Page 11

Chapter 11

Ward

E motions churned close enough to the surface that my eyes glowed an eerie amber. She didn't trust me or my bear and now I was supposed to trust her enough not to sell me to a temple full of flesh peddlers. The room wasn’t helping, either. I hated being confined in small spaces. I dug my den as big as possible because of the lingering fear.

She glanced around the closet, settling on the cot. It shook as she touched it. “Talk to me, big guy. Did someone actually try to chain you and use you as a sideshow?”

I didn’t want to sit next to her like a friend, but I also didn’t want to upset her by being upset, which, conversely, made me more upset. The memory bubbled up in a well of fresh pain. There wasn’t even room to pace.

I tightened my hands into fists. “I settled in a new town after the incident with the King—somewhere no one would know me.”

Evie reached out a hand and her touch calmed me enough to get the rest out.

“Many oddities called Fairmer home. Including the mage that eventually taught me magic. I got used to seeing all manner of things in the town—Fae who wore their wings openly, wizards with families, vampires in the daylight.”

Evie hung on my every word. I flexed my hands against the memories pouring forth.

“I did a lot of growing up in a decade. I got comfortable letting my bear roam free again. Too comfortable. I forgot I was the oddest of all. The Bard of Fairmer thought I would be a wonderful addition to his sideshow. When he came with chains and a warlock, I realized I needed my bear hidden and magic at my fingertips.”

She regarded me steadily, without a trace of the pity I expected. “I’m so sorry, Ward. Is he still alive? I could venom him real good for you. Maybe squeeze him to death?”

She squished her hands together in an awkward choking motion. I couldn’t help but laugh at the image, and the oppressive mood lifted slightly with her offer. Even though Mate still didn't sit easy on her tongue, she had the instinct for it. Surely she understood why I didn't like this plan one bit. She was the only one with the power to destroy me and that power grew every day we were together on this quest. How could I not fall hard for her when she gave her all, even if it pointed in the wrong direction? Her sharp wit combined with her hapless stumbling left me defenseless against her.

I shifted my weight, crossing my arms over my chest. “He’s long dead, mate, but I appreciate the offer.”

“Time kills all wounds, I guess,” she said. “Look, this isn’t a grand plan, but I wouldn’t really sell my mate, Ward.” Evie looked up from where I was looming over her and I needed her against me.

I sneered at the flimsy bed. I would fit half myself on that thing. They didn't stick us with one bed; we had no bed. We wouldn’t fit together on the thing, but neither of us would sleep on the floor. I scooped her up and laid down. The cot screamed under my weight.

“This certainly is… cozy.” Evie patted the vile-looking pillow with feinted enthusiasm. “Would you shift your dagger back there?”

That wasn’t my dagger digging into her plump backside and my bear remained too agitated to contain my attraction to her, with Evie’s whiskey and orange scent in my nose. “Betrayal is too easy in the Harrowlands and you thinking we’re Mates by accident hasn’t generated a lot of trust. I don’t understand if Mate is just a word for you. It was hard to tell if you were joking about murdering for me, or if it's what you truly believe.”

Evie stiffened. “I don’t joke about murder, Ward. I would absolutely kill that dick waffle who tried to chain you up.” She tried for a teasing tone to break the tension. “What would convince you I won’t drop you off at the second-hand shop?”

“You on my tongue.” It was out before I tempered it with something playful. My bear chuffed, eager now that we finally agreed.

She paused and turned to face me, almost falling off the cot. “Okay?”

I startled, surprised at myself when I didn’t fall on her instantly. Was this a trick? My feelings tangled, too jumbled up to think straight. “Okay? Is that your version of ‘convincing’ me to go along with this plan? Or that you finally believe we’re mates? I’m going to need something more substantial than one word.”

“That’s not what I’m talking about for now. You’re telling me we work out those things if we try this. So ‘okay’ to having sex on the table, because after we do this once, I’m pretty sure you’re going to be the one dropping me off at Auntie Em’s Used Goods instead. Then maybe we won’t need a plan or a mate bond, because this quest and any sort of destined love will be over.”

What was she talking about? I would never abandon her. If she trusted me, I would be willing to trust her. Her steady gaze said she seriously thought we would be over if we had sex. “Is that what that human told you? The one I need to kill.”

Evie cringed so hard she almost fell off the cot again. A hand on her back steadied her.

“I know it’s not the same, but when they came for you with a collar and a chain, they came for me with words to do the same. No one ever discussed it outright. That’s not how it worked. But everyone in the village knew you just took the life handed to you. You kept your head down. You accepted whatever came your way because there was no other way.”

Humans and monsters weren’t so different in this.

“That asshole never hit me. He wasn’t a drunk. Mean sometimes, and he always pressed me smaller and smaller, but what did I have to complain about? He was a catch by village standards. No one cared that he didn’t love me. All of that got tangled up every time we had sex, which I admit dwindled into never,” she said.

My heart squeezed hard in my chest.

“Mate. Evie.” I buried my face in her hair, working to regain my equilibrium. “There is no half loving you for me. I have been patiently keeping the burn of a thousand suns from your view, so I didn’t scare you any more than I already have. The fibers of my soul shake with longing for you. I want you to take up as much space as you can, so I can, too. Please, please let me worship you as you deserve.”

“Okay,” she said against my chest, but instead of a question, this time it was a statement.

We were doing this. I would prove to her she deserved better than a grey life. My bear was done waiting. We had her permission. I asked her to try and here she was, in all her glory before me, trying to meet me halfway.

I sat up, and one of the cot’s legs broke under my weight. Evie flew back in a tangle of limbs. It only made it easier to lower myself to the floor in the narrow space between the cot and the wall and arrange her at the correct angle.

“I never want to hear you say you deserve less than everything.” Steadying her on the broken cot, I laid her flat on her back, holding myself above her. “Only good girls get licks. Understand me?”

She attempted a word that sounded like ‘yes’. Her face flushed as I placed my hands on her ankles. “Do you know what I love most about these kaftans?”

Evie shook her head ‘no’. I was going to have to unglue her tongue from the roof of her mouth with my own.

“You don’t have to wear anything underneath them.” I slid my hands up her legs so I could nestle between them without the acres of fabric in the way and leaned down to get to work on her stuck tongue. She reached up and hit the bridge of my nose with her own, all her finesse when we kissed on my horse gone. Threading my hands through her hair, I brought her back to my mouth gently, unprepared when she surged forward and clicked our teeth together.

I pulled back, a slight smile on my face. Nerves shook through her body. Her face turned an unhealthy shade of red.

“Breathe, Evie,” I said.

Her gulping inhale was so cute. “I don’t know what to do with my hands,” she blurted out.

“You did just fine on the horse—put them there again.”

Evie wrapped her hands in the straps holding my various pockets and holsters like they were a lifeline.

I took full control of her head and plunged into her mouth like I did in the tub, reveling in the scrape of her teeth against my tongue and the helpless sounds coming from deep in her throat. As soon as her hand left the leather on my body, it was in my hair—pulling hard. I was almost too far gone to stop, but I also didn’t want a bald patch on the side of my head.

“No, sorry,” came her cry as soon as I lifted off her again. “I didn’t mean to…”

Is this what she was worried about? I was on the verge of laughing at her silly fears. That idiot in her village obviously didn’t understand how to empower her. My mate was passionate but about as coordinated as a new colt. It would be my pleasure to soothe her and teach her how to move with me.

“I can smell what you mean, mate.” Her orange and whiskey scent saturated the room as her arousal came and went. “I’m going to keep these safe up here.” Clutching her wrists in one hand, I nuzzled her face aside to get to her neck and lick across it. I was right—she tasted better than she smelled.

“Ward. I’m not very…”

“You’re perfect, Evie. So unless the next words out of your sweet mouth are ‘more’ or ‘yes, please’, we’re going to reserve comments on what you can and can’t do until you’ve come so many times you can’t hold yourself up.”

Her trembling finally stopped when I caught a nipple in my teeth through the fabric covering her. Evie’s knees jerked up to my sides, squeezing. I ran a knuckle through her soaked folds and her knee dug hard enough to crack a rib. I sucked in a breath, the pain distant in the haze of pleasure around me.

My mate must have felt something give because she stiffened all at once, fear in her eyes and across the bond. My bear was already repairing the rib. He acted even more excited, Evie was so strong. The animal was magnificently deranged. He rolled on his back in my mind, paws waving in the air. The only thing keeping him from shifting in the moment was the fact we would probably crush our mate to death in this ridiculous room. He chuffed his silly song at her, and it slowly relaxed her whole body again. I would find him an entire elk if he kept that smile on her face. It released my dread of hurting her. If my bear didn’t react to a fractured rib, he would never harm Evie.

“Knees spread, viper,” I ordered.

She complied so fast there was a breeze. Still, she stuttered out, “We don’t have to keep going?—”

I didn’t want to give her any more chances to overthink this. “Hands on the edge of the cot or I stop.”

It was a tight fit against the wall to wedge between her legs, but nothing would keep me from proving to Evie we belonged together, no matter her fears or mine. One long lick and I had to stop my bear from marking her right then.

“Ward, you don’t have to?—”

I sucked hard on the cherry of her clit before grumbling, “Stop interrupting my meal.”

Licking into her passage, her thighs came for me again, but I was ready this time. I clamped a hand on each of them, sinking into her ripe flesh, and nipped each one for good measure before returning to my treasure. Evie’s pants and moans rivaled anything that would come from the other side of the wall. I wanted her hands in my hair, pulling me closer, but not tonight. We would get there. Her writhing like the best sort of prey only made my bear hungrier to see her come undone. Pumping a finger into her, I fished for that glorious soft spot as I sucked hard on her clit. I struck gold on my third try. Riding her orgasm was like taming a bronco, but I was ten times as strong as she was and I would keep her safe with my last breath.

I let her close her legs and regain her strength, hiding her face in her arm for as long as she liked. I whispered the structure of a spell for water, directing it into the jar in the corner.

I think she murmured “Oh my Godds” but it was hard to hear over my own thundering heartbeat. My bear sat incredibly smug in the back of my mind, still licking his chops. I took a swallow of water for myself, loathe to wash off any of her scent, and then dragged her upright on the cot.

“Sit up, drink up, viper. I need you hydrated for round two.”

She blinked blearily at me. “Round two? I think I broke your rib, Ward.”

I patted her hand against my side where she had, in fact, cracked my rib. “I don’t think so,” I said innocently.

I didn’t have to fake a lack of pain as she pressed a little more firmly. I was never so glad for shifter magic. Sitting down fully on the floor, my feet touching the other wall, I put her on my lap. The closet was already steaming hot with our round one, so I was confident she wouldn’t mind if I peeled off her kaftan. Her arms came over her stomach and breasts, but I gave her hands something to do when I passed her the water, exposing her sweet flesh to my gaze.

“Thank you,” she said.

“Drink while I get my fill of these perfect breasts.”

I occupied my hands with them as her chest heaved at my touch. Evie’s pert nipples beaded as soon as I brushed them, her hips moving in small, painful circles over my lap. I was never going to last in this position and this was definitely about making sure we both knew chains of any kind would never figure into our relationship.

Licking under each creamy globe, I dragged my tongue over her rosy nipples. My teeth were made for her tender skin. I latched on to a nipple, shaking her breast with my teeth, letting them drop and bounce in a way that made me long to see them do the same when my cock was slamming into her. My bear moaned his confusion why we were not putting cubs in her belly right this moment. We would go at the pace my mate wanted. Judging by her abandoned water and the increasing pressure on my cock, she was ready.

“You weren’t kidding about round two,” she said.

“I never kid about your pleasure, mate.”

“I…” She stopped her torture with her hips. “Never mind.”

“I’ll hear it if you want more. You can always tell me anything.” I combed her hair back from her face.

“I’ve never gotten much past missionary in the dark. I’m not sure why we’re not rolling over and going to sleep.”

I filled my hands with her ass, starting her motion against me until she picked it up on her own. “Is that what you want?”

“N-no.” Her adorable stutter was satisfyingly breathless.

“Look at you, special girl. How could I possibly deny you?”

My satisfied smirk hitched her breath. Spreading out on the floor of the closet, I dragged her up my chest and over my face. Falling forward, Evie braced on the door. At least the small room was good for something.

“I can’t. I’ll suffocate you.”

I needed her to feel her way through this. Prove we worked together for her pleasure and eventually mine.

I don’t need to breathe. I spoke into her mind as my tongue touched her channel again. She needed the door for balance, so I had one part of her busy. My hands continued my assault on her breasts and every pluck of her nipples brought a little more cream into my mouth. Evie ground down hard and I wrapped my large hands around her hips, holding her just high enough to let me work while she still got all the friction she craved against my chin and teeth.

Just like that. I encouraged her and the praise helped her naturally keep that stance so I could go back to her breasts and clit. Good girls get all the licks.

“Ward!” My name on her tongue had me fighting to not burst in my pants.

Good mates get to come.

Her thighs started to close on my head and I tapped her leg and they opened again, shaking on the edge of her orgasm.

That’s it, my best girl. What a clever girl.

Part of me wanted to see if I could praise her into orgasm, but I took pity on her and pushed two fingers into her sweet cunt, pumping until she doused my face.

“Ward, Ward, Ward!” she screamed.

I drank all of her ambrosia down, my bear desperate for every drop as the mate bond thrummed stronger than ever between us.

“What was that?” Evie asked, her voice hoarse. She sat on my chest, a delicious weight against me as I regained my senses.

I reached for something funny, or flirty, but the raw truth came out instead. “I never thought it would be this good. Thank you for trusting me with this.”

Her smile wobbled as she slid down my body. No smashing, no fumbling. Her kiss was pure light against my lips. Tendrils of emotions not my own ran through me. They were still impressions, but the bond was stronger than before. I know she recognized it too, by the way she clutched me closer to her.

“So the Chain of Flesh is back on the table as long as I use it responsibly?”

Our laughter spilled over the broken cot, the brooms and the flimsy pillow until it filled the entire closet. That was how we fell asleep in the smallest room in all of Vinguard.