Hunted By Firelight by Krista Street
Chapter 16
~ AVERY ~
Squad Three, minus Marnee and Lex who were on patrol duty, stood around the island gorging on cookies. I muffled several laughs when Bavar continually threatened his squad with extermination for eating all of his biscuits. He even pulled his dagger a time or two.
“You must be remembering stuff, eh, if you remembered how to bake these?” Charlotte sidled up to my side as she bit into another cookie. “That’s a good sign, right?”
“I didn’t really remember, though. I just followed my instincts.”
“Hmm.” She made a face. “Well, that still seems like a good sign even if you don’t have concrete memories.”
“That’s what Wyatt thinks too.” I ducked my head when I felt him regard me from across the room. He’d been doing that ever since he entered the kitchen, gold rimming his eyes during most of his heated stares.
A blush filled my cheeks when I remembered how he’d touched and kissed me.
A wry smile tilted his lips, his nostrils flaring.
Embarrassment flooded me when I remembered him saying he could scent my arousal. Oh Gods!
Charlotte gripped my hand. “Okay, spill it. What happened?” She slid a curious glance toward Wyatt, a knowing smirk tilting her lip.
“Char!” I hissed.
She pulled me away from the counter and dragged me toward the doors until we were through them and in the hallway.
My back tingled, the immense power inside me swirling, as I sensed Wyatt’s gaze track my every movement.
It was only when the swinging doors closed behind us that Charlotte’s eyes widened with excitement. “Okay, tell me everything.” She held up a hand. “And before you try and act like nothing happened you might as well know that I’ll never buy that. We all heard him fucking you.”
My jaw dropped, my stomach bottoming out. “What?”
She laughed. “It’s nothing to be embarrassed about. Wolves like sex. Female wolves do too, if you haven’t already picked that up from me. So I’m not surprised you’ve already done the nasty with him. You know, all of us could hear him plowing you.”
My jaw continued to hang open. I couldn’t believe I was hearing these words come out of her mouth. I mean, not because her detailed rendition of what had happened between me and Wyatt was that far off base, but because of how colorfully and casually she’d just referred to Wyatt fucking me and plowing me. And she’d heard what we’d done! Oh Gods. Red bloomed on my cheeks.
Charlotte snickered.
I cleared my throat and hoped my blush was receding. “We didn’t, you know . . . do it.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Is that right? And you expect me to believe that? After I heard you screaming?”
Okay. Nope. My blush definitely isn’t receding. “He . . .” I pulled her into a small alcove off the hall when a servant passed us. The alcove contained an urn on a pedestal and a mural of fairies dancing in a forest. Weirdly enough, I wondered if the urn contained somebody’s ashes.
Clearing my throat again, I hoped the dead soul forgave me for speaking so vulgarly in their body’s ashy presence. “He touched me and maybe kissed me in an area or two, but we didn’t have sex.”
“Now we’re getting somewhere.” Charlotte grinned and crossed her arms. She leaned against the wall, obviously settling in for a good chat. “Where did he touch you? And please tell me the man is as good with his mouth as he is with his sword.”
“I’m assuming you mean an actual sword and not a figurative sword?”
For a moment, she just stared at me, and then she threw back her head and laughed. “Oh, Avery, you wicked little she-devil. I love it. Now tell me everything.” She pushed away from the wall and slung an arm over my shoulders. “Come on. Let’s go back to my room. I want to hear all the juicy details.”
∞ ∞ ∞
Charlotte did indeed drag me to her room. Okay, not drag, I went willingly. But once she’d sequestered me in her chambers, I ruined her anticipated fun by not revealing any further details. Well, not many further details.
She groaned. “Seriously. You’re no fun. If I slept with Bavar, Lex, or Bishop, I’d give you all the juicy bits, including the length of their cocks, the noises they make when they come, if they get all wolfy or fairy-glowing or start shooting magic when they ejaculate, and I would definitely tell you if they did anything kinky.”
I slapped a hand over my mouth but couldn’t stop my laugh. Once I regained control again, I lowered my hand but was still shaking with mirth. “Yeah, but that’s only because you don’t actually like any of them. They’d just be an afternoon of fun for you.”
She sighed. “True, very true.” She leaned back on the couch, still looking contemplative. “But does that mean Wyatt is more than a casual afternoon for you, since you don’t want to tell me about it?”
I immediately sobered, her question striking a chord with me. Was he?
“I don’t know,” I finally answered truthfully. “I’m incredibly attracted to him, and I know we share a history, but I can’t remember our past so he’s still a stranger to me.”
“A stranger who will happily fuck you fifty shades till Sunday.”
I laughed, then rolled my eyes. “Yeah, perhaps.”
“Not perhaps. I know he would. The man is obsessed with you. I told you, didn’t I? Back at the inn? He wants to claim you, and he thinks you’re his mate. He told me.”
Scarlet heat bloomed over my cheeks again. Charlotte may be right, but Wyatt was still new to me even though I wasn’t to him. I wasn’t ready for that kind of commitment yet. I’d only just met him as far as my limited memories were concerned.
“But anyway, back to kissing and telling . . .” I said in an attempt to change the subject.
She sat up straighter. “Now if any of the dudes here actually knows how to properly use his cock, and he’s feeling horny, I’d be down for an afternoon or two of mindless fucking.”
I groaned. “So descriptive.”
She laughed. “You always gave me a hard time about that, but if you were more than a quarter wolf you’d probably be the same.”
I joined in her laughter just as a forgotten memory brushed my mind like butterfly wings. A quarter wolf. Was that what I was?
Sobering, I pointed at the bandage on her shoulder. “Say, how’s your shoulder doing anyway? You seem to be moving well and don’t seem to be in any pain.”
“Oh, right, you don’t know.” She pulled the bandage back to reveal her wound.
My breath sucked in. “It’s nearly healed!”
She nodded and let the bandage fall back into place. “I’m telling you, Major Fieldstone’s servants are the bomb. They have all sorts of potions and fairy concoctions in one of those rooms downstairs. When we got situated here, after you and Wyatt were, you know, not fucking”—she waggled her eyebrows—“Major Fieldstone came and got me and Lex and took us to that room. Two of his servants poured their fairy stuff on my injury while Lex watched, and even though it hurt like a bitch, it was totally worth it. Their potions expedite healing way faster than anything the witches on earth can do.”
“Nice, that’s handy.”
“No shit. Now if those assholes come back and try to take you again, I’ll be in top fighting form, so I’ll be able to nail those suckers with my arrows.”
My throat tightened when I remembered that our little trip here wasn’t for reconnecting with Wyatt or laughing with my best friend. It was really to keep me safe and protected from the group of men who’d tried to abduct me.
My blood chilled when I remembered the tall man’s gaze. He’d followed my movements, even when my unleashed power had stopped time. What the hell kind of supernatural could do that?
Nobody good. That was for sure.
“Char? I have a request, and I’m hoping you can help. You know this magic inside me? It’s powerful, sure, but if I don’t know how to use it, what the hell good is it to me?”
Her eyes brightened. “Meaning you want to learn to wield it.”
I lifted my hands. “It’s not like I have anything else to do here, and who knows how long we’ll stay. But the only thing is, I don’t really know how to train.”
She rubbed her hands together, a grin splitting across her face. “Lucky for you, I do, and I’m not on patrol duty until tomorrow morning since I’m technically still injured, so I just happen to be free for the rest of the day.”
“So you’ll help me?”
“Damn straight.” She shot to standing, excitement dancing in her eyes. “Let’s go. There’s a place out back we can use which Major Fieldstone showed us. The wards are stronger there since it’s a training area, so we won’t have to worry about you blowing any shit up.”
