Chapter 6
The outlands were as devoid of color as the Candy Forest was full of it. The grey and beige ground was only broken up by the even smaller plants and trees. They fought for their lives as they shoved their ways through the cracks in the ground.
Why anyone wanted to live here was a mystery to me.
“Honestly, despite the exile, you should count yourself lucky.” I kicked the dirt with a frown. “You definitely got the better deal. The Candy Forest is like the palace compared to this place.”
I glanced over at Percy. My beastly companion wasn’t paying attention to me. His dark red eyes were focused on the horizon, his ears twitching on his head.
I paused and stepped next to him. “Percy?”
“Huh?” He pulled his gaze away to look at me. “What?”
“This place is pretty dead, right?”
Percy scratched his nose and blew out hard through it. “Yeah. Right. We shouldn’t linger.”
“Ah, okay.” My brow furrowed. “Unfortunately, the deposit of pot ash is on the other side of the outlands. You’d think they’d make my life easier by putting it somewhere I could get in and out. Alas, they yearn to make my life harder.”
“I don’t think they had you in mind when the deposit grew there,” Percy muttered, his eyes once more going to the horizon.
“Don’t go smiling now. Someone might think you were having a good time with me.” I huffed a laugh and stalked forward.
“Hmm?”
I shook my head. “Never mind.”
A howl stopped me in my tracks. If there was howling, there were shifters nearby. I glanced over at Percy, who seemed even more distracted now that there was howling.
“Someone you know?” I shifted closer to him as if his presence would protect me from the shifters out there.
“No.” Percy bristled. “Let’s go.” He stomped forward, his spine straight and his tail sticking straight out behind him. I’d tease him about it, but I had a feeling he’d bite my head off. Literally.
We walked for a long time in silence. Every once in a while, the howls would sound and Percy would get stiffer, if that was possible. When we came upon one of the few collection of large rocks of the outlands, I’d finally had enough.
“Stop.”
Percy kept going, so I grabbed his tail and jerked him back.
Percy spun around and snarled, his eyes going to where my hand still held his tail. “Don’t do that.”
“Don’t do what?” I arched a brow at him, dragging my hand down the length of his tail before giving it a firm tug. “That?”
He let out a low groan and then pounced, throwing me down on the ground. Percy bared down on me, one hand on the ground by my head and the other wrapped around my throat. Not choking, just holding me there.
Something hard and thick dug into leg as he ground himself on me.
“P…Percy,” I gasped, staring at him in horror. “What are you doing?”
He wasn’t listening. His snout burrowed into the side of my neck as he inhaled deeply. A low rumble vibrated through him and into my chest and straight down to my core. Trying not to think about my body’s response, I put my hands up, and my fingers curled into the fur on his chest preparing to push him away.
Percy thrust against me, a long groan coming from him as he buried his face harder into my hair. A surprising throbbing settled between my thighs, the press of his cock grinding into my thigh a vivid thought in my mind. I bit my lip and raised my hips, the aching need building inside of me.
“Percy,” I moaned.
The thrusting stopped. Percy’s body froze above me.
I blinked up at him, confusion filling me. “Percy?”
With a low growl, Percy shoved himself away from me. With a howl that sounded like he was in pain, Percy dropped to all fours and took off.
I laid there on the ground for a few moments trying to convince myself that hadn’t happened. That Percy hadn’t been drying humping me and worse yet that I… I liked it?
Shit. What was wrong with me?
Pushing off the ground, I dusted myself off and looked around. No sign of Percy. I took a deep breath and sighed. Forcing myself to shove those weird feelings deep down, I took off to find my reluctant monstrous companion.
I walked for a few minutes before I heard something. Like something being hit against the ground. It was followed up with a low moan of pain.
My eyes widened in realization. Percy!
My steps quickened until I reached a bend of rocks. Ready to kick some ass, I found myself stuck in place at the sight before me.
Percy leaned up against the side of a large rock, his eyes pinched closed and a look of distress on his face. My eyes slid down to where his large, clawed hand was wrapped around the bulbous head of his cock, moving up and down in a punishing motion.
I couldn’t get myself to move or look away. My mouth dried up the longer I watched. I licked my lips, pressing my thighs together to still the onslaught of hot, pounding need pooling low inside me.
Looking away would be the best thing. I should give him privacy. I knew I would be upset if someone else watched me in a private moment. Except… I couldn’t look away.
Percy groaned and slowed down his movements, his hand caressing up and down his length, thumbing the tip until a bead of precum swelled. I would be lying if I didn’t admit I wanted to lick it off. He dragged the liquid down, using it to lubricate himself as he stroked faster.
Unable to handle it anymore, I slid my own hand beneath my pants and between my legs, pressing against the pulsating in my clit until I had to hold back a moan. My finger swirled around it, stroking in time with Percy’s movements. I grasped the rock beside me, my ice magic slipping out and leaving a frosty print beneath my palm.
Percy threw his head back and let out a long agonizing howl as jets of thick cum spurted from his cock. My own orgasm forced through me without warning and I gasped in surprise. “Percy.”
The ice under my hand spread further until it covered the entire side of the rock. I stared at it in shock and horror before dragging my gaze back to Percy, who was staring straight at me.
I dropped my hand from the rock and stepped back, curling the hand that had been between my thighs behind my back. “Uh. Hi. Um. This isn’t what it looks like.”
Percy prowled toward me, his eyes burning into me with each step forward.
“Okay, I guess it is what it looks like,” I stuttered, walking backward until my back hit the rock wall behind me. “I didn’t mean to spy on you. I heard your… um…”
I licked my lips and darted my eyes to the ground. “Anyway, I thought you were hurt and was just coming to check on you. I didn’t know you were doing… that. Anyway, we should really get going and ah—”
Percy closed in on me until I could feel the heat of him against me. His hand curled over my shoulder, his claws scraping against me without breaking the skin. Without warning, he grabbed the hand hidden behind my back and pulled it out.
I stared up at him with my mouth open, words lost to me as he lifted my hand up to his face. His eyes closed as he inhaled the scent of my release on my fingers before his long tongue slipped out and lapped at them.
A squeak escaped my lips, but I couldn’t seem to find the strength to take my hand back. Instead, I watched as he sucked my fingers into his mouth, his teeth skimming against them.
A reluctant moan dragged out of me as desire fought its way up in me once more. “Percy, I—”
Red eyes bored into me. He released my hand and bent down over me. His tongue came out to slide up the side of my neck, flickering over my thrumming pulse.
Fuck. That shouldn’t be so hot, but it was.
I angled my head to the side, giving him more to work with. The burning need to have that tongue all over my body rampaged through me. My knees wobbled beneath me until I let out an embarrassingly loud groan of need.
Once again, Percy was there one moment and then putting as much space between us as possible the next. By the look of panic and utter disgust on his face, another planet still wouldn’t be far enough.
Guilt racked me before an overpowering rage replaced it. Gritting my teeth, I narrowed my eyes.
“Sorry, my bad. You must feel completely violated by my mere presence. You can’t help yourself with the mating heat controlling you, and here I am, making you do things you wouldn’t in your right mind think of doing.”
Percy opened his mouth and stepped forward to reach for me.
I brushed past him, holding my hands up in front of me. “Don’t worry. I won’t get the wrong idea. We hate each other, remember?”
Not waiting for him to answer, I forced myself not to run out of there. Complete mortification filled me.
“Yeah,” Percy muttered as he trailed behind me “Right.”