My Fated Mate Can Have Her-Chapter 216: At Their Limit

Rowan

The black market had been a bit different from what I was expecting.

Dimly lit passages carved into the older sections of the city, stalls that looked ordinary until you noticed the way the vendors watched everyone who passed, and the careful placement of goods that could be swept out of sight in seconds. The wolves who moved through those spaces had a subtle air of alert and calculating energy.

This part was basically mixed with a normal market.

But still, I had decided not to risk it.

I had left Violet at a checkpoint near the entrance. She hadn’t argued, which told me more about the state of things between us than any words could have. A few days ago, she would have considered coming. Now she just nodded and found a spot against the wall to wait.

The silence between us had become its own presence. A third companion that followed us everywhere.

Inside the market, I had found what I was looking for quickly enough. A wolf with sharp eyes and a knowing smile who dealt in surface currencies. He had examined my coins with interest, turning them over in his fingers, holding them up to different bright crystal lights.

The exchange rate had been quite shocking.

Apparently a small amount of my coins translated to an immense amount of money here. That had been a slight error on my part as this issue alone roused some suspicion nearby. I quickly left with a very heavy bag now and I had nearly been robbed twice on the way out.

Neither incident had been a real problem. But they reminded me that this place, for all its beauty, had teeth.

When I returned to the checkpoint, Violet was exactly where I had left her. She looked up when I approached, a question in her eyes.

"It worked," I told her. "In a way, we might be rich right now."

She was stunned, but didn’t say much.

I watched her turn away, her short reddish-brown hair brushing against the nape of her neck, and I remembered how soft it had felt between my fingers.

I wanted to touch her again.

Even with her anger, I still wanted to cross the distance between us and pull her close. I wanted to feel her breath catch the way it had in the cave. I wanted her hands fisting in my hair again... 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

I paused to recalibrate my thoughts.

This was not helpful.

We had tried to find a boarding house after moving to another area, but proper lodging was rare in this section of the city. The wolves here either had homes or they made do with whatever shelter they could find. Inns and boarding houses were apparently a concept that wasn’t so common.

Especially in most of the areas here.

The first grotto we had shared was no longer an option. Too far from where we needed to be, and returning there felt impossible for reasons neither of us acknowledged.

We found another one eventually.

It was smaller than the first, tucked into a quiet area where the buildings were sparse and the streets saw little traffic. The pool here was shallower, and thankfully had no odd taste. The crystals were embedded in the ceiling instead, casting their blue light downward in gentle rays that made the space feel like standing beneath a strange underground sky.

It was nice, private, safe, and utterly suffocating.

I still recalled the way she had laughed when I twirled her, breathless and dizzy, and had slumped against my chest with a joy that superseded mine.

Then she had looked up at me afterwards.

And I had known, in that moment, that I was going to kiss her. That nothing in the world could have stopped me from closing that distance.

The memory played behind my eyes constantly. The softness of her mouth. The small sound she made when I deepened the kiss. The way her fingers had threaded into my hair and pulled me closer, like she couldn’t get enough, like she wanted me as badly as I wanted her.

And I just wanted to do it again.

Only for her to kiss me back with the same desperation.

I thought about it constantly against my better judgement.

I wanted to feel her shiver under my hands again.

I wanted to breathe her in.

I wanted her.

The wanting had become a physical ache that nearly made it hard to think about anything else. Soon, I found myself watching her when she wasn’t looking and a part of me, shamefully, almost wished I would fall ill again.

At least when I had been poisoned, she had stayed by my side and touched me.

Now she could barely stand to look at me.

For the next few days, I spent most of my time with my consciousness split, threading myself into the small creatures that populated the darker corners of the city. Through their senses, I mapped the passages and tunnels that wound beneath and between the main caverns, searching for a way that led to the surface.

And on the rare occasion that I wasn’t monitoring the animals, our situation drove me to the edge of madness.

She was right there. Every moment of every day, she was within arm’s reach. I could see the flutter of her pulse at her throat. I could smell her scent, and I could hear her breathing in the quiet hours when we both pretended to sleep.

But she would barely even look at me or talk to me.

She wanted me, and I wanted to demand she acknowledge what was between us. I wanted to kiss her again, hard and desperate, until she forgot ’him’.

[ - ]

We finally delved into the nearby market we hadn’t explored yet and it was as fascinating as the first one we had been to.

An event or celebration of some kind was being held and I watched her face as we made our way in.

Her expression had softened, the tightness around her eyes eased and she was looking around with interest.

It was the most animated I had seen her in days.