She held up her hands in surrender. “I’m just saying, if I was in her shoes I’d be hesitant too.”
This is why every species should just imprint and be done with it.“It’s not the love potion. I’ve been cursed before by Myva’s magic and this is different.”
“How?”
Dammit all. How do you explain something as bone deep as an imprint to a creature that doesn’t have a comparison to it?“It’s like…a curse makes you feel you’re far too drunk. You stumble around, not sure of your actions, and your mind feels hazy. You know something isn’t right, but there’s not much you can do about it. While, yes, I do feel the small haze of the love potion. It’s secondary. Minuscule in comparison to the starving sensation I get now that I’m away from her.”
Though I didn’t want to admit that the love potion was probably making the call to claim my mate much worse. I’d only seen one other werewolf go through the process, but he wasn’t this frantic. Each passing second was a gnawing torture at the edge of my consciousness. If I wasn’t careful, the next time I saw my lamb, I’d probably scare her off for good.
Usha rested her elbows on her desk, nursing her drink. “Both of those things sound awful, honestly.”
“It won’t stay this way. I just need to claim her before it gets too bad.”
She narrowed her eyes at me. Concern creeping into her stern face. “What happens when it gets too bad?”
I looked away, unsure myself.
“Felix,” her voice dropped low, the tone unmistakably threatening. “If I find out you do something to hurt this woman-”
I held up a hand. “I’d sooner feed myself to a pack of wild dogs.” The thought of anyone hurting my mate made my blood boil. Doing it myself was unthinkable. Not that it mattered. She’d come around. I just had to be patient. Calm. Avoid dairy.
Soothed, Usha leaned back in her chair. “Good.”
Suddenly, the door burst open, almost coming off its hinges. My brother Balabash ran into the room holding a book. He slammed the door shut and threw himself against the desk. “Usha! Is it true that human women have a sensitive spot just below their cervix that gives intense pleasure?” Before she could even react, Dante and Isaak came barreling in soon after.
Dante dipped his head to avoid scraping his horn on the door frame before shoving past Isaak. “Don’t forget about the pressure thing.” The dragon shifter slammed his hands on the desk, causing Usha to scoot back in her chair. “Does adding pressure to your lower belly increase the sensation of orgasms?”
What?
The poor woman looked so tired. She set her drink down and ran a hand down her face. “Y’all motherfuckers are getting way too comfortable with me.”
Dante nodded. “Be that as it may, please confirm if this manual is telling the truth.”
She sighed and held out her hand. “Give me the damn book.” Bash handed it over and the trio waited patiently as the captain flipped through its contents. “Where did you even get this?”
Isaak straightened, grinning with pride. “I bought it off a traveling merchant that passed through town two days ago. He promised it held the secrets of pleasing any human woman.”
That caught my attention. Before we demons were set free, only a handful of us had hardly ever even seen a woman, let alone gotten the honor of pleasing one. I’d had the occasional dalliance with other men, but the competition for the few demon women around was too much of a bother. I never saw a point in joining the legions of suitors after them if I didn’t imprint. But if there was a manual on how to please my mate, I wanted to hear every word.
“Well?” Balabash fidgeted next to her chair, almost knocking into the barrels of mead.
Usha raised an eyebrow and kept reading. “This book knows more about my body than I do.”
“So it’s true then?” I asked.
Sipping her drink, Usha flipped through another page. “I can confirm the G and A spot dictated in the first few pages, but I haven’t even tried half of this stuff.” She closed the book and handed it back to the orc. “Seems like you got your money’s worth, from what I can tell. Did all of you imprint too?”
Isaak spoke up first. “We orcs don’t imprint. But Bal has his eye on a pretty barmaid. I haven’t found mine yet, but with so many women in this realm, I want to be ready!”
“And you?” She asked Dante.
The dragon glowered. “No. But like he said, the possibility is no longer a fool’s errand. Now that things are mostly settled, I’ll set off to find my mate soon. It feels odd staying in another dragon’s territory, anyway.” The Storm Dragon must have been burning with jealousy for Fallon. The Shadow Dragon was hundreds of years younger than him, but had already found his mate and claimed Boohail and the surrounding bayou as his new territory. It only made sense. Cinnamon’s family was all here. Dante would most likely just lay claim to whatever village he found his own woman in. Dragons were simple like that.
Though it was strange to see two in the same place for so long. Or see one at all. Before escaping Volsog, Bash and the rest of our clan lived under the Stone Dragon’s territory in the east coast region. But in the twenty-seven years we’d been there, I couldn’t recall seeing him once. As far as overlords went, he was completely hands off. The only rule being to never step foot in the large cave system he called home.
Perhaps now that we were no longer held captive by the limited resources of that frozen wasteland, Fallon didn’t feel the need to reinforce strict borders. The thought was a strange but pleasant one. Dragon borders were so absolute that maps had to be redrawn anytime one died or was defeated by another. The fact that I was now on a first name basis with not one but two of the titan creatures was proof of the dawn of a new era. One where women didn’t die from Myva’s curse.
“Let me see that book.” Not bothering to hide my excitement, I snatched it from Bash and began reading.
