Thrown to her Wolves by Margo Collins (best motivational novels txt) 📗

I was about to turn around to face the pack, when an ice-white lightning bolt slammed through the room.

Liam grabbed me and pulled me down, so that we were crouching on the ground away from whatever had caused the lightning bolt.

Pack members in both human and Wolf form scattered away from the central point where the bolt had hit.

A kind of afterimage glow seem to cover above the spot, resolving itself slowly into a human form.

Or perhaps I should say a fae form.

It was the Winter Queen.

My three wolves surrounded me in an instant, creating a barrier between me and the Winter Queen. I had to try open the space between Liam and Owen in order to be able to get a look at her.

She looked just as she had the last time I had seen her, when she’d briefly held me prisoner. She was tall and thin, and she had long, flowing, white hair. I still couldn’t tell if the hair color was the result of age or chemicals—or if it was a natural blonde so pale as to appear white.

Her face was carefully made up to highlight her enormous blue eyes, and I couldn’t put her age at anything more specific than somewhere between thirty and sixty. And her long, ice-blue skirt and white blouse were obviously expensive.

She looked around at all of us, a cold, proud smile on her face.

“I see you, little wolves,” she said.

One of the younger pack members who was already in his wolf form leapt at her—but instead of hitting a solid person like the one who seemed to be standing there, he sailed through her image.

“She’s not here,” I whispered.

Deliberately, I placed one hand on Owen’s shoulder and the other on Liam’s, adding just enough pressure to let them know that I needed to pass through.

They each took a step to the side, allowing me to move between them and step up to face the Winter Queen.

I caught a glimpse of us in the mirror that hung behind the bar. We couldn’t be any more different. With her frozen beauty in varying shades of white, she looked like the embodiment of death. Enticing, but without offering anything of permanence.

By contrast, my red dress and heated glare included all the life and vitality of the wolves. For an instant, I truly believed that could melt her away, if only we met in person again.

“You’re not welcome here,” I announced, stepping up directly across from the Winter Queen. “Neither you nor your court nor even your shadow self.” I gestured up and down at her, then waved my hand through what seemed to be some kind of almost holographic image.

The Winter Queen laughed. “Oh, perhaps not now, Little Wolf Queen. But there will come a day when you will invite me to join you. You will welcome it, even.”

I had to clench my teeth to keep from shooting back with a denial. Even though I managed to avoid saying something, all three of my wolves—the ones I was marrying—stepped up around me, growling, and the rest of the Wolf pack followed their example, until there were more than a hundred wolves in varying degrees of shift, from human to half-shifted to full wolf forms.

We all stood against the Winter Queen.

She simply laughed—as well she might, given the fact that we were unable to actually touch her. Still, it was an impressive display, and it warmed my heart.

“What do you want from us?” I demanded. “Why are you here?”

“My husband has enthralled a wolf pack of his own. I was curious to see if I might do the same.”

“Find a different pack,” I advised. “If you come for us, I will make sure that you are destroyed.”

The Winter Queen laughed her throaty laugh again. On the surface, it should have seemed sensual. But the noise broke like glass over my eardrums, causing me to wince.

“I will certainly take that under advisement, Little Wolf Queen. I’ll be seeing you.” She waved, completing a complicated gesture with her hand. The word, she was gone.

I was shaking, I was so angry.

I pulled my three men over to one side of the room. “What do we do?”

“I think we should send out scouts to see what we can discover about what, exactly, the Winter Queen is doing. The fae are never to be trusted, and the Winter Queen less so than most,” Liam said.

“I concur,” Owen said. He began moving around the bar, dispatching various wolves to their tasks.

While he did that, Liam placed one finger under my chin and turned my head back from watching Owen to looking at him.

“We have a ceremony to finish,” he reminded me

“Is that the most important could be doing tonight? After that?” Tears filled my eyes.

“Yes. I think so. We need to remind the pack that this is part of our order. We need to be able to show them that life continues even in the midst of trouble.”

I nodded. Liam’s kind heart had been part of what had drawn me to him. I loved knowing that he had a sharp mind to go with it.

“Everyone,” I announced, using what I was now thinking of as my new alpha voice, “we’ve decided to continue the ceremony. Unless Owen has sent you on an errand, we’re going to pick up where we left off. And,” I added on a whim, “we’ll have a bartender serving drinks for anyone who wants them after the ceremony.”

That got a wolfly howl of approval.

Chapter 6

It was definitely going to take some time to get used to my new life, tied to three different men.

Assuming we live through whatever the Winter Queen has planned for us.

“You okay?” Liam lifted his