Page 36 of The Wolf's Prince
Nikolai was still sleepy after nearly a week in the throes of what the shifters called aheat.
The fact that his body was shifting closer to being in line with the animals of the woods felt strange. Nikolai supposed if it came with mornings like this though, he didn’t mind.
“What are you thinking about?” Soren asked, his voice gruff from sleep. He seemed to like that question, but the fact that he seemed to want to delve into Nikolai’s brain to better understand him didn’t bother him in least.
Then he pressed a kiss to Nikolai’s hair, inhaling. Nikolai tried to squirm away, but Soren tightened his arms, stopping him.
“Don’t do that,” Nikolai insisted. “I haven’t bathed in days, and I’ve been sweating like crazy. My body felt like it was on fire. I probablyreek.”
A low growl, almost more like a purr rumbled through Soren’s chest.
“Yes,” he whispered. “You smell likeyou. No perfumes. No soaps. Just Nikolai.”
Judging by the way Soren pulled him closer when he said it, Nikolai could only assume that Sorenlikedhis personal perfume.
“Yes, well, I would still like some fresh water to wash with and a bar of soap at the very least.”
He looked around, taking Soren’s home in.
Calling it modest was an understatement. In the morning light that poured through the cracks, he took in the single room again. It was considerably smaller than his bedroom back home. Understandable but the curtains at the front offered very little privacy. He hoped his shouts of pleasure hadn’t been echoing over the rocky mountainscape for the entire pack to hear. The fact that his brother was somewhere out there only made it worse.
He blushed and shrank down, not quite ready to face anyone after that thought.
“Are you ready to tell me what you’re thinking yet?”
“I’m wondering where my brother is,” Nikolai said. “I should have checked in on him already.”
“You were in no state, and besides, Anzu is taking care of him. I’m sure her family welcomed him. He probably slept in her den with the children cuddling him.”
Nikolai’s eyes widened at the thought. He couldn’t imagine the dispassionate Andrey in a bed shared by a whole family of strangers, wolf cubs all over him. He probably hadn’t slept a wink.
Nikolai pulled free from Soren’s arms and sat up to look down at him.
All words left his lips though when he saw his new lover. Soren was sated from sleep and their lovemaking, his long, silky, black hair was disheveled and tangled around his muscular shoulders, and his gaze was so warm when their eyes met.
He languidly let a hand drift over Nikolai’s back.
“What is it?”
It took a moment for Nikolai to remember.
“Uh. My brother,” he said. “I must go find him.”
“Didn’t you want to get clean first? Or would you like your brother to join us?”
Nikolai blinked.
“How exactlydoyou bathe out here?”
“In the waterfall,” Soren said.
“Of course,” Nikolai mused, resigning himself to frigid water and the public nature of the shifters.
“Let us find Andrey first, then.”
They stood to dress. Nikolai, unfortunately, had no choice but to pull his dirty clothes on again. Soren slung a bag over his shoulders and then approached him with the jacket that Nikolai had arrived in, the one he had been foolishly clinging to for days now.
Smiling gently, Soren draped it over his shoulders, then, not releasing it, he bent and kissed him.
