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It was a tiny little gap, less than a minute to get through, but I surrounded myself with its ambience: the cool wind moving through the dark space, the drip of water from the ceiling, the scrape of my claws against the stone ground. Then there were Ayla’s own sounds as she entered behind me, her pace much slower.
I understood her apprehension. Wolves used caves plenty for temporary shelter, but it was always intimidating to go into a new one. Besides, the last time she’d followed me into a cave, there’d been an angry female bear inside.
But as soon as I was in, I’d appeared out the other side onto an even bigger landing, where a small body of water eventually met the edge of the landing and made a gentle waterfall. Down below, the cliff blended with sharp, rocky outcroppings intogentle dirt hills, meadows, flowers, and trees dotting the green expanse.
“Oh my gods,” Ayla said, shifting back into her human form. “This isbeautiful.” She walked right up to the edge and looked around, the wonder evident in her voice. “I’ve only seen places like this in books.”
I shifted, too, stretching as I did. “I used to come here whenever I needed an escape,” I said, joining her. “It’s where I brought Oren with me when his parents were killed.”
She reached over, her fingers interlacing with mine. “I’m sorry. Is this how you became friends? Mourning together?”
“I… it’s a long story,” I said. “I’ll tell you sometime but not right now. Just know his parents dying was the moment that woke me up.”
Ayla nodded before letting go of my hand to lower herself down so she could sit on the edge, her short legs dangling off. I joined her, letting out a heady sigh.
“I used to stargaze here, too, on the rare times I could get away at night. Always felt so much simpler laying here, staring up at all the lights in the sky that didn’t give one lick about whether I was a prince or not.”
“I can see how it’d be peaceful. Back in my coven, when I wanted to get away, I’d climb up into this willow tree within our shields. It was a massive thing, and it had a hollow a witch had enchanted to be a little hideaway ages before I was ever there. I liked to go there and pretend I was a little squirrel, and it was my home.”
I smiled. I tried to imagine Ayla when she was little, and it was difficult, but it certainly was cute. “I think a lot of kids in somewhat bad situations have places like this.”
She made a thoughtful sound. “The lucky ones do.”
I nodded, looking over at her and taking in every feature of her face, the way she smelled, even the way the breeze made hersilver-blonde hair gently move. I wished we could stay locked in the moment forever, just her and me and the pleasant haze of childhood havens.
But life didn’t work that way. It was a relentless march onward, from one event to the other, and largely the only control we had was who we traveled with in those moments.
We sat there for a while, until eventually her head dropped to my shoulder, and our fingers intertwined. It was so incredibly lovely just sitting there, watching everything.
How many quiet moments had we had in our lives together? Not many. A few scattered here and there, wrestled from the teeth of dire straits.
My mind drifted away to an impossible future for the thousandth time. One where Ayla and I were no one important to anyone but ourselves, where there was no kingdom to rule, and she wasn’t possibly one of the most powerful healers of our age.
But that was the thing: the image in my head was just a fantasy, because one day, I’d have to take the throne—unless my father killed me first—and Ayla would never turn her back on the people who needed her. It was one of the many reasons I loved her.
“Kai?” my mate murmured, drawing my attention back. I turned my head, and the next thing I knew, she was kissing me.
Gods, I loved it when she started things. As an alpha, I was more than comfortable taking the lead, and sometimes my teeth itched with the urge to dominate her, to mark her everywhere so no one would ever doubt she was mine, even with the most powerful veiling spell possible.
But when Ayla came onto me, I knew that despite her reserved nature, despite all the walls she put up, despite her misgivings, she still craved me and still wanted to let me in.
I returned her kiss, reveling in the slow, relaxed nature of it, so sweet and soft, more of a sigh than actual physical contact, but it was the perfect thing as I showed her my childhood haven.
As the seconds ticked on, more pressure built up, and those tender kisses soon involved tongue. Then teeth. We were quickly growing lost in each other without having to worry about who could see us, who could smell us.
“Hey,” Ayla murmured breathlessly, her eyes drifting behind me to the beautiful waters fed into the soft falls. “Want to go for a swim?”
I grinned crookedly at her. “I thought you’d never ask.”
Now we were both stripping, an unfamiliar giddiness filling the air. Yet another moment where we could just be silly and in love. I could get drunk on them, so maybe it was good they were few and far between.
I still wanted more.
I got distracted then by Ayla’s beautiful pale skin. She was completely bare to me now as my eyes slid along her form. My mate: such a delightful series of contradictions, with her strong, corded muscles visible along her shoulders, forearms, and calves, while other parts of her were less defined. I’d say soft, but she was still quite a bit underweight. But my wolf took interest in the slight rounding of her tummy and how her hips were slightly wider, her bones not as prominent as when I’d first met her.
Ah, who was I kidding? I liked it, too. I loved the idea ofmoreAyla existing, but she was also eating and living enough not to be in complete survival mode all the time. I sometimes felt like a failure of a mate, but I knew I was at least doing this right.
“You know, if you keep undressing me with your eyes, I’m going to catch a cold,” she said, standing on the edge of the blue pond.
