Chapter 11
Percy prowled back and forth behind me while I looked over the deposit of pot ash. His eyes scanned the horizon as his tail flicked with irritation or impatience. I didn’t quite know which. Shifters were hard to read most of the time.
“Can you stop that?” I called over my shoulder as I pulled a trowel from my pocket dimension [8] . “It’s very distracting.”
“I don’t like being so out in the open like this.” Percy prowled up beside me, his snout leaning over my shoulder. “How much do you need?”
“Well…” I lifted my eyes to the sky, which had darkened by the time we’d reached the pot ash. “I need about ten grams per explosion. Tara has about one hundred and twenty. I have like… a little less than that.”
“How big of an explosion do you need?” Percy huffed. His hot breath hit the side of my face.
“Enough to get rid of…” I trailed off and then turned my face, my cheek pressed up against his wet nose. “Stuff.”
“Tara…” The warning in his tone made me squirm in place. “What exactly are you blowing up?”
I shoved to my feet. I needed to put some distance between us. “Friends, okay?” I wrapped my arms around myself and turned my back on him. “I made friends. People… things… that wouldn’t leave me, and now the council has found out and… I have to get rid of them.”
My eyes burned at the heaviness of what I had to do to the things I’d created. I tried to dissociate from it. But now that I was here, with the pot ash at my fingertips, nothing had changed.
I still had to kill the things that had been there for me. Had talked to me. Liked me. Even loved me.
“Bianca…” Percy stepped up behind me, close enough that I could feel his body heat against my back without actually touching me. “I understand why you would want someone there for you. It’s hard enough being on your own, but up there on the mountain? Anyone would be lonely.”
I spun around and laughed bitterly. “But a sane person would have moved closer to town, not make forty-three new friends.”
Percy blinked at me. “Forty-three?”
“Yeah. Forty-three.”
He blew out his breath. “Forty-three.”
“Yeah, the number isn’t going to change just because you keep saying it.” I placed my hands on my hips and glowered at him. “Go ahead. Laugh it up. Poor Bianca couldn’t handle being alone, so she needed to make her own little village of snow creatures to keep her company. I’m pathetic.”
Percy tilted his head to the side and looked at me hard. “No. You’re not. I mean, forty-three? Whew. That’s a bit more friends than even I would want. I mean that’s a…” He huffed a laugh that made me glare harder. “That’s a respectable number of people… things. But the upkeep? How do you take care of them all? I don’t see you being heavy in the coin. Unless you have a hoard stashed somewhere on the mountain?”
My lips twitched. “No. I don’t. It’d solve all my problems with the council if I did. Anyway, they don’t need much. They’re made of snow, ice, and magic. They don’t need to eat. They just… are.”
“Well, at least there’s that.” His eyes crinkled at the sides.
“Go ahead and laugh. I know you want to.” I sighed and knelt before the pot ash deposit once more.
“No. No. No laughing.” Percy crawled up next to me and cupped up bits of pot ash before letting it fall between his clawed fingers. “So you didn’t answer the question. How much do you need?”
“Like two hundred grams.” I searched around the deposit, trying to figure out how much of it I could put in my pocket. I could get a bag out of my pocket dimension, but I wasn’t sure I even needed it.
“Hey, look at this.” Percy held up an almost perfectly round ball of pot ash. “This feels like it could be about two hundred grams.”
I grinned at him. “Oh? You have a lot of experience weighing balls in your hand?”
“What?” The bemusement on his face only made me laugh.
“You know, it’s no wonder you haven’t been with a woman. I didn’t know you went that way. I think I saw a pretty cute guard back in town. I could introduce you— Ah!”
Percy pounced on me, pressing me to the ground with a hand around my throat. “I’m not gay.”
My lips curled up further. “If you say so.”
He ground his hips against me, the hard length of him knocking against my knees. “Does this feel like I’m attracted to men? Every time I see you… smell you… taste you…” His tongue slid out and slid up the side of my neck and face. “I’m just short of bending you over and fucking you until neither of us can see straight.”
I squirmed beneath him as boiling hot need settled between my thighs. My breasts grew heavy, and my nipples pebbled the more he rubbed against me. I gasped and arched against him. “Doesn’t mean you don’t like men, too.”
Percy pressed his nose against mine. “You’re such a brat. You know that?”
“It’s not my fault you can’t accept your sexuality… Oh!”
Percy nuzzled against my chest and shifted the strips left of my shirt out of the way. Then his tongue lapped at my exposed nipple. As he circled it, the sharp points of his teeth scraped against my nipple until I was panting for more.
“Percy…” I cried out as his tongue moved to my other nipple.
“That’s it, ice bitch. Say my name.” He gripped both my thighs up, wrapped my legs around him and drove his hips forward.
I let out a strangled scream as his cock hit against my clit. As he ground himself against me, my eyes closed. The need to have him inside me overtook my common sense briefly.
Then, through the pleasure, I forced myself to remember the agreement. I cupped the sides of his snout and drew his face back up until his molten red eyes bored into mine. “Percy, you need to stop.”
Percy’s tongue slipped out and licked my fingers, dragging my fingertips into his mouth.
Closing my eyes briefly, I let myself enjoy the feel of his warm wet tongue sliding over my fingers. Each touch sent zips of need straight to my core.
One of Percy’s claws reached between us and fiddled with the button of my pants. I’d have laughed at his inability to make his monster fingers work a simple button had it not been for the wrongness of this all.
“Percy, stop.” I pushed at his hand while I fought against my need to pull him closer. All he did was shift until his snout found its way between my thighs. His hot breath made my legs quiver as he drew my scent in.
“ Mine,” Percy growled against my core, and I almost came right then and there.
But I couldn’t. We couldn’t. This wasn’t right. One moment of passion, giving in to our naughty desires, and then we’d both regret it. Percy wasn’t in his right mind. The mating heat took away all sense of logic and only left the need to mate.
I had to be the rational one between us even though I really really didn’t want to.
“Percy, I mean it. Stop. ” I grabbed his arms and sent a bit of magic into him, leaving an icy trail along his fur. It was enough to sting but not hurt him.
Percy reared back and glared at me, shaking his arms to knock my hands off of him. Without warning, Percy flipped me over, braced my hands against the ground, then dragged my hips up and back toward him.
I tried to push myself up off the ground, but just one of Percy’s powerful shifter hands was enough to hold me against the ground, while his other hand pawed at my pants.
For a brief moment, my heart ratcheted into my throat. In any other instance, this would have been a dream come true. I couldn’t count the number of times I’d put myself in this exact position, dreaming of being fucked within an inch of my life while being unable to stop it. [9]
A gush of desire soaked my panties. That didn’t help the situation. Percy’s growl deepened, his cock smacking against my backside.
I slapped my hand against the ground. No. This had gone far enough. Way too far.
Gathering my powers, I wrapped it around me, covering my body in ice. The temperature plummeted around me until Percy jerked back with a whimper. I scrambled away from him, pressing myself up against the rock formation next to the pot ash.
Percy stared at me, his eyes wide, his jaw slackened. “Oh my gods. Tara… What did I?”
“Nothing,” I quickly held my hands out to him. “You tried to, but you didn’t. I promise. I stopped you in time.”
“But I almost…” Percy bit out with a snarl. “I could have… After what Braxis and them tried to do to you? Oh fuck. I should go.” He pulled away, his body tensing to launch into action.
“No. No.” I chased after him, grabbing him by the arms. “You didn’t. You stopped.”
“Only because you made me. I’m no better than them.” He huffed and turned his snout away from me.
I grabbed his jaw and turned his gaze back to mine. “No. You aren’t. I could have stopped you right away, and I didn’t.”
“You shouldn’t touch me.” He tried to shrug me away but I held on tight.
“Do you know why?” I dug my fingers into his fur. “I want it, Percy. I wanted you to fuck me right here in the dirt. And you know, if I hadn’t remembered you didn’t really want me, I would have, and I would have loved every minute of it.”
Percy stared at me for a long moment, his brows furrowed. “Is that what you think? That I don’t want you?”
I dropped my hands and tucked them into my back pockets. “Well, it’s not like you’re my biggest fan. I did con you into coming with me.”
“I want you, Bianca.” Percy’s clawed hand cupped the side of my face and I forced myself not to lean into his touch. “It’s why it’s so hard to resist the mating call because of you. I knew this before.”
“You did?” I swallowed thickly, my mouth feeling like I’d eaten a handful of cotton.
“Yes. I made sure that I stayed far away from you every time mating season came. That’s why it was so easy to go to Tara for a potion rather than you.” Percy’s claw traced my cheek in small circles. “I could trust myself with Tara.”
“But not me,” I murmured, drawing my lower lip between my teeth.
“Alright?” Percy peered down at me, the softness in his eyes making me feel all sorts of things I had no business feeling.
“Yeah, alright.” I moved my face away from his hand and turned back to the pot ash, picking up the ball that had started this all. “We should get back before more of your friends decide to come for some payback.”
“Here.” Percy dropped to all fours. “Climb on my back. It’ll be faster.”
“Percy, I don’t know.” I shifted from one foot to the other. “What if we—?”
“I won’t.” Percy shot me a look. “You’ll be down wind, so I won’t be tempted to… you know.”
I placed the pot ash into my pocket dimension and walked up to Percy. “Can you… bend down further? I can’t reach.”
Percy crouched down until he was low enough for me to climb onto him. I still had to put my foot on his leg just to get myself up on his back. Settled into place, I curled my fingers into his fur. “Okay, I’m ready.”
“Then hold on tight.”