She must mean that human, Abner, she mentioned. The human who slept with her sister. The one I had to kill. “You don’t have to. We’ll marry instead. Whatever ceremony you want. If you don’t think we’re mates, I will still bind you to me in any way you see fit.”
She looked at me like I told her the moon was made of rock. “You can’t be serious. I’m a mess over here, and I can’t guarantee you’re going to change your mind if we do anything more sexual than kissing.”
The world went hazy as my pupils dilated. “Is that on the table?” I gripped the reins so tight my beast of a horse shied.
She didn’t look sure of her own answer. “Um… yes?”
“I need you to be sure, viper. If you let me in your bed, I don’t know if I can get out.” I wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to make her my mate in every way possible.
Her annoyance was adorable. “If it stops you from saying the word marriage ever again, then… I guess. Yes.”
I would work with that. Her hesitation only fueled my resolve to show her how good it would be as mates. I had enough faith in Fate for the both of us. I would lead us?—
“What in the seven hells is that?”
She finally noticed the Colocolo, beady eyes in their feathered rat bodies, staring down at us from the niches and ledges. They looked relatively harmless until one let out the wail of an infant. She jerked Greg into my mount and I had to rein them both in.
Even with the bond this weak, I sensed her mind scramble to shift. “Come on, snake. Snake me. I’ve only got one monster encounter in me per day.” Her scales rose on her arms, but it faded back. “I can’t do it the other way, either?” she cried.
I wanted to reassure her. “They won’t attack us unless we stop.”
“Let’s put the questing on easy mode, please. I don’t know what the hell those things are and I don’t think I can take a lecture on how they’re only going to eat my soul on Sundays.”
She took her feet out of the stirrups and wiggled on a too-patient Greg. The choice was to either scrape her off the ground in her attempt to get on my horse or catch her. Evie strained as she changed so she could slide up my arms to drape over my shoulders.
“Nothing so dramatic. They just feed on your saliva while you sleep.”
She huffed in a constricting band. Tucking her now face-sized head under my chin, her coils clutched my waist, arm and chest. My bear rumbled in bliss, having his mate so close. I let her fall asleep that way as my mount took us all the way to Vinguard at a faster pace than I would dare with Evie as a human. I didn’t mind. The ride was definitely better on one horse.
Chapter10
Evie
Iwoke up embarrassingly strung across Ward’s lap, my face practically on his dick. Which only would have been mildly embarrassing if I hadn't been having the naughtiest dream. I jerked fully awake and shifted, my magical kaftan settling over me as he scrambled to keep me from falling off the horse. Our mouths drew breathlessly close. All my brain supplied was: no one had ever asked me to marry them. It stole my sense right out from under me.
“Don’t let go of me,” I said and realized it came out more sleep-roughened and sexy than a plea for balance.
“I wouldn’t dream of it until we’re in that bed together.” His own voice dropped.
The kisses in the bath and after the ruined druid ceremony replayed in my head until I gently closed the inch between us. I could say it was a side effect of my dreams, but as soon as his mead and honey taste hit my tongue, I couldn’t suppress a full body shudder. All his charming effort to keep me alive on this quest, his absolute belief in us, found me lost in the mountain of his body. I never considered myself adept at kissing, but tangling tongues with Ward was effortless.
Heart galloping in my chest, I thought my blood was pumping to all my lady bits, but the booming through my veins sounded like more. He groaned as I pulled back, chasing me.
“Can you feel that?” I asked.
“That’s all I can feel, viper.” He squeezed my ass right off the saddle as he said it.
Ward aligned our hips, and the horse did the rest to rub us together. Sweet mother of mercy, that cock I saw in the temple stood locked and loaded. The desire to come warred with the yanking on my mental insides. I pushed him away to gain a precious inch of space and a mile of sanity between us.
“What happened when Veretis’ relic called you?”
His gaze sharpened, most of the lust banked. “Are you angry? On edge?” he asked.
I sorted my feelings, willing some common sense into my ovaries. “Just jangly, like at the druid ceremony—something I can’t ignore. Are you okay? Am I going to have to be wrapped around you the whole time?”
“I wouldn’t object,” he said with a sly smile. I pushed his shoulder playfully.
“The wolf wasn’t wrong, the bond was still weak, but it seems your jealousy was good for it,” he teased me.
