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Chapter Twenty-Three
Oz
The smell of the fallen rain kissing the plants filled the cave as my mate, my gorgeous, shimmering goddess of a mate, snuggled beside me. We had kept the fire going all night, the one on the ground and the one between us, stoking the flames over and over until we were beyond satisfied and heated to the core.
Eris let out a moan and snuggled in closer to my body. I hoped I could warm her all the days of my life.
“Good morning, mate,” I said, fingering her long, black hair. She moved again but then came to life all at once, sitting up, revealing her nakedness to me.
I was mated to perfection, that much I knew for sure. She was underweight and underfed, in my opinion, but I would make sure she got what she needed.
“It’s morning already?” she murmured. “You need to eat.”
She made an attempt to get up, but I held her wrist, not wanting her to leave. “I’m fine for now and, truly, I feel better than ever. Your bond and your love have healed me, mate. I’m alive again.”
Eris bent down to kiss me. Her breasts pushed against my chest. “I can’t believe you’re here. It keeps surprising me that you are my mate and you’re here with me. And that I don’t have to mate that jerk, Zeke.”
“He will never touch my mate. Never.” I rolled us over so I was on top of her.
“Can we leave this place, Oz? Can we leave and never come back?”
Her words shattered my heart into a thousand pieces, and instinct as her mate, her male, her everything, kicked in fully. “We can go wherever you want, mate. I will take you from here or stay or travel to the ends of the Earth if you want. My first and only priority is you.”
She closed her eyes and lifted her arms above her head. A smile that I hadn’t seen before rose on her lips.
I chuckled. “What’s that smile for?”
“You’re my dream, Oz. And I do want to leave…as soon as possible. As soon as you’re ready. Before we are discovered. We can pack some provisions and just go.”
I rolled off her and got up to pull on my shorts. “Where do you want to go? Name the place.”
She sat up, and I loved that she had no modesty about her in this place, in front of her mate. There was no part of her that I ever wanted hidden from me. “Can we go back to your pack? You said your parents are there. I’ve never been a part of a family.”
My chest warmed at the thought of taking my mate back home and having her be in my family, in my pack. “It’s a long journey.”
She stood and sauntered over to me. Given more sustenance, her hips would be fuller, but she was perfect even now. “I would take any journey with you, Oz, as long as you hold my hand and we go together.”
“The stars will shift if we leave, I suppose. They will lead your other mates to you. There are others, did you know that?”
She turned to face the fire and picked up her dress. “Can we leave today? I can go get food and water.”
I took her face in my hands. Maybe she wasn’t ready to talk about her other mates or, stroking my own ego, didn’t want any others. But the truth was, the prophecy wasn’t just about mating or mates or Fate, there was more. Eris was truly a goddess, and a goddess deserved a harem to keep her happy and taken care of. Still, it was a subject we could broach at a later time.
“Yes, please. Go get what we need and then we can leave. It’s you and me now…always. I’ll repack my bag and get ready.”
She smiled at me and kissed me long and hard before leaving the cave.
Now to get away from this place, and that meant avoiding the council and the guards. We could do it, but I wasn’t sure we would make it out without a fight.
