Page 29 of Witchbane
“And I love that,” Liam said. “That you want me. Don’t be embarrassed by your desire. I’m not.”
“I’m sure plenty of people want you. You’re you. Like super-hot, alpha Liam.”
“Doesn’t matter. I only want you.”
I couldn’t help the contented sigh that fell from my lips. “Why you gotta say stuff like that?”
“What? It’s the truth.” He paused, stopping to examine the area like he was picking a direction, though it all looked the same to me. The mountain to our right meant that was north, but that’s all I could really tell. I waited, stepping close enough to feel the warmth of his body heat, and rest my head against the back of his shoulder. The bulky jackets and packs made it harder to wrap my arms around him, but I did, hugging him from behind. He turned, tilting my face up for a kiss, and that itself was magic. Not the touch of our lips, or the warmth of his mouth on mine, but the spark that always seemed to jump between us.
“No fair,” I said. “Plying me with kisses to make me do what you want.”
“Right. Because you spend all your time wanting something I don’t?” He gave me back the squinty side-eye I often gave him; he was getting really good at it.
“Sex in the snow is probably not a good thing.”
“There’s barely a dusting, but that’s okay. I’ve got a few camping spots in mind. And we have a tent packed, even if it’s a small one.”
“You packed a tent?” I examined his pack. “Where?” It was attached to the bottom of his pack, little more than a large square of fabric, but I could feel the poles in it. How big would that be? I couldn’t imagine stripping in this cold to do anything in a tiny tent like this.
“I’ll keep you warm,” he promised. “We are going to start heading north. You came from the northwest when he dropped you home last time.”
“But he wasn’t there. He did this sort of hand-close thing and suddenly I was here.” I mimicked what it had looked like, as I thought back to the encounter with the forest god. The trees hadn’t been the same. Some of them were different. “There were more maples. I don’t remember any redwoods,” I pointed to the mix around us.
“Redwoods aren’t overly common to this area. They’re scattered closer to the mountain, but I know an area, a couple miles away, that is full of maples,” Liam said.
“Miles?” I did not want to walk miles. Wow, I’d gotten lazy since finding my mate. I had to admit, during my year on the run I’d spent a lot of that time on four feet rather than two.
“I could carry you, but we have to carry the packs too.”
Both of which were huge because my boyfriend insisted on being prepared. He leaned down to kiss me again. “Are you tired?”
“Always,” I admitted. It seemed to be a norm in my life. Even the year on the run, I’d only kept going because to stop meant death. Here in Liam’s arms, I didn’t want to run, but I hadn’t yet recharged. Maybe that wasn’t possible? Maybe it was the kitsune who drained me to this edge of exhaustion. Or maybe it was the fact that it had been bound too long. “But I’ll keep moving as long as we need.”
He tugged on my braid, but his expression was worried. “Tell me if you need to stop.”
“I’ll be okay,” I promised.
“Seb… Tell me if you need to stop. For anything. To breathe. To take in the view, to snuggle, whatever. This is not a race. Our goal is to make you feel better, not wear you out more.” He let out a long breath. “I hate that we are grasping at straws. If I knew how to fix this any other way…”
“I know. I promise I’ll tell you if I need a break. I want to fix this too.” Anything to quiet the kitsune’s constant unrest. Funny how that endless vibration I’d always attributed to anxiety, actually seemed tied to the kitsune. Had it always been that way and I’d only now noticed? How much power had it amassed behind those icy cage walls inside of me? While having some kind of all-powerful, destructive demon inside me sounded good on paper, I was not a fan. “Show me where these maples are.”
“Do you remember any other landmarks?”
“The trees were tall?”
He thought about that for a minute, and tugged me forward, taking my hand in his as we walked. “I have a direction in mind.”
“You lead, I’ll follow,” I agreed, and meant it for more than this adventure too. The smile that lit up his face told me he knew.
Chapter 8
We walked a long time. The light of the day began to fade. The glaring white of the snow made the arriving moonlight brighter. I sort of lost focus after a while, moving in rhythm to the tug of his energy rather than what I saw.
It was a bit like meditating. I had an underlying awareness, but everything else was muscle memory lost in the focus of watching my mate. My mind was quiet for the most part, linked to Liam’s with a sort of rolling glimpse of his emotions. I couldn’t really read his thoughts like he could mine, but as we walked, I almost had the memory of his emotions down. He was determined and calm, hopeful, but worried.
I wondered if he did this in order to feel me, this meditative calm, or if it came naturally to him.
I lost myself in analyzing the connection for a while. His movement become a repetitious draw to me, easy to follow like a tether, keeping him close. When the first touch of something else trickled through my focus, it was barely perceivable. I thought it had been a shift in his emotions and worried a little that I’d upset him, as the touch was dark and icy. It crept in like the slow growth of fungus sped up for one of those wildlife shows, a tiny spread reaching to cover everything.