Chapter 13
“Are we there yet?” I poked Percy in the chest, because the Candy Forest moved by us at a glacial pace. I had ripped the bottom half of my shirt off to wrap my injured arm up, but it still burned and ached like nothing else I’d ever felt.
On top of that, it felt like bugs were crawling all over my skin and hair. I needed a bath like nobody’s business. If I didn’t get home soon, I was going to scream.
“No.” Percy’s eyes stayed straight ahead, his jaw clenched.
I reached up and tugged at the hair on his cheek until he looked down at me. “I’m bored. My arm hurts. Hurry up already.” I pushed my lower lip out into a pout, loving the way his eye twitched as he glowered down at me.
“If you think you can get there faster, I’d be happy to let you walk your happy ass home.” His arms loosened around me, ready to drop me.
I squealed and clung to his chest hair. “Don’t you dare drop me, mutt!”
“Oh, it's mutt now?” Percy’s eyes lit with mirth. “No, please, Percy, don’t stop,” he moaned in a high pitched voice.
I pinched him. “I do not sound like that! And as I remember it, I was the one telling you to stop. You were the one who couldn’t get enough of me.”
Percy’s chest rumbled beneath me as he laughed, and his grip tightened on my waist and thigh. “I blame mating season.”
“Oh?” I wiggled in his arms, stroking my fingers through the fur on his chest. “So, if I told you right now that we don’t need a potion to get you through mating season, you wouldn’t be up for that?”
We jerked to a stop. Percy stared down at me, his eyes narrowing. “Why wouldn’t I need a potion?”
I stared him down, arching a brow.
A low growl vibrated through him and, the next thing I knew, we were running through the forest at a neck breaking speed.
“Percy!” My hands clutched onto him as I let out a little squeal of delight.
“The faster we get there, the faster I can get out of this form.”
I rubbed my face into his chest. “I don’t know. I think I might like you better this way. You certainly seem to like me better this way.”
“Stop antagonizing me, or I won’t wait until we get to your house to fuck you right here on the forest floor.” He blew out a hard breath through his nose and, if possible, ran even faster.
My thighs clenched together as heat pooled between them. I could tell the moment my arousal hit Percy’s nose. His claws tightened to an almost painful level, which only made my need worse.
To Percy’s credit, he held on until he stepped onto the Vanilla Mountain. The moment his feet sank into the frozen piles of ice and snow, his hands loosened, as if the cold quelled some of the heat boiling inside of him.
“Fucking gods.” Percy’s body shook against me. “It’s so cold.”
I rolled my eyes at him, pushing off his arms as we came up to the path near my house. I dropped to the ground and brushed myself off. “You’re such a big baby. You’re covered in fur. Look at me. You don’t see me complaining.”
“You’re used to it.” Percy cupped himself between his legs. “You don’t have testicles that are trying to creep back up into your body.”
I snorted. “Well, if I did, they’d be bigger than yours.”
Percy followed behind me, whining every few minutes. It was clear that we both weren’t in the mood anymore. That was good and all, since my arm needed to be patched up, and both of us needed a bath. I was all for getting down and dirty, but not covered in actual dirt.
How Tara had handled banging the prince when he had a candy cane coated dick was beyond me. Talk about the potential for sticky, not so funny infections.
My body sighed with relief as I walked through my front door. My little cottage may not be the ice palace my grandmother had, but it worked well enough for me.
The ice walls were thick enough that the blue hue kept prying eyes from looking inward. The window panes were made of thinner ice so I could see out. Of course, making a house completely out of ice took a lot of magic to uphold. The main supports, doors, hinges, and the like were all made from wood and metal.
Stepping up to the table, a thick ice slab on top of a stone base, I pulled the ball of pot ash from my pocket dimension and sat it on the wooden tray in the middle of the table.
A crash echoed behind me, and I jerked around. What I saw made me cover my mouth so I wouldn’t laugh.
Percy had the door off the hinge and the frame hanging around his large form. He glowered at the door frame and shook his body, knocking it to the ground.
A little giggle escaped me.
Percy peered over at me like I’d just kicked his puppy.
Shaking my head, I smiled as I muttered a spell under my breath. The frame picked itself up and flicked back into place. The door latched itself back together and slammed shut.
“You couldn’t have helped earlier? Instead of laughing at me,” Percy pouted, barely moving around. Probably scared he’d knock something else over.
“Sorry?” I offered, my lips pulling into a broad smile.
“Yeah,” Percy scoffed. “I can see you’re really torn up about it.”
Shaking my head at him again, I went to the cabinet against the wall. “Relax. You won’t break anything I can’t fix. Help me get this. I want a bath and then you can help me with this arm.”
Percy cautiously inched toward me, and I watched him with growing amusement. His head smacked some of the herbs I had hanging from the rafters.
I took down a few jars of ointment for pain and cleaning and handed them to Percy to hold, then started digging into the drawer below the cabinet.
“You know…” I started as I found a few strips of fabric to use as bandages. “I am curious.”
“What?” Percy looked at the jars in his hands, then lifted one up to his nose to sniff. He jerked his head back, his nose wrinkling before he sneezed.
“So this bite…” I held up my injured arm, clutching the wraps in my other hand. “I'm not going to start sprouting fur and howling at the moon, am I?”
One would think that a beast’s face wouldn’t be so expressive, but the offense Percy’s face showed made me almost feel bad for asking it but I had to know.
“I’m a shifter, not a werewolf, Bianca.” The low growl in which he said my name sent a shiver down my spine.
“How am I supposed to know?” I shrugged and moved past him toward my bedroom where my only bathroom sat. Peeking over my shoulder, I smiled slyly, “Besides, I don’t want to catch a case of the furries if we… you know.”
Percy’s feet chased after me into the bathroom. Thankfully, his hands were full or he’d have grabbed me then and there.
I purposely ignored him when I bent at the waist and turned on the water. While I generally ran colder, Percy’s core temperature clearly ran hotter than hell itself. I tried to find a happy middle for the bath.
Keeping my back to him, I slowly lifted what remained of my shirt up and over my head. I winched at the ache in my shoulder.
The sound of the jars clacking together was the only warning I had before Percy’s hot presence burned along my back. Clawed fingers brushed the hair away from the side of my neck. I angled my head to the side, letting his snout fit between my shoulder and neck.
The hot slickness of Percy’s tongue slid up the line of my neck and swirled along my pulse. My fingers curled over the side of his nose, drawing him closer to me before I took off my pants.
Percy ground his hardness against my back, and I had to shock his nose slightly with ice. “Chill. Clean first.”
By some miracle, Percy got himself under control and pulled away from me. He braced himself against the bathroom door, and his eyes zeroed in on my body as I stepped into the tub. His claws dug deep gouges into the door frame as I slid the wash cloth up and down my body.
Not wanting to push him further, I was quick and efficient in my cleaning and did not linger on the more explicit parts. Percy was hanging on by a hair, and I needed to take care of my arm before he pounced.
“Hand me that jar.” I pointed to the jar in question.
Percy stiffly reached over where he’d placed it on the counter. Holding it out to me, he barely moved far enough for me to reach it.
I twisted my fingers, using magic to open the top of it. The sharp medicine scent filled the bathroom, making Percy’s nose twitch.
“Help me out here, Pers.” I gestured to the jar and then my arm. I trusted the strong smell of the ointment would be enough to disguise my growing arousal.
Percy took one hesitant step forward and then sniffed the air. Growing confident, he dipped a claw into the ointment before gently rubbing it along my arm.
The bite marks had turned the skin red and swollen. I’d been pushing magic into the bite to knit muscle and skin together. but it was a long process. I didn’t want to overdo it on the magic usage until we arrived here safely.
“That’s enough.”
Percy drew his fingers back abruptly. He almost tripped as he scrambled back to his place by the door.
I sank down into the water, rinsing the soap and residue off. I ducked my head under the water and soaked it thoroughly before opening one of the many jars on the edge of the tub. Getting a generous amount of the scented cleanser on my fingertips, I rubbed my hands together and threaded the scented cleanser through my hair. I kept my eyes on Percy as I dragged it through the tips.
His eyes tracked each of my movements, most notably the way every breath I took made my breasts rise and fall. He kept the jar in his hand, but his grip had tightened around it. I didn’t think Percy would last much longer.
Giving him a break, I submerged myself completely. After I rinsed my hair out, I pushed magic into the ointment on my arm. The ointment iced against my skin and closed the open wounds. It would work as a protective coating for now.
A shadow loomed over the tub, and my lips ticked at the edges.
Emerging from the water, I gave Percy a wicked smile. “Your turn.”