If I don’t take care of her, she will likely pass out, and then I’ll have to carry her.
Not that the thought of carrying her displeases me. Even as we ran from the hunting party, I enjoyed having her on my back, and I’d enjoy even more having her in my arms.
“Valen?” She’s frowning at me. “What do you say?”
“Yes. Right. Let’s camp for the night, and I will hunt us some dinner. As long as you promise not to run away again. I hate tracking down prey I’m not allowed to bite.”
A small sound escapes her. “I’m not your prey.”
“Aren’t you?”
Because she feels like it. Not prey to kill, but prey to play with, chase around, and fuck. Do it thewolfway.
Does she even know what she does to me? I doubt it, the way she brushes off my every insinuation, sexual hint, and frustrated innuendo. I’m so fucking hard for her, and she thinks nothing of touching me, lying against me. I look at her and burn, while she’s as cool as water.
What the hell have I gotten myself into?
Another stone circle would have been nice, but that would be too much to ask of the Sleeping Gods. Without elemental magic to protect us, I have to find us a defensible, sheltered place to camp, so that she can rest and I can hunt for meat and look for flintstones.
My stamina is pretty damn good, but even I am flagging right now. So when I spot a rocky outcrop at the foot of a hill, I lead us that way. We navigate over black rock, stepping over deep cracks, climbing down others. Once or twice, I pick her up and lift her so she can climb onto the next rock, and the desire curling in my gut is distracting.
Why does she have to smell so delicious, feel so good? I’ve never felt such a pull before. Why does this connection have to be to a girl I’m supposed to let go? Something deep in me wrenches painfully at the thought of her with another man. Familiar anger swells until it’s choking me.
Swallowing it down, I help her over yet another gap and into a depression I’d spotted from afar. “Here.”
“Here?” She looks around, eyes wide. “Won’t animals find us? Why is this a good spot?”
I press my hand to the ground and close my eyes. The earth’s energy thrums through me, heritage of my fae line. Through it, I feel faint echoes of life—where trees are concentrated, where animals burrow.
“It’s resonant,” I tell her. “Listen...”
“What is it?” she asks, a tremor in her voice. She can’t feel this magic. Can’t understand nature the way I do. She never had to even think about it before now. “What do you mean?”
“It’s resonant,” I say again. “The rocks are awake. That’s a good sign.”
“But—”
“Don’t worry about it. It will dissuade animals from approaching us.”
“I didn’t know the fae could talk to the earth,” she whispers, her blue eyes a little too wide.
“Not all fae can. Not all are so sensitive to the thrum of magic. ButI’m dark fae. It’s my curse and my blessing.”
Fae magic got twisted out of shape during the Human Uprising, turning large parts of our population into trees, animals, and other, grotesque shapes. It gave rise to the dark fae. That’s us. Shifters and half-beasts. Some clans are violent and perverse, stealing people, humans, or fae. Making incursions and destroying villages, pillaging towns, burning down fields, and slaughtering cattle.
And some clans... we do our best to battle our very nature, this magic that is a part of us, fighting to control the factors that cause us to shift, organizing ourselves into alliances and struggling to remain... fae. Remain human, the humans wouldsay. Keep the traits that used to define us. Ethics. Compassion. Altruism. Kindness. Peace.
“You will be safe here while I hunt,” I tell her. “Stay put. Don’t wander away. Please...” I sigh, shake my head. “I don’t want to see you hurt. Trust me. I’m doing all I can to see you safely home. Do you believe me?”
She gazes back at me with those all-too-serious, all-too-old eyes of hers as if weighing my words, my trustworthiness, all my actions and reactions up to now.
Judging me.
But then unexpectedly, she nods. “I believe you.”
The verdict is passed. I grin down at her and kiss her smooth forehead. “Thank you, Sweetheart.”
Then I leap up onto the surrounding rocks and lope away, easing into a half-shift that allows me a firm control over my thoughts as well as lends me superior strength and enhanced senses.
