Page 191 of Mates for the Raskarrans #1-6

I gesture to him, waiting for him to supply his own name.

“You talk a lot, female,” he says.

I try not to let my shoulders drop, smiling at him instead.

“I do. I hope that doesn’t bug you too much.”

His brows furrow. He’s not pretty handsome like Maldek, nor sweet handsome like Hafsan. My mate has a sterner set to his face, almost haughty. Which is totally hot in the right circumstances.

Like right now, while he’s gazing down at me, studying me as if he could see right through my skin and into my soul.

Heat licks over me, a pulse setting in between my thighs.

And I’m not an innocent virgin or anything, I’ve had my share of flings with guys.

But none of them have made my body react this way just for looking at me.

I take a step closer, easing in to the bristling tension that’s building between us.

My fingers twitch, itching to reach out and press against the firm wall of his chest. His tail flicks towards me.

Anghar is always wrapping his tail around Ellie’s legs, and I wonder if my mate is fighting that instinct.

Give in, I think, just give in to it.

He doesn’t back away as I steal a little closer, and I think, just maybe, he’s breathing a little faster than he was a moment ago.

I know I am. His scent is in my nose now, warm and masculine, and oh so delicious.

I want to bury my face in the curve of his neck and breathe him in.

I want to run my tongue over his skin, see if he tastes just as good as he smells.

He leans a little closer. His height means we aren’t aligned well for kissing.

I’d have to jump up into his arms, I think, wrap myself all around him.

I don’t mind the idea at all. My gaze falls on his lips, no longer pressed tight together, my tongue running over my own, wetting them in preparation.

“What do bugs have to do with anything?”

It takes a minute for his meaning to sink through my lust addled brain.

“Oh, it means ‘annoy’. I hope my chattiness doesn’t annoy you too much.”

“Hmph,” he says, turning away from me and snapping all that delicious tension. Then, “As nightmares go, you are not such a bad one.”

It’s hardly a compliment, but I do a little victory dance all the same.

“Maybe we should…” I start, but before I can finish my thought, I start to feel light, floaty. I look round at the tent and watch as it fades away at the edges, bright white light shining from beyond it.

I’m waking up, I realise, a moment before my eyes flutter open to see Maldek hovering over me.

I blink a few times, disoriented by the transition from dreamspace to waking. I want to go back, wish I could roll over and burrow back into my furs and return to my gorgeous mate.

My gorgeous mate who still hasn’t told me his name.

But Maldek reaches over and tweaks my nose, giving me a teasing grin.

“Food,” he says, gesturing to the movement outside of the tent.

I groan, but I sit up. Maldek hands me his canteen of berry juice, and even though my aches are not the kind that the bitter water will solve, I take a good swig of it. We’ve got a lot of walking ahead of us - best to have all the strength I can get.

As I go through the motions of getting dressed, packing up my bag and heading out into the camp to get my breakfast, my mind starts to fully catch up to everything that just happened.

A dreamspace.

A mate.

Okay, it may not have exactly gone smoothly, but we talked, and he was gorgeous and he called me pretty and all the rest of the stuff is just kinks we can iron out. We might still be on step one of the problem solving, but we’ve got time. The rest of our lives, if we need it.

One of Walset’s elders has made root porridge for breakfast, beating me to the task.

I normally help with the cooking, it being one of the few other things I can do to be helpful, but the elder only gives me a smug smile, as if the fact that I’ve slept in and allowed him to work without my help is a good thing.

It’s so opposite to how things were on bottom tier, I sometimes feel like I’ve fallen in to upside down and back-to-front land.

But I do succeed in winning the task of washing up, and while I’m rinsing bowls in the river, I spot a stone half submerged in the sand.

A stone the exact shade of my mate’s eyes.

I have to put my arm in the water up to my shoulder to snag it, and Maldek shoots me a questioning look, a half smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

I show it to him and he shakes his head, fishing for his own stone and handing it to me.

His is white with blue veins spidering through it.

Beautiful, and clearly Maldek thinks it should be the winner of a place in my pack.

But I just hold the black stone to my heart.

Maldek rolls his eyes, pouting at me, as if he thinks I’m cheating.

“You’ll get it one day,” I say. “When the rains are done and my mate comes to the village to claim me, you’ll look in his eyes and you’ll get it. Just you wait and see.”