CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

I don't know which is more delightful—Taylor's kiss or the fact that she has even more power than I originally thought. Fortunately, I don't have to choose. My moon bound bride comes with both.

Her soft lips press to mine, and I nip at them until she opens for me. I devour her kiss, reveling in the lush heat of her mouth and the zing of magic still humming through her.

I am the luckiest of men. With her by my side, our lives will be full of nothing but glory. They'll write ballads of our exploits! Sturrm will sing my name in the village pub for all to hear.

Even my father.

Branches move across my arms, the long narrow purple leaves of the rowan shivering above me. They slide away to show blue sky, soon obscured by the outline of Storm's head. "Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine." It's not a complete lie. Yes, my injured leg burns like someone jabbed a red-hot poker into the wound, but saving Taylor is well worth any pain.

"Then why are you still on the ground?" He taps my shoulder with his horn.

I share a look with my bride, and she bites at her lower lip, her shoulders shaking with mirth. How to describe kissing to a unicorn?

"Ah." He snorts. "You're mating again."

"What?" Taylor squeaks, rolling off my side. "We weren't mating!"

"What else do you call the weird mouth thing you were doing?" He turns an assessing blue eye on me. "Although, I do not see how it does any good in making foals. Your mouth doesn't make seed like a cock, does it?"

My bride stands there, face red and eyes wide, mouth opening and closing a few times before she lets out a gurgled, "He's your friend. You say something."

"The ‘mouth thing' is a prelude to mating." I roll up to sitting, hiding a wince as my injury throbs in protest. "It prepares her to take my cock."

"Okay, I'm out! You two do… guy talk!" Taylor flutters a hand at us and hurries over to where the sprites flit around an elderberry bush, my shirt swirling around her legs. It will smell like her.

A possessive growl vibrates in my chest.

"Explain the mouth thing," Storm says.

"It's called kissing. It excites the woman and wets her sex." Goddess, the smell and taste of Taylor comes back to me, teasing me even though she's no longer near.

The unicorn jabs my shoulder with his horn. "You keep looking off into the distance instead of talking to me."

I grunt and bat his horn away. "We're newly mated. A little preoccupation is to be expected."

"I would not know."

"What?" A jolt of shock goes through me. "But you're one of the best warriors of your herd." I might not have had a unicorn partner before him, but I know enough of their nature to have seen as much when I met him. The other warriors must respect him to have allowed him to speak for the herd.

"It is true I am strong and fight well." His head comes up, his horn flashing in the sun. "But I am young. No filly has yet accepted me as hers."

I shove to my feet and lean against his side to take the weight off my injury. Patting his neck, I say, "This quest will change all of that, my friend."

"I hope you're right."

"I am." For how can I fail, with Taylor's magical powers to aid me?

Mist puts my "useful" fingers to work plucking feathers, and we have a supper of quail and unadulterated elderberries. The sprites magicked one whole bush, but Taylor got them to point out which one, so we could eat from the others. The same can't be said for the little imps, who stuff themselves on Faerie Fruit until they flit about in intoxicated revelry, only to fall into tiny snoring heaps, winged bodies draped across clumps of unplucked berries.

"There's still a little light left," Taylor glances up at where the setting sun paints the clouds with glowing swaths of pink and orange. "I'd like to practice my new power. Or, well, it's probably the same power just used in a different direction, but I want to practice the new thing I can do with it."

"I agree." Anything that makes her magic more useful will only aid my quest.

"The problem is I don't know how to pull something to me safely. How do I make it stop before it hits me?"

"Practice," I say. "Stop pulling and bring it to a halt."

"Right, but until I get enough practice, it's going to be like the tree branch." She smacks her palms together. "Whack."

"Then you start small, with something that won't harm you."

"Here." Mist lounges on the soft grass near us, right at the edge of the trees. She stretches out and snags a pinecone in her claws and tosses it several feet into the meadow, where it lands right on a patch of grass Storm cropped to only a few inches high.

He's moved on by now and is a couple of feet away, but he spears her with an icy look. "That was close, cat."

"You have four working legs, unicorn." She smiles impossibly widely. "Although I'm sorry to hear a little pinecone can hurt you. I'll be much more careful in the future."

Storm lowers his head, the whorls of his horn catching the last of the evening light. "Come closer and see which one of us gets hurt."

"Okay, this is my practice time!" Taylor bounces to her feet and steps in between the bickering fae. "So out of the way, please, so I can practice."

Storm snorts and tosses his head, raising it to look at the cat sith over the top of Taylor's head. Then he moves farther into the field and turns to watch.

As soon as she lifts her hand, my moon bound's necklace glows underneath her shirt, turning the front of it into a purple lantern. Taylor stands there for several moments, making various hand movements, then drops her arm to her side, her necklace darkening. She frowns, her bow-shaped lips making a little moue. "It didn't work."

"Do you need help feeling your magic?" I stand and go to her. It will be no hardship to hold her.

"No, my magic came to me okay, but I couldn't—" Her hand grabs at the air. "I couldn't feel the pinecone to move it. I think it's too small."

"I'm sure you can with practice."

She smacks the back of her hand against my biceps. "Stop saying that as if it's easy! I'm in a catch twenty-two here. I need practice to do the things that will let me practice."

It's my turn to frown. I take her hand in mine and give it a squeeze. "I don't know how the number ‘twenty-two' can trap you, but I will battle it until it releases you."

"I'm not sure this is something you can fight, but I appreciate the sentiment." She grins.

I press a kiss to her hand. "If you cannot start small, you will start with me. I'm not small."

"Ain't that the truth." She laughs up at me, then sobers. "But how's that gonna work?"

"We will stand several yards apart, and you will pull me to you."

"But whack." She smacks her hands.

"We've gotten fairly good at falling together." I brush my thumb over her lower lip. "Trust me. I'll catch you and make sure you land on top."

"I do." Her beautiful brown eyes look up at me with full confidence, added to only by her words. "I trust you."

That look from her fills my chest with the headiest feeling in the world. It's the look I've always dreamed of receiving, and coming from my bride, it hits me with all the pure intoxication of the strongest whiskey.

I find a spot in the field where the grass grows thick and spread the tent across it, topping it with all our furs to make the softest landing spot possible. My moon bound stands in front of it, and I pace several steps away before turning to face her.

"Pull me to you," I say. As if she needs magic to do so, when all I want is to sweep her into my arms and strip the clothing from her so I can bury my greedy cock inside her sweet depths.

She nods and bites her lip, one hand clutching her crystal pendant while the other lifts, reaching for me, palm out. Her necklace shines from between her fingers.

I brace, expecting a massive punch in the back. Instead, a giant hand snatches me from the front. I go sailing forward, straight toward Taylor, whose eyes widen in frozen shock. My arms reach out, clasping her to me the moment we hit. I twist in the air to land on my shoulder, rolling onto my back to dispel the momentum.

My bride sprawls across my chest, her legs partially tangled by my shirt, which she still wears as a skirt.

"That was most amusing," Mist says. "Do it again."

Storm gives a snort of laughter.

Taylor pushes upright enough to look at me, grinning happily. "I did it!"

Her joy is infectious, and I smile back. "Of course you did. I never had any doubts." Her increased powers make her more valuable than ever.

My moon bound bride throws her arms around my neck and kisses me, and I revel in the bright glory of her and the future we will have together.