“They are bringing food.”
“But they used their magic on us?”
Rivern shakes his head. “There’s still more I need to catch you up on, brother. Something that involves all of us.”
My senses still on high alert, I watch mers drift in and out, placing food and drink on our table while Rivern explains the deal Dove made with the queen.
Once he finishes telling me what is required of us, my heart goes into a rabid, unsteady beat.
I need to talk to Dove. We can’t go ahead with this craziness.
She can’t want that of me. Not after I shunned her in the Sands.
As much as my mind is screaming“No, this is a horrible idea!”my heart and my cock are ecstatic.
thirty-five
Dove
Iwaketothesmellof a sweet aroma I can’t quite place. It fills my grumbling stomach with a new sense of urgency.Gods, I’m starving.
Opening my eyes, I stretch my arms and legs over the glorious sheets of the mer bed. The mattress jiggles a bit underneath me as I move. It almost feels like I’m floating on water.
Reluctantly pushing my sad and beaten body up, I groan. Everything aches, and if it’s not aching, it’s throbbing.
I flop back down. The bed jiggles violently underneathme.
“Hungry, love?” a scintillating voice piques my interest from above me. Opening my eyes, I find utter perfection wrapped in a fae body, naked and ready to devour. My dry mouth somehow manages to create some liquid, almost drooling for this male.
“Are you offering your services?” I ask, a slight smile turning up the corners of my lips. I’m always hungry for Riven, my core buzzing at his rippling muscles as he leans over my body, caging me in.
“Save that for later, love. Now, I need to fill you with real food.”Right, food. Of course that is what he meant.
As if on cue, my empty stomach growls loudly to be fed. Rivern chuckles, hefting my body up into his formidable arms.
“I can walk, you know,” I complain, my brow furrowed. It’s a huge lie. I want him to carry me everywhere. Maybe I do need to show some restraint and independence. Not right now, though. I spent all of my life being independent. Now that I have him, all I want to do is be codependent. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not. We are God-bonded. We are each other’s for life. I’ll take my new title of codependency.
“You are capable of so much, my love, but let me take care of you. That’s my only mission in this life.” My heart cracks and fuses back together in an even more enchanting way—a way that now believes in love and, possibly, a hopeful future.
It can’t be so easy, right?Rivern just said he wants to take care of me for our whole lives. Surely, that’s not all there is to unlocking a part of me that has felt lost and broken and utterly devastated by life’s blows over and over again.
He just said he wants to take care of me.I can’t help repeating it in my head. I have to be protected because Fury needs me to set himfree. However, this is the first rhythm anyone has outwardly admitted wanting to care for me. Even my mother saw us as a burden to her relationship with my father and their dwindling supplies. She should’ve blamed my father for our lack of coins, since he liked to spend them on drink. I once loved her fiercely. Just as much as I loved Wren. But she was never able to give that love back.
Don’t get me wrong, she would tell us stories before bed and hug us if we were sad. That’s only if my father wasn’t at home. If he was at home, he was her number one priority.
Wren was the only person I could count on in that house.
Wren.
A tear streaks down my cheek.
“Hey, my love Dove, why are you sad?” Rivern has taken his place at the table, me sitting on his lap, facing the bounty of food on our table. His finger comes up to graze the underside of my eye.
“Love Dove?” I question, not a fan of his new nickname for me.
He laughs. “Thought it may get you away from that place that made your face turn all anguished.” His finger comes to run down my neck, over my shoulder and arm. My skin prickles in anticipation, my nipples tweaking behind the thin fabric covering them.
“Good, let’s just stick with love.” My voice is somewhat breathy as he dips his hand lower, past my stomach.
