walker saga 07 - earth (42 page)

To my brother, Cody, and sister-in-law, Laura, you two are amazing and I am so grateful for the support and help with my kids and books. I’m going to miss you when you don’t live with us and the kids will miss you even more.

To the rest of my extended family, thanks for always having my back; thank you for reading my books and acting like I’m the most talented author you know. My sensitive artist soul thanks you for the gushing.

To my betas, Marice, Andi and Laura, girls – you all rock my world. Thank you for the love and support you have shown my Walkers. Your generosity in helping me and in showering praise and criticisms when needed has been instrumental in shaping this series. A double special thanks to Marice and Laura. You have been with me from the very start. We made this journey together and I love you both.

Also thank you to my editor, Kathy Stewart. You were the first person to professionally help shape my words. I have learnt so much from you. From the very first edit you helped my writing shine. Your patience and expertise is very much appreciated, not to mention the support and faith in my work.

And lastly, thank you to every single one of you out there that have taken the time to read my books. Thank you for the messages, emails, GIFS, pics, quotes, drawings, reviews and love. The way you have embraced this series leaves me beyond words – there is nothing I can say to express the way you have made this author feel every day since hitting ‘publish’ on First World. I heart the heck out of every single one of you and am giving you all a big Walker bear hug right now. As Lucy would say: You’re the effing best. Word!

A little something of the happily ever after <3

Lucy

Oh, my god, what smelled so freaking good? I rolled across the massive space, my hands reaching for Colton but coming up empty. He wasn’t in the bed, which was a little strange. But hopefully the source of the food was the reason for his absence. I scooted to the edge and stared down. Of course being mated to a Walker resulted in a bed a hundred miles off the ground, which was a right old pain in my butt each morning. Luckily for me, I was no longer a sucky human. I was a pixie and not of the Tinkerbell variety.

I sat up straighter and with barely a thought connected to the green line of energy which ran through my body. There was no pain, just a popping sound, and I was again the proud owner of some glittery, fluttery wings. Yep, that’s right. Lucy Laurell, shortest chick in the class, could now fly.

How do you like that, Compound 23 biatches?

It took no effort now to flutter off the side and make my way across the huge room I shared with my wolf-Walker mate. Colton liked things to be large and opulent. For someone who spent part of his time scratching fleas and peeing on bushes, he sure enjoyed the finer things in life.

I can hear you quite clearly, mate.

The shiver that ran through me was not something new. It pretty much happened the moment I saw, thought about, heard or was in close proximity to the blond deliciousness which was all mine.

Shouldn’t listen in if you don’t want to hear bad crap about yourself.

His deep and husky tones shot straight back at me, sending a burst of heat right down to my toes. That man’s voice should be registered as a weapon. The growl, courtesy of his heritage, which laced each word was like a shot of pure attraction straight to my girlie bits.

Get your sexy butt out here, pretty girl.

My wings fluttered faster, and I was suddenly hungry for more than just food. I paused only for a quick bathroom break, brushing my teeth straight after. My wardrobe here was almost as drool-worthy as Abby’s in her Angelisian bedroom. Which of course was totally wasted on my best friend. She didn’t give two craps about fashion. Half the time she wore the same damn pair of jeans. And ratty old boots. All of that height and kick-ass body should have been shared around.

I scanned the rows of clothes. I had so many to choose from now. Colton loved showering me with colorful garments, but a lot had come from Malisna, my mother the pixie queen. She loved having her daughter back. And I wasn’t complaining. For the first time in my life I understood who I was. Things felt right inside, and I was happy. And after watching Abby and all the girls die in the dark mountain, we were all due a little happiness.

I dressed in a pair of light-denim, skinny, ripped jeans, which were made of something so magical that, even for a short, curvy pixie, they fit perfectly, teaming it with a black tank that had cut-out patterns on the back and side. It showed a lot of skin, but also gave me space for my wings.

I flew out of the large room, which held our four-poster ornately clad timber bed. Size was king-king-giant-ass or something. My mate was one big guy, and he needed something to fit him. Of course, he still somehow managed to wrap himself around me in my small section all night. Luckily. I wasn’t sure I could sleep without him now.

I hurried down the long hall, past the zillions of useless rooms that filled this house, and finally emerged in the huge open-plan, wood-grain and marble kitchen. As I caught sight of broad shoulders wearing a Henley-style long-sleeved tee, heat engulfed me and flashes of glitter puffed around.

Sometimes the glitter was like those old school cartoons where some little creepy creature had bad breath and this weird cloud of smell emerged from them. Of course, the glitter didn’t smell, or do anything much in this form. But if I wanted to, I could harness it into a weapon. I’d used it more than once when we fought at the dark mountain, and it was actually more debilitating than I’d expected.

“Hey, pretty girl.” Colton slid a plate across the bench, everything about him suddenly distracting me from the heavy thoughts.

The moment the plate hit the white bench, he moved. So fast I almost didn’t track it. Huge hands spanned my waist, and I was suddenly lifted up onto the stool. He hefted my weight without showing an ounce of strain, like I was just a pillow or something.

I kinda loved it when he did that. Not to mention the extended kiss he dropped on my lips before striding back around to stand before the cooker.

My eyes drank in the absolute panty-dropping goodness before me. Giant height, golden skin, chiseled features, not to mention those icy-blue eyes that were so intense I often found myself staring mesmerized into them. Yep. It was official. Lucy was whipped. Not only was I whipped, but I was also referring to myself in the third person, and I was totally okay with it.

For reals, Colton and I were going to have beautiful blond pixie-faerie-wolf-Walker babies. Just as long as they didn’t come out in pup form, I was okay with mini Colton’s running around.

Colton dropped a second plate next to mine, and joined me at the breakfast bench. His long legs allowed him to rest his feet flat on the ground, while mine dangled below the tall stool.

“So yesterday went well, right?” Colton spoke as he began using his knife and fork to maneuver his breakfast around into the order he liked to eat.

The wolf-Walker was a tad OCD in some ways. He had to eat each section of food fully before moving on to the next, and he always left the meat until last. Just one of the weird Colton things that I found adorable and annoying.

“It was awesome. The look on Abbs’ face when she walked through that door. I thought she was gonna pee herself or something.”

Colton snorted over his eggs. “You have such a way with words.”

“Word.” I agreed with him wholeheartedly. I was practically a wordsmith.

We continued to chat as we ate. It was so strange for me. Such a domesticated scene we painted. Pretty much as far removed from the majority of my life as a scene could be. There was no fighting. No worry about the Seventine. Just me and my man eating some food. I needed to take a freaking picture or something, because this was way too peaceful. Something for sure was going to come along and smack me in the ass. Disturbing the serenity.

And when that happened, I was going to more than return the favor.

I shoveled in a mouthful of the fried gems or, as I liked to call them, weird-white-tube-things-that-were-a-lot-like-potatoes.

“Are Abbs and Brace back yet?” I said as soon as my mouth was not filled to the brim.

Some of the words were garbled around my food, but Colton would get the gist.

“No, the mantle of princeps is still upon me.”

It sort of irked me that when Brace wasn’t on Abernath, Colton had to do all the craptastic running around and cleaning up after the Walkers here. Some sort of weird magic energy thing descended over him and he could feel their people. When Brace was here, he didn’t have the same energy layering his mind.

Colton had never wanted to be Brace’s second, but he trusted no one else to protect his best friend. And I completely understood that. I would go all ninja bat-shit-crazy pixie on anyone who screwed with Abby. Gods, I missed her. I hoped she would get back soon and we could figure out what the heck we were going to do with the rest of eternity.

Okay, mostly
I
needed to figure it out. Everyone else had lots of important things to do. Damn, Abby was supposed to be the ruler of two worlds and peoples, although Ria might be helping out with one of those. All in the name of love, of course, or possibly just trying to get into Emperor-boy’s pants.

Colton chuckled again. My inner thoughts amused him a lot. I tried to get mad about it, but I was a little bipolar, so it was no surprise he found my jumpy thought pattern funny.

“You have two worlds pulling you in different directions also, pretty girl.”

He was finished eating now, his plate clean with no spilled food around it. Meanwhile I had almost as much egg on the bench as was on my plate. Yeah, I was focusing on something stupid to hide from the very realness of his words.

I sighed. “My father wants to unlock my faerie side. Malisna is all pissety about that and keeps smashing things. Pretty things that I would love to have rather than them end up in a zillion pieces on her nice wooden floors.”

My mother’s pixie castle was out of the weird portal it had been in.

All of pixie now resided in the forest-of-no-entrance-and-a-zillion-spiky-things. I had a bedroom in the castle, across the hall from Refis, my brother. I hadn’t spent much time with them lately, what with the battle to save the worlds, almost losing Abby, and then our impromptu Christmas. It was probably time to make the trek back to First World and calm my parentals.

Not that Latinti, the faerie prince needed calming. Dude was zenned out a lot. Faeries had to have some good drugs, because they were whacked five ways from Sunday. I sometimes wondered if I was possibly adopted. Both of my parents were just crazy.

Colton snorted into his plate again.

My head whipped around, but by the time I skewered him with my eyes, there was no humor in his face. Except maybe that extra twinkle in the blue of his wolf peepers.

“Have I told you today that I love you, my little pixie?”

He leaned in with the kiss and, as distractions went, it was pretty epic. My body was boneless as I sank into him. He smelt of bonfire nights and that crisp air at the beginning of fall. Everything about Colton was so alive, and he made me feel like I would burst out of my skin every time he touched me.

“I felt you last night,” I murmured against his lips. “You had another nightmare.”

My mate stiffened slightly, and the distance between our mouths grew just enough for him to speak.

His hands rose to rest against my face, cupping it gently. “I didn’t hurt you, right? I know I sometimes thrash around … in the middle.”

I shook my head, long ringlets of blond and green falling across my shoulders. “Babe, you’ve never hurt me. Stop even thinking like that. You’re not your father.”

Colton’s father had gone all rogue wolf and killed his family. Apparently if the Walker lost himself to the wolf, then a kind of berserker rage would take over and the damage the wolf could inflict was enough to kill one of their kind. All Colton had left from a rather large family tree was Magenta and Petal.

Speaking of.

“Just a thought … not that I want to change the subject, because you totally have to start talking these feelings out, before they drive you crazy. That’s what I’m here for; share with me. It’s not a burden. I want to know everything, and I want to help.”

His hands were gentle on my face, his index finger running softly across my cheek bone. I knew he liked to trace the patterns of green glitter which were now embedded in my skin.

“I promise that as soon as I figure out what the hell has brought the dreams back, I’ll share with you.”

I stared for an extra beat before nodding. There wasn’t much else I could do. The dreams had sort of weirdly returned and Colton was still sorting through his mental crap. He would talk when he was ready.

“Didn’t you say you were going to change the subject?” Colton gently reminded me that I was both flighty and scatterbrained at the moment.

“Oh, right, aren’t we supposed to head over to Magenta’s and pick up Petal?” I absolutely adored Colton’s niece and absolutely despised his twin. Bitch was crazy and evil. Although, she had some wicked clothes that I’d like to steal from her dead body. Except of course she was like the rest of the Walkers: a foot taller than me.

Oh, well, at least if I only had to face Colton’s crazy-assed bloodline today, I could put off facing mine until tomorrow. Who knew what new pixie-faerie discoveries that might bring?

Please, if you loved this book, could you do me a huge favor and post a review on Amazon and/or Goodreads. Reviews are so valuable to independent authors and I’d appreciate your feedback. – Jaymin

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