He groans around me, and I feel his release follow, the pulse of his orgasm hitting me as if it were my own. Our bond flares, emotions tangling together—desire, love, satisfaction—until I can’t tell where I end and he begins.
He pulls away slowly, pressing one last kiss to my oversensitive cock, then drags himself up to hover over me. His tendrils curl possessively around my thighs, and his lips brush my ear as his voice slips into my mind, molten and sweet.“You’re mine, Jack. Always.”
I shudder, pulling him down into a fierce kiss. We stay tangled together for a moment, catching our breaths, his weight grounding me even as the lust between us still simmers.
But reality isn’t far behind. I sigh, breaking the silence. “We should probably get to work before Jamie starts asking too many questions.”
Solan grins, a devilish glint in his eyes. “Agreed. But you’re not leaving this bed until I’ve kissed every inch of you.”
I laugh, swatting his chest, though I don’t entirely disagree. “You’ve got five minutes. Then we clean.”
“Deal.” He nips at my neck, his fangs scraping my skin, before finally pulling away, his expression shifting to something more serious. “After we clean, we have to meet Varek. Strategy talk.”
I groan, half hoping he’d forgotten. “Not sure how much help I’ll be there. Running a cattle farm and fighting fires isn’t exactly rebellion training.”
Solan brushes his hand over my cheek, his confidence steadying me. “You bring more than you realise. You’ve already brought me back to life.”
I flush at his words but don’t argue, letting him pull me into another kiss before we untangle ourselves to face the tasks ahead.
Once we’ve organised our new—temporary?—home a little better, we seek out Jamie and Calythra. They’re with the horses, and Jamie’s apparently been giving a young Glowranth riding lessons.
There are several Glowranth here in the rebellion settlement. From what Shanae has mentioned over the past couple of days, more than thirty Glowranth, some with families and from all walks of life here on Terrafeara, have joined the Riftborn cause. Though, as Calythra mentioned, not all are necessarily here with the freedom of the Riftborn as their reasoning. They’re focussed on their freedom too.
Go figure that it’s not only humans who struggle to live in a society oppressed by dictatorship.
“How many Glowranth are there in this world?” I ask Solan, my gaze remaining fixed on Jamie and the way he’s using a mix of hand gestures, facial expressions, and Calythra’s translations to explain to a Glowranth, who I can’t even begin to guess the age of, how to hold the reins correctly. He’s smiling and encouraging, and fuck if his enthusiasm and kindness don’t make my heart ache.
Solan’s warm palm presses against my spine, comfort pulsing through our bond. I swallow hard but don’t mention how grateful I am for his silent support. I don’t need to. Not when he feels everything so acutely.
“The queen likes to keep an accurate record,” he says.
“I bet she does,” I respond, deadpan. All the better to control if she knows who her citizens are.
He grunts in the affirmative. “Each town and district has a record keeper who works with theHarethrin.”
I nod, recalling the mention of theHarethrinbefore and it being the mayor of sorts.
“Myra’s Crossing is the largest merchant town in Terrafeara outside of the city’s merchant quarter. Each district, and there are seven in total outside of the main city where the queen’s stone castle is, has a merchant town for exchanging and purchasing goods.” He turns his large eyes on me. “They are surrounded by settlements, usually within a few hours’ travel, some much closer depending on if the Glowranth have access to transportation.”
There’s still so much to learn about this world. It’s going to take me years to discover and process everything.
“Myra’s Crossing has a population of 7,315. That was the last count.”
My brows spring high at the number. So much bigger than I expected but still a small town compared to Earth’s standards—or at least Australia’s. But back home, we have a huge expanse of land and a tiny population. I’m sure it’s something like 40 percent of Australia is uninhabitable while 90 percent of Aussies live within fifty kilometres of the coast.
If Terrafeara, this… dimension… is the same size as Earth, that means the population is tiny. But then again, I have no idea how big this land mass is. Do I even need to know? Maybe I’m getting caught up in the wrong details.
“So that means what…?” I fall quiet, trying to figure out the maths, albeit only loosely with no idea of the population of the city. “The whole population of Terrafeara is close to… say, a hundred thousand, max?” That’s a super loose guestimate.
“That sounds accurate. Remember, lots of creatures enjoy the taste of Glowranth and any other species that have found themselves here.”
I scrunch my nose just thinking of our first encounter with the six-legged monster the size of a Jeep. While Glowranth are the dominant species, there appear to be more than enough dangerous other varieties around to cull the population.
“And procreation for Glowranth is not easy.”
Curiosity about why that is threatens to get me off track. There was a reason I was asking about the population in the first place, and that was because of the number of rebels in the Riftborn rebellion. Maybe 527 isn’t as terrifyingly low as I first thought. But that absolutely doesn’t mean I want to be fighting in a war.
There has to be another way.
