Hook looks at me, studying my face, before he shakes his head. “I’m not afraid. For so many years, we sat and watched the world remain the same. For centuries, I was trapped in the same body. It was a relief when we started changing. I like change, and even if it brings the worst dangers to our door, I’m not afraid.”
“How can you not be?” I whisper, frowning. “How can you not look at this new world and not shake in fear?”
“Easy.” He tugs me closer, until our sides are flush. “I have you at my side. Nothing is scarier than the look of murder in your eyes if I’ve done something wrong.”
I choke out a startled laugh, turning on my side to drape myself over him. “I adore you, Captain Hook. Why did we wait so long to admit our feelings?”
“Because I was an asshole and you were too good for me.” He holds me tighter. “Now, I’m never letting you go.”
“That sounds more like a threat rather than a proclamation of your love,” I tease, leaning up to kiss him gently.
“It’s both. Because if anyone tries to take you from me, I’ll tear these worlds apart to find you.” The galaxies in his eyes swirl with his fierceness. “I love you, Wendy Bird. Until whatever end.”
“I love you, too, pirate. Until whatever end.”
I kiss him there beneath a carpet of stars he yearns to sail, and though we don’t follow Tink’s rules for the festival, we follow our own. No matter what happens next, no matter the new monsters and challenges we’ll face, at least, we have each other.
One day, I’ll take Hook to the stars again. No matter what. No matter when.
Until whatever end. . .
Chapter Four
JUPITER
I painted myself. Of course, I painted myself. I would never catch White if I try to chase him. Even with the Power of Mercy in my veins and being chosen, I’m no where near as fast as my rabbit. Of course, some day, I feel like I have no powers, at all. The Dreamwalker abilities are constant, but the other ones? They feel hazy some days, as if they’d only been meant for our battle with Alice and nothing more. I haven’t had the courage to ask Clara and Cal if they feel the same, if they feel like something is hovering at the edges of their senses the same as I do. I don’t know if I will ever get up the courage. If I’m not Chosen, what am I? Why will White even want me if I can’t hold my own?
“You’re thinking pretty hard about all the ways I’m going to catch you,” White murmurs in my ear and I nearly jump out of my skin. White’s eyes miss nothing, our bond too close to hide secrets from each other. “What are you worrying about?”
I grimace. “Nothing.”
“Liar, liar,” he chides.
When Cal strides from the trees in front of us, a grin on her face, I smile at her. Cheshire is no doubt still looking for her. I don’t have the heart to tell her he won’t take long to figure out her trick, not if they’re bonded the same as White and I. I’m starting to be able to feel when White is near, feel his emotions. It’s strange to feel an emotion and it not be yours.
“Let’s save it for another time,” I murmur, returning my gaze to White’s. “We’re supposed to be celebrating.”
He studies me for a moment before nodding his head. He has trust that I’ll tell him what bothers me, and I will, but I need to forget it just this day. I need to ignore the problems piling up, the mysteries, the things I want to study. I’d always wanted excitement and here I am, in the most exciting world of the century, a collision of worlds. I just hadn’t realized how overwhelming it would feel sometimes.
“You know,” White says, staring into the trees. “Rabbits aren’t really chasers.”
“Your nature may dictate you run, but you’ll always be stronger than that,” I shoot back. “Besides, how many times can I call you ‘bunny boy’ before you don’t care and want to spank me?” I tease and his lip curls up.
“You do so love playing with fire, Dreamwalker.”
“Bunny boy,” I repeat, stepping back and toward the tree line.
“Jupiter.” His voice is thick with arousal, the urge to teach me a lesson strong. It’s a lesson I’ve learned many times, one I plan to learn over and over again, because White likes it, no matter how much he claims he doesn’t. We’d fallen into this game so long ago, and now it’s a part of us. For me, I thoroughly enjoy the outcome.
“Bunny boy!” Grinning, I dive through the tree line with a giggle, running. I curse the fact I hadn’t tied my hair when it catches on the branches, side stepping the talking flowers in my path. Still, after so many years here, the things give me the creeps. The little ones aren’t so bad. It’s the big ones that make me want to squish them all.
White won’t give me much of a head start, not with my teasing, but I push myself to run as hard as I can, attempting to impossibly outrun the White Rabbit. I’m not surprised when I hear the sound of snapping twigs and brush behind me as I curve to avoid the barrier. Miraculously, I don’t run into any of the others as I run, but the sounds behind me grow closer.
For a second, I worry that it isn’t White, at all. We’ve had large creatures coming into Wonderland, dangerous ones. And though the barrier keeps some of them out, we still find some inside our walls. After all the years of expecting the worst, a sudden dose of anxiety fills me. But that worry disappears when I feel his presence, when I can sense him holding back, giving me time to run.
Warmth fills my chest. He’s making sure the fun doesn’t end too quickly, but this isn’t about the chase for us. This is about the result.
“Such a cute bunny,” I call into the air, and his answering growl echoes around me, close, but not as close as I want him to be. “Fluffy, and white, fur like velvet, adorable little cottontail.”
Something slams into me barely a second later, tilting my world, knocking the breath from my lungs. When I gain my bearings, only then do I realize it was White and I was somehow now tossed over his shoulder, as if he were a caveman rather than a rabbit. His arm bands around my thighs as he carries me in the direction of Hatter’s house, but I’m not done yet. In this position, it gives me the perfect view of his backside. I slide my hands down his leather pants, scraping my nails at the base of his spine.
“Where’s your cottontail, bunny boy?”
White freezes. “Is this the game you want to play, Jupiter?” I can hear the arousal in his voice, the desire to take control and punish me right here. I’m not opposed. In fact, that’s been my plan all along.
“Who’s playing a game?” I giggle, reaching lower to grab his ass. It’s nice to be allowed to whenever I want. White has such a great ass.
My world tilts again, and I find myself slammed against a tree, White panting above me. With a grin, I trail my fingers along his throat, scraping beneath his waistcoat, slowly unbuttoning the front.
“I feel violent tonight,” he admits, his eyes watching my face closely.
“Then be violent.” I lean forward and press a kiss against his chest. “I’m not breakable, bunny boy.”
“I’m keeping a tally of how many times you tease me,” he groans. “Each one will earn my hand across your ass.”
“I know,” I meet his eyes. “Bunny boy.”
He grits his teeth and takes over his buttons, ripping it open and revealing his body, the muscles chiseled, the white tattoos etched into his skin. Reaching up to circle his neck, I drag his face down to mine for a kiss with barely restrained violence between us.
“Let go,” I murmur against his lips. “You need this, White. Just let go.”
But it isn’t just White that needs it. I do, too. I want to feel like the worlds around us could fade away if we ignore them, that we’re the only two in the world. I want him to work out his worry and fears, and I need to do the same. The fears are growing too large around us, so we should handle them the best way we know how. Through sheer, utter desire.
“Tell me an interesting fact,” White growls, grabbing my shirt and jerking it roughly over my head. “Something scientific.” At
tacking my breasts with relish, his rough palm covers one while he runs his tongue along the other.
I moan, trying to focus. White likes when I talk nerdy. It used to be strange to me after years of dealing with men who were intimidated by it. But White? He revels in every part of who I am, and though I probably frustrate him to no end sometimes with my curiosity, he never complains, never stops me. Instead, he likes listening to me talk and brings me all the best nerdy shirts.
“When helium is cooled to near absolute zero, it becomes a liquid that flows against gravity.” My voice is breathy as White traces his tongue along my scars, connecting the dots between my freckles, controlling my movements thoroughly.
When his hands reach down and tug at my pants, I begin to shake with need.
“Another,” he growls against my skin.
“Chocolate contains phenylethylamine, which is the same chemical released in your brain when you fall in love.”
White glances up at me. “Fuck, say that word again,” he demands, and when I reach forward to stroke his ear, he presses his hard length against me, our skin still separated by his pants.
“Phenylethylamine,” I repeat.
“I planned to tease the fuck out of you,” White growls. “But I can’t wait that long.”
White jerks my jeans down, but he doesn’t even try to take them off. They’re skinny jeans, and with White pressed against me, I can’t even lean down to shuck them off. White doesn’t seem to care. Turning me quickly and pressing my chest against the tree, White jerks my pants down just enough to band around the middle of my thighs, trapping my legs together. When I hear his zipper, I shiver in anticipation. This is the violence we crave, the kind that seems to be a part of White and I’m fully capable of handling. I need it. I want it. And I know White feels the same.
Pressing a hand between my shoulder blades, White jerks my hips backwards, forcing the tree to scrap against my sensitive nipples and my back to arch. When his fingers stroke through my folds, I nearly come apart. And we’ve barely started.
“How many times did you call me bunny today?” he asks, stroking inside me with a single finger.
“I don’t know.” Liar. I know. It’s eight.
He curls his finger inside me, and with the position I’m in, with his hand pressed into my upper back and keeping me still, he leaves me no choice. I wiggle my hips, trying to move him closer, to make him move a little faster with his slow torture.
He leans over me, his breath fanning across my ear, his teeth nipping the lobe. “It was eight,” he whispers. “So count.”
His hand smacks into my ass a second later and I cry out, not in pain, though it stings. My cry is nothing but desire. “One!” Another smack on the opposite cheek. “Two!”
“Good girl,” he groans, and then he’s pressing inside me, his cock stroking inside easily with my wetness. Still, he keeps me in the position he wants, holding my back down, keeping my hips back.
Another two spanks and through my moans, I manage to say the word, “three” and “four”. I nearly shatter right then and there, but White is a master of control. He changes the angle, dragging me back off the cliff I’d been on, forcing me up another.
“You asshole,” I breathe.
And then he’s slamming inside me, hard, forcing my nipples to scrap roughly against the bark and my cries to echo around us. His hand smacks against my ass, and it takes me entirely too long to say, “five”, but I manage. He delivers another two in quick succession before gripping my hip and using the leverage to fuck me hard enough to bruise, if I was still human, that is.
His cock strokes inside me with violent thrusts, every bit of violence he promised in the movements, and then his hand leaves my back long enough to thread through my curls and jerk me toward him, my back bowing dangerously. His fingers run up my body, pinching my overly sensitive nipples to the point of pain before caressing them. His pace never slows, and with the way my legs are trapped together, I can do nothing more than rely on him to hold me up.
His hand comes down on my breast, making my breath stutter. I forget to count, so he repeats the action on the other side. I stubbornly keep my lips shut against the number, instead, crying out my pleasure as he drives me up the cliff again. His lips trace along my shoulder, his teeth scraping there, forcing shivers and goosebumps to crawl along my body. It’s sensory overload, but it’s nothing compared to the way he suddenly digs his fingers between my thighs, forcing my legs just slightly apart with the jeans, stroking my clit almost too roughly but exactly what I need.
“White!” I cry out, my fingers trying to gain purchase but there’s nothing to hold onto except for his forearms that hold me up.
“That’s it,” he growls, the sound savage in his throat. “Shatter, Dreamwalker. Explode for me.”
My orgasm slams into me like a freight train so hard, spots danced before my eyes and I scream. My powers slams outside of me, a large bubble forming around us, cushioning us from the outside world for all of three seconds before disappearing. White rides me through the first wave, and then through a second, before he groans against my neck and I feel his cock jump inside me, filling me with warmth.
I can hardly breathe and it takes long seconds to blink the spots form my eyes, to realize I’ve nearly blacked out with the force of the orgasm. White slips from inside me and scoops me up like a bride. It’s a good thing, because my legs feel like jelly. I don’t think I can walk on my own, not yet.
The White Rabbit sits in the middle of the forest, cradling me in his lap as if I’m the most precious thing in the world. I smile up at him, reaching up a shaking hand to caress his jawline, letting everything I feel trickle through out bond.
“Tell me another fact,” he rasps, holding me tightly, as if it’s me that needs to be held together, as if we’re not all dangerously close to the edge of something unknown.
I press a kiss over his heart. “There are at least a thousand reasons why I love you.”
White blinks and then he melts around me, holding me tightly to him, sheltering me from anything that might walk upon us. “You are the best thing that ever happened to me, Jupiter,” he murmurs against my hair and my heart throbs in response.
“Ditto.”
We sit there, in the woods, mostly naked except for my pants around my thighs and White’s that he’d never even taken off, content to hold each other for as long as we’re able.
After all, we don’t know what’s coming, can’t possibly know what will, so for just one night, we pretend like we’re the only ones in the world. Staring up at the stars, I almost believe it.
I almost forget the storm that’s coming.
Chapter Five
TIGER LILY
I smile at March when he shrugs out of his shirt in front of everyone, though most have already taken off on their own adventures. The pixie tradition of the Festival of Danu had always seemed like a wild festival from the outside looking in, but standing in the midst of it, things feel different. I understand the celebration of being alive, and we need something like this. After everything we lost, we need a break from the present, from the ever-changing new world we find ourselves in. Tink’s people, those participating, whoop and take off into the trees right at the start. At least half of my Tribe and a smattering of Wendy’s crew join in. But in the end, I can’t seem to bring myself to take off into the trees right away. Instead, I stand there, watching March, surrounded by the worlds spinning, changing, moving, while I feel like I don’t move at all.
When March takes off his shirt, though, it’s the distraction I need. Because he does so without worrying who’s looking at his scars, at the raised flesh in the shape of a ribcage. The marks he’s hidden for so long stand proud and out there now. Flam glances at the marks, studies them, but doesn’t linger, not like I do. I know what it feels like to trace my fingers along the raised lines. Now, they mix with the silver paint for the festival.
“Are you sure you don’t want to chase me?” I ask, c
urious. March and I are not so different, not really. We both have a beast inside of us that we once feared letting out. Now, we both accept the beast for what it is: a strength.
“Oh, Pretty, Pretty Lily,” he purrs, moving closer and taking my hand. “I want you to catch me and eat me. Just like you always threaten.”
The March Hare presses a kiss to the back of my hand, his lips lingering, and when he nips me, I don’t jump. I was expecting it.
“Do you think I’ll be gentle if you incite a chase, Hare?”
“No, and that’s precisely the point.”
It’s the words I need to hear for me to tame my beast. Because while March will happily let me tear him to shreds, no matter the form I’m in, I won’t do that to him. I know enough of his backstory to know that he deserves so much better than someone willing to hurt him for pleasure. We can have fun without losing control.
I crack my neck and take off my headdress, setting it to the side carefully. March follows the movements with his eyes, curiosity there. “I’m a part of the forest, no matter the trees,” I offer as explanation. “I don’t need my beast to capture you.” My grin shows all my confidence and March responds immediately to it, pressing close and wrapping his arms around me.
“Catch me if you can, Pretty Lily,” he whispers, pressing a gentle kiss against my chin, and then he’s taking off into the forest.
Flam and Doe watch him go right alongside me. Clara and Hatter are off to the side, talking. Clara is sitting down on a bench. Her skin looks just a little green, and I wonder at that. None of us should be sick, so why does she wear such a pallor? I’ll have to remember to ask tomorrow.
“You know,” Flam says, meeting my eyes. “I’ve never seen the March Hare smile quite so much since you two found each other.”
“He deserves to smile as often as possible.” My words are sad, knowing everything he went through before he met me. I haven’t gotten to the full details, but I know enough to surmise. The March Hare had been placed in a terrible position even before he was Chosen, and the madness that ate at his father feasts on his own mind. He claims being close to me silences the madness, and for the life of me, it makes me want to stay as close as I possibly can. March deserves some silence after the atrocities he’s been forced into.
Monstrous as a Croc (Daughters of Neverland Book 4) Page 13
