The Rebel Queen (Outlaw 1)

Before I could start to tell him this was a bad idea, that he shouldn’t take the curse inside him, it was over and Zack slumped back against the bed. Dean stood, but his eyes had gone from crystal to pure black.

Lily’s eyes came open. “He’s taken it inside him. Dean, you can clear it. Let it go. You’re stronger than the curse. You mastered it. You own it now. It is yours to command.”

Dean stood there, his feet planted to the ground and those obsidian eyes looking too alien to me.

“Hey, buddy.” Lee stood right in front of him. “You saved the day. Time to let it out. Tell the bad shit it can’t live inside you and let’s go get a beer.”

Dean simply stared at him, and then I saw a single tear fall. He was fighting something inside, something hateful and evil. “I dream about you at night.”

“I’m pretty dreamy,” Lee admitted with a hint of a smile.

“Lee, I don’t think you should be so close to him,” Danny warned.

“I think he saved my uncle and he needs to remember that he’s stronger than Myrddin’s curse.” Lee reached out and put a hand on Dean’s cheek, his thumb brushing the tear away. “I would hate for you to give in to this. So don’t. Let it go. Stay here with me. We just met and it would suck to not get to know you. I think you could be someone special.”

Dean’s eyes shifted, the darkness fleeing, and his skin went a little green. He stumbled toward the door. “I’m going to be sick. Oh, that was awful.”

Lee’s face split in the widest smile. “Hey, Uncle Zack. Good to see you again. I’m going to go hold back Dean’s hair. He’s got a lot of it. It’s hot, but in this case very problematic. I think this is going to be a long session. Try not to shed too much. I’m on cleaning duty this week.”

I turned and saw what had my son smiling. There was a big gorgeous brown wolf sitting on the bed, his eyes shining and tail thumping.

“He hasn’t been able to change in two years.” Lisa was crying freely, holding Courtney’s hand as they surrounded Zack.

“I’m going to go see if the boys need anything.” Lily picked up her basket. “I’ve got some herbs that might help Dean clear the curse. Or at least make his stomach settle more quickly. Your Highness, he’s extraordinary.”

Yes, he was, and I was starting to wonder why. We’d talked about his mother’s family, but I was interested in who his father was.

But I let that worry go for the moment. I let it go because a part of my family was whole again. They were also wolves, since Lisa and Courtney decided to change. Danny, Dev, and I watched as the wolves ran through Frelsi, and when they howled their joy my heart was as full as the moon above us.

Chapter Seventeen

“How do you tell them apart? I thought it was bad enough when the father came and he looks exactly like the son, but now the uncle is here. At least the other boy had the good sense to get his eye taken so we can tell the difference between him and his brother.”

I bit back a smile as I sat listening in on the Fae talking around me. I sat in the communal dining area the morning after Zack’s return to his wolfy glory. Danny, Dev, and Zack were going to see a man about buying a plane since all of Dev’s credit cards were working once again. I rather thought the plane would be conspicuous, but Dev had pointed out that we only had one portal-opening tiny demon, and Danny could only fly one of us at a time, so unless we wanted to hoof it or take public transportation, we needed a plane.

I could have had breakfast in bed, but I didn’t want to be alone. So that was how I ended up listening to a group of trolls try to figure out who was who in Dev world.

I didn’t take the quip about Lee’s eye as an insult. With the sidhe it might be since they worshipped perfection, but these were trolls, and Lee’s lack of an eye would merely prove to them how tough he was.

“Oh, well we could always tell the twins apart by their smiles,” a female said. “Or if you are close to them, by their eye color. But the smile always gives them away.”

“Lee has the brightest smile.” That was accompanied by a happy sigh.

“And the human one usually has that cantankerous pixie around him,” a masculine voice pointed out. “Rhys is so serious, and Lee not at all. Though both of the twins are good males. I will admit ’tis harder to tell His Grace and the other one apart.”