Road To Winter (Fae's Captive #2)(10)

“It’s sunny over there.” I point to a spot beyond the flowers. “Maybe we can lie there and dry off for a minute?”

“I like it.” She climbs out of the water, the bite marks once again coming into sharp relief. Her ribs show through her skin, and I make a mental note to ensure she eats enough at every meal.

I follow her across the flowers and to the grassy, sunny spot. We lie down, the warm sun drying the droplets along my skin. I’m exposed, but the woods are quiet, and Beth hasn’t given me a second look. We are doing this whole “we’re naked in the middle of nowhere” thing like a couple of pros.

“Has anything ever felt this good?” I sigh and close my eyes.

“Not that I remember, no.”

A whisper reminding me I’m far from home tries to sneak in, but I block it out. I’m here now, safe and warm with a friend. It’s a pleasure I never had in the human world.

The sun heats us, cutting through the chill of the lingering water and tickling along all my exposed nooks and crannies. I’ve never laid out completely nude before. It makes me feel like a bad girl, and I rather like it. “This reminds me of this stupid TV show back home. It comes on one of the reality TV channels and is called ‘Naked and Afraid’ or something like that.”

“A show? Like a play?”

“Sort of. But it’s on this little rectangular device and you can watch all sorts of things, look at other people’s lives, be entertained with fictional movies. They use a camera, which records everything.”

She shoots me a perplexed glance.

“It’s hard to explain.” It really is. There’s simply no way to put it into words, so I plow onward. “Like a painting that moves. But anyway, there’s this show where they drop two strangers off in the middle of like, a desert, or on an island, or in the deep woods, and they’re naked. The camera follows them around—it’s kind of like you’re watching through a window, and they don’t realize you’re there—and show what they do once they’re stranded. See what decisions they make, stuff like that.”

“Why do they do this?” Her voice is low, drowsy.

“To see if they can survive. They have to live in this isolated place with the stranger for a month or so, I think. Fighting off the elements and bugs and animals and scrounging for food. But if they realize they can’t hack it, they can call for rescue.”

She snorts. “It sounds like my life—danger, fear, scrounging—until you got to the rescue part. No one ever came to save me from Granthos.”

“You saved yourself, I’d say.”

She smacks my arm. “Winding up in the dungeon wasn’t saving myself.”

“Well, you met me in the dungeon, and your kindness is what got you saved, so I count that as you saving yourself.”

“Kindness?” She makes a pfft noise. “I was just trying to get you to stop yelling and drawing attention.”

“You’re deflecting.” I return her smack. “You warned me, remember? Tried to help me, even when you were in a bad situation. No matter what you’d been through, you were still kind. That’s why we’re here, lying around in the warm sun, free as can be.”

“Naked as can be, too.” She stretches her arms over her head. “I could get used to this.” She sighs, and after a long pause, says quietly, “I’m glad I met you that day.”

“So am I.”

Her snore punctuates my sentiment, and I smile a little. At least she’s predictable.

I yawn and stretch my arms out, too. The sun peeks through my eyelids and promises me the day is just as bright as ever.

I don’t know how long I doze for, but I know what wakes me: a guttural roar that slices through my dreams with a petrifying echo.





5





Leander





I wake cold and uncomfortable. She’s gone. Gone from my bed, only her scent and the obsidian blade remaining.

I’m on my feet immediately. “Gareth!”

His eyes fly open and he looks around. “I fell asl—”

“Gone.” I kick a log in the dying fire. “That changeling has kidnapped my mate!”

“Hang on, now.” He spins, peering through the trees. “They can’t be far.”

My heart twists, and my primal need to find Taylor is like a thorny arrow wedged in my gut. I taste the air, trying to find some trace of her.

“This way.” Gareth takes off through the trees.

I follow and catch the same scent that drew him. Blumerin. It grows in this cursed forest, but the smell is loud, out of place, and underneath it—I can get the faintest hint of Taylor.

I barrel past him and draw my dagger. How could I let her leave in the night? What sort of mate am I? First the witch and now this. She keeps slipping through my fingers, no matter how hard I try to hold her close.

A stream trickles ahead of me, a wide pool glinting in the sun. The ground is disturbed, flowers bent. She came this way. I’m wild, my body rushing before my mind can even catch up. But then I stop.

I. Stop. Dead.

Her eyes closed, hair damp, face peaceful, skin tantalizing, body delectable—she lies nude, her breasts offered to the sun, the pink tips soft, her stomach fair and then the slight tuft of neat hair between her thighs. My mind goes blank, and the bond snaps tight. My cock pulses and my mouth goes dry. I must claim her, must mark her as mine before any other male sees her. I will do it now.