AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I stretched on the hard ground, willing my erection to subside. That fae woman—thinking of her was a good mood killer. I’d bet if she touched my dick, it’d shrivel up like a fallen autumnleaf.
There, that did the trick. All cooled down below. I peeled off the sleeping bag and ducked out of thetent.
Nate had a pan sizzling over the fire. We’d brought a good stock of cured bacon, but even though it didn’t need cooking, it tasted twice as good fried. The salty, meaty smell tickled into my nose. My stomach grumbled. I wasn’t normally much of a hiker, and all this mountain climbing had left meravenous.
If I couldn’t devour Ren the way I wanted, at least I could have my way withbreakfast.
“Where’s our wolf and eagle?” I asked, sinking down by the fire and stretching out my legs. The smoke curled up toward a small gap in the cave ceiling above us. “And how long until you surrender some of thatbacon?”
“You can have it now,” Nate said with a hint of a smile. The bear looked more relaxed this morning, even though he’d been up the second half of the night on guard duty. He flipped a couple of strips off the pan with surprising grace and tossed them to me. I snatched them out of the air and dug in. The hot, crispy pork seared my tongue, but the sting was worthit.
“Biscuits,” Nate added, tossing over the bag. The doughy lumps didn’t appeal half as much as the meat, but they made for good energy at the start of the day. Nate dug into one of his own as he tossed a few more strips of bacon onto the pan. “Aaron and West are taking a quick survey of the area farther down the cave in both directions. Aaron didn’t want to be careless afteryesterday.”
Because of the fae woman or because of the weasel? Both were reason for concern. I tore a biscuit in half and shoved the rest of my bacon inside to form a rough sandwich. In a minute, I’d gulped that down and was reaching for another. Nate gave me a bemused look when I started eyeing the panagain.
“Weallneed to eat,” he said. “Ren is stillsleeping?”
I nodded. “I figured the princess deserved her beautyrest.”
Nate bristled slightly, as if he thought I’d meant that remark as an insult. “She’s been holding upwell.”
“Of course she is,” I said, waving him down. Ren had been even less prepared for this kind of physical strain than the rest of us. And she’d shifted into dragon form twice that first day. I’d have let her sleep until noon without judging if I could have. But we did need to get to the end of this journey soon. The biscuits were already getting a tad bitter withstaleness.
“West was sleeping by the fire when I got back from sentry duty,” Nate said, with a prodding tone. “Instead of in thetent.”
I shrugged. “You know how wolf boy is. He’s still got issues with our Princess of Flames being anywhere near his personalspace.”
The canine alpha was an idiot. The mate we’d all been waiting our entire lives for had been right there in front of him, practically begging him to come to her, and he’d turned tail in the opposite direction. He had to want her just as much as I did. I couldn’t understand that kind of self-denial atall.
Footsteps sounded on the rocky ground. Aaron came into view, his thoughtful expression perking up at the smell of the food. He ambled over to the fire and grabbed a piece of bacon right out of the pan. Show-off.
I eyed the eagle shifter as he hunkered down by the fire. What exactly had he done to make Ren choose him first? Choose him—and still hesitate about the rest of us. I was at least that bird-brain’sequal.
“No reason for concern up ahead,” he said. “At least not from what Isaw.”
“Not behind us either,” West said, emerging from the shadows in the other direction. He flexed his neck with a crack of his joints. “Let’s eat and get going. Where’sRen?”
“Coming, coming,” a muttered voice carried from the tent. Our dragon shifter pushed past the flap, running her fingers through the rumpled waves of her hair. Even barely awake and dressed in wrinkled clothes, she was the most gorgeous specimen of womankind I’d ever seen. I took her in, enjoying theeyeful.
She lifted her head and sniffed. “Baconagain?”
“Take what you can get, Sparks,” West said, his already gruff expression shuttering even more. Yeah, wolf boy had a few issues to work through. Too bad for him. That just left more room for me to make mymoves.
Ren ambled over. “Oh, I’m not complaining. I’d eat nothing but bacon for the rest of my life if I wouldn’t end up with scurvy.” She sat down cross-legged between Aaron and me and hummed happily as Nate passed her a couplestrips.
Even the way she crunched into the bacon was sexy enough to get me half hard again. Fuck, this mate-bond thing was brutal. In the most tantalizingly torturousway.
A much less pleasant sensation twisted in my gut. My body stilled. I frowned as my stomach gurgled and roiled. I didn’t like the feel of that at all. What was going on with my innards all of asudden?
“What’s wrong, Marco?” Aaron asked, being Mr. Eagle-Eyes.
“Nothing,” I said with a dismissive gesture. “Just alittle—”
I’d been going to say it was just indigestion. But before I could get the words out, a feverish flush washed through my body. My stomach outright lurched, heaving up toward my throat. There was nothing I could do but spin around before I vomited the food I’d just eaten onto theground.
* * *
Ren
