Page 8 of Mushy Stuff (Guardian Mates #1)

My pulse is pounding in my ears as I look at Lydia pinned beneath me. Her skin is flushed the prettiest color. Her eyes are wide as she looks at me, but I don’t think she is afraid. She just looks surprised.

When I came back from hunting, the cave had been saturated in her scent.

Not just her regular scent either, I caught strands of arousal mixed in with her scent as well.

Her scent was so strong and so consuming that I lost myself in it, and the monster in me took over.

Now that I have hunted her and claimed her, I can think—and see her—more clearly.

We are both still panting when my cock slides out of her and back into me. She lets out a little “Oh!”

Gods, she is amazing. But what have I done? She’s a little human, I didn’t even know a human could mate with a fae Guardian. I didn’t really believe that she would be able to take my cock, but she took it, and she seemed to enjoy it. But, gods, I was so careless, I could have hurt her.

We both stare at each other for a few moments.

I finally say, “Lydia…did I…hurt you?”

She shakes her head.

With a sigh of relief, I lower my face to her throat again and breathe in her scent. Then I cut the binding around her hands with my claws and help her lower her arms. She sighs again as I rub up and down each arm.

She cautiously smiles at me. “Thank you. I didn’t realize how stiff they had gotten.”

I stand up and help her to her feet. She gasps after she stands up. She’s looking down, and I see that my seed is running down her thighs.

She gives me a wide-eyed look. “Your cum is bioluminescent?!”

Her word “cum” confuses me, so I say, “Cum? Do you mean my seed?”

She nods her head quickly. “Yes, seed. But seriously, it glows?!”

I rub the back of my neck, a little embarrassed. “Yes, but it won’t glow for very long. It will stop soon.”

She continues to look down. “Wow. ”

It’s dark now, and we should go back to the cave. I consider all the sticks and rocks beneath my paws, and I look at her bare feet. Gods, I chased her out here without anything to protect her feet. Her feet are so soft and so small. I can only imagine how painful it was for her to run from me.

“Would you like me to carry you back to the cave? So you don’t hurt your feet.”

She takes a step forward and grimaces when she steps on a stick. “Yes, that would be nice.”

I pick her up and carry her back to the cave. I set her down near her stack of clothes by the pond, and I look around helplessly. I don’t have anything to help her clean up with.

She must see the concern on my face, and she says, “Don’t worry, I have a towel that I can use.

I used to run around some woods at my family’s vacation home, and one time I fell into a creek when we were there in the winter.

It was a shallow creek, but because of the way I slipped, I slid in, so I was soaked from my ribcage down to my feet.

I learned then that it was good to have something with me to dry off with. That was a very cold day for me.”

As she’s talking to me, she’s nonchalantly wiping up my seed, and she pauses what she’s doing to give me a big smile.

Then she continues, “From then on, I’ve always taken at least a small towel with me when I go out exploring.

You never know when you might end up falling in water…

or having to clean up bioluminescent seed that’s running down your thighs.

” She gives me a wink when she says that.

I’m still just staring at her. She’s being so casual. Are all humans this casual about mating?

While I’m studying her, I notice the hoppers from earlier laying on the ground of the cave. I pick them up and show them to Lydia. “Are you still hungry?”

Her face lights up and she says, “Yes, food would be great!”

I pause for a minute, and then say, “Do you need it cooked?”

She pauses what she’s doing and gives me a very strange look. “Yes…do you eat them raw? Wait, don’t answer that. I don’t think I want to know.” She takes a deep breath, then she continues, “Yes, I would like mine cooked, please.”

“I will build a fire in front of the cave, and we can cook them there.” I tell her as I gather up some things I will need for cooking.

I remember that humans like their meat seasoned, and I frown at the realization that I do not have anything to season the meat with.

I tell her this. By this point, she is pulling on her clothes, and she pauses and says, “That’s okay.

Don’t worry about it.” She looks at me thoughtfully.

“Can we eat any of the mushrooms in here?”

“Some of them.” I walk toward a wall and pick a couple of larger ones. “These are very popular to eat among the Elven.”

She looks at them as she finishes pulling on her clothes, and says, “Those are huge! We have portobello mushrooms in my world, but these are bigger. Are they only here in your world? Is it safe for me to eat them?”

I nod a response to both of her questions, and then tell her I will cook them with the hoppers.

As I’m about to go outside to build the fire, Lydia says, “Um, Wold?” I turn to look at her. “Is there somewhere I can use the restroom?”

I cock my head, “Restroom? Do you need to rest?”

She gets a shy smile and blushes a little, then says, “No, I need to pee…to um…relieve myself.”

Ah, I see. I show her a place outside a little distance away from the cave where she can relieve herself. I stand by her to watch over her and keep her safe.

She gives me another shy smile and says, “Um, can I have a minute of privacy?”

This is curious to me. She is shy about relieving herself? She was not shy when she was naked and swimming, and she certainly wasn’t shy when we were mating. Why would she be shy now? “We mated, why are you shy about this?”

She laughs nervously and says, “I don’t know, people are just shy about it. Most people see it as something gross.”

“But it is normal, and something everyone does. Why would it be gross?” I ask. She shrugs her shoulders and gives me a nervous look. Okay, if she is shy, then that is fine. “I will be just over here waiting for you.”

She sighs with relief and says, “Thank you” before stepping behind a large bush.

I walk a little distance away. I can still see her and scent her, but I suspect she doesn’t realize that.

Humans are strange creatures. I try to think of what I know about them.

Until now, I’ve never been around them except for when they must be dealt with because they enter my territory.

I have heard of the Elven taking humans as mates, or more likely stealing them and forcing them to be mates.

But I do not know what comes of that. I do not know if children come from those matings.

I try to remember back to when I was a child and lived at my birth mother’s. But humans were never to her taste.

Lydia interrupts my thoughts when she reappears from behind the bush. We walk back to the cave together and I take my cooking supplies outside .

There is a log from a felled tree that I moved near the cave ages ago.

It’s a good place for us to sit while the food cooks, so I build the fire near it.

Lydia perches on the log and watches me put the hoppers on a spit.

Then I cook the mushrooms on a hot stone for her.

When they are done cooking, I end up using my claws to hold the mushrooms for Lydia while she leans in to take a bite; they are too hot for her to hold.

She laughs and says, “I take it that you don’t get many guests.”

“No.”

She takes the mushroom from me once it’s cooled off enough for her. “This is really good, Wold. Thank you.”

We sit beside each other in companionable silence for a few minutes while the hoppers cook. Lydia breaks the silence. “Why are you all alone here? If you don’t mind me asking.”

“I am a Guardian, and this is my territory to protect, so I live here and protect it.”

“But what does that mean? What is a Guardian?”

I try to explain. “There are two main types of fae people, The Elven and the Guardians. The stories that humans tell of the fae are usually Elven. They are exceptionally beautiful, with very human-like features. They have pointed ears like these.” I gesture to my own ears.

“There are also Guardians. Guardians are protectors of nature and magic. Humans that run across us usually call us monsters, because we are monstrous.” I gesture to my body.

Lydia grabs my hand and says, “Wold, you aren’t monstrous. You shouldn’t say that about yourself.” I give her a long look. “Okay fine, you are scary when you lurk in the shadows and all someone can see is your glowing eyes. But you aren’t a monster.” Then she clasps our hands together.

I smile at that, then I continue. “We have territories that we protect throughout the realm. We inherit them from our fathers.”

She says, “So this was your father’s territory? Did he die, is that how it passed to you?”

I rub the back of my neck. “Not exactly. This is the territory that my birth mother said was my father’s. She brought me here when I was old enough to care for it. At the time, my father was still alive. I do not know if he is anymore.”

She furrows her brow, and says, “You don’t know who your father is?”

I shake my head. “Not really. My birth mother is Elven. You see, over time many of the Elven have become corrupt and depraved. Some of them like to take Guardians…as their captive lovers. Usually the Guardian is captured and taken to the Elven’s estate.

They live there in confinement an d are forced to please the Elven that has captured them.

My birth mother had several Guardians trapped at her estate.

My father was one of them, but I’ve never met him. ”

I take a deep breath and glance at Lydia to see how she is reacting to this, and she has a horrified look on her face.

I push on. “When my birth mother got pregnant, she had also taken a lot of Elven lovers. She hoped that I would be Elven like them. If she had known that I would be a Guardian, she would have destroyed me while I was still in her womb. When I was born…as soon as she saw me, she knew I was from one of the Guardians. I assume she knew which was my father because I bore his resemblance.”

“Oh my gods, Wold, that is horrible. I’m so sorry that your birth mother was like that.”

I nod an acknowledgement. “After I was born, my birth mother couldn’t risk killing a baby without repercussions, so she brought in a female Guardian as a nursemaid for me.

That female fed me and changed me and raised me until I was 7 years old.

She was more of a mother to me than my birth mother.

My birth mother couldn’t wait to get rid of me though, so as soon as she thought I might be able to survive on my father’s territory, she brought me here and left me.

My nursemaid fortunately convinced my birth mother to let her stay with me for a month to show me what I needed to do to survive here.

She’s the one that taught me everything I know.

She helped me perform the magic to bind myself to my territory.

She taught me to hunt, and how to build a shelter.

She also taught me how to care for my territory with my magic.

When the month was up, she had to go back to my birth mother’s home. Then I was alone.”

Lydia squeezes my hand, and I suddenly realize that she’s still holding it from earlier. “Oh Wold, your birth mother sounds awful. I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

I study our hands clasped together, with my 3 fingers fitting perfectly between her 4.

And for the first time, I notice how close she’s sitting to me.

She’s talking about her family, but I’m not listening.

I’m so focused on her body’s proximity to mine.

I want to keep her, I need to keep her, but I know I can’t.

I can’t provide the life she needs. I’m a Guardian.

I live in the woods like an animal. Gods, if one of the Elven found her…

I interrupt her. “Lydia, we need to find a way to get you home.”

Her face falls a little with that, and she lets go of my hand.

I quickly continue. “It’s not safe for you here. A lot of the fae are like my birth mother, and if one of them got ahold of you, they wouldn’t let you go. ”

After a moment, she nods. “Okay, then how do we do it?”

“You came through to my world because you accidentally found a thin spot,” I explain.

“We can look for other thin spots, but those are unpredictable, and no one can tell when or where one will pop up. We could look every day for months and we still may not find one. There is magic that can get you through the barrier, but we will need to buy a few supplies to do that kind of magic. There is a travelling fae market that stops just outside of my territory every new moon, when the night is it’s darkest. They will have the supplies we need. ”

“When is the next new moon?” Lydia asks.

“In three days.”