A peal of laughter rang in his ears — delicate and tinkling as rain on a window. “No! It doesn’t smell like you!”
“Ah, that’s an easy fix.” Laughing with her, he wrapped his arms around her middle and twisted, rolling them both over and over in the blankets. She wiggled, skin and hair sparking, and he shimmied with her, happily saturating their blankets intheirscent. And then Hele kissed him again, and her fingertips stroked his sensitive wings, and laughter melted into lust.
Night bled into morning before Vael finally surrendered to sleep, his mate tucked under his wing with a book in her hand.
ChapterEighteen
It tookhim decades to find happiness after the death of his clan. What did it matter when his fathers weren’t around to feel it? Where could he find it when his mother did not have breath to laugh? What joy existed when his grandparents couldn’t savor it?
For a very long time, what happiness he did feel came with a directly proportional wave of guilt and grief. Time eased the reflexive pain, but it didn’t wipe it away completely. He still felt his losses when he triumphed. He thought it might be the same when he finally held Hele under his wing.
He was wrong.
It wasn’t simply happiness that warmed him the next morning. Holding his Hele against his chest, waking up to his wing draped over her naked form, feeling her slight movements as she carefully turned pages in the book she was reading — it wasbliss.
There was no kick-back. No reflexive guilt or grief.
Pure contentment settled over him like a sweet fog. It felt like the part of him that had been missing for so long had finally returned to him. He was once again that boy from before the shelling, the one who chattered endlessly and loved his clan more than anything in the world. He’d done everything he could to honor their memory, but onlynowdid he feel like he’d truly done it.
The whisper of pages turning and his mate’s soft, even breathing sounded like a song from a home he’d lost. Her warmth was the syrupy sunshine from childhood memories.
She washome.
Vael buried his face in her fragrant hair. His tail tightened around her thigh, pulling her a tiny bit closer.
You would love her,he thought, imagining his parents, his grandparents. His mother would have found her intelligence delightful. His fathers would have enjoyed her sass and her thoughtfulness. His grandparents would have found endless entertainment in her conversation and the stories they could tell her. He missed them so much it hurt, but that longing did not temper his bliss — it merely added to its depth.
She’s so beautiful and stubborn and intelligent. She’d make you laugh one second and then knock your socks off the next.
Tears prickled, but he squeezed his eyes shut to keep them in.
He hoped his clan was proud of him, wherever they were. He hoped they could see how magnificent his Hele was, how much he loved her, and be proud of what the clan had become — small as it was.
Hele shifted against him. A soft hand found the arm he’d wrapped around her waist. Stroking the contours of his forearm, she whispered, “Are you awake?”
His smile was hidden in her abundant hair. “Yes,t?ht.”
“Oh, good.” She squirmed a bit before she managed to turn around. Looking very prim despite the early hour, Hele said, “I realized something while you were sleeping.”
“What?” He stroked the backs of his claws down the smooth line of her spine. “Did you realize you don’t like my snoring?”
“No, your snoring is tolerable.”
He gave her softly curved ass a little pinch. “That was a joke! I donotsnore.”
Hele used her paperback to give him a solid whack on the meat of his shoulder. “Do you want to hear what I realized or not? And youdosnore. Just a little.”
Vael huffed to cover up his laughter. Snagging the book, he carefully dog-eared the page she was on and then tossed it aside. That done, he removed his wing from over her naked form and flipped onto his back. He took her with him, of course.
Hele squeaked when he arranged her on top of him. Her palms pressed down on his chest and her lean thighs bracketed his hips as she stared at him, their noses bumping. A great fall of white hair was a curtain around their faces.
“Go on,” he teased, smoothing his hands up and down her thighs.
She was momentarily distracted by their change in position. Hele straightened a bit and looked down at where she was pressed against him, thighs spread, and no doubt had the same thought he did.
They’d done a lot of things the night before — gods have mercy, he hadn’t thought to dream she’d lovelickinghim so much — but they’d stopped at penetration. He hadn’t wanted to push her so soon and she hadn’t pressed for more.Now,though, he could see the calculation in her eyes as she took in his semi-hard cock and its proximity to the cunt he planned to spoil every damn day of his life.
But Vael had made a promise to her the night before that he would listen when she wanted to explain something, so he playfully tickled the tips of his claws over her bare belly to get her attention before asking, “Well?”
