A Rejected Wolf and a Court of Ash (Eden and Azriel) novel Chapter 107

Chapter 107

Axel

C

I feel so fucking useless. Elvira is blind and in pain, and the only thing I can do is stay by her side. This is torture. Why wasn’t I born with the ability to take away her discomfort?

“We need to wash you,” I mutter to Elvira.

She doesn’t respond. Just allows me to carry her deeper into the cave where the mist can’t reach and where there’s a magical origin lake. I’ve never stuck a foot in it. The fae thinks the water is holy and claims it would anger their gods if people swam in it.

But I don’t care about their religion. The water has healing capabilities, and although I don’t think it will restore Elvira’s eyesight, I know it will be enough to mend everything else. The blood. The scars. The marks left from the mist of her body. The fae magic will wash those away, and maybe that will be enough.

“Axel?”

I glance down at the little one. “Yes?”

E

Her head lolls against my chest, eyelashes spread like fans over her white, clammy skin. “Thank you for staying with me even after…even after the mist took away my eyes.”

“You expected me to leave?” Does she think I’m an asshole?

A pained laugh leaves her lips. “I didn’t expect you to care about the girl who betrayed your queen.”

“Oh, about that…” I keep walking with my eyes following the stones on the wall, and then I decide to come clean, “I didn’t like you after I heard you betrayed Eden. Loyalty is very important to me, but…”

“But?”

“But now I’m realizing you were just a brat with a shitty moral compass. You’ve changed. Hell, you are still changing, and you know what? I will stay because you’re mine. Flawed and all.”

She makes a sound that could be disbelief or hope. I don’t press.

The cavern opens wider around us, revealing the magical lake. It’s/glowing faintly blue, rimmed by crystalline rock. There is mist here too, but not the same, dangerous kind. This one smells like magic, and I just know it has something to do with fae.

“Magic…” Elvira mumbles.

“You smell it too?”

“I’m a werewolf. Of course I do.”

My lips twitch a little. I’m glad that she is still herself to scent things. It gives me some courage before I set her down.

“We need to undress you.”

She doesn’t respond, and I try not to look too much at her fragile, soft body when it’s time to help her into the shallow waters. Easier said than done when your mate is gorgeous.

Blonde, delicate and with features so soft my fingertips are itching to touch her in every place that I shouldn’t.

I want to, though. Badly,

Dick’s already hard.

14:09 Wed, 16 Jul

Chapter 107

Fuck.

Ignore.

“This will help,” I force out in a murmur before ripping off my pant leg to use it as a cloth.

I start with her arm, sliding my handmade cloth into the lake. The second the water touches her skin, she lets out a soft breath, like something that tortured her from the inside just left her body.

Why did she have to make it sound so erotic?

Ignore your hardening cock, Axel.

Again, not easy.

Elvira is trembling like a leaf, vulnerable, stripped bare of everything but instinct, and her nipples are hard.

Two peaks begging for attention.”

And I want her.

Not just sexually. I want to be hers. To protect her. To claim her. My wolf is howling under my skin, circling, pacing. Ours. Ours. Ours.

Would it be too soon to ask her if she wanted my mark?

She winces when I wipe the wound on her shoulder, and I have to pause to keep myself from baring my teeth at nothing. The mist did this. The world did

this. Not me.

“Sorry,” I whisper.

“It’s okay. It feels… clean.”

Her voice is soft. Fragile. She has no idea I’m fighting my own body. Fighting the hardness building between my legs like a goddamn curse. It’s not lust- it’s need. It’s intimacy so raw that my hands shake from trying not to cross a line.

I dip the cloth again and slide it down her side. Her shirt clings to her, soaked through, and her body arches slightly as I clean the curve of her ribs.

“Tell me if this gets uncomfortable,” I say, my voice hoarse.

She shakes her head, eyes still sightless. “You’re the only thing that doesn’t hurt.”

…how do I survive the compliments???

I drag the cloth lower, slow, reverent. My breath is uneven. My pants are sitting too tight on my muscular body, and my wolf keeps snarling: Mine. Protect.

Stay.

I’m going to drive myself insane!

Elvira moves a little in the water, lips parting like she is about to say something, but she doesn’t.

I finish wiping the worst of it and tuck a dry cloth around her shoulders. My hands linger. Her skin is smooth under my fingers. Warm now. Alive. She leans her head on my chest without asking, and I curl around her instinctively.

She doesn’t know what she is doing to me.

She doesn’t need to.

Because I would rather burn than rush or taint this. Sure, I want her more than I crave the oxygen in this cave, but I can fight the need to bury myself. deep inside her. It would be romantic, not now when she is injured and barely keeping it together.

14:09 Wed To

Chapter 107

“Axel?”

My eyelashes flicker. “Yes?”

“Would you…would you mind sleeping with me?”

For a minute, I can’t breathe. I’m convinced I am dreaming, that the moon goddess have answered my prayers, but that’s when Elvira quickly comeste

herself.

“… I don’t mean sex, but I’m cold and you…you look like you could be warm.”

Oh.

1. OH.

Shit, why did I translate it to sex?

My shoulders slump in disappointment, but I don’t let it show in my tone. “Sure.”

Her lips curl into a tentative smile. “Thank you.”

“No problem,” I tell her, smiling even though she can’t see me, which reminds me… “How are your eyes?”

Her eyes, now entirely light blue, meet mine. “They don’t hurt. I think the lake helped me with the pain, but… but I’m terrified of never being able to see again. What then?”

I don’t answer because there isn’t a good one. Instead I finish cleaning her and then I lift her to bring her away to a corner of the cave. There’s a backpack there, left for those who might travel through the cave. I put down Elvira, open it, take out the blankets and make us a soft bed.

Soon we lay side by side, our bodies parallel but not touching. She is shivering and I can feel every tremble like it’s inside me.

She rolls a little, seeking warmth. Her back brushes against me. A featherlight touch. Accidental.

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