Page 22 of King of Forest and Fur

His grin back at her almost made her knees weak. If she wasn’t mad at him, she was twitter-pated.

Leila was so used to being in control that the whiplash of emotions was exhausting as well as infuriating.

Why did he affect her so? She was a grown-ass woman; she knew better than to be influenced like this.

She grabbed her bags. “Besides,” she added, “it’s only until we figure out who was working with Drystan and then everything will be back to normal.” Knowing there was an end in sight to the chaos was comforting.

Rehn’s face shifted from satisfied to conflicted. He took Leila’s bags from her, his face still furrowed.

“Let’s go then, shall we?”

Leila was unsure of the sudden change in the king but didn’t let it affect her too much. Rehn seemed to have a complexity about him that she figured was better to not understand. Besides, she was busy letting excitement take over where irritation had been moments before.

An open place to practice time traveling. Unknown resources and books to explore.

Maybe staying at a castle in the wilderness was just what she needed.

Her eyes flicked to the handsome king strutting in front of her, his tight ass sculpted, even through his clothes.

If she couldn’t get any work done, at least she’d enjoy the view.

EIGHT

REHN

The road from the Sorcerer’s Academy to Rehn’s castle took the royal party into the forest. Being among the trees with the sounds of birds chirping, small animals scurrying, and the babbling of every little stream, all nearly untouched by man and of the occasional hint of potential prey, usually calmed Rehn’s inner animal – the bear living just under his skin.

Today, that beast had only one thing on its mind, their mate who accompanied them. Rehn couldn’t give in to his inner animal’s desire, though. He rode near the front of the royal party with their new addition, his unknowing mate Leila, farther back and protected by several royal guards.

Being near her was too great a distraction, at least right now. His inner bear’s protests, pushing just under his skin for release, to rush back and claim her now gave him all the more reason to stay away. Drystan was dead but the threat to Leila, to his mate, remained in the unknown sorcerer who aided that madman. If Rehn had to stay away from her so he and his guards could better protect her, he would… for now. The sooner they got to the castle, the better, though.

It also had given him time to tell Idris about Leila being his fated mate.

“You’re showing great restraint, my friend,” Idris said. “When I first discovered my bond with Yaldred, we… well, let’s just say neither of us were in the mood to wait. Her inner beast was as insistent as mine.”

“Leila doesn’t have an inner animal,” Rehn replied, “and whoever helped Drystan escape is still out there and may not be working alone. If I am going to protect her, I need to be able to focus.”

“You, my king, need not do everything alone.” Idris’s head shook and he let out a sigh. “You have me and your royal guards to help protect both of you. At some point, you are going to have to talk to her, get to know her.”

Rehn could rely on his men and that went double for Idris. The man had earned his place as the king’s closest adviser and not just because of their long friendship. Idris and the royal guards knew their duty and would carry it out all in Rehn’s name, but the crown with its responsibilities and the ultimate duties that came with it rested on his head alone. Now, he and his inner animal had the added duty to protect his mate.

“Did you get to know Yaldred before you claimed her?” he asked.

“If you asked her, I bet she’d say she claimed me,” Idris replied with a chuckle. “It will be different with you and Leila. She has no inner animal with its primal call for its mate. You are going to have to do things the old fashioned way. You have to woo her, win her affection.”

The very idea had Rehn’s inner bear growling, his fur rippling just under his skin. A deep breath calmed him, but a hint of his mate’s scent on the breeze tickled his nose, earning another internal growl from the bear.

He agreed with the beast. The very idea she didn’t feel the same way as he did rankled as if it were a rejection. Logically, he knew it wasn’t, but the mating instinct was just too strong to be defeated that way. If not for Idris, he might have given in to the beast’s demands then and there.

“It should not be difficult for you to woo her, my friend.” Idris waved his arm around, past the guards to the forest beyond. “You are the king and even if you had no crown, you could still win her over.”

“It doesn’t feel right. She should be able to sense the connection, inner animal or no,” Rehn said.

“I’ve come to think our inner animals give us a better connection to something primal, to the natural world,” Idris replied. “Our sharpened senses aren’t limited to our noses. We sense our mates strongly, but that doesn’t mean she does not sense the same. Just as her nose can’t match yours, maybe she feels the same, only dulled by her lack of inner animal.”

That felt like cold comfort to Rehn, an excuse, not an explanation. A dulled sense meant she didn’t feel the same way he did, she felt only a fraction which might as well be nothing. But it wasn’t nothing, maybe it was a start, something to nurture and grow. He accepted the wisdom in such a thought, but not his inner beast. The bear cared only for claiming his mate.

The forest ahead opened into the familiar fields covering the valley. They lined both sides of the road as it set a straight path to the bridge over the river and Rehn’s castle rising beyond. As was his custom, Rehn urged his mount forward, moving to the head of the royal party. A king leads from the front.

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