Page 62 of Whisper Woods

I’m too busy staring into his eyes, trailing my hands up and down his naked spine to catch my own thoughts. Rafe grinds down with his hips, his cock rubbing against mine in a way that makes my brain skitter into nothing until it screeches to a halt.

Love? Rafe senses my sudden distraction as I fall head first onto the Overthinking Express, kissing me softly and tugging on my lip with his teeth. But I’m too far gone. Love… is that what this is? It feels so insanely sudden but at the same time it feels like the feeling is a part of my DNA.

I was in love with Caelan once; I thought we would be mates. I do still love him. But notthatway. This connection between Rafe and me is different. It’s always been something outside of my “real life.” There were times I thought it was all a dream, that our nights together were just hallucinations. Because it seemed completely unreal that anything real could feel like it does to be with him.

But I don’t know what loving Rafe means. And with everything going on with my status in the Everfyr pack, and my life, and everything I now know abouthislife here in Tathys, I don’t know what to do with it either. It feels like the veil between fantasy and reality has been pulled back, but instead of making everything clearer, it’s just made it even more confusing. So I do what I do best when things feel out of my control. I push it all the way down to deal with later.

“Are you okay?” Rafe’s scar pulls at his cheek when his eyebrow puckers into a frown. My eyes have adjusted to the dark enough to see the details in his face. I breathe in deeply, allowing his scent to invade me and force back my growing anxiety. I manage to bolster a smile and skirt my hands down to his ass, squeezing his cheeks. While I’ve been distracted his movements have stalled, and I mentally kick myself at my own stupidity.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” My voice is hoarse. I could definitely use a drink of water.But then my stomach rumbles, loud and obnoxious. I swear Rafe can feel it, the way he chuckles.

He dips his head to give me another quick kiss. “You’ll feel better when you’re fed. Let’s get you taken care of.”

He goes to get off me, but I lock my arms around his chest, pinning him to me. He squirms, his smile growing wider as he protests. “I’ll feel better after an orgasm. Or three.”

I roll him onto his back, trapping my arms under him in the process, but it just lets me dive into his neck easier. I kiss and suck along the tendons, and nibble my way along his collarbone. His efforts to fight back are half hearted at best, especially when his fingers knot themselves in my hair, undecided whether they are trying to hold me closer or pull me away.

When I lick along his chest, the yelping, shocked bark of his laugh heats my blood just as much as the salty taste of his skin. He fights back, managing to fight his way out of my hold to pin me on my back with my wrists in his hands and gives as good as he got.

We wrestle and play until we’re sweaty and laughing and covered in hickeys and bruises. By the time that we come, my hand wrapped around our cocks together, my earlier fears have been obliterated.

Because so long as I’m with Rafe, I know that I’ll be okay.

***

My man hasservants. Like, plural. More than one. I don’t know why I’m so shocked by the fact, considering what he said about his parents being a part of Tathissian high society and him being besties with the High Eminence, but I am.

It’s just the culture shock my brain decides it’s going to get hung up on.

When we finally make it out of bed, and get cleaned up from our fun, we are met by the staff in the dining room. Maeve, Eldrid and Sed wait patiently to serve us, waving off my awkward apologies for making them wait.

Sed—a younger being with long, shaggy, brown hair and a quick, shysmile—is the one to serve our late lunch. He blushes furiously whenever I try to talk to him. Apparently, Brydon tells me with a smirk and a wink when the young being leaves to get a new jug of water for the table, he is always like that. He has a bit of a hero worship thing going on with Rafe. Being a Tavisher in Tathys has a kind of celebrity status thing going on.

Rafe and Brydon catch up over practical things over food. Sleep has settled everything I learnt over the past couple of days into my brain, but I tune them out while I eat.

For one thing, the food was good enough to rival Mauvy’s and I am starving—these muscles require a lot of maintenance and I haven’t eaten inwaytoo long—but mostly, my brain is at capacity.

When you’re an overthinker, sometimes less is more when it comes to conversation.

“So, there isn’t much to be done until the spell’s done doing its thing.” Brydon wraps up his explanation of the spell he is using to translate and decode the book Darius had when he kidnapped Theo. “Why don’t we go visit Estella? Show the big guy around Tathys?”

He jabs his fork in my direction. Unfortunately, Wolf, who is already pissed about my orgasm over food priorities, thinks he’s going to use said fork to steal something off our plate. He forces out a warning growl making Brydon jump in his seat, his round eyes going wide.

“Shit, I mean, if you don’t wanna, that’s cool.” He rushes out.

A blush fills his cheeks, turning his green skin a ruddy brown colour as he looks down at his food again. Fuck. My neck gets hot with embarrassment at the way Brydon has shrunken into himself, his shoulders sagging under his oversized tee shirt. Another band one, well, this one is a teen pop princess but I guess it still counts? She has some bangers.

“Sorry, Wolf thought you were going to take something off my plate. He can be a territorial dick.”

Brydon looks up, a wary but small smile on his face. Under the table I can hear the telltale slap of his tail. I smile back, and his smile grows more confident, and he nods, returning to his food with gusto.

“Who’s Estella?” I ask Rafe, before I shove another forkful of whatever this salty-sweet meat on my plate is. It is my new favourite thing in the world. Rafe watches me eat like a savage with a look of bemused affection that makes my stomach feel all tingly. He chews his mouthful in a much more civilised manner before he answers.

“A dragon. I have always been rather fond of her, and she had her pups before I left. It’s part of our responsibilities as dragonkin—”

The loud clatter of my fork against my plate interrupts Rafe when it drops from my fingers. Wiping my mouth on the embroidered linen napkin, I stand so quickly I almost send my chair flying.

“Dragons? I wanna see dragons. Let’s go see the dragons.”

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