“Please say you’re in there,” he said. “I don’t want to peek in case I accidentally see you naked and get killed by the alpha, or in case you are waiting in there to harm me in some way. This is a nice outfit and blood would absolutely ruin it.”
I tried to practice the vague calmness of a composed woman... and ended up shaking my head and looking away to keep from smiling. His humor was so crass and dark, it easily knocked me off balance.
“Okay. It seems you are not responding.” I saw the shadow of a foot at the bottom of the tent flap. “It is either that you are trapped under something heavy, like the weight of your conscience, or you are doing a wonderful job of ignoring me. The third option would be that you have escaped, leaving me the terrible task of informing a slightly manic alpha of yourdisappearance. Let’s hope it’s not that one. So. I am going to come in. Please do not stab me. I’m not the bad guy here.” He paused. “Except for unlawfully abducting you and taking you to—okay, I am kinda a bad guy here. Let’s join forces and rule the world, shall we?”
I didn’t respond. I wasn’t going to make this easier on these people, even if this one was oddly amusing.
“Gods tickle my balls, please be in there and not naked,” he murmured, pushing the tent flap aside and peering into the gloomy space. Very little light filtered in through the window, the flap closed. The alpha had done it to preserve my privacy, it seemed. Which was... thoughtful, actually. It hadn’t diminished the flaming embarrassment of what I’d done with him last night.
Hadriel’s gaze found me and his bearing relaxed.
“Thank fuck,” he murmured as he stepped in before raising his voice. “Well, hello and good afternoon to you.” He bustled toward me with a steaming mug. “Look at you.” He gestured to my plain brown shirt, tucked into faded brown trousers that I’d worn into the ground. “Drabchic, I love it. Who needs fashion when you have that face, am I right? Now, here we go. Let’s drink some tea and make sure last night’s bad decision doesn’t evolve into a spot of trouble for life, hmm?”
Ah. The pregnancy tea. How antiquated.
“I have my own remedy if you’ll just let me go back to the village and grab it.”
He clucked his tongue. “I don’t think that’s a possibility, I’m afraid. We’re moving out in the opposite direction today.” He held the tea forward.
It had been worth a shot.
I studied him for a moment, wondering if they’d put something in the brew. Would they want to knock me out to make the journey easier? Or maybe the alpha had too manyregrets about losing control last night and decided to cut out the problem.
“Is this intended to kill me?” I asked, sniffing it.
“And rob the dragons their chance to torture you gruesomely? Not likely.” He grinned at me for a moment before the twinkle left his eyes. “Sorry. Gallows humor. In the not-so-distant past, we lived each day wondering if we’d see the next. At first we joked to cope. Or I joked to cope, anyway. What’s the point without a sense of humor, you know? Then reality got all fucked and twisted, as did my humor. I forget you’re normal. No, it’s not poisoned.”
There was something about him that made me want to trust him. To believe him. He was odd, no doubt, but he seemed completely genuine.
Regardless, I doubted very much I had a choice. Either I took it with him voluntarily, or the alpha would likely be brought in and force me.
As I drank it, my softughof disgust couldn’t be helped. This stuff tasted like the inside of a sweaty shoe.
“Okay,” he said once I’d finished, taking the empty mug, “let’s get you up and out there. You’ll be riding with me today.”
I stood, my hands clasped as though still shackled, trying to keep my voice from showing how uncomfortable and awkward I felt. He seemed incredibly blasé about riding in close proximity, but I knew from experience how uneasy I made people. How afraid they were of catching my “affliction”.
“I should probably give you some distance,” I said. “I’ll walk.”
He turned a little sideways and narrowed his eyes dramatically at me.
“What’ve you heard?” He lowered his brow. “Who was talking, Kurt? He gets all his information from Liron, that cornholing dickface. Are you really going to trust a guy who doesn’t know which hole he’s sticking his dick into? No. Besides,that rash had nothing to do with the orgy in the woods. Well, it did, but that was because I was on hands and knees leaning over the wrong bush. When the railing from behind got a little extreme, I leaned too far down into the bush and suddenly I’m a sexual pariah. It was the plant that gave me the welts! Theplant! Finley patched it up in no time. I wasn’t even contagious! Besides, it’s gone now. You have nothing to worry about.”
“I—” My brain filled with static. I blinked rapidly. “I?—”
He waited patiently for me to get my thoughts together. It was not easy.
“I didn’t hear anything about you, no. I was just trying to make things easier on you.”
“Oh good, that’s a relief.” He reached out to loop his arm through mine, probably so that I wouldn’t run. I shied away and he stuck out his hands. “Look! It’s gone! Seriously, the rash is gone. It wasn’t even contagious! It wasmonthsago. You’re blowing this way out of proportion.”
I knew my lips quirked as I struggled with the budding smile. “I believe you. We have plants like that here. No, it’s not that. It’s just?—”
“Oh, my horse? Because Jenkins can take more weight, don’t worry about him. He’s a feisty stallion prepared to hold the likes of the largest dragons. You’re a waif who needs a little more nutrition in her diet and I’m lean. He can easily and comfortably hold more weight than us.”
I blew out a frustrated breath. “I know the alpha wants me watched, but I’d be a real idiot to run in the middle of the day with wolf shifters all around me. I wouldn’t get far. So I’m fine to walk. You don’t have to share air space.”
“Listen, love, I have no fucking idea what we are talking about, but I do know we are wasting time. The alpha is impatient to go and you holding things up is just going to enrage him. I do not want to deal with an enraged alpha wolf. Sure,usuallyI’mpretty sure he won’t lose his mind and accidentally kill me, but today he’s acting a bit manic. I don’t want to put him to the test. Get your cute little ass sashaying to the door, please. Let’s go.”
