Chapter 8 Bryden
brYDEN
“There’s only one bed.” Roland pulled the thin covers back.
We’d spent nights in the woods where our bear and unicorn snuggled together, but with the frisson of danger from possible poachers and my injuries creating tension, we hadn’t so much as kissed.
But tonight, we’d found a cheap room, with the emphasis on cheap. The bed creaked as Roland climbed in, and he rolled into the center and giggled.
“I guess we get what we paid for.”
I slid under the covers, and the ancient mattress had me toppling toward Roland so we were face to face with our crotches pressed against one another. He was hard. Me too, but I focused on steadying my breathing to tamp down my arousal.
If we had sex, I would mark him, which was what I wanted, but I worried that would create an extra complication in his life.
We had to be somewhere safe and not have bad guys possibly tailing us.
Our first time together had to be special and memorable and not because poachers set a trap for us and interrupted our intimacy.
But Roland didn’t appear to be on the same wavelength. He trailed a finger over my jaw and around my lips. I shivered and couldn’t resist biting his finger. He yelped, but what was reflected in his gaze was not pain but the flip side: lust.
One kiss wouldn’t hurt. Putting a hand on the back of his head, I yanked him to me and his lips slammed onto mine. They were so soft, like a plush cushion, and he tasted of sparkling water, if it had a taste.
I threaded my fingers through his hair and tugged. He moaned, making me shiver. Goosebumps danced over my skin as I inhaled his distinctive aroma that mingled with the scent of slick. Ignoring my reasons for not having sex, I licked his lips as he ground against me and one hand tugged at my briefs.
His mouth parted, and I slid in, curling my tongue around his. It was as though they were hugging. He tasted of promise. I whimpered into his mouth as his teeth grazed my tongue.
But the bed creaked as if it was reminding me of my vow not to have sex yet.
I pulled away, and Roland groaned.
“What? We finally have a bed and four walls and you don’t want to be inside me?” He pouted.
I was silent while I took deep breaths, tamping down my arousal.
“When I put my cock in you, I don’t want us to be thinking of anything else. Not poachers or being rogue. Just us and our forever. And not in this shitty room.” Roland fell onto me as the mattress gave a last gasp. “And the bed agrees.”
Roland pummeled my chest. “I hate that you’re right.” He flung himself on his back, but the mattress had other ideas and he slammed back into me. “But maybe the mattress has other ideas.”
“Nope. That was its last gasp, poor thing.”
“Let’s try the library.”
I’d always wanted to be a librarian because I always had my head stuck in a book when I was supposed to be doing chores. Spending a day with books seemed like the perfect life, but it never came about. Emerson was never about the books. Instead, he was always outside.
“I doubt some old reference books will have up-to-date information about unicorn poachers.” Roland wasn’t convinced we’d find anything worthwhile.
“You’re right, but we can use their wifi and a computer.”
I’d been in enough libraries to know even the tiny ones had wifi their patrons could use. People prepping their CV, submitting job applications, doing ancestry research, and parents logging into baby and toddler groups could get online at the local library.
“But what’s the point of looking at human elephant or rhino poachers?” Roland leaned against the railing outside the library. “How will that help us?”
I took his arm, noting how good he smelled and wished we could spend the rest of the day in bed.
“Because I memorized my password to log into the shifter databases.”
“Clever you.” He planted a kiss on my nose, and I puffed out my chest.
But my bear punched a hole in my inflated ego. Don’t get cocky. You haven’t found anything yet.
We hadn’t booked a computer, so we had to wait our turn, and I wanted one in a corner where no one could look over my shoulder and ask what I was researching. We perused the shelves, and I noted a book that was in the wrong place. I re-shelved it, and Roland gave me a look.
I shrugged. “Someone might really want that book one day and they wouldn’t have been able to find it if I hadn’t moved it.”
When we finally sat down at the computer, I was a little paranoid, wondering if I could even access the sites I wanted on this ancient machine. But I needn’t have worried, and when my password was successful, I gave a little cheer.
“Right, I’m in.”
I did a search for unicorns and got lost in the history of how they came to be.
Roland nudged me to forget that. “I can sum it up in a few sentences.”
“Fine.” I typed in “poaching shifters” and tapped my fingers as I waited. Either the internet was slow or it was the computer chugging along trying to retrieve the files.
But the screen populated with file names, and I clicked on one titled “security.”
I scanned the dense lines of text. “Oh, shoot.”
A guy in the next cubicle shushed me, and I apologized. I tapped the screen to draw Roland’s attention to it.
“They could be tracking you through your phone,” I whispered.
Roland dropped the phone onto the desk and flapped his hand as though the device had burned it. “Get rid of it.”
“No, we just have to dump the SIM card and get you a new one.” I removed the card, bent it in half, and told Roland to flush it down the toilet.
He scurried off while I read more files, and when he returned, I had ten tabs open.
“It says here unicorn poachers are often comprised of both shifters and humans.”
“Why humans, do you think?”
“Because just like the dark side of shifter society, they bow to the gods of money. They don’t give a damn how they acquire it, trampling over people’s rights and safety and often destroying the environment as an added bonus.”
His brows shot up. ”That was a lot of words.”
“Yeah, sorry, but I’ve read a lot about the slimy side of life since I’ve been rogue, but I’ll get off my soap box now.”
Roland grabbed another chair. “But it says that when the humans are hired, they think they are going big game hunting and they just need to keep clear of the animal reserve rangers.”
“Mmmm. They have no idea there’s a person inside.” I closed my eyes, trying not to imagine how the shifter’s human reacted as their horn was hacked off.
And much like I’d been telling Roland since he brought up the subject of poachers, I reminded him, “Don’t shift, no matter how much your beast begs.”
As we scrolled through the documents, I thought of how the poachers might have been tracking Roland through his phone. They could be waiting outside, ready to kidnap him and hold him prisoner until he shifted. Nah, that made no sense. They weren’t going to wait around for years.
“How does someone entice a unicorn shifter to take his skin? Is that even possible?”
Roland sighed. “I’m almost embarrassed to say this but there’s a particular type of candy that my beast adores. If he scents it, he has to shift.”
We’d better stay away from sugar, but Roland explained it was made to a special recipe and his father’s cook made it.
“When I was younger, they’d use it to entice me to shift so they could use the horn to heal someone.”
Hmmm, a unicorn who couldn’t resist a secret recipe. Interesting. It didn’t help us, except if any bad guys came bearing sweet treats, we’d need a getaway plan.
I led Roland to the library entrance and scouted around the street out front.
I shaded my eyes and examined the buildings opposite for a sign of anyone at the window.
But it was a small town, and the only thing of interest was a dog tied up outside a deli, whining because his owner was buying food inside.
I beckoned Roland out. “If there’s no one following us, they may have been tracking your phone, and as this is the last place they’ll see, we need to get out of town and put as many miles between us and this place as we can.”
“How do we avoid anyone finding us?”
“We’ll need to disguise your scent, and no, not with urine or skunk musk. Garlic, onion, cabbage, and brussel sprouts will change your scent.”
Roland made a face. “They’ll give me gas.”
“Oh no. In that case you can sleep outside.”