Dark Curse

I chose the man I want to be with... the universe disagrees.

Access to the Fae Realm has been lost for centuries, so when my brother mates the mythical phoenix and becomes part of the Guardian Quint, things get interesting. Their destiny is to reestablish the portal gate and unite the realms. I tag along for the ride.

I'm used to living in the shadow of my family.

My father and mother are the late Fae Prime and his Prima, my brother the new king. I'm nothing as grand as them. I'm the daughter, the sister, the liaison between Kotah and the life of rule he never wanted. I know who I am though and have my own strengths. I also have a certain someone I have my heart set on.

Until him...

With two realms uniting and bursting with possibility, my world is shattered with a Dark Curse.

Keyla
There’s something carnal about a man working in the outdoors, shirt off, muscled body glistening in the sunlight of an autumn morning. Any hot-blooded female would stop to admire a well-built male but when that male is yours—well, almost yours—it’s even better. As a fae wildling, my blood runs hotter than most.
The raw power of Doc’s abs and pecs tensing and releasing as he pushes a saw through boards or drives nails into wood with his hammer is beyond titillating.
He knows how to use a hammer.
My heart stumbles behind my ribs as the heat of my gaze triggers his bear’s instincts and he turns so our gazes lock.
My wolf stirs.
My body warms.
My determination grows.
The heat in those dark hazel eyes is a tangible caress—a promise for later when we’re alone. Dark and intimate is our specialty. I’ve come to count on our stolen moments.
I want him—all of him.
We haven’t had sex or mated yet because life has been hectic with Kotah and his mates fulfilling their quest to open the Portal Gate—but soon.
He loves me and I love him.
“Nakeyla Northwood, eyes front.” I jump at the cold snap of my mother’s censure and straighten to face her in our fireside circle. “The pedestrian behavior of your brother and his commoner mates will not rub off on you. You are the Prime Princess for goddess sake. Act like it.”
I fix my gaze across the forest clearing and try not to think about the male at work behind me.
“I was admiring the progress of the construction, Mother. Hawk’s team has worked feverishly since Calli opened the Portal Gate. In a mere twenty-four hours, they’ve built the infrastructure of a permanent gate site, not to mention basic cabins for temporary lodgings. I, for one, am pleased Calli doesn’t have to sleep in a tent again tonight. Especially now that she’s pregnant.”
Mother frowns. “Wooden boxes with no furnishings are not accommodations befitting the royal family. Your brother doesn’t understand a thing about his station. Your father would have never allowed us to be forced to sleep in a forest.”
I fight not to laugh. “We are wolf wildlings. A forest is where our animal sides belong.”
“You forget your place, Nakeyla.”
No. I don’t. It’s she who has forgotten. Too much time spent in a palace has consumed the joy of wind blowing through her fur as her claws dig into the pithy ground. I gaze at the vibrant golds and oranges and reds of the turning leaves and wonder how she can be here and not celebrate the stunning perfection of nature.
But she doesn’t. All she wants is to return to the splendor of the Prime Palace and stride up the halls so people can bow and move out of her way.
“How long do you think it will be before the gate is functional and we can make contact with the fae on the other side?” I ask.
She runs a hand over the silk of her tattered and sullied coronation gown and arches a manicured brow. “From what Nakotah said, it depends on the people of StoneHaven. Once they complete the preparations in the other realm, a bridge between the two civilizations will be established.”
“It’s an exciting time.”
“A dangerous time, you mean. After centuries of being cut off from our fae counterparts, we have no idea what might come through that portal. Caution should have been the priority, not haste.”
The disapproval in her tone is heavy-handed. She didn’t support the quest to open the rift to the Fae Realm. In fact, there is evidence to suggest she might’ve even acted against Kotah and his mates on their quest.
I refuse to get caught up in politics or her negativity.
After months of worrying about Kotah, Calli, Jaxx, Hawk, and Brant, they finally pieced together their destiny and opened the portal to the other fae realm.
A lot of people doubted they could do it.
Honestly, there were times I worried they might not be able do it. It was a struggle from the start. Calli was an unskilled human, with no particular talents other than surviving a difficult life, and no knowledge of our world.
Then she was killed in a car chase, resurrected as the Fae Phoenix, and then guys bonded as her Guardians.
Despite the views of skeptics and nay-sayers, they battled the opposing forces, cut through the political bullcrap of the Fae Council, my parents, and Hawk’s father, and united the two realms.
I don’t suppose all those battles are over.
Hawk’s half-brother, Hunter, hasn’t been caught and there are still so many questions about what he and Sebastian Whitehouse Senior were trying to accomplish.
“Like it or not, the Portal Gate will soon be a functioning part of Kotah’s legacy to the realm. I, for one, think it’s wonderful. I’m very proud of him.”
“Yes, well, you are young and know no better.”
“I’ll be twenty in a matter of weeks. In civilizations past, I would already be married with several litters of pups by now.”
If it weren’t so pedestrian, my mother would be rolling her eyes at me.
The throaty chuff, chuff, chuff of helicopter rotors draws my gaze to the sky. “How many more trips do you think Hawk’s people will make to finish construction?”
“I’m sure I don’t know. Let us hope the bag I requested from the palace is among the contents so I can get out of this dress.”
“You look resplendent as always, Mother. And if your things didn’t make it to join the shipment, Calli offered you a change of clothes. The guys always pack her a few extra slip dresses for after she flames out.”
The tsking hiss that escapes my mother’s lips is pure horror. “A slip dress? What am I, a streetwalker?”
How we got from slip dress to prostitution, I’ll never know and I don’t want to. I follow the flight of the helicopter over the clearing toward where it will land on the other side of the river.
Oh, lovely. My line of sight has now brought me back to Doc, glistening with hard work.
I honestly could watch him all day.
“Speaking of streetwalkers. Your hormones betray you, daughter. While forced to live like common folk, you’ve forgotten your station and breeding. How do you think it makes me look when people see you salivating over a half-naked male.”