15. Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen:

~Valerie Contempt~

K ahrina and I wandered through the upstairs, marveling at everything Lochlainn grew for the building. As much as I wanted to immediately rush that gorgeous bear back to his room…it would be best to keep up face. Randolph knowing was one thing, the entirety of The Grove was another. While Lochlainn and his RA got students back in bed for what little left of the night they could sleep, Kahrina and I walked. Finally, as we reached the top of the steps again, she sat down on the mushroom top. I joined her, our legs dangling beneath us.

"Valerie, where were you this evening?" Kahrina whispered, her face forward and voice soft. With all the plants around us, our voices were nestled in a private little bubble around us. Nothing carried, nothing echoed, everything else in The Grove seemed muffled.

I sighed, which prompted a yawn, and the exhaustion set in. Damn… "The truth?"

"Preferably."

"I was going out to clear my head. After Amber showed up, I just kept spiraling over what she could want, and I was trying to understand what all has happened. Professor O'Hare found me, and we were just talking. Well, I was talking, he was listening. I started talking about my family, which led me down a whole other spiral. It wasn't pretty." I lied like my life depended on it, finally glancing to look her in the eye. She twisted to face me, nodding along as I strung her along the story of the lonely witch who just wanted to get her degree and open an apothecary. Which isn't so much the lie part, but I definitely didn't tell her how I let Lochlainn hunt me down and fuck me in the mud.

"Yeah, I suspected as much. Professor O'Hare is just that kind of guy. I just…" she trailed off, her gaze roaming out to the mushroom covered stairway. She nodded, like acknowledging something internally, and glanced back at me. "I just want you to know, if you wanna talk, you've got me. I don't like many people, but you've got something I admire."

"Absolute audacity?" I snorted.

Her whole body trembled as she collapsed into her lap, cackling as she did. I snickered with her, the mushrooms lighting up around us but devouring all the sound between us. When she finally snapped back up, gasping for air, she was grinning from pointy ear to ear. "Yeah, something like that. My mom calls it ‘the fucking audacity', especially when aiming it at me."

I kicked my feet a little, chewing on my words. Do I tell the TA anything? Do I actually try to make friends? Who am I? I let out a sheepish laugh, "I, uh, my mom thinks I've got pizzaz, but my grandmother would disagree. She might call me a disgrace, you know, what with having ambition and dreams outside of being a brood mare."

"I heard that one line, what was it… ‘Witches come to college to get a degree in breeding'?" Kahrina glanced at me with a weak smile.

"Something like that," I mumbled, staring at my lap. I willed the words to stay behind my teeth, but if I was being honest, I didn't want that. I'm tired of not telling people things, of being so removed. I blinked away hot, embarrassed tears. Forcing my eyes up in hopes it would stop them, but unable to stop the words from flowing from my lips, my voice wavered. "You know, I did want a family when I was little. And I do now. I want a gaggle of annoying, clingy, curious little witches who ask so many questions it makes me pull my hair out. I want a house that's always loud and full of life. I want a garden we all take picnic lunches in, where I take a nap under a tree with all my kiddos piled next to me. And I want to open my fucking apothecary with my family cheering me on. I want them to help me cut that stupid ribbon with the biggest fucking scissors they can make and have them scurry around the shop with excitement. I want…a family that cares about me , the real me , and loves me, without expectations. And if my kids don't want kids, then so fucking be it. What do I care about legacy when legacy has done nothing for me. It didn't congratulate me on making it into grad school or clap during my speech or help me study for exams. None of them did, because I was expected to just come here for a year or two, fuck someone in the woods, and go home to be apart of a coven that never gave a damn about me as a person. Just my womb."

The mushrooms softened their glow and the world felt so quiet. I sat there, tears streaming down my face, arms shaking as I raked my nails across the lip of that first step. And when the words finally stopped, the hard concrete boulder on my shoulder crumbled off.

When I dropped my gaze from the ceiling to see Kahrina smiling at me softly. She nudged me with her shoulder tenderly, "Hey, fuck them."

"Yeah," I sputtered, drying my eyes on the back of my hand. "Fuck them."

"I say, once we figure out what asshole is trying to kill you and other students at this college, and we show them nature's true fury…then you tell your family to stuff it right where the sun doesn't shine. I mean, maybe wait till you're out of college and they're not paying your bills anymore, but definitely tell them to fuck off once you've got your degree." She kicked her feet happily.

I opened my mouth, laughing as if to retort her statement. She had a point! But then I stopped, my heart sluggishly beating in my chest.

"Show them nature's true fury?" I reiterated.

"Well, they sent zombies covered in gasoline into this building. They burned your room and mine! If I had my way, I'd find what necromancer did this and string them up in the woods for the crows to peck their eyes out." She scowled glaring off into the distance.

We sat there, both of us staring at opposite sides of the staircase. The combined cogs of our brains turned and it was like we both came to the sharp conclusion, "It's a necromancy student."

"And they're from an important family, lots of pressure to prove themselves." I nodded, climbing to my feet.

"How could you know that?" Kahrina blurted out, following my lead. I opened my mouth but was unable to form words. She huffed, rolling her eyes, "They monologued, didn't they?"

"Yeah."

"I hate when people do that. Well, that's a good place to start. A necromancy student who needs to prove themselves to their family can't be that hard to find. Especially one that is willing to kill to prove themselves." Kahrina shook her head as she galloped down the steps. I was on her heel for a long time before I stopped her at the last step. A hand to her shoulder, I turned her to face me.

"Hey, if I have a way to get a list of students that match that description, you think you'd look the other way?" I was living on a prayer, hoping that she wouldn't rat me out to Lochlainn.

Her lips curled up big, "I'll help you interrogate them. You're not the only person they've hurt. It's time the people learn not to fuck with The Grove."

I winked at her before letting her go. There was a potion I needed to start, but the exhaustion in my bones was louder than my plans. I shuffled down the hall to the end where Lochlainn's door was already open. As I tiptoed through it, a warm gust of air blew it shut. It locked with a tiny click. Two birds fluttered down from the tree branches that made up the rafters of his room. They took up the edges of my sundress in their talons. A wicked smile curled up on my lips as they lifted up into the air, taking my clothing with them.

Out of his room came Lochlainn, naked and steaming from a shower. Hair dripping wet, I watched hungrily as some droplets trailed down his chest, across his hips, and off his thighs.

"What if it had been Kahrina in here, huh?" I teased, stepping toward him. Despite the ache in my legs, begging me to reconsider, my core revved to life.

"I would have found pants," he chuckled. "Good of you to come to me like a good little witch."

"You told me to," I exhaled dreamily, standing in front of one of the many pillars in his room. They were now large trees protruding from the dirty floor, growing up into a massive canopy of leaves and stones. Lochlainn finally stood before me, his hands finding my hips. I melted back against the scratchy bark. Throwing my arms around his shoulders, he hoisted me up into his arms. I wrapped my legs around his thick torso and hummed with delight at how warm he was between them. "You know, I could use a shower too."

"I'll bathe you once I finish what I started," he growled playfully, our lips meeting softly. For the first time, our kiss was gentle. Like butterfly wings meeting in the night, barely touching and fleeting. After a moment, teasing each other, he pressed hard into me. Grinding me against the tree, hand cupping me hard, his lips crashing into mine, I was in oblivion. I curled my fingers around his damp hair. He bit onto my lower lip and tugged. Lochlainn broke his hold of my lip with a dreamy, intoxicated sigh, "Little witch, should I worry you smell of tears?"

"No," I whispered hoarsely. "Not tonight. I want you to finish what you started. I need you to, I need you deep inside of me and I need to feel full…then I really do need that bath."

He chuckled, kissing me hard again. I'd likely tell him about my conversation with Kahrina in the morning. For the moment, I wanted him buried deep in me till the only thing I could feel was him. He slid a hand under me and guided his hardened cock to my needy cunt. I gasped as he thrust sharply upward. My eyes rolled back. That delicious fullness returned, and I sank onto him as much as I could. His hips rocked back and forth, thrusting him up into me. Soon his hands had ahold of the tree pillar and I was pinned between his chest and the bark. It scraped up my back, eliciting shivers from me. I raked my claws down his back as he grew erratic. Bliss, the kind that curled my toes and made every inch of my skin tingly, took over. I couldn't moan for him like I did in the woods.

But his kiss wouldn't allow me, even if I wanted to, as he captured my mouth. Between heavy panting, and whimpers smashed between our lips, there was no room for traitorous words. The slapping of his body against mine matched the rhythm of my heart.

Finally, I broke away to gulp down air. His forehead pressed to mine. He was close, I could feel it in the way his back muscles tensed. His thrusts were sharper but less even. Then he gasped, quick to press his mouth against the side of my head as he came. Burning hot cum painted my insides as he groaned into my hair. While no one else could hear it, it was the only thing echoing in my ears. His needy, breathless, deep in the belly sounds that made butterflies form in my chest.

Lochlainn kissed the side of my face as we both descended from intoxicating lust. He didn't let me down, his hands cupping my face. We locked eyes and it was almost like he could see right into my soul. Then he kissed my lips tenderly, "One bath for a good little witch, then what little rest you can manage before class in the morning."

He looked into my soul and accepted me. I had no proof but, I could swear that as I nodded, hugging him tight, he'd seen me. Seen every part of me. Even the parts I covered up with sarcasm and a ‘fuck it' attitude, because why would anyone want that piece of me.

He kissed my hair as he dunked me down into a massive bathtub and lathered me up in soap…and I knew that if I got what I wanted—what I confessed to Kahrina—was something I wanted with him. Not a coven of other witches but a family. A sleuth of bear cubs or whatever they call a group of little druids. I wanted to be his little witch with an apothecary who came home to her loving, protective professor every day. I wanted to be with him. And I couldn't form into words how actually terrifying that confession was. So I didn't, I just let him tuck me into bed and I fell asleep to the sound of his heart beat.