He put his bear away so fast I didn’t even have time for that boop. I should have been used to his casual nudity by now, but I got jittery instead.
He was so magical and strong. I was a nobody who collected rocks and never trusted anyone long enough to make friends. How could he ever want me for a mate? Wasn’t I just waiting for him to abandon me?
“Are—are you—did he scare you?” Ward asked, more concerned about my answer than his bits hanging out. If he could be an adult, so could I.
All of my inner chatter stilled with his question. Aw, he was nervous. “The bear was the least scary part of all that.”
“Really?” Ward said as he spelled on his clothes and straps.
“He’s… you’re actually kinda cute,” I assured him as I patted his clothed shoulder.
“I’ll take cute over monstrous.”
Had someone actually called him that? From his serious expression, someone had, and it stuck like a burr. He just saved me from murder pork. Now I knew he could cook on top of that. In fact, no one I met outside our village had been anything like the stories. We were still upright after our first animal encounter. I hadn’t killed us with my mistakes. Was it possible this trip was going to be fun, after all?
Chapter8
Ward
Want burned hot inside me. I tamped it down when she looked my way because after the run-in with the Hoki, we were finally moving at a brisk pace. The only helpful part of the attack was it instilling a sense of urgency in Evie. And no matter how much my bear tried to convince me, I wasn’t far enough along in persuading her we were better together than we were alone—whether she wanted to call that mates or not. Every time I had to defend her as my bear, I braced for her to rear back in horror. I wasn’t ready to have her travel beside him. I needed to use our many hours of walking and many nights on the road to my best advantage.
They racked up quickly as we fell into a steady, ground-eating rhythm. Her renewed pace allowed us to cover ground faster than ever. I slowly won her trust. Two nights sleeping in the open and she automatically pressed the full length of her body against me last night. The bond arced a little stronger between us, and it made the day’s walk easier. Evie relaxed enough to be curious.
“Are there eagle shifters?” She stopped to look through the weeds on the side of the road and I didn’t have the heart to hurry her when she foraged.
“Yes, they’re assholes.” Sometimes I told people that’s how I got my scar just to mess with them.
“Are there lion shifters?” she asked, moving on when she found nothing.
I huffed. “Unfortunately, they tend to be vain about their hair in both forms.”
“Then there must be griffon shifters?” Evie picked up some fallen fruit from the tree we passed and stuffed it in her pockets.
“Yes.”
“Dragon shifters?”
I paused with a heavy heart. They were magnificent. “Not anymore.”
She took a deep breath at that. Silent for so long, I thought she finally ran out of questions. “I didn’t see any amphibians at the temple. Are there toad shifters?”
I laughed. “Of course not. Where would it live?”
She pondered that as we passed the stacked stone fence of a farm. Evie jogged forward to consult her book and pick some berries with more speed than I had witnessed for the entire trip. I might have stolen a few things out of her pack to make it lighter as we got ready for the road and it paid off when we got within a mile of the first town west of Vinguard—Acerni. I needed Evie to look a bit more kindly on being a shifter and a mate before we got to that feral werewolf town. So I was answering her endless round of questions until it was time to stop for the night. Through the shifter stronghold was the only way to get to the Elden Pass—those who lived there weren't the model of the calm, orderly shifter I tried to be. Not all shifters believed their human sides were a good thing.
I found a nice dry spot by a lovely winding river. The boughs of the draping, small-leaved Castiellimon tree provided a pretty windscreen and rustled like soft chimes. Evie started the fire in fewer tries than before, and she blushed again when I praised her. I gritted down the thought of what it would do to her when I praised her for coming all over my cock. I was just getting her to relax, and I wouldn’t destroy it with my overwhelming lust.
She pulled even more out of her pockets this time as she foraged all day and I was more than happy to cook anything she gave me. The deep satisfaction of having my mate lick the spoon clean of my cooking touched a part of me that slipped away with my bear.
She sighed in contentment. “I’m glad one of us is good at this.”
“There would be nothing for the pot without your help,” I reminded her.
“Thanks,” she mumbled.
Godds, hadn’t anyone ever praised her for anything? That I would have the honor of doing so for the rest of our lives made a grin break out over my face. Evie smiled back, but her eyes snagged on my long, jagged scar. Over the years, I worked hard to make it look non-threatening. I self-consciously touched the length of it.
“You can ask,” I said.
