for their behavior. If the Shifters shifted or attacked, or both, Reid would be the first to die under a dokk alfar blade.
Again the smile. “I have to ask those terms or my people won’t back me. And we need you.”
“Give me a moment to explain it to them,” Reid said.
Cian frowned as though considering, but Reid knew he’d decided every word of this conversation before it had begun. “Go ahead.” He gestured to Peigi and the two males. Again the movement was casual, but Reid sensed that this man did nothing without calculating twenty moves ahead.
Reid turned to Peigi and repeated in English what Cian had said. “Agree?” he asked.
Peigi’s eyes narrowed. “They’ll kill you if we decide to shift?”
“That’s how it works.”
Michael growled. “Why should we take orders from Fae shits?”
“Because they hate the high Fae more than you do,” Reid said. “Trust me on that. And he has twelve trained warriors with very sharp swords who will do whatever he commands.”
Crispin sent Reid a hard stare. “You want me to betray the people I work for?”
Reid returned the stare with a flinty one of his own. “You work for me now.”
“Yeah? How do you figure?”
“Because if you don’t, you’ll be the first to go down. If they come for me, I’ll make sure I gut you first.”
Reid didn’t have to speak very loudly or even forcefully to make his point. He’d learned a lot about dominance living among Shifters. Eric, the Shiftertown leader, rarely yelled at anyone and yet his Shifters fell all over themselves for him whenever he opened his mouth.
Reid didn’t know Crispin’s place in the overall hierarchy, but suspected he fell under Michael at the least, and probably Peigi as well. It would be difficult for Crispin to go against their combined wishes.
Michael let out a gravelly laugh. “I’m starting to like you, dark Fae.”
“We won’t shift,” Peigi said, directing her words at Michael and Crispin. “But I want my clothes.”
Dokk alfar didn’t have the modesty rules humans did, but Reid understood, and it was cold. “Get them,” he said to Michael.
Michael drew a breath as though to argue then abruptly walked off to retrieve the clothes they’d dropped before the fight with the Fae prince and his men.
Crispin would have to make do with his own skin. From his expression, he didn’t care, which made Reid wonder how long he’d been in Faerie. He wasn’t quite feral, Reid didn’t think, but he was likely close.
Michael came back with the clothes and thrust Peigi’s carefully tied bundle at her. “There you go, baby.”
Peigi wrinkled her nose as she snatched the clothes from him. “You put your scent on them.”
Michael only gave her a gleeful look. Peigi snarled softly then stepped behind Reid, turned her back, and began to dress.
Michael pulled on his clothes without hurry. “Want a T-shirt?” he asked Crispin.
“I’ll be fine,” Crispin said.
The dokk alfar soldiers wouldn’t care if Crispin remained naked. Like the high Fae, they tended to regard Shifters as animals. They were far more compassionate toward those animals than the hoch alfar were, but they still regarded Shifters as inferior beings. Dokk alfar had as much arrogance as anyone else.
Once Peigi had pulled on her jeans, shirt, and sneakers, Reid drew her close. “Can you keep watch on those two?” he asked into her ear.
“Yes.” Peigi’s glare at Michael and Crispin didn’t bode well for them.
“Sure you’re all right?”
Peigi understood what he meant. “A couple years ago, I wouldn’t have been. Now?” She slid her gaze to Michael. “I’m fine.”
Reid heard the slight tremor in her voice, but Peigi held her head high, and he wanted to smile. Michael had no idea what he was up against.
The dokk alfar moved restlessly. Michael barely had his pants done—minus his belt buckle, when Cian waved at them to march out. Cian moved to Reid and stayed close to him as the party headed off into the woods.
Peigi kept a sharp eye on where they went as they walked through the trackless forest. She could follow a scent trail better than any kind of sight trail, and she took mental notes accordingly. She saw Crispin and Michael sniffing the air, knowing they did the same.
Crispin was difficult to read. He must have learned to keep himself closed off while working for a Fae prince—correction, being a Shifter toy of a Fae prince.
She wondered why any Shifter would choose to abandon his life and throw in with the Fae, especially Fae royalty, who