her. She made a big show of trying to stand then fell against me. I slipped an arm beneath her legs and picked her up. She wrapped her arms around me and nuzzled my ear.
I wanted to run with her. I wanted to take to the woods. But Phaedra’s soft whisper steadied me.
“Take me to bed,” she said. “And let’s find out who you are.”
16
Phaedra
Archer stayed in his wolf as he carried me back to my room. I expected J.C. to follow. Krall’s assertion of power over him had him fuming. As I passed him with Archer, J.C. grabbed my arm and hissed in my ear.
“Don’t forget who you belong to, pet. I’ll see you at first light.”
I put a hand on Archer’s back. He was so keyed up, he might have snapped J.C.’s arm off. He went still. As Krall and Moren called J.C. into his office, Archer and I made our way down the hall.
Archer shifted as we reached my door, and he put me down. Sweat poured off him. I knew how much he wanted to take to the woods. To kill something.
He locked the door behind us and came to me in a rush. Breathless, he took me by the shoulders.
“You’re okay?”
“I’m fine,” I said. “And it worked. Now we just have to figure out if there’s anything useful on this thing.” I waved the flash drive in front of his face.
“I don’t care,” he said. “My God. Phaedra, I felt what they want to do to you. It’s worse than what happened to your friend.”
“And I’m stronger than my friend,” I said.
Archer’s face fell. He let go of me and sank to one of the couches.
“Archer,” I said. “What I told you…”
He lifted a finger to his lips, then pointed to his ear. He pressed a button embedded in the side table. Classical music blared out of the speakers in the ceiling. He motioned for me to sit beside him.
“He’s listening,” Archer said. “J.C. has eyes and ears everywhere. I’ve swept this room for listening devices, but he can change things at will.”
“Good point,” I said. Archer turned to me.
“A dragon?” he only mouthed the words. Even with the music, he wanted to be cautious.
I nodded. “And my mother is a fire mage. She’s the last of the Hayes family. I don’t know if you know what that means.”
His eyes went wide. “Of course I know what that means. My mother wanted me to know some history. At least...her history.”
I took his hands in mine. “Tell me about her. What was her family name?”
“Talbot,” he said. “My mother’s name was Lydia Wilder.”
I smiled. I’d heard the name, of course. There’d been a Wilder sitting on the Council of Five in the Kentucky covens for centuries. She must have been very strong, indeed. Then a shadow darkened my heart.
“She was strong,” I said. “Her water magic would have been very pure. And that’s why she was taken. That’s why they wanted her at Birch Haven.”
“Good breeding stock,” Archer spat.
“Archer,” I said. “After the Battle of Birch Haven, when they liberated Kentucky... was she...had your mother been marked by your father?”
“Of course,” he said. “A mate can’t give birth to an Alpha wolf without a proper marking.”
I put a hand against his cheek. “That wasn’t your fault. You know that, right? And she loved you. Regardless of the circumstances of your birth, your mother loved you. She wanted you. She did the best she could for you.”
“I know all of that,” he said. “And she gave me a good life. I was content in Wild Ridge, even with all those bear shifters around. She was happy, I think. She got to practice her magic for as long as she could. She became a healer. But what happened to her, what they did to her at Birch Haven...she never fully recovered from it. They stripped so much of her power. And having me. Her body just finally wore out. She died when I was eleven. A year before the shifter attacks. The clans let me stay. I did. For a very long time. But then, I knew I had to find out the truth about myself. I had to know who did this to her. I had to find my father.”
“She was free,” I said. “Your father, he’s dead. He has to be dead. Right? Otherwise even with the camp’s destruction, he would have been able to find her.”
“I don’t know for sure,” he said. “She swore he