I suppressed a grin and quickly looked away. Was there anything sexier than a confident smirk on a man who was truly talented? I had seen the same smirk on lesser men who bragged out of a need for clout and yet they didn’t have an ounce of actual talent to their name. All talk and no game.
“Great. Thanks.” I kept my tone flat out of a need to protect my own heart. Even if there came a day when I was no longer annoyed with Drovo, I would still pretend to be. He didn’t like me and being annoyed with him reminded me of that fact.
“The perimeter is clear.” Brexl came back with a smear of blood on his chest and a dead jagwa on his shoulder.
“Was it clear before or after you killed the jagwa?” Taylor asked, looking intrigued.
“After,” Brexl’s answer was short and to the point. He was the least talkative of all the shifters and I had long since given up hope on hearing him speak more than five words at a time. Even Jax in his muteness had such an expressive face, I could tell what that boy was thinking from a mile away.
“I’ll prepare your kill for dinner if you want to get the fire started?” Drovo offered, and I wondered if he had an aversion to lighting wood on fire. I’d never seen him tend the cookfire or a bonfire.
I watched as Brexl dug what looked like two separate holes in the ground that I later realized werenot separate but were connected under the dirt.
He put small logs and tinder inside the hole and used two pieces of flit to start a small flame.
“I’ve never seen a fire like that,” Taylor commented as she peered over to look at the fire below the ground.
“It produces very little light and almost no smoke.” He said no more, leaving us to infer the reasons for ourselves. I didn’t need anyone to explain the importance of not being seen or scented in a dangerous forest such as this one.
“Smart.” Taylor offered him a grin. Brexl attempted to turn up the corners of his mouth to return the gesture, but his smile was stiff at best, as if those muscles hadn’t been used for quite some time. A scar at the side of his mouth seemed to pull at his skin uncomfortably, but he fought through it for Taylor.
To her credit, she didn’t flinch or shy away. His broken smile seemed to light something in her eyes. But that light quickly faded, and she turned away.
Brexl's face returned to its normal neutral expression and continued to tend the fire. Soon Drovo was adding chunks of meat to a pot of stew he had placed over the fire.
“I’ll be right back,” Drovo announced after all the meat had been added.
He walked out of sight behind a cluster of trees he’d kept inside the wall of vines. I stood up to stretch my legs and thought about checking out the shelter Drovo had made, but as I drew closer, I could hear the dryad shifter talking.
“Hey little fella. Don’t worry, I’ll fix it.”
I walked past the cluster of trees to find Drovo in his shifted form, looking like a sexy ent from Lord of the Rings, and he was absolutely covered in what looked like sparkly purple moths.
God dammit, how was I supposed to be annoyed at a male who was essentially a Disney Princess?
I watched as Drovo picked up a piece of bark off the ground and placed it back on the tree. If he’d been any other person, that piece of bark would have simply fallen back down again as soon as he removed his hand, but this was Drovo. With the use of his woodland abilities, he was able to reattach the bark. Then he placed the moth back on the tree.
“Is that his home?” I couldn’t help but ask.
“It is. He was feeling lost, and the tree was feeling naked, so now they’re both happy.” A warm smile spread across his face. He genuinely liked taking care of the forest.
“You want to hold one? They’re luna moths, just like you.”
I rolled my eyes but drew closer despite my irritation.
“Do they bite?”
“Do you think I’d hand you one if they did?” Drovo purred, taunting me.
“I don’t know, would you?” I quipped.
“Never.” He wore an overly dramatic, appalled look on his face that made me laugh.
“Here, put your hand in mine.”
I did so and loved the warmth that emanatedfrom Drovo’s blue skin.
He lowered his other hand to my palm and one of the tree moths that had been resting on his bark covered arm walked its fuzzy little body onto my hand.
