Page 1 of The Barbaric Fae's Soul

One

Dakota

I forcedmy breathing to remain steady and my thoughts to remain bright as I approached the massive tent that I knew Aev occupied. Once at the center of the other fae, it had been moved back further and further as more men abandoned the unseelie side of the neutral territory that all of the fae in Vevol resided in.

Now, most of them had returned.

And yet the tent was still far from the nearest unseelie.

In it, was the man who’d once called himself their king.

His people had abandoned him for something outside his control. Now that his mate was about to destroy the bond between them by changing her name, and therefore her identity altogether, he was going to be hurting.

No one knew if he’d be able to hold together the prison he’d created with the ice magic only he possessed… but there was nothing anyone could do to help him with it.

Which was why I was there.

No one knew that I was. Not even Sunny—dammit,Summer. Remembering our real names was difficult after so many years of nicknames.

But anyway, I knew what it felt like to have your mate bond snapped. Mine hadn’t been complete, but the pain of it breaking had been excruciating.

Aev and I had become friends of a sort, in the time I’d been assigned to spy on him. The seelie fae were wild enough that they usually didn’t bother with assignments, but I’d asked for something to do. Something to make me feel helpful.

And when I found the ex-king spending almost all of his time in his beast form, in an effort to fight the pain of the mating bond he was attempting to ignore, I ached for him. And befriended him.

The thought of what Aev would soon be feeling made my eyes sting.

And the threat of those monsters his magic held back, potentially being unleashed on our land, was enough to make me shiver.

My breathing stayed even as I walked right into the tent without knocking. I halted in the doorway, stopping in my tracks as my lips parted and my face grew so hot it might as well have been on fire. The thick flap of fabric that worked as a door met my back silently, but I didn’t budge.

Aev was in his man form, for the first time in weeks.

And he was on his knees, with one hand braced against a large wooden chest. His pants were around his knees, the curve of his ass on perfect display—and his hand was wrapped around his cock.

Stroking it.

My open lips rounded, my eyes widening.

I should’ve been triggered.

I should’ve turned and ran the other way.

But all I could think, as I watched the man touch himself, washe’s stunning.

There was something just… elegant about him.

I’d only seen him in person a few times before, and he was always the same. Big, and silent, and gorgeous.

Some part of me—some stupid, ridiculous part of me that must’ve completely forgotten about the hell I’d been through at the hands of nearly every man I’d ever been involved with—wanted to help him.

It wanted me to sink to my knees beside him.

To wrap my own fingers around his length and show him pleasure like he’d never experienced it.

But I didn’t.

And I wouldn’t.

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