29. Chapter Twenty-Nine
~Evalina~
For as long as I could remember, something had been missing in my life. Not a big something, not like the hole in my heart after losing my father, but something small that left an empty space in the puzzle that made up me , leaving the picture incomplete.
As much as I loved my parents and enjoyed spending time in the kitchen experimenting and laughing with my friends, part of me always felt like I never truly belonged in Etta. For a long time, I attributed that feeling to Tarron’s bullying. Once that stopped, I chalked it up to the fact that my time serving the royal family jaded me towards the entire ruling class.
I always thought the problem came back to me. Something about me simply didn’t fit, and it wouldn’t make a difference where I went since the problem came from within.
But in Felix’s arms, with his lips moving against mine, the crisp, clean air around us and the gorgeous views of his world providing the most stunning backdrop for my first kiss, for the first time in my life, I felt like I was exactly where I was meant to be.
The feeling made me bold enough to keep kissing him, brave enough to pull him tighter towards me and demand more with my body if not my words, and by the time we finally broke apart, we were both gasping for air, my body on fire and my heart pounding.
Did he feel it the same way too?
His bright blue eyes gazed down at me with something close to wonder. “Evalina, I…”
Whatever he wanted to say fell away when a branch snapped in the woods behind us and we both spun around to find the noise’s source.
A strange four-legged creature stood there, its hair a soft brown and its legs long and lean, and it seemed to hold my gaze for a moment or two before it turned and bounded away. As it disappeared back into the dense trees, something else caught my eye: a faint glowing in the distance, not the way we had come but further to the east.
“Felix, look, there…”
I pointed, not needing to say anything else. He saw it too and his lips tightened, looking much harder now that they were no longer pressed against mine. “A portal. So close to our pack house, and we never knew.”
“It must not be used often, if at all,” I pointed out. “You would know if it were, right? Like how you knew that Tarron was using ours?”
“Right.” His slow nod spread into a warm smile. “Good point.”
“And after travelling so fast in your car last night, we must be a long way from Etta. The portal probably leads to another kingdom. There are many in the fae world. I could go through and check.”
I started to head towards the distant glow, but Felix immediately pulled me back, his arm wrapping around my waist and pulling me towards him as he sank onto a nearby rock, so that I somehow ended up in his lap, face-to-face. The hardness of his muscular body beneath me sent heat flooding through me even before I noticed the other hardness poking against me, one I had never felt before but knew instinctively what it meant.
“You’re not rushing in there without a plan,” he nearly growled into my ear, sending goosebumps prickling down my arms. “You might get hurt and I won’t let that happen. You’re too precious to me to let that happen.”
No one had ever said anything like that to me before, and I felt the truth of his words deep in my core. The blood rushed through my body faster, my heart drumming a steady, insistent beat that seemed to settle right between my legs.
There was one thing I didn’t understand. “Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why am I… ‘precious’ to you?”
I had to force the words out, feeling silly saying them even though they were exactly what he said.
Felix let out a soft exhale that tickled the side of my neck, sending another shiver of delight through my body. It felt like lightning had somehow gotten trapped inside me, like I might actually combust if he kept stimulating me in these ways.
“There’s something between us,” he said quietly, the words barely a whisper in the cool air. His handsome blue eyes pierced into mine, open and clear. “Don’t you feel it? Did you feel it when we kissed?”
Of course I did, but I still didn’t understand it, especially given the conversation we had the night before. “I thought you said that you have a mate.”
Another exhale from him.
Another shiver for me.
“I do have a mate,” he answered me slowly. “But she’s not a werewolf. She doesn’t know she’s my mate and I’m hoping she’ll figure it out for herself.”
The idea of that lucky, clueless woman, more closely tied to him than I would ever be, settled into a heavy lump in my throat as I tried to sound supportive. “I hope that she does.”
“Me too.” He stared at me for a long moment, as if he expected me to say something else, but I didn’t know what else to say. If he had a partner out there, even if she didn’t know it, encouraging anything between us would be wrong, no matter how much I might want to.
When I didn’t reply, he sighed again, the exhale stronger than before, and in one fluid motion, he stood back up, lifting me with him and placing me gently on the ground once he was upright, as if I weighed no more than a child.
“I think we should go through the portal, like you said, to see if you recognize what’s on the other side. If you think Tarron might be able to reach it, we’ll need to take precautions. I’ll shift to my wolf first so if anyone’s there, they won’t see my face. I’ll also be able to protect you better if anything goes wrong. You’ll stay beside me at all times, and if I nudge your stomach with my nose, that means ‘run back to the portal’. No questions, no hesitation. Got it?”
I nodded firmly. “I understand.”
He and his friends had helped me so much already; assisting them in figuring out where the portal on their territory led seemed like the least I could do in return.
Together, we walked the short distance to the portal’s glowing entrance. The shimmering light both beckoned and repelled me, calling me back to a world and a life I didn’t know if I wanted anymore. But what place did I have in the terrestrial realm either? The feeling of belonging I’d experienced in Felix’s arms seemed a distant memory after the discussion about his mate.
“Turn around and I’ll get undressed,” he instructed. I did as he said, but after a few seconds, I couldn’t resist taking one little peek over my shoulder. His back faced me as he reached down to remove his pants, giving me a rather spectacular view of his firm, muscled ass.
I’d never found a man’s backside particularly attractive before, but on Felix? It qualified as a work of art.
Quickly, I snapped my head back before he could catch me looking.
A few seconds later, a warm, furry head rubbed against my hand, and I looked down to find Felix’s wolf beside me, his appearance starting to become familiar to me. The animal gave me a solemn nod, and side-by-side, we stepped through the portal back into the fae world.