Of Werewolves and Curses by Emma Hamm
Chapter 1
“What a lovely day to contemplate murder,” Arrow snuffled, then plopped down beside her. His tail wasn’t wagging and his teeth were bared in an impressive snarl.
Freya looked up from the map on the table. “And who exactly are we murdering?”
He stared her dead in the eyes and replied, “The Goblin King.”
That would be rather problematic considering the Goblin King was very dear to both of them. She sighed and looked back to the map of the kingdom on the center of the gold table. Her father was out there, somewhere. And no one had a clue where the werewolf had fled. Someone had to have heard something.
But she supposed right now wasn’t the time to figure all that out. She needed to help her friend rather than try to figure out where a wayward werewolf would run off to.
Sighing, she put her hand over the Summer Court and turned her entire attention to the handsome dog. They were in the castle's observatory, a rather strange room with swaying planets over their head. The two of them stood in the only section that was safe from all the flying projectiles.
A star circled overhead, the bright bulb casting shadows of planets and the metal arms that moved them. Freya adjusted her lavender gown, flipping the skirts over the small stool behind her while taking a seat.
Crossing her arms over her chest, she asked, “Why are we contemplating killing the Goblin King?”
“Because he refuses to see reason about anything. I told him the werewolf might be in the Autumn Court, but he’s not talking with the Thief right now. I told him moving your mother in the western wing would be smarter, the view is nicer. Of course he won’t move your mother farther away from Esther.” He huffed out another angry growl. “I told him to put honey in his tea because he needs something sweet in his life, and he tipped it over onto the table and left breakfast without a word.”
Freya winced. The Goblin King’s horrible mood may have been her fault, considering she’d rushed up to this room to pour over the map for whatever details she could find. It wasn’t like the map changed. No one had even spelled it to show what she wanted. But her heart told her to stare until something revealed itself. Maybe that was foolish.
“Ah,” she replied. “Well, that horrible mood was my doing. I told him I would have breakfast with him because he had something important to tell me, and I forgot until this moment.”
Arrow narrowed his eyes on her. “Right. So you were the one who unleashed the most terrifying goblin on us because you wanted to look at the map again.”
“Apparently.” She winced again, then cleared her throat. “I’m sorry?”
“No. No need to be sorry.” Arrow stood up and walked over to the nearest window. Slashes of bright golden light illuminated the dust particles that swirled through the air. He hopped up onto a podium underneath a pointy star and stood in the light. “You have doomed us all to a horrible meeting. I will blame you when this is over.”
“Meeting?” she asked.
The doors to the observatory busted open and a whole group of strange people walked in. Lux with his rat face and thin tail waving behind him. Esther, who was turning more faerie by the day. Her hands had already started growing pads on her fingertips. Her newly saved mother walked between them, eyes already sharpened with the wit and intent to save her husband.
Last, the Goblin King. He wore a glower that should have burned everyone around him to the ground. He squared his shoulders with aggression and stomped toward the table without even looking at Freya.
Right. So they were arguing.
She sighed and attempted a smile at the others. “Hello. It’s good to see all of you.”
Esther, as usual, was unaware of the tension that had entered the room with her. She flounced to her stool at the table, yellow dress billowing around her like a cloud. It perfectly matched her lovely blonde hair. “Morning, Freya! We missed you at breakfast.”
Everyone in the room fell silent, holding their breath and staring at the Goblin King. He bared his teeth in a snarl and parroted Esther. “Yes, Freya. We missed you at breakfast. Where were you, considering you promised you would actually eat with the lot of us?”
Her cheeks burned. “I was here. Looking at the map and preparing for this meeting.”
“Were you now?” He sat on his own stool directly across from her. “And did you find anything new? Anything worth wasting all of our time?”
She narrowed her gaze. If he wanted to play this game, then she would keep up with him. He could be as passive aggressive as he wanted. Freya had grown up with a little sister and she knew how to ignore children when they were being annoying.
Pointing to a small mark near the Summer Court on the map, she replied, “Yes, I think this is worth considering. There were a few books in the library that claimed the Summer Court was a home of sorts for the werewolves before the fae killed them all off. I think it would be interesting to research this place.”
“The Summer Court is not where he would go,” Eldridge snarled. “The curse wouldn’t let him. He would know how dangerous it was to go there.”
“Are you so sure of that?” She stood and slapped her hands down on the table. “I think you don’t want to agree with me this morning. You know that it’s a perfectly acceptable place to look into, and the more places we research, the better. It’s not like the Summer Court is that far away.”
“I think you need to be better about remembering promises!” He stood as well, mirroring her position with his fingers a hair’s breadth from hers. “I forgot how frustrating it was to have mortals around when you can all lie through your teeth.”
“Are you calling me a liar because I forgot to have breakfast with you?” She leaned so close she could see the sparks flying in his eyes.
This was ridiculous. He couldn’t claim she was a liar because she wasn’t catering to his every whim. She had a life outside of him, no matter how much he didn’t want her to.
Her mother cleared her throat, interrupting them. “I understand that you two may be a little frustrated with each other, but can we please focus on finding my husband before you tear each other’s heads off?”
Eldridge snarled. “I don’t want to rip her head off, I want a few moments of her time, which is apparently very precious these days.”
“We sleep in the same bedroom,” she gritted through her teeth. “If you had something to say, then you can say it when we’re there.”
“Our bedroom should be a place of happiness and rest. I refuse to talk about anything but joyous things within those walls.”
“Ah ha!” She snapped her fingers and pointed in his face. “I knew you had something bad to tell me! Why would I want to hear even more bad news when that’s all we’ve been talking about these days?”
He mirrored her action, pointing at her with a clawed finger. “You should want to talk to me about anything! That’s what a team is. That’s what people do in a relationship!”
Arrow hopped up on the table in between them and shook hard. Water went flying throughout the room, soaking both Freya and Eldridge. She backed away from the table with a shriek.
“What in the world, Arrow!” She wiped water off her face before glaring. “How did you even get wet?”
Ah. That would be her sister holding an empty bucket in her hands that Esther quickly tossed to the side.
Freya glared at both of them.
Eldridge wiped water off his fine suit and grumbled. “You two with your pranks. Why were you getting involved?”
Neither of them knew how to answer their king. They looked at each other, then back to the table, then back at each other.
With a heavy sigh, Astrid stepped forward and answered his question. “We all understand the two of you are tense. A new relationship on top of all your responsibilities is particularly stressful. No one could ever say otherwise. However, you are both letting your stress get in the way of many things these days. We need you to focus on the task at hand, which is finding out where the wolf might be hiding. Whatever tiff you’re in can wait until after that.”
Had they poured water over Arrow just to cool Freya and Eldridge off? That seemed rather overkill.
Frowning, Freya pointed back to the map in the center of the table. “I already know where Dad is. I told you, this is the summer home of the wolves and he would return to it. There’s no way he’s anywhere else.”
“And you know the faerie realm so well,” Eldridge scoffed. He leaned over the map and read the name of the mark she’d pointed at. “Actually...”
Freya let out a grunt as he rounded the table and pushed her aside.
“Move,” Eldridge said after shoving her.
“I didn’t really have a choice not to,” she grumbled. Freya jostled back to her position in front of the map, hip checking him out of her way. “This is the spot I read about. You gave me the book on the werewolves, you know.”
“Yes, I remember.” His brows furrowed in concentration, he looked over the roads that were near the small town of Sunhold. “I remember this place from when I was a boy. It’s near the Summer palace.”
“I must have missed it on my travels throughout all the kingdoms,” she snarled.
“Easy, now you sound like your father.” He tapped his claw against the mark on the map and gave a quick nod. “I take back what I said. You were right, this is a good place to start.”
Freya could have flipped the table; his words made her so angry. Of course it was the right spot. She was the only one who had dedicated every single day to researching the wolves and their history. She’d read countless books, at least twenty, recounting the wolves’ movements, the battles, even the interviews the fae had conducted on the wolves they had captured.
Her mind was painted with bloody battles and horrible endings for people like her father. Sometimes it felt like she had lived through the moments with the wolves themselves, and that was difficult to think about. The stories had even slipped into her dreams until she was frightened to fall asleep.
In short, if anyone knew where the wolves were, it was Freya.
She balanced her hip on the side of the table and eyed him with a lifted brow. “And?”
“And what?”
“Are you going to apologize for automatically thinking I was wrong? I wasn’t. I want to hear you say it.” Maybe that was because she found it ridiculously attractive when he admitted she was right.
Eldridge snarled and bared his teeth.
Astrid rolled her eyes and held out an arm for the others, gesturing toward the door. “Come on, then. Now that we have a clue, we’ll all research Sunhold. In the meantime, I suggest you two get your argument over with. Otherwise, you’re going to annoy the rest of us. Come, children. Now.”
Though she might have expected Lux and Esther to balk at being called children, everyone filed out of the room with surprising swiftness. They raced to the door and quietly closed it behind them, leaving Freya alone with a very angry Goblin King.
She shrugged, arms still hugged tightly over her chest. “What? What could you possibly need to tell me, Eldridge? You made us look ridiculous in front of them.”
“Oh, I made us look ridiculous?” He pressed a hand over his heart. “That was me doing that? Not you?”
“Well, it couldn’t be me. I can’t look foolish, that’s your job.”
The growl that erupted from his chest would have put a werewolf to shame. Eldridge lunged for her, hands tunneling into her hair, and yanked her forward.
He kissed her with all the anger that he was feeling. Lips hard and unyielding, teeth nipping at her mouth, and tongue demanding to be let in. For all that she was mad at him, Freya was more than happy to let him take out his frustration like this.
She grabbed him by his waistband, tugging him closer to her with a grunt. “You make me so angry,” she hissed against his lips.
“And you drive me mad,” he growled. With a swift movement, he scooped his arm underneath her bottom and tossed her on top of the table. Map be damned, she would let him do whatever he wanted.
Eldridge returned his hand to the back of her neck, forcefully holding her in place and locking her lips to his. He ground himself against her hips. Every rolling movement sent her closer to the edge. He consumed her. Devoured her whole and she could think of nothing but him.
The Goblin King who wanted her even when he was angry. Even when he wanted to yell and scream and shout. Instead, he channeled all that energy into kissing her. Loving her. Turning her thoughts away from anger.
His hot breath echoed in her ear. His body moved with power and barely leashed rage. And she wouldn’t have it any other way.
He made her entire body ache, tense, and release more times than she could count. He took magic from her body until it felt like all her energy was rolling off her in waves.
Finally, he stopped. She pressed her hands to his sweat slicked back and held on for dear life. Freya wanted just a few more moments when they were one, not two.
Eldridge leaned down and pressed his lips to her shoulder. “I should have apologized before we started all that.”
“I think it was apology enough.” Goodness, her voice was raspy. She finally released her hold on his muscles and leaned back. “I think we ruined the map, though.”
He leaned to look at all the drops of sweat they’d left in the smudged ink. “Ah well.” He shrugged. “I have more.”
She moaned as he pulled away from her, leaving behind a sense of emptiness. “No. You know I hate it when you do that.”
Eldridge tugged his pants up but grinned at her with far too much male pride. He leaned toward her again and tugged her in for another hard kiss. “I know, darling, but we both have to start our day.”
Oh, if only he wasn’t right. They had a lot to do, and not enough time for either of them to do everything.
Sighing, she hopped down from the table and tugged her dress back into place. Her hair, however, she could do nothing to save. “I suppose you’re right. And you know how much I hate it when you’re right.”
“As always.” He pulled his pale shirt back over his head. “But a king has many responsibilities.”
“Mm.” Running her fingers through the tangled mass of her hair, Freya paused and looked at him. “What did you have to say, anyway?”
A small flicker in his eyes gave away that he wasn’t telling her the entire truth. Or that he was spinning words when he replied, “It’s not important anymore. I’ll tell you later, my love.”
He silenced her with another kiss before walking away, whistling as he went.
Freya wondered if he’d ever tell her. Obviously he had something on his mind that was important enough to put him in a foul mood. And she wouldn’t always be around to entertain him on a table.
Although it had been entertaining.
No, she had to stop thinking like that. After all, there was a job to be done.
A king had to be a king, he was right. But a hero also had to save. She needed to find her mother and the others so they could figure out the next steps in finding her father.
Sunhold. Perhaps another adventure awaited them already.
