When they arrived at the hospital, Viviana didn’t act like a queen. She portrayed a concerned mother, worried that her boy was going to die. Which he could.
Brett had to give her a gold star for the ultimate performance. She didn’t leave it at that, but stayed with them in Bryan’s hospital room. Brett couldn't have appreciated her more for it. Mark, Jacob, and Brett pretended to be Bryan's brothers. And then the cops came. Every time they ended up at a hospital, cops were called. Brett should have known when Bryan was bitten so badly that they'd want to find the dog—they couldn't say it was a wolf—and put it down before it attacked anyone else.
“Where was the dog that bit him? We need to take it down and ensure it didn’t have rabies,” the police officer said.
Poor Bryan was still out of it, and Brett worried they were too late. When Brett had lived in the human world and was in Boy Scouts, his leader had died from a sinus infection, his whole body becoming infected before they could stop it. So he knew how serious this could be.
They weren’t about to say it was a wolf. There were no wolves in Texas any longer. But if the hospital staff tested the bite mark, they could determine it was wolf’s saliva.
Bryan’s vital signs were stable, but he wasn’t coming out of the coma, and that didn’t bode well. Maybe he was in a vegetative state. Maybe he’d never be able to come out of this. Brett felt awful that Bryan’s willingness to be with them in the fae world could come to this. That his liking Hannah could have resulted in this.
What irritated Brett was that he was a powerful mage, a dragon shifter, and yet he couldn’t do anything for his friend. Mark was scowling, looking angry that he couldn’t do anything for Bryan either.
“We don’t know, sir. He called us and said he had been bitten and by the time we reached our home, he was already out of it,” Brett lied.
“Where had he been? Did he tell you anything before he was bitten?” the officer asked.
“No. Mark and I were going to bring a pizza home later and watch a movie. By then, he’d called to say he’d been bitten. I asked where the dog was, what it looked like and said we were on our way, but he was non-responsive by that time. This is the way he was when we arrived at the house. We called Mom, and she rushed home from the mall to help us bring him to the hospital.”
“You didn’t call an ambulance?” the officer asked, brow raised.
“We live out in the country. Sometimes people get lost trying to reach our place,” Brett said. “We just figured it was faster to bring him here ourselves.”
The police officer glanced at Viviana. She nodded.
The officer snapped his notebook closed. “We’ll check back with him, when he comes out of the coma. We’ll need the home address.”
Vivian gave him her old home address. Then the officer left the room.
Brett breathed a sigh of relief. New hospital, new police jurisdiction. The officer didn’t connect the dots of who Brett was, when he’d had serious medical issues from being hit by a crossbow’s bolt, two, in fact, or the sword wound Brett had suffered. Living in the fae world did have some dangerous consequences.
Once the police officer shut the door to give them some privacy, Viviana said, “Maybe this is best for him."
Mark turned his dark look on her, and she frowned at him. She was still a powerful dragon fae queen, not their mother. Though her look softened at once. She had lived among the humans for years. She knew the dangers they could face with a simple infection. And she knew the boys had been friends for years.
Brett gave Mark a look that said to apologize to her, but Mark only turned his worried gaze on Bryan.
The queen took a seat on a chair nearby to anxiously wait with them, her foot tapping nervously on the floor. Brett appreciated her vigilance. She could have returned home to let them deal with this on their own. She was a good queen. He knew her father, had he still been king and wasn't dead for his own treachery, would have let Bryan stay here and perish, or get better. The king wouldn’t have returned Bryan to the fae world.
Then Bryan moaned, and Viviana was on her feet in a flash, moving toward the bed, Brett and Mark trying to speak with him.
“Bryan, tell us what happened,” Brett said, holding his hand. “Was it Hannah who bit you? Did she turn into a wolf?”
Bryan stared at him as if he couldn’t understand the question.
And then, the unthinkable happened. Right before his eyes, Bryan's body blurred and in an instant, he shifted into a snarly, gray wolf.
As wolves, Simon and his three brothers rushed into the cave to take care of the person who had so gravely wounded his sister, only to see Ena and a fae he didn’t know. Her hair was pale blond, and her eyes blue. She looked like she was a daughter of the moon.
He was taken in by her appearance for a moment, so were his brothers, but then he snapped out of it when he smelled his sister’s blood, and another wolf’s, on her. He approached her, sniffed her, and realized she wasn’t a wolf shifter. The other wolf that had been here had gotten away.
He shifted. “Valoran and Aegis, you search for the wolf’s trail. Killington, Ronan, you guard Alton’s treasure.”
The other two wolves took off and Killington and Ronan stayed put.
“You are coming with me,” Simon said, seizing the fae’s arm. She couldn’t fae transport out of the cave because of the iron ore, but he knew very well that she could, once he moved her out of the cave. “Tell me what you were doing here.”
“And how you think you know about me,” Ena said, hurrying after them.
Simon glanced at the dragon shifter, wondering what that was all about.
“I was looking for shelter from the rain. I smelled the wolves and hesitated to venture further into the cave, when a brown wolf came out of the dark and attacked me. I hit her with…” She hesitated to say.
Simon observed her. He figured she hadn’t wanted to reveal the kinds of powers she had. But he was glad to know she hadn’t been in league with the wolf, if the rogue wolf had attacked this woman also.
“With?” he growled. They needed answers, not half-truths.
“An electrical charge. I didn’t kill the brown wolf, because I didn’t know if she was just protecting cubs in the cave. I didn't know she had fought with another wolf. When I saw Myla, and how badly she was injured, I knew the wolves had fought. But whose fault was it? What if the two wolves were just having a quarrel?”
“Goddess’s wounds, you could have killed her! The brown wolf, I mean. Now we have to try and track her down,” Simon said, irritated to high heaven with the unknown fae.
“I…didn’t…know…that." The fae's face was crimson with anger. "What if Myla was the one at fault? And the other wolf was part of your pack too? And I’d killed her? Then you’d want me dead.”
Simon snorted. Though he had to agree her reasoning was sound and she had tried to heal his sister. Alton wouldn’t like that the fae knew where his treasure was though. Since she hadn’t been there to steal from the dragon fae, Alton might let her go with a stern warning. Or not. Dragon shifters could be really prickly when it came to anyone knowing where they hid their gold. And what if the story of her trying to get out of the rain was just a ploy? What if she had suspected a dragon's treasure was in the cave? Then she came across the vicious wolf, and the other that had been badly wounded, and everything had changed?
“How do you know about me?” Ena asked again, her eyes wide.
“I…have exceptional hearing.”
Simon looked at the women, expecting one of them to enlighten him, but when neither did, he heard the rain had stopped and moved the woman out of the cave. “What’s your name?”
“Letta.”
“And your fae kind? I don’t recognize your aura.” It was a pretty, mystical silver.
“Woodland fae.”
“I’ve never heard of them.” Then he paused, his hand still on the woman’s arm. “I’m Simon, and Myla is my sister. Thank you for saving her life.”
“Where are you from?” Ena asked Letta.
“From the woodlands, a long way from here. It was time for me to leave.”
Simon wondered if her magic had anything to do with it. “Because you’re trouble?”
“Because I’ve come of age. Whoever comes of age has to leave the woodlands.”
“I’ve never heard of anything that absurd,” Simon said. Most fae kind stayed with their own kind for friendship, family, and safety.
Letta didn’t enlighten him further.
Then Alton joined them as a dragon, settling in front of them. He shifted, narrowing his eyes at Letta. “Explain what you were doing in my cave.”
The woodland fae rolled her eyes. Simon stared at her in disbelief. That was such a human reaction, he wondered if she’d lived among them for a while.
She explained all over again about what she was doing there.
Alton frowned at her. “You know you’ll have to die because you know where my treasure is.”
“I have a job for her,” Ena said, “if she knows anything about what she says she knows.”
Alton waited for Ena to explain, but she didn’t say anything more. Simon suspected it was something Ena didn’t want to share with anyone right this moment, which made him intensely curious as to what it was about.
“What will Brett say to that?” Alton didn’t look happy that Ena planned to protect the woodland fae.
“He will be fine with it.”
Simon had been surprised when Alton hadn’t won Ena over to be his mate and the human Brett had instead. Though, Brett had turned out to be a dragon shifter also.
“I hold you personally responsible if the woman steals any of my treasure,” Alton said, sounding like he truly didn’t trust the woodland fae and that, though he was now mated, and still Ena's good friend, he'd make her pay in treasure if Letta stole his.
“Why are you here?” Simon asked Letta. “I mean, of all the places you could choose to be, why are you in this region?”
“I met Princess Alicia once. She’s a dragon fae and her intended, a dark fae prince, dropped into my homeland. His cousin Micala also, and his human girlfriend. They seemed nice. I thought I could make a fresh start in the dragon fae territory because I knew Princess Alicia.”
Ena's jaw dropped. Simon took that to mean Ena knew something about the woodland fae.
“I wasn’t sure about living in the dark fae territory. I was trying to reach the dragon fae lands, and didn’t realize this was wolf territory,” Letta said.
“If you’re finished with Letta,” Ena said to Simon and Alton, “I’ll take her home. Then I’ll return and help with the search for the wolf.”
“Later,” Simon said.
Ena arched a brow.
Wolf Mountain territory was governed by the wolf fae. They had a nice arrangement with Alton, concerning protecting his gold, but it was still their territory. Alton couldn’t just take over the cave on wolf lands and store his treasure there without their permission.
Simon wasn’t about to give up the woodland fae either. Not just yet. She might still be useful as far as her healing powers went. Then he wondered why Ena would even be here. Alton was here, checking on his treasure, yes. Maybe Alton's mate, Kayla, would have come, but not Ena.
“Fine,” Ena said, not sounding as though it was fine with her one iota. “I’ll take her with me after I’ve finished the hunt for the brown wolf.”
Simon narrowed his eyes at her. “That’s why you’re here? You were hunting the wolf down?”
“She bit one of the men on my staff. He’s human and sick with an infection. Brett took him to the human world to one of their hospitals.”
“You have to bring him back to our world,” Simon said, alarmed. What a disaster that would be if he turned into a wolf while he was at the human hospital.
“Didn’t you hear the part where he’s sick and dying?” Ena sounded totally exasperated with him.
“The wolf fae genetics will help him to heal. Who’s with him?”
“Brett and my wheelsmith, Jacob, and Bryan's human friend, Mark. I don't understand.”
“They must return him at once before he turns."
"Into a wolf?" Ena was staring at Simon like he was crazy.
"Yes! We’ll deal with him and teach him to be one of us. If he doesn’t learn from us, he could lash out at anyone, your mate, his friend Mark, or Jacob even.”
“He could turn my mate?" Ena sounded shocked to the core.
"No, but he could kill him. The wolf bite will only affect humans in that way." He glanced at Letta, and saw the blood on her sleeve, thinking it was from his sister, but he realized it wasn't his sister's or the other wolf's. Not from the scent. Which meant it had to have been Letta's. And her sleeve was torn. He pulled up her sleeve, but her skin showed no indication that she'd been bitten. He was glad for that. Not that the wolf would have turned her, but he just didn't want her to be injured also. Still, why was he smelling her blood?
"Oh, just great. I have no idea which hospital they ended up at,” Ena said, breaking into his thoughts.
There was no time to delay. Simon warned her, “I strongly suggest you find him fast.”
Ena nodded and vanished.
“Are you sure?” Alton asked Simon.
“Yeah. If the brown wolf hasn’t been with her kind before to learn how to socialize and be one of us, she could go on a real killing spree.” Simon looked down at Letta. “I’ll speak to the elders of the council and see what they want to do with you.” They were his advisors, but he always made the final decisions for the pack.
“I don’t have to live here. I thought I was in the dragon fae territory.”
“You aren't.”
Alton said, “I’m looking for the rogue wolf. I’ll return to see how Myla is doing later.”
Simon only hoped Ena would return the human, who’d been turned, to their world before it was a disaster for everyone she cared for, and for the human population too.
Ena transported back to her castle, unsure as to what to do next. She didn’t know where Brett and Jacob had taken Bryan exactly. They were going to a hospital she'd never been to before. She'd never lived in the human's world like some of the others had, though she'd visited it from time to time, mostly to take care of a mission—like now.
She went to see her brother at the royal castle and realized Brett had recently come here. She followed his faery dust trail to the queen's court. When she arrived there, she saw her brother Halloran and hurried to intercept him. “Do you have any idea where Brett took Bryan?”
“He took him to a hospital in the human world.”
“Right, but which one?”
“I don't know. The queen went with Brett because he needed her to use her insurance to pay for Brett's hospital stay.”
“Ohmigoddess, no.”
Halloran frowned at his sister. “What’s wrong, Ena?”
“Simon, one of the wolves of the pack at Wolf Mountain, said that if the wolf bit Bryan, he could shift and then fight any of them.”
“God's wounds. Let’s go.” Halloran grabbed Ena’s arm, and they followed Brett and the queen’s fae dust trail to the hospital in the human world.
The good thing was that most of the human buildings didn’t have iron ore in them, so the fae could go where they wanted to without any trouble. They found the floor where Brett and the others had gone. They finally reached the room where the fae trail led them and heard growling inside.
As soon as they threw the patient room door open, a gray wolf lunged at Ena. Her heart lurched. All she could think of was protecting her babies.
Immediately, Brett cast some kind of spell on the wolf and he sank to the floor.
So did Ena, and she was not the fainting type.
Halloran started barking orders, even though his queen was hurrying to see to Ena, Brett right behind her. “Jacob, grab Bryan. We transport to Ena and Brett's castle now.”
Brett gathered Ena in his arms, cursing under his breath. The queen took hold of Mark’s hand so he could go with them. Jacob carried the sleeping wolf, and the whole lot of them vanished from the hospital room.
Ena imagined the police would be called again to the hospital as soon as the staff saw that their patient had…vanished. The wolf fur on the bed would be just as tough to explain.