Chapter 20
Taryn
It feels like all we do is order room service, have sex, and sleep.
I try to work in the occasional bath because of how I feel afterwards. I don’t get that from a shower, but a good soak seems to do wonders for me.
I’m finishing one now, and slipping on a pink nightgown that’s similar to the blue one Victor seems to like so much. I like this one because I have some lipstick that matches it, but I’m not going to bother with that. It’ll be smeared off way too fast.
When I step out of the bathroom, Victor is in his boxers, sitting on the edge of the bed. He seems to brood while I bathe. Sometimes, it reminds me of a gargoyle, turning to stone because I leave the room.
“Feel better now?” he asks, his dark gaze roaming across my body enough to make me tighten my stomach muscles.
“Yeah, I feel a lot better,” I exhale sharply. “Which is surprising, considering how much you wore me out this morning.”
“Was that this morning? Time is getting fuzzy,” he says, patting the side of the bed. “The frenzy is coming in a matter of hours. Sit down so we can talk for a minute.”
The seriousness in his tone worries me a little, so I quickly move to the bed and sit down beside him.
Victor can be as quiet as a stone gargoyle unless he’s inside me, so if he’s got something to talk to me about, it concerns me.
The fact the frenzy is hours away should concern me more, but I’m feeling that too. I just didn’t realize how close it is.
“What’s going on? Is it about the frenzy?” I ask.
“We’re going to talk about that, but first there’s something else we need to discuss,” he speaks quietly, leaning down and opening his backpack. I didn’t even realize it was there.
I look down and my eyes widen when he pulls out the book of spells. I thought it was gone. Already in the hands of the Witch Hunters, and far from Covington.
“Wait, why do you still have that?” I ask, looking up at him in confusion. “Didn’t you give it to the Witch Hunters?”
“No, the Witch Hunters are dead,” he tells me without preamble. “I planned to give them the book, but it was an ambush. Well, it would have been an ambush, but I had some help.”
“Saul and the rest of Silver Pack?” I ask, swallowing hard, feeling strangely drawn to the book.
“No. This is going to sound fucking crazy, because I’m still asking myself if it actually happened, but one of Mother Fate’s emissaries just…
showed up,” he shares. “He just walked out of thin air. He told me you have to keep the book.” He stares at the book for a moment, then places it in my lap.
“There. Put it wherever you want to put it. It’s yours. ”
“I don’t understand,” I say, looking down at the book. For a moment, it looks like there’s a faint shimmer, but then it’s gone. “Why? I’m not going to cast anymore spells.”
“They’re not spells. They’re rituals. When you do them all, it will cast a spell,” he sighs, shaking his head. “One that will reincarnate Mother Nature.”
Victor goes into more detail while I’m asking a million questions, trying to put it all together in my head, because it sounds like madness.
“Whaaat??!” Seriously, what the hell did he just say? “Ishtar? How is that possible? How can I possibly bring her back?” My eyes widen even more. “And won’t casting spells attract attention.”
The questions keep coming, and I don’t understand why Victor isn’t freaking out like I am.
“It could. I’ve been thinking through that,” he answers me calmly, but I am not calm. “It’s about all I’ve been thinking about whenever I stop breathing your scent in. I don’t think we should do them in Covington. Maybe we move around, avoid leaving a trail.”
“Oh…” I begin, looking around. Then, “What about our stuff?”
“We’ll take what we need. Look at it like a vacation. We travel, do a ritual, then come back here,” he suggests. “I don’t think the rituals will give off the same kind of energy as a spell would, but I’m not taking any chances. You have to do seven of them.”
“There are seven rituals?” I gasp, flipping through the book. A few of the pages look different now, like the cipher is partially gone. I can almost read them. Weird.
It feels like too much, too fast again, but even with my mushy brain, what he says makes sense.
Or maybe sense isn’t the right word. Logical, maybe?
In a world where there is a real Mother Fate who sends me my mate, after I cast a spell that turns out to be a curse, with my childhood friends in the basement, using a book that turns out to be an incredibly ancient book of druidic rituals that my grandmother supposedly found at a yard sale, I guess anything is possible.
Hopefully vampires aren’t real. Or car-sized spiders.
“That’s what he said. He also said you’d be able to read it once your druid sight develops,” he answers.
“I’m not a druid! How would I have druid sight!?” I shriek, my hand flying to my mouth. I process that for a stunned moment, realizing that maybe I am supposed to be some kind of druid. “Do I have other druid… things?”
“I don’t know. Finn mentioned the sight and that was it,” he huffs, looking more annoyed than frazzled, like I feel. “Then he just fucking disappeared, so it’s not like I had a chance to interrogate him after we killed the Witch Hunters.”
“Damn,” I mutter, trying to let it all sink in. Then, “Damn.” I mean, what else is there to say?
“For now, just put the book away. Once the frenzy starts, we won’t care about anything else,” he tries to get me back on track, but seriously… WTF?
I stand up and look around. Where should I put a book that can apparently reincarnate Mother Nature?
The closet? A drawer? The drawer seems to make the most sense to me for some reason, so that’s where I put it.
I place it in the bottom drawer of the dresser.
It used to be kept in a cardboard box, so I guess even my grandmother’s book gets better living accommodations now. Thank you, Victor!
“We’ll figure it out after the frenzy,” he assures me, gesturing for me to come back to him. “And we should talk about that too, so sit back down.”
“Okay,” I say, walking back to the bed in a daze, my head blenderizing everything he just said into the mush.
“You’ve got your safe words, and I swear on everything I am that I will do everything I can to honor them,” he is speaking with such sincerity, so I do my best to listen to him.
“I don’t think you’ll actually use either of them.
I think you’ll be as overcome with it as I am, but scream them if you have to. ”
I look down at my lap, some of what he’s said about the frenzy starting to feel real, instead of something that has always just been coming soon.
“I’ll let you know if it gets bad,” I respond.
“During the frenzy, we’ll both heal differently.
If you grab onto me so tight your fingernails hit bone, it’ll heal.
If you feel my wolf’s claws or my fangs, that will heal too.
It won’t even scar,” he promises, tilting my head until he’s looking into my eyes.
“But I’ll try not to bite you too hard now that you’re already wearing my mark. ” He gives me a small smile.
“If the frenzy is anything like you’ve described, I may ask you to bite me harder,” I chuckle nervously.
“You may,” he says, tracing my jaw all the way to my ear before pulling his finger away. “You may even bite me. I’ll spank your ass if you do, but you’ll probably ask for that, too.”
“I’m asking for a lot of things I didn’t used to even know how to ask for,” I admit, blushing slightly. “Things I never imagined asking for.”
“Yes, you’re coming into your own. That makes you even more fucking radiant,” he whispers, staring into my eyes for a moment before looking away. “We should order some food because it may be a while before we eat again. Maybe have a few drinks to loosen us up for the frenzy.”
“I don’t hate the sound of that,” I reply, standing up. “You order food. I’ll make drinks.”
“Good girl,” he says, playfully swatting my ass when I turn it toward him before walking way.
I don’t need a few drinks to loosen me up for the frenzy, but I could at least use one after hearing everything about the book.
Seven druidic rituals and I have to perform them all?
Me. I hope I turn out to be a lot more druidy than I feel right now.
I’m still processing that I’m about to enter a mating frenzy with a wolf shifter.
We’ll be bonded after that, based on what Victor has told me.
It won’t be a mating bond anymore, spinning us toward a frenzy.
It’ll be a permanently bonded connection that never goes away, even if we let it wither.
I hope we don’t let it wither. I’ve gotten rather fond of my mate, especially as we get closer to the frenzy.
“Whiskey for you, right?” I call out, pouring some cranberry juice in with my vodka.
“Same as always,” he confirms, walking into the living room and sitting down.
I listen to him order room service and it sounds like a feast. I’m sure he’ll eat most of it, but I’ll need to eat more than usual if we’re going to be busy for a while.
Three days is how long a frenzy normally lasts.
There are legends about frenzies that last longer than that, but none of those legends have ever been confirmed.
“Here’s your drink, but all I really want you do is put it down so I can ride your cock,” I declare boldly, blushing as the words leave my mouth.
“Yeah, and I’d rather have you on it than breathe another breath, but we need to make sure we don’t turn into hungry, thirsty savages,” he rumbles, sipping his whiskey and eyeing me over the glass.
“So, just regular savages then?” I tease, sitting beside him.
“Exactly,” he grins, winking at me.
“Wait, did you just wink? I didn’t even know you could wink,” I laugh.
“Means I like you,” he mutters, sipping more whiskey.
“Oh, so you finally admit you like me?” I purr playfully. “Took you long enough.”
“I’m stubborn,” he pouts. “Or the mating bond is messing with my head.”
I take a sip of my cranberry vodka and grin. “It won’t be long until you can’t blame everything on the mating bond. You’ll have to tell me how the big bad wolf really feels.”
“He feels like he’s going to punch a hole in the wall if they don’t hurry up with our damn food,” he snarls.
“Yeah, I bet food is the only thing you’re thinking about,” I tease, leaning closer to him. “I bet I’m better than dinner.”
“You are. That’s why you’re dessert,” he growls, tensing up when he feels my warmth. “Do I need to tie you up to settle you down?”
“I’m settled,” I say, snuggling closer. “There, now I’m more settled. But you can tie me up if you want. You still haven’t done that yet.”
“You’re going to be tied to the bed while I rut every hole in your body once the frenzy starts.”
My head snaps back and I nearly choke. “Seriously!?”
“You have no idea what’s coming, little girl,” he rumbles. “But you will soon enough.”
A tremor of worry bubbles in my stomach, but the mating bond washes it away. I start getting wet as I imagine myself tied down, having my bottom hole rutted by his thick cock. It should be terrifying instead of making me wet, but I can tell by how he groans that he smells what it does to me.
“Yeah, they really need to hurry up with our food,” he mutters, downing his whiskey.
“You just ordered it,” I sigh, taking his glass, our fingers brushing long enough for there to be a sizzle. “I… I’ll get you another drink.”
The frenzy is going to be obscene. Somewhere beneath the lust that’s only getting stronger is a flicker of fear. It just evaporates into the mush before it can manifest into anything useful. I’m going to learn what Frenzy Taryn is like real soon. She may be begging for his cock everywhere for days.
We’re three drinks in and nearly panting by the time room service arrives. We don’t eat, really; we just devour the food like the savages we’re becoming.
By the time we finish, he’s never been harder and I’ve never been more drenched.
The frenzy hits like a tsunami, similar to what I felt when the fate-block was broken. Everything inside me comes apart at the seams, then rushes back together.
My world narrows to Victor, and I don’t even have to ask if his narrows to me. We don’t bother going around the table, we just climb on it. What’s left of our dinner doesn’t stop us, and neither do the plates Victor crushes beneath his knees.
Our lips sear together and he slams me down on the table so hard I see stars when the back of my head strikes the wood, which might be a good thing, because he’s inside me before I catch my breath.
He drives his hips like a machine, powering his length into my pussy.
After three brutal thrusts, the table explodes beneath us and we hit the ground.
A fork jams into my thigh, but I barely feel it.
Not with Victor moving between them like a wild animal who has been starved and unleashed.
Food goes everywhere. Plates shatter. Glasses break.
Metal lids tumble. A piece of the table stabs into my back, and I can feel that, but I don’t care. I don’t want him to stop thrusting.
The golden flame in his eyes has spread and it looks like his irises are engulfed by it.
His gaze isn’t dark now. It’s the color of fury.
Desire. A wolf who has found his mate. And I’m so glad it’s me.
I don’t want to ever let this feeling go.
This is heaven, coated in magnificence, and he made me believe I deserve everything, so I deserve this too.
“Victor, oh god, Victor!” I scream, an orgasm crashing into me.
“Yes, mate, yes! You’re all fucking mine,” he snarls, biting my neck hard enough for me to cry out while he spears his cock into me.
The frenzy has begun.
Now I just have to survive it.