Page 50 of Howling Eve

A shiver ran through her, and her eyes widened. Desire and something new within their depths came to life for him at his words. Whatever it was, it banished the fear that briefly flared within their depths at the memory of her pain.

“I don’t know what it was,” she finally admitted, whispering through stiff lips. “It wasn’t long after the Ravening. Weeks, maybe a month or two. I was a kid. I had just turned fourteen before shit fell apart, and I remember being alone, hungry, and desperate for food. Thank fuck I hadn’t been any younger. It still amazes me how so many of the younger ones make it for as long as they do.”

She wrapped her arms defensively around her bare breasts and bowed her head as she seemed to take a moment to consider her next words. “I thought it was a person coming up behind me—someone else scavenging for something for supplies. That can be dangerous enough, so I tried to hide among some rubble from a fallen wall—but the sounds I heard weren’t human. They were terrible, like something had crawled out of a nightmare. And they smelled me, I think, and tracked me down. They weren’t able to get hold of me, but it didn’t stop them from trying. Those awful claws slashed into me as they howled. I can still hear them in my nightmares, and still feel the searing pain of my flesh being torn to ribbons,” she admitted.

“But you survived,” he murmured, awed at her resilience.

She gave him a weak smile. “I don’t know how. I don’t even know how long I lay there bleeding, but I clawed my way out before I passed out. All I know is that I was found by a small group of scavengers. They stitched me up, watched over me, and fed me what medicine they could while I battled the infection or whatever else I suffered from their claws. And when I was well enough, they left me and continued on their journey. I never did find what caught me. They hadn’t seen it, and if they knew they refused to say. Everyone was afraid back then, terrified of the things that hunted us within the dark.”

Raskyuil’s jaw clenched as he continued to gently run his fingers over them in a soothing manner as the tension very slowly bled from his mate and her arousal began to stir to life in instinctive response to his touch. He knew exactly what she spoke of just from the timeline alone. She had no idea just how fortunate she was to have survived such an encounter that had killed so many other humans in their wake. The thought of his mate, young and alone, trying to escape those creatures, made him want to kill something.

“Wulkwos,” he spat.

MaryAnne blinked up at him, confusion brightening in her lust-clouded eyes. “W…what?”

“Wulkwos,” he repeated as he traced a scar one last time before splaying his fingers out on her belly. “Creatures of the underworld. Eaters of the dead, from my understanding. They came into your world, and this Ravening, as you call it, was the result of it.”

She shivered, her faint arousal noticeably dimming and yet his light touch kept it from snuffing out altogether. He could fan it back to life so easily but not yet. Not if he could settle at least one of her fears to rest. From the way she suddenly trembled, he knew that the wulkwos were what plagued her nightmares. It was time to destroy that phantom the only way he could since his ax was of little use against such phantoms of the mind.

“Eaters of the dead, huh?” She shuddered a little harder. “That doesn’t surprise me. From the smell of rot that clung to them I was pretty sure that they were eating people. That they would have eaten me.”

He nodded grimly. They would have done that—or worse, crawled inside her flesh to occupy the space where she had once been if they found it preferable to the other flesh suits that they occupied.

“They can no longer hurt you. They are no longer in this world,” he quietly assured her, his voice a hoarse rumble even to his own ears. “When Charu rose, he dragged them back to the underworld. Few escaped him and only because they had changed enough to no longer heed the demand.”

Her eyes snapped to his face, her eyebrows knitting together in confusion. “Changed? How?”

He shrugged. “I only know that they had somehow gained the right to remain among humans that they swore to protect. I was told it was because they discovered love and it overcame their baser impulses, but I had always scorned that reasoning before.”

She stared up at him searchingly. “Why? You don’t believe that love has that power?”

Raskyuil hesitated. “If you had asked me that then, I would have answered no,” he began honestly as he met and held her gaze. “The draw of the mating heat, and the bonds of mating and those of Ha’shena were things I could tangibly understand, but love seemed pale in comparison, something fragile and potentially fleeting. I wouldn’t have believed it could be powerful enough to change a creature so profoundly.”

“Oh.” She looked down, and a tight smile thinned her lips as she tried to conceal her pain. He hated that he was the cause, but he would not lie to her. Before MaryAnne, that had been his world. “And now?” she whispered. “If that’s what you believed then, what do you believe now?”

His brows knitted with uncertainty. “I believe it can cause changes,” he said slowly. He felt as if he was changing little by little already as it was. “But to what degree it holds power I’m not certain.”

Her expression fell briefly into a look of disappointment but, before he could comment on it, fled behind a cheerful mask as she smiled up at him. “That’s fair enough. I really don’t know what I should feel about it anyway. All of this is so new to me. I guess it’s easy to forget that on this end of things that this is new to you as well.”

Her tone carried a pretense of cheer that rang false to him, but he nodded cautiously because what she said was true. She understood on one level even if it made her unhappy for reasons he couldn’t quite understand.

“If it pleases you to know this—though I never intended to be mated, there is no other female in all this world or that of the fae that I wish to be bound to. Only you.”

Her expression softened, pleasure glimmering in her dark eyes. “Even though I’m sure part of that is Ha’shena talking, that does. Thank you.”

He grunted in acknowledgment, his hand straying higher as he continued to pet her little body. Cupping her breast in his large hand, he ran his thumb over her brown nipple, watching with fascination as it slowly tightened.

Curious as to how else it might react, he lowered his head and ran his tongue over it, his ears pricking at the muffled gasp of pleasure that escaped his mate. He smiled against her breast, pleased with his discovery. It seemed that there was one advantage to having such a delicate mate—she was wonderfully sensitive to his every touch in ways that he was just beginning to learn and explore.

His tail brushed over her leg affectionately as it curled around her, but she laid her hand over his, stopping his exploration. He cocked his head and peered at her to find her smiling at him wistfully.

“I really like it when you touch me—I don’t think I’ve ever felt anything so good—but… do you think you can just hold me for a while instead?”

Shame filled him, and he cursed himself for thinking with his prick. Of course she did not want to be rutted after such an intimate sharing. She was seeking comfort, and he was honored that she wished it from him and not a simple distraction of shared pleasure. This spoke considerably of the trust he had just gained with his mate, and he nodded, his hand lowering to flatten over her belly again.

“Of course,” he rasped, reclining in a more comfortable position on the bed, taking his mate with him.

He felt her smile against his chest where she pillowed her head and the press of her lips in thanks before snuggling her small body closer. His cock ached relentlessly but there was a fullness within his chest and a contentment that filled him that made it entirely worthwhile.

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