Page 31 of Fated Guardian

Princess? Royal faeries exist. But I’ve never met one. Because they’re heavily guarded. Protected by entire communities of faeries…

“If you don’t come with us, I’ll do the same thing I did in Seattle. My crew and I will rip the Oakwood pack to fucking pieces,” Chad snarls. “There’s the two of us here now, but you know what? There’s more of us—a lot more of us. Out there, just beyond the border. You don’t come with us, and one word from me sends them all storming the fuck in here.”

My heart stops.

His smile is evil, and it makes me feel sick. “Yeah, princess. That was me. I was there. And I’ll fuckin’ do it again. So what will it be? You going to come with us? Or are you going to be the reason they all die… again?”

There isn’t’ even a choice in my mind between those two things.

“What do you need from me?”

Chapter 10

Nolan

Something is wrong. I know it before I get home. The air feels… wrong. I swear I can hear the leaves rustling on plants as I walk by.

Something is absolutely not fucking right.

I’m sprinting by the time I see my front door. I practically pull it off the hinges trying to get inside.

“Coral?” I yell as soon as I’m there.

I’m expecting to hear her voice drifting from the bedroom. From the garden. From the greenhouse. From the yard.

There’s nothing except silence. Silence that makes my nerves stand on edge.

“Coral?” I call again. This time, it’s desperate.

Panic is clawing at my throat. Where the hell is she? Where?—

A butterfly catches my eye. It drifts in from the outside, landing on a piece of paper on the dining room table.

It’s a note. From Coral. She went to the cottage, to get some things…

The shaking of leaves confirms what I’ve been thinking. The fucking plants are trying to warn me: Coral is in trouble.

I don’t hesitate. I shift, the power achingly hard to access, but I manage it. It’s slow. So much slower than it should be. I don’t care, though. I have to find her.

The run to Coral’s meadow takes too long. With every footprint, every heartbeat, I’m thinking of all the terrible things that could happen to her. She’s powerful. She could probably defend herself. But I don’t know that she’d think about it fast enough—and I don’t think she’d put her plants in harm’s way. She’s good, in a way that few things are good these days.

If she’s hurt, I’m never going to fucking forgive myself.

Just outside of the meadow, I see three shapes moving around her cottage. The wind shifts, and I smell them. Two shifters. A lion and a bear.

And Coral.

Rage blinds me. I can’t see clearly. I have laser-like focus on the two hulking shapes that are hunched over her while she scurries around, grabbing things and putting them into a bag.

I go for the lion first. He’s smaller, and he might go down faster. Since they’re both in human form and I have the element of surprise, I might be able to get the jump on him.

Springing from the shadows, I grab him by the throat. I feel the arteries in his neck pop under my teeth, but just to be sure, I shake his neck as hard as I can. The feeling of it snapping, and of the lion turning into a ragdoll in my teeth, is the most satisfying thing I’ve ever felt in my life.

“Nolan!” Coral yells. “Watch out!”

The fucking bear.

I duck, but I’m not fast enough. A massive paw hits me in the side, knocking the air from my lungs. I yelp, then everything goes silent for a minute as the ground rushes up to meet me.

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