Page 31 of To Run with the Wild Hunt

Is that it? Am I feeling… jilted? Surely not.

"I am," Nuada said gravely, speaking the words as unassailable truth. "The bed will have to suit three, I think, and I have little desire to hold myself apart from her. The life you're building with her is surely going to change with me in it, as well."

I rubbed at my neck, my stomach twisting. I liked the life I was discovering with Lexi. Having her almost always with me, her focus on me and our lives intertwined, was wonderful. "I don't like having to make room for you," I admitted, not looking at them. "Maybe I'm…" I swallowed. "Maybe I'm just greedy, but…"

He sighed, a heavy exhale, tilting his head back to look at the canopy of the trees as we neared the Ruined Palace. "I don't know how to prove to your heart that I don't want to take her from you, or you from her." Nuada shook his head, looking back down at Lexi as she slept. "If Faery gave her both of us, surely it's because her soul isn't complete without both her Hunter and her hound. How could I desire to do her the harm of breaking her soul?"

"I know how to share the love of a Master," I said, giving him a wry smile. "You loved me, but I wasn't the only hound you loved, and the touch of your hand wasn't diminished for petting another. But we were all hounds, and you're the Master." I looked away again, my tail curling between my legs. "The hounds may reach the prey first, but the Master takes claim of the doe, and the hounds get what parts of her they're given, if anything. I don't know how to do this any other way."

We walked in silence for a while, reaching the walls of the Ruined Palace and stepping back into Nuada's domain.

At last, I said softly, "I shared the other's body, but never her heart, and you know what happened when I lost that love."

"You haven't lost her, Key—"

"I know," I said, cutting him off. "I know that. But it still feels the way it feels."

A dark doorway opened up in one of the walls, Nuada using his connection to the Ruined Palace to move us through it without having to walk the true distance. I followed him through it, feeling ill-at-ease. I didn't want to feel like this, but I didn't know what I needed to feel differently.

The doorway opened up into one of the fine bathing rooms, one Lexi had dismissed as being too grand for everyday use, the floor of every clear pool a mosaic of swimming creatures and the open ceiling letting in the sun and rain alike. Nuada took a seat on one of the stone benches, settling Lexi down onto his lap. She roused only for a moment, falling back asleep against his bare chest, bloodied and battered and beautiful.

"Is it merely that you're unused to being my equal?" Nuada asked when Lexi had stilled again.

I took a seat next to him, leaning against his shoulder after a moment of hesitation, so I could look down into Lexi's face. "I don't know. Maybe."

Nuada pressed a soft kiss to my temple. "I love you," he said. "Not as I love her, true, and we're not soulmates, but you have been dear to me these long centuries, and we will be companions into eternity. I don't wish for my presence to be a trial for you."

I looked up at him and found him smiling down at me, his expression fond.

"Chase her with me," he suggested, ears canting forward. "Can we hunters not work together again? I appreciate that you let me find my balance alone with her, as you did, but the hunt isn't finished, and never will be. A hunter and a hound are a team, are they not?"

"Oh," I breathed, something settling into place for me. I started smiling, and then I started laughing, the relief undoing the knot of anxiety in my chest. "Oh, that's it."

"It is?" he asked, raising one brow.

"Yes," I said, rubbing my cheek against him as Lexi started shifting again. "You're not carrying her away over your saddle. You're just carrying her in your arms. It's not the end." I laughed again, bending down to nuzzle our soulmate as she made a sleepy sound. "Gods. That feels so stupid. Of course you aren't. How could you?"

Nuada rumbled a laugh, reaching up and tousling my hair with his silver hand. "The patterns of the ages are difficult to break, no? But she's no doe. She's a wild mare, and she's yours as much as mine."

"Mmn… we home?" Lexi asked muzzily. She pushed herself up, furrowing her brow at me. "Hey. What're you two so happy about?"

"You," Nuada said, crooning the word to her.

I traced my blunt silver claws down her spine, licking my lips as gooseprickles rose on her arms. "You ought to have the dirt and blood washed from your skin, and the twigs brushed from your mane." I licked my lips again, glancing up into Nuada's smoldering gaze as he caught the direction of my intent. "You ought to be licked clean."

She laughed, tilting her head back to look at me. "You've done that before."

"I'd like to do it again," I crooned. She thought I was talking about licking the blood off her sides. She'd learn otherwise soon enough.

With a low chuckle, Nuada stood, picking up Lexi as he did, who squeaked and swung her legs with girlish delight. "Could you bring some supplies, Key?"

"Gladly." I rose to my feet and padded over to one of the cupboards, leaning into my connection to the Ruined Palace as I did. It took me two tries to open the cupboard onto one that had the things I wanted, but I came away with cloths, soap, a brush, and a slim bottle of unscented oil.

Even picking up the oil made heat flush my groin, my pulse picking up. It had been a long, long time since I'd been with a man, but I remembered it, and Nuada was as beautiful as a panther, his powerful body and aura of danger enticing. I knew very well which position I'd be in when he decided to take advantage of my eagerness to please. Even were we to meet as equals, I would be helpless but to obey.

I turned back to them with a shiver, anticipation heating my blood. Nuada had settled into the water with Lexi between his legs, his eyes half-lidded as he wet her skin with palmfuls of water.

"You're taking advantage of me," she said with a lazy smile, lying back against his chest.

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