I lunged right away. The crowd gasped, thinking me bold or maybe just dumb. Dugan hunched in the face of my attack and snapped up to meet me. We both nipped each other, neither drawing blood.
I didn't let up, but whipped around behind him, hoping to catch him off guard. I was faster, but as my teeth bit into his flesh, he suddenly bucked and twisted, throwing me off of him.
He was strong, solid as a rock. Was there such a thing as a bull wolf?
Florian hissed, urging me to keep at it. I wondered if he was right, because it seemed to me that Dugan was strong enough to wait me out until I tired and lost my speed advantage.
At my hesitation, Florian now made a chopping motion. Stay forceful.
The hesitation already cost me. Dugan suddenly came at me, a freight train of a wolf, all his teeth bared in a vicious surge of force that pushed me down and tore out a chunk of flesh from my shoulder.
Frankie screamed.
"Come on, man, don't let down Brooklyn!” Waylon yelled at me.
The pain burned like fire but I kicked him off me and rolled sideways, back on my feet, retaliating immediately. Flor had been right. If I gave Dugan a chance he would brutalize me.
I lunged, trying to bite back, getting only a puff of fur on my tongue for my attempt.
Dugan was Gold Class, I thought. And I'd only been fucking around until now. But I had to win this, to show Frankie I really could protect her, and to show Dugan that the Black Queen and her consorts were worthy of his respect.
As Dugan tried to barrel into me again, I leapt past him, my paws skidding on the sand a little as I tried to keep up speed, and I tore at his right flank. My mouth met flesh, and I tasted blood.
Got him.
I ripped into his leg and when I broke free, he was limping. He ran from me on three legs, then turned back to me and lowered his body onto the ground, his ears moving forward, the aggression melting away.
"He says you have passed," the young man said, and the crowd started applauding and cheering me on with a renewed sense of welcome. "You're one of us now."
I turned human again.
"Awesome," I said, as I felt hot blood trickle down my shoulder and I swayed and fell back to my knees. "I'm fine, I'm fine."
Frankie pulled off my jacket. "Like hell you're fine. Who is the healer around here?"
"Well, I just need a little bandage," I said, not wanting Dugan to see me complain about the pain. He was hurt too, but he was already limping off with his little entourage, without a word of complaint.
"Yeah, a bandage or maybe a hospital," Florian said, looking the wound over.
"But you know what?" Frankie kissed me again. "That was sexy as hell."
"Then it was all worth it."
Chapter Eleven
Waylon
"Is Alistair still here?" I asked Frankie, as we were caught up in a swirl of welcoming festivities. Tables were set up, foods and drinks brought out, a band materialized, and a mobile medical unit showed up to treat Ian.
Frankie and Ian were the stars of the affair, for sure. Old ladies were coming up to Frankie to tell her the legends of the queens passed down from their mothers, who passed them down from a grandmother, and so on, while babies were brought out to be blessed by her touch.
Frankie didn't want to do any of this, but she was realizing how much she meant to people, and I knew she couldn't look at all the hope in this village and fail to live up to it. My girl was proud.
After all those hours Ansel and I spent trying to dig up any tidbit we could find on the queens, it was rewarding to have come this far.
Still, a long way to go, but...
I just wished Ansel was here. Losing him felt like losing a hand. I tried not to rely on him, but it just happened. He was naturally helpful, and naturally social. He would love all of this. He smoothed out my rough edges and slyly whispered to me anything I needed to know, or would find entertaining.
Now my words were left hanging as other people kept talking to Frankie and then someone tapped my arm and asked my name. Then yet another person asked how I'd met Frankie. I wasn't sure if Frankie had heard me. I was really bad at parties and groups. I always had been; I preferred just sticking with a close friend or two. With my blindness, it was a nightmare. I struggled to follow who was speaking to me and just what the hell was going on. I'd also noticed that as my magic got stronger, I could feel psychic interference in a crowd.
I abruptly decided I was just going to bail on the group setting. I made my way back to the Jeep. Maybe Alistair was near his car. "Hey, Merryweather!" I called.
"He's not here." Flor came up next to me. "He walked off during the fight and hasn't returned, and I guess no one misses him either."
"That's odd. What is he up to?"
"I don't know. You want to find out?"
"You bet I do."
Flor started to head for the gates. "You need a hand?"
I reached for his arm, since he had offered. "Sorry I'm a drag," I muttered, noticing immediately that Flor actually seemed a little taller and more built than Ansel, although not by much. He just felt hard.
"It must drive you crazy," Flor said. "I can tell you're a formidable guy even so. How did you lose your sight?"
“Well, funny story. One day, when I was fourteen, I woke up in a warehouse in Manhattan with no memories and no eyesight. Several months ago, I remembered, that it was Frankie who did it when we were kids.”
“What the hell?”
“She was trying to save me from Hunters, but she didn’t want me to know she was the Black Queen. So that’s been my fun adventure these past ten years.”
“I’ll try not to piss her off," Flor said, sounding almost like he was smiling. "Ian's talked about her nonstop the whole time but you two have a good thing going too, huh. And my brother...he's not her consort?"
We were leaving the wolves behind and going out the gates. A guy stopped us to ask if we were okay, like he was worried we might not enjoying ourselves.
"Nah, just not crowd people."
And then we were outside the gates, and I was no longer sure if Flor really cared about Alistair or if he just wanted to ask me about Frankie. "No, Ansel's not Frankie's consort," I said.
"Ah."
"Why do you ask?"
He said, brushing me off, "So did you know right away that you were this...consort?"
"No. Not exactly. I had a pull to her, but I thought I was more pissed off at her than anything else. She blinded me, took my memories, and ran and hid. I wanted to make her fulfill her duty, you know, if I was going to pay this kind of a price. But the more time we spent together...I don't know, pretty soon we were banging constantly. Just talking to her is more exciting than anything. I've never felt like this with anyone else. It seems to get more intense all the time. I can't even get too mad at her for giving attention to Ian, man, I don't know. It's like I'm no longer wired to get angry at her."
"I see, so..." Flor trailed off. He was clearly not a man of many words, and I could tell he was trying to say something he'd rather not say.
"Are you her consort?" I asked. "I'm not a beat around the bush type."