Page 13 of Cruel As A Tree (Chaos God Sugar and Spice Companion Shorts #4)

Chapter

Eleven

LORTHION

S he was back.

The awareness echoed through my branches, carrying the song of her arrival.

I could feel her feet against my moss, bare without the coverings that two-legged mortals needed to protect their fragile skin that hadn't been hardened by the damage of life.

I could feel the forest reacting to her, like sunlight breaking through the brisk cold of the dawn.

She was the feast of space, of growth, of rapid expansion.

I hadn't watched her while she was in her home den, though I could peer through the trees that now encircled her home, protecting her and those within.

I kept my attention from her spaces except to ensure that she was still safe, that no one had come to recapture her.

Though from what I could sense from the school, they were too busy to bother with one runaway mundane.

I felt her move through the forest, her direction changing as she headed towards me, and I rose from my crouch.

Small birds erupted from my branches as I shifted, changing at the thought of her, pulling all my additional leafy limbs back into myself.

I glanced down at my arms, seeing bone plating on black fur.

I moved to the nearby pond and gazed at my reflection in the water.

I was still the visage of death, with a skull on my face and wicked, sharp, exposed teeth out for anyone to see.

There was beauty in the form, but it wasn't what I preferred.

It wasn't how I wanted to approach her.

So when she reached my position, I remained hidden.

I didn't emerge from the shadows. I lurked as I followed her, keeping myself behind trunks of trees as I kept sight of her.

She would stop as she did before as she found one beautiful flower or another, enjoying their scent and visage before moving on.

I could see how much she appreciated the gentle beauty of the living world when she stopped in her tracks to let a butterfly go past.

Then she put a hand on one of my trunks and I extended my senses into its surface so I could feel the gentle softness of her palm, as if she were caressing my cheek. "Lord Lorthion," she called out in a soft voice. "Where are you?"

I didn't respond.

I was a monster, and as a monster I would remain out of sight during the light of day. If she chose to sleep here, in my domain, then I would slip into her bedchamber and find out if it was the stuff of nightmares that filled her heart with lust.

Her next words disrupted my thoughts entirely.

"I want to invite you to dinner with my family," she called out.

I could feel myself changing at her words. Monsters weren't invited to dinner.

I became shorter, and my arms had flesh on them instead of exposed bone. I heard the small jingle of bells from above my head, and I frowned, glancing up to see that my antlers were adorned with bells as well as flowers this time.

"Lord Lorthion?" Lillian called out as she turned to face the sound of my bells.

I stepped out from my hiding place, flicking an ear in irritation as the bells continued to betray my location.

"Why are you here?" I asked her. "Why return to the territory of a monster?

" I tilted my head as I regarded her. I moved into the sunlight so it fell more prominently across my now exposed and beautifully human-looking abdominals.

I flexed them, tilting my hips just a little to the side to display them at the best angle. "Unless you want to be eaten."

She flushed, and I smelled the sweet scent of her arousal in the air. Fur rippled down my legs, and I knew why she returned. She came back because she wanted me, wanted to become my mate and grow my lands with her fertile abundance.

"I wanted to thank you," she said. "For rescuing me. For helping me get back home. Thank you for all of that."

I tilted my head. "You're welcome."

"I also wanted to apologize," she said. "For attacking you and thinking the worst of you."

I snorted. "You think you should apologize for fighting to protect those you care about?"

"No," she said. "For thinking the worst of you when you were trying to help me."

"That is not something to apologize for," I said.

"If I had been one of the Goddess blessed races and been raised with all the expectations of how the world was supposed to work in regards to Mundanes and their place in it, then me indulging your desire to go back home to see your family very well could have been a trap designed to harm you for my own amusement.

You were right to be cautious. You were strong to choose violence rather than risk your family being taken away again. "

"I..." She looked at me with wide eyes as her words faltered before she found them again. "I don't think many people think like you. Most think that women shouldn't jump to conclusions about guys and need to give them the benefit of the doubt."

"I am not people," I said. I lifted my arms out to the sides to gesture to the whole of myself, and one of the branches on my nearby trees creaked as it lowered enough to put one of its spring blossoms just in front of her face. "I am a Forest Lord."

She leaned forward and smelled the blossom.

"Will you tell me what it would be like to become your lady?" she asked in a small voice, and I pulled the branch back so it was no longer between us.

"Let me show you," I said.