Page 35 of Fated Moons
The sound of a couple of young pups yelping caught Jackson’s attention. He turned his head as Ivy and Finn rounded the corner, tumbling over each other. Jackson laughed, remembering what it was like playing with his younger siblings.
Chaz pointed to the little wolfairies growling and wagging their tails in the yard. “Though, those two over there make it all worth it.”
“They are adorable.” Amanda smiled.
The porch door screeched, and Isadore stepped out holding the hands of her twins, Jasper and Daria. Jasper immediately howled and craned his neck.
“Oh no. You little rascal,” Isadore said with a big sigh. “You’re not supposed to do that in front of company.” She waggled her finger. “Daria, you better be a good girl and go around to the back of the house.”
“Yes, Mommy.” The girl fumbled down the steps but didn’t make it more than twenty paces away.
“At least she tried,” Chaz said.
“Oh my. Look at you.” Isadore pointed at Amanda.
“Shit,” Jackson mumbled, staring at his mate who floated two feet off the ground and was covered in so much fairy dust you could barely see her.
“Out of the cauldron?—”
“Do not use witchcraft,” Isadore interrupted Amanda. “Focus on the energy in your heart and think about lowering yourself to the floor. Visualize it in your mind.”
Amanda slowly inched closer to the floorboards.
“That’s it, babe. You got this.” Jackson reached for her hand.
“Easy for you to say. I can feel this stuff overtaking me. It’s like it’s got a mind of its own,” Amanda said.
“It does.” Isadore ducked her head into the house. “Drew, we need the resident fairy dust collector.”
“A fairy what now?” Amanda asked as her feet hit the floor.
“My sister, Coral’s husband. He’s a master at collecting the stuff without it suffocating you,” Isadore said. “Sometimes the dust gets worried a person might try to banish it, so it gets a littleornery when you collect it. Drew doesn’t set off that vibe, for some reason. We think it’s his baby face.”
Drew stepped out onto the patio and jerked his head. “Damn. Not sure I’ve ever seen so much fairy dust come off one person. You must be Lady Amanda.”
“I am,” Amanda said.
Drew raised his arms, waving his hands through the thick dust as it formed a ball. He tossed it up into the sky before creating another one. And then another one. “I suspect it’s because of the children and the rest of them are going to be heading outside shortly. Isadore, why don’t you take Lady Amanda inside? You girls can chat in the sunroom.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Isadore took Amanda by the hand, and they disappeared inside the house just as four more toddlers stumbled by.
“Don’t shift until you’re around the side of the house,” Dayton commanded. “I’m getting tired of telling you little rug rats.”
“Yes, Daddy,” one of them said.
“I always listen, Uncle Dayton,” another said.
“Yeah, right you do.” Dayton rolled a cooler across the porch and pointed across the vast yard. “Here comes Trask with Ali.” Dayton laughed. “Watch this. The only one of those wolfairies that will sense what she’s doing is Finn and that’s partly because they’ve imprinted. But also because Ali and Finn are so much more disciplined. Even more so than my two pain-in-the-ass kids.”
Jackson turned, covering his eyes from the glare of the sun. Ali crunched up in the grass and crawled on her belly, staying low and nearly hidden in the grass.
“She’s going to turn her fairy dust colors into a combination of the sky and the ground beneath her paws. Royal fairies can’tdo that quite the way wolfairies can. It’s amazing. It will keep her hidden.”
“I wonder which unsuspecting pup she will choose to…” Chaz laughed. “I guess Finn decided to get her first, and not a single one of us saw that coming.”
“Like I said. He pays attention during lesson time. Not to mention, he’s the future leader of this wolf pack. He and Ali will face many challenges.” Dalton was not only tall but wide. He was even bigger than Jackson in his wolf form, which was impressive. “As will my son Dromon and his mate as king and queen. But that is the future, and we have things of the present that need to be discussed.”
“I just met the lovely Lady Amanda.” Nico, the protector of the wolfairies, made his way onto the porch and down the steps. He plopped down in the front yard as all the young wolfairy pups played with each other. They had grown so much since the last time Jackson had seen them. At this age, being in wolf form was more fun for them to roam and play than in their human forms. However, according to Trask, they needed to break up their time, learning to control both their wolf nature as well as their fairy tendencies, even though they were technically neither. It was a delicate dance.
