Chapter 71
CHAPTER SEVENTY-ONE
ROSAMUND
The fight is over almost as soon as it began. The dogs whine and back away, tails between their legs, and the men don’t fare much better. One of the wolves has a man underneath him, growling, and another wolf, gray with a white tuft on his head, is snarling at a man holding out a knife.
Valen.
Lord Eorl isn’t among the men. He sent others to do his dirty work. I’m not surprised at all. That coward. I’m…
Shaken.
Joyous.
Exhausted.
Hopeful.
The wind lashes at me. The light is fading, but I can’t move from the spot, watching as the three wolves chase away the humans and their dogs. For long moments, they vanish from sight—all of them, people and animals—and I fight the urge to go after them.
Make sure the wolves are all right.
Eventually, they appear again, trotting toward me, tongues lolling. I grin, and yet I’m nervous. It is Valen and his friends—right? It has to be.
There is only one way of knowing, so I wait and wait until they come to me.
“Valen?” I whisper, reaching for the gray wolf with the white tuft on his head. “Is that you?”
He butts his muzzle against my hand. The stories say that the shift usually isn’t fast, except in cases of great need. A fast shift can damage a fae. Letting go of your shape to assume another is a process.
The other two wolves watch me, coming closer.
I crouch down and run my hands through the gray fur, bury my face in the wolf’s neck—and he smells like Valen.
“It is you,” I whisper, and my relief and joy are so great that I start to cry. “You came back.”
We spend the night in the thicket, the wolves curled up around me for warmth and protection. Valen, of course, is the one against whom I’m half-reclined, my head resting on the warm fur of his chest.
I wake up curled up against a very naked Valen. He has his arms around me, my head tucked under his chin. My cheek is resting on a bare male chest, nicely padded with muscle, and in my line of vision I see… a very large, hard cock and the bulge of his swollen knot.
Heat climbs up my neck, flooding my cheeks. It’s… kind of funny, to open my eyes to such a morning glory. It’s also hot.
My body agrees, tightening my belly and starting a throb between my legs.
“Morning, Princess,” his voice rumbles in his chest. Of course he knows I woke up. Those wolf senses must record everything, the change in my breathing, the tiny shifts of my body.
I lift my head and smile at him. Gods, it’s a balm to see his face again after I thought I’d lost him. “Morning to you, too.”
“Sleep well, little mouse?” he drawls. “Do I make a good pillow?”
“The best.” Unexpectedly, emotion wells up in me and I look away. “I didn’t think I’d find you. And didn’t expect to find you so soon, so close to Lord Eorl’s lands. Shouldn’t you be in the mountains by now?”
“I came back,” he says softly.
“Why?”
“For you, Princess. I came back for you.”
I bite my lip. “Are you sure you want the woman whose mother killed yours?”
“Yes.” He sighs. “My kind attacked yours. My kind hurt you. Your mother killed mine. And I think… I think I figured out what happened.”
“What do you mean?”
“The girl in the prophecy. The rogue wolves. I think they convinced my mother that they had located the girl, the chosen one, the savior.”
“They thought it was me?” I ask, incredulous. “Why?”
“Who knows? Signs. Omens.”
“But then they somehow realized I wasn’t the one,” I whisper, “and they sent me back.”
“Losing their prophetess probably threw them into disarray.” His arms tighten around me. “I’m so sorry.”
I burrow against him. “I don’t want you to be sorry.”
“Then what do you want? Shall I head over to the manor, find the asshole lord and cut him to pieces?”
“No.” I shake my head. “I don’t care, Valen.”
“He deserves it.”
“So he does. But I don’t want to bother with him anymore. I don’t want…”
“What, my love? Tell me.”
The endearment brings back my smile. “I don’t want to pretend to be someone I’m not. To spend my life unhappy because of a mistake. To stay with a man I loathe. To take revenge, when the best revenge is to find happiness. With you.”
His frown clears. “Does that mean you accept my proposal?”
I shrug, pretending it isn’t the most important thing in the world. “If it still stands.”
“If?” Suddenly, he rolls us so that I’m underneath him and he’s braced on top of me, grinning. That white tuft of hair falls roguishly on his forehead, his teeth are sharp, his grin even sharper. He’s so beautiful, I ache with the need to kiss him. “If?”
I smile. Reach up and cup his cheek. “Ask me again, Valen.”
He bows his head, pale lashes fanning against broad cheekbones. “Run away with me, Princess? Come with me to my home in the mountains, meet my people… be my bondmate. My wife. Would you like that?”
It’s reckless. Crazy. I lived for my dream of marrying Lord Eorl, but it’s Valen I love. So I draw shaky breath. “I think… I really would.”
He looks up, emotions warring in his amber gaze. “Is this real? Do you really want it?”
“Yes, Valen. I want it. I want you.”
“It’s hard to do worse than that bastard,” he jokes, but there’s a vulnerability in his gaze, as if pushing me to contradict him. “I’m the better choice.”
“You’re better than any other man,” I whisper. “I realized a few things, and foremost among them is that, had Lord Eorl been nice, I still would have preferred you.”
His gaze clears. “You would?”
I laugh quietly. “Where is your confidence?”
“Smashed to pieces. You mean too much to me. I have no confidence in myself. Only in you.”
I slide both hands over his broad shoulders, then lock them around his neck. “Then trust me when I tell you that no man in the world compares to you.”
His grin melts into a sweet smile. So sweet, I have to kiss him, and I tug him down to reach his lips. We kiss, long and deep, and then a shadow looms over us.
“Oh, great,” Konstam says. “Keep complimenting him. He will become insufferable.”
“He will get airs,” Darian agrees, “and his head will be too large to get through the door. That would be so impractical.”
Valen growls, breaking the kiss and turning his head to glare at his friends. “Fuck off. Don’t you have something else to do?”
I turn to grin at them and…I’m faced with two very naked men.
Oh, Gods…
A little snort escapes me. I avert my gaze from their powerful bodies and their bare crotches, the cocks dangling between muscular thighs where, I notice, no knots are apparent.
“Cover your dick, you dolt,” Valen barks. “You, too, Dar. She’s only interested in my dick, not your tiny twigs for pricks.”
“That hurt,” Darian mutters, putting on a wounded air, but he covers up his crotch with his hands.
Well, most of it. These men really are endowed down there.
“Apologies,” Konstam says, also covering himself. “We don’t have any clothes once we shift. Normally, we stash our clothes somewhere we can return to, but this time the plan was to run home, so… we just shredded what we were wearing.”
“It’s okay,” I say, muffled against Valen’s shoulder. “I just… didn’t expect it.”
“You will see a lot more of this once we get to the mountains,” Darian says.
“More naked men?”
“I meant dicks, but yeah, men. And women. And children. We don’t bother too much with modesty.”
“Or clothes,” Konstam adds.
“That’s right.” Darian’s smile is definitely wolfish. “We don’t like clothes. They itch.”
“Shut up, both of you,” Valen snarls. “Are you trying to scare her away the moment she decided to go with us? Are you crazy? We do wear clothes, Princess. Don’t listen to them.”
“Oh, we wear them,” Konstam says. “We just get rid of them at every opportunity.”
“Fuck. Whose sins am I paying for?” Valen drops his head until our brows touch. “You’re going to change your mind, aren’t you? Why would a lady like you mate with a savage wolf who dislikes clothes?”
“I don’t know,” I say, “maybe because I love you?”
He lifts his head, eyes going wide. “You do?”
“Oh Gods, don’t look so shocked. Why did you think I was coming with you?”
“I don’t know. For my pretty eyes? My body? My big cock?”
I laugh. “Well, I love all of that, but I love even more your kindness and protectiveness, your fairness and gentleness, my wolf. How could anyone not love you?”
“You just never said so,” he whispers.
“I love you.” I look right into his golden eyes. “I love you so much. More than I ever thought possible. You make me happy. You make me smile.”
“You make me happy, too, my love.” His voice is a low rasp I feel everywhere. “My bondmate. I’ve never been happier than when I am with you. When I thought you were going to wed that bastard, I almost lost my mind. I can’t fucking live without you.”
He kisses me, a light brush of lips, then deeper, his tongue twining with mine. My body catches on fire as he lowers himself to settle between my legs, his cock and knot pressing against my thigh.
Konstam wolf-whistles.
Darian tells us to get a room, which is kind of funny since we are in the middle of nowhere.
I like these irreverent, lovely fae, and above all, I love my mate. I only have to hope that once we settle down in the mountains, he will be the same. That in his home, he won’t show me a different face.
I’m confident he won’t, though. I’ve seen his bright soul. Seen how he treats people. How he treats me. I trust him with my heart and with the rest of my life.
He protected me, took care of me, offered me pleasure, and suffered for me.
I’m taking a chance on him, because he’s worth it.