No matter what I did, I could not get Dustin out of my mind. Something felt wrong. But I could only attribute that to the fact that Dustin was not in my home, not near me, not in my arms. I sighed at my wayward thoughts. I had already stripped Dustin of his freedom. I should not confine a healthy young adult to a single sexual partner, too. But I could not help myself. I wanted him. In my life, in my heart. In my arms, his cock in my slick ass.
The worst part of my sulking was the fact that Beth noticed. Every time I moved from one point in my parlor to another, Beth would come in and scold me for moping. How could I not mope when Dustin was missing?
But he was not missing. I seriously needed to get my mind in order. This incessant circling of my thoughts would do little but drive me mad, and I was already halfway there. The very last thing I needed was a push further into the darkness.
This time, Beth didn’t scold me and leave. I had moved from my desk in the corner to the window again, and as if she had an earpiece attuned to my wire as Kevin had, she bustled into the room, her hands on her wide hips, and stared me down. I could see her almost perfectly in the reflection of the window and promptly cringed. I knew that look. I was about to receive the wrong end of her mothering.
“Casersis, you are being especially stupid,” she said, her finger wagging at my back. She tugged on her apron, yanking the ties, and jerked it over her head. She balled it up, and the next thing I knew, I had her warm, comforting scent of baked bread and cookies wrapped around me as the apron landed over my head in a rumpled heap. “You need to quit this right this instant.”
I groaned and rested my overly warm forehead on the cold windowpane. “Quit what, Beth Anne?”
“Don’t you full-name me, boy,” she growled. “You know exactly what I mean.”
“I fear I really do not.” And only then did I realize I still had her apron draped over my head. Normally, I would have removed it the instant it landed if I had not dodged it in the first place. “What precisely do you mean?”
“I mean, if you truly loved that boy, which I know you do, you’d go after him.”
My sigh fogged the glass, obscuring my view of the forest, so I closed my eyes against it. Her words made my heart ache, made me feel things I did not wish to feel. The weight of it pressed down on my shoulders until I felt like I could barely stand. “He went willingly with Erastus, Beth. At least I know Erastus would keep his secret safe, no matter his hatred for me.”
She harrumphed and crossed her arms under her large bosom, her scowl deepening. “Just because the boy went willingly doesn’t mean he knows what’s best. He’s still young, Casersis. You are ageless. Figure your shit out and go after him.”
Figure my shit out. How eloquent. I dared not ask what Beth meant by that remark. She rarely made complete sense in her fits of fury, but no one was ever brave enough to comment on it. I was no exception. But I could not ignore her, either. If I tried, she would find something more solid to chuck at my head, and I was rather fond of staying conscious.
“Casersis!”
I shuddered at the shrill, angry note to her tone. “Yes, Beth?”
“Don’t you ignore me!”
“I am not ignoring you. I am thinking.”
“Well, think fast, because if Dustin thinks you don’t care, he may not come back at all.”
Leave it to a mother-hen to hit you where it hurts the most just to get her point across. I closed my eyes and groaned. Was I truly being simpleminded about this? Should I go after Dustin even though he had made it clear that he wanted to spend time away, even though he had left with Erastus willingly?
“I am waiting, Casersis,” Beth goaded. “You need to go after that boy.”
“I—”
“Dad!” Kevin interrupted us by throwing the door open so hard it bounced off the wall and shuddered. “Dad, they’re in the woods out back. Dustin’s heart rate is spiking.”
“Don calling,” my CommLink chimed.
“Answer.” After the tone, I growled, “Don?”
“Erastus is going nuts, sir. I think he may transform soon. Get here. Get here soon.”
That man was an ex-Navy SEAL. It took a great deal to get him flustered, let alone get that high note of panic into his voice. I shuddered, and before I even opened my eyes, my feet had me running. Then it dawned on me that Don knew that Erastus was a wolf. But that realization would have to wait for me to deal with it later.
“Dad?”
“Stay here,” I called over my shoulder.
“But—”
“Do as I say! Stay here!”
The last thing I needed was for my son to get mauled by my enemy while I tried to save Dustin and Don.
If I could save Dustin and Don.
My blood ran cold, and I flew through the estate toward the back door, using magic to make me swifter than my legs could normally carry me. I used more magic to keep myself from pin-balling around corners and through the hallways. Yet more magic to enhance my hearing so I could further pinpoint my beauty and his bodyguard.
If I could not save them…
I could not think that way. If I fell into that trap, everything was already lost. Once I flung the back door open, my power bloomed within me. It propelled me through my grounds, through the forest. With it swirling through my soul, through my solar plexus, and out through my limbs, I could almost hear the growls above the cacophony of forest sounds and the din of far-off traffic.
My heart pounded as I raced to Dustin’s side. I could not be too late. I would not be too late.
Dustin…
Even with all of my magic pushing me forward, I felt like I was not moving fast enough. I was running out of time. I heard a snarl, the snap of ravenous jaws. The beauty of the forest around me held no allure as I maneuvered around trees, between trunks, and through the thick underbrush. Twigs and branches ripped at my hair, at my clothes, scratched my face and hands, but I did not care. Nothing mattered except getting to Dustin in time.
Voices up ahead signaled that I was close. I slowed myself down, not wanting to startle Don, knowing he had his old-fashioned gun with him. If I startled him when he fired, he could hurt Dustin.
Or kill him.
The wind changed direction, and I could smell my beauty’s fear mixed with Don’s. The scent of polished metal mingled, making my stomach roll. I had to make it in time. I had to.
Erastus’s feral growl grew louder. As I rounded another tree, I saw them. Dustin had fallen face-first onto the ground, the side of his face covered in dirt, moldering leaves clinging to his cheek. Erastus stood over him, his front paws in the center of my beauty’s back.
And Don had his gun drawn.
I stopped as suddenly as I had moved, right beside Don. As his finger squeezed the trigger, I shoved his hand up, so the bullet went into the air.
A deafening silence fell, and all I could hear were four sets of heartbeats on the breeze and the gentle rustle of falling leaves.
With a breath, I released Don’s hand and stepped in front of him. “Put your weapon away.”
“Sir?”
I stared Erastus down, looking him directly in his golden eyes. “Put the gun away and head back for the house. Now.”
“But, sir—”
“Do as I say, Don.”
The man sighed, and I felt him back up, heard the click as he re-engaged the safety, the slither of metal against leather as he holstered his weapon. With each sound, the tension in my shoulders and back eased.
As I felt his presence recede, I backed up a step, spoke low and with a tone colder than Dustin had ever heard from me, that I had hoped he would never hear from me. “Erastus. Get off of Dustin.”
The wolf snorted and narrowed his eyes at me as if to say, “Make me.”
My heart rate picked up. The world narrowed down to the three of us, all other sights and sounds becoming thin and insubstantial. My power surged through me, responding to my fury. Erastus must have sensed it. He lowered his head and growled, his fangs bared, hackles raised. Saliva dripped from those deadly fangs onto the back of Dustin’s neck, turning my stomach sour. I wanted to rip him away, to rend him to base atoms to be scattered on the wind.
I wanted to kill. My magic begged me to destroy, to murder anything and anyone in my way of saving the one I loved. I could not save my best friend, but I would save my beauty.
Dustin made a noise. I glanced down, and frightened silver eyes met mine, a silent plea glittering there. He shook his head subtly, and my stomach iced over. He wanted me to spare Erastus.
That young fool.
I lifted my eyes back to Erastus and took a step forward. There would be no more retreating. “You dare defy me, wolf? Do not forget your place.”
Erastus’s snarling grew louder, more savage. He lowered his head, his muzzle closer to Dustin’s hair, almost nuzzling into the back of his head. If I didn’t act now, I would kill him for his insolence. But that would mean upsetting Dustin. With Dustin’s plea and Erastus’s position, my options were narrowed down to nothing.
Magic flared into my palms—spheres meant to intimidate, to let Erastus know I would no longer tolerate his silly game of dominance. I may once have freed the wolvan from slavery, but I would not bow to one, would never allow such a being to harm an elf in my care, no matter how tight or loose a hold that elf had on my heart.
When I looked into Erastus’s eyes again, I saw no shred of humanity. Nothing but fury and agony remained. He had devolved into his base instincts, a feral beast.
For such a beast, the only humane thing to do would be to put it down, to end its suffering. But when I dropped my gaze to Dustin’s, he silently begged me to spare the creature pinning him to the ground.
I could not do it.
I would not do it.
With my heart in my throat, I aimed and let loose a volley of concussive blasts. Erastus yelped as he tumbled end over end through the air. He landed with a sickening thud against the trunk of a tree some thirty yards back. I reached for him with my magic, relaxed when I felt his heart beating, when I saw his chest expand with breath.
“Come, beauty!”
I reached down and hauled Dustin up by his arms. “Run. Back to the estate. Go!”
“But Erastus!” Dustin clutched at my sweater, his eyes earnest and worried. It broke my heart. “Erastus…”
“He lives. He’s gone feral, Dustin. We must get away from here unless you wish me to kill him.”
“Will he hurt anyone else?”
There was the smart young man I had come to love. I pressed a kiss to his brow as I dragged him along beside me. “Hopefully, the blasts stunned him enough that it snapped him out of it. Otherwise, I will have to go hunting this evening.”
“Hunting?” Dustin squawked. “You can’t be serious! You can’t hunt Erastus!”
I pressed my lips into a grim line and glanced back over my shoulder. “Then pray he wakes with a clear head. Once a wolf has gone feral, the humane thing is to put them down, Dustin. If he were in his right mind, he would beg for death in this instance.”
I sighed and shoved Dustin toward Don, who had thankfully disobeyed my orders to run. “Take him home. I’ll go deal with the wolf.”
“Cass, don’t hurt him!”
Frustrated, I let out a loud growl and stalked away. “If you insist.”
How had I completely lost control of that situation?
Silver eyes, wet and shining, pleading with me to spare the monster on his back. I sighed. As the saying went, I had it bad. I had it so bad, and I would never recover. Dustin would be the end of me.
I heard a whine up ahead. Every muscle in my body tensed at once. Would Erastus be in his right mind, or would he challenge a First Generation elven mage? Would he truly challenge the former Sun King?
The whine grew louder, and I followed it to find Erastus rocking slowly, trying to get to his feet, or at least to his belly so he could get to his feet. He shook his head at odd intervals, so perhaps I had given him a concussion. I hadn’t exactly pulled any of my strength back in those blasts.
“Erastus?”
I received a half-hearted growl as a reply and cautiously made my way to his side. “Foolish wolf.”
My heart bled for him. It truly did. His wife and pups would never return, and he had been holding their deaths close to his heart for over four millennia. It was too much for anyone to bear, let alone one as sensitive as a wolf shifter—one who mated for life.
With a gentle touch, I rested my hand on his shoulder and stroked down to his tail to see if I had accidentally broken his back, but found him only bruised. “Hold still.”
Erastus snapped his jaws at me, but the move was uncoordinated. His vision must have been swimming. Had I rattled his brain that hard?
Sighing to myself, I grabbed a fistful of fur and skin at his throat and held him down, my magic flaring to life as I focused on healing his head injury and his bruised spine. As I worked, his garbled growls and snarls soon morphed into pained whines, then into silent pants as the pain receded. I would not keep anyone in unnecessary pain, not even my greatest enemy.
Erastus eyed me as I continued the healing, as if judging me or plotting my demise. If only he could speak in this form, I would have words. But as it was, I wanted nothing more from him than to strangle the—
No, I had to drop that thought, or the healing would turn into harm and would be a complete waste of magic. But when I finished, I tightened my grip on the skin of his throat, and gripped a fistful on his vulnerable belly, showing my dominance, and leaned in very close so my words would hit home.
“If you threaten Dustin again, I will kill you. Understood?”
Erastus snorted. Whether it was assent or a “get fucked,” I released him either way and stood. “Now get off my property.”
And because I was the dominant one, I turned my back on him and calmly walked away.
I, the Sun King, had tamed the beast.
At least… for now.
