Page 55 of Bull Moon Rising

20 Days Before the Conquest Moon

Iblush all throughbreakfast the next morning.

For his part, Hawk is quiet, but when I glance over at him across the table, he’s got a smug look on his face, as if he’s quite pleased with himself. He seems more relaxed today than he has been in the past, which just makes me blush harder.

Luckily no one else has noticed my silence. Gwenna is arguing with Lark and Mereden about the best type of toasted cheese sandwich, and Kipp is watching them with an amused expression as Mereden goes into great detail about the perfect amount of butter that should be spread upon the bread before applying cheese. And while I have definite opinions about toasted cheese sandwiches, I can’t focus on anything.

There are parts of my brain that still haven’t recovered from last night.

I can’t stop thinking about where he touched me. His tongue. The hungry noises he made as he pleasured me. The way I curled my legs around his shoulders and rocked shamelessly against him while he licked me to climax. I’ve read a few naughty books and touched myself a few times, but never in my wildest dreams did I imagine anything quite like that. I poke at my porridge, wondering how I’m possibly going to be able to hold a conversation with him today, because I distinctly remember the ring through his nose resting upon my mound as he licked me….

“Good,” declares a loud, brusque voice that makes me jump. “You’re all here. Saves me the effort of locating your asses.” I glance up in surprise as Magpie bustles into the kitchen. She’s wearing her guild uniform, and while it’s wrinkled and faded, it’s the first time I’ve seen her look something like a guild master. Her normally disheveled, gray-streaked hair ispulled back into a tail and she wears her sash over her shoulder, so encrusted with pins that it pulls the side of her blouse down.

A spark of excitement races through me as she sets her pack on the table in the midst of breakfast, making the dishes rattle. What’s going on?

Hawk leans back in his chair, his arms crossing over his broad chest. It makes the muscles in his biceps bulge, and I can’t stop staring. Gwenna catches my eye, a curious expression on her face, and I immediately turn bright red, shoving another mouthful of porridge into my face and trying to look anywhere but at her.

Or Hawk.

“Well, now,” Hawk drawls, tilting his head and eyeing Magpie. “Look who’s decided to be upright before noon. Going somewhere?”

“Shut up, you,” Magpie tells him, but there’s a grin on her face. “You all kept bitching about teaching, well, now you get your teacher. I’m taking charge.”

“You are?” Lark grins at her aunt.

“Are you, now.” His tone is even. Unruffled.

“I am.” She puts her hands on her hips. “You going to fight me over it?”

“Not at all.” Hawk seems guarded, but he nods after a moment’s thought. “Glad you’re feeling like joining the team. It’s been a while.”

“Yeah, well, yesterday’s scare with this one”—she gestures at me—“made me realize that if I didn’t get off my ass and teach these idiots, they’d go back to their villages, and then where would I be?”

“Did you just call us the village idiots?” Gwenna stiffens in her seat, scowling at Magpie.

“I did. But you can prove me wrong.” She points at the pack she’s placed in the center of the table, almost atop poor Kipp. “I assume you all know how to pack your bag for tunneling?”

Everyone pauses. I exchange a worried look with Gwenna and then glance over at Hawk, but he’s not looking at me, thank Asteria.

“We haven’t gotten that far yet. We’ve been working on drills,” Hawk says. “Physical fitness.”

“Spoken like a true Taurian,” Magpie continues, and gives her head a little shake. “Look, I won’t say that you don’t need to be in good shapeto hold your own in the tunnels, but as long as you’re smart and know what you’re doing, it’s not that important.”

There’s a smack against wood, and I realize when Hawk stands up that the smack was his agitated tail hitting the nearest chair. He leans forward, his hands braced on the table. “Not important? Do you know how many idiots Taurians have to retrieve out of the tunnels every year because humans deem it ‘not important’ to be competent at their mucking jobs?”

“I’m the teacher here,” Magpie says in a hard voice. “You want me to teach or not?”

Hawk’s nostrils flare so widely that the ring in his nose jumps. He looks furious, his tail lashing back and forth hard. It smacks Mereden in the arm, but her eyes are just as big and worried as mine.

“Fine,” he says after a moment. His voice is flat with distaste. “You teach. Prove me wrong.”

“Good,” Magpie declares. She stands a little straighter, looking more authoritative by the moment. “You’re all going to get a lesson on what to pack, and then we’re going camping.”

“Camping?” Gwenna sputters. “What the muck does that have to do with tunneling?”

The guild master’s eyes gleam. “That’s what I’m about to show you.”

A few hourslater, we’ve all got bags packed, Squeaker has enough dried food for several days (plus I’ve left instructions for the nestmaid to look after her), and we head off. Hawk wants us to march from Magpie’s dorm all the way to a camp somewhere in the distant trees far outside the city, but Magpie insists that we catch a ride instead.

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