Page 157 of A Soul to Guide

Her eyes lit up in a weird way, and she lifted her arms to rub at each one. She even rubbed her neck. It was like she was searching for something. “Did you?”

“You immediately wished to remove it, stating it was gross and offensive.”

She paused, her starburst eyes flicking side to side in thought. It registered with her, and her ears slowly pushed back as her features fell.

“You rejected my sexual scent. It’s something Duskwalkers internally crave to do to deter others. It is our way of staking our claim.”

He’d discovered this about himself from the past, and he’d had this sense of completion from doing so – one that touched his senses. Demons had a similar inclination, which had made him all the more feral to do it.

It statedmine,without having to make it official.

“For instance, if the twins had returned here, they would not have tried to pull you into the Veil like last time.”

For many reasons, he hadn’t liked that they’d tried to steal Raewyn from him. He was putting all his faith in her, but he also just... didn’t want them to have her. He didn’t want any of his kind to have her if he couldn’t.

“Merikh,” she whispered, stepping forward.

“It is also our way of showing the person is under our protection. That they areours,at least in body. You also asked that I remove yours, meaning you did not want to have your own scent upon me.”

He’d washed it away because she’d obviously wanted him to, and he’d also wanted it gone after her rejection. It had shown a clear line between them. That, despite their desire, there was nothing more between them, and there would never be.

It’d been the same way between him and his female Demon companion, but for some reason, this stung.

He’d known from the start that his companion had only sought him out in curiosity and liked his skull head – since she liked collecting them. He, on the other hand, hadn’t minded her and was just curious about desire altogether. He’d also liked her company, even if they hadn’t spoken much.

It often made him chuckle, thinking how quickly both of them could have turned on each other, but neither had tried to.

With Raewyn, she had initiated each time they’d touched and had never put forth a boundary. It had allowed him to foolishly have strange thoughts and feelings.

He wouldn’t have them again.

“I’m so sorry.” She shook her head, her expression beseeching. “I didn’t know. I didn’t mean to make you feel that way.”

“I can see that it is nothing more than a misunderstanding,” he said quietly, stepping back. “We are different.”

He should have realised sooner that it was a clash of two different creatures. She was an Elf; why would she understand anything about Mavka and their behaviours?

Merikh prided himself on being smarter than the rest of his kind, but he’d been undoubtably idiotic the last few days. He’d been harsh to a female who hadn’t deserved it, all because he’d been feeling vulnerable and sensitive.

“I had originally been hoping to do it again with you,” she muttered, turning her head down to hide behind her hair.

His sight morphed to blue, unsure how he felt about that right now. He could no longer deny how much he wanted her, but the aftermath had been messy between them. What was the point if it would just end painfully each time?

None of their other intimate moments had ended well, and he was becoming acutely aware that he was the one to blame for it. He was the problem. He was always the problem. He destroyed anything and everything that tried to get close to him, one way or another.

“If you still plan to work on the mana stone, do so wisely,” he said as he turned his head away, wishing to escape the conversation. “I haven’t slept in a few days. I will be outside near the entrance should you need me.”

He headed back towards the outside of his home, shifting into his monstrous form along the way so he could be comfortable. She must have known that he no longer wished to speak on the subject, because she followed him without saying a word. She found the wall, patted for the entrance, and opened her mouth...

But she shut it again and slowly retreated inside.

Distracted, Raewyn grabbed a curl and brushed it back and forth over her lips to tickle them. It’d been an hour, maybe two, since she’d spoken with Merikh, and she’d been thinking heavily on it ever since.

She couldn’t believe that their whole issue had been a damn misunderstanding – from both sides. It annoyed her greatly because she was usually perceptive, picking up on miscommunications and squashing them. People who fought over them tended to make her eyes roll, and she gave herself one for being so unaware.

But she’d learned a lot from it.

Lesson number one: If a Duskwalker wanted to cover her in his sticky cum, she needed to adjust quickly to the idea if she wanted to keep him content.

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