Being wild in the wild. Letting the forest witness what courts and academies would call undignified.
The Wild Court was never about dignity. It was about honesty. About bodies doing what bodies do without shame.
My palm slaps against the bark of a tree and I look around.
It’s not like I haven’t done this before. Alone in a forest, hand on myself, thinking about someone I couldn’t have.
But I’ve never done it in the Dark Forest. And I’ve never done it with her scent still on my skin from carrying her.
If the forest judges me for this, it can get in line.
I rip apart the tie on my trousers, letting them fall to the ground, and grip the base of my cock.
A hiss falls from my lips as my warm palm wraps around the bulging shaft. My hips roll forward. My lungs cry for air and I spit on the tip.
Rolling my hand up and down, I think of how incredible Ash felt against me earlier. How right she fits with me. The weight of her over my shoulder. The way she pounded my back with her fists but never actually tried to escape.
I do not think about how fucked everything is. Because that is a problem for tomorrow.
Right now the only problem I have is tightening in my grip.
I moan and bite my bicep. My hand tugs harder, faster, thinking about her hips. The way she felt under me in the wilds not that long ago. The way my cock slid inside her tight wet?—
The bond pulses.
Warm. Close. Getting closer.
I freeze, hand still wrapped around my cock, because that warmth is unmistakable. I recognize exactly who’s walking toward me through the Dark Forest, and every rational thought evacuates my skull, replaced by mortification and a reckless, stupid hope that she followed me on purpose.
Her scent hits me before her voice does. That particular sweetness beneath the forest dirt and the smoke from the fire. And beneath it—slick, warm, unmistakable—she’s aroused. Already wet. That knowledge makes me twitch in my grip.
She’s aroused.
She followed me out here and she’s already wet.
My grip tightens so hard on my cock I think I cut off the blood flow.
“So that’s where you disappeared to.” Her voice is soft. Amused and not at all surprised.
She knew. She felt me through the bond and she came anyway.
I don’t move. Can’t move. Because if I move I’ll either cover myself like a blushing virgin or I’ll drag her against this tree, and neither option feels like the right play.
Ash steps into the clearing. Slowly. Deliberately. Her eyes drop to my hand, still wrapped around my cock, and she doesn’t look away.
“I felt you,” she says. “Through the bond. You felt...urgent.”
Urgent. That’s one word for it.
“I, ah.” I clear my throat because I’m a Fae and not a bumbling human. “Gods, I need to come.”
Smooth. Real fucking smooth.
“You know.” She’s close now, short-circuiting my entire brain. “I could help with that.”
She drops to her knees.
Every rational thought evacuates my skull when her tongue laps at the tip of my cock. My eyes roll back. My balls threaten to make this a five-second trip.
