Page 28 of King of Forest and Fur

Despite last night and his desire to have her again and again, to keep her with him from now on, the thought of telling her the truth about being mated worried him. How would she react to the truth? She wasn’t a shifter, she didn’t have the same primal drive, and she could choose to leave him.

“Are you okay?” Leila asked. “You’ve been staring at that bacon as if it offended you.”

“Too much on my mind, I guess,” Rehn replied, then added a half-truth. “Idris and I have duties to attend to today, just lost in thought.”

He had indeed been lost in thought, just not the thoughts he described, and even those he kept vague. In truth, he and Idris would begin their investigation, obtaining samples of the local sorcerer’s work to determine if any of them were the man who aided Drystan’s insane ambitions.

Again, he was hiding things from his mate. It rankled his inner beast. The bear rumbling under his skin had no concept of concealment. He wanted nothing more than to share everything with his mate, damn the consequences. As much as Rehn wished for that, too, he dared not, not yet.

“I’d be happy to help,” Leila said.

“I promised to keep you safe and that is what I intend to do,” he replied. “You will remain here with Yaldred.”

As king, he was so used to people just accepting his commands, even his statements. Idris and Yaldred would call him out if he took things too far or if they thought he should reconsider, but few others. Leila looked as if she wanted to argue but she gave a slight nod, accepting.

After they finished their meal, Rehn stepped out of the room to allow Leila the opportunity to dress. Again, his inner beast disagreed. Why should they let their mate hide away from them? But he did not listen.

Wearing the dress she had on last night for dinner, Rehn escorted her back to the queen’s quarters where Yaldred waited. The way the two women shared smiles, he knew he was to be subject to gossip the moment he was out of earshot but he couldn’t try to eavesdrop and that would be unbecoming of a king.

Soon enough, he and Idris mounted their horses and were off. Other teams scoured different parts of the kingdom for sorcerers, taking samples of their work to compare and hopefully find the culprit.

After an uneventful morning moved into the afternoon, they found themselves deep in the forest at the far edge of the valley making their way to the abode of Altair.

Like many sorcerers in the kingdom, Altair lived far away from others, in a small cottage deep in the forest. Rehn and Idris left the main road, following the narrow and winding trail into the hills. They found hoof prints in the mud beside a small stream. They led back the way the duo came so they couldn’t be fresh.

“We may have missed our sorcerer,” Idris said, pointing at the tracks.

“Or he had a visitor yesterday,” Rehn replied. “Either way, we continue.”

“Of course.”

Altair’s cottage soon appeared in the distance, just a sliver of it at the end of the trail framed by trees on either side and their canopy above. The door cut into a wall of thick logs was shut. No smoke plumed from the chimney jutting from the thatched roof.

They rode into the small clearing around the cottage. Bunches of herbs and wild plants hung from the edge of an open stable with an empty water trough and no horse. Rehn handed his reins to Idris and approached the door to the cottage.

A circle of intricately woven wicker hung from a nail on the door. Rehn didn’t recognize the pattern but he knew a sorcerer’s charm when he saw one. His fist thudded below the charm but no answer came. He heard nothing from within the cottage.

“It appears you were correct, he is not here,” Rehn said after another booming knock remained unanswered.

“Should we enter and find something with his magic in it?” Idris asked.

“No need, this charm should do,” Rehn replied.

He carefully lifted the wicker charm from the door, plucking it from the nail holding it. Back at his horse, he opened his saddle bags and set it among the other sorcerers’ items. Once he closed the bag and clasped it, he mounted his horse.

With Altair’s wicker charm secured, Rehn and Idris started back through the forest to the road leading to the castle. Neither spoke as they wound down the narrow trail with Idris following behind his king and friend. Only when they reached the wider road did he move up to ride beside Rehn.

“So, we have what we need, now we have time to talk about last night,” Idris said, flashing a wide smile. “Yaldred couldn’t stop talking about the dress she got Leila to wear. How did you like it?”

“She is my mate. I’d find her beautiful in a burlap flour sack,” Rehn replied.

“True, true. I feel the same about my Yaldred, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love it when she slips on something special,” Idris replied, then his smile turned into a feral smirk, “and that goes double for when she slips that something special off.”

“It was a wonderful night,” Rehn finally said after staying silent for several seconds. “Everything I expected after finding my fated mate.”

That was all he said, much to Idris’s disappointment. The king’s closest advisor watched him, brow raised, waiting for more but Rehn wanted to leave the conversation at that, not that his closest friend would allow that, not even from the king. He never did when they were growing up, either.

“Have you marked her yet?” Idris asked, watching the king. He shook his head at his old friend’s expression. “You haven’t even told her, have you? Why not?”

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