I felt water droplets as Mothman tried to shake out one of his wings. He removed his hand from around me and tentatively settled it on my hip, gripping it slightly.
“What are you doing?” I asked, my thoughts all scrambling around frantically. My heart beat wildly in my chest.
“You seem tense,” he said.
“I’m always tense.”
“You keep pushing me away.”
“I’m not used to being close with others.”
“Close?” He asked and I remained silent, furrowing my brow as I simultaneously tried to think too hard and not at all. My heart was still beating fast in my chest. We were pressed tight together on the ground.
“I don’t know what you want from me,” I said, concerned as fuck what he was going to say.
“I just want to be… close.” He wasn’t moving his hand, just a solid grip on my hip that made my skin warm.
Now it was my turn to ask, “Close? What does that mean?”
“It means whatever you want it to,” he said. He pushed his other hand in my hair, his claws gently scratching at my scalp. I held my breath as I felt one of his feathery feelers brush against my hair. I was burning up all of a sudden, my heart beating too fast, and my breathing picking up speed.
What was happening? He shifted his hips closer, his fingers holding my hip a little harder.
“Is that your gun?” I asked, the hard press of something against my ass.
“No,” he said matter-of-factly.
I felt like I was on fire. I twisted around as instincts took over. His eyes widened and he scrambled away as I grabbed at his duster.
“Shit! Read it wrong!” He barked in my head trying to crawl away in the dirt as I gripped his wet duster and tugged him back.
“Can’t blame a man for trying,” he growled in irritation as I sat on his back, pulling his collar down to expose his shoulder. I lunged forward. My teeth sunk into the place between his neck and shoulder.
“Fuck!” He growled, trying to throw me off. I had to press close, pushing my body down on his. I pressed his head down into the dirt with my hand as I kept my teeth buried in him. His wet wings hung to the sides like drapes. I growled for him to be still, settling my body flat on his before removing my teeth and dragging my tongue over the blood.
The all-over burning began to cool and my mind cleared.
“Shit,” I sighed, dropping my head on his shoulder, my fingers threading through the fur on his head and giving a soft tug. He was silent and still, understanding he wasn’t being attacked. I traced the bite mark with my fingers, sighing.
“You bit me,” he finally said in offense.
“It’s a mate mark,” I huffed out. He was silent for a while.
“Mate?” He finally asked.
“Ava’s my mate but… what’s hers is mine,” I said. Sounded like bullshit because it was. I didn’t really understand what was going on. Blood welled up on the wound again. Without thought I pressed my mouth to it, sliding my tongue across to clean it up. His blood tasted different—woody. He tensed beneath me, sucking in a breath.
“Am I hurting your wings?” I asked, eyeing the length of them draped across the river's beach. My chest was pressed where they met his body. He had a strong back, which made sense considering he flew. I wondered if he’d need to let his wings dry before we could move on. We needed to get back to Ava but if he had to dry them, there wasn’t much we could do.
“No… ” he said tentatively. I traced the bite mark again, frowning lightly. Nokken had one mate, they didn’t bite other people. Ava wasn’t normal though and now here I was, worried about Mothman drying his fucking wings. Fuck me.
I sniffed his neck fluff, inhaling his smell. I couldn’t stop the urge to push my face into the fur, feel it on my face and take in more of his scent. My fingers swiped at his wet wings as I smelled him, curious how they would feel. He made fists with his hands and shuddered, letting me touch them.
I didn’t feel like getting up. I wasn’t sure I really could after giving someone a mate mark. There was an immediate instinctual need to lay with them, make sure they were okay…and didn’t run away.
“Sooo,” Mothman said after we laid there for a moment—him belly down on the ground with me still on top of him, burying my face in his neck.
“What?” I asked.
