AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Not much has happened the way it should’ve since I got here.”The humor faded out of my voice.
“That’s going to change now, Queen Nai.”His humor didn’t disappear with mine, luckily. And he knew that damn nickname would piss me off, or at least snap me out of the funk I was sliding into.
“Again with the Queen thing,”I grumbled at him.
“Well, now it’s true. Queen Nai of the monsters.”
I scowled.“They’re not monsters. Hopefully.”
“Your lack of certainty doesn’t inspire confidence,”he drawled back.
“Your lack of confidence in me doesn’t inspire my certainty, either.”
He laughed into my mind.“Touché.”
I pressed my cheek to his neck, watching the forest around us as he moved.“So did you really throw the fight for Fovea?”I asked quietly.
“Of course I did. I know Nev well enough to be sure that he would make a loveless mating work. And even if I didn’t, he and I had already discussed the need to find a way to bring us and the female fae together. They were going to keep killing our people if we didn’t do something to convince them we weren’t at war. Mating with one of the women was the easiest way, we just expected him to be paired with one of the life-bringers, not Fovea herself.”His voice was low, but calm. I didn’t see any reason for him to lie about it, and Teris had never been a liar anyway.
“You weren’t considering mating with a life-bringer yourself?”
He didn’t answer immediately, which made me slightly nervous. But then he finally admitted,“I knew it would’ve hurt Summer, and I felt shitty for hurting her as much as I already had. It’s difficult to be locked in a mate bond you know you don’t want, as a male. Because every instinct you have screams at you to protect the female, and claim her, and yet you feel no true desire to do so. It’s exhausting.”
“It sounds terrible.”And again, I felt much like crap for putting Aev through that.
Not that I needed any help feeling bad for everything that had happened with him.
“Don’t start feeling bad again,”Teris warned me, his voice getting growly.
“It’s impossible not to.”
“Any man with half a brain could meet you and know what kind of woman you are, Nai.”
“What the hell does that mean?”I shot back, my defenses rising.
“Some females are willing to chase men. Others won’t consider someone who doesn’t chase them. You’re the latter, obviously.”
I scowled.“That makes me sound even worse.”
“Wanting a man who fights for you isn’t a bad quality. I’d say it makes you pretty damn sane. If Aeven really wanted you, or deserved you, he would’ve been knocking on your door every day. He would throw all of his energy into coming up with some way to talk you into seeing him, or even just speaking with him through the damn door. A man who wants you will chase you—because he knows it’s worth every breath.”
I didn’t know what to say to that, so I remained in stunned silence.
“But now the only bastard who gets to chase you is me. And if anyone other males so much as consider looking at you the way I do, they’re dead.”
They probably shouldn’t have, but those words gave me a hell of a lot of goosebumps.
A loud roar sounded somewhere above our heads, distinctly different from the ones the klynnas made, and my head jerked upward.
“It’s just a dragon, Nai,”Teris said.“Just one of our fae.”
“But what’s it doing out here?”I murmured back, eyes scanning the treetops above our heads as if they could answer my question.“We’re a long way from the Stronghold.”
“Maybe they sent a search party for us.”
“No. I told Presley and Blue where we’re going. The unseelies are glad to be rid of me, the female fae believe in the goddess too much to go against her, and the seelie probably haven’t even realized I’m gone.”
“They realized,”Teris growled back. He reluctantly added,“But they’ll trust me to protect you.”
