“Nah. They all hated me because I wasn’t a wolf.”
My heart bled for my poor, lonely incubus.
“Wolf shifters are all assholes,” I muttered. Most of the time I tried to see the best in people, humans as well as magicals, but all the wolf shifters I’d met so far had been obnoxious.
Zane chuckled briefly before sighing. “I should have bought you a gift too, but it didn’t occur to me.” He paused for a moment before huffing in frustration. “Fuck, I’m sorry, pet. I’m not used to thinking of anyone else.”
“You tried, which is all I care about.” I pressed my cheek against his chest and inhaled his scent, grateful he smelled better than the pee-soaked floor. “We need to go soon, so the tree would have died anyway.”
“We’re stuck here until the bear gets outside and clears the track.” I frowned as his words from earlier before came back to me. “We can’t leave?”
“No, pet. Not for a few hours at least.” Anxiety made my chest feel too tight as I pondered how much longer it would take toreach the mountain where the map had shown me the vampire’s location.
Maverick walked over with a cobwebby mop. He shoved it at Zane.
“Clean up that mess while I move the fallen tree. We’ll eat something and then head out. Kai reckons it’s a day’s travel from here to the coast. If we can reach Sitkavus by tea-time tomorrow, we might find a boat willing to take us the rest of the way.”
I took the mop from my bear. “I’ll clean up Kenji’s mess.” He was my asshole familiar, so it seemed only fair. I turned to Zane. “How about you go find Kai and let him know our plans?”
The merman vanished last night. I hoped he was okay.
“For you, pet, anything.”
He leaned down and kissed me. Once again I melted into a puddle, but thankfully for all of us, this one didn’t stink of pee.
27
Alaric
The ocean smelled infinitely better than kitsune piss. It had taken hours for the rank stink to disappear. How one small creature could smell so fucking bad escaped me. The little bastard had curled up on the witch’s knee once we finally piled into the SUV and slept for the rest of the day.
Naturally, the bear insisted on driving again. I’d offered to do my share, but he claimed he didn’t trust anyone else to keep his mate safe.
The moment the ocean came into view, the witch sat up, moved the kitsune off her knees, and practically crawled over my lap to see out the window. I tried not to yelp when she sat on my dick, but she was too busy staring in wonder at the sight of the waves crashing against the shore to notice my discomfort.
I watched her reaction. “Is this the first time you’ve seen the ocean?”
She blushed. “Yes. Adam never let me go anywhere as a kid.”
I’d been dragged all over by my father. He loved to show off his son. We had a beachfront mansion in Rhode Island, close to a few human celebrities. I used to enjoy going there as a kid, but the older I got, the more I hated the way he paraded me in front of his friends, especially the high-ranking witches.
“The ocean is freezing this time of year, so don’t get too excited,” I tell her. Her face fell for a moment before she broke into a sunny smile.
“I can’t swim, so I don’t care about that, but I am looking forward to going on a boat!” She bounced up and down on my lap, and I groaned as her ass inadvertently rubbed my dick back to life.
The asshole incubus snorted as he picked up on my discomfort.
“Will there be pretty fish like in that human movie?”
She wiggled around some more as the SUV rumbled down a steep hill toward the harbor. It wasn’t late, but the sun had set hours ago. Nights here were very long this time of year, which was frankly depressing.
My dick ached, but I gritted my teeth, grateful she’d not noticed.
“There are lots of salmon and trout,” Kai said. “Plus sea mammals like seals and whales.”
“Oh.” Raven’s face fell as she sank back down before her eyes widened in surprise and she blushed. “Oh,” she repeated.
“Something wrong, pet?” The incubus smirked. I closed my eyes and tried to think of anything but the witch’s ass rubbing my dick. Fuck me, this was embarrassing. The magical tether between us purred at her proximity. My magic loved it when she touched me. It wanted us to seal the bond.
