“In a manner of speaking. ”
“Queen, yes? Of the wolves. ” The way he said the last word let me know what his opinion on wolves was, and he wasn’t about to start writing sonnets about how delightful my pack was.
“Queen of the Eastern Pack,” I elaborated. “For now. ”
This, of all things, was what made the fairy king smile. “What marvelous insight for one so young. ”
“Oh?”
“Yes… To know everything in life is fleeting. Even life itself. ”
What was it with the fae loving to give me the heebie-jeebies with their foreboding one-liners? Was I supposed to quake at his feet with a sentence like that? Not bloody likely.
“Maybe, but I think I’ve still got some time on my hands. ”
“We’ll see. ”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Calliope should have told me that when a fairy king says we’ll see about the fate of your life, it’s not a good thing. Even without his warning, I was smart enough to know any uncertainty about my future well-being wasn’t something to take lightly. So when the king used those words, I decided it was time to play it cool.
“Your Maj—”
“Call me Aubrey, please. ” He smiled in a cool way that I was sure made the fae ladies get wet in their gossamer undies, but it only gave me a worried shiver. “Aubrey Delacourte. ” The expectant stare following his introduction told me he was waiting for a name from me, although I knew he had to be perfectly aware of who I was since he’d said as much earlier.
“I’m Secret McQueen. ”
“I know. ”
Of course he did.
“I’ve come because someone who…belongs to me has been brought here against her will. ”
“Oh?”
Fairies were notorious for kidnapping. Babies sometimes, changelings. But their real bread-and-butter was women. I’d seen true fairy women before, and it had astonished me that the men of the realm felt any need to look outside their own species until Calliope explained the reasoning to me. Fairy women were delicate, and not just in their appearance. Pregnancy was not as simple for them as it was for humans, and the gestation period for a full-blooded fairy baby was a whopping thirty months. Months. Considering how much the babies drained from their mothers in terms of food and energy, it was sadly often the case that the mothers died before babies came to term.
Human women were a heartier lot, and their gestation was only nine months. To a fairy male looking to spread his seed it was often easier to father a half-breed than it was to wait out the lengthy birth of a full-blooded fairy child.
But the human women they took to incubate their spawn weren’t always willing. Kellen had been brought over as part of an owed debt, but I had even money it was her youthful uterus the fairy had been after and not her whole person.
“Aubrey, can I be honest with you?”
“It would be a lovely change of pace for me. ”
“The girl who was taken, she doesn’t belong here. She isn’t going to be a warm cavity for one of your fairy lords to put his face-hugging progeny into. She’s coming home with me. ”
“Face-hugging progeny?” He looked mildly amused.
“Wrong audience for an Alien reference, I think,” Holden whispered from behind me.
On the plus side, I found my absurd outbursts tended to endear me to people rather than make them want to order an instant death. I was eternally grateful Aubrey was at least a wee bit endeared. In fact, he was regarding me in an entirely new way, his cheek resting on his folded hand as he watched me with careful interest.
“You’re an unusual woman. Unlike any queen I believe I’ve ever known. ”
“Understatement…of…the…year,” Desmond wheezed, still holding his stomach. I’d probably wasted my Alien reference too soon, since he looked like his chest was about to burst any second. Worry twisted in my guts when I saw Desmond’s ashy, sweat-streaked face. He was in bad shape.
My focus was renewed. “Aubrey, I need my friend back. ”