Chapter Forty-Eight
Tovi
Grime and tension clung to Tovi as night settled over the forest, and she and the others rode in silence as they left the farmstead behind. She exhaled, her breath pluming like the prowling fog, and despite the distance they put between them and the ialtógs, tension refused to leave her limbs.
She’d recognized the look in Alpha Thorn’s eyes, the blame glistening in his hard stare, ripe enough she could smell it.
The horses trudged through the gray, and Tovi fidgeted in her saddle, trying to focus ahead. It didn’t help that a taut, muscular werewolf male sat behind her.
Because their traveling party had outnumbered the horses, and with exhaustion and injuries, shifting hadn’t been discussed amongst the seven werewolves, and before Tovi had any grasp over the situation, Eldrick had saddled the same horse as her and together, they rode at the back of the group, Siv, Gyda, and Sam riding the front and leading them towards the Drabek Village.
“Are you alright?” Eldrick whispered into her ear.
Tovi fought the shiver running down her spine. Instead, she gripped the reins of their horse, spying the black blood staining her hands.
“Demons are nothing new,” she said over her shoulder.
“That isn’t what I asked, Tovi.” His tone was unbending, then dropped to a mere breath. “You never need to pretend with me.”
Tovi clamped her eyes shut. “It isn’t just you here, Eldrick. Alpha Thorn clearly doesn’t trust me. Despite Siv’s excitement, I have no doubt she’ll report to her mothers everything that happens. We can’t jeopardize your Earl vote.”
He sighed and remained silent for ten dreadful seconds until—
“I’m confident in Leif’s vote, and I’ll worry about the Drabeks’ when I get there. Right now, I care about you.”
“You don’t need to,” Tovi muttered. Caring was dangerous territory, one they’d abandoned weeks ago. Yet, during that time, it was as if Tovi had lived underwater and being near him was like coming up for air and breathing again.
He tensed in the saddle, his legs growing tighter in line with hers. “I haven’t heard or seen you in weeks. Not a letter. Nothing.”
“Eldrick—“
He grasped the reins out of her hands and reared the horse to a halt. The rest continued on, none the wiser to their pause on the path, and once they were a fairer distance behind, he clicked the gentle beast back into an easy walk. Trees, ferns, and yards separated them from the rest.
“There. We’re out of earshot,” he said. “It’s just you and me.”
Tovi peered over her shoulder, ready to tell him being alone was a horrific mistake, but stopped short. Eldrick’s gem eyes were alight. They ensnared her, drinking her in like she was the only thing in the forest.
Tovi sighed. She trusted Eldrick with the truth. In fact, the weight of it begged to be unleashed.
“It never gets easier,” she whispered. “Seeing ripples of the curse inflict horror across Sorin. Yen and I fought our fair share of demons through the Void, and scáths, too, in the Vadon Mountains. I should feel relief when I slay them, and yet instead, its anticipation for the next—the horrifically cold question: Will this ever end?”
Eldrick studied her, and Tovi turned back ahead, unable to bare the intensity of his understanding, like it wasn’t her words he heard, but instead her heart.
“Thank you,” Eldrick whispered, chest vibrating behind hers. “For being honest with me.”
“I find it easy with you, wolf,” she whispered.
They fell into silence for a moment, and Eldrick’s heart raced inside his chest. Its tempo vibrated through Tovi’s bones.
The path grew denser. Ferns replaced the rockier terrain, and the horse trudged through the sprawling green.
Tovi swore she spotted purple flowers dotting mossy roots, the first signs of spring pushing through the harsh winter.
Tovi pocketed the promise, holding onto it as her hand stiffened with the dried blood of her latest kill.
“What matters did you want to discuss?“ Eldrick asked.
“I’ve secured an army,” she said.
“How?” Eldrick asked. His hands tightened on the reins, and Tovi’s insides backflipped at his reaction.
“With gold.” Tovi explained Lord Nathaniel and the army with bloodstone armor.
Eldrick sighed, and their bodies molded to the other as if he relaxed at the news.
“Do you trust this Bash or Anastasia?” he asked.
Tovi shrugged. She recalled Bash’s peculiarly pointed ears, but also the love he had for Lord Nathaniel’s daughter. “I trust their intentions but not entirely their allegiance to me, but I don’t have much of a choice. What of your efforts?”
Eldrick chuckled behind her, and Tovi realized he didn’t do it often enough. “Nothing as impressive as an army, I’m afraid.”
“But you have another alpha with you,” she said. “That has to count as something, no?”
“Leif is a good male,” Eldrick said. “I’m grateful to have him during discussion with the Drabek alphas.”
“And do you trust him?” Tovi asked, studying the alpha from behind. If he heard them discussing him twenty-five yards aways, he made no indication. Thankfully, Leif and Sam appeared to be in deep conversation.
“I trust that Leif will do what’s best to protect his pack, and I must ensure that means I’m the right choice.” Eldrick detailed Bjorn’s offenses since she left, and his strategy with the southern packs.
Tovi cursed. “I should leave before you reach the Drabek Village then, regardless of what Siv said. You can’t afford for me to jeopardize—“
“No,” Eldrick said too quickly. He huffed, and she could feel his body brush against hers as he shook his head. “I think its best if you stay.”
“Why?” Tovi’s mouth turned dry.
“I think the alphas of the south should meet you, face-to-face. They won’t trust my assessment of you alone; they need to make one from themselves.
If you win over the Drabeks, you’re halfway to winning Lindstrom’s and Alland’s favor, too.
And . . .” Eldrick audibly swallowed. “Because I missed you.”
Tovi clamped her eyes shut.
Tell him that isn’t reason enough to stay. Tell him that’s exactly why you should leave.
But Tovi’s traitorous heart took over, robbing her rational mind of any sense. How could she when his basil and spearmint wrapped her in a fresh and spicy cloud?
“I missed you, too,” she whispered.
What she’d give to be alone, to feel his bare skin on hers, to taste his release on her tongue and to scream hers in his arms. She leaned back in the saddle, pressing closer to Eldrick’s chest. A deliberate invitation she’d regret, but Goddess knew, after weeks of being away from Eldrick, the worries mounting like bricks on her shoulders, she needed him.
Eldrick remained as rigid as stone, and then . . . he leaned his head against hers, and the simple touch almost unraveled her.
“Touch me,” she breathed.
Eldrick swallowed a growl that vibrated through his chest, shaking Tovi’s rib cage.
One hand let go of the reins, and he dragged his fingers up her filthy leathers, pausing at her trousers.
Eldrick bit her ear, and Tovi hid her pleasure by falling farther back against him, giving him more access to dip two fingers under her waistband and undergarments.
His touch seared her skin, the power reaching to her toes. The others at the front kept riding on, in the midst of the conversations of their own as Eldrick teased her with his touch. Goddess, if she could have this one moment to sedate her need. To breathe him in and feel him against her—
Eldrick pressed a finger against her clit, and he ran achingly slow circles over it—just the way she loved it—and the crescendo inside Tovi’s core began to climb, the precipice between pleasure and ache amounted to an incredible, shattering force.
Blood hel, he thrummed her pleasure like he’d written her body’s song. Yes, she wished to cry out. Don’t stop, she let her body beg—
Eldrick snatched his fingers away and withdrew his hand, leaving Tovi cold, breathless, and at the edge of combusting.
His lips tickled the edge of her ear. “No.”
Tovi lurched forward, putting as much distance as she could in the saddle between them. Her need slicked between her legs, and UGH— “You bastard,” she said through gritted teeth.
Eldrick laughed, and the sound reached Tovi’s desperate sex. He dismounted the horse, peering up at her.
She seethed, unsure if she wanted to flee into the forest and escape this embarrassment or slap the smirk dripping with male pride right off his face.
The latter sounded far more satisfying, but both revealed to the others that something transpired between them.
Tovi gripped the reins to still her eager hand.
Eldrick’s expression turned serious, if not a bit saddened. His gem eyes dimmed. His shoulders snapped straighter. “If I can’t have all of you, Tovi—heart, body, mind, and soul—I don’t want any of it.”
The earlier heat coursing through Tovi’s body vanished.
She froze to the saddle, stunned into silence as she tried to read Eldrick’s thoughts, to find a chink in his usual, stony, alpha armor and find the lie, but there was only adamancy wafting off him in waves.
Tovi opened and closed her mouth, unable to respond.
Eldrick smiled without showing any teeth, breaking off their stare and walked off.
Werewolf horns bellowed in the distance, fracturing the tension gripping Tovi’s limbs and yanking her back to the present.
They’d arrived at the Drabek Village, and she rode through the gates with Eldrick’s rejection searing through her like some dark spell.