4. Grievance
CHAPTER FOUR
grievance
“Grievance, what in Lantern’s name are you doing?” Milo was on his feet, brows raised at the puddle Grievance was leaving all over the floor.
“My mate,” Grievance said on a gasp, reaching for his beloved.
When their skin met, that tight pain in his chest eased. Milo smelled incredible. Like clove and earth. Of spices and… kindness. He’d smelled it all those months ago, when he crashed into this life as a boar-bear. Kindness had an unmistakable scent.
And it billowed off Milo in waves.
Grievance was helpless to it. Drunk on it. Or maybe just drunk in general. Because he was pretty sure Milo was speaking to him, but he hardly heard a single word. He was lost in those emerald eyes, now pinched with worry. Weak for the way those always-cold hands reached for his forehead.
Yes. Touch me more. Feel all of me. Feel how I burn for you.
“Grievance, you’re burning up,” Milo said. “And your pupils are blown.”
He led Grievance to the sofa, but it felt more like floating than walking. It was getting hard to breathe. His chest ached.
My mate. Please. Spare me from this carnal yearning.
Only one thing could stop this raging need. And that was his mate’s body. His submission. His moans as Grievance melted them into one. He reached for the hem of Milo’s sweater, running a hand up his thigh, resting on that biteable hipbone he loved so much.
“So beautiful. Such a perfect mate. How did I get so fortunate to bond my soul to one as lovely as yours?”
“W-what’s gotten into you?” Milo stuttered, his face blooming into a gorgeous shade of pink. Grievance wanted to know what that shade tasted like. Wanted to lick it right off his cheeks.
“Grievance, have you been listening to me?” Milo shouted. “Hey, s-snap out of it!” Milo said, smacking the side of Grievance’s face, hard enough that he flinched.
A fresh wave of lust seized the Chimera’s body until every nerve felt like it was on fire. He turned his head and locked eyes with Milo, who’d stumbled a few shocked steps backward.
He smiled, flashing deadly canines.
“Do that again.”
He was so, so pleased when a frightened little whimper escaped Milo’s throat. Then his mate’s eyes darted to the throbbing erection between his legs. Grievance spread himself obscenely on the sofa, showing off his impressive length. He gave it a few quick pulls for Milo’s viewing pleasure.
“Come have a seat.” He patted his thigh in invitation. “I promise, I’ll only bite when you ask for it. And I promise, you will ask for it.”
Milo just stared at him. Eyes wide, face flushed, and…
Yes. There it is. My needy little witch.
Grievance sucked in a deep breath, nostrils flaring wide, catching all that delicious musky scent. The scent of want. Of arousal. It was tentative, but there. Like Milo wasn’t sure if he was allowed to want this. To take what Grievance was offering.
“What do you say, my beholden? Will you take my seed? Or will you leave me aching? Begging?”
Grievance was desperate. Just the sight of his mate standing there… it was taking all his self-control to stay seated on the sofa. To stop himself from grabbing that body and plunging into it. Then again, he was so dizzy, maybe he couldn’t stand.
What was this terrible, wonderful feeling? One moment it drove him to the brink of unconsciousness, and the next it had him so primed, so consumed by desire, it left his head spinning.
“I’ll beg,” he gasped, stroking himself. “If that is what you want. I’ll get on my knees and beg for a taste of you.”
“Grievance…” Milo panted. He shook himself, then looked to the abandoned pastry box on the table.
How could his mate be thinking about food right now? How could he be hungry for anything besides sweat-slicked bodies and thick, hot cum?
Milo tore open the box and selected a blueberry muffin. He took a bite, and almost instantly spat it out, staring at the crumbs in horror.
“Grievance, did you eat this?” Milo asked. “It’s bitter as all seven hells.”
“I did. It was so delicious. So sweet.”
His head fell back, rolling as another wave of heat pulsed through his body. His eyes fell closed. Cool fingers pressed against his forehead.
Milo.
Grievance made a small sound and instinctively leaned into the touch, desperate for the relief of his mate’s cold skin.
“Fucking hells, you’re burning up.”
Was he? He couldn’t tell anymore.
Everything was hot. His skin. His blood. The air filling his lungs. Even Milo’s fingers seemed to grow warmer against him until Grievance couldn’t feel them at all. He went numb.
His eyes rolled back beneath his lids. His head lolled heavily to one side.
Something was wrong. The room felt very far away. Milo felt very far away.
“My Milo is so sweet,” he murmured.
Hadn’t Milo been here? Just a second ago?
Grievance tried to open his eyes, but they wouldn’t obey. For one confused, fever-drowned moment, he couldn’t remember where he was. Couldn’t remember who had been touching him. He only knew the terrible emptiness beside him and the frantic need clawing through his chest.
“Can’t… can’t find him.”
Where… where is Milo? He would never leave me like this. Doesn’t he know how terribly I need him right now?
“Grievance, what are you talking about? I’m standing right here.”
Someone was bent over him, touching him. But he didn’t know who. Then rough hands shook his shoulders.
“Grievance, stay with me. Listen to me. You’ve been drugged. You need an antidote.”
Doesn’t this person get it? My only antidote is Milo. Just Milo.
“No,” Grievance groaned. “Need Milo. Just need my mate.” His cock jerked, pre-cum spattering his chest. “Need my mate. Need to breed him. Fill him. Love him. See if… if he loves me back.”
Grievance was going to burn alive. His head lolled back, and even the stranger’s call couldn’t bring him to raise it again. His cock hurt so bad.
“Grievance… fuck. I don’t have the right ingredients to make an antidote. Babe, are you with me?”
A hand forced his head up. Blearily, he looked into twin emeralds.
So beautiful.
“I’m going to fucking kill Rowen,” the voice said.
Then a cool mouth crashed into his, a searching tongue breaching his lips and stealing what little remained of Grievance’s reason.
The Chimera jolted. For a moment, he didn’t know who was touching him. Only that they were cool. So wonderfully, impossibly cool.
Grievance chased the relief without thought, turning into the kiss with a desperate sound. Something inside him insisted he knew this. The shape of those lips. The softness of that mouth. The familiar scent filling his lungs beneath the suffocating haze of heat.
He knew this person. Didn’t he?
His fevered mind reached for the answer and found only fragments.
Green eyes.
Copper curls.
Freckles.
Cold feet tucked beneath his legs in bed.
A pink sweater swallowing slender hands.
A laugh Grievance would know anywhere.
Home.
Mate.
Milo.
The name broke through the delirium like sunlight.
My Milo.
Awareness came rushing back in pieces. He was here. His mate was here. He hadn’t left him. Hadn’t disappeared. This was Milo’s mouth against his. Milo’s hands touching him. Milo’s voice he heard calling to him through the fever.
Instinct roared to life, as did Grievance’s body. Both hands grabbed Milo’s waist. So perfect. So small in his hands.
Mine.
“Milo~!” Grievance moaned between desperate kisses. Between searching tongues and biting teeth. “Milo~!”
He pulled his mate closer. So close. Not close enough.
Found him. Keep him. Breed him.
“I’m here, baby. I’m here,” Milo said, burying his hands in Grievance’s hair and pulling.
The Chimera let out a moan of delight. “Need you. Need you so bad it hurts,” Grievance growled.
“I know, sweetheart. I know it hurts. It’s not your fault.”
“Please,” Grievance begged. “Tell me I can have you.”
“You can have me. I’m all yours… until whatever this is wears off.”
Milo was on his lap, straddling him, back arched into his hold. Grievance buried his face in the crook of his neck. Instinct raged in his blood. His old magic came calling, reawakening primal needs that should have remained dormant.
He couldn’t hold them back now.
“Tell me I can touch you. Tell me I can leave my claim on you.”
He licked the spot, the perfectly smooth patch of skin, at the junction of his neck and shoulder, where he wanted to mark Milo as his mate. Few MythBeasts mated for life, but those that did left permanent markers on their bonded ones. A mark Grievance desperately needed to leave on Milo. Right now.
“Y-yes,” Milo said, his voice quivering. “Do it.”
He licked that spot again. “So sweet. Like candied apples.” Grievance groaned. He couldn’t stop tasting him.
More.
Need more.
“Tell me… ” he whispered into Milo’s ear, sending a wave of goosebumps down his mate’s body. His little witch shivered on his lap, smelling of such mouth-watering arousal that Grievance nearly came from the scent alone. “Tell me… my beloved mate… that I can breed you.”
Milo gasped as Grievance kissed his neck.
“Tell me I can bury my cock inside of you, and fill you with my seed.”
He kissed the underside of his jaw.
“Tell me that I can bury myself so deep, I’ll fill your beautiful womb.”
Milo’s breath was coming in short bursts now, his fingers gripping the backs of Grievance’s shoulders. Body trembling, already giving Grievance an answer with the way he unconsciously began grinding himself against Grievance’s proud cock.
But he needed to hear it from those lips.
“Tell me that I can pour into you, then lock my knot inside until you’re pregnant.”
And there it was. That exquisite moment when Milo, his stubborn little witch, finally let himself go. Submitting to the need they both felt coursing between them.
“Grievance… fuck. You really are a beast.”
And Grievance heard the surrender in Milo’s voice. The way the witch trusted Grievance so completely that he let go of that fearful caution and handed control over to a monster.
“Is that a yes?”
Grievance’s hands trembled as they slid beneath Milo’s sweater, fingers splaying across the cool, smooth skin of his back.