Chapter 14 Shit
FOURTEEN
SHIT
Zilo will make a very good disappointed father someday.
I know this by how fast he threw my clothes at me, pinging me in the head with a boot, and marched me right outside before the sun even warmed the horizon, ranting through his teeth the entire time.
“Find the most beautiful woman in all the realms, the fucking witch said. She’ll solve all our problems, the fucking witch said.” The man I had previously thought was a total alpha fuckhole is currently waving his arms around dramatically like a little girl demanding a snack.
I don’t say a word as he leads us a mile away from the dark castle to just behind a large barn-like structure that smells slightly like burning demonic pig shit. He stops abruptly at a large divot, and in the dim morning sunlight, I can almost make out that it’s a pond of sorts.
“You have to get the scent off.” Zilo rubs his enormous hand down his face in the slowest possible look of frustration.
My lip curls as I peer down at the muddy ravine before me. This is how they problem solve? This is really the only solution to scent masking?
“Avian and Roman don’t have to do this?” The two assholes stand in silence behind their alpha-hole leader, looking like they couldn’t even possibly know me, let alone have fucked me an hour ago.
The fuckers.
Literally.
“Avian and Roman know how to shift. Your beast has its own primitive smell. Once you shift, you smell like beast. Shift. It’s that easy.” Zilo blinks at me like he expects a magic trick to be revealed.
Honestly in this moment, if I could pull a rabbit out of my vagina and call it my beast, I would.
“I can’t,” I finally admit.
“Then. Get. In. The. Mud.” His head bobs obnoxiously.
I swallow hard. “No.”
His dark brows bounce.
“No?”
“Nnnooo,” I repeat slowly for his little puppy brain to follow along.
I note the quiet look Avian passes Roman, but still they stand back as if they have nothing to do with this fucktacular position I’m in.
They were a bit more supportive when they were happily bending me in those other positions earlier though, weren’t they?
My eyes roll hard.
Zilo’s shoulders square at the same time as his hands grip his hips, and he gives me a stern glaring at.
That’ll teach me.
Goddess, he’s such a fuc—
My feet are off the ground with a smoky puff of magic and a grunt of noise from the asshole hauling me over his shoulder and plowing me toward the ground. My nails dig into his back, his shoulders, his ass, anything to help me from smacking the hard earth.
But I never do. He keeps hold of me as we both slosh into the swamp-like mud. It’s—It’s not even mud. It’s thin like water, but clumpy with…
“Is this shit?”
“I mean…only a little,” Roman whispers so quietly I barely hear him.
“Oh. My. Fucking. Sanity.” I stiffen in Zilo’s arms as he lowers me down against him, his chest sliding disgustingly against mine.
“It’s good for you. Covers the smell.” A hint of a smile plays at the corner of Zilo’s lips, his dark beard and hair making him look devilishly handsome as he stares down at me.
“Yeah. Because I smell like shit now!”
His big hand lifts with a slurp, and he lazily rakes his palm down the side of my face.
The grime of it rolls between his fingertips and my skin, and a gasping shriek escapes my mouth.
My entire body stiffens beneath the feel of it dripping down my cheek.
Wide-eyed and fuming, I bore a hole through the center of his damn face.
There’s a good three seconds where I can’t even fathom how to react.
What’s the protocol when the guy you have a sweet love-hate relationship with wipes mud (feces?) across your face?
I lift my hands to either side of his jaw, and he simply holds my gaze like he doesn’t believe a single word I haven’t even spoken yet.
“Don’t do it, Cersia.” His tone is all gravelly threat, but he doesn’t have the shifter balls to back it up.
“Do what, Zilo?” My hands clap against his gruff beard, and his smile only widens as he closes his eyes and takes what he deserves.
Even as I slowly shove my fingers through his long black hair and braids.
“There’s something seriously wrong with him right now.” Roman’s whispering words distract me only slightly.
Because he’s right…Zilo isn’t angry.
I’m covering his handsome face in literal shit, and he’s…smiling.
“There’s definitely something wrong with him,” Avian agrees quietly.
My heart beats a little harder, a little more recklessly as I stare up at him with his lashes closed, his face smooth without those hard lines of frustration creasing his features. He’s beautiful.
“Happy?” he asks flatly.
“Immensely.” And I can’t help but smile. The pleased feeling of getting him back mixed with the warming sensation of seeing him so raw and beautiful right now, I can do nothing but smile.
Until he wraps two big arms around me, and dunks me entirely.
When I surface, muddy shit flings through the air as I awkwardly gasp for a clean breath. And still he smiles. The audacity of this furry fuck! How dare he!
I’m going to kill him. I will. I’ll murder him and bury him in a shit shallow grave right here. I’m going to—
His smile disappears as he stares down at me, and a somber look in his eyes sinks right through my chest with heavy dread that feels like it’s more his than my own.
“What’s wrong?” I can’t help but ask.
His Adam’s apple bobs as he takes his time answering me.
“The Prince requested to see you this morning. First thing.” The words sound like a death sentence in the quietness of his hard tone.
A prickling uneasiness crawls over my cold, muddy flesh.
Because Prince Ravar only wants one thing in the mornings.
And today, it’s me.