AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I plaster a grin on my face, ready for my performance. “Hey!”
The wedding goes well.It’s a pleasant day for winter; the sun is shining, the ocean that this place overlooks is dead calm, and the garden setting within the vineyard grounds is beautiful. Zara marries her mate — a wolf shifter, the same as her — and honestly, it makes sense that we never worked out, because I can tell they’re meant to be.And I’m meant to be with Rose.
Shifters outnumber everyone else at this wedding and it’s one of the few functions I’ve ever been to where humans are clearlyin the minority. A few humans have that slightly stunned look on their face as the crowd mingles in the garden post-ceremony while we all wait for various group photos to be taken, and it’s obvious that they feel like fish out of water.
I half-listen to the conversation about the upcoming election cycle and how many MPs are likely to be non-human, my eyes scanning the crowd. I’ve always found people watching fascinating and —
There’s a short woman with long honey-blonde hair, dressed like the other guests for the wedding in a long-sleeved dress, but instead of mingling, she’s crouched down, fussing around with one of the plants in the garden. She stands, pushing back her hair with her hand, turning so that her face is in profile, and the breath catches in my lungs.RoseI think for a split second before I blink and realiseit's not her.
She’s not Rose at all, but there’s enough similarities in her small build, in the hair, in thedelicately pointed ears, and her pretty-but-not-Rose face, to have tricked me for the briefest moment into thinking that my girl had somehow made it here, to this vineyard, in the flesh.
I watch her, staring at her ears, trying to imagine this woman with antlers on her head. The image I conjure fits too well; this woman has to be the same as her. It’s too uncanny. She smiles, and even her grin looks similar to Rose’s.
I can’t take my eyes off of her, trying to figure out what to do. Someone asks me a question about what I’m doing for work these days and I give a vague answer about commercials and a regular gig, and when the conversation turns again I scan the crowd once more, relieved to find her still there.
Do I go talk to her? Does she even know what she is? Since last week, when I finally realised I should have been searching the termfaeall along, I read through all I could find onchangelings— the term used for people with fae heritage, and the increasing trend of changelings disappearing into thin air. I found references to a documentary that aired on TV a couple of years ago, but I haven’t been able to find a single version ofStolen By Magicanywhere online, and I feel like I’m slowly going insane reading all these conspiracy theories about fairies stealing people away.
What if she knows how to save Rose?
It’s that thought that has me excusing myself from the group with a quick, “Gotta find the loo,” just as the conversation turns to the fact that aThursday is a strange day for a wedding, but at least the weather’s nice. I’m weaving my way through the crowd of people when a guy — another wolf, from the look of him, with his dark hair and tall, muscular build — suddenly steps in front of her, wrapping his arm around her waist and bending to say something in her ear. He turns his head, staring directly at me, shooting daggers with his gold eyes.
Fuck.
“Excuse me, are you…?” Someone touches my elbow, and I look down to find a wide-eyed human gaping up at me. “You’re Zak Carlson,” she says breathily, and I recognise the signs of a star-struck fan. “Oh my god. Do you… would you… um…”
“I can sign something for you,” I smile, keenly aware of the wolf still watching me.
I guess I wasn’t that subtle.
“Hello, troublemaker.”
I grin at Zara, bending to give her a hug. “You look lovely. Congratulations,” I tell her, meaning every word. Her cream-coloured wedding dress compliments her dark brown hair and amber eyes. We were only ever together pre-Unravelling, and I honestly think that’s one of the reasons we’re still able to get along so well. We’re older, different people from when we were together, and the physical changes to us both just adds to that. “Why am I a troublemaker?” I ask her.
“I don’t know, you tell me. How come my new pack alpha is on edge about you? He just asked me who you were before and he couldn’t even keep the growl out of his voice… something about you staring at his mate?”
“Oh, fuck.” I drop my voice low, making a small gesture with my head. “Is that him?” The guy in question — the wolf I pissed off earlier — is watching me again from across the huge indoor event space.
“Yeah,” she nods. “That’s Evander Livingston. Dude, you’re keeping it real classy if you’re trying to get laid atmywedding. But like, seriously, please make sure the targets of your affection aren’t already mated to wolves, because I still care about you and I’d rather your throat be intact and not in tatters in the jaw of a shifter you’ve pissed off.”
I shake my head. “It’s really not like that, and I’m… I’m taken, anyway. I met someone special.”
Zara’s mouth hangs open. “Where is she? You didn’t bring her? Zak!” She gently whacks my arm with the back of her hand. “You should have, you know I would have let you add on a plus one!”
I shake my head. “She couldn’t make it. Hey, if he’s your alpha, I’ve got a question about his mate. What is she?”
Zara seems to hesitate, a small frown crossing her features. “Why are you asking?” Her tone is more wary than I expected it to be.
“Because I know someone that looks like her. The ears, and the hair. She’s not an elf, right? She seems different.”
“She says she’s a garden fairy. That’s what she calls herself.”
A fairy! Fae!“What even is that?” I ask, my mind reeling with the new information. “I’ve never heard anyone use that particular term for a species before.”
She shakes her head. “I can’t…” She looks pained, and I have a sudden memory of Zara making the same face after her old alpha ordered her not to disclose some pack information with me, even though we were living together at the time. Both of us had felt it was wrong, but there was nothing we could do about it back then.
Zara and her husband have only recently joined this new pack, and I had hoped that her new alpha would be a little less heavy-handed when it came to using their alpha bark, given the fact that it is essentially a tool for controlling the entire pack. Seeing Zara struggle to even answer a simple question makes me a little concerned that history is repeating itself.
“He's ordered you to keep quiet about it hasn't he?” I ask. “Does she ever have antlers on her head?”
