When I took off the furs around my shoulders, revealing just my thin tunic underneath, I looked at Lokkaru and said, “Let’s go find some shade or I’ll burn up.”
We started forward but I felt Davik’s eyes on me, even as he and hispujerakresumed their strides, continuing on to wherever they’d been heading.
Lokkaru began to laugh.
“What is it?” I asked.
She looked at me. “He is the best of them, isn’t he?”
I knew she meant Davik.
I looked down where her hand rested against my now bare arm, my fur shawl draped across my other arm as we walked on.
“He is,” I whispered. “I—”
My blood went cold. Because underneath where Lokkaru had placed her hand, I saw something that hadn’t been there this morning—though I couldn’t remember if I’d checked.
Small black veins had begun to spread along the underside of my forearm, beginning at my wrist.
Dread curled in my belly because I knew what it meant.
The Ghertun’s poison had begun to thicken in my blood.
I was running out of time.
Chapter Thirty-Three
When I returned to myvolikithat night, I found myleikaviwashing in the bathing tub.
In a dizzying rush, I felt my cock thicken, a response that I should’ve been used to by now. She froze when I walked in but then her shoulders relaxed when she saw it was me. A primal satisfaction went through me as I gazed at her…as my eyes ran to the water that lapped at her pink, small nipples.
It felt different between us.Ifelt…changed. Not so much on edge. My mind didn’t feel as fractured and scattered as it usually did and my eyes didn’t immediately dart around the darkness of myvoliki—they only looked at her.
When I walked to her, she regarded me as she stroked the cloth over her bare shoulder. I crouched in front of the washing tub, dipping my hand underneath the water, and was pleased that it was hot for her.
I had just come from the training grounds so I was in need of washing myself. I stood, stepping from my trews, watching as her lips parted when she saw how hard I was for her.
A shy look came across her face when she realized what I intended, a look that drove me mad in the best possible way. I’d done all sorts of wicked things to her body already and she could still lookshy?
I climbed in behind her and she shifted uncertainly, sitting up straight as my legs went around her. The bared expanse of her smooth back met me but my jaw tightened when I saw the Ghertun marking just below her neck.
Branded. The sight pushed me towards the invisible edge of my mind.
She tossed her white hair back, to cover the mark as if she knew what I was thinking. I growled, pulling her towards me so she was cradled by my thighs, her back to my chest, and my arms came around her, my fingers lazily stroking one of her nipples.
A breathy sigh escaped her as the hot water began to loosen my tightened muscles.
Slowly, she relaxed as well, melting against me as I stroked my hands over her body. I realized I could be gentle with her. Ilikedto be gentle with her, for her. It filled me with pride, touching her this way.
Her arms rested against my thighs and I felt one of her palms wrap around the end of my tail. She’d always been curious about it but this was the first time she’d actually touched me there.
“You owe me a story,” I informed her, rasping the words into her ear before I nibbled on the soft flesh of her earlobe, making her shiver even in the steaming water.
“Can we skip stories tonight?” she asked, her voice going breathy as my fingers began to wander down her belly. “And just head to bed?”
I chuckled in her ear, the foreign sound not mocking for once, but genuine. I’d been gone the night before—meeting late into the night with mypujerakand the small council of my horde. When I returned to thevolikilast night, she’d already been asleep and I’d left before she woke in the morning.
And so, we hadn’t mated last night. Nor had we spoken of her dream—the one she’d woken from in fright and sorrow.
