Page 44 of Fae Mates

My legs parted, and my body jerked forward. I held onto the garlic bulb, my hips moving in a strange, music-less twerk. “I can’t move.”

In the distance, all the guards at Pokeweed’s apple tree turned, seeming to have caught my scent.

A human part of me that felt like it was drowning in a sea of lust screamed at me to get up and run, but the faerie instincts that took control of my body bit down at my lip and moaned.

“Come on.” Flora scooted down, shoved her shoulder beneath mine, and heaved me up.

As I rose, a flare of heat surged across my skin, and sweat trickled down my brow and into my eyes, blurring my vision. But that was nothing compared to the heat between my legs or the molten slickness of my folds.

We ran together through the meadow. Garlic and dandelion stalks blurred as we moved, and our panting breaths filled the air. The friction of my thighs rubbing against my sex only added to my heat, and in moments, my ears filled with the wet slapping sounds of my arousal.

I stumbled over a fallen stalk, but Flora steadied me before I fell.

“Keep going,” she whispered. “They might not have seen us.”

She was wrong.

She was too close. Everything about Flora grated against my nerves, from her cloying scent to the way her frantic breaths filled my ears. I pulled away to steal another glance at the powerful males by the apple tree, but her arm wrapped around my waist and held me to her side.

“Where are we going?” I whispered.

“Far from here,” she whispered back. “The last person you want to mate with is the Duke of Medietas. He disowned Helen the moment she lost her magic and didn’t lift a finger to get her out of the Dark Fae Prison.”

A beam of light shone through the tall flower stalks, and I ducked. “What about the others?”

“Do you really want to mate with one of those bastards?”

My mind rolled back to the guard in the palace dungeon, who had held his tiny penis between his thumb and forefinger while glamouring it to appear monstrous. “Come on, let’s go.”

Flora gave me an approving nod. “I doubt the duke would be pleased to have a mate already in so much trouble, especially one who’s magic-less.”

“Right.” I picked up my pace. “We’ve got to find the nearest tree?”

“Why?”

“I’m going to Pokeweed’s.”

Flora stumbled over her feet. “To mate with him?”

“No.” If I told her about Prince August and any of the guards overheard, there was no telling the severity of my punishment. Queen Titania seemed the type to lock me up in a cage until my heat turned every male to a frenzy. A shudder ran down my spine. I had to get out of here.

We continued loping through the meadow to the rustling of stalks and the crackling of dried garlic skins underfoot.

“There’s a pear tree close to the edge of the meadow,” Flora whispered. “Will you be able to enter it?”

“Yes.” I tripped over a fallen stalk and landed with my ass in the air.

Flora yanked me to my feet. “I would stay and take care of your fever, but it’s dangerous.”

My mind raced over possibilities, including one where I pounced on my friend and tried to hump her leg.

Things hadn’t gotten that desperate yet as I had a plan. If I could reach the safety of a tree, I could offer myself up to Prince August and absorb more of his magic. By the time my heat had finished, I might be strong enough to rescue his three brothers.

“You can’t leave your hiding place until the heat is over,” she said.

“Alright.” I glanced out into the distance, where a tree about six-feet wide stood at the end of the orchard. Its branches hung low, laden with golden-brown pears the size of an adult’s head.

Flora stiffened. “They’re getting close!”