I can hardly imagine what the werewolves are feeling as they carefully step around the other patrons. Vrox breaks away from our group and heads to the front counter with a very small bag of coin, undoubtedly provided by Fahuri while I was gawking. He approaches a female at the bar with iron-gray hair. Despite the graying in her hair, her face looks just as broad and childlike as the others, except for the sharp look in her eye as she leans in to hear his request and the haggling begins. Vrox returns several minutes later with three keys and a pained look on his face and returns the balance of the small bag to Fahuri.
“Satyrs,” he grumbles, “cutthroats each and every one of them. Charged three times more than the standard rate. Our coin did get hot water for washing and all the food and drink that we should desire, however.” He continues to confer with Fahuri about the accommodations, but I tune him out. I really just don’t care. Bath, bed, and food is enough information for me.
I am willing to forgive whatever kind of bed is waiting to greet me for the promise of a hot bath. A day of hiking has left me sweaty and my clothes are sticking to me uncomfortably. It absolutely disgusts me that the werewolves all look perfectly comfortable and not one of them reeks. Poor Arawl is pressed up against me between my back and the wall and I immediately feel sorry for his sensitive nose having to deal with my BO. I scoot away from him but don’t take more than a few steps before his claws snag my sack.
“Where are you going?” Arawl dips his head down to whisper. His tone has a slight bite to it, and I notice he’s eyeing a centaur at a nearby table with undisguised hostility. As the centaur catches my eye, he leers at me and I immediately scoot back up against Arawl. He growls low in his throat, reminding me of everything he said about fucking and fighting. I reach up and twist a handful of fur just hard enough to bring his attention back to me.
“It’s okay. He just unnerved me. I don’t think he’s going to try anything. Just don’t start anything and get us kicked out. I want my bath.”
“I won’t,” he grumbles, almost sulking. “Why did you move away from me? Don’t you know that can be seen as an open invitation to some males?”
I didn’t consider that. The idea that even taking a few steps away from Arawl could be interpreted that way is not the most comfortable feeling. I glance around at the nearest males, each of them of a different species, and they’re all eyeing me. I give them all my best ‘eat shit and die’ glare and plaster myself to Arawl’s side.
He rumbles and drops his head to nuzzle me, drawing in deep breaths as he sniffs the crook of my neck. I feel the slide of his tongue against my neck and I squirm. I am absolutely disgusting and he’s licking me. I must taste as gross as I feel.
“Stop that,” I hiss with embarrassment.
“Why?” he grumbles between licks.
“For the same reason I stepped away. I stink and am sweaty. I’m trying to spare you here,” I retort waspishly.
“I like it,” he returns, his little growly sighs getting louder. “You smell better today for some reason. Richer. The saltiness of your skin is quite appealing to me.”
I shiver in reaction. On one hand, the idea is totally disgusting to me that someone would be licking at my sweat, much less my lover. In order to spare my heart, I can’t think of him as my mate, even on a temporary basis. But I find it’s marginally easier to accept our brief time together as if he were a lover, so that is how I maintain our relationship in my mind. On the other hand, the idea of him lusting after me in a way that’s obviously very primal does strange things to my libido. It’s always ready to perk up and pay attention when he even does anything even suggestively sexual.
“I think you might need this,” Vrox’s dry voice cuts in. “You have room three. The old proprietor insists that you leave all weapons with her before you go up. Says it is the tavern rules,” he grumbles, and I notice he’s no longer wearing his blades nor his massive broadsword.
At his words, a key is thrust at us and Arawl jerks back startled but regains his composure enough to accept the key. My lover gives one last look around at the other males, bristling and baring his teeth before herding me to the front counter where we drop off our weapons. The task accomplished, he steers me up the stairs. I can feel the eyes of the males boring into my back the entire time and am relieved when the key turns effortlessly in the lock and we are able to escape into our room.
Chapter 19
Arawl
The room is a little better than I expected. There is no straw on the floor—I hate walking over straw as it tends to jab me in sensitive spots between my toes. In fact, it is swept, and everything looks clean. There are even two blankets on the bed to ward off the evening chill. A tub has already been carried up and filled with hot water and Ana squeals with pleasure the moment she sees it. She immediately begins shucking her clothing, but not for the reason that I hope. She climbs into the tub with a moan that has my cock twitch inside its sheath.
Though her high-pitched sound hurt my ears and my cock throbs, my heart gladdens to give her some comfort—even if she is scrubbing all the wonderful scents and tastes off her body. Some of that wonderful smell is my own scent and watching her wash it off disturbs me on a level I would never have anticipated. Still, I grab a small pitcher and crouch behind her. She jumps when I dip it into the tub beside her leg, but she quickly relaxes and leans her back so I can carefully pour the water over her hair. I am fascinated at watching the water pull through her curls, briefly lengthening them before the curls slowly begin to tighten again. Her dusky nipples tighten as well, drawing my attention to them. I wish to lick and suck at them like I did during my rut.
I am not entirely sure if she will welcome my touch now that I am no longer suffering from the influence of the full moon, but her scent is inviting and she doesn’t pull back from my touch. All positive signs.
I stroke my hand through her hair as I soap it first and then down her nape to her breasts. She groans and sighs with pleasure as she presses into my touch. Her skin is so soft beneath my rough palms that I cannot think of a single thing I enjoy more. Running my hand down her belly, I devote every curve to my memory and every sound she makes in response. When I finally slip my hand into the water to cup her mons, her hips arch enticingly out of the water just enough so that I gently slip a finger there with care for my claws.
Stroking the tight little bud that gives her so much pleasure, I find just the right spots and tempo that makes her moan. I rub it gently with an increasing rhythm, move away from it only briefly to flick it with the side of my claw or to dip lower to pay tribute to the petals that open around her warm slit. Her scent deepens, and the hunger with me flares nearly as deeply as if the full moon were still exerting her influence.
When her body shivers and shakes, her thighs clasping hard around my wrist with her orgasm, I am at the brink. My cock extrudes, precum already slicking the pointed head and thick shaft. I am so hard that it borders on painful and I swallow back an impatient whimper. Taking the pitcher back in my hand, I rinse her hair and body before lifting her from the tub. I do not care that she is soaking the upper coat of my fur. Pressing her against me, I shudder with desire.
“Tell me that you want this too, even without the light of the full moon.”
I feel her hands caress my chest.
“I want it too, Arawl,” she whispers.
That is all I need to hear. I carry her over to the bed the moment her words leave her mouth, forcing my body to go slow. I set her on her feet and gently push her upper body forward until her belly is pillowed on the mattress. Her ass is presented to me, her heady scent wafting up to me. I crouch low, my arms braced over her back to keep her pressed to the bed, to lap at her sex. Drawing my tongue over the surface leisurely, I savor every nuance of her flavor. She gasps and jerks her hips, grinding herself against my mouth. I can tell she is getting close.
For a moment, I am plagued with indecision. Should I remain where I am and enjoy the burst of her flavors over my tongue
as she orgasms or yield to my painful need to sink my cock into her?
A tightening of my sack is what decides it for me. Springing to my feet, I curl my body around hers. She immediately lifts her ass against my pelvis in invitation even though she curses my name under her breath and whimpers about being “so close.” Those curses dissolve into gasped moans as my cock slicks through her petals, our bodies shuddering together in mutual pleasure. Unable to wait anymore, I draw back my hips and snap them forward, my cock burying in her cunt. Her body jerks at the sudden invasion but her throaty groan makes lust surge through me.
With a snarl I drive into her, holding her tightly against my body. Instinct demands that I solidify the hold by my teeth at her neck as I’ve done so many times before when we copulated through my full moon heat... but not this time. I pull back my head to look down at her. Her cheek is pressed against the blanket, her eyes are shut, and her lips parted as she pants and moans with every thrust.
With a shift of my hips, I snarl ecstatically as my knot slides into her. She is already snug though it has barely begun to swell. Ana cries out and her cunt ripples around my phallus with hard, pulsing squeezes as I continue to drive into her at a quickening pace. I am riding the edge of a building pressure within me and, as much as I want to linger within her and feel her orgasm bearing down around my cock, I can’t stop this need to rut. My hips shuttle against hers, my movements becoming shorter as my knot swells until we are finally locked together. I am only able to grind slightly while my orgasm explodes through me with breaking force. I feel demolished before it, my hips and legs shaking as my seed jets into her, stream after stream.
Locked in place, I lean forward and lick her back and the nape of her neck. The renewed salty taste of her skin is a treat. I pause to affectionately nuzzle the mating mark that scars her shoulder and, beneath me, Ana sighs contentedly. I swallow thickly.
I want to keep her. I want a lifetime of this. A lifetime of her smiles and her quirky, mouthy attitude that rivals any alpha I’ve ever met.
“Stay,” I rumble against her shoulder.
“I am not going anywhere. As you recall, we’re tied together at the moment. The last time I tried to go anywhere before you were ready was not exactly comfortable,” she teases.
I smile but shake my head and sigh. “No. Not that. Stay with me. I don’t want you to leave me.”
She freezes beneath me and turns her head so she can look me in the eye. Her brow creases with confusion. “What about all that stuff about not wanting the responsibility of a mate and hating it being forced on you? I refuse to be a burden, Arawl. I don’t want to be kept because of some great sex and you otherwise resenting being tied to me in every other way for the rest of our lives.”
I shake my head earnestly. “I can’t imagine having to go through the rest of my life without you. I’ve known for a couple of days now that such a future would be... empty.”
She bites her lips, her eyes glistening in an alarming fashion. My stomach sinks as I consider that she may very well be preparing to feed my heart back to me as brutally as I perhaps did with her when I was first horrified to discover myself mated.
“Why didn’t you say anything?” she whispers.
“You were so certain that you don’t want to be with me—and I won’t keep you if you don’t want to be kept—that I didn’t want you to feel pressured at all by me into staying. I just couldn’t let another moment slip by us without telling you how much I want you in my life, and how much I want you to stay. Not because of the monthly heat, or even to satisfy my need to rut, but for the wonderful female who has already brightened my life. I understand what fated mate means now. I understand why it is so prized. Severing my life from you, cutting our bond, will leave me only half a male. I want you, Ana.”
Her pink tongue swipes over her lips. “And if I want to leave?”
The pain that lances my heart is unbearable, but I manage to speak. “Then we will go to the tower and I will see to your safety back to your home myself. After that, you will never hear from me again. I won’t shadow you or bother you. I will remain in my realm.”
The pressure of my knot finally loosens, and my cock slips free with a small gush of seed. The ruddy length hangs between my legs for a moment. I step away to wet a cloth and clean myself and allow her some space to think.
“Do you love me, Arawl?”
I toss the cloth on the small table where bathing sheets and cloths are carefully folded, unable to look at her, not wanting her to see my heart breaking.
“Enough to allow you to call me Crawl like you threatened to demonstrate that I would crawl on my knees if necessary, to prove my love for you... and that I will never, ever leave you behind. It is more than love. You are my very heart, my mate.”
I spin around in alarm when I hear her sniffle. Ana sits on the edge of the bed, her knees drawn up. Her eyes are wet from tears but she is smiling at me. Her chin trembles and she sucks in her lips for a moment.
“I want you too,” she chokes out on a sob. “I’ve been trying to be okay with this thing. The way I feel about you, but also knowing that it’s all ending soon. I’ve been trying to compartmentalize, to live in the moment to enjoy what time I have with you. I couldn’t allow myself to hope...”
I growl low in my throat and scoop her up in my arms, pressing her close to my chest.
I will never let her go. Not now.
“You are stuck with me now,” I tell her firmly. “You are mine, and I am yours, through all the fights, passion, and all the good memories that await us.”
She laughs into my fur. “You and your fighting and fucking.”
“I did mention good memories too,” I say, affronted. I want to make sure that she knows it is more than my instinctual needs, that I want her with all of me and look forward to the future we will be building.
She snuggles against me with a sigh. “That you did.”
I sit there holding her until her breath evens out in slumber. I hated to put her down even then, but I very gently lay her on the bed so that I could wet a cloth with the cooling hot water that remains in a bucket beside the tub. Cloth in hand, I return to her side and spread her thighs to carefully clean her up. The water removes all traces of her arousal and my seed, but the pleasant mingle of our scents remain. Throwing that cloth with the other one, I curl around my mate and sigh contentedly.
I don’t get to lay there long beside her before a sharp knock sounds at our door. I am not surprised. I had doubted that I would get to rest throughout the night without meeting with Fahuri to plan our next steps.
Jinx smiles up at me bleary-eyed and greets me around a muffled yawn.
“Fahuri wants to see you.”
I hesitate, glancing back at my mate, loath to leave her. “I can’t leave Ana here alone.”
“That’s why she sent me,” he says with a crooked grin. “I am to chill in here and catch a few Zs until you get back.”
He shuffles over to bed but I let out a sharp growl, startling him enough that he doesn’t manage to sit down before he jerks forward in surprise. I swallow back my ire and gentle my tone, reminding myself that his actions were innocent and that they were not werewolves to be treated as if they would automatically know our ways.
“Not the bed,” I grumble reluctantly. He smiles in understanding and gives me what I assume is some kind of salute. Peculiar. “I will return as soon as possible.”
Chapter 20
Arawl
Fahuri is on the edge of her bed when I enter, her body tense. Rashi stands to one side of her and the other betas are crowded around them in the room, waiting for me. Vrox inclines his head toward me and his brothers mimic his gesture. I return the gesture and fix my attention on my sister and Rashi.
“Arawl,” she greets me with a tired smile.
“She needs rest. I don’t know why this must be done tonight,” Rashi grumbles and he stands protectively over her, his eyes shooting a cutting glare toward Vrox. She waves
his objection off with one hand before an argument has the chance to erupt.
“I am fine, Rashi. Vrox is right. The sooner we discuss our next steps, the better off we will be. We face unfamiliar ground. None of us have been so far outside of our territory. Even in the skirmishes with the Warue occurred in areas close to our border. We are venturing into the unknown,” she says. “I don’t want to be caught off-guard once we start entering into ogre territory.
“If we are planning, Jinx and Ana should be here. It is not right to exclude them given the circumstances” he protests. I can’t help but agree.
“We are not all in accord on that matter,” Gorn snaps as he steps forward to address the other beta. “I have made it known since the beginning that I did not approve of humans coming with us, but Eral insisted. If we are going to have to protect them then I would rather it be on our terms than give them the opportunity to make matters more difficult for us. This is an Evarue matter.”
“Ana is my mate, by our law that makes her Evarue,” I remind him. Rashi nods his head and Fahuri’s mouth tightens in response as well to Gorn’s scorn.
Etier frowns at his brother and nudges him in the shoulder. “We are not all in agreement with our brother, lest you make the mistake to suggest otherwise. The humans saved us from the dryads. They are an equal part of our company.”
“But they are also foreigners among us. They don’t understand the rules of this realm,” Vrox corrects him calmly. “I agree with Gorn only as far as that they don’t possess enough information to be assets in decision-making. They are worthy, however, in every other way,” he states, his voice turning steely as he narrows his eyes on Gorn. Mentep and Tas nod in agreement.
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