The Duke and the Dryad (Elemental Series) by Elizabeth Rose Page A

and in the dark, making her way back home. She’d sneaked out the postern gate of the castle when no one was looking. Actually, that was the same way she’d stolen the bull without being seen although she’d told The Wolf differently. She just wanted to see him squirm wondering what else she could do with her powers.
    If the man would be aware to his surroundings, he would know that while the postern gate was small and hidden beneath the vines of the stone wall, ’twas still large enough to sneak a bull through – but barely. She’d calmed the animal with her mind and helped pull it through the gated passageway, its sides getting scraped on the stone walls in the process. She’d urged it not to panic nor to breath much during the escape. And all she had to do to find the keys to the hidden passage was to ask the vines that covered the wall. It worked beautifully. But then, she’d always had a way with animals, not to mention nature. ’Twas nothing that he, being a hard-headed human, would ever be able to do himself.
    Her home was a small shack hidden in the forest made of the mighty and powerful wood of the oak. She, being a dryad, had a strong connection to the oak tree. ’Twas the most powerful tree of the forest. She approached her home, and stopped just outside her hut, laying her body against the bark of the largest oak there. ’Twas nearly two hundred years old, and revered by her late faerie mother as well as her grandmother through the ages.
    She felt the vibrations running through the tree and coursing through her body as well. She sank to the ground and laid her cheek against the hard earth, breathing in the scent of dog-violet and goose-grass drifting on the breeze. She felt comforted being in the presence of nature. She could feel the heartbeat of the animals in the forest as well as the life force flowing through the plants that covered the ground.
    The earth had a heartbeat all its own, though no one, save mayhap the druids, would ever understand. She knew that all living things needed to be honored, and that war and destruction was the enemy of nature more so than the enemy of man.
    She missed her mother since her death at the han ds of a warlord years ago. Her mother had been caught and taken prisoner by an evil man named Lord Clive, after he’d followed her into the forest one day. He’d wanted her as his own, liking the rarity of having caught a sprite. He’d kept her locked in a tower, not knowing or perhaps not caring, that she needed to be by the earth. That was the death of her. She couldn’t touch the earth to regain her power, but only watch it out the arrow slit window as her life passed before her eyes, quickly slipping away.
    Her father was human, and had been a knight of this evil lord , but over seas in battle at the time. But when he returned and found what happened, he went insane. He fought Lord Clive and was almost killed in the process, but managed to scar the evil man’s face. Then he roamed the lands aimlessly, hoping against hope to still find his wife, but she never returned, because she was dead. Rae wondered what happened to her father. She was young at the time and couldn’t go looking for him. And she was the last of her kind, even though she was only half-fae. Instead, being frightened, she decided to stay in the forest, hidden, lest the same thing happen to her.
    She knew now she’d done the right thing in leaving the castle. Though the man named Wolfe took her interest, he was too dangerous for her. She couldn’t take the chance he’d keep her locked in the castle and she too would die the same death as her mother. She could only hope that some day, she’d find a man to love, and together they could create generations of earth elementals. Then, her kind would not be extinct but would live on, even if it weren’t in the purest form.
    Well, at least she was home now. Though the human side of her craved contact with people, her fae side was satisfied just being