Desire Awakened (Aaron's Kiss #13) (22 page)

“Sort of like a mix of wires. Once they were
tangled, you’d need the color codes to figure out which ones you’d
tied off incorrectly.”

Shamus nodded.

“I can see that, I suppose.”

“But it fell into the wrong hands and she
had been using it in the dark forest. There had been life there
before then; trees flourished grandly and the fairies and brownies
kept the trees as well as the blossoms bright and growing. But
Megan had destroyed all but a few acres of the forest, and with it,
any chance of it growing back. By the time it was discovered what
she’d done, it was too late. So Mellie summoned her parents and
told them she must be made to stop or she would have no choice but
to send them all away.”

“She didn’t stop.”

Shamus shook his head.

“How did her parents really die? She killed
them, didn’t she?”

“Yes, I’m afraid she did. When Megan stepped
forward to confront Mellie, the Guard stepped in front of her.
Megan raised her hand and tried to slice the two guards in half,
but only succeeded in killing her own father. When he fell dead,
her mother had grabbed her to try and stop her, but she only tossed
her away and Delilah had ended up landing badly on a sword of one
of the injured guards. When Mellie tried to help her, Megan grabbed
her arm, and Mellie’s protection, something that is there in her
blood as it is mine, it tore the child’s arm off.”

Shamus stopped talking, but Bradley knew
there was more to the story.

“Mellie tried to repair her so that she
wouldn’t have to try and survive without an arm, but Megan hadn’t
been grateful at all. She spit in Mellie’s face and told her she’d
kill her the next time she saw her. And not only that, but three
members of the Royal Guard had been hurt and had to retire after.
It was a huge blow to Mel and the kingdom.”

“So she ended up here after all, and now she
blames this on Lizzy. I don’t understand how she’s able to blame
anyone but herself for this.”

“Lizzy was there. She was sitting in the
court with her mother, Sara. When Lizzy ran forward to save Megan’s
mother, Megan tried to hurt her. Mellie saved her as Lizzy saved
the woman. In Megan’s eyes, Lizzy had been sucking up, and my
Mellie had never seen the real Lizzy.”

They stood outside his home, and Bradley
looked around the yard as he thought about what he’d been told. “So
all these years, she’s seen Lizzy as her nemesis. Someone that she
had to prove herself against.”

“Pretty much.” Shamus nodded to the woods
behind his home. “When this is over, you’ll need to expand your
lands. I would say that the man next to you is willing to sell to
you for a price. Would you absorb his pack into yours? It will be
more than a few more for you to rule.”

More pack meant more work. Not that he was
afraid of it, but he wasn’t getting any younger. He started to tell
him no, that he just couldn’t do it, but Shamus put his hand on his
shoulder. Bradley looked at him.

“I would not ask this of you if I wasn’t
sure you could handle it.”

Bradley snorted.

“Okay, maybe I would, but the pack is dying
and without leadership such as yours, it will. There will be money
to add to the coffers if you do this. And land, nearly double what
you have now.”

He eyed him sharply. “I have nearly ten
thousand acres now and almost that many in my pack. It’s a great
deal more than a few if there is that much land to come with it.
How many, Shamus, and why me?”

“Mellie said you were a suspicious man and
that you’d ask before saying yes or no.” He sighed heavily. “Nearly
five thousand wolves, and you because there is no other that can
bring them to heel. If you don’t take them, the one that takes
charge will bring them down. When he does, Mellie and I will have
no choice but to destroy them all. It’s not what we want. They will
attack the kingdom when they come together because they’ll think
that we’re the cause of their misfortune. I ask you this as a
friend.”

“You ask a great deal.” Bradley watched the
trees sway in the breeze then the swing on the set in his yard
move. “There will be problems, as you know, and the money is not
the least of my concerns, but it will help. I’ll have to speak to
Airic to see what she has to say, but I’m pretty sure I know
already. When will this happen?”

“Soon,” he told him. “Very soon.”

“I don’t understand. What do you mean
they’re all gone? I just sent them out on a mission and now I can’t
find them.” Megan’s head hurt, and she was standing in the middle
of the street talking on a payphone. She glanced around,
uncomfortable being out in the open talking to the alpha.

“As I have told you four times now, they are
gone. I spoke with Ollie four days ago and told him that he either
had to return to me or there was going to be hell to pay. Then just
yesterday morning, I spoke with him again and he said that you had
taken care of the problem with the other alpha and that they were
set to stay.” He sighed and spoke to her as if she were nothing
more than shit on his shoes. “You fucked up, and now they’re gone.
All of them that came with you are dead.”

The line went dead and she hung up. She
would have called him back, but she didn’t even have the money to
do that. She looked at her building and decided that she’d waited
long enough for them to come tell her she was the new owner. She
went to the back door. She needed things from the apartment and she
wasn’t getting them waiting on the stupid person downtown to tell
her it was hers. But her key didn’t work.

Over and over she tried it until she just
pushed her power into the lock and watched as it melted away. She’d
have to have that fixed soon, but for now, she would put a ward on
it and that would be that. But that wouldn’t work either. She
finally had to enter the building and push a large box in front of
it so nothing could simply get in. She moved to the store front and
stopped.

Everything was gone. Her herbs and spices,
even her small jars in the windows that she’d collected over the
years were gone. She looked for her cash register and found it,
too, was missing. Hurrying to the stairs, she went up to find that
it had been ransacked, and all her things, while there, had been
put into large trash bags and put near the stairs. Even her things
in the bathroom were gone. She sat on the floor and tried to think
what the fuck had happened.

Someone had robbed her. Or they were trying
to rob her. She went back downstairs and tried to find anything
that would give her a hint as to what had come in and thought they
could take her things. That’s when she saw the note attached to the
front door. Opening it, she pulled the paper off, closed the door
behind her, and stood there reading the two sheets of paper.

It took her three tries to realize just what
it said. A company by the name of B.L.A.C.K. now owned her building
and the ones surrounding hers. She couldn’t think who they might
be, but she knew where she could find out. She went to the bedroom
again to find something clean to wear and found a towel. She took a
long, hot shower, her first in a week, and pulled on clean clothes.
It was time to go and find someone at the courthouse that could
help her. Just as she stepped out of the bathroom, she
screamed.

There were ten of them. She might have been
impressed had she had time to think about it, but they had her
wrapped in irons and held between them before she could guess their
intent. When the Royal Guard parted, Lizzy stood by the door. Megan
tried to attack the fucking bitch, but got no further than the
links of chain would allow her.

“Megan, daughter of Dahlia and Izic, Fairies
of the North Field, I hereby take you into custody to be brought to
trial by the—”

“You can’t take me into custody. You’ve no
rights. That is for the queen to decide, and since she isn’t here
then…” The small room seemed to shift and move, then the queen was
standing there. The guards stood straighter and held her just a
little tighter. The queen kissed Lizzy on the cheek before she
looked at her.

“Hello, Megan. You’ve been a very bad girl
again. What do you have to say for yourself?” Megan said nothing.
“I see. Take her back to the kingdom and place her in a cell. I
want her chained and her room warded against her magic.”

“You can’t do that.” She flushed when the
queen looked at her. “You can’t lock me away. I know the rules, and
it says so long as I’m making my own way I can’t be brought to you
for crimes I…you think I’ve committed.”

“And what is it exactly that you’ve been
doing to make your own way?” The queen looked around the room then
back at her. “You’re a squatter here, and you’ve no lease to say
that you can rent this place from the owners. What is it that you
have done?”

“I own the building as of the day before
yesterday. I placed a bid, and now that I own it, I don’t have to
pay rent.”

The queen looked thoughtful, then turned to
her. “You’ll need to be present at the trial to end this. As soon
as proof of your ownership can be found, I will set you free. Until
then, you—”

“I can’t get to the courthouse. I’ve not
been able to…” She tried to rein in her temper when Lizzy leaned in
to say something to her but Megan cut her off. “I need to get to
the courthouse.”

“I’ll take care of that for you. Is there
anything else you require before I set the date?” The queen waited
and Megan wanted to tell her that if she’d go now, she wouldn’t
have to waste time on setting anything up, but she kept her mouth
shut and shook her head. “Take her to the dungeon and lock her
in.”

Suddenly, she was being shoved into a dark
cell. The four men who had brought her here held their swords on
her as two more chained her to the wall. The younger one looked at
her as the towel she still had on slipped a little more. When she
tried to make it fall more, Marcus, the same guard that had taken
her and her mother out of the kingdom, barked the boy’s name.

“Daniel. Come away from her before she slits
your throat.”

He leapt back so quickly that he hit the
wall behind him before he could scramble away from her.

“She’s a black spider, and will coil you
into her web so quickly you won’t know you’re hurt until it’s too
late.”

She was chained to the wall within minutes
and clothes were wrapped around her. She looked up at Marcus and
sneered at him. He chuckled as if he had not a single thing to do
with her parents’ death. Before she could cast a spell at him, she
felt the ribbon of magic cover her mouth.

He leaned down and looked at her. “You’ve
got yourself well and truly caught now. Your parents were good
people who I miss daily. They should have done as the queen asked
and sent you away to be raised by others instead of losing their
lives to save your worthless self.” She glared at him, unable to
say what she really wanted to. He stood up and backed out of the
cell. But he wasn’t finished.

“The trial is set for the day after
tomorrow. You’ll be given a fair trial, not that you deserve it,
but the queen is a fair lady.” When she growled, he laughed.
“‘Twill do me the best of good to see you hanged for your crimes if
for none other than the fact that you’ve lived this long.”

The door slammed shut after him, and she
felt the magic sealed her mouth loosen. She wasn’t free to speak
her mind, but she could easily breathe now. Looking about the cell,
she wondered who had made the improvements and knew that they’d
done this for her. Leaning her head back against the wall, she
smiled when she thought of their faces when they went to the
courthouse and found that she did own the building. She was going
to make them pay.

The small fairy stone was slid beneath the
door, and she held her breath as it moved nearly to her before it
came to a stop. She had to angle her body in a near pretzel-like
position before she could blow across it. As it formed, she
wondered who had sent her such a gift and watched as its owner came
to life.

The tiny fairy stretched her wings. The
color of the green grass, the fairy fluttered her wings as she
looked at her. When she walked toward her, Megan started to smile,
but stopped when she felt the sharp pain in her thigh. “What the
fuck was that for?”

The grass fairy smiled as she jabbed her
again.

“Stop that. What do you think you’re
doing?”

“You’re the one, are you not?” The fairy
flew to her lap and walked up her belly to her breast to stand on
the rough material that she’d been clothed in. “You’re Megan the
Black, are you not?”

The title pleased her, but before she could
tell her anything, the fairy stabbed her again. This time, Megan
could see what it was she was using. It was a thorn tipped in
black.

“You’ve taken everything from my family, and
now you’re here to stand trial. You’ve no idea how long we’ve
waited for this.”

Megan tried to blow her off, but she only
landed near her leg again.

“I’ll not be able to kill you as I wish, but
I can take from you a little of what—”

“Lawna.” The voice through the door startled
them both. “Come out of there this minute.”

Megan couldn’t see the man on the other
side, but she knew the voice. Logan was going to set her free, she
just knew it. She looked at the grass fairy and smirked. With one
more deep stab to her thigh, the little person went to the door and
waited for it to be opened. He stood there in the opening, smiling
down. Megan refused to believe it was for the little green thing
and watched him as he leaned down to speak to her.

“Who let you in here?”

Lawna stomped her foot.

“I see. Being stubborn. That’s all fine and
dandy, but what do you suppose would have happened if the queen had
found you?”

“She would have been very angry with me. She
said that I was to behave while she…” Lawna turned to Megan and
glared. “I don’t like her.”