21. Rowan

Chapter 2 1

Rowan

I 'm beyond dazed, my body rag doll tired and satisfied as I lie on the bedroll and look at the star filled sky. The night forest lives on around us with the scent of pine and earth, which now mixes with Kyrian and Logan’s very male musk. My eyes are heavy with sleep and content, and I only vaguely wonder how I could possibly have been cold before.

Kyrian is making soothing noises that are more sound than meaning as he strokes my skin and hair. Logan shifts away and I’m about to protest his loss when I feel him start to wipe down my thighs with a damp piece of cloth he’s located somewhere. I rouse enough to try and take it from him, saying that I can clean myself up, but he just gives me that devastating low chuckle and informs me that this is part of his reward as much as mine.

Once Logan is through, I consider reaching for my discarded clothes, but that seems like a lot of effort. Plus, Kyrian isn’t dressing. In fact, he’s stripping off the trousers he'd only opened earlier and now lies against me, skin against skin. Gods. The man produces more heat than a furnace.

Logan, now wearing only his long shirt, stretches out on my other side. With one powerful arm, he reaches over and turns me like a rag doll until m y back is flush with his chest and his arms are wrapped tight around me. A cocoon of warmth and safety. Provided I don’t let myself think too much about what’s just happened.

"Say it, rabbit," Logan murmurs. "I want to hear it."

“Say what?"

"Something along the lines of, ‘Logan, you skillful genius, you were right and I was wrong. My body is perfectly capable of absolute bliss when in your skilled hands’."

Kyrian snorts.

I shut my eyes, that not-thinking-about-what-just-happened effort collapsing like a stressed bridge. I don’t know how it’s possible to be more embarrassed after the act than during it, but it is.

“Or you could be more specific, if you’d like," Logan muses, his breath tickling the back of my neck. “Something like ‘Logan, you skillful genius, you eating me out has been the high-point of my sensual pleasure, though now I do fear you may have ruined me for anything Kyrian’s cock?—”

“-Oh gods,” I whimper, now covering my face with my hands. Especially since my traitorous body is twinging in aroused appreciation. “Stop talking.”

“But I like talking,” says Logan. “Especially when it makes you?—”

“- Thank you,” I say quickly, racing to cut off whatever might come out of Logan’s mouth next. “Thank you both for everything. Can we just go with that and call it a night?”

"Absolutely not," Logan declares. "First, you don't thank us for tonight. We thank you. And second, I really do want to hear the Logan, you skillful genius part."

"Fine. Logan, you skill—" I flinch as a howl from the forest cuts through my words. A wolf. My thoughts scatter, my heart stuttering to a gallop. "Did you hear that?"

As if to punctuate my question, the wolf howls again, this time joined by others. There is a whole pack of them here, close enough that we can hear each beast adding its voice to the pack’s call. Close enough to know that we are here too.

"You mean the wolves?" Kyrian asks .

"Yes, Kyrian, the wolves.” My throat tightens, fear spilling into my blood. “A pack of wolves."

"Oh, aye. I did hear them.” Kyrian sounds unconcerned. Either he’s so certain of his skills that he believes he can take on a pack of vicious predators or else he’s never come face to face with one. “It would be hard not to."

“That's it? That’s all you have to say about this?” I go to sit up, but Logan tightens his hold on me.

"Relax and go to sleep, rabbit. They aren’t going to harm you. I promise.”

"You promise?” I say incredulously, my hand going to my scar. Images from my memories flash through me, as they often do. A night forest, the trees looming over me like twisted sentinels. A flash of gray fur darting between the shadows. A low pained howl of an injured wolf. Me reaching out, because I stupidly think that I can help, that this wolf with honey-golden eyes won’t hurt me. And then he does. “You literally have no way of knowing their intentions. They are wolves."

"So you keep pointing out." Logan sighs. "They are busy with their own affairs tonight. You can hear it in the song if you listen carefully. Or you can just trust us on this and go to sleep."

He folds his large body tighter around mine and Kyrian moves in closer on the other side, throwing his arm over me as well, until I'm well and truly wedged tightly between them. Their easy breaths and the steady slow beating of their hearts are infectious and my body soon echoes their rhythm. My anxiety eases, fatigue and sleep washing over me in gentle waves until I feel myself surrender to them.

"I truly hate wolves," I mutter to the world, as my eyes finally drift closed, my scars scraping against Logan’s shoulder.

Logan is no longer in the bedroll when I wake a few hours later, Kyrian sleeping soundly beside me. We'd shifted around in our sleep and I’ve somehow rolled half atop him, with my leg wedged between his powerful thighs and his heavy arm draped tight over my back and brushing the side of my breast. I'm basically tangled in him. We are tangled in each other.

I twist my head around to look for Logan, finding that he isn’t in my line of sight—at least as far as I can see in the shimmering moonlight. It’s not even dawn yet. Where is he? Should I go search for him? I look around again, hoping my moving about doesn’t wake Kyrian.

It doesn’t. But there is still no Logan. Maybe we went to patrol the site or stand watch. Last night, Kyrian had refused a fire from worry of alerting someone to our location… but the sounds I made shortly after that were anything but discrete… What if last night’s exquisite exploration was going to get someone hurt?

What if the universe wants to right itself, punishing me to balance the scale-tipping ecstasy I hoarded.

"Why are you awake?" Kyrian says not opening his eyes.

"I'm not," I pretend to mutter sleepily, as if talking to him from slumber.

"You are. Your breathing changed."

He’s monitoring my breathing? In his sleep? Is that even possible?

“Go back to sleep,” Kyrian orders.

I give up the act and gently try to extricate my leg from between his thighs. “Logan isn’t here,” I explain.

"Hmm. Don't give a fuck.” His thighs clamp down, not letting my leg escape. “Go back to sleep."

"What if something is wrong? What if he heard something? He might be in trouble."

Kyrian opens his eyes, their piercing blue hues brushing over my face sleepily while the rest of him remains sprawled beneath me.

"Do you think the wolves—" I start.

Kyrian seals his mouth over mine, effectively ending my protest. His tongue takes leisurely strokes, the delicious pressure turning my remaining words into a soft moan. I melt into that kiss, my body molding against the hard planes of Kyrian’s bare chest as he strokes and suckles. Gods, the man can kiss. Can do many things actually.

I’m slightly breathless by the time he finally releases me, his taste lingering wonderfully on my tongue. “What was that all about? ”

“It was about making you stop talking, and going back to sleep.” He is on his back again, his eyes closed. “Did it work or are you going to start asking about Logan again?”

“What if I do?”

Kyrian shifts and huffs a hot breath over the top of my head, his voice not nearly as drowsy as it had been a heartbeat ago. “Then I will be forced to employ other measures.”

I open my mouth, but before I can utter another word, he rolls us over in a swift motion. One moment I’m half atop him, and then the next moment I’m on my side with my back against his chest, his leg hooking my thigh, and one iron-hard arm pinning my own against my sides. I’m utterly immobile.

"What are you...oh!" I gasp as his free hand slides between my legs, his long fingers finding my sensitive nub and beginning to stroke in slow, deliberate circles. Need blooms and spreads through my sex at once, and I feel myself getting wetter by the second as he works me, little jolts of sensation going all the way to my toes with each increasingly firm touch. Gods. I wiggle, trying to escape the inflow of heat now pooling in my core but Kyrian has me trapped, his fingers teasing me mercilessly. “Kyr -”

He stops and I whimper.

"Keep talking and find out just how long I can keep you on the edge," he rumbles, his deep voice sending shivers down my spine.

I suck in a shuddering breath and he chuckles. His cock is hard against my backside, the evidence of his arousal turning me on even more. "Wet and needy, and so very desperate to shatter…” he brushes his finger over my clit by way of reminder “… and yet unable to.”

I try to kick him, but it comes off as an ineffectual buck.

“Such valiant effort.” Kyrian huffs and makes me suffer for two more heartbeats before resuming his ministrations. His fingers pick up speed, rubbing and flicking against my clit with expert precision. Shockwaves of white-hot pleasure streak through me, Kyrian’s strong hold ensuring I feel every tiny movement of his delicious assault. More. Harder. Faster. Until the backs of my thighs, my sex, and even the soles of my feet all scream with need .

When he halts again, I lose all sense of shame. “No, please. Kyrian,” I pant desperately as my hips undulate, seeking that last bit of friction. “Don’t stop. Please. Not now.”

“Will you be good and stop talking?” he demands, tracing the hood around my engorged nub in a way that makes my back arc at the sudden new pressure. I didn’t know need could be this intense. That it could hurt so damn badly.

“Yes,” I promise desperately. “I’ll stop talking. Anything.”

“And you’ll go back to sleep?” he flicks me just once, and I all but howl.

“Yes."

A sensual chuckle tickles the back of my neck. “Good girl.” He brushes his calloused finger over my apex, scraping it with the final firm pressure I need for the world to shatter. My body spasms as waves of pleasure roll through me, each striking hard and fast and hot. I’m trembling by the time the aftershocks start to settle, my body utterly battered from the rippling release, when I hear Kyrian’s soft voice again.

“Breathe in, chaos.”

I do.

“Hang on now.” Before I can process what that can mean, Kyrian thrusts two fingers knuckle deep inside my slick, fluttering sheath. I'm so sensitive from my release that intrusion sends sparks shooting through every fiber of my being. It's too much, too intense, but he doesn't let up. If anything, he increases the pressure and speed. I scream.

Kyrian scissors his fingers inside me, stretching me open. “There you are, taking everything so well. Riding my fingers like you rode my cock last night. Just one more now. One last time. To make sure you remember your promise.”

Kyrian curls his fingers, finding that spot inside me that I hadn’t know existed until last night, but now can’t escape. The wet sounds of his fingers moving in my dripping sex mix with my choked moans as yet another release takes my body. Jolts of rapture spark out from my core to the tips of my toes, my head, and along my spine until I’m nothing but a quivering mass in his arms.

“Now can we sleep?” He asks as if nothing’s happened.

I’m smart enough to keep my mouth shut as I nod.

When I wake up next, the sun is already up and it’s starting to rain. And Logan is still nowhere to be found.

“Saw him just a bit ago,” Kyrian says, his attention on packing up his bedroll. “He wanted to go scout ahead.”

I nod. But I know he is lying.