Page 22 of Releasing Darkness

“What are you doing,” she asked with a laugh, holding tighter to my neck.

I nuzzled into her throat, feeling her pebbled flesh under my palms as I did so. “The quickest way to dry off is in the sun.”

She sighed against my neck before turning her face up to the sky, letting the warm rays wash over her. I glanced around the small clearing and frowned. I hadn’t noticed it before, but there was something different about the land. It wasn’t anything I could readily see, more of a sense that something was wrong.

Sasha raised her fingers up to my face and smoothed them across my brow. “What has you frowning?” she asked quietly. “You look, I don’t know… confused?”

I grunted as I adjusted my hold on her to allow more of her body to dry. “There’s something off about the land.”

It was her turn to frown as she glanced around as well. “What do you mean?”

I looked down at her to see she was looking back at me, taking in my features with a worried expression. “I can’t describe it. It’s a feeling I have. Almost like the land is ill.” I shook my head. “Never mind, I am probably misreading things.”

We were nearly dry, the dark sun doing its job quickly. I turned to walk back into the cave, ready to get her dressed. As much as I wanted nothing more than to sink back into her softness, we had to get moving. There was no way the guards wouldn’t be out looking for us soon if they weren’t already.

I set her on her feet and reached for her discarded shirt from the night before. It was filthy but dry. I wanted to shower her in luxury, but there was little I could do in the conditions we were currently in. I held it up. “Do you have another one of these?”

Sasha shook her head. “Just the one I was wearing earlier before we...” she trailed off with pink blooming in her cheeks. I chuckled.

I took the worn shirt and gestured for her to turn around. With a cock of her brow, she did as I indicated, giving me her back. I took the opportunity to run my fingers through her longred hair, made even darker by the water. It looked like freshly spilled blood, which shouldn’t have been alluring, but everything about my mate turned me on to the point that my shaft was painfully hard, as if I hadn’t spent myself inside her twice already.

I used the cloth to soak up as much of the moisture in her hair as possible, ensuring it would no longer drip. Once I was satisfied that I’d done all I could, I turned her back around to face me. She stared up at me, her shyness making her cheeks pinken adorably.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“It’s an honor to care for my mate.” My mother had taught us to cherish the gift the Fates had given. Mother may not have been blessed with a mate the way my brothers and I were, but it never stopped her from believing in fate. “Do you have something to comb out your hair?” I took in the tangles that did little to diminish the beauty of it.

“I have a Wet Brush in my satchel,” she told me as she reached down again.

I frowned at her words. “Why would you brush your wet hair with a brush that is also wet?” Her breathy laugh had the corners of my lips twitching. It was a foreign feeling since I never thought I would have a reason to smile again.

“That’s just the name of the brush.” She held up an object that appeared to be similar to what I’d seen long ago, but it was made from a strange material. I slid it from her hand so I could study it more closely. “That is called plastic. There is a lot of it in the Earth realm. It’s convenient, but there is probably far too much of it. Humans stopped using only natural materials hundreds of years ago.”

I grunted and gestured for her to turn around again. As I slid the brush through her long hair, I was impressed by how well it worked on her wet tangles. The last brush I remembered seeingwas my mother’s, and I doubted that the coarse animal hair it was made from would have been as easy on the tangles as the one I was holding.

In very little time, Sasha’s hair was smooth again, almost disappointing me that I didn’t have a reason to continue running my fingers through the silkiness. Reluctantly, I handed the brush back to my mate, then watched as she got dressed in the same clothing she was wearing before I tore them off her. It was identical to what she had been wearing when she’d released me from my prison. Once she was dressed, Sasha picked up the stiff trousers that I had been ignoring and held them up with a smile.

“Your turn.”

Chapter

Thirteen

SASHA

Icouldn’t help but smirk at the disdain on Varos’s face as I waved the black jeans in the air. “It won’t be that bad, I promise,” I said with a barely suppressed laugh.

He reluctantly took the denim from me and held it up for inspection. “Why is everything from the Earth realm so strange?” he asked as he turned them around to look at the backside. Once he noticed the pockets, he lifted one black eyebrow. “These pockets could be convenient, though.”

“They will be.” I frowned as I took in the jeans. “I forgot to grab you a pair of boxer briefs. I hope that going commando won’t be an issue.”

“Going commando?” Varos looked at me in question.

I grinned. “That’s what humans call it when you wear clothing without any undergarments. I hope the denim doesn’t chafe.”

With a sigh, Varos lowered the pants and slid one leg in, then the other. He pulled them up over his thighs, and I held my breath, hoping they would fit. He couldn’t walk around naked, and the pants he’d been wearing when I found him were sothreadbare I worried they would fall apart on our hike back to the portal. Plus, he had already torn the string meant to hold them up over his hips.

When he tugged them up over his ass, he gripped both sides of the button and looked thoughtful as he brought the two together. “This is strange, but I can see the appeal,” he said as he easily slid the button through the hole. The tip of his cock peeked out at the waistband, and I felt my mouth water at the sight. I squeezed my thighs together, remembering the feel of him inside me.

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