Charmed Wolf

let Kale slip through my fingers. To that end, I released the unicorn’s mane and leaned in Kale’s direction. Fingers outstretched, I swiped....
The wind retaliated. Slapped at my face, buffeting the unicorn sideways. I had to drop to a crouch if I didn’t want to end up plummeting all the way to the ground.
Meanwhile—“Go away, go away! I hate you!” Kale cried, his voice rising and twirling in and out of the wind.
This wasn’t working. The unicorn—who had never seemed to strain when bringing me to meet the Guardian—was sweating so hard my knee slipped on wet hair. As I caught myself, specks of white foam spun away from his mouth and slapped against my skin.
Lungs heaved between my knees. The unicorn couldn’t continue much longer.
But we’d slowed the wind just a little. Slowed it and lowered it enough for the Samhain Shifters to catch up.
Ryder and Lupe were the first to arrive. He steered the motorcycle while she stood half over his shoulders while looking out behind him. It didn’t seem like a useful arrangement until he skidded and her sword lashed out at—
“Kale!” I screamed.
The sharpened steel sliced through nothing one millimeter away from my favorite twelve-year-old. But he didn’t flinch. Instead, he reached toward it, as if grabbing onto a sharp blade was an excellent idea.
Then Rune was there, leaping up to separate the blade and the child. Metal streaked through skin and fabric. The tang of iron filled the air.
The sword had only skimmed the surface of Rune’s skin, but my throat throbbed so hard I couldn’t speak. Not that speaking would have helped anyway. Instead, I got my feet back under me then I leapt.
Off the unicorn’s back and into Kale. We tumbled through the air together, first falling then rising. Behind me, I heard Lupe grunt and Ryder swear.
Whatever they were up to, it must have been keeping the wind busy. Because even though Kale and I didn’t strike the ground, the wind didn’t draw Kale back into its center either.
Instead, we spun together, rotating in an absent eddy that seemed just enough aware not to drop us. First we faced the trees, then we turned further to see all three of the Samhain Shifters battling nothing. Rune swiped with a sword that moved so fast I could barely make out the movement. Lupe was using what looked like a shimmery lasso. And Ryder was driving one-handed, his other hand repeatedly reaching into saddlebags then tossing glittering knives.
Neither lasso nor blades were having an effect. The wind, though, was making its displeasure known. It fixated on Lupe, first whipping her hair into a noose then, apparently, squeezing with nothing but air....
Her face mottled purple. I didn’t know how long she could continue fighting without oxygen, but the end had to come soon.
Meanwhile, I was stuck in this eddy that seemed content to turn me and Kale like chickens on a spit. I did, however, have one tool still at my disposal.
“Get over here!” I yelled at the unicorn.
The vain thing stamped his hoof in answer. He’d retreated out of the maelstrom, had found a sunbeam to preen beneath, and didn’t seem inclined to leave it.
“You’re unbelievably charming,” I called. But my words refused to sweeten.
Because the unicorn wasn’t being charming at the moment. Charming would consist of saving Kale without having to be bribed into it. Charming would be standing and fighting like the Samhain Shifters were doing.
No wonder the lie lay between us, heavy as an anchor. The unicorn turned to show me its rump.
Well, if compliments weren’t going to cut it, I’d have to dig deeper. And I knew, from lessons with my father, what it took to get the fae’s attention.
I could only hope this unicorn was fae enough to be tempted. It certainly wasn’t of this world....
Refusing to let doubts surface, I opened my mouth and made a binding vow. “I owe you a boon,” I called to the unicorn, “if you save Lupe, Ryder, and Rune and get me and Kale out of here.”
It was a tall order. One unicorn against the animated wind.
“Assuming,” I added, my voice raised to carry across the air whipping me in circles, “you’re capable.”
The dig at the unicorn’s masculine ego did it. He whinnied, a high-pitched shriek that cut through the wind for one split second. I heard the gasp of Lupe’s inhale even as hot unicorn back slid underneath me.
Then I was once again clinging to a mane, my free arm looped around a boy who had started struggling. “Hang tight,” I told him, or myself. “Just hang tight for one more second....”
Because that’s all it would take to cross over. Surely the wind wouldn’t be able to follow....
One instant before the unicorn shot us out of the human world and into another, a hand clamped down around my knee.

Chapter 18
It was Rune. Despite being unwilling to shift, he’d left Lupe and Ryder with the fae to follow me into this Between space. Even though he was a Samhain Shifter. Even though his top priority should have been back there, not here.
Something warmed deep inside me...only to chill as wind whipped against my face so hard I could no longer see where we were going. Between had already enfolded us, a passage I’d never considered making on my own two feet. If Rune’s grip faltered, he could be lost to both worlds....
“Be still!” I barked at Kale. Then, leaning down to grasp Rune’s forearm, I ordered: “Jump!”
Neither of them should have obeyed me. Not a human child, on whom alpha commands were wasted. And not a shifter who’d already proven his dominance over me.
And yet...Kale stopped struggling. My arm nearly yanked out of my socket as Rune leapt, letting me carry his weight for one split second. Then I was tumbling toward mossy ground in an abruptly windless sanctuary, heat curling around both my back and my front.
The heat at my front was Kale and Rune. Kale looked