Page 62 of Our Covenant

I step closer and she scrambles to her feet, but before she can run, Maddox places his hands on her arms to hold her still. Thorne’s T-shirt is shredded. Not that it was doing much to hide her body in the first place. She’s covered head to toe in grime. There’s straw in her hair and smudges of blood on her arms and chest—probably from Maddox by the stains in the middle of his shirt.

“What the fuck?” She wriggles in his grasp with very little effort. She’s exhausted, we all know that, but the act continues.

Maddox leans down, his lips brushing over her earlobe. “Asher is going to take you back to the manor.”

“Unless you’d like to take a quick stroll around the trees with me?” I snark, and she returns it with a scowl. “I didn’t think so.”

She tracks my steps but doesn’t move until I lean down and hoist her bare ass over my shoulder. Her legs flail and her fists hit my back a couple times before she gives up. “Fucking brute, put me down.”

I grip her thigh just below her ass. Her skin is still hot and covered with leaves and mud from her being fucked in the middle of the orchard. Dirt and her arousal cake her cheeks, and I’m almost jealous that I missed out on all the fun. Almost because it’s freezing out here so Thorne would’ve had to use a decent amount of his magic to keep her from getting hypothermia. That sort of endurance is hard to maintain, but they’ve only been out here for an hour. He’ll have to rest and recoup before going any more rounds with Elsbeth.

“You coming?” I give Maddox a cheeky grin.

“I need to deal with this first.” He gestures to the mound of earth and tattered bits of her underwear tangled in the roots that were holding her down.

“Good luck, these trees haven’t tasted something so sweet in decades.”

“They’ll have their fill of her soon enough.” He winks to play along.

Hundreds of years ago, our ancestors would use the orchard as their playground. The whole acreage was deemed ritual space for not only the legacies, but the entire coven. After some members took things too far and the trees started to demand more than a little blood, it was time to close ranks and keep the harvest solitary. Only Maddox knows the orchard’s true hunger, and I’m more than happy to keep it that way.

Maddox glances to the ass hanging off my shoulder and I’m reminded that while he got a taste of her, he didn’t get his fill of Elsbeth. I’ll have to wait to hear why that is. I turn toward the path that’ll take us to the manor.

“This is ridiculous,” Elsbeth says after a few silent minutes. “I can walk.”

“Your foot is bleeding,” I point out.

It’s a small gash, likely from a rock or stick, but it’ll need to be tended to once we reach the house. With the adrenaline and frigid conditions, I doubt she can feel it.

“So what? Are you worried I’ll get tetanus?” She huffs.

“Something like that. Also, the view isn’t terrible.” I slap her bare ass and she squeals.

“I’m not one of your booty calls you all pass around.” Her hands are holding onto the back of my shirt now. I guess she’s given up trying to walk on her own.

“Is that jealousy I hear?”

“Fuck off.”

I can’t stifle my laugh.

“We don’t share everyone. It’s not like that.”

We’re getting closer to the back patio, and I can see Fox through the windows standing at the stove. I quicken my steps because I can’t wait to see his face when we come through the door.

“I know,” she says in that smug way of hers. The one tone that means that she’s aware of a lot more than we think. “It’s all about the ritual.”

Her body is still quaking, and it seems like everything she says is difficult to get out between her clenched, chattering teeth. I can feel the muscles in her belly tensing against me and I curse myself for not bringing her a blanket or jacket.

“Sex magic is powerful . . . and addicting. It has to be ritualistic or it’s dangerous,” I clarify.

“Describing something as dangerous but still participating in it sounds a lot like self-destructive behavior. You should get that checked out with a therapist . . . or a psych ward.”

A smile pulls at my lips. “Didn’t know you cared so much.”

“I don’t.” She tenses. “But if it stops you from kidnapping women in the future . . .”

“We don’t do this. Ever.”