“I see no geese around.”
“A very small goose? Or perhaps it’s hiding in the rushes?” Mads feigned looking around with pursed lips and wide eyes. “Or an invisible goose! Perhaps someone cast an invisibility spell on a goose! The dastardly fiend! How will it find a mate?”
Marquis swept in, his grace undeniable, plucking the stick out of his hands with a keen eye. The violet in them gleamed as he stared at the wood. “A goose that gave you this fine wandwood, yes? Or perhaps you’re the silly goose?”
“Is it a good stick?” Mads glanced at it hopefully.
“The tree is young and alive. The stick was felled by ice the winter before. A post oak. Good choice. It’s naturally straight through the nodes. It’ll have a knot—”
Mads snickered. “Knot.”
“The wood will have a kno—” Marquis sighed heavily. “That’s no better, I’m afraid.”
“Not in the least, Covenmaster.” Mads chuckled.
“Anyway! This is a good stick. The mother of it is due north a few miles.” Marquis pulled his phone from his pocket and examined the screen. “We have a few hours, yet. Would you like to go visit your wand’s tree, or no?”
“As long as you’re with me, I’ll go anywhere you like.” Mads rocked on his heels and beamed as Marquis guided him back to the car, stick in hand. “Though, are you certain you don’t have any spare clothes in the trunk? If we’re searching for a mother tree, it might get warm on our hike.”
Marquis shrugged. “My suit is enchanted to repel dirt and stay cool. I need nothing else.”
“Wouldn’t hurt to sleeze down a bit once in a while.” Mads pouted. “You’re absolutely gorgeous under that suit.”
Marquis ignored the comment as they trudged back to the car, but his cheeks lit with a pink flush.
“I’ve been known to don my leathers occasionally and ride my motorbike. It’s been a while.” Marquis didn’t elaborate, but Mads lit up with delight.
“A motorbike? You wearleather.” Mads couldn’t contain the gasp that wracked his chest.
“I’ve woke a monster, have I?”
“A rather large one, I’d say. Not my penis.” Mads cleared his throat. Hewasrather well endowed for an omega, though.
Marquis dipped his gaze for a second but said nothing, cheeks still flushed. For an alpha, he did enjoy bottoming on theoccasion, and the memorable times they’d spent in bed made Mads’s heart ache. He missed that level of closeness. Only one male in his bed, sex that hewanted.
“I do not enjoy the silence. You are thinking.” Marquis cleared his throat. Evidently, his mind was in a similar place.
“I am. I wanted to be naughty and rude, but thought better of it. It’s been a long while since…” Mads waved his hand dismissively. “Since Damien died, at least.”
“Not even you and Baron?” He said it with no jealousy or barbs, but it still stung.
“With as much wish as he snorted, he couldn’t get either of his wands up for the occasion.” Mads huffed and didn’t look at him. “He tried. Always acted like it was my fault. Slapped me around a little, then went off to get high again.”
“I apologize. I shouldn’t have said anything.” Marquis deflated.
“Yeah. But it’s okay. My stomach burns so bad, I can’t even entertain taking a male to my bed.” Mads shrugged it off but stumbled when Marquis turned back and slid a hand around his waist. “Marquis?”
The expression in his violet eyes glimmered with sorrow. No jealousy. No anger, only regret. “It’s all my fault. If I had bucked my father’s will, fought harder…”
“I should never have left. I should have demanded he bring Justin to our home. I should have run the first time the spells ran thin. I could have come back if I wasn’t so afraid. I didn’t trust you’d want me.”
Marquis brought him in for a hug. “It is in the past. If you can forgive me, I can forgive you.”
“But we need to forgive ourselves.” Mads pushed back, smiling up at him. “And we both carry a huge guilt.”
“I agree.” Marquis walked with him, and when they reached the car, they set off in silence to find the tree’s matron.
Four miles up the road, upriver along the way, they found a nature reserve, one that would be unlikely to be disturbed for years to come. They exited the car at a nearby park and trudged forward, letting Marquis lead the way as he held the wood. They’d find their post oak, and it would be the start of his wand.
