“Hmm.” A discontented rumble came from him.

“Is that what you feel for me?” I asked incredulously.

“Perhaps.”

I burst out laughing. “Why do you look so upset about that?”

“Because it’s not something I’m used to feeling.” He pinched my side. “Before, I didn’t care if I pleased a woman or not, outside of the bedroom.”

My nostrils flared.

“Sorry, TMI.” He touched me soothingly, that ashy scent rising from him.

Calming, I wrinkled my nose. “Sounds like you were an ass.”

“I could be. Until you.” He chucked me under the chin.

Even though a warm feeling slid through me at the thought that I was a special snowflake to the hunter, that returning sense of disappointment also followed. The dude loved me because of his wolf. If not for his furry companion, he probably would have been an ass to me too. I knew I seriously needed to get over that, but I also knew that it was probably going to bug me for the foreseeable future.

“Anyway,” I said with a sigh. “Back to the matter at hand. How shall we catch and destroy Jakub-Dipshit?”

“Ah, that violent side of yours that I love so much is making an appearance again.” His brow furrowed. “That’s a good question. I may be able to track him again, but without anything that he owned or touched, it will be harder.”

“What do your hunter senses feel now?”

“Not much. It was hard enough last night to find him, but now I don’t have a lead. Before, we knew that he was heading toward Culasberee, so my senses sharpened once we were in his vicinity. If I’m going to find him again, I’ll have to collect a few ingredients to scry for him since I don’t have anything he owned.”

My curiosity grew since it was the most Kaillen had ever spoken about his ability to hunt. “Where do you get your ingredients?”

“I have a few distributor contacts.”

“That sounds time consuming.” I knew all too well how hard it could be to procure needed items for spells, hexes, potions, and whatnot.

“It can be.”

“So if you get those items, how long would it take to scry?”

“Can’t say. It all depends on how strong I can make the connection again.”

“Is there a possibility you won’t be able to find him?”

A line appeared between his eyes when his brows pinched together. “That’s always a possibility.”

Nibbling my lip, I frowned too. What had seemed like a guaranteed capture last night was beginning to seem less and less likely. “So now what?”

“I think it’s best if we wait for Fallon and Barnabas to return before going to collect supplies. I wouldn’t put it past Jakub to amass an army to claim you . . . if he’s still alive.” Golden light flared in his eyes, and that protective scent rose from him again.

Barnabas and Fallon had used a portal key to travel back to the capital. Both lived there and needed to grab a change of clothes and some supplies before joining us again. Since Kaillen and I had packed lightly, we had what we needed for the time being.

“This sucks.” I leaned back onto the bed and draped a hand over my head.

Kaillen inched closer to me, a wicked smile curving his lips. “I know what we can do while we’re waiting.”

A laugh escaped me despite all that had happened. “Oh, I can only imagine what you have in mind.” Just the thought of the hunter settled between my thighs made tingles begin in my belly.

His nostrils flared, and he threw me a devilish smile. “While my ability to arouse you at any time of the day makes me disturbingly happy, that’s not what I had in mind.”

I pushed up onto my elbows and unbuttoned the top of my shirt. “Really? Then what did you have in mind?”

He watched my fingers before he locked his jaw. “I was thinking we should train. You detonated an incredible amount of power on that ship, but it was uncoordinated. You need to learn how to control it better.”

“True.” I undid another button.

A musky scent rose from him, then a muscle flexed in his jaw. “What are you doing?”

“What does it look like?”

“That you’re trying to seduce me.”

“Such a wicked mind. I’m merely changing in preparation for training.”

He chuckled. “Doubtful.”

“Fine. Maybe changing isn’t what I had in mind.”

“We should train,” he said hoarsely when my shirt parted, exposing my abdomen and the swells of my breasts.

I leaned up and nipped his lip. “We’ll make this one quick. Promise,” I said, purposefully using words and actions that he’d used on me in his man cave.

With a groan, his arms were around me and he had me flat on the mattress.

That insatiable need for him rose up inside me again. My mate. Mine.

Apparently, Kaillen felt the same, because in a blurred movement, my clothes were off, and then he was sliding inside me. He started slow, his strokes long and grinding. I grasped him to me, giving in to the erotic feel of him until we were both panting, our need growing. His thrusts became faster and more frantic. I moaned, my body coiling around him.

We came together, our climaxes vibrating so strongly that I felt his through the bond and I knew he felt mine too. I had no idea sex could be like this, but I knew as we lay spent and panting in one another’s arms that there could never be another. Kaillen was my mate. I was his. And even though so much else was chaotic in my life, for the first time since meeting the hunter, I was beginning to make peace with where we were, even if the manufacturing part still bugged me.

I may never know if a relationship between us would have been possible before, but that was then, and this was now. It was time I let it go.

He smacked my ass as I spread like jelly on top of him. “Up, woman. It’s time to train.”

I rolled to the side, as he slid out from beneath me to stand naked in the room while hunting for his clothes. Unabashedly, I admired the view. “Why are you so insistent on training now?”

He hiked his pants up. “Because magic leaves residue. Jakub’s proven capable enough that he may be able to sense your magic and find you again. If he does, you need to be ready to defend yourself.”

“You mean, like the way you were able to sense him after coming into contact with him?”

“Yes.”

I pushed to sitting, and the hunter’s attention dropped to my bare breasts and parted thighs. I lazily picked up my shirt and lifted it over my head. Taking a cue from my sister, I did it languidly, giving him a thorough show of my back arching, my stomach tensing, and my breasts straining against the material until it settled.

When I finished, I peered up at him. Fire and gold danced in his eyes.

“You were saying?” I asked innocently.

Musk poured from the hunter, and with a curse beneath his breath, he turned so he no longer faced me, but I still caught the bulge that had grown in his pants, and I knew that he suffered from the inevitable pull and need that came with the bond.

“I’ll meet you downstairs,” he said striding toward the door.

“Really?” I asked, not believing that he was actually leaving.

“Really,” he replied dryly. “If I don’t leave, I already know that I’m going to spend the rest of the afternoon fucking you.”

“Is that a bad thing?”

His nostrils flared as he stood at our room’s threshold. “Train first. Fuck second.”

The door slammed behind him, and a thrill ran through me. Well, if my hunter wanted to spend an afternoon training in which his magic entered my body and stroked my power from the inside out, then I supposed I could appease him.

After all, it was delicious foreplay.

∞     ∞     ∞

Kaillen found a quiet area in the inn’s courtyard, so we settled ourselves on the grass. Similar to earth, the grass was green. Well, mostly. Blades of sapphire, marigold, and pink also intermixed with the emerald stalks, so when the sun hit it, the grass turned into a dancing array of subtle rainbow colors.