The Rebel Queen (Outlaw 1)

Our world had never known a wolf king. His powers could be unstable for all we knew. The only specialized wolf I’d ever known had been the original Lee, and he fought his nature. Kelsey was a kind of wolf, and she’d required a lot of training to tamp down her killer instincts.

“Fen? Hurt me?” Evan rolled her eyes. “Momma, Fen would throw himself in front of a bullet for me. He freaks out if I get a paper cut. And yet he also allows me to do some crazy shit. We had one discussion a long time ago about him smothering me and now we’re fine. Our main issue is Fen promised my brothers he wouldn’t sleep with me until we’re married, and I find that highly annoying. Well, that and the fact that he worries Marcus Vorenus is going to show up and try to take me away from him. If Vorenus is here on the Earth plane, he needs to understand that I’m in love with Fen, and I don’t care what some prophet said a million years ago.”

“Marcus didn’t come back with us.” I stopped myself from trying to tell her that she was seventeen and how could she know if she was in love. The question was dumb given that I’d known I loved Daniel long before the age of seventeen. “He’s married to your sister now, and he’s staying in her kingdom.”

Finally, my youngest showed some shock. “My sister? Momma, were you with Summer?”

“You know about Summer?” I knew Lee had some inkling that he had a sister, but Evan had been so young I’d never discussed Summer with her.

She nodded. “Granddad talked about her. After he managed to find his way here, he spent a lot of time keeping our memories of you alive, talking about you and Dad and Papa. I know way too much, probably more than I would have if you’d been here with us.”

And now my brain hurt again because I remembered my father was dead and somehow he was still here in the form of a young woman.

There was a knock on the door and Evan went to answer it. I couldn’t see from my vantage point, but Evan was whispering, and then she turned back.

“Momma, Shy is here, and she would like to explain if you’re up to it,” Evan said.

I nodded, ready to face the young woman. She walked in, carrying a tray of what looked to be tea and some of Albert’s madeleines.

“Hello, Your Highness.” She set the tray on the table near the hearth. “Albert asked if I would bring you afternoon tea. The Fae keep proper British hours, and it’s tea time.”

“Oh, like you don’t love it,” Evan teased.

“Well, it is nice to have a schedule. God, I sometimes wonder if that’s me or Harry,” Shy said with a frown as she settled in on one of the two chairs there. “You staying? I brought three cups.”

“Does he want me here?” Evan asked. “It might be easier for him to talk to her on his own.”

Shy chuckled. “That old man hasn’t been on his own since the day he died. He’s good. He’s thinking it might be easier on her if you’re here. She’s going to be…difficult. She always struggled with change.”

I frowned. “I do not.”

Shy’s lips turned up. “Maybe you should talk to him.”

I had so many questions. “How did you…just how?”

“I’m a medium. It runs strong through my family line. That’s probably why Myrddin had them all killed.” Shy pronounced the words with no emotion. She merely gestured to Evan, who took her seat and the cup of tea Shy poured for her. “I didn’t realize that the fire that killed my mother and grandmother all those years ago was set by Myrddin. It was shortly after he took the throne by force. I pieced it together over the years. Fifteen fires set in the States on the same night. All unexplained. All killing powerful psychics and mediums. I wasn’t home that night. I was at a friends, and then I got lost in CPS. I think that’s the only reason I’m still alive. Anyway, I was a kid at the time, and I ended up in a psych ward because I came into my powers and had no one to explain how to handle them. I talked to dead people. It scared the shit out of any foster parent I had, and they finally decided that the best way to go was to drug me until I didn’t complain anymore.”

“I’m so sorry.” What else had Myrddin wrought?

“And then one day a few years in, I met Harry. He showed up and asked if he could stay. He talked to me for hours, and not in the way the others had. He actually seemed to care about me. And I started caring about me again. He told me all these crazy stories about a whole world that is hidden from the human one. A world I belonged in. He told me about you and the king and Devinshea and his grandchildren. I wanted that world, so we made our deal.”