Page 29 of Goblin Candy

Of course, it would help if I were in better shape.

I swerve sharply to the right to take a rough-cut trail, my breath coming in sharper bursts. I can feel the fine layer of sweat gathering on my skin, the dress sticking to me and pulling with my every movement. The cheap material is a pain in my ass, and I’m tempted to just yank it off except that something in the air makes my skin prickle as if something is shifting all around me that I can’t explain. For that reason, I leave the dress in place as I pick up my pace, racing deeper into the woods, my limbs pumping with the rhythmic pulse of my heart.

To my right and left shadows shift and move, the branches contorting with the passage of something unrecognizable. An uneasy feeling crawls through me as I try desperately to pick up my pace. It’s a sickness that claws and digs at me, both alien and familiar all at once because I’ve felt this way before during the scavenger hunt. The rapid flutter of wings sounds like the slap of dry paper, but thankfully as I’m on the move I can’t be dusted. But nor can I afford to slow, even though my heart feels like it’s ready to burst from the strain of maintaining a speed I’m not conditioned for.

I bite back a cry as wild howls fill the air as shadows continue to dart by. I dare not look behind me in hopes that Grimsal is gaining, lest I risk tripping over my own feet and becoming easy pickings for these things. I press the flat of my hand against my stomach and slide it down to the belt cinched around my waist. Tied to it is a simple little sack, one filled with black salt as extra protection against the spooks of the night. I carry it more out of habit than anything else, as I’ve done every year for as long as I can remember as my Nona taught me to drive away evil. I’m not sure if fairies necessarily count as evil, but in this case it certainly can’t hurt to have the protection.

I yank the lacings free and stumble slightly as I open the bag, pouring the contents into my hand. I can feel the howling shadows pressing closer, as if funneling together in an attempt to cut me off ahead. With a frustrated snarl, I toss the salt toward them, one handful in one direction and another handful in the other. The screams that follow are satisfying, and I nearly laugh gleefully as the dark hunters disperse, peeling away from all sides of me with a burst of frigid wind as they change the course of their hunt.

Just that quickly, the air feels lighter, though I’m still being pursued. I feel it. My entire body shivers with the sense of being closed in on, but this time it’s a feeling that sends a hot flame licking deep within me, scorching down into the pit of my belly where it pools, feeding a dark, empty, throbbing sensation through my sex. I can smell him. I can practically taste his rich sweet and tart essence on my tongue. It is a thicker musk than ever before, and it thrills me. This is all for me—I have no doubt.

Although my legs shake from their exertion, I begin to weave among the trees. It slows me but lays a confusing path now that the woods are once again open to me. I can feel the wind of his breath, and his eager growl tickles my ear.Closer.He’s getting closer. It is all the warning I get before I’m ripped up off of my feet and turned so that my back is pressed firmly into the wide side of a tree. The bark is not so coarse like this, so I don’t make more than a token protest as he stares down at me with his fiery eyes. His wicked teeth are exposed with a feral grimace that makes my pussy grow wet from the raw hunger in his eyes.

His hot breath hits the bare skin of my cleavage as he leans down and brushes his nose against the top of one breast before his tongue snakes out to lap across it and the other one, dragging a shiver of desire from within my core. He watches me, noting my reactions, his pupils dilating as he grows more ravenous, sucking at my skin as his tail drags up the inside of my thigh to swipe over the cleft of my pussy. I jerk against him with a silent cry and his hands dive up my dress, following in the path of his tail, pushing my red dress up in the process.

Thankfully, he doesn’t pull it completely off of me, leaving the material to protectively cover my back. Although little dwells in his eyes at this moment but a consuming, predatory hunger that seeks to feast on me and claim me for his own, he has this much awareness at least that he desires to shield me from any discomfort or pain. Or maybe that is so deeply ingrained in him that it is just as much a part of his instincts.

That wouldn’t surprise me. Grimsal has shown nothing but care with me even when he seems to lose control. This moment seems to supersede such instances, but I know it’s no different now than it’s ever been. I can feel it in his touch and see it beneath the heat burning in his glowing eyes. He is consumed by his hunt, but I can admit that I am too. My entire body is trembling to some primal call whipping around and through me that drives my need to eagerly welcome this moment. To crave it. Everything that is human within me, that understands the rules of that life, flees, leaving me raw and needy as a wild thing, clawing desperately with the need that hooks deeper into my flesh and soul.

It’s not just about being fucked—though thatisa large part of it—but a desperate need to be filled and joined, linking myself with my mate finally. I need that connection. I need his claim and his hunger as much as I need my next breath. I writhe against his grip, and his lips twist in a pained grimace as he takes a step away from me.

I stare at him in disbelief. I don’t understand what’s going on. Why is he retreating? Doesn’t he want this anymore? He appears to be trying to hold back the full force of his need even though I can see his skin slickening with sweat and trembling with the effort. I shake my head, the motion more a thrash than the gesture it’s intended to be.

“Grimsal,” I whisper, “I don’t know what is going through your mind, but I promise that you won’t break me. Don’t hold back. I need you—now.”

His eyes dart back up at me, his pupils shrinking as he takes me in with a fleeting awareness that further fills his eyes, making them appear haunted. He swallows.

“You were almost lost,” he breathes raggedly. “Almost stolen. You were afraid because I wanted this when we could have been safe in your home. I should not do this here. You deserve better. You deserve softness and the taste of something sweet on your lips and all the pleasures of the world when I make you mine.”

What?I gape down at him. He can’t seriously consider stopping. But he pulls back further and my hand snaps out, tangling in his hair so that he hisses with undisguised lust as I hold him firmly to me. If he thinks that he is getting out of this hunt that means so much to him—to us both as I’m coming to realize as a pool of bitter disappointment begins to gather in my belly—then he’s got another thought coming to him.

“Not a fucking chance,” I snap. “This is our moment, and it’smyhunt. As much as you are the hunter and this part of your culture norms, this hunt is for me and is mine. I demand to be given what’s due to me.”

I’m drawing on fragments of information I’ve gleaned from him, but it’s no less earnest, and it’s perfectly understood by Grimsal who stares down at him solemnly with conflict brewing in his eyes. I reach up and drag my hand through his hair, watching the long, silky dark strands fall from between my fingers.

“This will not be gentle,” he rasps in warning, but I grin with relief.

I don’t want gentle. I need to be pushed to the brink and have his essence inscribed upon my soul for eternity. I don’t fully understand this feeling that is curling deeper within me with every passing moment, but it’s not one that I can ignore. It’s a darkness, unquenchable and boiling from the depths of me, demanding to be fed and satisfied.

“You’ve caught me, and now I demand that you finish this. Claim me. It is my right,” I growl, my eyes boring into his.

He doesn’t look away, but something snaps, and his reluctance and control unravel like a twisted cord cut free. Whatever restraint he’d managed by the sheer power of his will alone evaporates as he backs me firmly against the tree again, a loud hiss escaping him as he drags my hips closer against him and drops to his knees.

As his tail curls around my ankle, his nose brushes my dress higher until his mouth meets my belly and he kisses across the soft flesh and down my hips as if feverishly determined to taste every inch of me that he can. My nails dig into the bark behind me, my hips lifting against his mouth as his breath caresses my pussy for but a moment before his mouth descends and he drags my right thigh over his shoulder so that his cheek brushes against it with his eager “kiss.”

I nearly shoot up from the tree the moment his tongue swipes over my sex in a long lick, but his hands pinning me in place with only the smallest leeway to arch into his touch. I pant and whimper with the passing of his tongue, and when it burrows into me, lapping into depths that no human has ever managed, I cry out a strangled sound. The fingers of one hand knot into his hair as my other hand claws desperately at the tree, holding on as the magic of his mouth carries me along such heights of pleasure that I shake with the orgasm that bursts through me. His claws dig into my leg, keeping me in place as he tongues me with increased vigor, his tail rising to sweep across my sopping entrance. He suckles hard on my clit until I’m shaking with pleasure and need and come with a wild cry that he answers with a satisfied growl.

His hands cup my ass, and he lifts me up as he stands. His tail, still damp with my essence, curls around my waist, anchoring me to him as I wrap my legs around his hips. I’m not even sure when he loosened his pants but his cock slides home, its textured surface rubbing my sensitized channel walls as he fucks me against the tree, his body the only thing keeping me in place. His teeth nip at the sensitive skin of my cleavage and neck as he ruts me, his hips snapping with a ravenous rhythm, but the sting and the erotic burn of my pussy stretched around his cock spurs my pleasure higher and makes me writhe where I’m anchored on the dick plowing into me.

I’m caught in a storm of sensation as his cock shuttles in and out of me, the spark of power in the air feeding our frenzy as I claw his back, making him moan and snarl against where his mouth is pressed, sucking at my flesh. He swells in me, growing harder and thicker, but this time he does not withdraw to leave me feeling empty. Instead, he drives harder and deeper as the air crackles over my skin with thousands of tiny pulses that burrow into me.

His cock jerks with the first spew of his cum, and I shriek as my own orgasm ignites, flooding over me, drawing all those little energy points cascading over my skin into the depths of me like a bolt of lightning made of nothing but pure, blinding ecstasy. Grimsal’s bellow fills my ear as he pumps his cum into me, his hips twitching and jerking with his own intense pleasure.

When the haze of need finally retreats, my mate tenderly draws my dress down my thighs as he holds me to him, the tear tracks on his face brushing my cheek. His kiss, as he captures my mouth, has never tasted sweeter and purer—like I can taste our love and connection through it and feel the bond between us crackle in affirmation. He draws it out sweetly before finally releasing me and resting his brow upon mine where his small horns press teasingly against my skin.

“I am yours, my sweet,” he rasps. “I offer my hunt to you and all that I am under your command and desire. I honor you with what I have to give and with the strength of my limb by which I’ve pursued you and the strength of my heart and spirit which never faltered.”

“And I’m yours as well,” I whisper, blinking back tears. “I ranforyou rather thanfromyou.”

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