Page 137 of A Soul to Embrace

The purple of dawn already dimly lit the cave, but nowhere near began to enter it. It would be hours before the thick forest allowed the true strength of the morning to touch the world.

He immediately winced upon entering their cave.

Zylah had managed to dig out their bedding, her books, and everything that they had tucked away in a hidden nook before they left for the Veil. She’d rolled outboththeir bedding in hopes that he’d return.

She sat in the middle of hers. With her lithe arms cuddling her legs and her skull buried against the nook of her knees, blue ethereal drops floated around her head. Every time they splattered against her antlers, they broke apart into tiny fragments, only to disappear in fading sparkles.

Those tears of hers were becoming a sore spot for him, and his chest panged in guilt at being the cause of them. He hadn’t liked seeing them the previous morning either – another reason why he’d foolishly snapped.

This wasn’t the clean cut he’d been trying to give her.

She didn’t scent his arrival, but she did flinch when he approached to sit next to her so they could have acalmconversation. She gasped in surprise and lifted her skull. Just as he was crossing his legs to sit, his arse almost made it to the ground when she broke from her self-cuddle and flung herself at him.

“Jabez!” she exclaimed, her voice cracked and laden with sorrow.

He grunted when her entire body impacted against his own and her protruding sternum bashed his forehead. He steadied his hand behind himself to stop from falling, just as she wrapped all her limbs around him into an inescapable clutch.

Her arms crossed behind the back of his head and horns, her claws digging into his shoulder blades as her legs wrapped around his waist. She nuzzled the side of her snout against his hair and a horn.

“I worried you weren’t going to come back,” she cried, her entire body quaking around his as she sniffled and heaved.

He attempted to speak, but fighting through a face full of fur and sternum bone made it difficult. She squeezed his head so hard he worried she would crack it in her arms. He hissed when her claws stabbed so deeply into his back that the sharp tips of them had penetrated through his cloak and shirt, and he arched his spine to escape the intensity of them.

Trying to push her away gently via her sides only made her hold tighter. Her clawed bunny toes scraped against the rocky ground when she tried to use them to get closer.

“I’m sorry. Please do not leave again.” She gave a curt whine as she nuzzled against his hair harder, threatening to wear a bald spot into his scalp. “It’s okay. I forgive you. Just...please.”

He considered teleporting out of this strangling hold.

She wasn’t giving him the opportunity to speak, and Jabez didn’t want his return to be misleading. He had no intention of staying, as she so sweetly begged of him, and he knew that was best for her.

Whatever she wanted from him was doomed to fail, and she’d be the one left hurt the most. The sooner he left, the easier she’d be able to mend.

Or not, if Orpheus was anything to gauge a Mavka’s heartbreak by.

He knew it was best to put space between them, but he found it hard as he soaked her in. Her little whimpers were painful even for him, and her trembling only worsened with each passing second.

A part of him wanted to offer the comfort this deeply distraught female sought.

So, instead of prying them apart through force or magic, a small, defeated sigh fluttered from his lips. He bowed his head and wrapped his arms around Zylah’s narrow midsection to hug her tightly. He even lifted her enough that her legs slipped beside him a little, so she was close to kneeling instead.

He let her feel his strength and warmth as he felt hers. He tried to let it soothe her, and whatever strange aches that panged within him as well. Once she was calmer, no matter how long that took, they could speak.

He was patient, and he was in absolutely no rush. No, quite the opposite in fact.

It took her a long while to stop trembling, and even longer to cease near crushing him to death.It’s lucky I’m not a human.He either would have popped or suffocated in her fur.

Fur he found himself burying his face against as he took in her lovely jasmine-and-violet scent. It was even stronger up close and coming right off her skin, yet its subtle gentleness was as mollifying as it had always been.

It managed to soothe him, and his eyes closed under the drowsing power it had over him. Her strong heartbeat radiated against his forehead and thumped in his ears. He focused on it, and the tension he’d been holding in his entire being unwound itself.

Perhaps this cuddle was something he needed as well, and just never knew it. Then again, he’d never had a female cling to him with a nice set of tits cushioning either side of his head. He thought this may have been the most tender moment he’d ever shared with another, and the way it made him feel ensured it was even harder to let go.

He shifted his arms until his hands held her hips so he could draw her closer.

Although she was heavy despite her lithe form, she was really warm and soft. Her body had just enough muscle to be firm but forgiving in his hold.

Zylah eased a little more, and her whimpers ebbed. She gave him just enough room to breathe properly, but he didn’t move, rather content where he was. Actually, the tenderness of this had his mind melting in the strangest of ways, and he no longer knew if it was her or him refusing to let go.

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