Page 37 of The Chosen Fae

Elon came into the room and shook Stone’s hand, all smiles.

"Yeah, for sure, we hope more are going to help you. Though they might still be too afraid of them to work against them."

"Unless they learned that the rest of you are in on this."

"Right," Silas said. "But we're not ready to ask them. They seem to suck up to them, like Fang, so we're keeping this on the down low."

"Okay." But then the problem was that Stone didn't really want to lead the two packs. However, to avoid having Xena or Vesper take charge of the packs, he realized he'd do nearly anything. He wondered how Rune felt about that.

He didn't want her left alone in the glen. He wanted her to be with him, ruling the pack. Then he smiled at himself. Or she would be in charge, and he was doing this with her. In any case, he wanted to be with her. Even if they started their own pack in the glens and ignored the other two.

The problem was he was afraid the others would encroach on their territory, just like Vesper and the others had gone to his glen and fought with him before Rune came to rescue him. None of the three others who were here in the competition had taken part in that fight, but those with him must have been with Vesper’s wolf pack.

Stone already adored Rune, but these challenges had cemented their relationship even further.

Silas sat down on his bed. "So what can we do to help you both win the next few challenges?"

Elon joined him.

"Well, you know what Rune did with cutting the rope bridges."

Silas smiled. "Some were mad about that. Iris told us she was shocked but then thought it was a great move. No one was hurt, and the big thing was that Rune had allowed Lolita safe passage."

"Everyone is down on her." Stone wouldn't tolerate that behavior toward anyone.

Silas sighed. "Not really. We just don't stick up for her because of Xena or Vesper, depending on which pack we're with."

"You didn't help us with the pirarucu."

"Again, we were still trying to keep from being in trouble with them."

"Your girlfriend saved my butt out there, but don't think I like her any better," Elon told Stone.

"Oh? Why is that?" Stone figured she shouldn't have bothered, but even if they didn't like a pack member, they needed to play the pack leader game from here on out.

"Because she sent Pari home, and Maeve too."

"But it was okay for Maeve to try and smother her to death? And for Pari to hit her with rocks so the sandworm would take Rune out?"

Elon didn't say anything to that. Then finally he said, "She could have just knocked Maeve out. She didn't have to put her out of the game."

"Maeve was smothering Rune, and she didn't have any choice. What would you have done in her place?"

Elon was quiet.

"The same with Pari. You saw the wounds on Rune's face. Pari was either trying to knock her out or make her cry out to alert the sandworms so they would devour her. Any way that you look at it, Rune had no choice. She didn't have to save you or Iris either. She could have just reached the forest, dealt with the wraiths, and headed for the Hawk Fae Kingdom. You sure have a warped sense of reality."

Elon shut up then.

"And she's not my girlfriend, if it's any of your business. We're both lone wolves so we have something in common, just like you do with your packmates. Oh, and I didn't see Vesper coming to your aid, by the way."

Elon didn't say anything about that. What could he say? Vesper was only there for himself, and if he could, he would make all his pack members, and the others, lose the challenges.

The next morning, they all met with their advisors, and Ondine tsked at Rune. "So you sent another team member packing."

"I wouldn't have if Pari hadn't tried to kill me. Besides, I didn't know if she would be out of the game or not if I had a dragon remove her from No Man's Land."

"I don't see you attempting to kill your competitors, only make it more challenging for them—such as with the rope bridge adventure. If they hadn't been fighting each other on the rope bridges, they could have made it to the other side and had a chance to search for the idol themselves, every one of them. But instead, they chose to fight one another, trying to get rid of their competition." Ondine shrugged.