“Maybe it would be easier for you to trick me into giving you everything, but our survival needs me to be smarter than that. These are packs sworn to me. No, you don’t get to order them, and they don’t answer to you like you’re someone special in my life because you’re not. Now, if you could stop throwing fits for every-fucking-thing, we might get shit done, and there’s a lot to get done.”
I ignored whatever his reaction might be and went back to focusing on Pikachu.
“Your orders are the same. I’m just updating you like the last situation so you’re ready. There are now two of us and we have answers on Faerie. Treat him like you would Mr. Rothchild, that he might be handling projects for me and if he needs aid, he’s probably going to be an ally.”
He licked my face, asking if they could run in Faerie with me again anytime soon. I promised next weekend I’d let them in for the whole weekend and make sure they got to spend some time there with all the provisions they’d need.
“You okay?” I checked with Craftsman after he sent the pack back and went to call the next one.
“I’m fine, love,” he promised. “I’m rather powerful too. You just didn’t grow up around it to know the norms. Plus, now we know why you’re so excessively powerful. You were born of a top-notch bloodline.”
I frowned. “Yeah, hasn’t really sunk in yet. I mean, I know Salzman left out I was jumping more levels, White knew. I just wonder if being an unknown did more damage than we thought now that we know… What we know.”
“That you’re—”
“Don’t. Just don’t even say it,” I begged. “I can’t yet.”
“Anything you need,” he agreed, grabbing my wrist when I went to turn away. “For the record, I always thought you were special, since the night I met you, and while I love you partly because you’re my sweet fairy, it was never about you being a fairy. It still has nothing to do with who you were born of. You’re my Tamsin, and that’s all that matters to me. I love the woman you are.”
I tried to smile and say something, but then winced. “What did you see in my aura?”
He didn’t answer directly, but addressed it. “I would find you. I could find you now that I’ve piggybacked off your magic, and I would come. I will always come.”
Yeah, that was what I thought he’d seen. He saw me looking at the portal longingly and wanting to get out of here, away from Neldor, and just take off.
Damn.
“Well, who doesn’t love a stalker,” Neldor drawled. “You were saying we’ve got a lot to do, right?”
Clearly, he didn’t cool off enough in the pool last night, though it did amuse me that he was simply ignoring that happened.
We called the rest of the packs sworn to me and then moved onto the ones that weren’t. The ones used to working with dark fairies were thrilled one had been found, and the prince, no less. I ended up linking with Neldor’s mind so he could get all the Alpha was giving me, but he was too excited and not sworn to me.
“Stop,” Craftsman ordered, yanking me away from both the dog and fairy.
I didn’t get what was going on really until I slumped against him, grabbing my head and unable to really move. “Ouch.”
“Yeah, your aura started pulsing pain. You can’t go that far, love.”
“It’s normally not, but I’ve not linked with another fairy, and they both got really excited, trading too much, too fast.”
“I apologize for injuring you,” Neldor said as he moved closer. “That was my mistake and I know better.” He leaned down and reached for me, his eyes going wide when I flinched away. “I’m going to heal you.”
“I can heal her,” Craftsman argued.
“I can heal at the level of a fairy, which is better for another fairy.”
“Maybe, but I don’t trust you, so no thanks,” I muttered, snuggling closer to Craftsman. “You’ve made it clear you want more than I’m willing to give so until you give me any reason to trust you, I won’t.”
He ground his jaw. “As you wish.”
“But thanks for finally apologizing for something,” I mumbled. It was backhanded and not friendly and hell, I was shocked he actually did, but it was nice he did.
He cleared his throat as he watched Craftsman heal me. “Thank you for the gift you gave me. I always knew fae dogs were truly magnificent and appreciated all fair folk, but never did I realize their intelligence was to this level. Telepaths rarely link to other minds as it shows a level of trust and leaves them vulnerable to other attacks.”
“Oh well, fuck,” I groaned.
“Yes, as much as I want you to do it again, you have to be protected,” he said with a sigh.
“You haven’t done it with anyone you haven’t trusted until him,” Craftsman defended.
“Richardson?” I drawled.
“You had no control then. That was one of the first times.”
“You coddle her,” Neldor chastised.
“She never had any growing up and was abused, so she gets some fucking understanding so she’s not constantly so hard on herself,” Craftsman snapped.
“Thanks, Doc,” I whispered, moving my hand to his chest so he calmed down and didn’t start a fight. Or not start it, but give into what Neldor was constantly starting. It wouldn’t help us any, and we
