Home > Work > Heartsong (Green Creek, #3)
21 " I was nearly asleep when Rico said, “Bambi’s convinced I’ve slept with half of you. She wouldn’t tell me which half, but since there are more men than women, that means she thinks I’ve sucked some dick. It’s not that I’m scared of dick, but I don’t know how I feel about balls hitting my chin, you know?”Chris and Tanner burst out laughing even as most of the rest of us groaned. "
― T.J. Klune , Heartsong (Green Creek, #3)
22 " And then this man, this ridiculously wonderful human, howled at the sky, the cords in his neck standing out. It echoed in the forest around us, and there came the sound of answering howls from back in the compound.“I’ve been practicing,” Rico said with a shrug as we stared at him. “Pretty good, right? And fuck me, you’re naked and we have guns and we’re going to go face an evil witch. Let’s do this thing. "
23 " I started to pull it up.I stopped.He arched an eyebrow at me, like a challenge. “It’s nothing I haven’t seen before.”My face grew hot. “Right,” I muttered. “Just… no ideas, okay?”He laughed, but I didn’t think it was at me. “I don’t think you’ll have to worry about that. Not really.”I was almost insulted. I was proud of my body. I was strong. I was young. I was capable of providing for my—Fuck.He wiped his eyes. “No, oh god, get that wounded look off your face. Christ.” He took a deep breath. “I’m ace.”I frowned. “What’s that?”“Asexual.”“Oh. Oh.” I scrunched up my face. “Like… really?”Now he was laughing at me. “Like, really.”“How did that work?” I blanched. “Holy shit, ignore me. Seriously, don’t think you need to explain—”“If that’s what you want,” he said, and that was it.I scowled at him.He smiled at me.I lasted a few more seconds. “Are you sure?”“I am,” he said simply.“But.” I waved my hand in the direction of my neck and the scar on it that extended near my shoulder. “And. Like. You know.”He laughed again. I thought I even heard Ox snorting outside the door. “We made it work. It’s not that I’m repulsed by sex or anything. It’s just not everything to me. There’s more to us than physical intimacy. Or there was.”“Oh.” I bit the inside of my cheek, but the words came out in a rush. “And I was okay with that?”“You were,” he said, and his voice took on a wistful tone that made me feel like I was intruding. “We made it work because we… well.”Blue.The room filled with blue.It was smothering.I wanted to go to him. It was like a pull. Toward what, I didn’t know.Instead I pulled off my shirt and let it fall to the floor.“You can stop flexing,” he said, the blue fading slightly.“I’m not.”“Really,” he said. “So your pecs usually bounce up and down like that normally? That’s something you should probably get checked out.” He looked me up and down, but there was no stink of arousal coming from him. Instead, it was warm, like a heavy blanket on a winter day. “You’re bigger than you were. Harder.”“I’m… sorry?” I wasn’t sorry at all.He shook his head. “It looks good on you. "
24 " Because you still have that,” he said, pointing toward the wolf. “You kept it secret. You kept it safe.”“It was important,” I muttered. “I had this cubbyhole in the back of my closet in the compound. I hid it away.”“Like a hole in a tree.”I closed my eyes. “Yeah. I guess.”“And no one was able to take it from you.”“No.”“Good,” he said. “And I know you’re still you, Robbie. I know it with everything I have, because that’s not your wolf. It’s Kelly’s.”I took in a stuttering breath.He was in front of me then, and he bent over, trailing his nose along my hairline to my ear. “You took it with you wherever you went,” he whispered. “Because you loved it so and couldn’t bear to leave it behind. With you, it was safe. With you, he was safe. After he was taken from your mind, part of you still held on. Even if you can’t remember anything else, remember that. I asked you once why you carried it with you all the time. You said it was because you never thought you could have something so special, and you needed to remind yourself that it was real.”He kissed my forehead and let me be, closing the door behind him.I sat there for a long time, the wolf of stone in my hands. "
25 " Sometimes hitting things makes me feel better. Be that as it may... I don't think electronics respond to physical violence. Ya can't "alpha" your way through a Windows update. "