“You’re so quick to judge me, Caldris. To condemn me for the fact that I barely know you. I’ve had a matter of days since I found out the truth of who you are, and you cannot even be patient and give me that time to grasp what it means for me and my future? I will not be with a male who feels entitled to my body just because he has my heart,” I said, dropping my eyes to the ground at his boots.
“That wasn’t what happened,” he said, stepping into my path as I made my way toward the tent. “I chose you over your body last night, if you want to look past your own anger. I will always choose you. It’s about you withholding part of yourself from me. It feels like a punishment, and I won’t be led around by my dick just because you think you can offer your body when it serves your purpose and withhold it when it doesn’t.”
I groaned, my hands clenching into fists as I glared up at him. “You are such an asshole!” I yelled, making to move past him.
He grabbed me by the forearm as I went to storm by, halting me as he tugged me into his body. “And you are so stubborn that you won’t even let yourself see what you’re doing. The way you keep me at arm's length. If I get too close to your heart and you risk admitting that you’re as obsessed with me as I am with you, then you withdraw your body from the equation. But I bet if I slid my hand into your leggings, you’d be wet for me now. Your anger lets your body hum for me without your guilt.”
“You’re disgusting,” I said, glancing around at those who had stayed to watch. Swallowing past the sudden anxiety trying to crawl up my throat, I ignored the pulse of awareness that came from staring into the watching faces of the few female members of the Wild Hunt.
Caldris’s chest gleamed in the moonlight, the bare skin he’d displayed since leaving our tent that morning drawing the attention of all who wanted him and couldn’t have him. Or maybe they already had, for all I knew. Holt appeared to have been around for longer than I had existed, if his time in the Wild Hunt predated the Veil. I’d have already been taken to the other side if I’d been born before the barrier was created between realms.
Caldris followed my gaze, that arrogant smirk twisting his lips as he brushed my hair back from my face. “You think they’re watching us because they want to see us squabble?” he asked, leaning into my space. “They’re watching us because they’re hoping I’ll bend you over and fuck the attitude right out of you, Little One.”
I blanched, turning to look at him in shock. The words were a direct confirmation of what Holt had told me the night before when I’d thought to run while Caldris was getting food. An implication that they fully expected him to fuck me while they watched. “That isn’t going to happen.”
“Maybe not tonight,” Caldris agreed, pursing his lips in thought. “But we all know it’s only a matter of time before you embrace your true nature and all that goes with it. You want to lay your public claim over me just as desperately as I want to push you to your knees and shove my cock down your throat, so they can watch you choke on it. I want all the males to wish they were me, to know that your pretty, sharp tongue is mine to paint with cum.”
I stilled, the image he painted causing heat to flush through my cheeks.
He touched his lips to my jaw as he murmured the darkest secret torn from my soul. “And you want them to know that you’re the only one who will ever have my cock and my cum again.”
I shook my head, backing away from him suddenly. My skin flamed, a denial coming to my tongue and falling away just as quickly. I turned for the tent, shame coursing through me as Caldris let me go.
We both knew he’d won that battle.
12
ESTRELLA
We crossed over the first of the Twin Rivers at their shallowest point, the black water rising up to lap against the sides of the carts. The Fae Marked squirmed back from the cold water, huddling into the middle as if they could avoid the plunge into icy depths.
I stared down over the side of Azra, trying not to think of what might lurk in the waters below. Even at their shallowest point, I’d long since heard tales of the horrors that hid within the dark water clouded by the tiny creatures that swam in schools under the surface.
“You won’t find the kraken in these waters, Little One,” Caldris said with a chuckle. We’d ridden in mostly silence through the day, only punctuating it when we absolutely needed to speak to one another. I wasn’t certain that I could push past the embarrassment I felt over our conversation the night before, after he’d awakened me beside the fire.
Every lingering gaze of the males and females of the Wild Hunt made me question if they were waiting for the very thing Caldris had said they were.
I remained quiet, ignoring his appeasing factoid that the kraken wouldn’t harm me, as Azra’s hooves clashed against the rocks covering the bottom of the river. The bridge that connected the Isle of Ruin and the Dark Isle wasn’t far enough away to give me any sense of comfort. I knew without a doubt that the kingdom’s bridges would be patrolled by the Mist Guard searching for Fae on the run. The bridges had been secure even before the fall of the Veil; now stepping foot on one would only result in a slaughter. Given that I traveled with the Wild Hunt, I didn’t think it would be the humans who’d pay the price of that battle.
“You can’t ignore me forever, you know,” Caldris said, his voice tinged with the amusement of a male who liked to challenge me. All he would accomplish with such absolute statements would be daring me to do just that.
“I’m not ignoring you,” I mumbled in spite of myself. I resisted the urge to turn and smile at him over my shoulder, feeling as if the grin would be too obviously laced with the venom that consumed me. “I am merely choosing not to interact with you. There is a significant difference.”
“The significant difference being that you understand how our verbal spats are as much foreplay as when I have you beneath me?” he murmured, the deep timbre of his voice brushing against my skin. It sank inside me, trying to raise the bond between us as if I needed the confirmation that his words were true.
Azra touched the soil of the Dark Isle, rising up out of the water and onto the rocky shore as I jostled from side to side. Only Caldris’s arms wrapped around me held me firmly in place, my body still not accustomed to the balance required to ride, particularly without stirrups to slide my feet into.
“The difference being that I understand nothing I can say will ever change your mind about a damn thing. You think you’ve been accommodating in allowing me time to get to know you. I think you deceived me to serve your own purposes. We’ll need to agree to disagree on that front,” I said, looking out over the treacherous, rocky land of the Dark Isle as it sprawled out before us.
“I don’t think either of us is wrong. I didn’t have a choice if I wanted to protect you and infiltrate the Resistance, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t more accommodating than most of the others will find their mates. They’ll be thrust into Fae life without time to adjust to the bond, and you should know better than anyone how, even incomplete, it can take some getting used to. You’re unlearning everything you’ve been raised to believe. I understand that,” he said, guiding Azra to lead the way. Night had fallen over the Dark Isle, plunging us into darkness with only the stars glittering in the sky above. At the edges of the land, where the stones met the sea, sharp rocks curved up toward the sky as if they themselves could spear the moon.