Page 42 of The Howling (Monsters of the Yeavering #2)

I t’s like having a horny fever. All I want to do is jump Reavely’s bones…or boner to be more accurate. I’m too hot to wear any clothing which means he gets easy access. Something he takes full advantage of, and I am absolutely not complaining.

I’m only happy when his cock is inside me, turning into a whiney brat without it. Being impaled on his knot brings the sweetest bliss.

Occasionally Reavely leaves me in our pit of a bed which I won’t let the Duegar change because it smells of him. A small part of me wants to be embarrassed at my behaviour, but the rest of me, who frankly seems to be enjoying herself, refuses to let me be. Instead I am enjoying it.

When Reavely returns, he brings food and the smell of the outside on his fur. I dislike the idea of him leaving the castle and leaving me, so I make a point to jump his cock as soon as he gets through the door, despite any protests he might have about me eating to keep my strength up.

I can always eat later, once he’s fulfilled my needs.

Reavely even takes me to the place he dreads the most, lowering me into cooling water, gently cleaning me of our combined fluids despite my protestations.

Until this morning. This morning I wake up and my head is clear. Reavely lies beside me, on his front, his arms and legs spread out as he snores into a pillow.

Have I broken my Barghest? I smile and stretch out, my body aching in a few places, but otherwise I feel incredible, like I could take on the whole of the Yeavering.

I don’t think I’ve felt this good since I arrived, and probably not when I was beyond the veil either.

I snuggle up to his warm body and breathe in his gorgeous citrus scent.

It seems like belonging to a Barghest isn’t such a bad thing overall.

And it looks like I’m going to have to get used to all the surprises being with him brings.

Like a ghostly family and my body doing things I never thought were possible.

But this is the Yeavering, and anything could happen.

“Wynter?” Reavely’s voice is a bag of gravel being dragged down a rock face. “Has your heat broken?”

“I think so,” I say as his hand traces down my face.

The touch doesn’t set my skin on fire. Instead it sends a lovely soft feeling to my heart.

“Shame.” He grins wolfishly.

“I thought you might say that.”

“It could come back,” he says hopefully.

“How?”

“If I bite you again.” He buries his head against my shoulder, his fangs pricking over my skin where he bit me.

“You want to?”

“Your heat was glorious, the best,” he murmurs. “But even a Barghest needs a rest.”

“I did break you.” I laugh. “Who knew the way to stop a Barghest was to mate him to a standstill?”

I find myself caged by him in his wolf form, clawed hands curled around my wrists, his dark eyes staring into mine.

“I’d happily mate you until the end of time, little deer,” he growls.

His cock is hard against my thigh, as if I needed any physical evidence of what he has and will do to me. Despite my heat having broken, my body still wants him. Reavely transforms again, and his lips hit mine with an intensity I will never get tired of.

Which is when there is a knock at the door.

We both freeze.

“Is that your friend?” Reavely says through gritted teeth.

He means Lilburn of course.

“I can’t see through wood.” I grind myself against him, making him groan.

The knock comes again.

“It’s not going to be your mother,” I say. “She doesn’t knock. She doesn’t have to.”

Reavely drops his head onto my chest and mutters something under his breath. He clambers off me, and for the first time in what has to be a week, I pull the covers over my body.

He stomps over to the door, and before I can say something about his lack of clothing, he wrenches it open.

A blast of magic hits him full in the chest, sending him tumbling over as I leap from the bed away from the door. Reavely is instantly on his feet, the magic rolling off him like a dark cloak, and with a snarl which has to be heard over the entire Yeavering, he goes for his wannabe assailant.

I hear him hit a body with a thump and then further horrible growls and snarls as I hurriedly pull on my clothing and look around for something, anything I can use as a weapon.

There is a strange, somewhat final squeak and the noise outside ceases.

“Of all the creatures in the Yeavering, Linton,” I hear Reavely snarl, “it had to be you.”

My big beast reappears around the door.

“Are you hurt, little mate?”

“No, not at all,” I say calmly, because from the look in Reavely’s eyes, whatever Linton is, he would be minus a head if I was.

I don’t want any bloodshed on my behalf.

Reavely ducks behind the door, and I see a tail waving and growls ensue as he rags on something. Something which makes a sound very similar to gerroff.

Curious, I make my way around the bed, internally bemoaning the lack of weaponry in our bedroom, to find out exactly what attempted to…well, I’m not sure what, given Reavely is essentially impervious to magic.

The sight which greets me is not one I’ll forget in a hurry.

My Barghest has hold of the strangest of creatures.

It’s large and human-like, wearing a set of leather and silver mail armour, along with what I initially think is a cloak, until I see the soft velvet mottled fabric is not around his neck but attached to his back.

A pair of deep red eyes glare balefully at me as Reavely releases one wing from his jaws, leaving deep impressions.

“Wynter, this is Linton. The Bluecap assassin sent to kill us.”