Moon Child (The Year of the Wolf #2) - Serena Akeroyd Page 0,102
much responsibility for that. The wolf, the one Sabina calls Berry, she did it.”
I arched a brow. “The wolf did?”
“Yes.” Her gaze turned pensive. “Of course, I know she’s not just a she-wolf now.”
“No, they’re from this realm, aren’t they?”
“Yes. But she’s also Eli’s mother. The twins’ mother too.” Her lips pursed. “Very complicated.”
“Infinitely complicated.” I blinked. “That’s unusual.”
“What is?”
“Siblings.” I plucked at my lip. Maybe Maribel and her son, with a child on the way, weren’t the siblings of legend.
Maybe Eli and his twin brothers were.
I thought about that for a second, then decided there was little point in worrying about what would be learned with time. Time, all kumiho knew, passed very swiftly, and information that was not yet known would be learned as the clock ticked away.
“How are you feeling?” I asked her softly, seeing how she was tucked in her mind, not hiding from me, but lost to what she was exposed to.
I understood. The second my father had died, it had hit me too, and that was why I hadn’t killed Kingsley Rainford immediately. I’d been tucked up in bed as millennia’s worth of information transferred over to me.
“Tired, I suppose. But I’m the one who should be asking you that.”
I shrugged. “All is well. You know that.”
“I do. That fruit was weird.”
“It’s supposed to be. It’s a piece of the Mother’s heart.”
“Creepy,” she muttered.
“Infinitely.” I reached for her hand, gently clasped my fingers about hers, and whispered, “Swim with me?”
She pressed her other hand to the stone and used it to lever off the rock. As she slipped into the water, she immediately moved into me, and when her arms clasped my waist and I felt her face burrow into the sparse hair on my chest, I was touched to feel the wetness that had nothing to do with being in a pool of water.
It had everything to do with her being upset.
“I almost lost you,” she rasped.
“But you didn’t,” I soothed.
“That doesn’t make it better.”
“I knew the Mother would help us.”
“I did too,” she huffed. “Once I stopped panicking. But that didn’t make me worry less. It’s not like you can go anywhere until we have a child, and in the chaos, me getting pregnant and spawning a gazillion kids wasn’t going to put my mind at rest.”
My lips twitched. “A gazillion? We’ll only have one.”
That took the wind from her sails. “Only one?”
I laughed. “Weren’t you just complaining about that?”
“Well, that was before,” she grumbled.
“Before what?”
“Before I knew we’d only have one,” she argued, but her arms tightened around my waist even more, to the point of discomfort. I got it though. I did. And I let my embrace reflect the need I felt for her, a need that went beyond sexual, that was even beyond corporeal.
I needed her in a way no man had ever needed his woman.
But she’d been through a lot today, and I wasn’t going to rush her. Wasn’t going to—
Her tongue traced over my pec, instantly making any and every thought whisper away. I had to cover the urge to groan just in case she stopped, but when her hands moved down to my butt, when she dug her nails into me, I didn’t even bother, just tipped my head down and pressed a kiss to her cheek, her temple, wherever I could reach.
She traced kisses of her own over to my nipples, licking and nipping as she moved before she hit the nub and started sucking on it. I gritted my teeth, annoyed by how susceptible I was to her, even if I loved it too.
My cock hardened, and I felt it rub against her stomach. Her back arched, and she shimmied against me, making the water splash, and I ground my dick into her, loving that she responded like wildfire, that she hitched her leg around my hip and hiked her way up my body.
From zero to hero, that kiss had morphed into something else. Her heat rocked against my belly, caressing the tip of my dick as water trickled down over me, and I grunted as our mouths finally collided.
She took total charge, and I let her. I had a feeling this might be her first time, and I was fine with her taking control, leaving her to set the pace, because I knew this was the one thing in this situation she could manage. The second she’d taken the fox bead, I’d learned about her. Everything that she’d hope I couldn’t know.