Chapter 9
Chapter
Nine
The Migoi carries me boneless and—I’m pretty sure—drooling out of the pool and into a smaller cavern where a fire burns merrily. My clothes and boots are laid neatly out to dry around it.
He sets me on my feet, swaying, and eases my tank top up and off from where it’s bunched above my breasts. I push down the ruined scrap of red lace panties still clinging to my hips.
He steps back to stare, hunger carved into every line of his face and burning in his gaze. His silver eyes rake over every inch of me like he’s starving.
My cheeks flush, heat prickling beneath my skin as I instinctively hunch forward, arms sliding in to cover the curves Ben always criticized.
The Migoi growls and swats my hands away.
“Mine.”
The single word lands like a brand against my skin. Well, this might prove more complicated than I thought.
As much as I want to stay here and fuck the time away, I need to find the Silene vitalis.
But I can’t go anywhere. Not yet. Not while my only clothes are still dripping dry by the fire.
Not while my muscles still shake from exertion.
And certainly not while this primal creature looks at me like I hung the stars.
Maybe just a day or two more. Surely I deserve that after all that has happened.
When I sway again, he scoops me up with that now-familiar ease. His heat presses through me, his velvety skin soft against me. I could get used to this as a mode of transport, I think as he carries me to a massive bed heaped with furs and settles me down on the side facing the fire.
I reach for a pelt, but instead he pulls me closer against his chest. His rapidly-hardening length settles between the cleft of my thighs like it belongs there.
When I shiver, his velvety skin morphs into a thick pelt, and wraps around me like a blanket. Snug in my personal fur coat, with a living furnace at my back, I drift off to sleep.
I dream of silence, of suffocating, crushing white. The air in my lungs turns sharp and deadly. I know what’s coming—my oxygen will run out while my strength fades. My mind whispers that this is how I die. Cold. Alone.
A scream claws its way up from my throat.
The bed rustles violently. I sit up just in time to see the Migoi crouched in front of me, claws extended, silver eyes reflecting the dim light of the fire as he scans the room for danger.
Every inch of him bristles. His fur is even longer, making him appear larger—like a startled cat built to kill. What would that be, a saber tooth tiger?
Despite the terror still pulsing in my veins, a surprised giggle slips from my mouth at the thought.
He whips his head around at the sound, and the look on his face strips the smile from mine. His expression is lethal. A pure apex predator.
This is the guardian the mountains fear.
Then he softens. The fur retracts, and his claws disappear. In the space of a breath, the beast fades, and the protector returns.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I was dreaming of the avalanche.”
In an instant, he’s beside me, pulling me into his arms and making me feel small, cherished.
“Tell me,” he murmurs into my hair.
As he traces the tips of his claws up and down my spine, I say, “I was trapped. The dark… the silence. I couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. I knew I was going to die.” My voice shakes. “I had to choose whether to give up or fight.”
“But you did fight. That’s how I found you. Singing something about backing your ass up. Poorly, I might add,” he adds.
Despite myself, I laugh.
“If you hadn’t saved me, I’d be dead,” I say.
He turns my face to his. “No. You would never give up. You are a fighter.”
“I don’t know. I was giving up. And now…” I shrug helplessly. “I don’t know what I have left to fight for. I have no one to go home to, and without my research, not only do I have no purpose, I have no chance.”
He grips my chin, tilting my face up until his burning silver gaze pins me in place.
“You have you to fight for.”
I look away, uncomfortable with his assertion. He believes in me more than I do. How sad is that?
“I just feel… lost,” I say in a small voice.
“Then let me show you that you are still worth fighting for,” he says. His voice brooks no argument.
“Okay,” I whisper. I’m not sure what he means, but his tone says everything.
Still, he doesn’t move.
“I need your trust. Completely,” he says.
I study his face. This beautiful, fearsome creature that should have me terrified. But I’m not. He’s seen me at my weakest, and he’s still here. Piecing me back together.
“I trust you,” I murmur. And I mean it.
He lowers his large forehead to mine, and we just sit in the moment. I realize this creature has shown me more kindness and compassion than Ben ever did. Tears prick at my eyes at the temporary nature of this relationship. I wish it could last forever.
He carries me again, this time into the tunnels. The firelight fades as we move deeper into the earth. The cave turns pitch black.
He sets me down in the absolute silence where the darkness pulses like a living, breathing thing.
My heartbeat fills the vacuum. I want to ask what we’re doing, but a single finger brushes my lips. Shhh.
Then his disembodied voice echoes, as if the mountain itself is speaking. “I’m going to show you. Make you remember your worth.”
The silence that follows is crushing. The darkness is suffocating. My skin prickles with phantom cold, and suddenly, I’m back beneath the snow.
My chest tightens. I try to regulate my ragged breathing, but my brain whispers you’re going to die, alone, in the dark.
Just as panic threatens to consume me, I feel it.
Velvet fingertips. Brushing my skin. Light, slow, deliberate.
They trace my outline, pulling me into the present. I focus on the feeling—warm hands skating over my arms, my face, my curves. Drawing me back into my own body.
I’m not buried. I’m here.
His hand cups my face, then traces the shape of my lips. I remember how the sunlight reflects off my hair. My eyes twinkle with mischief. My face is so expressive that no, I can’t hide my annoyance, but neither can I hide my joy, and that’s a gift to share with the world.
Then his hand clamps down over my mouth and nose.
I freeze.
The other trails lower—down my breasts, over my belly, between my legs.
Panic spikes. I buck instinctively, heart racing. Air. I need air.
Then his fingers plunge inside me.
I cry out against his palm as two thick digits stretch me wide, curling inside with devastating precision to find some secret spot that has me blooming for him.
Fear and desire war in my blood, combining to form a new element, a hot and heady mixture.
And yet my traitorous body responds. The wet sounds of my arousal echo in the cavern. My hips grind wantonly against his hand. Pressure builds in my core, threatening to burst out of my body like the air that is trapped in my lungs.
Stars bloom in my vision.
Just as darkness threatens to take me, the orgasm hits—violent and overwhelming, splintering my fear into oblivion. I scream into his palm. I fight. I survive.
When I come back to my body from somewhere out in the stratosphere, I see the darkness of the cave isn’t truly black at all—it’s a thousand shifting shades of grey.
I feel every contour of the stone floor against my skin.
The air flows over my body, brushing against every fine hair, carrying with it the rich scent of the cave and the snow and pine scent of the Yeti’s primal musk, mingled with my own heated arousal.
What I first mistook for sensory deprivation is, in fact, an overwhelming cascade of input. With a sudden burst of understanding, I wrench his hand away and gulp down a deep, sweet lungful of air. Sitting up, my chest heaving, I feel a grin stretch across my face, wild and unrestrained.
“I didn’t just survive,” I whisper, understanding coloring my voice with awe. “I came back. For this. For me.”
He’s watching me. Silver eyes glowing. Proud. Hungry.
I launch myself at him.
He catches me and rolls to his back, pulling me atop him. My slick pussy glides up every ridge and dip of his stomach. He grabs my hips, positions me over his mouth, and devours me. I grind down into his face, hands tangled in his thick white hair as I hold on for dear life.
His growl vibrates through my core, reverberating into my belly.
Wet heat, teeth, lips—he’s merciless. I groan, as his mouth covers everything, lips, clit, ass, like he’s claiming territory.
His tongue spears inside me, and I ride his mouth shamelessly.
His tongue is huge, bigger even than when he filled me with two of his fingers.
I lift and drop my hips, fucking his tongue, gasping as it snakes ever deeper, until the tip is caressing some undiscovered spot inside of me. My hardened clit brushes against his sharp teeth, and I break. It’s loud. Messy. Raw.
He doesn’t stop.
Even after I go still, he caresses my walls with his tongue until finally he slowly retreats to lick at me lazily, like he can’t help himself. Like he needs every last drop.
“Please,” I pant. “Let me touch you.”
He lifts me gently, setting me on shaky feet.
“There is nothing I would love more,” he murmurs. “But this was just for you.”
With a smile, he pulls me gently by the hand. I try to keep up, but even with my sharpened senses, my smaller strides are no match for his sure and steady pace across the uneven cavern floor.
Noticing this, he scoops me into his arms once more, holding me close against his hot, velvety skin. I melt into him with a small, contented sigh. We pass the glowing pool and wind our way back through the tunnels until the firelight returns, flickering golden and familiar against the stone walls.
The warm embrace of arriving home surrounds me, and my cheeks ache with a smile that splits my face. But it quickly falls as I realize, this is only home for now. Not for long, just for now. A small slice of a temporary paradise.
He sets me down beside the hearth and hands me a cool jug of water. I drink greedily, only now realizing how thirsty I am. Then he offers a small basket filled with dried fruits, seeds, and nuts.
I eat slowly, watching him move around the cave. He tends to the fire, turns my boots near the flames, folds my now-dry clothes with surprising care.
Watching him in this oddly gentle and domestic scene has a dangerous ache blooming in my chest. The kind that says stay. Make this your forever home.
My body will be ready to leave soon. My clothes will be dry, and so will my boots. I can pick up the trail, head back to Migdhari, and keep chasing the Silene vitalis.
But the thought of leaving him feels… unbearable.
Despite the short amount of time we’ve shared, he sees me. All of me. More clearly than Ben ever did. More honestly than I’ve seen myself in years.
I lie down in the mountain of furs, full and warm and content in a way I didn’t know I needed. The Migoi hums low under his breath as he tidies, something ancient and rhythmic in the sound. The softly crackling fire mixes with it to make the perfect, relaxing background soundtrack.
He returns to my side, lowering himself behind me where he curls his massive body around mine like a living shield. His heat seeps into my skin as his breath ghosts over the back of my neck.
I let myself sink into his arms, into this strange little world we’ve carved out of stone and ice. It feels so comfortable, so warm and safe. Home pulses again in my heart, more sensation than thought.
Gods help me—I don’t want to go. Tomorrow, I’ll start thinking again. Tomorrow, I’ll figure out what I have to do. How to leave.
But tonight, I belong to him.