Prince of Traitors

Kieran

Owin rolls over onto me, throwing one bare, pale leg between mine. She plants one hand on my chest and presses against me, her skin warm and soft under my hands. Her bright silver hair falls over her shoulders, thick and silky and damp with sweat. She leans forward and kisses me, her lips languid against mine. She sighs into my mouth.

She pulls away and presses her lips to my neck, just over the spot where my pulse beats. Her hair spills onto the soft spring grass under us, the blanket we lay on warm under my back. I look up at the stars as she drags a finger in small circles on my chest.

"Must you go?" I ask her quietly. She groans against my neck.

"You know I have to," she says. She props herself up on one elbow to look at me. Her face is flushed, her hair tousled.

I frown up at her. "I was hoping I'd be able to change your mind," I grumble. She snorts and rolls her eyes.

"Oh, was that what this was about?" she asks with a laugh.

I shrug one shoulder. "Maybe. Did it work?"

She leans down to kiss me again. I feel her smile against my mouth.

When she pulls away again, she rests her cheek on my chest. Her arms wind around my midsection. I let one hand roam through her hair. The silver curls wind around my fingers. Moments ago, her hair had been tangled in my hands, her head thrown back in pleasure.

"You're never going to stop, are you?" I ask.

Owin sighs and untangles herself from me. She sits up, her bare back pale in the moonlight. My fingers idly stroke one of the small dimples at the base of her spine. She looks at me over one shoulder.

"I can't, Kieran," she says. "Not until I'm sure they're safe."

I sit up and lean forward to press my lips to the back of her shoulder. "That's not your job, Win," I say.

"Yes, it is," she says. "My parents are stubborn, they won't move the tribe unless I find them someplace safer to go."

I sigh. "I could protect you and your family," I offer. "We could run away. If you'd settle down with me—"

She twists around to quirk a skeptical eyebrow at me. "We've been over this," she murmurs. I groan and let my forehead fall to bump against her shoulder.

"I know, I know," I say. "You have priorities that aren't a life with me."

Owin shifts atop the blanket to face me. She is beautiful, her skin luminescent as the moon as she sits, bare and perfect, before me. She takes my face in her hands and kisses me long and hard. "I'll come back," she whispers. "Once my work is done."

I sigh against her mouth. My arms wind around her waist and I turn her, laying her gently on her back atop the blanket. My mouth moves to her jaw, her neck. She tilts her head back, her fingers in my hair. Heat rushes to my groin for the second time tonight.

I pepper kisses along her breasts, the soft slope of her stomach. Lower. I peer up at her as my mouth brushes the apex of her thighs. A breathy moan creaks from her, and she arches her back to welcome me.

*

As I descend the mountains into Astria, I shoulder my bow and quiver across my back. My hair, silver as moonlight, whips around my face in the wind. I lean back in my saddle, taking a bite from an apple as I ride. My horse is sure-footed and navigates the path well.

Owin has been gone all spring and much of the summertime. She should have returned to the mountains by now with a way to get our tribe to safety.

I have missed her terribly for months. I have missed kissing her. Holding her against me in the grass in the middle of the night. Winding her hair through my fingers. I need to find her, bring her home. This quest she's on has lasted long enough.