Denied Mate by Roxie Ray
Liv
Icame to with a start, tied to a chair in near-darkness—a retro standing lamp with a tasseled shade glowed in the corner and lit up bare walls. The ties around my wrists gave way a little as I wrestled with them, but trying to wriggle my hands free proved futile. Calling on my wolf’s strength didn’t work, she seemed to be sound asleep, deep inside me. My heart quickened. The attacker had gotten me with silver; was it really still affecting me?
Underground. It smelled of damp, dank soil and something familiar… Geraniums? I frowned, and frantically searched for a way out. Concrete walls… No windows. The door must have been behind me. Oh, god, what if there wasn’t a door?
I craned my neck to look up, expecting to see a sickening roof hatch, confirming I was locked in there. But the ceiling seemed solid too, with a fluorescent bulb and a dangling lamp shade.
Shit. Maybe the kidnapper was a sicko with a living doll fetish. Bile rose at the thought of him decorating a bunker as a makeshift dollhouse to keep me in. I was no stranger to true crime podcasts, and this smacked of freaky, obsessed psychopath kidnapping. Shit. Shit!
A door behind me creaked open on loud hinges and I struggled to hop the chair, trying to spin around in time before I was smacked over the back of the head or something worse—
“Hey…” A tiny, familiar voice came from the back of the room. “You’re awake!”
“Mr-n?” I cried through my tape.
Tiny Maren in a yellow sundress and a white cardigan wrung her hands in front of her chest and grimaced. I guess that’s why I didn’t register someone at my door. “So, this is weird, right?”
“MM-HM!” I frantically nodded and tugged at my binds. Yes, this was fucking weird! My head spun with theories about Maren, recruited by the kidnapper. Brainwashed maybe. Maybe she was playing a long game?
“It’s okay— Don’t, oh, geez. Don’t hurt yourself.” She rushed over and knelt in front of me.
She tried to touch my knees but I jerked away from her.
“Liv, I’m sorry, I— I can explain everything but I need you to be cool. Don’t scream. Don’t freak out. I’ll untie you but you have to just… be chill.” She searched my face for a sign I was calm.
There would be no sign. My cheeks burned hot and I flicked my eyes over her as I wrestled with the rope. If I yanked my foot free, I could kick her back onto her butt— I tried to pull my wolf free again, but there was nothing. She was silent. I realized, after a moment, that the dark, damp smell of wood probably wasn’t the room, but from the rope binding me. Wolfsbane.
Realizing I was nowhere near calming down, Maren took a deep breath, closed her eyes and blurted out the truth. “I’m fae.”
I stopped struggling. Everything was quiet, save for the tick, tick, tick of water dripping somewhere in the distance.
I had to remember to breathe.
I had so many questions. I wasn’t even sure I’d heard her correctly. I tried to ask what the hell she was talking about, but it came out as, “Mrr?”
Maren sighed. With a flick of her wrist, a tiny violent flame danced in her palm. It vanished, and a moment later, the rope binding my hands went slack. Burnt. I stared. She leaned forward and wrenched the tape off my mouth. I hissed at the sting and tasted glue on my lips.
“I’m not a human, Liv. I lied to you.” She stood and started pacing, gesturing at nothing as she spoke. “I’m fae, and my court sent me to look after you when you came into your powers. Well… Sort of. Their intentions maybe aren’t so altruistic, but mine are—”
“You’re fae.” I couldn’t believe it, and I sure wasn’t keeping up with what else she was saying. “How did you keep your magic from me? I would have noticed.”
Maren shrugged one shoulder and eyed me up. “I knew you weren’t human; I was careful.” She paused. “You know, the midnight outings are sorta obvious, Liv, if someone knew what to look for. Besides, you think I’d be able to resist all those wolves hitting on me at The Lair if I was a human?”
She had a point. Humans (men and women alike) generally melted into quivering puddles of lust at the first whiff of a wolf shifter’s interest. And fae did the same to wolves. I had just assumed Maren had a lot of practice fending off interested men, for some reason. I had a hard time imagining sweet, timid Maren as a vamp, but then again, I wasn’t her target of seduction. Or…was I? Shit.
“Is this some sick sex game? A freaky way to come onto me?” I squinted at her accusingly, my head spinning.
“No!” She tsked, then hurried to untie the clumsy knots at my ankles. “I told you, my court sent me to keep an eye on you.”
“What does your court want with me?” I yanked one hand free when the rope was loose enough and rubbed the last of the sticky stuff off my lips. “Wait… You said something about my powers? I don’t have powers. Unless you mean the shifting? But that’s a wolf thing.” Obviously. My head kept spinning.
Maren undid the last of the knots and sat back on her heels in front of me. “It’s kind of an intense story. Are you comfortable?”
“No.” The chair had terrible back support which was why I’d thrown it out in the first place. Huh… It used to be my desk chair. I looked around at the bunker and was shocked to find the whole thing was decorated into a kind of studio apartment, with a sitting area, a kitchenette, and what appeared to be a mini art studio—Maren’s calligraphy artwork hanging on the walls above a small desk. It was furnished with familiar pieces, lots of which had once lived in our apartment.
I raised my eyebrows at her. “Do all faeries scavenge used furniture out of the trash?”
“Fae, Liv. And it’s just one of my unique Maren quirks!” She laughed nervously, and motioned for us to sit in the makeshift lounge area. “I had a feeling I’d need a safe space to bring you, and I wanted to make it as homey as possible.”
There was only so much you could do with an underground concrete box, but she’d done well. I stood shakily, still woozy from whatever she knocked me out with, and staggered over to the couch. Maren sat across from me in an oversized chesterfield armchair I’d seen in a thrift store near our apartment, and brought her legs up under her. She was dwarfed by the high back of the chair, but it also made her look kind of regal, like a tiny queen.
She rested her hands in her lap and looked at me seriously. “Ready to hear some weird news about your destiny?”
I rubbed my wrist where the rope had dug too deep, and sank into the couch.
“I’ll take your silence as consent.” Maren cleared her throat. “Have you heard of the prophecy of the fae-wolf?”
I frowned, something itching on the edge of my foggy memory. I paused a moment longer, so I gave up. I shook my head and let her fill me in.
“As the story goes, a fae and a wolf were prophesied to fall in love, and have a baby girl. She’d become the first female alpha, destined to rule over both the fae and the wolves, uniting us for the first time ever, all over the world.” Maren spoke quickly and rolled her hand like she was reciting it for the millionth time ever and wanted to get it over with.
“No offense, but wolves will never unite with fae.” I’d heard wolves trash-talking the fae my whole life. I had a sneaking suspicion the fae weren’t much more generous when it came to wolves, either.
The edges of Maren’s lips twitched. “Would you like them to, though?”
I frowned, unsure what she was getting at. Like it mattered what I wanted. Hell, Maren was the first fae I’d ever met. How the hell was I supposed to answer a question like that?
“Liv. Catch up.” She stared at me like I was an idiot. “You’re the fae-wolf girl promised by the prophecy.”
The scoff escaped deep in my throat. As if. I was the second child of the alpha of a relatively small, local pack, not a prophesied hybrid wolf-fae who could unite the two species. The only fate I had ever heard in regards to myself also related to Calum, and that had nothing to do with fae of any sort.
She tactfully ignored me. “After your father passed away last month, you’ve started coming into your alpha and fae powers. I had to get you out of the apartment because my brother is coming to check on us.”
“Checking on us? Because of my powers?” That was ridiculous. I should have listened to Ben and run a background on Maren because I accepted her as my roommate.
“I haven’t been, um, reporting in on you often enough for my court’s liking so they’re sending a spy—”
“Maren, you’ve got the wrong girl!” My laughter bordered hysteria and I held up my hands. I felt lightheaded. “I come from wolf blood. And I’m not the alpha, Ben is. You’ve seen him, he’s getting all hulked up. His alpha powers. Packs don’t have two alphas; that’s not how this works.”
Her eyes flicked with uncertainty and she hummed. “Okay, yes. Fine. It is a little weird your brother is also coming into powers… But I don’t know the ins and outs, okay? And I’m not the one you need to convince if you’re not the fae-wolf.”
The edge of fear in her voice was contagious. My heart stuttered and my wolf woke up, whining with worry. I was hit with a desperate desire to be by Cal’s side, safe and protected.
“Why?” I sat straighter. “What’s this about your brother?”
“I… really like you, Liv. I don’t want you to get hurt.” She swallowed thickly and shifted in her seat.
“Yeah, well, I don’t want to get hurt, either.” I frowned. “Does your family want to hurt me?”
She tucked the edges of her bob behind her ears and nervously rubbed her nose. It was suddenly so freakin’ obvious she was fae—slightly pointed ears, tiny button nose, freckles for days and the bone structure of a bird. I had no idea how I hadn’t seen it before. Magic, I guessed. Denial, too. The deep, powerful desire to have a normal existence for, like, five whole seconds.
“You just need to stay here in this five-star resort I built for you.” She smiled and gestured wildly at the furnishings she’d amassed. “Just long enough for us to figure out what to do next.”
I hummed with uncertainty and glanced around at the accommodations. “Why didn’t you just tell me you were fae from the start?”
“You would have accepted a fae as a roommate?” She laughed at the absurd idea. “When was the last time a fae was even seen in the Bridgehaven pack’s territory?”
I had to admit, Maren had a point there. I would have trashed her application, never bothered interviewing her, and gotten her run out of town. Frankly, it would be a lie to say I wasn’t a little bit tempted right now. “How the hell did you even get into Bridgehaven?”
“Well, your father was sick, and Ben…” She trailed off, allowing me to fill in the blank. A sick alpha might not be so attentive of his borders, and Ben… I starting to think he was more worried about what pack members called him and whether they liked his zoning ideas than whether the territory was patrolled or who’d been coming or going. “I’m sorry I lied to you.” I turned my attention back to Maren. Her eyes were downcast and she picked at her slender fingers. “I had to infiltrate your life but I swear I’m not the enemy now. I really like you, Liv. I want to help you find a way to live out the prophecy without interference from the court…”
I sighed and slumped back onto the couch, frustrated. “C’mon, Maren! Prophecies are just old wives’ tales. I grew up hearing a million of them, and I bet you did too.”
“Yeah.” She shrugged and met my gaze with unfiltered certainty. “But I think this one is true.”
