Wild Desire Ch. 04

Gneiss slammed her mug down on the table, and threw herself into her usual seat next to Feldspar. The male faery looked askance at his lover and kept his silence. It was barely past dawn and nobody was in a good mood.

"Good morning to you, too, Cherry Bomb," Daniella said.

For the first few weeks of living with the three faeries, the human woman had tried to get on Gneiss' good side. Eventually she'd given up and had given her a name as volatile as she was.

"It could be a good morning, Disruption," the faery shot back acidly. Daniella glared at her. She wasn't a fan of Gneiss' name for her and all the implications it carried. It wasn't her fault that she had been traded to the Lord of the Wood in exchange for someone else's debt. It wasn't her fault that the lord had given her a place to live in Gneiss, Feldspar and Nephrite's treehouse. None of it was her fault, but that didn't stop Gneiss from hating her for disrupting their lives anyway.

"She is trying, Gneiss," Feldspar offered. Daniella's eyes flicked from Gneiss to her handsome sub. He winced at his mistress' look of simmering anger, but didn't look away from her. He put a hand on her leg under the table and she softened a bit.

"She is still learning our ways," Nephrite added from the other side of the table, giving Daniella a sympathetic look. Unlike the other faeries, Nephrite had grown up elsewhere, and understood the growing pains of joining a new people.

"Well, I'm off anyway," Daniella said to no-one in particular. They had had this fight enough times that she didn't feel like repeating it again. She swigged the last of her tea and wrapped her sweet bread in cloth to bring with her. She checked that her sketchbook and pencils were in her bag, grabbed her water bottle, and headed for the door.

Just as the door closed behind her she heard Gneiss start in again. "She's a danger to us all..."

Daniella paused. She could hear Nephrite's indistinct, placating voice in response. She caught a few scattered words from Gneiss in reply, and her blood ran cold as she heard what she thought sounded like "water wraiths."

Daniella still woke up in a cold sweat several times a week from nightmares of her encounter with the terrifying creatures that lived in the stream bordering the wood. She could still feel the slimy, cold touch of the water wraith's hand on her skin and smell its rotten breath as it inhaled her scent. If it hadn't been for the Lord of the Wood, they would have killed her that night.

He had been so pissed at her. Daniella blushed as she remembered the spanking he had given her for disobeying him by wading into the river. Not to mention what had followed... that memory had woken her from sleep several times a week, too. When she woke remembering the touch of the lord's hands on her body and the incredible pleasure he had wrung out of her, it was need that kept her awake instead of terror.

Daniella made her way down the tree, re-running her many fights with Gneiss in her head. Gneiss had never said she was dangerous before. She had accused Daniella of being uncouth and irritating, of eating too much or not enough, of being a wet blanket and a prude. She had complained that Daniella wasted too much of Feldspar and Nephrite's time. She had griped that Daniella's scientific studies of their community was nonsense.

This was the first time one of Gneiss' complaints had conviction. Daniella turned the accusation over in her mind. Dangerous? She was dangerous? She slowly made her way down the tree by rope ladder, her mind churning. She didn't see how she posed a danger to anyone. If anything, the water wraiths had proved themselves dangerous, but that didn't seem to faze anyone.

She walked across the community, many of the redwood trees and their inhabitants familiar to her now. She nodded in greeting to a few faeries she passed and received their greetings in turn. The faery community didn't feel like home, but it wasn't so strange anymore either.

Something inside her had shifted the night the lord had saved her from the water wraiths. He had introduced her to a new and deviant side of herself. He understood her darkest desires, ones that she had never even admitted to herself. Daniella had tried to put their encounter out of her mind, but it was getting harder every day to pretend nothing had happened between them.

For his part, the lord seemed determined to forget it completely. Daniella had dropped hints that she was interested in seeing where things could go, but he was determined to keep things platonic. She was starting to wonder if the entire night and their intense connection had been a fever dream. But every now and then she would drop a "my lord" or do something bratty, and his eyes would go dark with wicked thoughts.

She followed a path of lichen northward toward the orchards where she had been working. On the way she paused to watch an iridescent rabbit collect its morning breakfast of dew-covered poesies. It hopped idly from flower to flower, pausing here and there to scratch its ear and sniff the breeze, unfazed by the human in its midst.

Daniella continued on, passing through the last of the redwoods and into the aspen grove. She had discovered the faeries' orchard several days before, nestled in part of the aspen grove. The orchard was a wild mix of fruits and climates. In one section there were peaches ripening in the full heat of summer. In another, juicy apples hung in crisp autumn air. The pop of orange mandarin oranges stood out in another section chilled by winter breezes. There were avocados, apricots, cherries, mangoes, bananas, and pears beside, each abounding in its own microclimate.

Daniella headed for the peaches and settled herself against one of the trees. She opened her notes from the day before and scanned them. The surreal magic of the faeries' home was interesting in a parlor-trick kind of way, but what fascinated her was the perfect ecological balance of the place.

The peaches were a perfect example. She had examined the trees for common pests and found that they affected only a small percentage of the peaches. Likewise, the squirrels of the wood took a small share of the crop, while birds and insectivores sated themselves on the pests. Daniella rarely saw any of the faeries tending to the crops and couldn't detect any source of water or pest control, but the harvest was substantial.

She settled down and took to sketching a scrub jay that was hopping around in a nearby tree. The bird's beautiful blue plumage shown with stunning silver and purple streaks in the sun. It neatly plucked a bug off one of the peaches and cocked its head at her intelligently. Daniella smiled in return and added a dangling worm to the beak of her bird drawing.

She lost herself in her meditative drawing, adding notes as she watched the wildlife come and go from the peach trees. She had just started in on a sketch of a ground squirrel when the Lord of the Wood's dark silhouette glided into her peripheral vision.

Daniella glanced up at him. He was looking better than he had a right to in a dark green tunic and ankle length pants. His wild black hair was adorned with a crown of wildflowers tucked over his delicately pointed ears. His bright green eyes sparkled with playful light, revealing a lighter side of him she had just started getting to know.

"Well don't you look like spring today," she teased.

The lord smiled and dropped down beside her. He leaned over to study her sketches, studiously keeping a bit of space between their bodies. Sitting next to him, not touching, was irritating. Ever since the night he had spanked her, he had been scrupulously platonic toward her. Daniella itched to lean against him, to feel his heat pressed against her.

"This hornet is quite good," he murmured as he gestured to a sketch of a yellow jacket feasting on the flesh of a rotting peach. "Have you dissected my wood thoroughly enough yet?"

Daniella quelled a tendril of want that surged through her as his breath brushed her cheek. Mastering her face, she smirked at his teasing. She had explained her degree in ecology to him, and her previous research, but it was baffling to him.

"Nope. It's nothing like the human world, where nothing is ever in balance. Even this peach tree. Back home there are a thousand ways your crop would be spoiled. They spray for insects, and leave rat poison for rodents, and put up nets and scarecrows to fend off birds."

"Humans are horrible," he said with weary acceptance.

"I know," she said. She sighed and continued sketching the squirrel. "Even when we want to correct our mistakes we over-correct. I always hoped I'd be able to contribute to fixing just one thing through my research. Just one."

She glanced up and found his green eyes fixed on her, filled with curiosity, and something deeper.

"Anyway, I'm here and it's just — it's perfect balance. And I could probably sit here and just study the ecosystem of this one peach tree for the rest of my life and I still wouldn't be able to replicate it."

The lord scooted down to lie on the ground beside her. "Naturally not. That would be foolish." He extended his hand out to the side and lifted it up slightly just as a perfectly ripe peach fell from the tree. It landed softly in his outstretched palm. The lord flashed a self-satisfied smile at her. "You must learn to live in concert with what is already there."

He took a bite from the peach. Daniella watched as the juice spilled from the corner of his mouth. She leaned forward, tempted for a split second to lick the droplet from his face. Fuck. Did he have to be so much all the time?

"Hungry, little one?" He smirked and offered her the rest of the peach. Daniella rolled her eyes at him. Oh, he knew exactly what he was doing. She took the peach from him. The skin was warm and the flesh sweet. She closed her eyes and savored it, lost in the simple pleasure of a perfect summer day.

"Good?"

Daniella hummed in appreciation. Juice from the peach filled her mouth. She savored every last bite, picking the very last bit of flesh from the pit. The lord watched her intently, his eyes tracing her movements greedily. Daniella tossed the peach pit away and wiped the juice from her face.

"No, not there," the lord chided. Daniella glanced at him, confused. He pointed to the peach pit she had tossed. She thought about arguing with him, but she had been careful to stay on his good side the last several weeks. She actually liked obeying him, for the most part. Daniella hauled herself to her feet and retrieved it. The lord held his hand out and she placed it in his palm. The tips of her fingers brushed his hot skin, sending tremors to her stomach.

The lord placed the peach pit next to him where it would have fallen. He studied the position for a moment and then nodded with satisfaction.

"Okay, fine. But how am I supposed to know?" Daniella gestured with exasperation at the peach pit's new resting place.

The lord furrowed his brow. "You feel it. You feel the rhythm of the wood, and the movements of the seasons. You sense the future of the entirety of creation, and move with it." He spoke so matter-of-factly that Daniella just sighed in defeat. Faeries.

"I can't feel any of that. I'm not a faery, and no matter what I do I'll never be one." She leaned back against the tree and wrapped her arms around her bent knees.

It hurt more than she wanted to admit that she was trapped here among people she would never fit in with. Nephrite had reassured her often that the differences would ease with time, just as they had for her when she had moved to the wood. Every time Daniella started to believe her, Gneiss was there to remind her that she was not and would never be one of them.

Daniella shot the lord a reproachful look. If it weren't for him she wouldn't be stuck in faery territory. He returned her gaze, his eyes full of sympathy.

"Oh, little one," he let out a bone deep sigh. "The wood demanded a life. Your life was offered and accepted. You will not always feel as you do now."

"Didn't we just establish that humans mess everything up? And wasn't it an asshole of a human who traded my life to the wood?"

The lord gave her a wry smile and took her hand in his. It was the most contact he had given her in a month. He flipped her hand over and traced the lines of her palm, sending shivers up Daniella's arm.

"Be that as it may, I am the Lord of the Wood. I can feel the beating heart of the wood. I feel every shift of the breeze and the smallest change in the seasons. Make no mistake, little one. You are meant to be here, regardless of how much of an 'asshole' that man is."

Daniella pulled her hand away from his and wrapped her arms around her knees again.

"Cherry Bomb doesn't think so," she said quietly. The lord smirked in acknowledgement of her nickname for Gneiss.

"No, she does not. There are many faeries who feel as she does, that a human can do nothing but disrupt our way of life."

Daniella couldn't help but feel hurt. She hadn't wanted this. She was trying not to ruffle anyone's feathers, but it was impossible to predict what the faeries would be offended by.

"She said I'm dangerous."

"She isn't wrong," the lord said without a hint of concern.

"So you agree with her?" A flush of anger leapt to Daniella's cheeks.

The lord studied her. "You have the potential to be dangerous. Perhaps I should be more vigilant." His eyes were growing darker by the second. Daniella had a few ideas of her own about how he might keep closer watch over her, but she pushed those thoughts down.

"Why keep me here then?"

"Little one..." He sighed. "I may not fully understand it, but the wood has shown me that you belong here. You were meant to be here, regardless of what you or anyone else may think. Perhaps you were meant to serve the wood in a way that we do not understand because you are different."

Daniella sighed. She wished he wasn't being so decent to her. It would be easier to hate him and hate all of them. Instead she had to live with the pain of being rejected. Firstly by most of the faeries who didn't like her because she was human, and secondly by the lord, who for reasons she couldn't fathom had decided to pretend they didn't have a connection crackling between them all the time.

"Perhaps it is your scientific work that is needed," he said, gesturing to her sketchbook. "I admit, I do not understand your study of things that are meant to be felt."

He gave her a little shrug and a smile. Daniella gave him a sardonic hint of a smile in return. It was true that for all their mysterious communing with nature, the faeries seemed incapable of comprehending scientific analysis of the natural world. The lord had often kept her company while she studied the faery ecosystem, but he still didn't seem to understand her interest in documenting the minutia of forest life.

It occurred to her that maybe she had approached understanding the faery ecosystem backwards. She had started with studying the smallest creatures and their relationships to each other. Maybe she should have started with the faery lord at the center of the wood's beating heart.

The lord started to get up and Daniella put a hand on his arm to stop him unconsciously.

"Hold on a sec, my lord."

His eyes narrowed at her name for him, glowing with dark pleasure. He gave her a wolfish smile and sat back down. Daniella blushed. The one look from him sent a montage of all the things she wanted him to do to her flashing through her mind.

"As you wish, little one."

Daniella brushed her hair back from her suddenly hot face and flipped to the back of her sketchbook. She started sketching. She captured his strong jaw and sharp cheek bones first, lingering over the way his skin seemed to glow in the sunlight. She drew his full lips quirked in a teasing smile. It was the expression that always drove her to try to provoke him into either scowling or laughter. She added the flow of his wild hair last, giving him a golden crown of laurel leaves perched above his pointed ears.

He sat perfectly still for her while she worked, completely present. Only his eyes moved, tracking her tiny movements and gliding over her body. Every time Daniella glanced up his eyes would flick up from whichever part of her he had been devouring with his gaze.

Daniella was enjoying an excuse to just exist with him, but eventually she had to admit her drawing was finished. She handed him the sketchbook. He studied the drawing seriously, his eyes roving over each feature in turn. Daniella fought the urge to squirm. She knew it was a good drawing, but he was taking a long time to say something.

"You have given me a new crown," he said finally. "Perhaps you think it better for me to be off ruling in Greece?"

Daniella snorted and he winked at her in response. She loved this side of him. She hated that he kept her at arm's length. They had had an intense connection since they'd met. They'd had amazing sex — well, maybe it was foreplay — but it blew her mind. He'd let her get to know this light-hearted side of him, a side she knew so few ever saw. Despite all that, ninety percent of the time he acted like they were just friends.

"My lord, this is good," she said, gesturing between the two of them.

"Yes, little one," he said, too quietly. Daniella's heart sank. She could see what he was going to say before he gathered the breath to do so.

"I do not think it would be wise for us to get more involved, little one."

Daniella flushed with the humiliation of rejection, but she had to know why he had been putting so much distance between them after the night he had spanked and pleasured her.

"You didn't have any problem getting involved with me a few weeks ago." By the way his eyes darkened, she knew he was remembering exactly what her bare skin felt like under his touch. She knew he wanted her, wanted more.

"That — was a fraction of what getting involved with me would be, little one. You do not want this." He gestured between the two of them. Daniella stared at the ground, confused. He was so hot and cold with her. She couldn't figure out what he wanted.

"You don't get to tell me what I want," she said hotly.

"I am the Lord of the Wood. You will obey," he said with quiet menace. He held up a commanding hand, forestalling any of the hundred angry things she wanted to say in response.

"Careful, little one. Remember what happens when you disobey the Lord of the Wood. If you step out of your place, others will step out of theirs. And I believe you remember how unpleasant that can be."

Daniella balled her fists up, digging her nails into her palms. It was a low blow to through her run-in with the water wraiths back in her face. Sensing her momentary submission, he hopped to his feet and started off through the trees. Daniella fumed, trying to catch the exact moment that he physically disappeared. He passed out of view behind a tree. She stared dumbly at the tree for a beat too long before realizing that he was gone.

Daniella spent an hour coming up with counter arguments and retorts to the lord. Eventually she managed to move her thoughts away from him. She was done letting him control her mood with his on-again, off-again bullshit. Instead she decided to spend the rest of her day in the orchard trying to "feel" the wood in the way that came naturally to the faeries. She didn't sense anything special in the wind, or feel the future or whatever. She did get a fantastic nap out of trying though.

On her way back to her tree Daniella crossed paths with the iridescent rabbit again. It twitched its nose in her direction and sat down placidly in the middle of the mossy path. Daniella sat down to the side of the path and pulled her sketchbook out. She was soon immersed in trying to capture the way the rabbit's coat shimmered between brown, green and purple as it moved in the filtered late afternoon sunlight of the forest floor.