Finding Elora

Chapter 15

MASON

I shoot Kie a sharp look, beyond annoyed, but he only shrugs and continues forward.

"They'll leave once the magic begins to thin," he says.

It's already begun to thin, and the straggler is still following us. I can tell by the uneven footsteps that they're trying to remain quiet, but they're largely unsuccessful. They probably don't know just how good my hearing is.

The faeries outside the capital have little to no experience with my kind, and they continually underestimate my abilities. They think shifters are less than them, and that assumption will be their downfall.

My strength is all mine, but theirs is a product of the magic their bodies can yield. If you remove me from the magic, I remain the same. They crumble.

The magic's already beginning to vanish, and it's only a matter of time before the straggler feels the effects and turns around. I've been thinking that for several hours, though.

Kie walks a few steps ahead of me, leading the way. The elders made him cut his hair short before leaving, a tradition I'm thankfully not expected to follow. Kie wasn't born with the typical blond white hair of the faeries, and I'm sure they were more than happy to cut off his dark blond waves.

I'm sure he's in mourning. He loved it long, and he often wore it in a thick braid down his back.

Now, it curls and ends just below his ears.

Mine is a similar length, but they wanted to shave my head entirely. I enjoyed watching their expressions when I took and broke their shears the moment they tried.

Despite how the faeries feel about it, I take pride in my thick, dark hair.

I was sent to live in the capital with Kie when I was still a child, and my hair is the one thing that brings me connection with my family. I hardly remember my parents' faces or siblings' names, but I know they all had hair like mine.

All shifters do.

Sometimes, when Kie's gotten on my nerves and I long to return home, I look in the mirror and imagine how my younger brothers must look now. I assume they have the same green eyes as me, and they're probably quite large by now.

Both were still just toddlers when I left, and I wonder how many more I have now.

It's not uncommon for shifters to have large families, and as the alpha, my father would've been expected to have even more children than usual.

That's assuming he's still in power.

I imagine our people weren't happy when I was sent to live with the faerie royals. Our kind walked freely among the faeries for hundreds of years, but war after war dwindled our numbers until we were forced into the forest.

The shifters have grown to hate the faeries—and vice versa.

The firstborn alpha shifter of each generation always shares a mate with the firstborn faerie royal. It's a bond that's been ignored since the first war between the faeries and shifters, but my parents sent me as a peace offering.

Our people needed time to recoup and rebuild, and the price was me.

I was old enough to understand the hatred between our kinds, and the second I arrived at court, I went straight for Kie. I thought I could shift into my animal form and kill him before I grew any attachment. The second I touched him, though, my body recognized him as the mate of my mate.

That bond is the only reason he's still alive today.

My lips curl as I recall how every faerie in court watched it happen. Nobody interfered, and I know they enjoyed watching the wild shifter boy fail at killing their prince. Even Kie's mother refused to intervene.