EMBER
The double doors of the temple hall creak as they open on their hinges, groaning like something ancient has just awoken. A black silk eye mask was the only thing to arrive under the door at sunset, its placard reading:
Scent. Midnight. Human form.
Good thing. My wolf form would never tolerate this soft piece of fabric strapped to my face. Not only that, but scenting in wolf form … well, let’s just say that we won’t be able to control our … urges. I slip the mask over my eyes and step forward.
I arrive late again today, trying to avoid the crowd. I catch the priest’s last words of what seemed like a long-winded speech. “Open your noses, open your hearts, and find your scented mate.”
Since we’ll be following our noses, I assume I’ll be safe from groping hands and snide comments.
I hope. The doors click under my hand as they hit their full extension.
I take a hesitant step into the temple. The last time I was here, I disobeyed their one rule — spilled blood.
Now, as the cool night air kisses my bare skin, there’s a different form of anticipation.
My eyesight is obscured, but my other senses are heightened.
The stone is cold underfoot. There’s some hushed whispering and giggling.
One aggressive growl to my left. A soft moan to my right.
The power of the moon seeps into my pores, humming beneath my skin.
I must be toward the center of the temple now.
I pause, lifting my human nose to the air.
Vines above me release the soft scent of eucalyptus.
But everything else... Sweat. Musk. Someone smells like they haven’t bathed since the last lunar cycle.
Another male reeks of blood, likely fresh from a hunt.
I sniff again. Nothing.
Not one scent calls to me. What am I supposed to be looking for anyway?
A force knocks me forward. I stumble, arms flailing. I catch myself on my hands and knees before my nose meets stone. Graceful. Real mating material, Ember.
“Oh gods, I’m sorry,” a deep voice states, closer than I expected. Then large, warm hands touch my bare back. “I didn’t see you there.” They feel like fire against the cool night.
“Funny.” I take his hands from my back and place my palms in them for assistance climbing up, which is embarrassingly difficult without eyesight.
“I’m truly sorry, they don’t think these trials through very well.”
“Oh? Come here often?” I like his voice, it’s smooth and deep. I want to hear more.
“Only about every year.”
“Interesting, and yet you’re still available, which means you’re either impossible to deal with for more than a season, or you’re not a top contender.”
His voice is impossibly closer as he states, “I assure you, I’m the only contender. I’m just… selective.”
With his proximity comes his scent, a mix of pine and winterberry. It smells like solstice. Like sitting around the fire with Roman and my parents, wrapped in wool, safe from the frost. It smells like a memory I thought I’d lost.
I lean in, involuntarily when I feel his nose in the nape of my neck. His warm body sinking closer to mine in the cool air causes me to shiver.
“It’s you.” A statement, not a question, said with awe as well as surprise.
He breathes me in, a slow, reverent inhale along the curve of my throat to my ear. A shiver runs through me from my head to my core. This is the most erotic thing to ever happen to me.
My knees go weak.
“Oh gods,” I whimper, gripping the back of his arms to prevent my knees from collapsing beneath me.
“I’ve got you,” he murmurs, voice low and gravelly.
In a flash, I’m pressed to a column, his body anchoring mine. He inhales me again, and this time my hands uncontrollably reach for his neck, and then his warm hands are around me, bringing me close.
No one’s ever been this close to me before. Afraid he can scent my virginity and I’m about to start a frenzy, I ask, “What…what do I smell like to you?”
He smiles against my throat, the tips of his fangs gliding against me, “Cedarwood and jasmine. Reminds me of my childhood, me and my father running through cedar trees together, while my mom pressed jasmine. It’s a scent I never thought I’d smell again.”
I burrow my nose in the nape of his neck now that he’s lower and breathe him in.
It sends a warm sensation through me, igniting urges I’ve never felt before, and instinct seems to take over.
He groans, a hand fisting my hair. His body is warm as it presses against me.
I feel him, all of him, against my stomach.
My body unconsciously reacts, rubbing against it, desperate for more friction.
He growls, pulling me closer to him, His calloused hand is rough as it glides up the skin of my outer thigh.
I raise it, allowing his scent to envelop me, mark me.
My hands grip his biceps, desperate for this feeling to never end.
He rocks against me. The glorious friction makes me toss my head back.
My partner takes full advantage, nuzzling into my neck and thrusting his hardness against my stomach again.
Pleasure ripples through me. A soft moan escapes my lips. He repeats that glorious rhythm again.
“I never thought it would be like this,” he growls behind my ear.
“Me either,” I gasp, heat pooling lower and lower. My whole body feels warm and tingly, like a wolf on a full moon.
“I’ve been waiting for you,” he whispers.
His fingers are threading through my hair and then down my jaw as if he were trying to memorize my features without sight.
His nose glides out from my neck and across my cheek until we are nose to nose, forehead to forehead.
We’re breathless, panting in tune. Gods, I want to rip this blindfold right off and see my midnight stranger, but I’m too afraid to move, to break this spell we’re under.
My hands remain around his neck, afraid he’s tethering me to the here and now, and if I let go, I’ll fall into the darkness.
We’re so engrossed in nuzzling each other that I barely register the footsteps until a voice calls, “This completes the second trial. Meet back here with the blindfold tomorrow for the third trial: Touch.”
My partner steps back, reluctantly. The loss of his warmth is felt immediately. My arousal is not so easily deterred.
His voice is raspy as he states, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Several sounds of footsteps resound past me. I hurry to lift my blindfold to catch sight of him, but I can’t tell who came from where, and my sense of smell is lost when there’s so many people.
I lean back against the column to catch my breath. I had no idea I could feel hot and cold all over. Scared but wanting more at the same time. My body has never had this kind of reaction before.
Maybe there is something to these trials.
When I arrive back to the room, Roman is sitting on the bed — reading. For the past few days, we’ve been on opposite schedules. I’m off to a trial while he’s sleeping, and when I’m exhausted and ready for bed, he’s waking up.
“Are you smiling?” he teases.
“Are you reading?” I counter.
“That’s how bored I am.”
“Is it that bad?”
“No, when everyone’s asleep, I’ve got full reign, and you wouldn’t believe what I found.”
“Oh, really?” I sit on the edge of his bed as he continues.
“They have a bath the size of a pool and a huge library. I think I’ve found an old sacrificial altar; it even had some old blood on it.”
“Ew, really?”
“It was awesome.”
“What else?” I sigh, leaning against him. “I want to hear all about your day.”
“They have a surprisingly small kitchen for the size of the castle.”
“No way.”
“Yeah, you know how there’s no blood allowed in the temple?” he asks.
“Yes.” Of course, I remember the one rule I broke.
“Well, I think it’s because the priests have taken a vow not to eat meat — they are all vegetarians.”
“No!” I gasp. He must be teasing me because a vegetarian wolf is as rare as a swimming cat.
“Yup, I asked the cook for lunch, and he gave me oat biscuits he makes. They aren’t bad.”
“Interesting.”
“Then when Honi and Cullen wake up, we usually go on a hunt in the field and play games.” Cullen and Honi have always looked out for us since Cullen’s Challenge. I’m glad to hear they are keeping him busy while I’m not around.
“Are we going to talk about that smile? Are the trials working?” he teases, elbowing me in the side.
“I—” Can I talk to my little brother about this? “Maybe.”
“Wow, I never thought I’d see the day. Are you blushing?”
“No! It’s the light.” I stand from the bed, hiding the flush in my cheeks.
“Liar, there’s no light! We’re in a cliff.” He smacks me with a pillow.
“I don’t know what you are talking about.” I reach over and grab my pillow, but he catches me in the side first.
I grab him, locking his neck in the crook of my elbow before messing up his auburn curls. He flips me off balance and we tumble to the ground in a fit of giggles.
I’m going to miss this.
After we catch our breath, I ask, “You said there’s a bath?”
“It’s huge, almost from one side of the castle to the other. I can do laps in it.”
“Where is it?”
“By the entrance, there’s a huge door beside the steps. Why?”
“I might bathe before the next trial.”
“It’s about time. I wasn’t going to say anything but—”
I smack him with my pillow.
“I think I’ll go at noon when everyone else will still be sleeping.”
“Why? Are you getting shy, Ember? Too much male attention?” He wiggles his eyebrows.
“Oh, hush.” I smack him with the pillow one final time.