Chapter 10
Tiffany glanced around curiously as they walked deeper in the woods.
When Barbasa suggested that she accompany him that morning, she hadn’t realized that this was what he had planned.
This was no mere walk to the trees out skirting the cabin to gather food.
They were moving at a steady pace into the deeper part of the woods where branches caught on her clothing and hair in vicious tugs and scraped over exposed skin with their crooked, wooden fingers.
Eesha and Ashel flanked them in an easy lope, their heads constantly swiveling as they caught every new sight, sound, and smell.
Every now and then, Barbasa paused to point out some important feature or landmark so that she understood that he was trying to familiarize her with the forest while simultaneously taking her on patrol with him.
She had somehow gone from sheltered, temporary guest to something more.
“What are we doing?”
she whispered as he paused beside a track pressed into the soft soil of the forest floor.
His eyes lifted to meet hers and a small smirk played at the corners of his lips.
“Connecting with our home forest, but beyond that...
hunting.
No matter what else a satyr does, we are always hunting.
We live for the chase, and even when we mate, we continue to chase our female out of our love for hunting her,”
he purred before a slow smile stretched across his face.
“We are perhaps as wolfish as the wolven lupi themselves, but as it happens our second favorite prey could only wish for such a quick death,”
he added with a dark chuckle.
She blinked at him.
She had heard of people whispering about the lupi before as they had apparently stolen women from some of the settlements further to the north if rumor was to be believed.
A wolfish species that was straight out of a werewolf blockbuster, except these monsters didn’t shed their skins to appear human.
More than that, however, her mind kept circling back to the fact that he was calling the forest their home.
Did that mean what she thought it did? Was he claiming her and inviting her to share his forest, his home, and his life with her.
The prospect made her pulse pound faster with excitement up until her eyes dropped down the track he gestured to.
There was something so familiar about it that she frowned and squinted harder at it until she made out the faint impression of a boot with a thick tread.
Reeling back, she drew a sharp panicked breath until the satyr caught her arm and steadied her, his yellow gaze warm on her.
She swallowed thickly and forced herself to look back at the boot print.
“Someone...
someone is in the forest,”
she whispered.
He rumbled softly in agreement and scuffed a hoof over it as she stared at him in bewilderment.
“Human by the look of it.
Fae boots and slippers do not leave this style of marks.”
“I don’t understand.
I thought you said that they couldn’t get into your forest.”
He shook his head and smirked.
“Not at all.
I said that they will never find my cabin...
due to the fact that any human male who enters my woods uninvited will not get out alive.
I make an exception for females and younglings, preferring to chase them out then sentence them to the same painful ending.”
Something in her belly unclenched at his words and her lips twitched.
As blood thirsty as her satyr was, it seemed that he did have some sort of standards.
It was also highly reassuring that no matter who entered the forest, no one would ever find her because Barbasa would be certain to kill them before they had the chance.
“You said your second favorite prey.
What is your first?”
she murmured.
His eyes glinted, the yellow warming into a molten gold as they began to glow.
“You, of course.”
She grinned at his words, a silly smile stretching across her face despite the obvious threat lurking nearby as a warmth rushed through her body and lit her from within.
Although there were heavy sexual undertones to his observation, there was a depth that lurked beneath his words that conveyed a far deeper feeling than mere flirtation.
And she was not objecting.
“Good answer,”
she scoffed lightly.
“So, what are we going to do about favorite prey number two here?”
Despite the bravado of her words, a small shiver still ran through her.
She believed him when he said that no one escaped him alive but some small part of her would worry until the threat was dealt with.
Barbasa gave her a knowing smile but tipped his head to the west.
“The prints double back rather quickly in that direction.
I suspect that they encountered something they were not prepared for.”
He sighed with exaggerated disappointment that made her snicker in amusement.
“The pack does like to ruin my fun.”
She shook her head at him.
Only he would think dealing with intruders to be some sort of entertainment while she found the possibility mildly terrifying.
Because of that, however, she couldn’t help but to ask the one thing weighing on her mind.
“Do you think it was someone looking for me?”
His lips parted as he hesitated to answer.
“The scent is like that what I caught on the air the day I found you.
I believe it was one of the males pursuing you.”
Tiffany nodded grimly.
That was what she figured.
She rolled her shoulders and tried to shrug it off.
Ultimately, it didn’t matter.
As much as she hated the idea that she was still being hunted by them—which was far less thrilling and desirable of a prospect that Barbasa hunting her—it was also clear that they were unable to venture far into the woods in search of her.
“They will probably be back if they are still trying to find me,”
she pointed out.
“Cheer up.
You may get to slaughter someone yet,”
she teased, earning a wicked grin from the male.
A deep, growling chuckle rose from the satyr’s chest, and he wrapped an arm around her to drag her against his side in a tight hug.
He nuzzled her neck, eliciting a giggle from her.
“Only you understand me best,”
he purred, his breath hot against her skin.
She shivered at the erotic brush fanning her flesh and gasped as his raspy tongue suddenly stroked a path up the side of her neck to nip playful at her earlobe.
She leaned into him eager for more when he made a small sound of chagrin released her to tug gently on her clothes.
Her eyes dropped down and she grimaced as she took in the state of her clothes.
The material had already been weak and threadbare at best but the trek through the deeper part of the forest had done a number on it.
Worse, her skin was stinging everywhere the branches had scraped against her after tearing through the fabric.
“I should have thought more on this before dragging you through the brush,”
he growled in self-crimination.
“My apologies, Tiffany.”
Although she lacked much in the way of spare clothing, she shrugged it off and smiled gently as she hugged his arm to her—which was easy to do considering that it was still tightly wrapped around her.
“It didn’t have much mileage left on it, don’t worry,”
she assured him.
“It was worth it.”
And to her surprise, she discovered that she was in fact speaking truthfully.
She actually liked following him on his rounds through the wood even if it meant encountering less pleasant things.
It was better than facing an onslaught of cabin fever.
He gave her a skeptical look as his gaze slid over her face searchingly.
He must have seen the truth there because he quickly began to relax even if his claws continued to toy lamentingly at the torn and ruined fabric.
“I admit that I enjoy seeing more of your skin,”
he murmured.
“But not like this.
We will fix this.”
Her eyebrows flew up.
“We will?”
His lips curled in a devilish smile.
“Of course.
I am not a male without means.
I have treasures that I’ve stored away since establishing my territory.”
“Really? Where do you come by treasure in the middle of nowhere?”
she queried as he turned and gently began to guide her away from the track and deeper into the woods.
“It depends on what one’s definition of treasure is,”
he replied casually.
“And from where you can source it.
Humans, to my observation are so desperate to survive and clinging to whatever relics of their past that they can find that they are slow to learn artistry and techniques of trade or methods to improve their own lives.
All I have seen is hovels scraped together in crumbling cities and town with crudely planted fields with varying degrees of success.
There is little to be gained from such a meager existence.”
Tiffany nodded as she followed Barbasa through the encroaching undergrowth that attempted to swallow up the natural paths and game trails through the trees.
She had done some wandering after the Ravening before settling down and she could admit that his observation wasn’t far from the mark.
Although people were learning skills, progress was painfully slow, especially since so many people merely sought survival off of whatever they could find in the wake of the end of their world.
Even now, several years later, people still looked like refugees.
All she could say is that the entire world failed at finding their apocalypse buddies, or if they did, they were all likely living comfortably in one or two thriving towns that they kept secret from everyone else to keep the grifters out.
Hell, that was what she would do.
All because she had seen more things destroyed by perfectly wretched people who were more intent or serving their own selfish needs than working towards a better future.
Stealing and cheating was so much the norm that it felt like a completely different world from the peaceful one she was enjoying in the satyr’s woods.
In those squalid towns, she would never have been able to imagine such a future.
“So where did you get your treasure, then?”
she asked a bit breathlessly as she quickened her pace to keep up so that their fingers might remain entwined as they continued to move through the forest.
Barbasa smirked at her over his shoulder, and he gave her hand a little squeeze.
“Do you truly wish to know?”
She rolled her eyes at his obvious attempt to provoke her into whatever game his playful nature insisted on and gave his hand a brief yank.
“You know I do.
Quit playing with me.”
He chuckled merrily as he turned toward her and spun her into his arms so that her body flattened against his broad chest.
Her breath caught as he grinned down at her, the tip of his nose tracing along the bridge of her own nose as his incredible body soaked into her.
“But I enjoy our games,”
he huskily replied.
“And I can think of many delicious ones to play with you.”
Standing on her tip toes, Tiffany grabbed his short beard and tugged his head downward so that he knew she meant business.
“If you want to be able to play anything else with me, I suggest you drop the world game.”
“So feisty,”
he purred and chuckled again.
He sighed heavily and brushed a kiss against her cheek.
“Very well.
If you must know there are other towns established by fae, often in alliance with humans.
Because fae races bring their skills and handicrafts with them, they always have the best things available to trade for an enterprising individual who can think of something unique to offer them.”
“Unique?”
Her nose wrinkled as she tried to think of what anyone might be able to offer that would be worth anything so fine as what one of the fae races might have on hand.
“Like what?”
Pecking a kiss to the tip of her nose, he released her and tugged her after him as he ducked beneath several low, overhanging branches.
“Scrap metal is always appreciated among them to an even greater degree that it is among humans since few have sought to establish mines just yet, and even with mines, metal available to be refashioned is always in high demand.
But so are hides, dried meat, sweet things, food.
Just about anything can find a market if you know where to look.”
“Perhaps even your acorn bread might fetch a price in trade,”
she observed aloud to herself.
Barbasa cast her a curious glance and chuckled.
“I had not considered that, but you are probably right.
Most of my trade comes in raw goods that I find and in furs, but I will be sure to remember that in the future.
Not yet, however.
Although it is a large market, I have amassed quite a bit of credit to be spent first.”
She gave him a curious look as she nibbled her bottom lip.
An actual market rather than ramshackle stalls and “shops”
in town.
She would give anything to see it.
“It sounds amazing.”
He grinned over his shoulder at her and stopped for a moment to pluck a late season flower from the nearest bush and hand it to her.
The delicate pink petals of the flower brushed the back and side of her hand in a silky caress that she couldn’t’ get enough of touching.
“Then we shall go,”
he rumbled.
“But first let us see what game we can bring down for our supper.
And then tonight I shall raid my treasure to see what I might have tucked away for such a lovely female to wear.”
Grinning in turn, Tiffany quickened her steps, a happy laugh falling from her as he immediately bound forward with a playful flick of his tail.
They ran, frolicking together through the trees until she was gasping, and his growls of delight filled in the forest air as he caught her in his arms.
It was a world of pleasure and even the shadows of the forest began to look less intimidating as the played among them with Eesha and Ashel close at hand.
As the sun began to lower in the heavens, they dragged fat fish from the stream to fill their bellies.
It was a good day and Tiffany was certain that no day could possibly be better.
Even the promise of the market was half forgotten as the beauty of the forest opened up before her and drew her into its wonder.
She had all that she could ever want and, even with the satyr’s flirtatious and lusty games, Tiffany didn’t dare to wish that it could truly be her home.
But, by the gods, she wanted it to be.