Olivia
Iwas so furious with myself, I could scream. One little mistruth had felt so innocent, a simple introduction, nothing more.
The fact that the goblin elder was now refusing us the one thing we needed to save basically all of us?
Forget screaming, I wanted to have a cry. A good, long, hard one. With a tear-jerker movie and ice cream and my favorite blankets that were softer than butter piled around me in a great big nest.
But I couldn’t have any of that-hadn’t had any of that in a long time. I had to keep my shit together and try to fix my screwup. That was my responsibility since I’d messed this up so royally.
And to do that, I had to get my head back in the game.
We were ushered to a pair of larger tables, clearly specially made with taller visitors in mind, though the table was already dotted with goblins, all of them excited to be seated with the visitors.
I paused a few feet away, hesitating as I struggled to pick a spot to sit, when one of the younger goblins stood on the bench, waving his arm madly. “Witch, witch! Sit next to me!”
Fiona arched an eyebrow my way but didn’t comment as she and Reed were waved toward the other end of the long picnic-style table.
“I can scent your stress. It’s all going to work out,” Lucien leaned in and whispered, his lips nothing more than a hint of a caress against my skin, but it still made me quiver.
His large hand spanned the small of my back as we walked the last few feet to the table, and he waited until I was seated directly across from the goblin who’d hailed me before sitting at my side.
In the beginning, I’d never have guessed what a gentleman he could be, but I was learning more and more about him as time went on. And the more I learned, the more there was to love, no matter how hard I tried to rein in my heart.
“Welcome to Wrenchet. Have you enjoyed your visit so far, witch?” The little guy practically bounced in his seat as he spoke, as if the enthusiasm was trying to vibrate its way right out of him. His hair was short, spiky, and neon green, instead of the more common lavender and darker green tones the rest of the clan were sporting. He reminded me of the little naked dolls with the crazy hair I’d had as a kid, except his skin was also light green.
“You can call me Olivia,” I said, smiling warmly at his enthusiasm. “What’s your name?”
“I am the Grand Inventor Rivetsky!” He executed a twirl and a bow, grinning up at us with an expectant tilt to his chin.
“Well, we are very honored to be seated with such an important goblin for this feast,” Lucien said, cutting in smoothly and smiling.
“Indeed. I am nearly famous making.” Rivetsky’s chest puffed proudly as he resumed sitting, just in time for the… unique dishes to be brought to our table. Unlike the centaur’s stately spreads, the goblins worked in swarms, four or more of them carrying each handmade tray, chattering-sometimes fighting-as they loaded the table slap full with steaming food.
Some of it was familiar-I was sure I spotted a tray of fried chicken at the other end of the table that looked amazing-but most of it was just plain interesting.
We weren’t given time to overthink about what to choose, though. The second the table was too full to hold another tray, the servers began plopping food onto our plates with their spoons. Sometimes they told us the name of the dish, sometimes they didn’t.
By the time they’d all swarmed away from our long table off to the next, the copious mound of food piled on my oval, Thanksgiving-sized plate was actually overflowing a bit onto the table.
Steeling myself to eat whatever I’d been served with a gracious smile, I lifted my fork. “I hope you won’t be offended if I don’t clean my plate. I’m a lower rank than most of the others, and I often have a small appetite.”
Rivetsky beamed. “It is our great honor to feed you full and have excess.”
His enthusiasm was catching. While the goblins were all a little odd by wolf standards, I’d never met a more genuine supernatural race, or one more open and welcoming. The centaurs had rolled out the red carpet, but the goblins?
They extended friendship as easily as breathing. It was a wonderful surprise, as were most of the strange-looking foods on my plate.
“Olivia-witch, if you don’t mind an inventor’s curiosity, what else can you do with your witch magic?” Rivetsky saved the question until I was nearly a quarter of the way through some sort of sweet-potato mash with crunchy nuts mixed through it.
“Well… this is all pretty new to me, but so far, I can identify plant species and their uses. A mentor I met recently told me I could identify poisons and their antidotes, as well.” I shrugged, not sure what else to say.
He nodded gravely, as if this was the most serious news he’d heard in a week. Lucien squeezed my knee supportively under the table, then traced his fingers up my inner thigh, causing me to clench my legs together and resist the urge to swat him away. I was trying to be friendly here, and the shameless alpha was distracting me.
Small circles over my inner thigh, trailing lazily up and down over my thin hiking pants as if there wasn’t a single other thing happening.
“You also make them grow, no?”
Lucien inched his way closer to my pussy, and I let out an unintended squeak, dropping my hand over his and yanking his questing fingers back to my knee as I scrambled for an answer. “Yes! Yes. Umm, you’re right. I can make an existing plant grow faster than usual as well.”
“Would you consider visiting our gardens? Some of our crops have not done well this year, and our stores run short. I have been inventing and inventing, but nothing makes our crops more plentiful.”
There were small creases around his eyes when he looked down at his plate, as if he was truly distressed, and suddenly, I felt incredibly guilty and humbled that we were eating up their limited food stores. I made a mental note to make sure the pack sent them gifts of food to replace all they’d shared, once things settled down and it was safe to do so.
“It would be my honor to be given a tour of Wrenchet’s gardens with their most famous inventor. I don’t know a thing about building, but perhaps I can sense what the plants need, and you can come up with a way to provide it? I think we’d make an excellent team.”
His grin stretched wide, and he was once more bouncing in the seat. Lucien’s fingers began to wander again, and I shot him a warning look, but he just grinned at me shamelessly, as if daring me to complain in front of our goblin hosts.
Two can play at that game, alpha of mine.
I left his hand to roam and leaned in closer, placing my own hand on his inner thigh and squeezing. He froze as if stunned I’d been willing to fight fire with fire, and suddenly, I was the one smug as I trailed my fingertips up his muscular thigh, stopping just shy of where he wanted me to caress. His scent sharpened, the heady aroma of warm almonds intensifying in the air around us as his own interest was piqued.
Take that, I thought as I moved his hand from my leg to his own.
Before our secret repartee could escalate to an inappropriate level, a burst of unease hit me square in the chest.
Lucien picked up on it immediately, his lascivious grin turning to concern in half a second flat. “Hellcat? What’s wrong? What happened?”
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