Warlord's Ward

A Morning of Freedom

We finished making slow, erotic love. On the floor. With the sunshine pooling in my hair and catching in his bright blue eyes.

I wanted the moment to never end. I realized this was what freedom would be.

No dark tower.

No taking him away to torture him at any moment.

No chance of someone coming in to steal me or kill me. Freedom...

I never understood the significance of it before I was a captive. As much anger and hurt and fear as I'd harbored living that way. I could be somewhat grateful for it now because each day would feel richer, brighter and more full of life. Because I'd known what it could be without it.

Somewhat awestruck, I waited for the moment we both came. Sating ourselves with the bodies of each other.

He sighed in relief and collapsed over my chest. Brushing his lips along the inner edges of my breasts and down the hollow of my cleavage. The fingers of one of his hands tangled in my red-brown hair near my shoulder, from where he'd braced himself.

His face was as sweaty and flushed as mine from the exertion and his body was heavy from the complete relaxation as he lay over me.

I twined my fingers in his black curls and stroked them along his scalp. Holding him close to me and wishing I could keep him there forever.

"We have to go soon." He murmured against my skin.

"Why?" I whined.

"Because they'll be coming after us soon and we need to get further into the woods."

"Can't we just stay here forever."

"Soon, Love. Soon I will leave and when I return, it will be to give you all the things you need and deserve. For the rest of your life."

***

When we left the hut that morning it was too the brightest early morning sun. I had crawled back into the same dirty garb I wore last night.

And Killian put on the studded tunic again.

Still ready for battle.

As he pulled the door closed behind us my eyes were drawn a few feet away. Sitting on a stump was the tall slender giant. His blonde hair a bit shaggy around his face.

Aviari was surrounded by the blood red blotches that were his Sentinels. Perched on his shoulders, around him in low branches and littering the forest floor as they watched him intently. He was whistling to them. A happy tune which they seemed to know.

He's singing to them.

He tossed a ball of orange fire absentmindedly from one hand to another. Long slim fingers curled up to catch it.

I sidled up to him. Immensely curious because he was both the mythological King of Creatures and he was the brother of the man I desired.

Of Killian.

It felt warm to think of him by name instead of Warlord. To know that outside of the castle and our slavery, in all of the land, he'd chosen me as the one he wanted to keep.

The mate he desires.

To know how powerful and imposing and fierce he was, it was hard to imagine that I was the one to capture his fascination.

A girl raised by wolves. Isolated in a hut.

That's not who I am anymore.

I had survived slavery to The Warlord, outplayed the King himself, and fought my way out of that tower, and out of that castle to freedom in these woods.

"You look happy this morning." I murmured to him.

He glanced up at me. Blue eyes sliding up and over. His lips quirking in a grin in a face that was too long, yet handsome, nonetheless.

"As do you." There was clear humor in his voice.

I blushed and shifted.

"I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."

"You did."

"True." He admitted. Lowering the ball of fire and snuffing it in the same motion as he outstretched his hand to one of the red birds that hopped around his feet.

"I am happy, as a matter-of-fact." He admitted.

"Because you found Killian?"

"Because soon," He let the bird perch on the edge of his hand and lifted it above him to adjust small harnesses on its legs. "I will have found them all."

"Your family."

"Far more than I'd thought."

"Did you know it was Killian sending you messages?"

"Yes." His lips curved again, though he wasn't looking at me. Entirely focused on the bird as he lowered it and collected the next one, to thoughtfully examine it as well. "When we were boys, we taught them to go from one of us to the other. After a time, I used that training to teach them to respond to the fey of the woods and to return to me with their messages. But always, they would stop to see him. Carrying messages from him."

"For how long?"

"Years now."

"Did you know he was a slave."

"I knew his situation was not good." He lowered another bird and brushed his hands together to sweep away the dirt that had collected on them from the birds' scaled feet. "He would not tell me where he was."

I waited for more. Feeling starved for the story.

"We both knew I'd have come for him. I'd have fought my way in or died trying."

"Why wouldn't he want you to?"

Aviari twisted to look at me. "You'd know more about that, then I would. You were with him."

"I don't know."

"I suspect that if I had, there was some threat or fear that the King would've killed BailaLae."

I thought about it a moment. "He probably would have."

"How did you get her out?"

"She was trapped under a spell."

Aviari's brows, gold as coins, lifted in curiosity.

"She was a wisp of smoke." I waved my fingers upward to represent what I'd seen. "But there was a mage in the castle, one powerful enough to shatter that spell."

"More powerful than Killian?"

"More controlled, I think. Someone trained him. A lot."

"Interesting." Aviari remarked. Looking to where they bathed in the creek. Many of them splashing like children and laughing, half-clothed. "I'd be curious to know which it was."