Red and Her Wolf Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright 2012 Marie Hall

  Acknowledgements

  Dedication

  Blurb

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Epilogue

  A word from the Author

  Sneak Peek: Jinni's Wish

  Books by Marie Hall

  Red and Her Wolf

  by

  Marie Hall

  Copyright 2012 Marie Hall

  Cover Art by Elaina of For the Muse Designs Copyright June 2012

  Edited by C. C., Lea Griffith, Jennifer Blackstream, Marie Hall

  Formatted by Ironhorse Formatting

  This is a work fiction. All characters, places and events are from the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, events or places is purely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form, whether by printing, photocopying, scanning or otherwise without the written permission of the publisher, Marie Hall, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in the context of reviews.

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this ebook with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. Thank you for respecting the hard work of all people involved with the creation of this ebook.

  Applications should be addressed in the first instance, in writing, to Marie Hall. Unauthorized or restricted use in relation to this publication may result in civil proceedings and/or criminal prosecution.

  The author and illustrator have asserted their respective rights under the Copyright Designs and Patent Acts 1988 (as amended) to be identified as the author of this book and illustrator of the artwork.

  Published in 2012 by Marie Hall, Honolulu, Hawaii, United States of America

  Acknowledgements:

  First and foremost to my fans for sending me awesome notes, asking when Wolf would finish, how much you love Kingdom. To you guys, you rock. Second, I could never have done this without the help of many, many wonderful people. Sonya, C.C., Joyce, and Jennifer… you all are always awesome and a real encouragement to me. To some very special fans: Gaele Hince, Livia, and Katie at Curse of the Bibliophile. You girls went above and beyond, I’m grateful to know you.

  Dedication

  To my fans, this one’s for you guys…

  Red and Her Wolf

  ‘Bad boys need love too…’

  Long ago there lived a beautiful child. Her name was Violet. Fair of skin, with blonde hair and large blue eyes. Born of wild magic, she was a woman with a child’s heart. Innocent and lovely, but not at all what she seemed--you see Violet went by another name: The Heartsong.

  She was the child of fairy magic, the physical manifestation of all fae kinds unbridled power. Cosseted and pampered, she grew up in isolation, never knowing who she really was, or why there were those who’d seek to harm her.

  Ewan of the Blackfoot Clan is a wolf with a problem. He’s been sent to kill the Heartsong, but the moment he lays eyes on the blonde beauty he knows he’ll defy the evil fae he works for to claim Violet as his own.

  This is the tale of Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf, as it really happened…

  Prologue:

  Long before the Hatter met his Alice, or Gerard his Belle… a Wolf claimed his mate…

  Weak light spilled through the twisted forest. The sky, a wash of orange and pink, threatened to give way to night. Violet shivered, hugging her cape tight around her body. Strange sounds whispered on the breeze. The call of night owls and the squeak of tiny field mice played a gentle melody in the background.

  But there was more--something slithering, creeping like the cold hand of death slinking slowly behind her. The wind whipped through her hair as she tried to brush it back. Her heart pounded a chaotic rhythm in her skull as she swallowed the bile working its way up her throat.

  Grandmother hadn’t been feeling well. She gripped the handle of her basket, fingers clenched until her nails gouged her palm. Violet never strayed from the safety of her home, never farther than the river. Grandmother had taught her years ago that beasties of the worst sort lurked beyond.

  She glanced up at the massive trees that towered above her. Skeletal branches twisted gnarly fingers heavenward. It was easy to imagine the forty foot behemoths might at any moment open sappy maws to suck her up.

  Shivering harder, she picked up her pace, nearly running. Lungs heaving now with the effort to climb the steep hill leading back to the safety of her river. Night was closing in quickly. Already the colorful splash was giving way to the inky blue of a silver studded sky.

  A raven cawed and ice skated down Violet’s spine. She swallowed hard, first noticing the bird back at the apple orchard. Yellow apples--almost golden the way they shone in the sunlight--a prize worth escaping the temporary safety of her grandmother’s home for. The gift should make her ailing Gran smile again.

  Bushes rustled behind her.

  Violet didn’t look back. She wouldn’t. To look back might make the fear manifest. Ignoring the knot of dread in her gut, she yanked at a dangling root and hoisted herself over the hill. The river was finally in sight.

  A black blur brushed her cheek. Fear slithered down her throat. The raven circled back around, and with a loud caw, dove for her again.

  Violet marched.

  ***

  “Och.” Danika--fairy godmother semi-extraordinaire--sailed through the breeze with her fairy friend like a graceful swan cutting a swath through a placid lake. “I swear that Gerard will be the death of me. He has a thing for the maids of the sea now.” She shuddered, eyeing Miriam the Delighted.

  Miriam’s large white teeth flashed at Danika as she grinned. “The man’s useless, Danika. Truly, ye should give him up as a lost cause.”

  “No,” Danika shook her head, zipping high and low, dancing through the air with the joy of a fairy with ample time on her hands. “I’ll find him his match, you mind my words.”

  Gathering her fairy dust, Miriam threw it at a pitiful looking bloom of a rose, its red drooping petals gleamed a deep ruby red when the golden dust settled upon it. The flower gave a happy chortle and waved on its thin stem back at them.

  Miriam snorted. “Are ye sure of that now? Wouldn’t ye rather seek my boon, I could tell ye quite simply who she is.”

  Danika scoffed. “No, Miriam, I work alone. I’ve told you time and again I’ll not be needing the use of your boon…” Danika narrowed her eyes, a flash of red sailed past her vision. She stopped flying and gripped Miriam’s elbow. “Did you see that?” Danika whispered, heart pounding forcefully against her chest.

  Miriam’s swirling lavender eyes scanned the valley below. Just at that moment, the last of the days light winked out like the pitiful flicker of candle glow. Kingdom was bathed in a sea of black and blue, making it hard to discern much of anything at the moment other than shadow and sound.

  “See what?” Miriam’s brown and white speckled moth’s wings flitted slowly behind her back.

  Danika frowned; sure she’d seen a flash of red. She licked her lips; rumor had it the Heartsong had been hidden here centu
ries ago. Unlimited power in the form of a beautiful girl, a conduit for any fairy, and power so tempting she’d had to be hidden. In the care of the only fairy known to be truly pure of heart: Jana the Green.

  Or at least that’s what the tales said, but all within Kingdom knew never to believe such nonsense. Fairy tales rarely held a grain of truth to them, and if they did, it was stretched so thin as to be transparent.

  Danika laughed. “I thought I saw-”

  A surge of power rolled forcefully through Danika, she screamed as every limb locked in place, and she hurtled straight toward the ground. A loud buzz the only thing she heard as the ground rushed up to meet her face. Danika had only a moment to throw her arms in front of her, bracing for impact, when a strong pair of hands clamped onto her vest and halted her fall only inches from the ground.

  The whites of Miriam’s eyes were large, and her breathing stilted and heavy. “Danika, what happened?”

  Danika trembled, slow to regain feeling in her limbs. “My muscles. The power, t’was overwhelming…” the words died on her tongue as the flash of red brushed by mere yards to her right.

  Miriam gasped, dropping Danika in her shock. Danika landed with a thud, air left her body on impact, and she glared at Miriam who was now visibly shaking.

  “We must needs leave, Dani,” Miriam whimpered, and Danika might have asked why, had she not just seen for herself the cause of Miriam’s distress.

  A large red wolf, stalked the maiden wearing the red hood. He padded on silent feet, moving like shadow behind her. The girl hummed, but this was not a relaxed song--more a nervous melody that vibrated through the woods haunting and eerie all at the same time.

  Miriam landed beside Danika and yanked her to her feet. They were barely a foot tall, and well hidden behind a thick gooseberry shrub, but Miriam gulped and shivered as she pointed to the large beast. “The mark, Dani,” she hissed, “the beast wears her mark.”

  The wolf’s ears twitched, and though he did not look their way, Danika knew he’d heard Mir.

  Danika clamped her hand over Miriam’s mouth, urging her friend to silence. Then another wolf loped out from behind the woods and this one was bigger. A full hands length taller, the creature more resembled a hound of hell, than a wolf. Its black shaggy coat covered the muscular form like a bear’s pelt, lush and thick, gleaming like onyx in a flame. Its hackles were raised, and it too bore the mark.

  A chain hung around its thick neck, with a small golden medallion embossed with a dragon in battle hung in plain sight. The mark was a sign of loyalty to Malvena the Black, the worst of all fairy kind--she’d turned her back on truth and light centuries ago, and though her reasons had at first been understandable (even honorable), they’d morphed and twisted into something dark and macabre.

  Seeing the mark, knowing to whom they belonged, Danika knew the flash of red she’d seen had been very real. Malvena had one goal, find the Heartsong. All fairies scorned and mocked the black hearted fae, knowing her quest impossible. The Heartsong did not exist; she was a myth, a legend, nothing more.

  The black wolf growled long and low, and birds shot from out tree branches into the air with a loud squawking cry.

  Danika’s body still crackled with surging pockets of power, making her teeth clamp down hard.

  “Come, Dani, we must leave,” Miriam tugged at Danika’s elbow. Danika hadn’t realized she’d begun walking toward the girl until Miriam stopped her.

  Danika hugged her wand to her chest, frantic with an overwhelming need to go. Not to run away, but rather, to go to the girl.

  “Dani,” Miriam groaned again, the whites of her eyes large in her face. Danika turned, ready to growl at Miriam to hush her mouth, but then Miriam started jerking. Her entire body shook, and a low moan vibrated from her chest.

  The black wolf’s ears twitched, and Danika flicked her wand, casting a protective net around them to prevent any more sounds from reaching sensitive ears.

  “Miriam,” she cried, grabbing her friend by the shoulders as she slumped to her knees on the ground.

  Miriam’s head snapped up and Danika’s eyes widened because the eyes staring back at her were a solid white and the voice that came out sounded as deep as a man’s. “The Heartsong must be saved.”

  Goose flesh skittered down Danika’s back, Miriam was in full ‘sight’ mode. It could take hours to snap her from these trances and Danika couldn’t let that happen. Miriam was vulnerable and exposed when using her third eye.

  But if they had any hope of saving the Heartsong, Danika needed to wake her friend up.

  “Mir?” Danika shook her gently. “Wake up, dear.”

  “Save the Heartsong,” Miriam intoned, heavy inflections undulating against the translucent bubble like waves crashing upon a rocky shore.

  “Oh bloody damn, bloody, bloody, bloody damn…” Danika muttered, slapping a still mumbling Miriam on first one cheek, then the other. The skin turned crimson and still Danika slapped her. “Wake up, you gnatty old fool. You want us to save the chit; wake the bloody hell up!”

  Miriam’s head lolled around, but the whites of her eyes remained. The wolves were gone, the girl… who knew where, this couldn’t be happening. Heart thundering loud, Danika grabbed a handful of dirt and threw it at Miriam’s face.

  The fairy coughed, but still did not cease her rambles.

  Quivering, on the fine edge of desperation, Danika did the only thing she could think of. “Incendio!” she cried, pointing her wand at Miriam’s feet.

  Thick waves of amber encased Mir’s bare feet, and a shriek that made Danika’s ears ring, sprang from the brunette’s mouth.

  “My feet!” Miriam cried, blinking big lavender eyes up at Danika accusingly as she stomped the flames off, “What have ye done?”

  Danika flung her arms around her friend’s neck. “I’ll tell you later, we must find the Heartsong, Mir, she’s in grave danger.”

  Mentioning the girl almost seemed to make Miriam forget her momentary anger. “Yes,” she said, “we must.”

  There was a resolute tone to her voice, no longer fear, but knowledge of something deep and powerful.

  “Follow me,” Miriam cried, and streaked in a blur through the air.

  Danika followed, large blades of grass slapped their faces. Her pulse pounded a furious tempo in her ears. They had to make it. They must make it in time. The Heartsong must not be killed. Though Danika had only ever thought of her as myth, all knew to kill the Heartsong was to release the dark magic that beat within her soul. It must never happen.

  Up ahead a thatched roof cottage came into view. A silver plume of smoke curled like a beacon through the air, then a scream that rang with pure and primal fear, blasted all around them.

  “Inside. Hurry!” Miriam cried, her wings beat faster as she streaked, a golden bolt of lightning cutting a straight path through the navy blue sky.

  Sweat dripped down Danika’s back with the effort to keep up, yet still she urged her wings to pump harder. Faster.

  They sailed through the half opened door and the scene within was chaos. On the ground Jana the Green lay dead, her wand dangled limp from lifeless hands. The Green had assumed the form of an elderly woman; her silver white hair was long and tangled, partially covering one eye. Her pudgy face forever frozen in a soundless scream--a big black wolf lay on the floor, savaging her, ripping off her hand, spitting it out, and then ripping off the other and doing the same. Fleshy parts of the Green were everywhere.

  The Green--one of the Powerful Ten.

  Shock rooted Danika to the spot, scrambling her brain, her ability to reason or think. The slaughter of the Green--so shocking, so unbelievable, Danika could hardly breathe. Of all the fae in all the world of Kingdom, none were more powerful than the Ten. That the wolves could destroy her with such ease… Danika’s gut clenched--insides revolting at the earthy, metallic stench of so much blood.

  Backed into a corner of the wall, the Heartsong screamed and screamed, quivering within the folds
of her red cape. A basket lay by her feet, yellow apples rolling like heads on the packed dirt floor. The red wolf Danika had spotted earlier, stood in front of the Heartsong, growling with its hackles raised. Ready, it seemed, to pounce and tear the girl limb from limb.

  The big black wolf lifted its shaggy head, glowing yellow eyes swiveled toward the girl and he gave a long, low whimper.

  The red wolf growled and snapped its fanged jaws.

  The black wolf’s nostrils flared, as if scenting. His head bobbed up and down, his tail thumped excitedly on the ground. He whimpered again.

  The other wolf growled louder, taking a menacing step towards the girl. His gums pulled back, revealing wickedly long incisors.