By
May Dawson

One minute, I’m just an innocent, brave, beautiful young woman chasing down an evil vampire. The next, three sexy Fae jerks abduct me from my life of slaying vamps and saving puppies.

Okay, okay. I’m not particularly innocent. The beautiful part is really dependent on the lighting. And some people say ‘brave’, some people say ‘stupid’. Whatcha gonna do? Everybody’s got haters, even the toughest Hunter in Washington, D.C.

I’ve got amnesia, and my memories all begin five years ago. So I don’t remember these cocky Fae princes, with the smoldering eyes and painfully good looks.

But they definitely remember me. They say I’m the true heir to the throne. But these sexy jerks are hiding some kind of secret from me. There’s trouble back in Faerieland (They hate it when I say that).

Someone stole my tiara right off my head, erased my memories and shoved me through the portal to your world. And it’s time for me to find out why, with these powerful Fae males by my side—no matter how unhappy we are to be stuck together.

Five years ago Alisa woke up in the human realm without her memories. A note she carried gave her name, states she has no friends, to trust no one and she’s good with a sword. Not much to go on but she does have money so that’s a start. She makes her first friend when an older woman Elly helps her with a couple of human monsters. That was her introduction to hunting.

Duncan, Tiron and Azrael have been searching for Alisa and they’ve finally found her. She has no memory of Duncan when he helps her with a vampire trap. They know who she is and need to bring her home. They just have to figure out how to get her there, hopefully of her own volition.

Alisa has two friends other than Elly now, Carter and Julian. After her encounter with the vampires and Duncan she’s out with them having a drink. Of course, they run into more vampires who try to take Alissa. Duncan is the one who comes to her rescue again this time with two enormous black dogs.

It’s not until she’s taken by shifters who have been grabbing young girls for breeding that she reaches an agreement with them. She’ll go if they help her take the shifters down and free any girls they find.

After an unintentional argument with Azrael, Duncan picks her up and carries her through the portal kicking and screaming.

This is a favorite scene.

Duncan dropped me unceremoniously on the ground.

“Are you all right?” Azrael asked, his eyes wide as he leaned over me. I kicked him in the shoulder, and his big body rocked back under the force, although he kept his footing.

I scrambled to my feet and faced him, my chest heaving. Azrael looked at me with hurt written across his face.

“You’re no friend of mine,” I told him, since he’d made it clear I’d been no friend of his. “I don’t know what the hell I did to you, but I’m going home.”

“This is home,” Duncan said calmly, his arms crossed over his chest. “Now, unless you want me to carry you all the way into the palace past your subjects and servants, I suggest you walk.”

I looked back at the shimmer in the air, past the three males who’d brought me here. Azrael still gripped my sword harness in one hand, regret written across his face. That asshole. I’d show him regret. Tiron offered me a rueful smile.

Duncan glared at me as if he were daring me to get past him.

My jaw was tight as I glanced at the forest around us. “Which way?”

“This way.” Tiron gave me a comforting look as he gestured. “Everything is going to be fine, Alisa. You’ll see.”

Duncan snorted.

I didn’t trust Duncan one bit—he hated me, more than anyone else did—but I did think he probably had the most realistic assessment of the situation.

The three of them stared at me as if they were waiting for me to do something, and I made an impatient gesture. “Lead on.”

Tiron walked with me, Azrael and Duncan bringing up the rear as if they were afraid I’d make a sudden break back for the portal. I glanced over my shoulder, past them, trying to find the shimmer in the air. Was that it? No magic words? Just walk through the shimmer and I’d be home again, back with Carter and Julian and Elly?

I squared my shoulders. I’d come here for a reason. I’d get my answers, and if I didn’t like it here, I’d leave Faerieland behind and go back to the human world.

“I suppose you’re happy,” Azrael accused Duncan behind us. “You got to carry her kicking and screaming back home.”

“I didn’t want her here to begin with. But I suppose you’re right. I’m happy you’re not happy,” Duncan replied.

“Trouble in paradise?” I asked, glancing over my shoulder at the feuding brothers. A low-hanging branch hung in my way, and I raised my hand to push it up.

Tiron jumped to push my hand down, and I skidded to a halt, staring at him.

“Bad idea,” he chided me. “You really don’t know anything about the Fae world, do you?”

“I’ve only said that eighty-two times now.” They seemed to be surprised all over again, over and over, about the fact that I didn’t remember anything about my past.

Even if my traitor body seemed to remember that it liked the way Azrael smelled, the way Azrael touched me… no matter what an ass he was.

I studied the branch in front of me. Little barbs ran all along the branch, curling out like so many jagged little splinters. “So the tree’s got bite.”

“Literal bite,” Tiron said. He tugged me to one side, then reached out to catch a crawling beetle from another plant. He carried the bug over in cupped hands, then dropped it onto the tree branch.

The spines snapped closed around the beetle, then the branch jerked up toward the trunk of the tree. I hissed in a breath of surprise at the force with which the branch slammed into the trunk.

When the branch unfurled again, the beetle was gone, although there was a faint slick of bug guts and blood left behind where it had been. Horror wiggled through my gut. Surely I was too big for that tree to eat, right?

“Everything in the Fae world is trying to kill you,” Tiron warned me.

Including the Fae themselves, a dark voice warned somewhere in the back of my mind.

“Splendid,” Duncan said, “Now she’s advanced to the level of knowledge of an average two-year-old. The temperament of one, too. If the object lesson is done, can we move on to the palace?”

“You’re the one who hauled me over your shoulder like a big bully,” I pointed out.

“I was trying to save my brother before you disemboweled him,” Duncan said. “Sometimes I think he deserves it, but our mother would have been so unhappy with me, rest her soul.”

I couldn’t picture Duncan and Azrael ever having a mother who fussed over the two of them.

I stayed close to the males—damn them—since I didn’t know anything about the other dangers of the forest. They didn’t seem inclined to let me die on their watch, anyway. But it might be trickier than I had thought at first to sneak out here and escape through the portal, until I either regained my memories or learned what I needed to survive in the Fae world.

No, I’d get my memories back. That was the whole point of coming ‘home’.

Trees soared impossibly high overhead. Vibrant green and purple leaves shook as birds hopped through the branches, singing. One small white squirrel chased another, chittering back and forth as they leapt through the thick canopy.

Flowers bloomed from vines that wrapped trunks and hung down from the trees, in richer and more beautiful displays than at any wedding. The flowers were not only in a kaleidoscope of colors, but they released tantalizing floral scents. My nostrils flared, trying to tease out the different fragrances as we passed beneath the trees.

As we journeyed through the woods, I had to admit the land was beautiful. Wild and untouched, lush and gorgeous.

We reached a narrow river, where cool blue water coursed over shallow, gray rocks. Creatures dove into the water, filling the air with the sound of splashes, although they’d been a blur I couldn’t really see.

“It’s gorgeous here,” I admitted in surprise. I headed for the river bank, then paused, glancing at Tiron because there might be dangers I couldn’t see.

“Let me help you over,” he said. “There are dangers in the water, but they’re more afraid of us—when we’re together—than we need to be of them.”

“You don’t have to do that,” I said, but Tiron was already sweeping me off the ground, holding me against his chest. He waded into the water resolutely, ignoring the way it soaked his clothes to his body. He shifted me higher as the water deepened.

“She doesn’t mind when Tiron carries her, did you notice that?” Duncan asked Azrael, his voice barbed.

“Tiron hasn’t been an ass to her, as you have,” Azrael shot back.

Tiron smiled faintly at the exchange.

“I’m not sure I’d go that far,” I whispered. “You know things you aren’t telling me.”

“But I’m on your side, Princess,” Tiron whispered. “I don’t think you’re evil.”

“That’s the nicest thing anyone has said to me all day.”

“Lies,” Tiron responded. “Duncan said you’d make a lovely pirate, or something like that.”

At Tiron’s teasing, some of my tension ebbed away. The three of them weren’t my friends, but I’d figure things out. I’d be fine. I always was. I had a feeling Tiron could easily be turned into an ally—he’d been distressed at the way Duncan dragged me into this world.

On the far side of the river, Tiron set me down on the lush, green grass, then steadied me with his hands on my waist until he was sure I’d regained my balance.

Azrael strode ahead of us now, his face taut with tension. There was a trail on this side of the river that the four of us followed until we stepped out onto a lush, rolling green field that turned into an elaborate garden.

A shining white castle towered above us, and I sucked in a breath of surprise.

“There’s your birthright,” Duncan muttered in my ear before he passed, adding over his shoulder, “Try not to look so impressed. Look like you belong here, maybe.”
Dawson, May. Wandering Queen (Lost Fae Book 1) Kindle Locations (1777-1847). Kindle Edition.

Once at the palace things change rapidly as Alisa is required by her brother to attend balls to welcome her home. Then there’s the fact he is calling himself King, whereas she’s been lead to believe he needs her for them to rule together equally.

Throughout this story we also get glimpses of the past through Azrael’s memories. Although we haven’t learned why they broke off. Then we have Raile, King of the Sea Court, he wants to marry her, we all know her feelings on that one.

There is a lot to process in this book as we learn more about the Summer court and its counterparts. Alisa also finds the only way to get her memories back is to go to the Cursed Caves and Faer is forbidding the journey.

I couldn’t put this book down, it has a bit of everything action, romance, laughter, tears, betrayal, and sizzle.

5 Contented Purrs for May!

May Dawson

May Dawson writes reverse harem romance about magic, strong women, and the men who love them. A native New Yorker, she’s settled in Virginia, where she is raising two red-headed troublemakers and a passel of cats.