Druid Fox Chapter 14

Druid Fox Chapter 14

Fox

“You know Artie and I share an unconventional relationship, right?”

Fox waited for Luke to let that settle. His relationship with Artie went way beyond different.

“Well, you guys have a four-centuries-old thing. I’d assume that the time you met and all the years after would have a rather serious impact. Most of the other shifters I’ve met are much closer to my age.”

Luke offered his thoughts. Fox knew Luke couldn’t even imagine the truth. Hell, the man might not even believe it when he heard it. Luke was a lighter soul than Fox was.

Fox shook his head. “That’s not what I mean. Let me start again. You know I turned Artie, right? I told you how I found her in Lothlian’s castle and cared for her after he cracked her skull. Do you remember?”

Luke nodded.

Fox breathed before he began adding the truth to his friend’s understanding.

“He didn’t just give her a mild concussion, Luke. She was human and small. She’s tiny and frail, even as a shifter. Lothlian was a giant of a man, and I don’t say that about other men lightly.” Fox breathed out.

“He backhanded her for spilling the wine. He struck her so hard that she flew into the castle wall. She was nothing except another servant to him. Lothlian didn’t even know her name. She mattered not to him. He even gave her to me that night as a bed servant, perceiving that I fancied her. He didn’t know he’d killed her, nor would he have cared if he had known.”

Fox explained how he found Artie in Lothlian’s castle in greater detail. Somehow, he needed Luke to understand the situation.

Luke was very young. His experience with brutal men was likely limited to the battlefield. With Fox, dealing with brutes had been daily life for most of his youth until well past his three hundredth birthday.

Luke was the only person on the planet besides himself who now had this part of the story. The others who’d known it were all long dead.

It was a relief in a way to tell someone else, even if it wasn’t Artie. It didn’t lessen his guilt, but a burden shared weighed less.

Luke wouldn’t give his secrets away either. He’d never share what he’d learn of Fox with Eli, and Javier would get the condensed version as Luke’s beta. Just what he had to give away to ensure the safety of his newly forming pack.

“He killed her? Then how is it she’s here?”

Luke asked, puzzled by Fox’s explanation.

“I had the servants carry her to my rooms, and I inspected her wounds. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to know she would never wake up. Her cranial fluids were soaking through the pillow. When they leaked out, she would have died as her brain died. It would have taken several hours, but it was going to happen. There was no hope.”

It was too painful a memory for him to say out loud. Fox whispered as if the whispered words might somehow erase or lessen the pain. They did not.

Seeing Artie dying made him insane. The anger, despair, and misery still haunted his worst nightmares.

“Oh, my God! Fox, are you saying you turned Artie without her consent?”

Luke looked as if he might explode from appalled disbelief.

Fox couldn’t blame him. Turning another without their consent resulted in suicidal depression. The stronger the mind, the longer it took. Death was always the result. Except not with Artie. Please, not with Artie.

Fox hung his head in shame and misery. Speaking of what he’d done hadn’t lessened the pain. It had driven it deeper into his soul. He should have let her go. He knew that.

If he could go back, he’d still turn her into a fox. She was his to protect, care for, to comfort. She was his lifemate. He’d failed to protect her once. That would never happen again.

“How the hell did she survive? You told me what happens. Fox, I’ve witnessed the truth of what you told me. I saw a coyote attempt turning into a man shot in Afghanistan. When he awoke, he submitted, shifted back, put a gun to his head, and blew his brains out. What the hell did you do?” Luke demanded.

“Shhh. Please, don’t wake Artie.” Fox said as Luke’s volume had risen.

“Realize I knew who she was. I’d known her since the first time I laid eyes on her. I failed to protect her. Do you see it? She was mine, made for me, my lifemate. Lothlian hurt her right in front of me, and I allowed her to be murdered.”

Fox looked at Luke as the single tear fell. He closed his eyes. It was as if it had happened yesterday and not four centuries ago, as he saw it again. He breathed past the pain in his heart.

“Perhaps you see me as weak. If I had it to do again, I would still turn her. She is mine!“

Artie was his queen. He’d known it even then. Fox had no place in the dream if it wasn’t by her side.

“Please tell me what’s going on here. You turned her without permission. She’s still alive. You’re bonded to her, yet you despair. What the hell, Fox? I said it, and I still don’t believe it. Why?” Luke asked.

“She doesn’t know. I never told her. She was only twenty-five-ish. She was too young, too fragile, too damaged. It gets worse.” Fox figured he may as well explain the rest of it. Luke interrupted him.

“I need more details. What happened? Then tell me the worst.” Luke ordered Fox.

He was back in alpha pack leader mode, protecting the pack. Luke needed to understand it all, and Fox needed to explain it. He needed an ally in his continued search for a way to free his queen.

“She was dying. I… Artie shifted into the arctic fox you’ve seen. She couldn’t wake or rise. I stood over her and growled at her as she slept. She whimpered and rolled over to submit. The magic traced her back to human form as she dreamed. I never told her. I can never tell her.“ Fox sank into his desk chair.

“Two weeks went by. Artie is my equal. Mentally, we’re exceptionally well-matched, even if she needs my physical strength to survive.”

Fox shook his head.

“I messed up. I angered her by mistake because I’d thought to please her and ordered gowns made for her of fine cloth and silk. They delivered them to my rooms while we were out. She thought they were gifts for my mistress. You should have seen the jealousy. My God, that woman was furious with me.”

Fox stopped and smiled as he remembered laughing at his stupidity. Luke waved his hand, motioning for Fox to continue the story.

“The excessive emotion triggered the change in her. I helped her return to herself.”

Fox stopped there to see if his explanation of the events would appease his alpha. Luke turned Javie into a direwolf. He knew how it worked.

“So you turned her, then forced her to submit to you while she was unconscious, and you still didn’t tell her? She didn’t even know she was a fox, and you pissed her off with a non-existent mistress. I know I lack understanding of that time.” Luke shook his head.

“Fucking shit, Fox, this is the most messed up story ever. How could you not tell her?”

Luke asked him in complete disbelief. When he put it that way, Fox felt the guilt wash over him as it had a thousand times before.

“Even now, it’s impossible for me to forget I was raised to be Ruiri. Luke, I was the firstborn son. I was supposed to be the king of my people. Things were different. Men swore fealty to their Lords, and the nobility protected the serfs, who were slaves and servants. I was their Lord because I was born touching magic.”

“I gave it all up on my fiftieth birthday to seek my mate and to get information about what I am as a shifter. My father was heartbroken. He gave me my part and set me free. I’d never be that again. Neither could I not be nobility.”

He’d been born a druid king; that magic tore at him. For Artie’s sake, he had to be what he was born to be. He couldn’t be that. Not truly. He couldn’t wield his magic. Neither could he not wield it. Fox was as broken as his beautiful loch nymph had been.

He grew silent as the nostalgia for a surrendered life overtook him. He’d been Ruiri, a leader of men, a king in his own right. Becoming a fox destroyed that life.

He took a deep breath and let that life go once more. Even centuries later, he still longed for it. The power hadn’t corrupted him. It was part of his identity. Losing it was what corrupted him.

Luke waited for Fox to regain his emotional control and continue.

“Artie swore the ancient oath of service to me. She bound herself to my fate. It makes no sense now. I know, but the words of the oath were magic, old magic. She feared Lothlian and wanted to stay with me.” Fox sighed and looked Luke in the eye.

“Luke, I was a king, born a king. When I accepted her oath, it bound us together. That wasn’t shifter magic. Not the binding of two souls into one between lifemates. It’s a bond of service, fealty, in exchange for protection. It’s a permanent contract. She serves me, and I protect her.”

“We live in a time where those kinds of contracts no longer exist. The magic in ours is powerful. She renews her oath every year, and I accept her fealty. In exchange, I’ve vowed to protect my servant and defend her honor.”

Fox tried to explain how his queen kept him as her king.

Thank you for your support! Welcome to the dream… Sincerely, -OK

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