‘No, it’s the wolves,’ he says hoarsely. ‘They’re … mating.’
‘It’s the wolves?’
The word hits like cold water.
The heat doesn’t vanish, but understanding crashes in, hot and embarrassing.
I can feel it now, faint but unmistakable, Fen’s own urgency bleeding through the bond.
‘By the Gods.’ I tear my mind away from Fen’s, mortified, heat flooding my cheeks. The space between Kyor and me is suddenly too loud, too exposed.
So much for Fen and Elskahunting.
‘I’m sorry,’ Kyor says quietly, regret etched across his face. ‘I should have stopped sooner. I should have … I just …’
I shake my head, swallowing. ‘No. We both … I thought …’ I trail off, the rest too tangled to say. The moment hangs between us, unfinished and charged. Finally, I manage a weak breath of a laugh. ‘We should … go back?’ I say, hearing the hesitance in my voice.
I’m untangled from Fen now. Free to act of my own volition, and I know what I want. Just as I know what he wants. But as our eyes meet, Kyor nods once.
So that’s it. It’s over.
Without another word, I turn back to the camp, and he follows me in silence.
Chapter 55
The camp falls quiet when I walk in. Whatever they were discussing, I was clearly at the heart of it. So much for subtlety.
‘So,’ Benny says baldly, ‘how about this weather we’re having?’
Caz cracks a smile.
Ruben ignores Benny, his attention solely on me.
‘You okay?’ he whispers. ‘Do I need to beat him up?’ he adds with a nod towards Kyor.
A sad chuckle rises from me. That Ruben still thinks he could manage to beat up Kyor is adorably delusional. Although, maybe with Kyor’s busted shoulder it would be a far more even match than the prince would like.
‘I’m good,’ I tell Ruben. ‘Just a lot to unpack, that’s all.’
He nods in understanding.
A few minutes later, Ruben moves towards the tree line when Fen appears, half-carrying and half-dragging a deer carcass behind him.
‘Any chance you want to help me with this one, Ben?’ Ruben asks.
‘I don’t know. Any chance you want to offer me goodnight hugs as well as morningones?’
Ruben rolls his eyes. ‘You know, you repeatedly asking that comes across as desperate.’
‘And?’
Laughter crackles from Ruben as Benny pulls himself onto his feet and ambles across to him. As the wolf drops the carcass, I reach out to him, still feeling acutely embarrassed about the whole thing.Warn me next time you’re going to get frisky with Elska.
You have no door for me to hang a sock upon, he shrugs.That’s what I did with Zelle.
The visual of the huge wolf delicately hanging a sock on a door handle is enough to make me snicker.
Happiness and contentment wash over me. Fen’s, not mine.
