“He does,” Flam agrees. “Lucky you two found each other when you did.”
“I often think luck has little to do with anything.” Someone pulls our strings, moving pieces like a game, and the more I think about it, the more I wonder who had Chosen all of us in the first place. My people believe in no all-powerful God, not like Jupiter once explained. We believe in the trees, in nature. But the woman that came to me, to Wendy, to Tink, when we were Chosen makes me wonder.
“Hatter,” I call, the thought forming in my mind. When he turns to look at me, his own madness dancing in his eyes but pressed down, I speak. “When you were Chosen, was it a woman who spoke to you?”
He blinks at me. “It was.” He looks at Clara and she nods.
“It was a woman I spoke to when I was crowned.”
“Does anyone else find it odd that we all seem to have been Chosen by the same woman or deity, that Neverland’s deity could be Wonderland’s deity?”
Hatter blinks and opens his mouth but shuts its closed again. “The words are merging now. And whatever it is, she’s powerful enough to span worlds and gift power.”
“And we can very well run into her,” Clara murmurs, before shaking her head. “We can discuss this later. Tiger Lily, you have a Hare dashing through the underbrush for you. Flam, you should start running so Doe can catch you.”
“What about you?” Doe asks, furrowing her brows.
“I’m not feeling that great.” She waves away any concern and smiles gently. “Go. Enjoy the night. We don’t know what tomorrow will bring.”
She’s right. And for that reason, I turn and roll my shoulders, before darting into the trees. March has a good head start, and while he’s fast, he’s also easily distracted left on his own. His scent is easy enough to follow. March isn’t trying to hide, leaving behind a clear path for me to traipse. I begin to run, covering distance as I leap over underbrush and reaching roots, diving around corners, until I can see March up ahead of me, running along the barrier. I know he’s tempted to go outside of it, but he stays dutifully inside, running the circle around the clearing. His ears twist when he hears me, and he looks over his shoulder at me with those toxic green eyes of his that I love so much. The grin that splits his face is beautiful, cunning, and if he genuinely wants to escape me, he can, but that isn’t what this game is about. In the end, we both want him to be captured.
“Pretty Lily,” he sings. “Pretty Lily, Pretty Lily, running through the trees, Cat and Mouse, Bat and Hare, catch me if you please.”
I smile and push harder, my toes digging into the earth as I run faster. Memories of my childhood flash in my mind, of running just like this, sometimes with Bear, sometimes with Bane, and the feeling is the same as I chase after March. The silver of his painted symbols glints in the moonlight, the stars so numerous, it’s not quite like darkness as much as being beneath a blanket of diamonds. After so many years spent in the darkness, it’s almost overwhelming to have a sun and moon cycle here, but the stars, I can see why Wendy and Hook like them so much.
The rhyme comes from nowhere, instinct maybe, that I shoot them back at him, grinning wide.
“I’ll catch you, you teasing rabbit, and devour you down whole. In the end, when you ask which of us is faster, both of us will finally know.”
March trips and stares back at me with wide eyes, awe there, but he keeps going, darting around trees, avoiding tripping again. I draw closer, closer, until I know if I leap forward, I can catch him. Instead of doing so, I sink into the pattern for a few moments, enjoying it. Tonight, March has his glasses put away, the useless things that skew his world momentarily gone. I like him with the glasses and without, his face glorious either way, but it’s good he’s not wearing them now. I wouldn’t want them to be broken.
“Oh, March,” I purr, grinning.
He laughs, the sound deep and full of mirth, excited, but he doesn’t answer me. Either way, I push myself, and when we slam through a small clearing, I leap.
March could have ducked, could have easily avoided my hands if he wanted to, but that isn’t the point of all this. I barrel into his back, sending the both of us rolling in the clearing until he slams into the earth and I land on top of him. I quickly adjust my position, spreading my knees around his thighs so I’m straddling him and bracing my hands on his bare chest. At some point, my hair had come loose from the ties, leaving the black locks to dangle around us like a curtain as I lean down.
“Caught you,” I murmur with a grin.
“You did,” he agrees, his long fingers curling around my hips, holding on so he can grind his hard length against the apex of my thighs. “Now, eat me.”
I snort and lean down, capturing his lips with mine in a kiss filled with the adrenaline of the chase. The kiss is furious, insanity, so full of our shared love, it makes my chest ache. Even had March never won me over with the care he shows me, he would have won me by the way he treats Aniya. Like a little warrior, like she’ll one day be the greatest force in every world.
“You’re a warrior, just like your mother, and one day, you’ll make the world shake, little Aniya.”
I’d overheard his words as he’d joined my daughter for tea with real teacups rather than roughly carved ones. The Hatter had gifted her a set, a full set fit for a princess, and I’d nearly cried at the absolute awe in her eyes. The Hatter had sat down with her for tea, surprised when she procured food and tea from nowhere, but accepting it. Everyone has been so perfect since we arrived.
World Breaker. I’d heard the word tossed around enough, and there was a curiosity as to if a World Breaker had to be bad, or if they could be brought up to control those tendencies. Something told me we would find out. The more I watch Aniya, the more something inside me whispers my instincts are correct, that my daughter is meant to move worlds. But growing up loved, knowing love, being loved, makes a lot of difference, and Aniya is smothered in love from every side. If she will one day take that mantle, she will be the first to control it. I have full faith in her.
“What are you thinking so hard about?” March asks, leaning back just enough to look into my eyes.
Grimacing, I smooth my fingers along his scars, tracing them, making his chest rumble in a purr. His fingers trailed up my sides and forward to cup my breasts. “Too much,” I answer honestly. “There’s so much to worry about.”
“You think Aniya is a World Breaker.”
I freeze, blinking down at the March Hare. “How did you—”
“With our bond, it’s easy to feel your emotions, your worry, but it’s also an easy conclusion to draw. It also brings into question if we handled Alice wrong.” He sits up and presses a kiss to my chest. “Aniya is different. She’s powerful, but the cruel streak Alice had, that festered as a child and grew, Aniya doesn’t have that. She cares about the creatures she calls to her side. She knows love, giving and receiving. Even if she is a World Breaker, she will not destroy, but she’s destined to rule.”
“That terrifies me,” I admit.
“I imagine no mother wants to hear their child will go through difficulties, but the beauty of immortality is that we can be there beside her. Aniya has a whole world, two now, surrounding her, supporting her, and she’ll be perfect.”
I cup March’s jaw, staring into his eyes. “How can you be so certain?”
“Because you’re her mother. Because you look at monsters and see beauty. You look at darkness and see the light. And Aniya does the same. That Lost follows her around like a puppy.”
I chuckle and press my forehead against his chest, holding him tightly to me in the uncomfortable position. “Your faith in me is astounding.”
Strong fingers cup my chin and lift, forcing me to meet his eyes. “If there’s anything I’m certain of, it’s you, Pretty Lily.”
He claims my lips then in a soft kiss, far different from the rough claiming from a few minutes ago. This holds all the emotions between us, the ones we’d thrown ourselves into. Though there’s alway
s this feeling that we’re missing Peter, that this should have been a triad, it still feels perfect as we sink into each other.
Our coupling comes with a hurried rush of hands and harsh pants. March shoves my skirt up around my waist, ripping my undergarments away, before he tears his trousers open just enough to free his cock. I lift enough for his head to stroke along my entrance before pressing inside, his fingers on my hips controlling how fast I can sink down on him. Every time we join like this, it’s always just as perfect. Looping my arms around his shoulders and spearing my fingers into his hair and around his ear, March controls my pace with his fingers on my hips, almost bruising in the strength his claims me.
“I love you, Pretty Lily,” he rasps, moving agonizingly slow as he claims me. “So much it hurts.”
“I love you, too,” I moan, as he begins to quicken his pace. “Always.”
My orgasm rises and crests like a tidal wave, sweeping through my body until I’m a quivering mess, until March swells inside me and locks us together, immediately sending another orgasm through me. The feel of the large knot that March has always strokes the perfect places, and when his teeth find my shoulder, I don’t complain. It’s in his nature to bite, to be bitten, so when he releases my shoulder, I do the same to him, biting deep with my human teeth until he shivers against me. We will forever wear each other’s marks, even after the bites fade.
“I know there’s probably some proper way to do it, and Wonderland has it’s own traditions, but I don’t care for any of those,” March murmurs as we hold each other tightly, as we share intimacy between us. He reaches into his pocket between us and pulls a necklace out, a vial hanging from the end that glows the same color as his eyes.
“What is that?”
“The March Hare version of a ring.” When I stare at him blankly, he clears his throat. “We’re bonded by something far more intimate, by fate, but this is more like my promise to you.”
I tense. “You mean marriage.”
“Yes and no. This is a bond greater than Clara’s version of an Earth marriage. Inside this vial is my essence, who I am, and everything I want to give to you. When you drink it, it bonds us together permanently, but I don’t want you to be forced into that, so I hung it on a string. We aren’t ready for the consequences of the full bond, what it means, and I’m not sure we ever will be, but regardless, I’m never leaving you.” Carefully, he reaches up fingers to hang it around my neck. It rests between my breasts, glowing so pretty, I can’t help touching my fingers to it. “This is my promise, Pretty Lily, that whether you drink the potion or not, my heart is yours. That no matter what darkness we find ourselves in, I’ll be your monster, until all worlds cease to exist,” he grins. “Or until you finally crack and eat me.”
A laugh slips out at his words and I wrap my arms around him again. “What happens if I drink it?”
“We’ll be able to speak to each other without speaking out loud. We’ll be able to know where the other is without any sort of magic. And. . . we’ll share a life force. If one dies, the other will follow.”
I pause. “And that’s why you put it on a necklace.”
March nods. “Because you are not only you. Because we also have Aniya. Because you can’t possibly drink it, and risk leaving her without either one of us, if I should somehow find my next death permanent.”
I press my lips to his, silencing him for a moment, before I reach into my own pocket. “I have my own promise to give you, Hare.” When I pull the shining copper cuff from my hip, the hammered metal glinting in the light of the stars, March’s eyes widen. “In the Tribe, we don’t wear rings as our promise. We wear cuffs.” Carefully, I lift his wrist and slide the cuff over his fingers. “It’s to signify that we share a bond far greater than meant for Earth.”
March stares with wide eyes at the cuff, before he wraps his arms around me and hugs me almost too tight. “No one has ever given me such a gift,” he admits.
His words make my chest squeeze painfully. March deserves so much more than I can give him, but I’ll spend eternity reminding him that he deserves such things if that’s what it takes. The March Hare has been neglected for so long, has been forgotten, has suffered, and while I can’t erase that, I can bring him into a new future where he’s loved.
“You deserve far more than that, March,” I whisper, stroking his ear.
“Did you make two?” His eyes meet mine and I pause. “Did you make another?”
Slowly, hesitantly, I nod, and he smiles. “Good. If fate works in mysterious ways, if things aren’t always what they seem, it’s best to be prepared.”
I’m tempted to ask him what he means, to try and figure out if he feels something, but I keep the words to myself. We have so many things to tackle, a whole new merged world to understand, it seems strange to pause and think of ourselves. It’s best to save it for another time.
“Do you think everything will be okay?” I ask, and it’s a loaded question, because how can it be? We’ll be facing new monsters, new worlds, and the danger is so high, it terrifies me to take Aniya into such a world, but I don’t mean any of that. March understands.
“I think, in the end, everything will be okay.” He smiles at me. “In the end, we have each other, and that makes it all okay. And if it isn’t, well, we’re just a couple of monsters stealing a moment in time.”
I smile and kiss him again. “Not monsters,” I whisper against his lips, moving against him. “Never monsters.”
We’re so much more than that, and it took a Mad March Hare to show me the truth.
With a blanket of diamonds over our heads, the March Hare and I revel in each other, beneath the Festival of Danu. The chain hangs heavy on my neck, as much as March’s cuff is probably heavy on his wrist, but neither one of us care. Just as neither of us care how heavy the extra cuff is in my pocket.
Love is blind, and whole, and beautiful, even in madness, even in darkness.
“I love you, March,” I whisper as he softens enough to move inside me again.
He grins, mischief trickling into his eyes. “Enough to eat me?”
Chapter Six
THE DODO BIRD
Watching all but Clara and Hatter dash off into the woods makes me itch to chase my own sexy prey, but we hesitate. Since we returned to Wonderland, since we realized all the worlds were crashing together, Flam has been distracted. Something is bothering him, and while I understand there’s a lot going on, I wish he would confide in me.
Currently, Flam is staring up at the sky, completely lost in thought, his glittering pink eyes reflecting the light of a million stars.
“Should I just strip naked and take off?” I ask, just to be cheeky, but I don’t even think he hears me. He doesn’t move, doesn’t look my way. Scowling, I step up closer and shove him, sending him stumbling just a little.
Flam rights himself and looks at me in confusion but when he sees the look on my face, he smiles. “Eager to chase me, are you?”
“At the moment, if I catch you, I’m more likely to rip you to shreds rather than fuck you,” I shoot back and his smile widens.
Flam has always been too sexy for his own good, and once upon a time, I would have thought we weren’t quite meant for each other. The Beast of a Flamingo with the dour little Dodo Bird. My mother had a field day so long ago, but sometimes, fate pulls in the opposite direction we think we’re going. Flam has always been intriguing to me, attractive, brutal, perfect. And there was a long stretch of time where we’d been separated, Flam off on a mission for the old King and Queen, but we always come back for each other, no matter what.
Flam’s body is painted with the silver paint of the festival, sweeping across his tattoos, hiding bits and pieces of them while only seemingly highlighting others. The paint grows thin in some place, showing the black lines through, making him an inky mixture of brutality and sensuality. He’s beautiful, and I want nothing more than to revel in him, but first, we have things to discuss.
“What�
�s in that pretty head of yours?” he purrs, curling his fingers around my hips. It shoots arousal through my body, the way he holds me, possessive, perfect.
“I should be asking you that, Flamingo.” My face is hard when I say the words and he sighs.
“I know I’ve been distracted lately. I just can’t seem to focus.”
“Then tell me what ails you and I can help. I can’t help if you stand there looking at the sky and never speak. I’ve given you plenty of time to come to me, but you haven’t.”
Flam has never spoken of his mission for the old King and Queen. He doesn’t bring up wherever it was he’d been stuck at when Alice came back to Wonderland and took over. He never lets it slip, never speaks any details. He almost pretends it never happened.
I wish I could do the same to that part of my life, but it sticks vividly in my brain.
Flam sighs and presses his forehead against mine. “It’s hard to talk about. . .”
I clench my teeth and step back, away from his reaching hands. He lets me, his fingers falling away. We’ve been married so long, together, happy the times we were together, I don’t remember a time where I felt like Flam couldn’t trust me, or didn’t want to trust me. Of course, now, I’m no longer the Dodo Bird he married so long ago, not after Alice got her claws in me.
“I know I’m not the same as before,” I rasp, taking another step back. “I know I’m not the woman you married anymore, but—”
“Don’t,” he says, his voice harsh and brutal. “Don’t you dare try to take the fault in this, Doe. I love you.”
Monstrous as a Croc (Daughters of Neverland Book 4) Page 14
