Free Stripes of Fury by Zenina Masters Page A

snorted and poured the tea for him. “Yeah, I have been meaning to speak with her about that.”
    “I have a solution, but I will need your help to execute it.” Frennin sipped at the tea and smiled. Even after a decade, she made the perfect cup of tea for him.
    “What are you planning?”
    Frennin explained about the blending of the fey and shifters at the Crossroads and how it would be the perfect place to find Nika a mate she could not simply dismiss. The human world was no place to try out a mating for a shifter.
    “You think this will work?” Annabella raised her brows.
    “I think that it is her best chance for an equal mating. With their power balanced, it will extend her life and bring her power, plus most of the fey have accumulated money. She will live a comfortable life.”
    Annabella sighed. “You do so well, and then, you put your foot in it. Listen, Horse Lord, we have a comfortable life. I board the horses and Nika helps me with them. She has a gift for dealing with them that I know you take full credit for, but we make enough to get by.”
    “I could have helped you do so much more if you had let me.”
    Annabella sipped at her tea and smiled softly. “And there you have it, Frennin. You are asking permission. That isn’t what Nika is looking for. She wants someone to take the reins, if only for a moment. She has yet to find one, so she simply rides them and lets them go.”
    Frennin listened and finally understood. “I know who to contact.”
    “You have a friend into light bondage?” Annabella smirked.
    “No, but I know someone who is an expert at taking the reins; it is just a matter of running the idea through the seers. They are in control of which fey go to the Crossroads.”
    Annabella nodded and finished her tea. “Too bad there wasn’t something like this when I was younger.”
    Frennin looked at her in surprise. “You would have gone to the Crossroads to be matched with a fey?”
    “I would have gone to seek a mate. I wouldn’t have cared what it was as long as we got along and had a meeting of the minds. Or as long as my beast wanted him.”
    Frennin finished his tea and got to his feet. He turned, “Did you ever want me?”
    Annabella sighed. “I wanted you and my beast wanted the dark stallion that thundered through the meadow. We both thought you were beautiful, but you never came back for us.”
    The grief in her arched neck was unmistakable. Frennin reached out for her, but she flinched away and he had no right to stay. He left her home and transported himself to the courtyard of the seers. If his daughter needed someone to take the reins, he knew just the fey. Now, he had to find out if they were in each other’s future.
     
    The pale seers sat next to each other as they consulted. Finally, they announced, “Markkios does not mate with a horse.”
    Frennin’s shoulders slumped. Damn. “Thank you.”
    “His mate is a zebra.”
    Frennin perked up. “Zebra?”
    “She is a woman with dark eyes, pale skin and waves of dark hair. Her beast has bands of fey magic running through it. She is a zebra.”
    He sat back and sighed. “That is my daughter.”
    The seers blinked. “The horse lord’s daughter is to be mated to the lord of horses? That is amusing.”
    Frennin winced. “So, do you find out if he is willing or do I?”
    The seers looked to each other again and nodded. “We will. This is a step too far for you, though we are glad you have brought it to our attention.”
    “Will you tell him who she is?”
    “No. We will merely tell him that a mate has been found for him and it is up to him to go to the Crossroads. You will have to get your daughter there when the timing lines up.”
    Frennin nodded with a wince and his skin shuddered. “I will manage it.”
    The seers rose and dismissed him with, “We wish you luck.”
    He wasn’t going to need luck; he was going to need a tranquilizer gun.
     

Chapter Two
     
     
    Nika Argus rubbed her head and scowled. That