Spring's Wolf (A Court of Shifters Chronicles #2) Read online

  “Who has perfect manners?”

  “No one I know.” Lacey appeared transformed. The cold must have really gotten to her. I knew I would really enjoy keeping her warm. “Even if they like to pretend.”

  Gytha smiled. “And pretend many do. Now let’s sit down and then you can tell me what a group of Fae are doing in Icentris.”

  Lacey

  I reluctantly walked away from the fire. The whole room was warm, but even taking a few steps away from the heat source was hard. I’d been frozen to the bone, and I certainly had no interest in going back outside.

  “Let us sit and talk for a few minutes before we eat.” Gytha pulled out a chair next to Creighton and gestured for me to sit. I’d have preferred to sit next to anyone else, but I was a guest in Gytha’s house. Who was I to make a scene?

  “Eat?” James’ head shot up from where he was looking down at his hands.

  “Of course that’s what gets your attention.” Matilda rolled her eyes.

  “What?” He pressed his palms into the wood tabletop. “Is there something wrong with wanting to eat?”

  “Men and their stomachs,” she said under her breath.

  “Women get hungry too. Although I'm not hungry right now.” Wren’s stomach growled, as if to prove her wrong.

  James snickered but said nothing.

  “He’s going to be okay.” I knew Wren was worried about Frost, and I didn’t blame her. I wanted to come across as super positive and optimistic, but given the storm that was brewing I wasn’t feeling all that great about things.

  “You’re lying.” Wren called me out. “I always know when you are lying.”

  “Who is going to be okay?” Gytha took the spot at the end of the table beside Creighton. “Someone needs to start filling me in.”

  She was right. She had opened her home to us. We owed her an explanation. But that didn’t mean I was the one who wanted to give it.

  James looked up. “If no one else wants to start, I will. These are Fae.” He gestured to me, Wren, and Matilda separately, “As I am sure you deduced, but they are not of Energo. They are here because the Shadows slipped into their world and they are looking to protect their people. We are waiting for the rest of our group to return from a scouting mission. Those other members are a wolf from their world and Elron, the elf, that you may or may not know of.” James looked around. “Did I get it all?”

  “You forgot the part about Wren being the one behind the Chasms.” Creighton nodded toward Wren.

  I glared at him. Really?

  “You?” Gytha studied Wren. “You were behind them?”

  “I didn’t realize it. Honest.”

  “I am not casting any blame or commentary; I am merely surprised. I would not have picked a Fae to be behind it, but my guess is you are no ordinary Fae.” Gytha leaned forward on her elbows, as if trying to get a better view of Wren.

  “She and Lacey are Fae royalty,” Creighton added.

  I felt my scowl deepen. He’d been helpful on our way down, and he’d brought us to someplace warm. But then he had to go ruin it. The moment I was starting to feel better about Creighton, he had to spill everything?

  “And you are Spring?” Gytha smiled at me. “Am I correct?”

  “How did you know?”

  “Your aura.”

  “I have an aura?” That was news to me.

  “Yes.” Her smile remained. “A lovely one. I can see why my son is keen on you.”

  “Keen on me?”

  “Yes.” She tilted her head to the side. “There is no reason to pretend you have not noticed, or that the feelings are not mutual.”

  Wren laughed.

  I gave her a look. Did she really want to go there?

  “Mom, you are right.” Creighton shot me what had to have been an apologetic look. “Lacey is heir to Spring Court. Wren is heir to Winter Court. And Matilda is part of Spring Court. So, how about we focus on the bigger issues?”

  “You finding your future mate is a big issue.” Her smile slipped as her gaze moved to her son.

  “Mom.” He winced. “Just stop.”

  Mate? It took a few seconds for the words to set in. Uh, no. I wasn’t giving up my powers to be with some guy from another world. A frozen world at that. I didn’t care how hot he was, or how hard it was not to scoot closer to him.

  Matilda looked just as happy about the words as I did. “Lacey must make a very particular decision about mating as it will impact our entire court, but of course your son is a very nice specimen.”

  “Specimen?” Creighton raised an eyebrow.

  “Man.” Matilda went with a different term. “Is that preferred?”

  “You work for Lacey.” Gytha was not asking Matilda a question.

  “As I explained to your son, I work for the Spring Court, but my decision to be here was on my own volition. I fully support Lacey, but I will act in the best interest of the court.”

  “I was not implying it was bad. Merely acknowledging it. That protectiveness goes beyond duty though. You respect her.” Gytha seemed to be studying me. It made me incredibly uncomfortable, yet I wasn’t sure why. I was used to people watching me. That was part of the job when you were royalty, like it or not.

  “Yes. I do.” Matilda didn't hesitate with her answer. “Lacey has proven herself worthy of my respect. She’s earned it.”

  “As I respect Matilda.” I was tired of the implications. Yes. I was royalty, but that didn’t mean I was somehow better than Matilda in any way. I respected her, that wasn’t a lie. I especially respected her decision to come even though she absolutely didn’t need to. She could have been far safer waiting back home. At least I hoped it was safer back home. We didn’t really know what was going on back there. I wished we had some way to communicate.

  “I get you.” James rolled his shoulders back. “I am pretty much royalty too, yet I never let it get to my head.”

  “Pretty much?” Creighton laughed. “Is that what you are calling it?”

  “Wait.” Once again I was slow to the punch. I’d thought he was joking, but maybe not “You called yourself a Guardian, or something. You didn’t say you were royal.”

  “Yeah. What’s that about?” Wren leaned forward on her elbows.

  “He is taken, Wren, as are you. Calm down.” Creighton smirked.

  She frowned. “This isn’t about that, and you know it.”

  “My dad was a ruler. I was his son. Am his son, I guess death does not change a family line I suppose. But it was that kind of thing.” James looked away.

  “So, you were a prince?” I was being a hypocrite, and I knew it. I hated being asked these kinds of questions, but I was going to do it anyway. “Or are you a prince?”

  “The not a princess cares about whether he is a prince?” Creighton lightly pushed my arm.

  I enjoyed the friendly gesture far more than I should have. Any touch was intense with us. “I’m just curious. It’s a reminder we really don’t know him.”

  “He is trustworthy.” Gytha nodded at James. “You have not made a mistake following him.”

  “With all due respect, how do you know?” I tried to sound polite, but I didn’t know this woman either, why should I have trusted her assessment?

  “Because I am a good judge of people.” She lay her hands down on the table, palms up. “As are you. You were right to trust him, as you were right to trust Creighton. And you are right to trust me.”

  “But we don’t know each other.” That seemed to be the nature of things in my life at the moment.

  “Not yet.” She put one hand over the other. “But we will. We will come to know each other well. And then we will no no longer know each other at all. Such is the cycle of things.”

  Okay, she was a bit crazy. Nice, but crazy. “Okay.”

  “Is anyone hungry?” Gytha asked. “I know there is much more to talk about, but talk is easier after food.”

  “Yes, please.” James put a hand on his stomach. “I am starved.” />
  “I already knew you were.” Gytha smiled. “What about the rest of you?”

  “We haven’t eaten in a long while.” Wren was no longer pretending. “So we would appreciate anything you could spare.”

  “Spare?” Gytha laughed. “I could feed an army if I had to. I will pull something together.” She pushed back her chair, and I debated over whether I should offer to help. I didn’t want to be presumptuous either way.

  “Lacey, can you talk for a moment?” Creighton broke me from my internal debate.

  I eyed Gytha walking away. It was probably too late to offer now. “Aren’t we talking now?”

  “Alone.”

  “Why alone?” I watched Matilda follow Gytha into the kitchen. Was she offering to help? That wasn’t helping my argument that she was more than a servant.

  “Please.” He watched me, as if waiting for me to give him my attention.

  “I’m not going back out in the cold.” My teeth had finally stopped chattering.

  “I would never think of it.” He pushed his chair back. “We will stay inside.”

  “But I am also not going to your room.”

  “My room?” He appeared wounded. “I do not live with my mother!”

  “No. No he does not,” Gytha called from where she was cutting something up on the counter beside the stove. “But we have plenty of room.”

  “Okay.” I tried to understand his reaction. “I didn’t mean anything by it. I still live with my parents.”

  “In a castle.” He stood and walked around to the back of his chair. “Right?”

  “Yes, in a castle.” Were we really back to that again? “I’m not going to deny it.”

  “Nor should you. I am just pointing out that you living with your parents would be a tad bit different than if I was.”

  “Oh.” His reaction started to make some more sense, although I didn’t see why living with his mother was a bad thing. Plenty of unmated people did that where I was from. “Right.”

  “You can stop automatically arguing with everything I say. I am not always trying to cause trouble.”

  “Only most of the time.” I pushed back my chair, careful not to scuff the floor. “Did you still want to talk?”

  “In a hurry to get to be alone with me, huh?” He stood right beside my chair. I would either have to brush against him when I stood up, or I would have to get up the other way and avoid him.

  I got up the other way. “You wish.”

  “Maybe I do.” Creighton gripped the top of my chair.

  “Okay, let's get this over with.”

  “Hey, no playing coy now.” His eyes danced with amusement. It was too damn easy to get lost in those eyes.

  “Where are we going?” I wasn’t sure if I should have been going anywhere with this guy, but I couldn’t deny some excitement. Why? I was usually level-headed, and my response to him was anything but level-headed.

  “Just in the other room.” He said no more. Way to be descriptive.

  He led the way out of the kitchen and down a narrow hallway. The walls were lined with wood the same shade as the floor. I expected the rest of the home to appear that same way, but he stopped and led the way up a set of stairs. The top of the stairs led directly into a huge two-story room surrounded on all sides by windows. There was a large fire in the center of the room providing light and warmth. I immediately walked over to it.

  “Surprise. Surprise.” Creighton watched me from the doorway.

  “Hey. I’m a Spring Fae. I like staying warm.” Not that I had to explain myself at all, but it was a natural reaction. There were some parts of my personality I wished I could change.

  “But not hot.” He took a few steps into the room. “That would be summer.”

  “Exactly. Spring is that perfect in between.”

  “Unlike fall.” He moved closer.

  “Hey—” then I realized he was teasing. “Okay. I get it.”

  “You get it?”

  “Sometimes teasing is okay.” Sometimes it was fun, and sometimes I liked the attention that came with it. I was losing my mind.

  “Sometimes?”

  “Yeah. Like with that. It was funny.”

  “Wow. You are actually acknowledging it.”

  “I guess I am.” I looked into the fire, both because I loved the warmth on my face, and because I didn’t want him to see the small smile I could feel creeping on my face.

  “Progress.”

  “Didn’t you have something you wanted to talk to me about?”

  “Yes.” He came to stand directly beside me. “Us.”

  “Us?” I struggled to keep my voice level, but it was hard. So hard. “What is there about us that needs to be talked about?”

  “We both know exactly what I mean.”

  “Maybe you do…” I watched the flames dance. I’d always loved fire, the mix of colors, orange, red, yellow. It was more of a summer thing, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t enjoy it too. Cora couldn’t lay claim to everything.

  “You feel it.” He stood so close to me his shoulder brushed against mine. “You feel that pull. That need. Both deep inside you and on the surface. The pull that makes you feel amazing, but also makes you feel like you might drown.”

  I shook my head. He was describing exactly how I felt. Exactly. But there was no way I was admitting that to him.

  “Come on. No lying.”

  “Who says I’m lying?”

  “I do.” He took my chin in his hand. “You are a lot of things, Lacey. Let me rephrase that. You are good at a lot of things, but you are not a liar.”

  “How do you know what things I am good at?” I should have shook off his hand, but I couldn’t. I was too transfixed by his eyes.

  “Is this your way of fishing for compliments?”

  I shook my head. “I don’t fish for compliments. I don’t have confidence issues.”

  “Not that you should have any.” He looked me over again. “But I will give you compliments anyway. You are gorgeous.” He released my chin and ran his hand over my jawline. “You are intelligent.” His fingers moved over my cheek. “You are a good friend. You are careful, yet trusting. Just the right sort of mix.” He stared into my eyes for a moment. “And you are a good leader.”

  “And you know all those things?”

  “Yes.” He let his hand glide down to my neck. “Now it’s your turn.”

  “My turn?” It was hard to think straight while he touched me, especially on my neck. I wanted to close my eyes and soak in the sensation, but I knew that couldn’t lead anywhere good.

  “To tell me all the good things you already know about me.”

  I laughed.

  “Ouch.” He mimicked a chest wound.

  “Sorry. No. I mean there are plenty of good things about you.”

  “I am listening.”

  “I’m sure you realize you are attractive.” There was no way he didn’t realize that, and there was no way I was the first woman to realize it.

  “Oh?” His lips opened into a sly grin. “I had no idea.”

  “Stop.”

  “I thought you liked teasing now.”

  “Moderation. Everything in moderation.” Well, most things in moderation. I didn’t want him in moderation. And that was a major problem.

  “Oh, you are one of those.”

  “One of those?” I wanted to look away from him, but I couldn’t. My eyes were locked on him.

  “Yeah, who wants to keep everything in line.”

  “Believe it or not, I do know how to have fun.” Not as much as some people, but I knew how and when to let loose.

  “I bet you do.” He grabbed my hand in a nonchalant way. “But that does not get you out of finding something else other than my appearance that you like.”

  “You are helpful. You saved me from getting hurt out there.” It was so hard to concentrate with him holding my hand. Every contact was intense. “And you respect your mother. That’s important.”

  �
��And?” He gestured for me to keep going.

  “And? I need to say more?”

  “No. I am just—”

  “Don’t say it,” I cut him off. “Teasing.”

  “Will you admit you feel it?”

  “I feel something, but I’m choosing not to read into it.” I couldn’t read into it. The implications were too huge.

  “Why?”

  “Because there are far more important things to concern ourselves with right now.”

  “There are many things to concern ourselves with. I cannot agree they are more important.” He took my other hand in his. I should have stopped him, but I didn’t. It felt too good. Too natural.

  “The safety of my people, and yours, and everyone else's is important.”

  “You really are not concerned about yourself, are you?” He studied me. “I mean, you truly care about your people more than yourself.”

  “Yes.” My answer came immediately. “Of course I do. That’s what a ruler is supposed to do.”

  “Yes, but many take a different approach.”

  “It sounds like you are speaking from experience.” Was he hiding a secret like James was?

  “As I said before, I know all about complicated.”

  “And is that what you are going to tell me?” I could have asked more about him, but for the time being I enjoyed the mystery. It made things seem less real. “What you wanted to talk about?”

  “I already told you what I wanted to talk about.”

  “Us?”

  “Yes, us. You make that sound small. It is anything but small.”

  “Compared to everything else.” Although nothing about who I chose to mate with was small. But who I chose to kiss? Or explore things with? That was an entirely different thing. The question is whether I could even consider a taste of Creighton without needing a whole lot more.

  “And we are back to that again.”

  “Because it’s true.” Because first things first. There was a lot on the line.

  He said nothing for a moment. “Are you the kind of person who needs someone to show you things before you believe them?”

  “No. I believe in magic and powers that one can never see.” There was much in life you couldn’t see with your eyes.