But fuck if it didn’t surprise me when she pressed up on her toes, melding her lips to mine like they were made for me. Every inch of her softness molded to my chest as I loosely wrapped my arms around her waist, letting her take the lead. There was no hesitation in this kiss, no holding back, and my entire body was a live wire, electrified at the taste of her, the feel of her perfection in my arms. Even her scent was strong, sweet and sad all at once.
When she pulled back, her lips were puffy, eyes wild with arousal and uncertainty. She wanted more, but she didn’t know more of what.
After this challenge was over, I would show her.
Fuck, the challenge. I’d gotten so wrapped up in Olivia, I forgot about the very real clock ticking down to when I had to go face off against a giant fucking centaur. A quick glance over at the falling sun told me everything I needed to know.
We were out of time.
She traced my gaze and, realizing the same thing I had, took a half step out of my arms that tore part of my soul with her. But it was okay. She held it carefully, just as I was learning to hold hers.
“I know you don’t have long. But I think I have something that will help you. I was just so scared earlier, and I let the fear win. But that’s not who I am. This thing between us is so new, the idea of anything happening to you while you’re having one of those attacks…” She shook her head, that bitter hint of regret edging back into her scent. She was all business now, though, not letting it stop her.
Olivia had fire in her green eyes when she spoke again. “I believe in you. I think you’re going to win. But you can’t help what’s happened since you got your scar. That is what scared me. Leigh suggested maybe I could use my herbalism to help you until the connection with your wolf is fully healed. So, I spent the afternoon with Elodie wandering this island to see if there was anything I could use to help take the pain away, at least for a while.”
She held the bottle aloft, thick green goo resting in the bottom of it that I could smell faintly even through the cork stopper.
It smelled like somebody had emptied out a weed whacker and the dismal results were in that bottle.
“I don’t have to eat that, do I?”
She dropped her head back and laughed, the sound so light and free, it made me feel buoyant too. I wanted to make her laugh like that a thousand more times so I could soak up every single moment and hoard them like a dragon’s treasure.
“No, you goose. I’m going to rub it over your scar. It’s topical.”
It was going to look kind of funny if I showed up with green goo smeared on my face, but who had room for pride where their mate was concerned?
I didn’t, not anymore.
“All right. Do what you need to do, then,” I murmured, gesturing toward my face.
She didn’t hesitate, turning my face and tilting it down a bit so she could see the scar better. When she removed the cork from the bottle, I was hit by an overpowering wave of medicinal stench so strong, it made my eyes water and my wolf whine.
Her gentle touch as she began to smear it over the still-tender skin distracted me from the awful odor, my wolf practically humming with glee at her caring touch.
I watched her as she worked on me, the determined set of her jaw and the efficient way she moved just as fascinating as her passionate kiss from before, the way she sometimes went timid and hid from me. She was a complex woman, and it made her all the more alluring.
“Okay.” She recorked the bottle, then tucked it into her pocket before absently wiping her fingertips on her thigh to clean them off. “That’s all done. I feel like… I want to try something a little different, if you don’t mind?”
“I trust you.” It was the truth, even though I didn’t realize it until I said the words. Of any person on this planet right now, I trusted her the most. The realization made my heart pound as if I were running, even though I was standing stock-still.
I hadn’t trusted anyone that way since my baby sister, and she’d been dead a long, long time.
And all that time, I’d been alone, no matter how many people were around, no matter how many women I slept with to take the edge off the darkness.
This was different. Olivia was different.
But while I was having my foundation rocked, my pretty mate was unaware, resting her hands on either side of my wound, much as Brielle had done when she was going to use her omega powers on me.
She closed her eyes, going still as stone. I didn’t feel any different at first. No cooling rush like when Brielle healed you. But after a few seconds, an itch like fire ants gnawed over my scar, over the entire area where she’d spread the goo. I squinched my eyes closed, trying to resist the urge to smack her hands away and scratch.
“Holy shit, that’s cool!”
Startled by Elodie’s voice suddenly close by, my eyes flew open again.
“What?” Olivia asked, blinking slowly as she lowered her hands from my skin.
“It just… soaked into his skin. It’s gone, look!” She pointed at my face, and Olivia squinted up at the area. Within a second, her eyes grew wide with shock.
“Holy Goddess, it worked!”
“Care to fill me in on what just happened, hellcat?”
“I- Well, it’s a long story, actually. I promise to tell you after the challenge, okay? Right now, the Alpha is waiting for you.” She gestured behind me, where Kane stood staring out the window, trying not to look like an impatient bastard.
“Right.” I pasted on a smile I didn’t feel, the nervous energy of the challenge flooding back into me, bursting our happy little bubble into a million shards sharp enough to cut. “Are you coming? I’d understand if you don’t want to.”
Her expression tightened, and she stepped forward into my personal space one more time, hand coming to rest on my arm, fingertips resting lightly on my bare skin. “Try to stop me.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it.”
Olivia
All our pack mates came to the challenge, and I’d never been more grateful to have a group of wolves at my back than I was while watching my mate strip off his shirt and walk out onto the sand with Kane at his side. I wanted to chase him, but instead, I grabbed Fiona’s hand and held on tight as I watched him go, sending up prayers to the Goddess that my newfound m?gissa talents could protect him from a scar attack for the duration of the challenge.
He was tall and proud, the strong lines of his muscular body oozing danger with every step toward the waiting crowd of centaurs. If I lived to be one thousand and one years old, I’d remember the outline of him, burned against the sunset. But more than that, it was the lingering tingle of his kiss on my lips that I held on to, the bold, vibrant taste of him, imparted with a kiss that left my hair wild and my heart pounding.
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