Shifters’ Fae Captive by Lacey Carter Andersen

Chapter 3

Ann

My eyes flash open, and I half expect to see the ceiling of my room in the dorm at Royal Fae Academy. I roll to my side, looking around me, but I don’t see my huge bed or white-washed walls, I just see… a cave. And three shadow beasts around a fire, eating.

Slowly, I sit up and all eyes go to me. I’m lying on some kind of bedroll near them. My throat feels dry and sore, and my head spins a little before the spinning stops.

What now?

“Do you... know me?” My voice is tentative, softer than I’ve ever heard myself, and I don’t know that I intended to talk, or if this is real, or if I understand what’s happening, but I have to try to figure out who they are, why I’m here, if I’m in danger of some sort. If I can only get around to why I’m here, I’ll be able to figure out how to get away.

Or if I want to get away. Which is a strange thought. Of course I want to get away! Yes, it’s true I don’t have my mate any longer, and that Esmeray is my only true friend. But I miss my dads… that’s enough reason to go home. Right?

But what if you only imagined the shadow beasts talking. What if--?

“Yes, we know you.” The green-eyed shadow beast’s voice is soft, deep, not gruff like I would have expected from someone so big.

Okay, alright. Be calm. They can talk. You can understand them. This is progress.

“Why can I understand you now?” There’s some sorcery going on here. Maybe even some wickedness, although I don’t really get that sense. Despite their size, the overall menace between them, my senses tell me they aren’t dangerous. But this isn’t a typical enchantment or magic. This is more and, while I’m not frightened, I’m going to be careful.

“We made it so.” While the one I’d nicknamed Daddy continues to speak to me, the blue-eyed one communicates by hand with Tiny, the massive blonde.

“How?”

For a second, I don’t think he’s going to answer me, and then he sighs, “We could speak some basic words of your kind after being kept prisoner, but we speak another language that doesn’t exist in this world. The brew we gave you allows you to speak our language and to understand it, without any effort.”

I’m speaking another language? I don’t know if I find that cool or terrifying.

“What’s he doing?” I nod to the blond who is now answering the other one with his hands.

I’ve probably spent too long around the humans. I’ve mimicked an unflattering tone, a demand that is common among their kind, and I want to take it back, but the green-eyed beast looks at the other two.

“He was injured.” There’s a story there, and it would be impossible to miss the flash of guilt that’s so vivid it changes the green-eyed man’s entire face for a moment. This one feels bad about whatever happened to the quiet one. But as quickly as it appeared, it fades and he’s back to himself. I don’t know for certain if it was real or if my imagination is running away with me.

There’s so much I need to know, so many details my mind can’t fill in without their help, but I don’t know if I can trust my own mind, or the men in front of me.

“I am Phantom,” the first one I’d nicknamed Daddy says, he lifts his head a little, and his dark tangled hair falls back from his face. My breath catches, and I realize this man is more than just a pair of green eyes, and a commanding presence. I feel kind of silly for even nicknaming him Daddy, because the name doesn’t fit him at all. He looks like some kind of muscular model, but with a strange regal quality.

“This is Dusk.” My gaze moves to the man next to him. Hesitantly, I reach out, while he watches me, and I brush the hair back from his face with shaking hands. My breath catches, and I stare and stare. There’s no doubt that Dusk is Phantom’s twin, even though he has pale blue eyes instead of green, and a narrower face and body.

“And that is Onyx,” Phantom continues, gesturing to the giant. I turn to Onyx, and he lifts his own hands, pushing his blond hair back from his face, as if he knows that that’s exactly what I want to do. Onyx is different from the other two. Not only is he huge, but with his hair pushed back, I can see the jagged scar that runs from beside one ear down to the side of his throat. He also has a slightly broader nose, deep dark eyes that seem to stare into my soul, and lips that are fuller, and strangely fascinating.

“I’m Ann,” my voice comes out a whisper. “Technically, Mary Ann Hart, but I hate the name Mary so much that I wish I could burn it and stomp it into the ground.”

Phantom lifts a brow, and a small smile curls his lips.

Okay, so they don’t mind my nervous babbling. That’s something! Now, time to get into the tough stuff...

“Why am I here?” It’s probably the most pertinent of my questions, and I’ve adapted my tone, added a note of caution, but managed to keep the fear at bay. For now.

Somehow, I expect it when both Onyx and Dusk turn to Phantom. I had named the guy Daddy for a reason. It always seems that when something needs to be decided, both heads turn to him. Onyx begins to sign rapidly with his hands, and Phantom shakes his head. Onyx’s expression shifts into an unreadable one.

“Phantom…” Dusk begins.

The other man cuts him off. “Outside.”

He walks out of the cave with the others quickly following behind him, without answering. My chest heaves, maybe with relief or more likely, just because they’re too massive, too powerful and it’s intimidating to be in such a closed space with them.

And yet, I don’t like being ignored. I don’t like that the shadow beasts simply left when I asked such an important question. It’s not just rude. It feels like I’m being treated like a child.

So, I stand and creep to the edge of the cave, flatten myself against the wall, and hold my breath.

“She’s our mate,” They’re just outside the cave, and I can hear them distinctly, as if they’re close and speaking to me, but Phantom’s words hold an unexpected edge.

Mate? Hell. Who could possibly be a mate to these three massive men?

I hear a sigh, and then Onyx speaks. “The creatures from the Void will come for her. It was foolish to bring her here.” There’s a note of reproach in his voice, an I-told-you-so inflection that means he might’ve spent a bit of time observing humans also.

But I’m busy dissecting the words for meaning. Creatures from the Void? I don’t know about any creatures, or what the hell a Void is. Not sure I want to, either.

“Yes. They will come.” Their cadence is the same. It’s as if when Phantom is speaking he’s almost answering himself. There’s little difference, other than the fact that Onyx has a slightly gruffer note to his voice. “But leaving her would not have protected her. They would have found a way to reach her, and we wouldn’t be around to keep her safe.”

I peek around the opening to see them, to watch their body language. I’m also too far away to be able to tell the dark-haired ones apart, but the blond is speaking without the benefit of sound, and I can only tell because of the attention the others are paying him and the slight movements of his arms against his body.

A gentle rain falls through the trees, and every once in a while, a droplet glistens on the blond’s back, the bigger dark-haired beast’s shoulder, the smaller one’s chest. I can’t see much more without giving myself away.

“I don’t want her in danger, either, Onyx, but we can protect her.” He nods at the blond, at Onyx. “We will protect her.”

The emphasis is comforting, but I don’t understand what’s going on. I’m about to move away when Phantom looks to where I’m standing, his gaze hot, assessing, his tone vibrant when he speaks. “We know what she is, but now it’s time we find out who she is.” My body flushes with heat.

He nods to me and the others turn, and now three gazes land on me. Another burst of heat blooms through me.

Instead of inviting me out, they stalk toward me, hulking, muscles bulging, eyes dark.

“The creatures will come for you.” Phantom looks me up and down, closer, and I think maybe they already are.

And then another thought hits me. Were they talking about me the whole time? Hell, do these guys think I’m their mate?

Oh, fuck. Of course they were talking about me!I smack myself in the forehead, then lean back against the cave wall, trying to catch my breath. Their mate!