Maggie
Iopened my door with a sweaty grip, giddy. Evie and I had a do-over of our morning stretching lesson even though the trepidation poured off of her. It didn't hurt that I actually told her how much it meant to me this time instead of keeping it bottled up. Who would have thought that it was as simple as saying adult words out loud? I also made sure that we rolled out the mats and laid down in cedar pose, flat on our backs, faces to the sky.
“Are we doing it?” Evie asked.
We were. And we lounged there until Evie let me take her hand and we starfished into the morning sun. Both of us might have fallen asleep in the warmth and gotten all sweaty, but I had woken up to Evie still holding my hand. I wouldn’t have traded this morning for anything.
Well, almost anything… the cake sitting on my side table made drool pool in my mouth. Not just any cake. Melwyyn cake with its heavenly smell filling the room. My eyes darted around, excitement fizzing inside me. I hadn’t dared hope Noth and I would be anything more than a passing lightning strike despite the mate bond. I hadn't heard from him in months and I could admit I was too scared to use the mate bond again. What if I was just a fluke for him? I didn’t really know how it worked. Maybe mates wore off.
There was no denying the bond wrapped around my heart chakra. It hummed with a renewed energy, teasing me right to the shadows bathing the corner of my bedroom. With preternatural speed, I raced to him. Understanding my powers brought a whole host of things I never dreamed I might do. Reaching into the dark, I pulled him out with a snarl.
I stood blinking at the man I’d missed with all my heart for the past three months–love pouring from my soul and fire in my eyes.
“You cut all your hair!”
His raven’s wing dream sat razored against his skull in the back, the front a messy just-fucked tussle. It made his sharp cheekbones like blades, his nose and chin even more pointed. Or perhaps that was the weight he lost.
His smirk hadn’t dulled a bit. “I needed a change too.” He scrubbed the back of his head like he wasn’t used tothe fuzz.
I screamed so high it burst the windows and so loud the entire Keep was sure to come running.
“You stupid asshole. Sonofaratfacedwhore. How dare you lose your crown!”
I smacked him and kept swatting him. That was the only reason I could think of that he would cut something so important to his status as an Elf. It was only by surprise that I tackled him. I slammed his head into the floor. “What did you do?”
“Do you hate it?” he garbled out between hits.
I grabbed what remained of his nonexistent hair, tears welling up at the missing strands.
“Your beautiful Goddsdamned hair!” I wailed.
The door burst open and everyone piled into the room as I whacked his stupid precious skull into the wood boards.
Declan shot forward in his wolf form, barking, adding to the racket, his razor teeth inches from Noth’s face. Evie’s friend Noora and the bar girl Ruby argued how best to suppress Noth’s magic even though he sprawled there, letting me beat him up.
Ward and Evie made motions to split us apart but I couldn’t stop touching Noth’s face, his hair. It was sexy as fuck even if it was tragically different. The tears that started for his hair fell because he was beneath me again and intact, for all that the Elves wanted to bury him in an unmarked grave. The love that welled up as I touched him told me I should have reached out sooner.
Declan stopped barking, wagging his tail.
I kissed Noth’s stupid face with everything I had. This felt like a whole new start.
“Okay, everyone out!” Ward shouted, pushing Evie out the door first.
Ruby covered Noora’s eyes, which almost made me laugh. Working in a brothel, she had done more sex stuff than all of us combined. Fallon dragged Declan out by his tail and Dane, the barkeep, walked in.
“Where did everyone go-”
And he promptly turned around again and exited the graphic scene. Noth slammed the door behind them with his shadows, plunging his tongue into my mouth. I sucked on it until he groaned beneath me and pulled out to lick the tears off my face.
“It can’t look that bad then.”
I raked my hand through the shiny black strands. It sprang into loose, messy curls that defied gravity like his old hair did. It would be the perfect handle while he was between my thighs.
With a casual shrug, I said, “I might have to use your head as a mop. I didn’t know it curled naturally.”
He laughed and hugged me until all breath left my body. “I didn’t know either. I haven’t cut it in centuries.”
“But your crown?”
