Page 41 of By the Horns (Royal Artifactual Guild #2)

Thirty

Raptor

Hawk (and Rooster),

I suspect our thief is one of the repeaters in my Five. Gwenna has been targeted twice now in a ploy to discredit her. Hemmen is likely, as he seems reluctant to participate in much of the training. He spends a lot of time at the library, one of the sites where we’ve had an incident.

Arrod, I just don’t trust. He’s too friendly with Gwenna. It makes me suspicious.

Kipp seems trustworthy, but he’s also extremely attached to Gwenna.

At any rate, I’m on it and will keep you updated when I’ve narrowed things down more.

—Raptor

PS—My reward had better be mucking worth all this hassle. Jay is a pain in my tail.

Gwenna is quiet throughout the weekend.

It annoys me. A lot.

I don’t know what to make of this newest twist. I’m not a deep thinker, and so I don’t understand the reasoning behind scrawling messages inside books.

Every time I ask Gwenna what she knows, she insists she knows nothing.

I trust her. I do. But if she is innocent, why get quiet and withdraw from the rest of us?

I hate her silence. I hate it because I want to fix it and I don’t know how.

I try to make her sass me all weekend. I smack her training sword out of her hand over and over as I teach her the basics of sparring.

She’s mucking dreadful at combat. She’s a little better on the obstacle course that I make her run while roped to me, but I purposefully keep my pace brisker than I should because I want her to tell me to slow down.

I want her to bellow at me or say something sharp and cutting. I want her to be Gwenna .

She doesn’t, though. She just squares her shoulders and tries again without complaint.

It pisses me off.

Maybe I’d be more sympathetic if I wasn’t potion-dry.

As it is, I’m starting to regret that I don’t have another dose waiting for me.

I thought by now Gwenna would be under me every night—or, since we’re both fledglings, we’d be hiding in a closet somewhere with me between her thighs.

That my knot would be well and truly milked on a regular basis.

But we haven’t touched again since she gave me that hand job last weekend.

It’s irritating me. It’s not her fault that it’s irritating me.

I know I’m impossible when I’m on edge. Most Taurians are known to be moody leading up to the rutting frenzy of the Conquest Moon.

I have the hand of the god upon me at all times, though.

My knot never goes dormant. I am endlessly needing, endlessly searching for relief.

And I get cranky.

I’m aware of it. I can’t help it, but I’m aware of it.

It’s one reason I never stay on any particular team for long. I end up snapping at someone and making an enemy. Or two. Or three. Other Taurians understand it and tolerate my moodiness more than others, but I’ve burned a lot of bridges with humans.

I should take another potion. Be done with it. Deaden my cock, improve my mood, and focus on finding the thief. It’s just that…I want Gwenna to touch me. And I don’t want to be numb to it when she does. Taking the potion feels like a betrayal of the woman I want.

And I do want her. More than anything. Even if she’s the thief. I’ve concluded that if she is, it’s because she’s being forced to do something against her will. Maybe she got pulled into a bad business deal. Maybe she’s being blackmailed.

My goal is to find out what’s going on so I can help her. Not just because I like her. Not just because the guild needs the leak plugged. I want Gwenna’s eyes to shine when she looks at me. I want her eager and excited to touch me, her savior. Am I shit for wanting that? Maybe.

But I want it just the same.

I run her through frantic training on Sixthday.

The others stake out the library, taking turns at watching over things.

They return to the nest to eat a meal, then head back to the library again that evening.

“We’ve got a great spot on the roof next door,” Arrod says, shoving a full loaf of fresh bread into his pack for later.

“We can see everything that happens down below. If someone goes through the front doors, we’ll see them.

If someone heads around to the back alley, we’ll see them. No one’s getting in under our watch.”

“Good,” I tell him, and secretly I’m glad that Kipp, Hemmen, and Arrod are all heading out again. It’ll give Gwenna the freedom to touch me if she pleases. I’m thinking with my cock, for certain.

But that night, Gwenna is quiet once more. She’s silent through dinner, and if I prompt her, she’ll speak, but otherwise seems lost in thought.

I’m not getting touched tonight. I fight back my frustration, because I imagine she’s scared and worried, which is far more important than the incessant throbbing in my knot.

Gwenna goes to bed early. I decide to as well, since we’ll be up at dawn to work on more training. She’s silent, but I stare at the ceiling, drumming my fingers on my stomach. My mind won’t stop churning. Finally, I roll over and look at her.

She’s awake, curled into a ball under the blankets, but her eyes are open.

“You okay?” I ask.

Gwenna hesitates. “I don’t know.”

“Do you…” Want me to fuck you until you can’t think straight? “…need to talk?”

She bites her lip in the darkness. “I want to see Sparrow tomorrow. Can we do that instead of training?”

I’m a little wounded that she doesn’t want me to comfort her. That she wants her friend instead. “Just for a little while. You do need to practice.”

“I will.”

I grunt and turn back to staring at the ceiling.

My cock throbs mercilessly, and I know sleep is going to be difficult tonight.

Perhaps tomorrow while she’s chatting with Sparrow, I can slip out and see if Naiah can get me another potion.

But then I’d be leaving Gwenna alone, and I promised I wouldn’t. I’m just going to have to bear it.

“Did you mean what you said?” Gwenna’s soft voice floats through the darkness. “About keeping me safe?”

“Aye. Meant every bit of it.”

“Thank you.”

My mood improves, despite everything.

The next morning, Gwenna puts on a dress and bodice, and it throws me off. I’d hoped my knot would calm down after a good night’s sleep, but I’d dreamed about Gwenna and her luscious tits. Gwenna and her slick cunt rubbing against my greedy hand.

And now I wake up and see her tits rising like two bread loaves from the top of her corset as she strolls into the kitchen.

I immediately turn and veer down the hall. The garderobe is unoccupied, which means I’m free to slam the door shut behind me, jerk my cock from my pants, and fist it furiously until I come, barely able to swallow the groan that rises from my throat.

It’s as fast as it is unsatisfying. By the time I wipe my hand clean on a towel, my cock is rising again.

I jerk myself off once more, thinking about Gwenna’s magnificent breasts and how she’d worked my knot when she’d touched me.

She hadn’t acted like it was something to be worried over, like it was a problem that needed solving.

It was just part of me. I’d never felt so mucking accepted, and I had no idea I’d find it so damned sexy.

I jerk off twice more before my knot is spent. My cock aches and my hand cramps, but at least I can walk now. I toss the towel into the laundry for the nestmaid to deal with and head back out to join the others eating breakfast in the kitchen.

To my surprise, only Gwenna is there when I return.

“You all right?” she asks, slicing up some bread and putting the pot of honey beside my normal chair.

“Something I ate,” I lie. “Where are the others?”

“Returning to their library stakeout. They came by to get food and that was it.” Her mouth crooks up in a reluctant smile. “They’re having far too much fun with this. Kipp is absolutely in his element.”

Are they? That’s suspicious.

“Hopefully he’ll keep the other two in line.

” I force myself to walk casually past her chair to the other side of the table.

Everything in me wants to nuzzle her soft hair and push my nose against her neck.

I’m desperate to breathe deep of her scent.

To run my hands over her soft skin. By Old Garesh, today is going to be difficult if I don’t get ahold of myself. I thump into my seat.

The moment I do, she sets the sliced bread in front of me. “No butter, just the way you like it.”

And now she’s taking care of me. My cock surges once more. Gods help me. “We’re stopping by somewhere before we go to visit Hawk,” I bite out. “No complaining.”

Her brows furrow. “I didn’t say anything.”

“You were thinking it. I can tell.”

She throws the piece of bread in her hand at my head. “Clearly you woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning!”

She’s wrong. Waking up implies that I slept, and I didn’t sleep much. Not with her so close nearby, and dreams of her tits hounding me every time I closed my eyes.