Chapter 47

Arthur couldn’t help himself. Her scent was filling his senses and she looked so delicious, soaking wet and his.

His mate.

He licked his lips and she gasped.

“A-Arthur?”

He lowered his head and kissed her, lifting her out of the water. She wrapped her arms and legs around him with a little gasp of shock.

“Arthur, what about the—”

“The fire can wait.” Arthur growled, “Do you not want me?”

Daphne huffed at the question. She did, but she also knew if they got started, he wouldn’t want to stop. She tried to explain that, but Arthur was kissing her again, walking back towards the tree line to where a large boulder sat. She felt the cool stone under her hips as he set her down; kissing her as if he wanted every breath she had for his own.

She moaned as his hands skimmed her thighs and one slipped between her legs. She threw her head back with a cry as he stroked her. Arthur growled in her ear, nipping at her neck with a pleased growl. She pulled her underwear down her legs and tossed them somewhere she hoped she would be able to find them later.

“You smell so good, Daphne,” he breathed, stroking his fingers inside her in a way that made her legs tremble.

“A-Arthur, you… That’s so…” She gasped, holding onto him desperately. “Oh, please, don’t tease me.”

He chuckled, a dark and confident sound that made her stomach flip. She had thought Arthur was as inexperienced as she was, but maybe werewolves just had better instincts. He’d been gentle at first and after holding her hostage in bed well into the morning; he’d started learning her body in ways Daphne had never expected.

As Arthur slid into her with a slow smooth push and lay her back across the stone, she looked up at him in dazed awe. He cupped her face, staring down at her and lifting one of her legs to his shoulder, grinding his hips into her.

“W-We’ll never get anything done.”

Arthur gave her a wolfish grin, “Are you saying that I’m that good?”

“Arthur!”

He chuckled and she shuddered at the vibration resonating inside her. His joy and desire tumbled through their bond as he leaned forward and kissed her, thrusting into her with a slowly quickening pace. The heat of his body and the pleasure building in her hips took over her mind as she gripped him tightly, trying to gain some leverage to meet his thrusts.

She managed to roll her hips and made them both moan at the new spark of pleasure.

“Again,” he panted. “Daphne, please, do that again.”

It took a moment to get the right kind of leverage again, but he slipped his arm just under her other leg, giving her something else to push off, and managed it, wringing a howling moan out of him. Her heart sped up as his face contorted in pleasure. She bit her lip and pulled him down for another kiss as she continued to roll her hips against his experimentally until she was more confident about it and Arthur was panting with need.

“That’s so good,” he panted in her ear, snapping his hips to meet her. “Just like that, Daphne.”

She didn’t think she could stop even if he asked; the plunge of pleasure that would take over her entire body was so close. She whimpered as it seemed nothing she could do would get her there. She shifted, trying to get her leg off his shoulder. He grunted lifting her off the stone and cupping her ass as her knees fell into the crooks of his elbows. He groaned, pulling her hips to his experimentally creating a toe-curling spark of pleasure. She rolled her hips and almost shrieked at that the sensation that went through her.

Arthur took hold of her hips, forcing her hips to roll against his again as Daphne struggled to breathe through the feeling.

“A-Arthur… Arthur, I—”

He hushed her with a soft growl, “I have you. I promise.”

Daphne heard her cries as if from far away. Pleasure and desire swept over her until all she could hear was her voice calling his name.

“Arthur.” She pleaded as he sped up with a growl. “Arthur. Arthur!”

When Daphne came back to the world, she was covered in a thick cloak and still naked. A fire had been set up nearby and Arthur was sitting across the fire from her, still naked and watching her.

“Arthur?” Daphne asked, blearily. He smiled at her warmly. His eyes were filled with warmth and contentment.

“Are you hungry?”

She nodded and he stood, rounding the fire to offer her some cooked meat and bread she’d brought from the castle. He cuddled her close as she ate and Arthur looked after her until she started to slip back to sleep.

In the morning, Arthur transformed into his wolf form and they headed towards the waterfall. She shuddered thinking back to them falling over it rather than facing the werewolves who had been chasing Arthur at the time.

“How are we going to get up there?” Daphne asked looking north and south. “There’s probably a slope somewhere else.”

Arthur eyed the rocks, “That would take too long. Hold on to me and I’ll climb.”

Daphne winced looking at the height, but she nodded and wrapped her arms around his neck tightly. He jumped to the nearest ledge, then the next, but the next was too small for him to land on in his wolf form easily.

He hummed and shifted into his human form. She gasped, tightening her grip. He locked an arm under her hips, securing her to him as he stood on the outcropping of rock.

“Arthur?”

“Hold on,” he said again. She closed her eyes, trusting him as he reared back and jumped to the smaller ledge. She shuddered as the rock seemed to creak and he swung to the next just as it began to crack. This one was steadier. She tried to keep breathing, trusting Arthur with her life.

Arthur wasn’t worried. He paused for a moment, looking down the height he’d climbed and across the forest east towards where the castle stood. Tom said his mother had taken them from the castle to Brown Valley so they would be safe, a remote place on the higher side of a waterfall.

He was only carrying Daphne, who could hold on to him.

How had she managed this climb alone holding both of them? Had he been strong enough to hold on to her as she jumped and climbed?

He pulled them onto the flat surface and leaped for the next grips he could see, grunting as his hand nearly slipped from the moss-covered rock. Daphne was trembling, but she remained quiet, holding onto him.

He looked up and for a moment, a memory clouded his vision.

“Don’t look down, Arthur. You trust mommy, don’t you?”

He looked up into the night. There was no moon. The sound of the waterfall roared nearby. His eyes burned.

“What about Dad?”

“You’ll see him again.”

He swallowed, blinking the memory away and digging his fingers into the stone, and pulling them up. He reached a vine that seemed to come from the top. He pulled at it to make sure it was secure and began to climb the rest of the distance.

They reached the top and sat on the bank beside the rushing water with a sigh.

“A-Are you okay, Arthur?”

He nodded, “I… My mother. She climbed this waterfall with us.”

Daphne gasped. Shocked that he remembered anything, but she took his hand as his breathing slowed.

“I… She was… She asked if I trusted her…. She said I’d see my father again.”

He didn’t know how to feel about that or the fact that he seemed to be remembering things. He knew she took them to Brown Valley to protect them but was that enough to forgive her for the costs of her decision?

“We should keep going.”

Daphne hesitated but nodded, standing and offering him her hand, “Then, let’s go.”

He stood and took her hand, leading her into the forest to walk on two legs beside her for a while. It wouldn’t get them through the forest as quickly, but it was nice to walk beside her for a while. The scent of blood had faded and there were no bodies.

Daphne tightened her grip on Arthur’s hand, recognizing the marks of the battle and the chase as they walked. He seemed to be following the path they’d taken from her cabin. They walked for most of the day, nervous and careful. After lunch, Arthur shifted into his wolf form, and Daphne climbed on his back.

“We’re getting closer,” Arthur said, his voice was full of warning. Daphne tightened her grip on him before he started to run forward. Slowly, the forest grew more familiar.

In the distance, she spotted the path she used to take to go hunting and Arthur rounded a curve.

The familiar silhouette of her cabin emerged from the muted greens and browns of the forest.

“There it is!”