Chapter 21 Bo
Chapter Twenty-One
Bo
The mix of the fire crackling and rain pouring down outside is like a comforting embrace. Not quite as soothing as holding my little mate, but she is still fast asleep, cuddled up to Hawk, and we want to let her sleep in.
Last night had been eventful, to say the least. I’m still furious that those men were able to take down all three of us so easily. But we had no idea something like that knock-out potion even existed. Hopefully, nobody else out here will try to cheat.
Thankfully, we’ve finally made it to day six.
Tomorrow, we can take her back to where the Hunt began and officially claim her as our prize.
The whole thing is completely ridiculous, of course.
She’s our fated mate. There is no way that we would ever let her be claimed by anybody other than us.
Even if that meant killing every man on this damn mountain.
“I don’t think anything has grown,” Ronan says, his eyes on the grass surrounding the firepit. I look into the cave, where the grassy parts end, and have to agree with him.
“We’ve only had the fire going for about five hours. It wasn’t instant before, either. And the fire had always been going for hours in those cases.”
He nods as he stares at the cave in thought. “Was the fire out each time it happened?”
I tilt my head as I try to remember. “It definitely was in here. But in the waterfall cave, I think it was still going.”
“Hmm,” is all he says in response.
“We could try,” I say with a shrug. “Extinguish it now and see what happens.”
He considers that before he suggests, “Let’s keep it going until Willow wakes up, giving it a bit more time to… work its magic or whatever it does, then we’ll put it out.”
“You think it’s the wood?” I ask as I tilt my head at the fire. We’d just used fallen trees and cut them as logs; they didn't look like anything special.
“Or the rock we used to spark the flame?” he suggests.
My eyes widen, and I nod. “Yeah, the flint rock we found in the other cave, we brought with us and used here too. That must be it!” I say excitedly as I find the rock and inspect it.
It has more of a shimmer to it than the other rocks we’ve seen, which is why we thought it'd be good to use as a flint.
I pass it to Ronan and he nods. “You could be right. Maybe there’s a clue in the prophecy we need to reconsider?”
I replay the words in my mind, but they don’t give me any new ideas. “The flint rock seems to be the most likely answer right now. We’ll do as you say, let it go for another couple of hours before we put it out, then we can wait and see what happens.
“We’re almost out of time,” he says, looking over at Willow.
“We’ll figure it out,” I reassure him. “Even if we have to come back here after winning this stupid Hunt.”
He nods. “You’re right. We don’t need to leave straight away.”
We continue to watch the fire silently for another hour. My gaze keeps moving over to Willow. We left her in her dress, not wanting to strip her when she was unconscious without her permission, but I’m dying to take it off her now and get another peek at her beautiful, pale skin.
Seeing her without all those bruises and cuts makes me feel like I’m doing something right. Not to mention, her ribs are already less pronounced than they were the first time we saw her.
Ronan refused to tell me what they said to one another after Hawk had climbed down the tree with her last night. But from the way he’s been eyeing her for the last hour, something tells me he’s desperate for her to wake up too.
Unable to take it any longer, I stand and quickly move out to our makeshift bed and lie down behind her, wrapping my arm around her waist as I hum against her neck in appreciation of finally touching her again.
This reminds me of how determined she was to share the blanket with all of us. Not lying down until everyone had made room for me. It had made me fall for her even more, knowing she cared about me being comfortable.
I never expected a mate to be so considerate.
I mean, my mother has always been the kindest person I know, but I know not all women are like that.
Many of them seem more… expectant of their mates' care. But Willow seems more like my mother. She doesn’t take us for granted and appreciates everything we do for her. The little things and the big.
Her body moves a little in front of me, making my cock start to harden when her ass pushes back against it. I try to stifle my groan, knowing that she's still asleep and doesn’t know what she’s doing, but then she does it again, pressing back a little harder this time.
“Willow,” I growl against her neck in warning.
She turns toward me and opens her eyes, a smile filling her face as she finally seems to fully wake up.
“Is it morning already?” she asks around a yawn.
Amusement at her adorableness has me smiling back at her. “It is, little mate, but you can go back to sleep.” My smile fades a little as I add, “You were up late.”
I regret my words when her eyes darken. She takes a second to look around the cave, then she turns her entire body toward me, her hands pressing against my chest between us. I let my hand settle on her back as I wait for her to speak.
“You were all up much later than me. You carried me all the way back here.”
“We’re used to walking through the forest for hours. You aren’t.”
She surprises me by letting one of her hands slide up my neck to push through my beard, settling her palm along my jaw. “You didn’t get injured?” she asks, her eyes bouncing between mine. “Last night, when you fought them.”
“No.” I give her a reassuring smile as I pull her even tighter to me. “Everyone is unharmed.”
“Thanks to you,” Ronan says from where he’s still sitting at the fire nearby.
Her gaze moves to him, and I help her sit up. Hawk sits up behind her and stretches as Ronan continues speaking. “We couldn’t have gotten out of there without you, Willow. You know that, right?”
“But I didn’t do anything,” she says with a frown.
I pull her into a side hug as I huff out a laugh. “Are you kidding? If you hadn’t given Ronan that knife, we would still be there now.”
“But you’re the ones who fought them off,” she argues.
“Which we couldn’t have done if we were still tied up,” Ronan says with an appreciative smile aimed at her. “I’m really proud of you. The way you figured out how to get it to me without them knowing.”
“And that was really smart, giving it to Ronan instead of freeing yourself first,” Hawk tells her.
She shrugs, looking down at her hands as she mumbles, “I knew I wouldn’t be able to cut through the ropes very fast, and I couldn’t fight them off if they saw me first.”
“Our mate is brilliant,” Hawk says as he sits up and wraps an arm around her shoulder, kissing the top of her head from behind.
She bites her lip and her cheeks turn red. Deciding to lighten things up a little, I stand and help lift her to her feet. “I think it’s time for breakfast!”
“There’s a lot of cooked meat here,” Ronan says.
She starts to move toward him, but her head tilts, as if listening to something, then she turns her gaze to where the water is raining in from above.
Because we didn’t build the fire directly below it, the rain is hitting the grass-covered floor a few feet away.
“I need to… You know…” she trails off as she points to the cave entrance.
“We really need a place in here to do that,” I mumble as I grab her hand and lead her to the entrance.
“We don’t want it to smell,” Ronan says as he and Hawk join us.
Stopping right before our early alert system, I look down at her dress. “You should probably change into your leaf coverings so this doesn’t get wet.” She starts shaking her head before I’ve even finished.
“I don’t want to risk being out there dressed like that where others might see me.”
The thought of anyone but us seeing her like that has my hand tightening in hers. “Right. Good point.”
We all go out together, taking turns to relieve ourselves and not letting Willow out of our sight for a second, before we find our way back to the cave.
Willow’s dress is drenched, and she’s shivering before we’ve even finished setting up the traps.
“We need to warm her up,” I tell them as Ronan and Hawk finish the trap.
“Take her dress off and get her near the flames.”
I glance at the fire, but a better idea comes to mind.
I scoop her up in my arms, making her gasp in surprise, but as I march across the cave, I can’t help but smile down at her.
“I think it’s time we check out this hot spring,” I tell her as I set her down right beside her changing room.
“We already placed your stuff here,” I say, pointing to a bag in the corner.
“Thank you,” she whispers as I turn my back.
But I don’t move away. I’m so desperate to be close to her.
The need has been growing since I met her, and every time I learn something new about her, I crave her even more.
But ever since last night, seeing her tied up and being unable to do anything to help her, my need has been almost primal.
I’m praying that some skin-to-skin contact will soothe the part of me that’s desperate to complete the bond.
I know I can’t push her. She’s been through a lot this past week, what with being thrown into a completely new world and straight into the Mating Hunt, being attacked by a grimclaw, and getting kidnapped repeatedly by men she doesn’t know.
It’s surprising she’s still as calm and collected as she is. And I selfishly hope that a big part of being that way is because she feels safe around us.
“Bo?” I turn around and inhale sharply. She’s wearing her leaf bikini, as she calls it.
It’s been over a full day since I’ve seen this much of her skin, and I’m unable to stop myself from reaching out and gripping her waist. She’s still shivering, but I can’t stop myself from being mesmerized by her.