, carelessly assuming because he was Crown Prince, everything would go his way. And then he met a half-blood who turned his world upside down and made him see life in a new light.

  He needed her by his side now as he walked down the steps of the throne room and stood there, awaiting the announcement.

  “Crown Prince Alexander requests an audience,” the major domo boomed.

  Alex walked down the crimson and gold runway, courtiers lining the room. Besides him Emma held her head high, but her palm quivered a little.

  It will be okay, Em. I promise. As long as you are with me, I can conquer anything.

  He truly believed this.

  I love you, Alex. Even if you don’t show proper respect to your great-grandpops.

  He grinned and the tension slid from his shoulders. It would be okay.

  Sitting on twin thrones of pure silver on a raised dais, his mother and father were in full dress. His mother in a silver gown with diamonds sparkling on the hem and full sleeves. His father dressed in a silver tunic, with matching diamonds on the cuffs and a diamond belt. Two silver dragons, wings folded back, each stood on either side of the thrones. They bared teeth as Alex approached.

  His father’s sentries.

  Dropping her hand, Alex halted a few feet from the throne and bowed as Emma curtseyed. Her curtsey was perfect, not too low, but respectful.