Luke & Rena, page 1
part #1 of Book Three Series
Luke & Rena
The Wolf’s Mate Generations
Book Three
R. E. Butler
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Excerpt
From Jessi & The Hyenas (The Wolf’s Mate Generations #4)
Books
By R. E. Butler
About the Author
Copyright
Luke Ta’Rek paced, his big white paws digging into the dirt as he moved from one side of the clearing to the other. He was in hell.
A day earlier he’d met a gorgeous brunette named Rena, who was his friend Micah’s mate’s best friend. He knew in his heart there was something about her that he needed to discover, but she didn’t want anything to do with him.
Much to his surprise, she showed up tonight to witness Micah and Zoey’s mating ceremony, and when Rena crossed a magically protected border around the pack alphas’ home, she changed.
She wasn’t a brunette anymore. Now she had snow-white hair, icy-blue eyes, and fairy wings with silver and blue membranes. She was still the singular most beautiful female he’d ever laid eyes on. The moment she changed, he knew they were truemates, that she was the only female on the planet for him.
He was so overcome by her presence that he couldn’t help but change into his wulfen form.
Then all hell broke loose. Her parents had been looking for her because she’d been hiding out in the human realm using a spell to prevent them from finding her. They took her through a portal into the Fae Realm, and she warned him not to follow.
Of course he wasn’t going to listen. She was his truemate, and he wasn’t going to let her face whatever she was dealing with alone. Not to mention the fact that they needed to have a chat about her trying to keep her distance.
“Would you stop pacing?” his father, Crimson, asked.
Luke stopped and let out a deep sigh. As a wulfen–a cross between a wolf and a fairy–he was larger than a normal wolf shifter and also had access to fairy powers. He took after his father, brandishing the fae power over fire. His wings, unlike Rena’s, were covered with white feathers.
He grumbled at his father, wishing he could talk in his shift.
“I know you’re anxious about finding her, but you need to ride out your shift. You’re making me nauseous pacing.”
Luke snorted and sat on his haunches. He had another half hour or so before he could shift. Then they could open a portal to the Fae Realm and he could find Rena. He wished they were mated. Then he’d be able to find her easily because of their bond. But he’d only just met her, only just had a small window of time to be in her presence before she was ripped from him.
Whatever her parents wanted with her, they weren’t above threatening to kill him and Zoey if Rena didn’t do as they said.
Closing his eyes, he listened to the sounds of the woods in the Tressel Pack’s territory. There were small animals scurrying around, trees rustling in the breeze, and voices from the alphas’ house. The non-shifting females and young children stayed at the alphas’ house, where Jason and Cadence lived and oversaw the pack. Normally, Luke’s parents–Crimson and Lindy–stood guard over them, but his father was with him. It wasn’t like Luke could open a portal into the Fae Realm in his wulfen form, and he was of no use in finding Rena in his shift, so waiting it out was the smart thing to do.
Not that anyone would accuse Luke of always making smart choices. He tended to rush headfirst into things, bite first, ask questions later. But in this situation, he had to make good choices so he didn’t harm Rena or mess up his chance of finding her.
The half hour turned out to be the damn longest half hour ever, but when he finally felt the pull to stay in his shift ease away, he changed immediately. His clothes were nearby, and he hurried to them, tugging on his jeans and shoes, but leaving off his shirt. He let out his fae wings and stretched them wide, then rolled his neck.
He stalked back to the clearing where the bonfire was dying down.
“I’m ready, Dad.”
“Let’s go back to the house. Jenna and Logan are going to come with us, and so is Kash.” Kash was a full fae like his mother and had the power over metal. Luke was glad to have his friend by his side.
Luke’s sister Ruby strode into the clearing with a solid-black furred she-wolf trailing behind her. “I’m coming too.” She finished pulling her shirt on.
Their father opened his mouth but Ruby shook her head. “Dad, please. You need all the help you can get. Rio isn’t ready to be out of her shift yet, so she’ll hang out at the house with the mates and kids in my place after we leave.”
Crimson looked at Luke and made an exasperated sound. “Your mom is not going to like this.”
Ruby shook her head. “She already knows I want to go with you guys and she told me to be careful. You can ask her yourself at the house.”
Their small group headed back to the alphas’ home. Logan and Jenna were waiting on the back deck along with Kash. Jenna and Kash both had their wings out.
Kash had swords in both hands, the blades in sheaths that would sit between their wings. “Here you go,” he said, holding them out to him and Crimson.
“Thanks, man,” Luke said, settling one of the swords between his wings and adjusting the strap across his chest.
Luke’s mom walked out of the house and kissed his father, then walked over to hug him tightly. “Please be careful. I know you’re going to find your mate and that’s important, but be sure to reach her in one piece.”
“I will, Mom.” He squeezed her and let go. She hugged Ruby, making her promise something similar.
“I’ll make sure we’re all safe, Mom,” Ruby said. She didn’t use a sword, so Kash had brought her a set of knives and a holster that went around her waist and tied around her thigh.
“I wish we knew for sure where she was,” Jenna said. She walked off the porch with Logan. Crimson was already making a circle on the ground with sticks and rocks to open a portal.
“We’ve got two choices,” Crimson said. “She’s either in Draytock or Cinrepah. Unfortunately, the cities are very far apart, and we can’t portal between them, we have to actually walk because they’re magically protected.”
“Once we’re in the Fae Realm, I’ll cast a spell for her,” Luke said. “That’ll point us in the right direction.”
Crimson nodded, kissed Lindy, and said goodbye. Then he opened the portal.
Luke said goodbye to his mom and followed his dad through. The portal opened into their family home in the Homelna Glen in the Fae Realm. Luke had spent many summers as a child enjoying the quiet of the realm, with no electricity or vehicles. He could’ve moved there and joined the military like his father had, but he’d chosen to stay with the wolf pack.
When the portal was closed, Luke immediately cast a spell for his truemate. The spell would draw him and Rena together. He’d have an idea of where she was, and be able to find her, and she’d feel drawn to him too.
The last word of the spell left his lips and he felt a flare of connection to her, and then it disappeared.
“What the hell?” he asked.
“What’s wrong?” Crimson asked.
“The spell didn’t work.”
Jenna hummed. “Listen, we all know she’s your truemate, so the spell definitely worked, it must be something on her end of things. She could potentially be under some kind of magical bondage or spell that would keep you from finding her with a mating spell. Her family knew what you were to her, it’s why they threatened to kill you.”
Luke put his hands on his hips with a grunt. “What the hell now?”
“We pick one of the cities where we know there are sirenfae colonies and see if we can find her,” Crimson said.
“Which one?” Kash asked.
Luke closed his eyes and calmed his anxious wolf. He mentally reached out to Rena, and while he felt a faint connection to her, he got no clue as to her whereabouts. With a deep sigh, he said, “Cinrepah.”
“I’ll reach out to Kari and have her mate and his buddies meet us there,” Jenna said. Her fae bestie was mated to a captain in the fae military and would be helpful if there was a fight to free Rena.
“You’re not leaving without us, are ya?” a male voice boomed from behind them.
Crimson laughed and embraced his two fae friends, Riyad and Merik, who’d answered the call for help. “Wouldn’t dream of it,” Crimson said.
The males, who were like uncles to Luke and Ruby, hugged him and his sister tightly.
“Let’s go get that female of yours,” Merik said.
“Thanks for being here,” Luke said.
Riyad nodded. “We wouldn’t miss it.
When Raynir, Jenna’s friend’s mate, appeared with two other military males, their small group took off for Cinrepah. It would take them half a day to walk to the city, but it was the only way to get there without anyone knowing they were coming. A big procession of horses would be a clear call to anyone watching the borders that people were coming into town.
Ruby bumped his
“I know. I just wish I’d been able to stop her from being taken.”
“Well, you’ll have an interesting story to tell your kids.”
Luke chuckled. “Thanks for being here, sis.”
“That’s what family’s for.”
Luke gripped the strap of leather across his chest and set his sights on the horizon, where the small fae city of Cinrepah was potentially where his beautiful truemate was being held.
I’m coming for you, Rena.
Rena Fil’aire paced at the window of her old bedroom. Her arms ached and her strength was slipping away a little bit at a time thanks to the iron band she’d been imprisoned in by an asshole fae named Berolith. The male made her skin crawl, and lucky her–he’d killed the male she’d been arranged to mate and declared she was going to mate him instead. And help him take out his enemies.
And also find and kill a little dragonfae female.
“Shit.”
A shuffling sound alerted her to her mom joining her at the window.
Things had been strained between Rena and her parents–Zieg and Lu’ahn–for years. They’d promised her to Ra’Dnay, a fae male from another clan, when she was an infant. It was the custom of sirenfaes like those in her clan to arrange matings for the females, with other strong males of differing power bases, to ensure their clan would have plenty of strong warriors to keep them safe. Sirenfae, with the ability to take power from another fae and wield it as their own, were unique in the Fae Realm.
Rena was doubly blessed–or cursed, depending on how you looked at it–with the strongest sirenfae power anyone had ever witnessed in the history of their people. She could not only use another fae’s power, but she could take it from them entirely, and also give her power or another’s to different fae. Her own power base was water, but right now her power was unavailable to her.
Thanks to the damn iron band, which was poison to fae.
“What’s wrong?” her mom asked as she looked out the barred window.
Rena turned to face her mom. She was still lovely, even though she looked about two steps away from the grave. Her eyes were ringed with dark circles and her cheeks were sunken. The iron band was stealing her parents’ life faster than Rena’s, but none of them were doing well. It had been two days since she’d first been brought to the Fae Realm by her parents, swiped right from the front yard of the Tressel Pack Alphas’ home and brought to Draytock, her childhood home, to marry Ra’Dnay.
Then Berolith had taken his head and his place as Rena’s betrothed.
Hard pass.
“I just looked out the window and saw Ra’Dnay’s head. It’s so gross.”
The morning after Berolith had shown up and made her parents prisoners as well, he’d put Ra’Dnay’s head on a pike right outside Rena’s window, so even though she knew where it was and tried to avoid looking, she couldn’t help but see it and get grossed out all over again.
Her mom leaned against Rena with a sigh. “Your father is getting worse.”
“I know.” She kissed the top of her mom’s head. “I wish things were different.”
Her mom lifted her tear-stained face, her green eyes dull. “I should’ve let you live your life. If we hadn’t brought you here, he wouldn’t have killed Ra’Dnay and we wouldn’t be slowly poisoned to death.”
A few years earlier, Rena had escaped the figurative guillotine hanging over her head in the form of Ra’Dnay and lost herself in the human realm, using a powerful protection spell to ensure no one would be able to find her. The spell changed her hair and eye color and made her appear human. She’d gone to community college and met Zoey, a human female with extraordinary baking skills. The two became fast friends, even sharing an apartment when Zoey’s relationship had gone ass over tea kettle and she’d been homeless.
Turning from the window, she led her mom to the big bed where her dad was resting. Her mom sat with a groan. Rena grabbed a cup and filled it from the bathroom sink, then brought it to her mom, helping her drink it.
“If things don’t turn around soon, I’m going to have to mate the bastard,” Rena said.
“No,” her mom said, shaking her head. “He’ll kill us all, even you.”
“I’m too valuable for him to kill.” At least until he got what he wanted, which was the annihilation of his enemies.
Rena had been locked up by her parents for a handful of hours when Berolith had shown up and turned their world upside down again. If she didn’t give him what he wanted and agree to be his mate, then they were all going to die.
She felt a little twinge in her heart and closed her eyes. She knew exactly who it was.
Luke Ta’Rek. Wulfen.
Sexiest guy on the planet.
And her truemate.
She’d been aware when he came into the Fae Realm on the night of the full moon, but then she’d lost what little connection she had to him. They were truemates, but she’d spent exactly one minute in his presence before she’d been taken by her parents.
She’d met him briefly when she was helping Zoey move into Micah’s house, and she ran away like a bat out of hell. Being with Luke would mean revealing her true self to him, and the moment that happened, her parents would’ve been able to find her. She’d hated herself but she hadn’t been willing to risk her safety to explore feelings with the sexy male.
Blonde hair. Green eyes.
Kissable lips.
Ah!
Pressing her thumb between her eyes, she focused on slowing her breathing and combating the vicious headache that bloomed.
“You feel him?” her mom asked.
“Yeah. It’s faint, though. I don’t know what it means.”
She released the pressure of her thumb and smiled at her mom.
“Well, I think it means he’s close now. It’s been two days. I wish he’d been able to get to you before Berolith did.”
She helped her mom lay back and grabbed a fuzzy blanket from the foot of the bed. “You rest. I’ll keep watch.”
“You should rest too.”
I’ll rest when my mate is with me, Berolith is dead, and these damn iron bands are off all of us.
“I will, I promise.”
It was sunset, the ambers and oranges of the sky casting a soft glow around the castle’s room. Somewhere out there, Luke was searching for her, but she had no idea if he knew where her people lived or how to find her.
She couldn’t wait around to be rescued, and frankly that wasn’t the kind of female she was.
Now was the time for drastic action, because her parents’ lives–and her own–depended on her ability to do something, anything, to get them free.
Her mind spun as she thought over what she could do.
Well, not much. The iron bands had been leeching her power from the moment they’d been clamped around her biceps. Purple lines snaked up and down her arms, evidence of the poison.
Closing her eyes, she reached for her fae power over water and felt a little tremor of it.
Could she?
A hand touched her and she nearly jumped out of her skin. With a gasp, she opened her eyes and saw her mom standing next to her. She was holding her father’s hand.
“Take our power,” her mom said.
“I can’t. It’ll kill you. You’re both too weak.”
“Not if you use our power to boost yours,” her father whispered, his lips cracking and bleeding with the motion. “If we’re touching, you can tap into us both.”
She hummed. “I didn’t know that.”
“It will work,” her mom said. “It has to.”
Rena thought over her options. It seemed too dangerous, but what choice did she have?
“If you’re sure?” she asked.
Her parents both nodded. “You’re here because of us,” her mom said. “It’s only right we help get us all out of this mess.”
A plan came to her mind. It was a long shot, but what the hell else would work?
“Okay,” she said, squaring her shoulders. “Call for the guard.”
