Twenty-Two
Sometime after lunch, wearing clothes for the first time in what turned out to be just under two weeks, Arwen asked Tate to take her up to the mushroom dell.
"Why? We should be going to the police, to tell them about your stepmother trying to kill you, and to show them you're fine." Then he'd take her to the pack house, where everyone could protect her.
Arwen shook her head. "There was something...
while I was a wolf, it felt wrong, somehow.
My body knew how to shift back to human, but there was something wrong with me.
You know, like when you've had a bit too much to drink and your body isn't coordinated any more?
Something like that. And the only thing I can think of is those mushrooms."
"Or the water. Like those otters that attacked me." The pile of writhing otters that had been having a brawl of their own until they turned on him. Unless...
"I didn't attack you. We're both consenting adults, and there was a lot of consenting going on in between all the other stuff." Arwen's cheeks turned pink.
"I do remember you saying YES a lot. Screaming it, sometimes.
Along with my name. You can scream that as many times as you want.
" He'd never seen anything more beautiful than his naked mate, riding him hard while he was balls deep, knotted inside her, her breasts bouncing in his hands like manna from the very heavens.
If he could enjoy that sight every night for the rest of his life, he'd die a happy man.
"Yes. The sex was...amazing. Exactly what I wanted.
Needed. Absolutely right. It's a good thing humans don't go into mating frenzies, because two weeks of that would kill anyone who wasn't a shifter, I'm sure.
" Arwen frowned. "It's just...when I was a wolf, everything felt right until we left that place with all the mushrooms. Then...
I felt strange. I know I inhaled a lot of those sparkling spores, and they were floating in that creek.
I wonder if that was your water contamination, and whether the otters...
well, you saw them. I didn't. I did drink from the tarn outside, though.
Does it get water from the same source?"
Tate nodded. "They're all connected, and they all drain out into Sanctuary Loch, down near Hea Sanctuary, the village our pack is building in the forest, not far from here.
We could live there, if you like. As pack enforcer and hydrogeologist on the project, I'm entitled to a house as part payment for my services.
I'd planned to rent it out, because my apartment in the pack house is more than enough for my needs, but with you, we might want some privacy, and a bit more space...
" And their own kitchen table to smear chocolate sauce across when the sex got really messy.
He should buy shares in a company that made chocolate sauce, too. Because licking the stuff off Arwen's breasts had just become his new favourite breakfast food.
Arwen's frown deepened.
Shit. What had he said wrong?
"I promised my father. It was his dying wish that I go through the fae ring to their realm, to claim my heritage. The birthright I inherited from him as his only child. The fae ring is in that meadow. I know it. I need to find the ring, activate it, and step through to the fae realm."
"You're leaving me?"
No. He'd just found his mate.
Now Ylva's words made sense.
He'd have to leave the pack, his mother and sister, and everything he knew behind, but as he looked into his mate's eyes, he knew.
"No. You're not going without me. If you're going to the fae realm, so am I." He took her hand. "Let's go."
Arwen's mouth dropped open. "You'd come with me?
But...I have no idea what's waiting on the other side.
I know Father was some kind of royalty, so we could be walking into a whole mess of courtly politics with monsters I can't even imagine.
I can't ask you to do that. You'd be leaving everything and everyone behind. "
"Except you, and you're my mate. The one person who matters most. If you go, we go. Together. Fae monsters are no match for a wolf pack enforcer. I've been training for this my whole life. I'll be your royal bodyguard."
Her eyes shone with tears. "Really?"
"Really."