Tested by the Night (22 page)

For one thing, she still wanted to hear and understand the conversations between people, all people, even if those conversations weren’t always pleasant. But she certainly didn’t ever want to hear a private tête-à-tête between two spiders again, no matter how sweet or romantic. And under no circumstances did she want to eavesdrop on the incessant chatter of birds or bees or ants or mice, and especially not snakes, dung beetles, or cockroaches. Not ever again.

She shuddered.

And did she really need to know what horses, dogs, cats, or even monkeys and camels, for that matter, were talking about at any given time? Probably not.

But she did wish to be able to continue communicating with Bane bears and dragons. And she did very much like the idea she most probably now understood every single tongue and dialect of the different races who occupied Albrath.

She blew a deep breath over the bear’s tooth, closed her eyes, and chanted the mantra three times while twirling to her left. The magic flowed around her and into the necklace even before she lifted the trinket and slipped it over her head. The smooth, worn ivory of the tooth settled snuggly between her breasts like it always had. But it seemed warmer, tingly even.

With a smile, she glanced back at the pair of silent spiders and headed for the door. She had a council to face, Talon to get back to, and a quest to get on with.

Chapter Fifteen

Talon scanned the horizon for a glimpse, any glimpse of Mia just as he had five minutes previously. As well as the five minutes before that and the five minutes before that and the five minutes before that, etc., etc., etc.

It had been seven full days since he’d last looked upon her face, touched her skin, kissed her lips, plunged his cock deep within her hot, wet, waiting…

He sighed.

It really had been a very, very long week filled with little more than constant waiting. Seven sunrises, mid-days, sunsets, and long lonely nights worth of waiting to be precise. Waiting for Mia to return, waiting for the bears to wake, waiting for Mia to return, waiting for the bears to sleep, waiting for Mia to return, waiting for a chance to sit and talk with Jaxson, waiting for Mia to return, waiting for their next meal of nasty-ass, raw fish, and for the moment when he, Jaxson, or both would became the bear’s next meal instead of their usual fare.

And if Mia didn’t get her sweet little ass back here soon, becoming a mid-night morsel for at least one of the bears was precisely what was bound to happen. Every day the look in the furry creature’s beady eyes was a touch more hostile, slightly more predatory, and a little more hungry for anything that wasn’t the same old, half-rotted fish.

Where could she be, and what could’ve happened to prevent her returning when she’d promised she would? Had there perhaps been an accident? Was she this very moment lying somewhere wounded, bleeding, in pain, dying all alone? Because one thing was for certain, something must’ve gone terribly wrong for Mia to not keep her word.

He shook his head. She wasn’t hurt or bleeding or dying, and he had to stop thinking that way or he’d lose his mind. Though he might have his doubts about Pierced as far as the lad’s sanity went, his skills were above reproach. The gay-goth gnome, who’d been taught by his father Leeky Shortz, the greatest rogue in all of Albrath, would protect Mia with his life. Of that Talon had no doubt.

And Alistair Von Daggertoss? Would he protect the princess with his life as well?

Talon sighed again.

Though he hated to admit it, Alistair had shown himself to be nothing if not honorable. Of course he’d protect Mia. She was as much his princess as she was anybody’s. Perhaps more so by the time this quest was all said and done if Talon got the chance to actually do his job and get her hooked up with the more than worthy barbarian.

He forced that thought from his mind and swallowed the taste of bile it left in his mouth.

If no trouble, trauma, or tragedy had befallen the woman, then where in the VoT was she? By his calculations, Mia, should’ve been back long before now. As a matter of fact, she should’ve returned yesterday at the latest or the day before that even.

The council. It simply had to somehow be the fault of Duke Algen Daggertoss and his frigging barbarian council.

But then, did it even matter whose fault it was at this point? The fact remained, she hadn’t yet retuned, and they were all on the move. Would she even be able to find them if and when she did get back?

For the better part of a day, the herd had been walking due north. Mile after tedious, ice-cold, snow-white mile closer to the great ocean of Albrath, and farther and farther away from Bane and any chance of meeting back up with Mia.

At first, he’d thought perhaps he and Jaxson should try and escape. After all, they were only being held in the custody of one very old grandmother bear and two young cubs. Granted, one of those cubs was almost as big as a full grown adult male Bane bear, but he was still a cub, for God Draka’s sake, and clumsy and slow and unsuspecting.

He hadn’t tried, though, and he’d even discouraged Jaxson from thinking or talking about it. Grandson of a traitor or not, Talon Starkweather had agreed to this exchange, and at the end of the day, a man was only as good as his word.

But that was before they’d set out on this weird migration first thing this morning. And that was before they’d met up with den after den of Bane bears along the way. Big ones, little ones, medium sized ones, and all of them crowding so close together it was hard to breathe while walking within their midst. They had to be a hundred strong, if not more, as they marched along the tundra-covered landscape, ever northward, ever farther away from Bane and Mia.

Talon shook his head yet again. Perhaps he had agreed to this crazy idea and perhaps honor did forbid him from breaking his word, but that didn’t mean anyone other than himself need be put at risk because of it.

It was on the tip of his tongue to tell Jaxson he’d cause some kind of diversion so the young barbarian could escape when his cousin nudged his arm, leaned in close, and whispered, “We need to get the VoT out of here. I’m not kidding, Talon. One of those buggers just licked me and then licked its lips.”

Talon nodded. “Yeah, I was afraid of that. Work your way over to the right side of the trail, and I’ll go to the left. When we’re both at the very edge, I’ll cause a commotion and you run. Don’t stop and don’t look back until you’re safely within your father’s lodge-house in Bane.”

Jaxson huffed. “And leave you here, to become what? A bear-ka-bob? I don’t think so. You aren’t the only brave, honorable, completely addle-brained, barbarian around, you know.”

The bear directly behind Jaxson chose that moment to lick him once again, and Talon turned on it and growled. The animal reared up onto its back legs, teeth barred, and growled back in response, but much louder and longer. The two faced each other, and though Talon was tall for a barbarian, a hair under eight feet, the bear was considerably taller, and it had razor sharp teeth and claws to boot.

He and Jaxson positioned themselves back to back. The bear growled again, and out of the corner of his eye, Talon watched as two others began salivating and circling. He took a deep breath, prepared for it to be his last, snarled his nose, and growled low and long. If he was to die this day, it wouldn’t be with fear upon his visage.

For die today he surely was about to do, and sadly, so was Jaxson.

Two unarmed barbarians had less than no chance against three full grown Bane bears, and he knew it. Even on a good day, with the wind at their backs and luck on their side, it took close to a dozen warriors, armed to their teeth, to safely bring down one full-grown bear.

Instead of giving into his fear, though, Talon laughed. He wished his parents could see him. Perhaps they’d finally be able to forgive their son for his mistake of years ago. Perhaps he’d even be able to forgive himself. And though he was inordinately glad Mia wasn’t here to see what was about to happen, he did dearly wish he’d had one more chance to tell her he loved her with all his heart, and not as a VoT sister, either, but as a woman, his woman.

The sound of another growl coming from somewhere in the distance, this one high pitched and distinctly feminine, had his head quickly turning. Even the bears he’d been facing suddenly stopped and stared.

And that’s when he saw her. Mia Hammerstrike walked out of the mist toward them, followed by Pierced, Alistair, Uncle Holbrook, Pearl, and more snow-white, huge-ass bears than he could even begin to count. Mia, with her cinnamon tresses flowing loosely down her back, gleaming in the sunlight as they caressed her sweet, sweet ass. Mia with a slightly secretive smile on her luscious pink lips. The same smile he’d fallen in love with the very first time he’d seen it. Mia with her peachy, pale complexion competing with the blandness of the white, icy backdrop of the Alarian Ocean. In contrast, she appeared more apparition than real live, blood, bone, and heartbeat woman.

God Draka wouldn’t be that cruel would he? The Mia walking toward him couldn’t be a mirage.

He did a double take and then a double take again. It was her. Mia really was here, alive, and all in one piece. Now he could die without regrets. That was, he could die without regrets as soon as he got the woman he desperately loved out of the middle of at least a thousand vicious, hungry bears and safely back within the walls of The Academy.

He turned on the bears surrounding him and Jaxson and roared a warning as he stalked off toward his princess, daring them to try and stop him.

****

Mia stroked Talon’s fingers, his arms, his chest, his neck, his lips, his shoulders, his back, and the taunt cheeks of his wonderfully sexy ass before starting all over again. She couldn’t seem to keep her hands off him and hadn’t been able to from the moment she’d, finally, once more stood at his side earlier in the day.

She’d thought for sure he was lost to her when she failed to return by the agreed upon time. Even though Grandmother Bear had assured her he’d come to no harm while in her care, Mia had also known when the others returned from their hunting trip, all bets would be off.

But he hadn’t been lost to her. He was here this very moment and so was she. Both cocooned beneath a thick, fur coverlet, safe and sound before a crackling warm fire in the middle of a very private, if not small, Bane lodge-house.

She wrapped her arms around him, pulled him in close, hugged him tightly, and breathed in the essence of the man she loved. Glorying in the fact he was safe, really safe.

Anger radiated from the top of her head to the tips of her toes. To VoT with Duke Algen Daggertoss and his whole damn council. After she’d sent the message stating she’d need an additional turn of the hourglass in order to meet with them, the obstinate man had refused to see or speak to her for two full days. And when he did once more convene the council, he hadn’t even bothered to directly address her. The duke had glanced at Wispy and then listened to Alistair declare all the rules of the quest had been adhered to.

Algen Daggertoss had raised his nose in the air and informed her in no more words than it took to form a single sentence that he’d be in touch when the details of the next quest were decided upon.

And that had been that.

“A platt for your thoughts,” Talon whispered as he hugged her and nuzzled the lobe of her ear.

She didn’t want to admit her fears. She didn’t want to spoil this moment by allowing him to think she hadn’t had complete trust in his ability to stay alive until she could get back to him. Instead, she shrugged and settled for a less volatile discussion. “I was going over today’s negotiations in my mind. I think they went well, don’t you?”

Talon chuckled. “Oh, yes, princess, they went very well. Jaxson is beside himself with how well they went. But then who wouldn’t be pleased. Both bear and barbarian alike will benefit for years to come from the agreement you bartered today.”

She leaned upon one elbow. “Was it enough, though? Was
I
enough?”

He kissed her lips, at first gently, then deeper and deeper still and with hunger. “Yes, my love. You conducted yourself like the queen you’ll someday be.” He squeezed her ass and nudged his thick hardness up against the softness of the junction between her thighs. “Are you enough you ask? Oh, VoT yes, princess. You are so much more than simply enough. Allow me to show you how much more than enough you are.”

He slid the length of his cock up and down her belly and teased at the folds of her pussy.

She swatted at his shoulder and laughed. “Not yet, barbarian. We’ll get to that in a minute. You know what I’m talking about, the agreement. Was the agreement enough, was it fair, will it adequately benefit our people?”

The sound of Talon’s sigh echoed off the ice walls of the lodge-house. He flipped onto his back, bringing her with him. “Can’t this wait, princess? For God Draka’s sake, I’ve been sleeping with bears and Jaxson for the last week. I have a powerful need to plunge deep within you and plunder the treasures I know to be waiting there. Give me a few days of making love with you, and then I’ll be ready to discuss diplomatic stuff and such. Promise.”

He nipped the soft skin of her neck, and tiny sparks of excitement skittered along the curve of her spine. “You did VoT well, princess. Hold still and let me show you a few skills of my own.”

It was on the tip of her tongue to argue when, with no more than the touch of his lips against hers, all sense—common and otherwise—completely fled. How could a man’s lips be so very soft, yet at the same time his tongue be so delightfully raspy and wonderfully demanding? And how could a man, any man, taste like an enticing mixture of the brightest sun-shiny day she’d ever seen combined with the naughtiest midnight secrets she’d ever dreamed possible?

But he did.

Over and over, he lavished her face, her lips, her ears, her neck, and even the tip of her nose with his kisses, as if he were starving for even one taste of her and her alone. And all the while he was kissing, licking, and nipping, his hands caressed her breasts, her belly, her thighs, and toyed at her opening. Almost delving within her folds, almost touching her clit, almost stroking what so desperately needed his attention.