Chapter 29
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
VALERIAN
Her scent, her face, and her body are too distracting. Her tentative trust and growing confidence, her courage, her pain, and the small scar on her face, they are all endearing. Captivating.
They say that we fae are the deceivers, the enchanters, the seducers, and players. But she’s the one luring me in, one word, one look, one touch at a time. I’m gone. Given over to her. It happened so fast, I didn’t even notice when I went from lusting to craving her.
And now danger is lurking nearby. I caught a whiff of the cat as I finished grilling the meat for the way. I was watching her sleep… her scent of arousal almost distracting me enough to miss the enemy.
She’s a hazard to both our health. She could get us killed, and that’s only because I can’t stop looking at her, smelling her, needing her. My whole focus has become her, any thought of my initial mission and my people taking second place.
I haul her out of the depression in the rocks, over gaps and uneven surfaces, all too aware of her smaller body, her fragile bones and unsure footing, her small gasps when we perch on a slippery stone top, or when I let go of her hand to jump down, turning to open my arms for her.
Will she trust me?
She jumps into my embrace as if she’s really starting to, and the warmth spreading through me at the thought is better than a drink of blossomwine.
I hold her against me for a moment too long, feeling the frantic beat of her heart against my chest, the tremor going through her slight body, and then regretfully release her so we can climb down the last rocks. The cat is still prowling nearby, a male cat, marking his territory and hunting.
We need to keep moving, hoping it will lose our scent, though I very much doubt it. If the cat is hungry, it will come for us, and I will be ready.
I’ve been ready since the news came of my mother’s passing, since I had to fend for myself among the wolves.
Much like she has, in a different kind of menagerie. A different kind of savage animals, these humans, their claws made of cruel words, disinterest, and neglect.
I lead her down to the stream and help her cross it.
The skirt of her green gown is long and heavy, and it drags in the water.
Panic flashes across her pretty face, and with a growl, I swing her up into my arms to wade across.
She’s too slow, too unused to running, too…
too pleasant to hold, fitting perfectly in my arms.
Dammit.
She reaches up, a dreamy expression in her eyes, and touches my face, caressing my cheek. “Valen…”
“What is it, Sweets?”
“How can you be so…?”
“Stupid?” I breathe. I’m so caught up in her, nothing else registers anymore. “Dim-witted?”
A smile tugs on her soft lips. “I was going to say, so full of energy after the night we spent on the hard ground. Then I remembered that—”
“—I’m a wolf and like freezing my ass off on the cold rocks?”
“Oh.” A huff of laughter, but her hand is still pressed to my cheek. “Did you sleep at all?”
No, because I was fantasizing about tearing her clothes off. “I caught a few winks. I was keeping watch.”
“You must be exhausted.”
From wanting you. Yes. Bone-tired. Spent. “No, don’t worry about me. I’m used to catnapping during the night.”
“Although you’re a wolf, not a cat.”
“That’s correct. Wolf-napping, then.”
Her smile widens. “Do you growl in your sleep? Chase rabbits?”
Her fingers brush over my mouth, and I peel my lips back in a wolfish grin. “Rabbits? I’m not a fox, or one of those lapdogs your people pet in high society.”
“Lapdogs. I see.” Her fingers move over my teeth, as if testing me, testing my self-control and discipline. I struggle not to kiss her fingertips, suck them into my mouth, pull her closer.
“I chase much bigger prey,” I say, wading out to the shallows of the stream.
“Like humans?”
“Only if they are pretty like you.” Giving in, I close my lips around the slender digits and suck lightly. “Princess.”
She gasps and snatches her hand away, but the flush on her cheeks isn’t all fear. “Why did you do that?”
I stop on the other bank. “Because I want to eat you whole. Lick, suck, and bite every part of you. Don’t you feel it? Don’t you know how you affect me?”
The way her pupils dilate tells me she does. She’s much more innocent in the ways of men than any girl I’ve lain with. I don’t normally go for clueless virgins, but this girl… she’s changing everything.
“Valen,” she whispers.
And the fucking wildcat comes out of nowhere, leaping on us.
Fuck.
I’m half-shifting before I even release Rosie, and I manage not to throw her away as I spin, the cat’s claws raking across my arm and shoulder, leaving lines of fire behind.
Gritting my teeth, I put her down and, as the cat slams into me, I shove her away.
Then I go down, face-first into the dirt, about two hundred pounds of hungry male cat on top of me, trying to bite my head off.
Fuck, I got distracted again, too damn distracted. Yet, I won’t regret wanting her, needing her touch. In fact, I’m fucking pissed with the damn cat for interrupting us.
I’ve completely lost my ever-loving mind.
The shift keeps coming, expanding in me.
I’m not ready to go through the pain of a full shift right now, though, so I rein it in.
I know my head is pretty much wolf-like by now, elongated jaw because that fucking hurt, despite the rage I feel for this stupid cat attacking my mate.
My legs bend at weird angles, and muscles bulge in my arms.
Pulling the fucking wildcat off me, I fling it away with a roar, and I hunch over, panting, trying to get my bearings.
What I’m mostly pissed-off about is the terrified look on Rosie’s face. Isn’t that fucked-up? I’m in the middle of a fight for both our lives, but all I can think of is how traumatizing this has to be for her, and how… unappetizing.
If she found me appealing before, I doubt she feels anything positive toward me now. I’m a monster. A twisted half-animal, half-fae mongrel, made with the corrupted magic of a fae king who went mad centuries ago. His actions still haunt my people today.
I leap at the cat, and we clash in mid-air, each one of us going for the jugular.
Both of us miss, and we fall and roll on the small pebbles, splashing in the shallows.
I hit the water with my back, then hit the rocky bottom, and fuck, that hurts.
With my breath knocked out of me, I struggle to get up, only for the cat to jump on top of me once more.
He snarls, long teeth inches from my face, but I shove him off me, muscles straining, ignoring the slashes left by his claws. Finally, I climb to my feet, and when he comes at me again, I open my arms and howl my anger at him.
The cat screams at me, formidable fangs bared, but stays put. His gaze flicks from me to something else further down the shore, and it doesn’t take a genius to know he’s looking at my woman.
But then another roar rises in me, because she’s throwing pebbles at the cat, trying to take his attention off me… drawing it to herself.
No. Fuck, no.
So I set off toward him. Male to male. This is my female, and she won’t be his, for dinner or for company. She’s mine!
The message is received. Before I reach him, with a low growl, the cat shifts on his paws, uneasy. Then he turns and lopes away, vanishing in a dark grove.
I turn to my woman, breathing hard. I barely feel the burning pain in my shoulder and arm.
The cat almost ended us, and I still don’t fucking regret the distraction that she is—for my body, my thoughts, my soul.
Losing my mother and entering the temple, practically raised by cold, uncaring adults, marked me. Having to fight to survive hardened me.
She’s soft and warm. She’s everything I’ve ever needed. A golden soul, kind and gentle, wrapped in a small, soft body that was made for me.
And here I am, needing her, still in half-wolf form, fully expecting her to bolt.
I wish I knew what to do. The shift needs calm to work, and I’m all worked up, ready to tear animals and trees apart to protect her.
I’d frighten the shit out of anyone in the state I’m in, all claws and teeth and deformed legs covered in fur where my pants have ripped.
But she doesn’t run. Doesn’t scream and flee.
No, she doesn’t flee. She stays.