The Warlock Queen Read online

  When she saw Torion’s door, she nearly started to run. She was almost there. Her breathing increased as she hurried forward. Her eyes shifted to glance at the guards, but her vision was momentarily blocked by another passing body. When they moved past her, Tenia stumbled as her eyes landed on one lone figure. The two fae that normally stood guard were gone.

  Instead, a single male leaned against the wall with his arms folded. He was big and definitely not fae. He’d better not be a damn bloodsucker. Tenia forced her legs to move forward again. She trembled the closer she got to him, and sweat trickled down the back of her neck. Tenia’s steps slowed, which was the damn opposite of what she wanted them to be doing, and her heartbeat stumbled in her chest. What the actual hell? She looked up at the exact moment the man’s head snapped up, and his eyes locked on hers. She would have been less shocked if a draheim had been walking down the corridor crashing through walls, holding a cup of ale and singing the human national anthem. Hell, she would have been less surprised if Ludcarab and Alston had appeared right in front of her and bowed down at her feet, offering her fealty and begging her to fix everything they’d screwed up. She would have been less surprised because those things seemed more in the realm of possibility than what happened.

  A masculine voice rebounded off the inside of her skull and then sank into her bones. The tether that had tied her only to her son seemed to suddenly split and reach for the male that was less than two feet in front of her. Tenia gasped as her hand went to her chest. If she could have reached in and ripped out the organ without killing herself in the process, she would have.

  “Mate,” the voice rumbled as he pushed from the wall and turned to fully face her.

  The look of awe on his handsome face was incongruent with the anger that marred his brow. What the hell did he have to be angry about? Did he have a child being held as a prisoner somewhere in the godforsaken compound?

  “Mate,” he said again in her mind, only this time it was softer and with a desperation she understood because it was the same way her voice sounded when she said her son’s name.

  Tenia was no youngling. She’d been around for centuries. She might not be ancient like Alston, but she knew wolves, and she knew what the true mate bond was. She’d also heard the rumors that there’d recently been fae that had mated wolves. This is not happening. She groaned as she stood there staring at the Canis lupus who was staring right back at her.

  He was big—much bigger than her. He had short dark hair, piercing silver eyes, a strong jaw, and sharp cheekbones. He was very good looking. But she wanted no part of him. The only thing she wanted was this wolf as far from her and her young as possible

  “Tenia.” The heavily accented Romanian voice that spoke her name was deep yet gentle. Tenia thought she detected a note of pain somewhere underneath it. But she didn’t care about his pain. The man was an Order member, which meant he was a monster. Tenia had never seen this Canis lupus before, which really wasn’t a surprise. The compound was large, and the Order’s numbers were growing every day. People, including Tenia, came and went at all hours. It was likely this wolf had been sent out by Ludcarab to sway other Canis lupus to the Order’s cause. She didn’t really care. What mattered was why the hell he was guarding Torion’s door and not the usual fae.

  “Move,” she snapped as she reached for one of the knives at her hip. She had no problem cutting down anyone who stood between her and her son, regardless of what this male claimed.

  The wolf stepped aside immediately, raising his hands as he did so. “Please, Tenia, feel free to drag one of your blades across my throat. I wouldn’t raise so much as a paw to defend myself. I would never, could never, hurt you,” he said. “Or your pup.”

  Tenia snorted. “You already have.” She started to push past him, but his large hand wrapped around her upper arm. The touch sent a burn of fire through her bloodstream. She froze, their faces mere inches away. She could detect traces of his woodsy scent, which she couldn’t deny was pleasant, but she ignored it. Tenia had to force herself to speak because her instincts were failing her. They were screaming at her to lean into the strength she felt in his grip, to accept whatever help he would offer. She ignored the traitorous thoughts as she snapped, “You support this … cause.” She waved her free arm as if to take in the whole compound. “That alone makes me want to kill you where you stand.” Despite her words, there was still a pull in Tenia’s chest, a part of her that wanted him near her. Though she refused to admit it to herself, she knew it was the mate bond within her, reaching out to him. She could deny it easily enough. It couldn’t be real. There was no way she could be mated to anyone, much less to a person so vile as to voluntarily join the Order. Yet here he was, not just standing in front of her, but in her mind as well. “Stay the hell out of my head,” she added as she jerked her arm free and pushed the door open. She saw a flash of pain across his handsome face just before the door closed behind her.

  She clicked the lock in place, not that it would actually keep anyone out, but it made her feel a little better. Tenia closed her eyes and pictured walls going up in her mind, building a fortress around her thoughts. There was no way she was going to let that wolf know what she and Myanin had been up to. He would, no doubt, run to Alston like a good little pup and betray them in a heartbeat.

  “Mother,” Torion’s sweet voice called to her, wrapping her in warmth and making her instantly breathe easier.

  The fae opened her eyes and smiled. She knelt down and opened her arms. The boy rushed into them and squeezed her tight. She wanted to wrap him up and run as far and as fast as possible, or flash him to the furthest realm from this place. Tenia would give her last breath if she could just get Torion out of the Order’s clutches. But her hopes were futile. She’d found out the hard way that Alston could alter her magic. When she had tried to flash, she’d ended up right back in the compound. She’d tried many times. Then Alston had informed her it had been one time too many. He’d placed Torion under twenty-four-hour guard in his own living quarters, then ordered Tenia beaten, not just physically, but magically by other fae. Leather whips inflicted physical pain; magical ones stripped you not of your flesh but of your emotional protections. She’d been a pleading mess by the time it was done, begging for Alston’s forgiveness. The shame of the memory still nauseated her.

  Since then, Tenia had played the good little soldier, not because she feared Alston would beat her again, but because she feared he might harm her son in the same way. Alston allowed her visits, like the one she was having now, but that was it. She was no longer allowed to sleep overnight in the same room with Torion. Being separated from her son was worse than any beating she could receive—a form of hell she’d never understood was possible until it had happened. And until she’d met Myanin, she’d had no chance of escaping. Now, for the first time in over a year, Tenia dared hope that maybe, just maybe, she would find a way to free her son. Unless the damn wolf outside the door screws things up. If he did, she wouldn’t hesitate to castrate him, mate or not.

  The term mate both disgusted and excited her at the same time. She hated it. The cord she’d felt snap into place when he’d met her eyes felt like a chain, trapping her, not a tether to keep her safe if she were to fall. She was pretty sure there was supposed to be some happy glow or joyous chorus happening inside of her, but instead, her head was pounding as she focused hard on rejecting the mental connection, something that was unique to the mate bond between the werewolves. The skin he’d touched was raw, as if the nerves were exposed. Tenia knew that touch was huge to the Canis lupus. Perhaps this new bond had her flesh crying out for his touch, but her own disgust of what he was a part of made her skin crawl at the mere memory of his hand on her arm. She despised the conflicting emotions when she thought of the wolf. Her soul was screaming, but it wasn’t only screaming at her to run away from him, but to run to him as well. She was going to go mad in a matter of days if this was to be her future. She didn’t want a mate. She didn’t n
eed a mate. And she sure as hell wasn’t taking one that was in league with the Order.

  She drew herself from her inner turmoil and focused all her attention on her son. “How have you been?” Tenia asked Torion. Her teeth clenched as she spoke, but she forced joy into her tone because she was ecstatic to see him. She pushed him back, holding his waist and gazing at him. “Let me look at you,” she said with a genuine smile. “I swear you’ve grown since I saw you last.”

  “No, I haven’t mother,” he said, as he always did. The thing Torion didn’t understand, couldn’t understand because he was a child, was that he was changing with every single minute that passed, and she was missing most of it. She was being robbed of her right as his mother to get to see every part of his childhood. Many fae parents weren’t that attached to their young, but Tenia had adored her son the minute she’d seen his tiny face. She’d never known she could love so deeply. His shocking turquoise eyes were like his sire’s, but his hair was as blonde as her own. He had a sweet disposition and was so very smart. Torion was also calm. He never seemed to become rattled, often being the one to comfort her through much of their ordeal since Alston had captured them two years ago.

  “Well, I think you have,” she said before taking a seat on the floor. Papers and colored pencils were scattered on the ground. Torion was a natural artist, but his drawings were not simply motionless pictures. The boy had the ability to make his art come to life on the pages. He could draw a horse running in a beautiful field and then use his magic to make the animal actually gallop across the paper. Torion only had to think of what he wanted his drawings to do, and they would become like a cartoon, moving and speaking. Tenia worried that his ability could be an early manifestation of a similar power to her own and that one day he’d be able to make living things, not just drawings, do his bidding.

  She’d made him promise not to let Alston see what he could do. Torion had slipped up once during one of her visits. He was so excited to show her his drawing of a lion that it roared and leaped across the page when he’d presented it to her. Luckily, her back had been to the camera in his room. She’d pretended to simply be in awe of the drawing itself. And when she’d hugged him, she’d spoken earnestly in his ear that he must never, ever let anyone know what he could do. Torion had sworn that he would never share it with anyone, no matter how much he loved doing it.

  “What have you been up to?” she asked, her voice bright, concealing the fact that she was having an internal mental meltdown over her … mate. How could the Great Luna pair her with a Canis lupus, and one with ties to the Order at that?

  “Just drawing, mother,” Torion said, emphasizing the first word so she knew he’d been careful to keep his power under wraps. “What’s that?” He pointed to the bag of cotton candy she’d completely forgotten she’d been holding. It was a miracle she hadn’t dropped it when she’d first seen the wolf outside of Torion’s door, or thrown it at him.

  “My name is not ‘the wolf.’ It is Skender.” A deep voice entered her mind. She heard her indrawn breath as it brushed over her mind like a whisper, caressing, entrancing, and making her yearn for the strength she could hear in it.

  “No!” Tenia mentally screamed. She knew her reaction was extreme because she was so shocked at her own instant response to him. Tenia had wanted to curl up in his arms, simply because of the way his voice felt against her mind. She swallowed back tears that she didn’t have time or energy to shed as she checked her mental shields, searching everywhere for cracks. How the hell had he been able to get past the wall she had erected? “I told you to stay out of my head!” She yelled through the bond. She’d never, in her wildest imagination, dreamed she’d experience something like this. Taking a steadying breath and forcing her shaking hand to still, she said calmly to Torion, “It’s cotton candy, a human sweet treat.” She opened it and handed the bag to her son. “My new friend has an obsession with it, and she asked me to bring you some.”

  Torion reached into the bag and touched the fluffy candy. His eyes lit up. “It’s soft.”

  She nodded. “Tear a bit off and taste it,” she encouraged. All the while, her subconscious was a quiet shadow in her mind, watching for cracks that might let the wolf in. She wasn’t just a prisoner of the Order. She was now a prisoner in her own body as well.

  Torion pulled off a piece of the candy, and when he put it in his mouth, he literally groaned. “Mother, this is the best candy I’ve ever had.” His eyes danced with mirth. For a moment, she worried he might become as addicted as Myanin. But she was not about to deny him any sort of joy she could give him. He took one bite after the next, and his grin just kept getting bigger. Tenia couldn’t help but laugh. Seeing his bright smile filled all the dark places inside her with light, and for those few moments she got with him, she felt warm.

  “He is your child?” Skender’s voice came again, reminding her of gentle rolling thunder, as if he were trying to keep from startling her but knew it wouldn’t work. She could feel the hesitancy in his tone, like a child reaching to touch a skittish animal knowing it might dart away but unable to resist the desire to feel it, and also the urgency of his need to be close to her. Tenia couldn’t believe how clear his emotions were to her. His own desperation made her breath catch in her throat.

  She turned toward the door, her stomach convulsing violently as she fought the mate bond’s need to be close to him and reassure him with her own knowledge that she couldn’t trust him. Not if he was Order loyal. Tenia glanced at Torion, worried he was seeing what she couldn’t hide. But he was once again focused on the paper and had a colored pencil in his hand. She glanced at her own hands and saw them trembling. “You will stay out of my head or I swear I will cut your betraying heart from your chest while you still live,” Tenia promised, and she meant it with every breath inside of her. She had no idea why she couldn’t keep him out.

  “You cannot keep me out because your emotions are so strong. It’s hard to close the bond to your mate when feelings are running high,” he explained. “It is a built-in protection mechanism. If you were in distress, I’d be able to feel you and come to your aid.” His voice remained a gentle, calm caress despite the fact she’d just threatened his life.

  Tenia physically forced herself to turn away from the door. She felt like a damn robot. Her movements were jerky as she moved back toward her son, who was happily drawing. Her jaw was locked, and she kept opening and closing her hands in some bid to relax herself. “I am not your mate. I don’t want to be your mate. I want nothing to do with you.” As she said the words, a sharp spasm, so painful she nearly cried out loud, knifed through her body. She kept her eyes focused on the joy on her son’s face as he drew, breathing slowly to manage the physical pain that her own words seemed to have caused her.

  “Your soul doesn’t feel the same way,” Skender told her, and to her surprise there was pain in his voice. “Regardless of what you think, we are two halves of the same whole. We complete one another.”

  “You could never complete me.” Tenia meant it, even as she felt as if she were killing a part of herself. “I could never care for someone who willingly helped the Order.” When she realized what she’d said, her hand reached up to her mouth, almost as if she could shove the words back in even though she hadn’t said them out loud. He would probably tell Alston, and the high fae would put her under tighter constraints. He could keep her from getting to see her son.

  “I would never betray you,” Skender’s words filled her mind along with a rush of reassurance. “I would never do anything to hurt my mate or her child.”

  Tenia felt as if he’d just poured a soothing balm over a scorching burn. She didn’t understand why, but she knew without a doubt he was telling her the truth. Did it make her trust him? Hell no. But a tiny part of her seemed to breathe a little easier. Even so, she would still keep her activities with Myanin hidden from him. She pictured a box with all that information shoved inside, wrapped in chains that he could not get through.


  “Can you tell your friend thank you?” Torion asked as he finished the cotton candy with one hand and continued to draw with the other.

  Tenia’s eyes widened. She had been so lost in her mind arguing with the wolf, Skender, that she hadn’t even realized her son had eaten the entire bag of cotton candy. He was grinning, and his mouth was blue. Tenia laughed and lifted her hand, running her magic across his face to remove any trace of the substance. “Yes, I will tell her. It will please her to know you enjoyed it so much.”

  “It’s better than thindle berries,” Torion said. That was quite a compliment, considering the fae berries were his absolute favorite food.

  “I’ll bring you more when I can.” She tried to keep the sadness from her voice. Tenia hated leaving her son. She hated not knowing what was happening to him when she wasn’t there.

  “I will protect him,” Skender’s soothing voice was there again. It both smoothed and ruffled her feathers at the same time. Which only pissed her off more.

  “Bleeding troll legs,” Tenia cursed him. “Could you please stay the hell out of my head?”

  “I wish I could tell you yes, but my wolf craves you. I’ve been looking for you a very, very long time.”

  His admission surprised her, though his tenacity did not. Wolves were known to be stubborn creatures and to be ridiculously possessive of their mates. If she really was his mate…

  “You are,” his voice a deep growl as he interrupted her thoughts. “I could not speak to you this way if you were not.”

  “I don’t care,” Tenia snapped. This was not a complication she needed. Not at all. Seven hells, what was she going to do?

  “There’s nothing you have to do,” he said, his voice once again gentle. Like warm honey it flowed through her mind. “I expect nothing from you. But I promise you I will protect Torion.”