Chapter 65

I wake up the next morning with a pleasant ache between my thighs, tangled up in dark sheets with my face buried in an enormous pile of pillows. I don't remember having fallen asleep last night, but when I crack my eyes open in the morning, there's a yellow ray of sunshine piercing through the the crack in the shuttered window. It takes me a moment to remember where I am. Damion's room. In Damion's *bed*.

After the blissful series of events that had happened in the shower and his bed last night, Damion had cleaned us both up. He then brought over the tray- of the then lukewarm food- to the bed where he stretched out beside my boneless sleepy body and fed me forkful after forkful of food. He watched on with a dark and utterly satisfied look across his face.

"You like feeding me, don't you?" I'd teased him, in between bites.

"More than I probably should," he admitted. His lips - which were still slightly swollen around the edges from the hard kisses I'd laid across his mouth - tilted into a smirk as he held another forkful of food to my mouth.

"It's my berserker side," he said, "It likes taking care of you- likes being the one to make sure that every last one of your needs is met. As it turns out, my berserker is a possessive, greedy bastard ," He said those last few sentences with a small snort and eye roll that made my heart thrum happily in my chest.

I loved seeing this new joking, playful side of Damion- about as much as I had loved seeing the wild side he had shown me earlier. There was a swirl of yellow and gold in his eyes that told me that he'd been enjoying this time with me as much as I enjoyed being with him. I'd figured out that the yellow means he's happy or amused but I still haven't quite narrowed down what the deep shining gold color means yet.

"When am I going to get to meet this berserker side of you in person?" I asked while I chewed on a piece of melon he'd forked into my mouth. The sweet juice trickled onto my bottom lip as chewed, dripping to my chin. Before I could brush it away myself, he'd reached out to swipe away the liquid with his large thumb.

"Hopefully not for a good long while." He admitted. I lazily trailed my fingers, across the dark tattoos along his forearms, committing the beautiful dark images to memory.

"You don't want me to meet him?" I ask curiously before he'd put another fork full of food to my lips. I'd seen Xavier's bear form a few times when I'd been in Elfhame and I'd even seen Arden's hawk form on the ride back when she'd transformed to get a view of the trail. It only made me more and more curious about Damion's two other forms - what Xavier and Arden had told me were a monstrous black panther and his even more rare, berserker form.

"It's not that I don't want *you* to meet it. It's that I don't trust *it* with meeting *you*," he'd explained, leaving it at that.

I'd accidentally fallen asleep quickly after that, cuddled into the crook of his arm, my head cradled in the space between his shoulder and chest. After sleeping on the hard ground over the last few days while we travelled to get here, laying in his bed is pure bliss. And laying next to Damion made it even better. I don't think I've ever been so comfortable in my entire life.

But the large bed is empty when I wake up. I peek around blearily for the body that had been wrapped around me through the night and when I don't see it, my heart stutters with a brief jolt of panic.

"Damion?" I call out, still half asleep, voice groggy.

"I'm here," he says, in that smooth, calm voice, "Go back to sleep, sweetheart."

I turn over in bed toward the sound of his voice to see his large shadowed form near his closet. His dark, slightly curling hair looks damp- like he's freshly showered. He's sitting in one of the large wingback chairs, lacing up a pair of black leather boots. Like he's getting ready to leave.

His eyes flash gold again as watches me push wavy tangled strands of my long white hair out of my face so I can see him better, still bundled up in his sheets, "Mmmmm what time is it?"

"Too early," Damion says. Finished with his boots, he stands from his chair and stalks over to the edge of the mattress, where I peek up at him from the pile of pillows I'm nearly buried in.

His hooded eyes lock on me, "Fuck, I love seeing you in my bed. Too much for my own good." He bends over, lowering himself down to press a kiss to my temple, breathing in my scent and letting out a groan that sounds half pained.

I hum happily at the feel of his warm lips trailing over my skin, and turn my head a little to blink up at him blearily, "It would be better if you were in it with me." I tell him, "Where are you going?"

"Unfortunately,I have to get to a meeting" he growls as his lips move down to plant a kiss to my bare shoulder, "Though, I'd much rather stay here with you."

"What meeting?" I ask. The feel of his lips on my skin has ignited another fire low in my belly and I wonder what he'd do if I tug on the hem of that fresh set of clothes and drag him back into bed with me. Crap, even that simple thought has my blood igniting with heat.

He brushes my hair back with gentle fingers, "Leif stopped by to update me on some activity happening on the border. I need to go meet with a few of my captains and make a plan on how to move forward."

The heat in my veins cools at the reminder of the danger happening along the border - at the reminder that Unseelie are still attacking his people. I wish there were something I can do to help, wish I knew the first thing about strategy or planning for battle so I could relieve some of the stress he must be feeling.

To his credit though, Damion doesn't *look* stressed. He looks completely at ease - like last night had taken away every ounce of tension he'd been feeling yesterday, leaving only quiet contentment in its wake. That was something at least.

I pull myself up into a sitting position, letting my fingers trace wistfully over the edge of his freshly- shaved jaw, "How long do you think your meeting will last?"

He leans into my touch, his eyes falling shut, "I have no idea," he sighs, "but I'll come find you when I'm finished. Mitra will be by to help you dress and bring breakfast."

"She's coming *here*?" I clarify. I don't know why, but the idea of the sweet elderly shifter woman seeing me in Damion's bed after everything that happened last night a blush heats my cheeks at the thought.

Damion grins as if he knows exactly what I'm thinking, "Yes, and your guards will be coming by later as well. Try to get some more sleep though. You need rest after traveling for three days-"

I cut off his worried rant by yanking on the collar of his shirt and tugging him in for a kiss. It's a sweeter, slower kiss than any of the kisses we shared last night, but my blood still heats as his delicious taste fills my mouth. After a few moments, he forces himself back with a groan, resting his forehead against mine, his eyes now a shade of red, "If I don't make myself leave now, I won't make it to the meeting."

"Alright," I grin, before planting one last kiss on his cheek, "Try not to miss me too much," I joke, my smile turning mischievous as I lean back in his bed, letting the sheet dip dangerously low on my naked chest, "And whatever you do, *don't* think about me laying here in your bed, naked. We wouldn't want you to be distracted during your meeting or anything."

He groans loudly scrubbing a hand over his face. I laugh when he has to stop to adjust the now tight crotch of his pants. Damion gives me one last lingering look as he closes the door behind him that makes my heart swell in my chest. It's going to be a long day.