Page 184 of Wolfkissed
“Tell me, what? Does it have to do with the scars on his back? And the long time it took him to start looking for her?”
He nods. “You figured it out.”
“Hardly. He has never mentioned anything, but I…” I shiver. “I wondered. How bad was it?”
“Bad enough to make us all think he wouldn’t survive it. Bad enough to give him screaming nightmares, though he’s been doing much better.”
“What happened, Dar?”
He shakes his head. “This is a mistake. He should be the one telling you the story. Maybe I shouldn’t keep opening my big mouth, and let him do it in his own time.”
“Please, Darian.”
He regards me for some time in silence. Then he says, “Didn’t he tell you he offered himself to the temple? Not that of the Goddess Cassia, though. He chose to submit to the God of war and chaos, Ares.”
“Oh, that. Yes, he mentioned something.”
“I think he was hoping to gather clues as to his mother’s fate. Or maybe he wanted to punish himself because he felt that her disappearance was his fault.”
“Why?”
“Losing someone can feel that way sometimes. He told them he was a tribute, a voluntary victim. I don’t think he even knew what he was signing up for. He was too young to realize.”
“He must have still been a child,” I whisper.
“He was. Barely an adolescent. They kept him for years. Almost a decade.”
I press the heels of my palms into my eyes. “Oh my Gods…”
“At first, we didn’t know where he had gone. We searched and searched and asked.” Darian sits down. “It was fucking awful. Then an old man on the mountain said he’d heard rumors of a slave, a boy that the temple people dragged along to do their heavy work, and… well, that white tuft on his head is so particular. We asked the temple, negotiated and bargained, and finally, got him out of there.”
“But he found out a name,” I whisper, “and came to my home.”
“He said he had a vision,” Darian says. “From the Goddess.”
“I have to talk to him.” I’m already starting for the door. “Sorry, got to go.”
“Go find your man. And, Rosamund?”
“Just Rosie, please.”
“Rosie, listen… what I said earlier about bondmates and fate, it’s valid about the bonding ritual, too.”
I stop. “What do you mean?”
“Valen won’t push for it. He probably meant to talk to you about it later, while he walks around with a knot and a permanent hard-on. And I don’t mean to push you, either, but if you want to go through with it, experience a werewolf bonding… then you should tell him. Valen is an old-fashioned gentleman, raised in the old ways by his mother. He’d rather die of arousal than push you.”
“I understand.”
“Do you want it? Are you ready for it?”
It’s weird talking about what is essentially a deviant sexual act, a bestial practice between my man and me… with his friend. Then again, I’m so out of my depth here, and since Valen is putting off telling me, I’m glad Darian told me.
Do I want it? Am I ready for it?
Valen has been sort of avoiding me since we arrived, truth be told. I’m aching to touch him and be touched by him, but all I get are kisses and growled curses.
I need to get to the bottom of this. Is he avoiding me because of his history or something else?
