Page 24 of Her Wolf Protector

"No. You're not going without me. If you're going to the fae realm, so am I." He took her hand. "Let's go."

Arwen's mouth dropped open. "You'd come with me? But...I have no idea what's waiting on the other side. I know Father was some kind of royalty, so we could be walking into a whole mess of courtly politics with monsters I can't even imagine. I can't ask you to do that. You'd be leaving everything and everyone behind."

"Except you, and you're my mate. The one person who matters most. If you go, we go. Together. Fae monsters are no match for a wolf pack enforcer. I've been training for this my whole life. I'll be your royal bodyguard."

Her eyes shone with tears. "Really?"

"Really."

TWENTY-THREE

They hiked up to the mushroom dell hand in hand, like Tate didn't want to let her go. Arwen couldn't get over the fact that he wanted to come to the fae realm with her. It wasn't the same for her. She had no one here, except for some friends from school, and she hadn't heard from any of them. Not that she'd had a phone or internet access or any way they could contact her, but still.

Tate...he had a whole pack. Friends and family who relied on him. He was the pack enforcer, a job of some importance that came with both an apartment and a house. He'd be giving all that up to go with her, yet he hadn't hesitated.

Maybe he'd change his mind when she activated the portal. Ah, that would make sense. She'd understand. At least she'd be able to say goodbye to him. And shifters lived for longer than regular humans. Perhaps he'd still be here when she returned. Older, and probably married to someone else with kids and grandkids by then, but still Tate.

Yes. If he stayed, she'd have to come back.

Arwen knew when they reached the plateau where the mushrooms grew, even before it came into view. The buzzing wrongness of the magic grated on her. Then the stream split, circling the dell, and she saw it with her human eyes for the first time.

"Oh, fuck," Arwen whispered.

The mushrooms were gone, the stalks sheared off with steel blades. Just like the chain that had stolen her strength. Steel? No, iron. Like the bracelets Ravenna had placed on her wrists while she slept. It was the iron in it that stole the magic, burning the mushrooms in a thousand places until the hyphae themselves burned for vengeance, releasing their poison into the very ground. And the water flowing through it.

Only one mushroom remained, hidden between the roots of a tree on the edge of the dell.

Arwen leaned down to look more closely at it. It looked for all the world like a red, shiny apple. It even smelled like one. But the poison in the hyphae beneath...it raged, urging her to turn into a ravening beast. To turn the whole world into fighting, fucking hordes that would take over the world, find the person who had done this to them, and deliver vengeance.

But whoever had stolen the mushrooms had taken the fae ring as well.

There would be no travelling to the fae realm for Arwen unless she found it. Before the hyphae's poisoned minions did.

"No," she said softly. "You shall not have vengeance, for vengeance is mine. You are my subjects. Mine to command, and you will stand down, or I will end you!"

She felt the fury rising up, as hyphae stretched, choking the creek as they reached for her.

And Tate.

Her mate.

The forest held its breath.

"Mine!" Arwen roared, swiping a hand through the air. The soil around her seemed to bubble, rippling in waves until it reached the trees surrounding the perfect circle that was the dell, before reflecting and racing back to her feet. Power flowed into her, the life force of the whole field of mushrooms, snuffed out for daring to rebel against the power of their fae ruler. For the fungus that formed the ring were hers to command.

Arwen gasped as her vision went white for a moment, before her eyesight returned. Tate stared at her in wonder.

"What did you do?" he asked.

Arwen dropped to a crouch, and dipped her hand in the stream. "I'm making this right." Power raced down her arm, swirling in the current as it purified the stream, tumbling down a cascade, all the way down to a lake, whose power and depth stretched further than Arwen's magic could reach. "Take me to the lake, so I can finish this."

TWENTY-FOUR

Tate pulled his pickup to a stop just before the lake shore. Sanctuary Loch stretched out like a bright blue mirror, reflecting the sky above. Beautiful. He could make a home here with Arwen, when they returned from the fae realm.

In fact, he could see the perfect house now – one of the prefabricated ones that had been built and brought in, sitting on a little rise that overlooked the lake. It was two storeys tall, with a small balcony on the upper floor. The whole upper floor was a parents' retreat, with bedroom, ensuite and sitting area, with all the children's bedrooms and living areas on the ground floor below. A house where he could knot Arwen every night, as she screamed his name in delight, and they could watch the sun rise over the lake in the morning, before their children awoke.

And there would be children, no matter what Arwen said about the infertility of fae. She was only half fae, and she was all wolf shifter. Knotting her once while she was in her fertile time was pretty much guaranteed to result in a pregnancy. A hundred times while she'd been in heat...it was no wonder he could scent the changes in her already. Arwen was already carrying his child, just as Sienna was carrying Shaw's. Their children would grow up together, just as Shaw and Tate had. It was fate.