Page 11 of Mushy Stuff (Guardian Mates #1)

I hunt down two more hoppers for us.

All I can think about is Lydia while I work.

I think about the way that she smiles at me.

I think about the noises she made when my cock was buried inside her.

And her scent, oh gods, her scent. Those thoughts make my cock stiffen.

I can feel it press against the seam of its pouch.

It’s just waiting to pop out at any moment, so I switch to thinking about something else.

I make a mental list of the items I will need for the spell to send Lydia back home.

Lydia. The way she curled into me to sleep, I’ve never felt so comfortable. It just feels good being near her. How can I send her home? Now that I have her, I don’t know if I can let her go .

When I get back to the cave, Lydia is walking around looking at everything. Her hair is still very wet, so she must have recently finished bathing.

Her face brightens when she sees me return. As I watch her, she picks up the false antlers that she wore in her hair yesterday, and she puts them back on.

Watching her casually slip them on her head makes me think about yesterday when I carried her to the cave while she was unconscious.

I was horrified when those little antlers fell off.

I was worried that it meant she was badly injured.

I carefully carried them back with us while I was also carrying her.

When I laid her down in the cave, I spent a long time trying to figure out how to reattach them to her head.

Imagine my surprise when I realized the stiff band that they were attached to went around her head.

Although it doesn’t seem like it would be very comfortable to wear, it makes me smile to see her put them on.

“Hey, Wold!” she says. “Did you get more rabbits?”

“Yes, two hoppers.”

I light the fire and set them up on the spit to cook. Then I walk back toward the cave and Lydia follows. I begin checking on the mushrooms and feeding them magic if needed. Lydia watches me with a look of wonder on her face.

She finally asks, “Do you do anything with all of them?”

“Some of them I spread around my territory so that they can thrive. All of them are important to nature, but some of them can be used by the fae for different things. Some are edible, and there are others that you can make teas with. There are also some that are used in spells. I can harvest them and sell them to vendors at the fae market.”

“Oh wow! Does each territory have its own thing they can grow or make and sell?”

“I do not know. Probably.” I’ve never really thought that much about what other territories might be doing. I’ve always just tried to survive on mine. Maybe I have isolated myself too much.

“You mentioned a spell; do you mean the kind of spells that witches do?” she asks.

“I do not know what a witch is.”

“It’s usually a woman that can make magic by mixing herbs and different things, like bones or snakeskin or teeth, into potions or spells for casting magic,” she explains. “I don’t know if they can actually do magic. They are more like a fairy tale; you just hear stories about them.”

I reply, “That sounds a lot like some of the of magic that the fae can do. Perhaps the witches that your tales are about were actually Elven fae that left the Fae Realm to live in your world. Or maybe they were the child of an Elven and a human. I do not know if they can have children with humans, though.”

She looks surprised. “Why would they want to leave this world for the human world? Surely my world looks so dull compared to this one.”

“I believe Elven families fight each other for power and wealth. Maybe some of them had to run away from a dangerous family member.”

I think of my own birth mother as I say this.

I realize that I can’t even remember what she looked like anymore.

I remember what my nursemaid looked like.

I remember how kind she was when I was little.

She would hug me if I was sad and told me stories to help me fall asleep.

I remember the day my birth mother brought me here to leave me.

I was so terrified and I had no idea how to live on my own.

I can remember the look on my nursemaid’s face as she pleaded with my birth mother to let her stay and teach me how to live here.

My birth mother did not want to, but eventually relented.

I remember my birth mother saying, “I don’t see why anyone would care if it survives.

The world can do with one less monster .

” She always called me a monster. I’ve always wondered if she called my father a monster even though she took him to her bed.

She gave my nursemaid a month to teach me.

I’ll never forget the relief when she was able to stay.

That month was so peaceful. It was the most peace I had ever felt in my short life.

I enjoyed climbing trees, and helping the mushrooms grow.

I even thought prowling to watch for humans was fun.

I didn’t understand until much later, when I actually saw a human, how awful it would feel to scare everyone away.

When my nursemaid left, a piece of me broke. I cried and begged her to stay, but she knew she couldn’t. My birth mother would have come after her and punished both of us for her disobedience if she stayed with me. So, she left.

I cried for days.

I only stopped long enough to hunt and care for my mushrooms. I wanted to make my nursemaid proud. I wanted to do a good job in case she was ever given permission to come back for a visit.

It was soon after she left that I found the small cave that I live in. I felt safe and protected by the roots of the tree, so I began sleeping there.

Several months after my nursemaid left, I had to scare away my first humans. It was a mother and a child that were hiking and playing in the woods. They wanted to dip their feet into the stream at the border.

I didn’t really believe I could scare an adult. Certainly I wasn’t so much of a monster that an adult would be afraid of me. I must have been the same age as her human child. But they were terrified. They both screamed, and the mother yelled at me to stay back.

It was another year or so before a human came into my territory and didn’t turn back to leave. The bloodlust that overwhelmed me from the bond with the land was terrifying. I couldn’t control myself when I killed him.

I understood then that I was the monster that my birth mother said I was.

For so long I had craved company in my lonely existence, but after that night, I hoped no one would ever come to see me again. I didn’t want the nursemaid to see what I was. Every day I became angrier, sadder, and lonelier.

“Hey, Wold, you okay?” Lydia interrupts my dark thoughts.

“Yes.” We’ve been quietly walking around the cave checking on each mushroom. “I’m not used to having someone here with me while I do this. My mind wandered.”

“Okay. Didn’t you say that you will also need to go out and survey your territory? I would love to come exploring with you,” she says brightly.

“It will be a lot of walking,” I warn.

“I don’t mind. ”

By the time I am done tending to all of the mushrooms, the hoppers are well cooked. We let them cool down and eat in comfortable silence until Lydia finally speaks up.

“I like it here. It’s so peaceful.” She smiles at me.

I watch her. She does seem to like it here. I like her being here too. I like sharing my space with her.

Once we are done eating, we leave to check on my territory.

Lydia is amazed at everything I show her. She squeals with happiness when she sees some of the spots that I’ve spread the mushrooms to.

One edge of my territory is a cliff. She thought it was beautiful. She made me promise to bring her back when the sun is setting.

Nothing out of the ordinary happens while we are out, but Lydia is excited about everything. She loves everything here. She loves looking at every little plant or flower.

We end up going to the den that I usually sleep in. I show her the opening in the roots, and she carefully lowers herself in.

“Oh, I like it here! It’s very cozy,” she says.

I touch the wall, and the bioluminescent mushrooms begin glowing. Over the years, I have brought many mushrooms into this den, so the glow is impressive. She gasps once they all are glowing .

“I found this place when I was young. I started bringing mushrooms here as soon as I could because their glow comforted me when I was afraid or alone,” I explain.

When she looks at me, she has tears in her eyes.

“It’s beautiful, Wold. I’m glad you were able to find something to comfort you back then,” she says.

She closes the distance between us and hugs me. I’m so much larger than her that she barely reaches my chest.

I stroke her hair with the claws of one hand while I pull her against me with the other.

We stand there holding each other.

How am I ever going to let her go?

“Wold, I like it here with you.”

I just hold her tighter.

She looks at me and says, “Can I try something?”

I nod and watch her.

“Come over here and sit.”

Once I sit down, she straddles my lap and leans in to kiss me. I devour her tiny mouth. She’s so small and tastes so sweet.

I feel her running her hand down my chest toward my stomach.

It’s a ghost of a touch, but it sends a wave of pleasure straight to my cock.

My cock is already hard and straining against the seam of its pouch.

With a gentle touch, she runs her finger along that seam.

I gasp as my cock springs free of its pouch.

I watch as she grasps my cock in her tiny hand and strokes it.

The pleasure takes my breath away, and I groan.

My cock looks so big in her hand. It’s so big compared to her.

I still can’t believe that she can take it.