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Cerridwen nodded thoughtfully, and I appreciated that she refrained from pushing me in one direction or the other.
“I’m pretty certain he’s in love with you,” she said quietly. “And not just because you’re his mate.”
I groaned, scrubbing my face with my hands. “I just want to know if it’s real,” I said, looking at her as if she could answer this question for me. “That it’s not just some magical aphrodisiac making him like me.”
Cerridwen snorted, smiling at me sympathetically. “When Herne and I first realized we were mates,” she said, brushing her curling hair behind a pointed ear, “he refused to talk about it. Said I was too young to make such a decision and that the Goddess could wait until I wasn’t half his age anymore.”
“And did you?” I asked, realizing I had no idea how old either of them were, or how they had come to be mates.
Cerridwen scoffed. “Not a chance,” she said grinning wickedly. “I had been besotted with him for years by that point. My parents…” she hesitated, looking wistful for a long moment. “They were killed when we were quite young. I was barely twenty, and Carnon was still a child.”
“Goddess above,” I breathed, clasping her hand in sympathy. “I’m so sorry.”
“Thank you,” Cerridwen said softly. “It’s part of the difficulty of Carnon being named heir. It put targets on all our backs. Anyway, I got us out and got us here, and as the Lord of Beasts, Herne took responsibility for us. He brought us here from our home in Asterra, and helped raise Carnon when he wasn’t with King Alaunus.”
Carnon’s mixed feelings at being back in his family home in Asterra made sense to me now. How hard had it been to take me there, to the last place he had seen his parents alive? No wonder he rarely went back.
“Do they know who—“
“No,” Cerridwen said, shaking her head forcefully as she cut me off. “It could have been any of the other Lords. It was before Tyr and Brigid’s time, and there’s no way to know for sure. Anyway,” she continued with a little shake, giving me a strained smile. “Herne was kind and gruff and strong, and I became infatuated. When my magic emerged, I thought I felt the Pull, but I didn’t realize it was the mating bond until a few days later when Herne got drunk and kissed me on Beltane.”
I smiled, thinking how strangely the Goddess chose to shape fate that both siblings would kiss their mates on Beltane, although several years apart.
“How old were you, in the end?” I asked.
“This was maybe thirty years ago,” she said offhandedly. “I was twenty-five like you, and Herne was just past his first century.”
I choked a little on my tea. “A century?”
Cerridwen grinned. “He was a very experienced lover when he finally accepted the bond.” I laughed and she giggled, then sighed. “It took a few weeks to convince him though. He didn’t want to take advantage until he was sure we were mates and it was the Pull drawing us together.”
“He sounds like a good male,” I said, seeing her eyes go a little misty over him. “Apart from letting you pine over him.”
“He is a good male,” she replied with a chuckle. “Inmanyways,” she added with a suggestive wink. “And I wasextremelyconvincing in the end.”
“Clearly this is a conversation I need to be a part of,” came a lilting voice from the door. Carnon was perched there, shoulder resting against the frame, his lips tilted in amusement.
“It really is not,” Cerridwen said, standing and stretching her feathery wings behind her. “Will you two be at dinner tonight?”
Carnon nodded, his eyes fixed on me, looking a little hungry as he held my stare.
Cerridwen rolled her eyes. “Don’t let him make you late,” she said, giving me a pointed look. She patted her brother on the arm as she passed, but he didn’t look at her as he closed the door, leaning against it as if to steady himself.
“What?” I asked warily, looking down to make sure I hadn’t forgotten to get dressed. I was still wearing my rather dirty clothes from training this morning, and when I looked up he had moved on silent feet to stand before me. Leaning down, he cupped my face, bringing his lips to mine in a tender kiss that was almost too light to really count.
“I missed you,” he murmured, pressing another feather light kiss to my lips.
“You were barely gone for four hours,” I protested, leaning back as he bent into me, his knee resting on the edge of the bed where Cerridwen had been sitting.
“Mmmm, too long,” he agreed, smiling against my lips as he flicked his tongue over them. I opened for him, and he melted into me, pouring his need to be near me out until I was also feeling unhinged and ravenous.
“We’re going to be late for dinner,” I breathed as he ripped at the ties to my bodice, pulling it down roughly as he tried to get me naked before him. My own hands betrayed me, fumbling with the ties of his trousers as I felt the bulge of his desire firm beneath my palm.
“I don’t care about fucking dinner,” he growled, finally succeeding in freeing me from the bodice. He pulled up the blouse beneath, dipping his head and swirling his tongue over a nipple, which pebbled in response.
“I’m hungry,” I protested weakly, twining my fingers into the soft hair between his horns. Something had gone molten inside me, and food was quickly moving to the back of my mind as a priority.
“So am I,” he said, yanking at my leggings. I helped, pushing them away as his mouth trailed down my chest over my stomach and lower still. He growled at the evidence of my own arousal, already slick between my legs as he pressed his mouth to me, curling his tongue in a long, sensual move.
