Page 9 of Filthy Fae

“I’ll be by first thing tomorrow morning.” He leaned in and lowered his voice. “I might need to stay near her, though. If this delays too long, she’ll start a war for her pride’s sake alone.”

As if to prove her son’s point, the queen called out, “You have one minute to demand that police officer announce what your wolf is being detained for, or I will consider you as not cooperating with my investigation in this incident. That will not play in your favor. We are on the brink of war, and I have your forces outnumbered tenfold.”

Turning, I managed to keep my wolf in check as I crossed to a twenty-something-year-old police officer standing behind the partition. His eyelids were wide, and his face had a greenish hue. Grabbing my wallet from my jacket pocket, I held up my driver’s license. "Scarlet Riley, alpha of the Six Rivers pack."

Beside me, Jane stepped up and raised her head from her phone, looking entirely unfazed by all that had just gone down around her. "I can confirm that, and I've already shown you ample documentation. I don't see any reason why we should be delayed any further in meeting with the Six Rivers pack member whom you are holding.” She raised her voice and added, “And have not formally charged with a crime."

The young man swallowed hard, tugged on his collar, and then nodded. He threw his thumb toward the interior of the station. "Come with me. I’ll take you to the sheriff."

Chapter Four

Mack

Of all the days to tell my mother that I wasn’t going to follow through with my arranged marriage, I just had to pick today.

I watched Scarlet walk away, her strawberry blonde hair falling down her back. I watched until she made it past the partitions. For just a moment, she glanced back at me, her green eyes meeting mine before she turned the corner.

“I could kill you right here, Macklin Banrigh, and no one would lift a hand to stop me.”

Sighing, I looked over my shoulder.

Titania stood in the center of the waiting room. The long strips of halogen lights above gave her pale complexion a greenish tinge. It was her own law that we fae never showed our magic in front of non-fae, but her dark blonde hair and silvery dress undulated around her in an unnatural breeze. She probably couldn’t help it. I had never in my life seen my mother so angry as when I’d told her that I wasn’t going to become the official consort of Queen Siofra, the queen of Autumn.

I’d been telling her this exact thing since I was eighteen and the marriage pack was made. Hell, I’d even run away to Queen Siofra’s territory for two years with Scarlet and openly declared my intentions to break the engagement to Queen Siofra herself. The message never took.

For whatever reason, today when my mother called me in to attend her while she was enjoying a late tea, the message had finally penetrated.

Maybe today she’d seen a conviction in my eyes that she’d never seen before. I wasn’t marrying Queen Siofra. If I had any choice in the matter, I wasn’t going to marry anyone.

I opened my arms, holding my hands in a gesture halfway between offering my mother a hug and telling her to do her worst.

From the corner of my eye, I saw an officer duck behind his desk, but my mother’s four fae guards looked mildly bored. The officer probably saw the prince of winter, who everyone simply called Winter, pulling out a glowing blue saber. He ran a sharpening stone over the edge.

My mother’s hair writhed around her head like Medusa’s snakes. “I only want Summer to accompany me home,” she said as she turned for the door. “Winter, Autumn, Spring, Macklin—the rest of you will find your own way, but I’ll expect you within the hour.”

Nice. The queen was mad at me, so she was taking it out on her guards. If they sprinted at full speed, they’d get to the Spring Court Palace in about six hours and fifteen minutes. The only other way into her territory was through a fae portal. So, the queen was basically telling them they should go around knocking on doors, asking to be let into random fae homes.

The princes nodded to her demands. They didn’t have much of a choice.

“Hey, Mother,” I said with an exaggerated wink. “Spring’s name is actually Naveen. You named him after you birthed him, or so the story goes.” I didn’t actually know Winter’s or Autumn’s names, as everyone was required to call them by their court, as if they were no longer fae but consumed entirely by the role they played for my mother.

Summer’s name I knew, but only because he was also my half-brother, a fact that provided an extra cringe every time I caught my mother staring too long at the Summer prince. Forever rejected by my father for being the conniving, self-serving narcissist she was, my mother was looking for the next best thing—his son, Marius, Prince of Summer. She wouldn’t dare cross the line, not with Oberon’s cherished son, but every time I caught her looking at my half-brother, vomit threatened to surge up my throat.

Marius took the long route out of the room, clapping me on the shoulder as he passed and giving me a warm smile. The queen waited by the door until Marius pulled it open and ushered her out, moving close to her side, his hand over the hilt of his sword.

“She does that so Summer will have to guard her with his body,” Naveen said, his eyes lighting with humor. “Material for her filthy dreams.”

“Only in that sick bitch’s dreams,” Winter muttered, not lifting his head from sharpening his blade.

Digging into my pocket, I fished out the keys to my Ecomarion and tossed them to Autumn, who caught them without looking.

Naveen threw up his hands. “What! I’m your brother. You throw them to him?”

“He threw them to me because you’re the only fae in the Spring Court who’s a worse driver than he is,” Autumn said this without a hint of humor.

Naveen chuckled. “Worse driver than Golden Boy?” He was across the room in a second, rubbing the top of my dark hair. “I’d have to be drunk, stoned, and asleep to be a worse driver than this shithead.”

I batted his hand away. “There’s a time when you’re not drunk, stoned, or half asleep?”