#FlashSaturday – The Rose and the Heart Part Two

Evening lovely readers 🙂

As you can see these #FlashSaturday’s are becoming a horrible habit of mine 🙂 As some will know I have been working on my second novel while I wait for the first to come back from the editor. I had decided to turn a flash fiction I previously posted on here, The Rose and The Heart, into my next novel and have since been working on it. Here’s a slice situated about mid way through. Enjoy 🙂

 

The Rose and the Heart

 

Rose had to look at her so called father in pity. He sat there on his gilded throne making commands and expecting loyalty but was he truly happy? He was surrounded by advisor’s and courtiers but was he truly loved? She stood before him, shackled as she was, but she refused to be cowed by the man even if he is the High King of the Fae.

“Tell me Princess,” her father began, “why did you seek my enemies, those that deprived me of my Queen, for your own selfish gain?” Rose sighed,

“Spare me old man,” she replied, sparing her father none of the fake niceties he got from everyone else. “I have no desire to be here. If you’ll remember correctly, you brought me here against my will, you’re the one that sent your lackeys,” and here she glared at Frost. At least he had the grace to look a little guilty. “Why do you hold me here?” She had no desire to answer his questions. The lycans weren’t his enemy; her mother had run when she found out what a maniacal bastard he was, not to mention obsessive. From what she could see he was now delusional, believing that the lycans had taken her away. She really wanted to laugh at that. There had never been another lycan in her life bar her mother and that was because she fought her hardest to protect Rose. She’d never lived to see Rose could hold her own. A single crystal tear slid down her cheek.

“I hold you here child,” he spat the word with venom, “because you are the only heir to this throne much to my disgust. Had you been here we could have burned the wolf from you but now it is entirely too firmly ensconced. You will be taught, whether you wish to be or not, how to rule these realms when my time ends or by the divines I will make you suffer.” Rose had had enough. Her mother had never asked for a fae mate but that’s what fate had given her, the cruel old bugger. She must have had terrible luck to be stuck with the deranged old coot in front of her. She wouldn’t stand anyone tarnishing what her mother was and treading all over the kindness and love she had shown Rose, even at the cost of her own health.

“Well old man,” she was really quite enjoying her new name for him, “as much as I would love to stick around for that I’m afraid I have other plans.” She smiled as she looked at him, surprised he couldn’t guess what was coming. She felt the welcoming rush of heat as her wolf sprang forth ready to protect her. She caressed the wolf’s fur as she receded and the wolf rushed forward. Let her father deal with this. She felt bones pop and reform; her nose elongated into a long elegant muzzle; beautiful purple tinged black fur sprouted and she dropped to all fours. She watched in amusement as the golden shackles fell to the floor. She spent all of a second to see realisation sink into her fathers cold grey eyes before she leapt onto the window ledge and out into the beautiful night. As she landed gracefully on the wooded floor she heard her father scream,

“She can shift even with our magic on her??? FIND HER!!!” Rose smiled even in her wolf form and trotted off. In truth she had no idea where she was going. This forest was entirely new to her in a completely different realm but surely she must have gotten here somehow. She knew how to transport others realm to realm but she had never been able to accomplish it herself otherwise she’d be out of here in an instance. Instead she would have to find the portal her mother had told her about. Not that she had much to go on. How often do you come across a patch of air that shimmered like water. Mentally she sighed and continued on.

Eventually, after she had passed what she was sure was the same rock as twenty minutes ago, she stopped dead in her tracks. Her enhanced senses picked up something very familiar. She felt light headed and a little tingly. No, surely it couldn’t be. She looked around and decided she must be wrong. She shook her head and continued on. She had to stop again however as the feeling grew more intense. Suddenly a shadowed shape dropped from the trees above. She tensed. She was formidable against many opponents but in this new realm she couldn’t be sure. Just in case she added some of her fae magic behind her wolf reflexes in the hopes she would prevail. With bated breath she waited until eventually a great silver wolf came forward. Mentally she gasped. This was the wolf she had seen from the window of her home, the one she had thought must have escaped from somewhere. She’d had the same tingly feeling then, also when a tall and admittedly handsome stranger had walked into her at the news stand. What was this? Why did she feel this way?

She watched with trepidation as he came forward to sniff at her. With a pained groan she uttered back off Fido and singed his nose hairs. He yelped and stepped back,

You even sound like her, he mentally chuckled. What? How the Hell did he hear her?

I heard you because your mother was part of my pack, which makes you part of my pack. He moved towards her again. Rose sniffed indignantly.

I belong to no pack.

You keep telling yourself that, he laughed and got far too close to her for her own comfort.

What do you want from me? Why did you follow me to this God forsaken place? she asked frustrated and she didn’t want to admit, a little attracted.

Your mother was the Omega of my Pack, I the Alpha. We ruled together though we were not mates, but and he sniffed again you however are mine. 

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