For the past two weeks, I had spent most nights at the mansion with Anwen in my arms and the time had been the most blissful moon cycle of my entire existence. It pained me to be away from her tonight, after I had gotten used to her falling asleep on my chest. Since she invited me to stay with her, I spent most nights in her bed, caught in loving embraces and toying with each other with tantalizing wickedness.
We’d wasted hours watching stories on the device she loved so much while she made a habit to make me taste new foods every day. We consumed various kinds of drinks and I even learnt to touch some of the buttons and make her friend appear on the screen to have conversations with.
Cressida proved to be an acquired taste, a very demanding and bossy one. The first time I made her appear, she questioned my intentions with Anwen, whom she called her sister and made me show her my abs and biceps, purring when I did so. Luckily Anwen came back from the bedroom and saved me, but after that, I became invited into their sisterly chats. Another obstacle to Anwen’s happiness at times were notes she received into her device that she called emails. She explained that some of them were work related as her family had a body ointment and soap business and others, ones I made myself vanish to give her space to mourn, addressed to her brother and resent to Anwen to deal with.
Whenever I had a free moment during the day, I helped her map the forest and ran all the pathways we could, trying to search for species of plants and wells of energy that could have been of interest to her brother. I think part of her relaxed after discovering my true nature. She had done as promised, came to Evigt and found something. Found me and my kind.
I did not dare breach the ‘mates’ conversation just yet, she was barely getting used to me and my courting attempts, but even those seemed to bother her at times because I had once grown a bridge alongside the river made out of roots and transfigured branches in front of her and at the sight of my power, she had almost fainted.
I did not think it adequate to unravel both my feelings and my knowledge onto her, she constantly shook in the presence of every faerie she met in the woods. She had made some friends, Faelar, a young female sjorka turned out to be a frequent visitor and accompanied Anwen on walks when I didn’t do it myself. In the evenings, my mate would tell me stories of her adventures with Phyrra and Rennyn, the heltija twins. Apparently the three of them could get into a lot of trouble pillaging the pantries of the elders and the twins loved braiding Anwen’s hair and showing her different clothing styles.
Not all the earthlings proved as welcoming towards a human. Some of them, especially the elders, showed reluctance and hid or disappeared when she walked nearby, especially after the official introduction during which Anwen took the opportunity to show a portrait of her brother and ask every single one of them if they had seen him. The answer always the same, no.
They had tried to convince me of the absurdity of the situation, the fact that I strongly believed the human to be my mate, such a thing proved unprecedented in history, a matter I prepared myself to discuss with the Queen. Walking through the portal and into the kingdom, I felt wary and prepared myself for the scarring of her wrath. When I appeared through the tree trunks, I exclaimed a low huff. I had completely forgotten about Amara, who stood casually chatting with the King and Queen, each awaiting with a platter of seed cakes.
I hadn’t even spared her a thought from my last visit and the fact that she hadasked meif I wanted to see her again and I, like an imbecile, saidyes.
I added it to the list of things that would wake Mother’s displeasure tonight. One: her son will not mate with a lady from the Wind Kingdom. Two: her son is convinced his mate is a human; and, Three: her son wants to mate with the human and bring her into the kingdom. That third part might instate wrath in my mate as well, especially since she seemed to be very fond of her life and technologies and I did not know how to bring the news that it was tradition for the female to follow her mate into his kingdom if they were born in different places. I pushed a smile on my face and stepped out of the forest.
“Mother,” I kissed her and served myself a cake from her tray. “Father,” I bowed to the King who nodded to me. “Lady Amara,” I took her hand in mine and kissed her knuckles gently. She shifted under my touch and bowed slowly, giving me a better look at the generous décolletage of the green dress she wore. Already adopting our colours.
We walked back to the city grounds, while Mother took it upon herself to give me a detailed report of all the activities she and Amara enjoyed in the past moon cycle, all the while praising the windling for her various talents and skills. Meanwhile, Amara comfortably hung on my arm, pinching and squeezing my muscles with sharp intent. The message crystal clear. After what we did last time, she expected more and had all the right to play with my body in front of my mother.
“Mother, thank you for all the stories, they have been wonderful and very intriguing but now, if you would excuse Lady Amara and I, I would very much like to talk to her alone,” I blurted out with determination. I would not prolong this longer and was intent on being truthful today, the first step had to be to cut this female’s taste of the crown.
It was all the Queen needed to hear, since she completely vanished within seconds, suddenly finding another one of the ladies to talk to, leaving me and Amara alone on the stone carved bridge we had been passing.
“Would you like to accompany me for a walk, Lady Amara?” I asked politely though she was already pulling me towards the market. It seemed that she made herself quite loved amongst the people here, many earthlings greeted her by name and bowed their heads to both of us as we passed, their eyes lingering on the wildling more than they did on me. Whatever her and Mother had been conspiring, it moved faster than I’d realised.
As we continued to walk past stalls and flower shops, Amara started telling me about her adventures in the kingdom and how similar she found it to the Wind Kingdom, to home, casually chatting about similarities and traditions that she enjoyed over the past few weeks.
“How is your district faring?” she turned the conversation towards me.
“It is very well, thank you for your concern, my lady,” I replied with the most diplomatic answer I found, waiting for the best opportunity to open a very different conversation. I did not have to do it for long, because as soon as we walked out the flower market, which turned out to be her favourite one, Amara dragged me to an alleyway then shifted to the left onto an abandoned open stall and within a heartbeat, she placed her lips on mine with eagerness while grabbing my shirt and pulling it upwards to scratch my abdomen.
I let myself be pulled into the fervent motion for just a second, my body so surprised that I barely reacted in time to stop her tongue from swimming into my mouth.
“Lady Amara,” I urged, parting our lips, a request for her to regain composure.
“Ansgar, I missed you.” Her reply was to pull on my pants and slip a hand to touch me.
“Wow,” I twitched and gripped her by the wrist to stop her digging deeper in between my legs.
“It’s okay,” she murmured, ignoring my hesitation, “I can show you what to do,” and with that, the windling made a motion to get on her knees, her intention overly clear.
“I beg you to stop immediately,” I almost shouted as I moved away and pushed her with more strength than I wanted to, causing her to fall onto her bottom. As soon as I pulled up my trousers and made sure they were secure enough, I helped her up with an apology, flicking her dress to make sure the dirt left no stains.
“I thought you wanted this too,” she whimpered, analysing every line on my face.
“I am sorry,” I stated as I took a seat on the stall and gestured for her to occupy the one next to me. “Lady Amara, I cannot apologise to you enough,” I continued, knowing I had to hurt her feelings and I hated myself for doing it. For not even remembering her during the time we’d been apart.
“Last time, you told me you wanted to see me again. So I stayed,” she looked at me confused, covering her forehead with gentle fingers and rubbing it slightly, as though the massage could help her comprehend my reactions better. “You wanted me. Last time,” she clarified, “you were eager to shove me against the wall.”
“I am truly sorry, Amara.” There was no point in denying it and if she was the first one I had to confess to, I might as well drop the titles. “I have found my mate,” I whispered, trying not to let the smile that curled my lips shine all the way through, out of respect for her. She glanced at me with a wide unbelieving stare.
“I did,” I smirked a bit, proud of myself. “This month,” I continued as she settled onto her seat, still looking me up and down.
“How?” was all she asked.
