AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Lian launched into a story about one of his and January’s first arguments, though, and laughter rolled through all of us. It was impossible not to be entertained by them, and their massive grins as they told the story together only made it more fun to hear.
I kept looking at the trees for Teris.
One of the unmated male fae was halfway through explaining an awkward situation he’d landed himself in with his fated mate—awkward enough that we were all laughing—when Teris finally slipped through the trees.
The man gestured with his hands as he continued the story, and since I was standing right next to him, he nearly touched me.
It wasn’t a big deal at all, and wouldn’t have evenmattered, if Teris hadn’t shifted and been striding toward me.
While I laughed with another man.
Who had almost touched me.
I saw it in his eyes when the possessiveness snapped. His mind went into an animalistic mode, and he lunged toward the man talking.
I usually wasn’t one to throw myself into a fight.
Usually, I backed the hell off before it ever got anywhere near that.
But the way Teris moved and the fury in his eyes, made me snap, too.
I threw myself between the sabertooth and the other fae. His body crashed into mine and he rolled us in the air, so he hit the ground instead of me.
He was snarling, and when he rolled back over the top of me, I knew he was still going to attack the other guy.
I threw my legs around his ass, pinning him to me as I grabbed his face. His chest was heaving, his eyes wild enough to tell me that all logic and control had left the building.
He had warned me this might happen, when he told me not to talk to other men. And I’d known he was mostly serious—I just hadn’t expected everything to go down so quickly.
I knew the other women were probably right that the possessiveness would fade some with time, too. But there was so much baggage between me and Teris. He had to have still been feeling the pain of my rejection all those years ago, even though I’d explained that I hadn’t actually rejected him.
I knew that, because I was still feeling the pain of him not coming after me, too. Knowing the truth didn’t make those feelings vanish. It didn’t cure the years I’d spent alone, hurting, and wondering.
And it didn’t change his feelings or experiences either.
As much as I would’ve liked to believe we’d worked through all that shit, I knew we really hadn’t. The only thing that could ease the pain of those experiences was time.
If we could hole up together without seeing or talking to anyone else for a few weeks, we’d get there faster. But with the monsters in the skies, and the creatures still wandering in Vevol somewhere, I knew that wasn’t going to happen.
“Smell me,” I ordered Teris.
He snarled in response, but didn’t fight against my hold. He didn’t want to hurt me, even in his wildest and most out-of-control state.
Not willing to wait for some amount of sanity to strike him, I grabbed his face and dragged it to my neck. His nose met my skin, barely, and he inhaled deeply.
His body relaxed almost instantly when he caught his own scent on my skin, and not even a tiny whiff of anyone else’s. I hadn’t touched any of the other women, or hugged them; it was just me, and Teris.
“I’m yours,” I told him, much more quietly. “And you’re mine. Remember?”
He growled, low and rumbly.
I ran my hands over his shoulders and back, slowly.
His breathing evened out and his chest stopped heaving, until finally, he stood. When he did, he pulled me up with him, holding me to his chest. I turned my head enough to see a few of the girls, all of them grinning widely. Their mates had taken them back a ways, putting enough distance between them and Teris that the women were safe. Not that he would’ve ever hurt them, anyway.
The unmated men seemed to have left, though I would’ve put money on most of them lingering to watch what happened from the trees.
The other women gave me thumbs-ups as Teris strode away with me, lifting me higher so my chin found his shoulder as he gripped my ass and thighs securely.
