Chapter 3: Give Us Sanctuary

Thessalia POV

Her head felt filled with sunlight, moonbeams, and puffy pink clouds, the kind you often saw at sunrise. Dirge’s kiss was warm, affectionate, and tender. 

For a shifter who’d just come of age, he could kiss like no one else!

His lips felt like the velvety underside of the leaves of her tree. People thought that the bear poplar was named that way because of the scarred, rough bark that looked like a bear clawed it. A popular wood elf myth told the story of how a bear met and lost his mate beside the first bear poplar. He was going to meet his mate so that they could bond, only to find that a hunter had killed her when she tried to climb the tree. In his grief he clawed the tree, and ever since then, the tree’s descendants bore the scars. A romantic story, but Thessalia also liked the theory that the tree got its name from its leaves that felt like a bear’s soft fur. 

Her hand tangled in his black hair and his hands caressed her elf ears. For the first time since she was eighty–a teenager by elf standards–she shivered with heat when someone kissed her. She had had a few kisses before this, and a bit more, but not much more. Elves didn’t just jump into love and sex like humans or dwarves or fairies, or shifters. They were much closer to orcs in that way. And she’d only shared one kiss with Lord Ilbryen.

One kiss too many.

With Dirge, a thousand kisses would never be enough. 

His naked shifter body felt hotter than the summer sun pressed against her, and even her heavy trousers and jerkin couldn’t block the heat … or cushion certain parts of him that felt hard and very large against her. Maybe it was the rush of escaping death, maybe it was his youth … it wasn’t mating season for the shifters, was it? No. 

That was a relief, in a way, because it meant he sincerely wanted her. 

Lord Ilbryen wanted her too. His dark green eyes glowed with lust and desire whenever he saw her across the grove. She’d learned to shield herself from it. But she didn’t want to do that with Dirge Cresta.

She should, though. They were from two different worlds. He was tied to his pack, she to her forest and her tree and her people. She should not enjoy kissing him like this. Some wood elves enjoyed tumbling in the leaves and letting themselves bloom whenever the fancy struck them. But most elves viewed intimacy as something sacred to be shared with your life mate. 

She should end the kiss now, but she could no more do that than she could pluck the sun from the sky.

Kodi howled to get their attention, breaking the spell. 

Oh, forest pixies! They had an audience!

She broke the kiss, staring into Dirge’s hazy, dreamy eyes. He was the most beautiful man she’d ever seen. How had she not noticed him before? 

Daring to sneak a peek at her best friend, she saw Calyx’s knowing and joyful grin. Far too big and too smug for her liking. 

She muttered under her breath, “Not one word out of you, Calyx Hopsage.”

Calyx held up a hand while moving Kodi away from her ear, which he was trying to chew on. “I think this little one is just fine after our ordeal.”

Dirge’s eyes re-focused and he looked stern. “And even though I’m grateful you helped save him … what were you thinking, leaving your kingdom without at least twenty soldiers and not informing the Alpha that you were coming so we could meet you and escort you in the way that royalty deserves?”

How could he talk that way after kissing her like that?

Her hackles raised, Thessalia huffed. “I don’t need twenty. Half that is usually enough–we’re elves, after all. We’re at least as strong and fast as shifters, our senses are as keen, we can shoot arrows with deadly accuracy, we have dual wielding, and we can cast spells.”

Calyx piped up, “And this isn’t an official visit. NO ONE is supposed to know we’re here. Especially not a certain–”

“Hush!”

She planned to explain to Dirge, but not like this.

Calyx continued, as unyielding as tough bark. “He looks ready to drag us back to the grove, my princess. It’s time to become naked like a tree in winter.”

Dirge raised his chin and his eyes glowed red. When he spoke, he sounded like a prince of Evenhide. “That’s a good suggestion. One of you, start talking.”

Kodi chose that moment to wail and howl, obviously sensing Dirge’s outrage and not liking his sharp tone. 

Dirge relieved Calyx of her charge and rocked the pup, making soothing noises. “No, no, Kodi, it’s okay. I’m not angry at you, just like your mommy and daddy aren’t when they raise their voices.”

Kodi sniffled, a tear running down his cheek. “I want Ma.”

Thessalia spoke softly to him. “We’ll take you to your mother and father now. Alright?”

“KODI!”

Luna Lilia Rolfe Cresta sprinted toward them, completely naked, with a frightened, anxious look on her beautiful face. Her eyes, the same color as Kodi’s, shimmered with relief. 

Kodi squirmed, trying to wriggle free of Dirge’s embrace. “Ma!”

Lilia crossed the distance in seconds and pulled Kodi into her arms. “Naughty! You scared your father and me half to death! We’ve been searching the city and the meadow for you. Don’t you ever run away like that again. And you apologize to Uncle Dirge.”

Safe with his mother, Kodi buried his head in her chest.

“I don’t think he ran that far, Lilia,” Dirge said earnestly. “I was watching him every minute, like I was Bentley and Tau. I think he might have conjured himself …”

Lilia’s eyes opened wide. “Teleporting such a long distance? Wizard toddlers can’t do that!”

Thessalia raised a hand. “He is a shifter wizard, isn’t he?”

Lilia blinked, dark circles under her eyes prominent because of her fair skin. “Yes, that’s right. Thank you, Princess … what are you doing here? We didn’t know you were coming.”

Dirge shot a pointed glare at Thessalia. “Exactly what I said, but I’m not complaining. She and Calyx here saved Kodi and me from the wildfire.”

“He was brave, too,” Calyx piped up and made a low bow. “Calyx Hopsage at your service.”

Kodi wailed, obviously fussy and restless now that the danger was over. 

Lilia shushed him. “I’m going to take him inside. Dirge, you escort our guests to Cresta House. Alpha Dane will want to greet them immediately and thank them. We both thank them.” 

Luna Lilia and Prince Kodi disappeared in a shower of golden sprinkles and a burst of golden and violet light. 

Dirge glanced at Thessalia. “We’ll take the long way to Cresta House, and you can tell your story while we walk.”

And when he took her elbow to escort her like the most courtly elf, she had to breathe several times and ground herself by tapping into the plant energies around her to keep a clear head for her story.

* * * * *

Dirge POV

It wasn’t as if he never kissed a girl! And Mage Kulenza kissing him on the cheek once didn’t count. He’d kissed shifter girls, and dwarf and faerie girls. 

But elf girls seemed like they knew how to kiss in a way no one else did. He’d heard plenty from Patch and Anneliese and Azandra and Kyon, as well as Titania and Ransome Hemming, about the secrets of the grove. What was it Ransome once said?

“Oh, the secrets trees can tell if we can only stand still and listen long enough,” he muttered while they walked.

Thessalia’s hair whipped around, swirling in his face, as she turned to face him. Somehow, she was leading HIM to his family’s home! He was used to plenty of assertive females in his huge combined family, but Thessalia outmatched them all …

She reminded him of Kulenza, the beautiful elf-orc mage who was too old for him and too much in love with Prince Makhel. She might be less outspoken than Kulenza, or so it seemed, but she seemed just as bossy. 

“That’s a wood elf saying,” she commented. “And it’s so true. Honestly, the things those trees have seen would make all their leaves fall off even in spring.”

“Especially Lord Ilbryen’s tree,” muttered Calyx, her eyes flashing. 

Dirge tensed.

He recognized that tone. It was the same tone that Azandra had when Ransome and Titania, her parents, tried to push a suitor on her. “He wouldn’t be related to Marcus Mond, would he?”

Thessalia sucked air through her teeth and made a rude sound, like a bullfrog singing. “THAT man! How anyone could think he and Healer Azandra were suited is beyond me.”

Dirge deliberately didn’t look in the direction of Birdcliff as they passed. “But unlike with Azandra, I assume we don’t have to worry about him showing up.”

Calyx scoffed, “Not unless he sends one of his stuck-up High Elf representatives!”

Dirge grinned. Calyx reminded him of Azandra combined with Anneliese, and a touch of Patch for good measure. “We know how to deal with those.”

Thessalia glanced around in awe at the capitol with its hustle and bustle as well as the nature all around. “He doesn’t see the point of leaving the grove for any reason, and the business two and a half years ago with Hades just made him become more stubborn in that belief.”

Dirge growled low. “Well, he gets points for being cautious, if nothing else.” Hades Ombra/Absalom Sinsworth still gave him nightmares, even after the evil and tortured shifter wizard died during a fight for the ages with Cyran. “But you and your brother clearly don’t agree with his attitude.”

Prince Narbeth reminded Dirge of all of his older brothers, including Cyran but minus Patch. Definitely serious and stately. But Kyon and Azandra were friends with him, so Dirge had to believe he wouldn’t force his sister to marry some stuffy High Lord.

“No.” Thessalia bit her lip. “That’s why I’m here, and it’s an embarrassment to my brother, and it’s dishonor, but not as much as if I stayed in the forest and refused to marry Lord Ilbryen.”

Calyx sniffed. “If Lord Ilbryen wants to marry a member of the royal family that badly, may I suggest the prince?”

Thessalia groaned and Dirge smiled, liking Calyx more and more. 

“You ladies need sanctuary, is that it?” he blurted. 

Thessalia’s green eyes widened in astonishment. “We request sanctuary, yes.”

Dirge puffed out his chest. “Well, you’ve come to the right place!”

Thessalia’s eyes lit up. “Really?”

Dirge looked at her in disbelief. “You helped us fight Hades. And so much more.” He pointed at the round disc from the wood elves’ Pillar of Sound in the town square.

Thessalia looked entranced. “You still have it?”

“We still have firefoxes, so yes. We owe you and your brother … and you protected Morgana. I know Dane and Lilia will give you sanctuary.”

He’d give her the moon if he could. What idiotic man could drive this woman away and make her flee to the shifter lands away from her beloved grove?

They approached the majesty of Cresta House. Although hardly the castle that Dirge’s brother Jiro called home in Crimsontail lands, Cresta House was several stories high with wide balconies perfect for gazing out at the city and at the mountain in the distance and daydreaming. He wondered if Thessalia would like doing that.

“Sanctuary is just inside, Princess,” he said, and nearly tripped over himself to open the door when she smiled at him.