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tensed around him, gripping
harder around his cock and Khost watched as Nalla froze above him,
her lips parted in a round ‘o’ right before she tossed back her
head and cried out. One hand wrapped around his wrist, she pressed
him harder against her as another shudder rocked through another
body and his name whispered out past her lips on a harsh
breath.
    “ Khost.”
    That was it. The edge. Khost thrust deep
inside her, losing all control as he thrashed in the leaves across
the forest floor. His shout echoing hers and he heard a distant
bird take wing, startled. Khost sagged into the ground, his hands
falling to rest on Nalla’s thighs before he felt her move, easing
off of him. His cock flopped against his thighs, wet and spent, and
then Nalla was there, stretched out on the ground next to him. She
laid her head against his shoulder.
    “I never thought—” he started but she touched
his lips. Her finger still wet with her juices.
    “Shh. Can you feel that?”
    Her hand fell away and he tasted her. Sweet
against his tongue. He felt a lot of things right now, none of them
his brain was up for processing.
    “He’s coming.”
    And the moment the words had left her lips,
Khost could feel the thunder building in the air. The temperature
dropped, the world around him seemed to shiver, even the earth
suddenly seemed to shrink out from under him. Khost sat up,
startled. He started to shake his head, to scramble away when he
turned to see Nalla lying on the ground, wearily staring up at
him.
    “I told you he’d come.”
    “I know, but I thought...” He glanced down,
still naked. Nalla gave a bark of laughter.
    “Dressing won’t make him any easier to face.
Trust me. I know.”
    There was a flash of pain in her eyes that
someday, Khost knew he was going to ask her about. But for now, he
sank back down onto the forest floor beside her and took Nalla’s
hand in his. “Will you stay?”
    “Of course.” She reached up to touch the
necklace hanging around her neck. “I have something of his anyway.
Might as well give it back. Now that I’m no longer alone.”
    For a moment, she looked scared, fear
touching her eyes. “Unless, of course, he forgives you...”
    This time it was Khost who reached out to lay
fingers against her lips. “No. I’m not going back. Whether or not
me and you end up together forever, I don’t know. But we’ll both be
here, we’ll both know that we’re not alone. That we made this
choice.”
    Nalla started to smile when a loud voice
thundered through the air around them. “How touching.”
    Anger curled like a fist around him and Khost
winced, a memory of a whiplash against his skin. A harsh voice and
a raised hand. He turned to see a large man braced against a tree.
Pale white, nearly see-through in the dim lighting of the moon.
Herne was huge, standing by the base of an oak tree. The thick
trunk looked dwarfed when placed besides the god’s bulk. Khost
swallowed.
    “Hello Herne,” Nalla said, cuddling closer.
She laid one hand over Khost’s chest and the trembling inside him
eased. She sounded so confident. Unshaken. “It’s been a long
time.”
    The Huntsman’s eyes flicked to her and Khost
watched as lines layered his forehead when he frowned. “You lead
another Hound into temptation, as if your punishment has not been
enough?”
    She didn’t back down or deny it. Just
shrugged and stared up at him, unyielding. “Merely a kiss. Khost
made the rest of the choice on his own.”
    “A kiss is all it takes.”
    “To make a man remember what it’s like to
feel? Yeah.” Khost lifted himself up a notch and hauled Nalla
closer. He wouldn’t let her take the fall for his decisions. “To
make me remember that a person is supposed to have more.”
    “You died. You already had your life. I gave
you another.” Herne gestured towards the sky.
    “I don’t want it then.” Khost stiffened.
    “And if I don’t offer you this one? I could
kill you. I killed her last lover.” The