The Forbidden Wolf King: Kings of Avalier, Book 4(40)

Ansel’s head snapped in my direction and my stomach dropped. He walked calmly over to me and then leaned in, letting his nose rest against my neck. Pulling in a deep lungful of air, he inhaled. “My brother’s whore,” he whispered, and Axil growled next to me but the noise was cut off with a whimper as he fell to the floor, grasping at his head and screaming in pain.

Tears leaked out of the corners of my eyes as the realization that we were all puppets to a sick man hit me.

“Come on, let’s go make an heir,” Ansel said to me and fear seized me in its grip.

The wind picked up again, stronger this time and Axil went mad with his screaming. The blonde queen next to me started blowing a stream of smoke out of her nostrils and all Ansel did was laugh as he stepped out of the cell and made me follow him.

TWELVE

Axil

The pain in my head, which felt like someone had taken an axe to my skull, was nothing compared to the agony in my heart. Ansel had just left the dungeon cell with the love of my life.

To bed her.

The farther their footsteps retreated, the less of a hold my brother had on me and the others.

The others.

I was locked in a cell with my childhood best friends’ wives. It was surreal. When I finally felt the pain in my head dissipate and the use of my legs and muscles return, I turned to the three woman who were now moving their arms and fingers in front of them.

“What the Fae was that?” Madelynn, the redhead said. I appraised my best friend Lucien’s new wife. She had some type of wind magic and she was powerful enough to use it minimally even under Ansel’s command. It was impressive.

“That was awful!” the brunette, who smelled like a human-elf mixture, stated. “I want to skin him alive.”

The blonde was eerily still, she merely cocked her head and looked at me. “Was that your mate?” There was smoke streaming out of her nostrils and my heart pinched at the word mate.

A low growl emanated from my throat and I fisted my hands, forcing my wolf to stay down so I could speak to these women. “Yes. And I need to get to her before he …” My words died in my throat and I spun, wrapping my hands around the bars at the door and shaking them. It was no use, I knew that. I’d lived in this cell for two years. This was where Ansel broke people down, though he’d never displayed the blatant disregard for others’ freewill like he did tonight. He must have finally snapped.

“Yeah, that’s not happening. We’re getting out of here,” Madelynn said bluntly, and the wind picked up, swirling around me. I turned to her and was surprised to find her just as angry as I was.

The blonde, who I was assuming from the smoking nostrils was the dragon queen, walked over to me. “I’m Arwen, queen of the dragon-folk and we’re going to help you get your mate back, okay?”

I could only nod, in shock at what was happening.

“And I’m Kailani,” the brown-haired woman said. “Elf queen.”

Arwen then walked over to the fae queen Madelynn and looked her dead in the eyes. “Can you take care of the guard?”

Madelynn nodded and then stepped over to me. “Move, please. We don’t have much time.”

I stumbled away from the door dumbfounded as she held up her hand in front of the bars.

“Are you hurt?” The elf queen was there beside me, inspecting my bleeding wrists.

“I’ll heal. It’s fine,” I told her, wondering when Raife had married her. He didn’t seem the marrying type the last time we spoke, which admittedly was years ago. I was slightly hurt there was no wedding invite to any of these marriages but I couldn’t really blame them. We’d all fallen out of touch when Raife’s family was murdered by the Nightfall queen.

I was watching the fae queen with a keen interest. She didn’t appear to be doing anything and yet I heard the sounds of struggling just outside the cell. Someone was gasping for—

“You’re stealing the air from his lungs?” I asked in shock as the realization hit me.

She looked over at me with a raised eyebrow and nodded. “The same thing I will do to your brother now that I know what he’s capable of,” she snarled.

Wow, she must be a fall fae to have wind magic. I had no idea the kind of power a wind fae could have, until now. I’d never really thought about it. Lucien could freeze people to death and she could steal the air from their lungs: they were quite the pair. As long as these women helped me get Zara back without harm, I didn’t care what they did to anyone else.

Thinking of Zara laying underneath my brother as he bedded her made me sick.

“Please hurry,” I growled as fur rippled along my skin.

I’d only just gotten Zara back, after five years of walking through Hades to be together. I couldn’t lose her again.

Madelynn stepped away from the door just as the guard’s body hit the floor in front of the cell with a thud. His face was purple and he was … dead.

“It’s done. Now how do we get out of here?”

Wow. She’d taken his life so easily! Without even touching him. “Can you kill my brother from here?” I asked her.

She shook her head. “I could collapse the entire building but that would kill us too. I need to be closer to him to target my power that precisely.”

I nodded, and then tried to think of ways she might be able to pull the door from the cell with her wind power. I’d tried so many things so many times, it was pointless. Iron and stone could hold a man for—