Chapter 10
There had been a shift between us. Instead of the usual hateful tension that had us at each other's throats, there was… something else. A kind of understanding between us that made my insides squirm.
“How much further from your…?” I paused and glanced at him. The tension in his shoulders made me change my words. “How much further to the pot ash deposit? I don’t recognize this part of the outlands.”
Percy’s claws curled and uncurled. “Not much further.”
The silence started again, and I just couldn’t deal with it.
“You know, I walked in on the prince going down on Tara at the candy store.” I stepped over a rock cluster. “And while I watched them, all I could think — you know besides, ‘Yikes, is he taking a long time’ — was how unsanitary it all was. Here they are, where she makes all the candy, getting down and dirty. Like, can I even pretend they didn’t do that and enjoy her candy anymore? Could I even —? Oof!” My foot caught on something and I was careening forward.
I fell into a hot furry body and stiffened. My eyes closed for a moment. drawing in his musky scent. The smell of him eased something inside of me. His claws gripped me closer rather than pushing me away right away.
Lifting my head, I blinked up into his eyes. “Thanks.”
Percy stared at me for a moment then set me back on my feet. “Don’t mention it.”
We drew apart slowly. When his warmth moved, I started to lean toward him on instinct. I had to catch myself from pressing myself up against him once more. Only shoving my hands behind my back kept myself from acting on those impulses.
“So, what do you think?” I continued as if nothing had happened. “Sanitary or not?”
Percy arched a brow at me. Or at least I thought he did.
“I don’t particularly want to think about Tara’s sex life or anything relating to… that.” Percy grunted and seemed to stomp his overly large feet harder.
I chewed on my lower lip, frowning at him. “Does it hurt?”
“What?” Percy stopped and turned to me.
“Thinking about Tara.” It made my stomach do a weird flip asking but, for some reason, I needed to know. “You love her, don’t you?”
“How exactly are you going to carry what you need from the outlands?” Percy dodged the question, looking me over with a grunt. “You’re certainly dressed to roll around in the dirt but usually wouldn’t you need… I don’t know a bag or something?”
I pursed my lips. “It’s called a pocket dimension. I have everything I need in this convenient little hole,” I poked my hand into the air and pulled out a pen, before shaking it at him. “Now, stop dodging. Answer the question. Do you love Tara or not?”
Percy closed his eyes and took a deep breath before sighing. “No. I don’t. I mean, I don’t think I ever did. It was like…” He blew out another breath and scratched the fur on his chest. “Like I said before, Tara was nice to me. I was alone for a long time in the Candy Forest. Trying to figure out how to take care of myself, and Tara, well, she was there a lot of the time. She’d go to her Aunt Nutmeg’s and well, she kind of looked out for me. Her and her aunt. So it’s like—”
“You imprinted!” I pointed my finger in the air. “You know, like a puppy does on the first person they see.”
Percy’s annoyed expression hit me.
“No, not like a puppy.” I scrambled to find another example but came up empty. “Something definitely non puppy-like. But I get it. You got attached to her. It’s easy to misconstrue attachment to love.” My thoughts drifted off to my creations, then I shook those thoughts away. “It’s understandable. Anyway, you’re better off.”
Percy snorted. “How’s that?”
“You don’t want to date Tara. Not to say anything bad about my best friend, she’s great and everything, but she would have gotten bored of you before long.”
“What?” Percy growled, closing the distance between us. “Are you saying I’m boring?”
I held my hands up, my eyes widening. “What? No. You’re not boring. Far from it. Just that…” I threw my hand ups with an exasperated breath. “You were just… too nice.”
Percy blinked at me. “Too nice? I was too nice? Well, excuse me for not being a total asshole. I should have just kidnapped her, taken her back to my cave, tortured her until she fell in love with me like one of those dirty romance books.”
My lips ticked up. “Oh, read a lot of those lately.”
“Don’t start.”
“Anyway, Tara needs someone to challenge her, not take care of her. She’s too independent for that. It would get old fast, and Tara’s too polite to tell you to fuck off.”
“And you?”
“Huh?” I glanced around, searching for something familiar. “What about me?”
“You’re just as independent as Tara is. Maybe more.” The edges of his mouth lifted slightly. “Otherwise, you wouldn’t have picked to live up on Vanilla Mountain instead of closer to town.”
I grew silent, not sure how much I could or wanted to tell him. There was a lot I hadn’t even told Tara, and she was my best friend. It just wasn’t something I wanted to put on her. No one wanted to be Miss Depresso.
“Hey.” Percy placed a hand on my shoulder. “It’s okay. You don’t have to tell me. Besides, I get it. People suck. You saw how they reacted when I came to town. It’s all ‘grab your pitchforks’ with anything that’s different than them. I don’t know what would have happened had you not shown up.”
“Yeah, well. You would have been alright.” I shrugged his hand off me. “They weren’t very smart. Didn’t even know you needed silver to kill a shifter. Though I’m not sure how well you’d have been off if they’d cut your head off.” I paused and pursed my lips. “Would your head grow back from that? I mean, I’m just curious how far your regenerative abilities are. I don’t really know that much about shifters besides ‘grr, me big monster’ half the time.” I offered him a smile.
Percy snorted a laugh. “No, I don’t think I would have been able to grow my head back. You saved me either way. Thanks for that.”
“Don’t worry about it. Besides, I’m getting something out of it. We had a deal. I saved you, you protect me. Which you’ve had to do more of than I expected.” I grimaced. “I don’t want to think about what would have happened had you not been here.”
“You’d have been fine,” Percy stated quickly. “You would have had all your powers at your disposal. Then there would have been a few more ice dicks to go around.”
I giggled. “You saw that, did you?”
“I happened to see your work as the others were running away with their tails between their legs and their hands over their dicks.” He gave me a sideways look. “That was an interesting way to take care of the problem. Handle many ice dicks in your time? Maybe you’re getting lonely up in that ice castle of yours.” The intense curiosity in his eyes made my face heat.
“I don’t know. It’s not all that bad. I can come down anytime I want, then there’s the occasional wayward traveler.” I shoved my hands in my pockets, kicking the ground with my boot.
“Get many of those?”
My lips curled up with amusement. “Why so interested?”
Percy bristled. “Not interested. Just making conversation. You poked at my experience or lack thereof.”
“Why exactly is that?”
I made the question seem like it wasn’t a big deal, but there was something inside of me that just needed to know the answer. He was this big strong beast, why wouldn’t he be playing that up to the locals?
“I mean, look at you. There were plenty of women — human women even — who would love to get down and dirty with a beast like you.” I stuttered through the words, ignoring the way my face heated just by saying it. I tried to play off my embarrassment with a grin. “If not for the novelty of it then the kinkiness.”
I rambled on as Percy stared at me, an amused twinkle in his eyes. “Not that I have a monster kink just… You’re not a bad look guy in your human form. You have this kind of boyish charm with your messy mop of hair and that little dimple thing that happens when you smile. Not that you spend much time smiling at me, you usually reserved those for Tara. You know, ‘cause some people like that kind of thing. Not me. But you know some people do.”
“Wow.” He swallowed a laugh. “That must have been hard for you. There was almost a compliment in there.”
“Yeah, well, don’t get used to it.” I sniffed and rubbed my nose. “So, what’s the deal? Why haven’t you banged the mating heat or whatever out of your system before?”
“I could have…” Percy began and, if shifters could blush, I was sure his face would be beet red. “Several times over. Like you said, there’s no lack for women with… shifter kinks. But while the physical need is there, boy is it there. I don’t want… I mean… I want it to mean something.” His gaze locked with mine, freezing me in place. “That’s one of the things that made it easy to leave all this,” he gestured around the desert plain, “behind.”
“No blaming you there. Not exactly a five star resort.” I smiled slightly to ease the tension.
“Right. So… the shifters are all about the beast within them needs, wants. To fuck, to fight, to feed. They forget we’re still part human and, if you deny that part of you that wants… no, needs to connect, we’re no better than animals.”
I paused for a long moment. “Wow… that was so… insightful.”
Percy chuffed. “Don’t worry, I won’t let it go to my head.”
“So Tara.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “You thought she was someone you wanted to get… connected with?”
“Yes. No. Maybe.” He dragged his claw along the length of his snout. “I thought I did. But I was wrong.” The intensity of his eyes made me feel something that I had no business feeling for my arch nemesis.
I shifted in place, looking anywhere but at Percy. My brows shot up as I pointed.
“Oh, hey! Look! There’s the deposit.”
I scurried over to the rose colored cairn. The prospect of digging in the dirt was simpler than dealing with the conversation we were having.
Anything would have been better. Even a few horny shifters.