My shadows rushed to my side, twirling around me playfully in spirals of black smoke and I snickered at their antics only to stop short at a loud thump behind me. Pivoting, I turned to see a dumped shifter sprawled unceremoniously on the forest floor. Remarkably, he was still fast asleep.
I snorted, trying to hold back my amusement and sternly addressed the shadows. “Pick him up you foolish beings. You know he's coming with us. Hopefully he will wake soon and tell us whothe goddess he is.” Turning away from them, I muttered. “If he doesn't wake up, I’m not kissing him. I have no need for a prince.”
Shimmering with laughter they rushed to pick up the shifter again.
I gave them one more glance back to make sure they understood my seriousness. “Be sure not to drop him again.” I said sternly. Only seconds passed when I heard another loud thump—this one sounding like the handsome shifter’s head slamming into a tree.
A wide smile split across my face, highlighted by the three moons in the dark silvery forest. My shadows were playful tonight.
Chapter 5
Alowgrowlrumbleddeepin my chest as I attempted to pry open my eyes, the weight of the chains gone like it was only a bad dream. “Fuck.”
Faerie may have healed my body but it still felt like I fell from a cliff, hitting several boulders on my way down.
“Your foul language really is unseemingly.”
“Sweet goddess, you’re still there? And here I really hoped that the torture would at least kill you off, cat.” I said in a low snarl to the beast who resided inside of me.
He snarled back with warning.“Two days, fairy boy.”
I shrugged.“We’ve been through worse.”
The cat snorted again and rolled his eyes inside my head.“You better shift soon or I will force you to. I am tired of being stuck in this repugnant body of yours. Who knows what those ironsdid to my coat.”
“It’s too risky for us to shift now. Your vanity will have to wait.” I was pretty damn recognizable in my shifted form—I’d rather not draw that sort of attention.
“Is talking to yourself a side effect of being tortured or do you do it out of habit?”
I inhaled sharply. That voice. Fuck that sound was the most beautiful thing I ever heard and suddenly I was overwhelmed by a scent—lilies after a fresh night rain, Strong, pure, beautiful.
Her.
I inhaled again, tattooing it deep within my memory for fear of ever losing it again. Groaning, I forced my aching body to sit upright and narrowed my feral gaze on her.
She sat on a tall wooden stool, cross legged on her high perch, her hands relaxed on her knees, with her black shadows floating lazily around her.
One would be a fool to mistake her for anything but deadly this way.
“Why in the Sheol do I feel like my head has been smashed in?” Definitely not the first words I’d thought I’d say to my soulmate after one hundred years of searching for her.
Perfect pink lips peeled back revealing gleaming white teeth. “How am I supposed to know why you feel what you do, shifter?”
I grinned back. The fae didn’t lie but we were proficient at our phrasing. This was no different and I approved.
“How long have I been asleep?” I glanced at the window, noticing the sunlight streaming into her small dwelling, highlighting the natural blue in her black hair.
“Five hours.” Bright emerald green eyes that I could drown in…wanted to drown in, bored into my own, and my mouth went dry. Beautiful, she was beautiful.
“Keep your wits, fairy boy.”My cat practically hissed at me.
“Fuck off.”I shot back silently and pushed him in the deep recesses of my mind. A talent my father had taught me as a cub after the beast had taken over my body for two whole weeks during the first time I shifted. It had taken my mothers begging tears for the asshole to change me back to the son she knew and not a confused rampaging beast with his own conscious thought. After that, the was no end to the training my father delivered to strengthen my mental shields.
The shadow fae quirked a dark brow at me like she was considering putting me down like a rabid animal.
I scrubbed at my grown out beard with a frown, hoping to rub some function back to my brain and away from my growing arousal. “To answer your question, I was talking to my beast just now.” Honesty wasprobablythe best route at the moment…probably.
My cat snorted from the depths of my mind.
