AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I want to protest. I should be taking care of her. I should be strong enough to feed her, not the other way around. As fast as that thought pops into my head, I push it away. This woman is my mate. My equal. It’s our job to take care of each other. Besides, she’s probably much better at catching fish than me.
I get to work gathering birch bark, sticks, and fallen logs. I make a ring of rocks, set the wood in the center, and begin shredding the birch bark. After pulling out my flint and steel, I strike it once, the sparks easily catching. After a couple of gentle breaths, the birch bark lights, going up in a whoosh.
Now that I have a moment to think, I look around. Are we far enough away that no one from the coven will find us?
My gorgeous mate is back in minutes, carrying three large fish. She hands them to me before pulling a long dress over her head. I curse internally, wanting nothing more than to stand here and ogle my naked mate. I suppose being close to a fire naked isn’t such a good idea. I set the fish down and grab a couple of long sticks I can use to cook the fish on.
A minute of silence rests between us. The only sound is the crackling of the wood from the fire, and then she speaks.
“I’m Pearl.”
I turn to look at her, her musical voice once again causing goosebumps to pebble my flesh. I finally allow myself to take in her appearance. Her blue eyes sparkle with the flickering offirelight, her pale skin glows, and my eyes drop down to her full lips which curve into a smile.
“Sorry,” I begin, my eyes darting back up to hers. “I’m Loukas.”
The aroma of the cooking fish causes my stomach to growl loudly.
She looks down at my stomach and back up to my eyes, concern shining in them.
“Why…” She stops and bites her lip in contemplation, obviously not wanting to offend me.
“Why am I so hungry?” I supply, and she nods.
I let out a sigh and look back at the fire for a moment, not exactly sure how to answer it. I know that she’s my mate; my owl knows she’s my mate. After everything in my past, though, there’s a chance she could reject me.
Hell, I might reject me. After all, I’ve spent years living with the woman who killed my father. I have allowed the mother of my children to become the villain in our story.
Her hand on my arm startles me, and I look up to meet her eyes.
“It’s okay if you don’t want to tell me.”
I search her eyes, finding nothing but honesty in them.
“I do want to tell you, it's just that…” I let out a soft chuckle. “I guess I don’t want to tell you, but only because I don’t want you to look at me any differently than you are right now.”
“I won—” she begins, but I shake my head.
“You will, and that’s okay. You deserve to know everything before you decide if you want me as your mate.”
She places her free hand on my cheek.
“I’ve seen the goddesses work in pairing mates a lot over the last five years. I trust Artie picked the perfect mate for me.”
“Artie?”
She nods apologetically.
“That’s a story for another time. Artie as in Artemis—the Moon Goddess.” She waves off my confused look, and I realize there is no use pushing it. She’s not going to tell me what that means…yet.
“Mine’s a pretty long story.”
“We have a while; the fish are still cooking.” She gestures to the fish crackling over the fire.
I nod and begin the story of my life, cringing when I get to the point where Antonia kills my father, smiling when I tell her about Zach and Amelia, and staring into the fire when I tell her about the past month.
“She’s keeping you and your children captive?” Pearl asks, anger coating her words. I flinch as she reaches out a hand and places it on my shoulder.
I look up from the ground, and her eyes soften. Her gaze is full of anger and something else I can’t quite put my finger on, but she’s definitely not looking at me with the hatred that I expected.
