Marked (The Coldest Fae Book 3) by Katerina Martinez (novel24 .txt) 📗

Even though I could never figure out where it was coming from, it almost felt like I was always around it, always near it. Always near him. But that didn’t make any sense, because we were nowhere near him. We didn’t even know where he was.

I had a hunch he had made tracks for the Veridian, but I really had no way of knowing.

And yet, his scent was here, in the woods… but it was mingled with blood. His blood. He’s hurt. I didn’t know how, or why. I didn’t know who had hurt him, but wherever he was, he was bleeding. I had to get to him, and I had to get to him quickly, so I put my head down and kept running, dashing, sprinting through the woods, following the scent that was starting to grow stronger by the second.

Then I found him.

I came to a scrambling halt near him. He was on his front in the snow, there was blood all around him, and a trail of it heading deeper into the forest. I couldn’t find his weapon, or a backpack, or a carriage. He was alone, unarmed, face down on the ground, and he wasn’t moving.

Hurrying over to him, I sniffed around his neck, his head. I could hear his pulse, and I could tell his body was warm, but I didn’t know the extent of his injuries. There was something else, too; something gripped in his hand. A piece of fabric stained with blood, his knuckles were white from the effort of holding onto it. I recognized it instantly, even before the scent filled my nostrils.

My own scent.

It was a piece of my snowflake dress, the part he had torn off back at the palace. What was he doing with it in his hand instead of a weapon?

“D-Dahlia…” he groaned.

I turned around and came over to his face again. His eyes were closed, but he’d just spoken. I knew he had. “I’m here,” I whispered, nuzzling my snout under nis neck. “Can you stand?”

“I… I…” he fell against the snow, exhausted, unconscious.

“Dammit…” I cursed, looking around. I had to get him back to the moon children, but number one, I didn’t know how to shift back into my human form to carry him. Number two, I probably wasn’t strong enough to carry him in my human form anyway. Number three, I was probably naked in my human form for all I knew. And number four, I had a human form and a wolf form, now.

What the fuck?

“Sit on my back, Gullie,” I said, “I’m gonna have to drag him back to the portal.”

“Drag him? Are you sure?” she asked.

“I don’t have a choice. He’ll die out here.”

I gingerly gripped onto his clothes with my teeth and started pulling him through the snow. I had no sense of how long it might take to get him to where I needed to go. I could only hope he would hold on until then.

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER EIGHT

 

 

With a howl that shook the snow off nearby trees I activated the portal to the moon children’s village, and they were all waiting for me once I’d arrived. Some were in their wolf forms, their hackles raised, their teeth bared. The rest stood behind the wolves, making sure I couldn’t leave the hilltop.

At the front of the pack was Ashera, wearing a harsh scowl. Slightly behind her, Praxis had hold of Melina, seemed to be holding a bunch of clothes in her hands; the same clothes I’d been wearing before I transformed. That meant I really was naked under all this fur.

Toross still had Mira over his shoulder, but his angle allowed her to see what was going on without having to be constantly told. Though unharmed, both women looked more like captives now than they had before I’d left.

The Alpha’s scowl then turned to confusion. I realized how this looked. I had left the village by myself, and I had returned with a body in my mouth, and a pixie riding on my back. The secret was out; Gullie’s secret.

“What is this?” she asked.

“I can explain,” I said.

“Holy crap, you can talk?” Mel asked.

Praxis tightened his hold around her shoulders. “Quiet, woman.”

“Tell me to quiet one more time, and you’ll regret it, man.”

“You can’t talk to her like that,” Mira yelled.

“And you have to learn your place as well,” Praxis said, “Or should I break the other leg?”

“Silence, all of you,” the Alpha barked, then she gave me her attention again. “You are the only one who is to speak.”

I nodded, lowering my head. “Okay, just don’t hurt my friends.”

Ashera’s eyes narrowed. “Who is this man you have brought to our village?” she asked, “And what is a pixie doing on your back? Answer quickly, and truthfully.”

“She called me a pixie…” Gullie whispered.

I shushed her, then turned my eyes up at the Alpha. “I will tell you everything you need to know,” I said, “But I want reassurances that my friends will not be harmed. Not them, not him, and not my pixie.”

“Your pixie?”

“Yes. She is also my friend, and her name is Gullie.”

The Alpha moved in a little closer and knelt in front of me, meeting my eyeline. “Because you are one of our own, I will promise you not to harm you or your friends—for now. But if I detect an ounce of deception, I will not hesitate.”

“Then I’ll be honest.” I paused. “But first, I would like to know how to go back to my human form. I’m kind of… stuck.”

She cocked an eyebrow. In the crowd behind her, a ripple of murmurs began to move. “Stuck?”

I nodded. “I don’t know how I got into this form, and I can’t get back out.”

Ashera raised her hand above her shoulder and made a simple come here gesture. A moment later, one of her people stepped up beside her. It was the woman I had seen earlier, in fact—one of the ones who had captured me.

“Lora, fetch her a