My Lycan Mate of Suicide Forest

"I have to admit, I have never had a dream like this," Graeme said to himself, watching the water ripple out to him before inviting him back in as it receded back toward his mate. He looked up at the petals that were rising all around. "I have never had one even close to this."

He walked in, feeling the heat meet his body temperature. Wasn't this too hot for someone like August who naturally ran cooler than lycans?

"Moon, are you too warm out here? Maybe this is not good for you," he called.

"The fierce wolf is so concerned for me. I think you don't like how right the name Bun-Bun really is for you," she teased, and as he walked further in, the steam thinned enough to where he could finally catch a glimpse of her face beaming at him—like the sun burning away the fog.

"You are so flushed. Are you sure you are okay?" The water was up to his chest now, but she was in chin-deep. As he closed the space between them, he bent his knees to meet her height and pulled her against him so she was seated on his thighs.

"I am okay, Graeme," her smile gradually fell from teasing to thoughtful. Hearing his name on her lips always did something to his heart. Perhaps that is why he disliked the nickname so much.

"I love it when you say my name like that," he breathed against her and glanced down at her lips.

"Like what?" she asked softly.

"Like it is precious to you."

"It is."

He smiled and then his forehead became lined with that tension that she recognized—when he was fighting something internally or something was troubling him. It tugged at that center part of her chest where he was always enfolded so deeply—regardless of how far away he was. Where, when she concentrated, she could feel him even when he had been gone for days to follow the Eliade search team out of the Grimm and then speak with Penelope.

But here he was right in front of her, looking troubled and vulnerable, and all she wanted to do was caress his face—his beautiful rugged face—and soften those deep lines of his, regardless of how they added to the irresistible, fierce look of his that made her knees weak. She wanted to send his worries away.

"Why do you look like that?" she asked, reaching out of the water where he held her softly against him and running her hand over his forehead, brushing the long hair from his eyes where it became wet against the side of his face and clung there, obeying her.

"I missed you," he breathed again.

"I missed you, too," she replied.

"And now you are hurt again and I don't know how to help you. I am never able to help you the way you need me to," he confessed.

"You are here," she smiled. "You heard me call to you. You came. That is exactly what I need right now."

"This is a dream, my love. How can I help you here?" he rested his forehead against hers. His lips were so full and tempting, his broad shoulders peeking out of the water as he held her weightless body securely against his as if she might float away.

"I know it seems that way," she said softly, adjusting herself on his thighs, allowing her legs to curl under his and secure her to him. "And I don't know how to show you that it is more than that. But it is more than that. I was here before you."

He pulled his head back from hers and searched her eyes. Her… blue eyes. "Your eyes are different."

"Are they?" she asked, surprised. She didn't expect them to have changed back so quickly.

"They are blue with just the smallest bit of gold," he said, looking closer in wonder.

"She said that would happen," August nodded.

"She?" his eyebrows pinched together.

August tore her eyes away from her mate and glanced at the hill behind him for any sign of the tree root who had transformed into an enchanting woman and called herself a guardian.

"Yes, she. I don't know how to explain her without sounding crazy," she laughed, and it sounded like chimes.

"What is this place, Moon?" his eyes had gone wide with the sound of her laughter, and it seemed as if he was beginning to believe her.

"She said it is a place that will heal me," she answered. "She told me to call you. That you would help speed up the process even more since we are mates. Since I marked you." She glanced down at her mark, which had water sluicing down its pale skin, and she licked her lips.

Seeing the delicate pink of her tongue peek out from between her lips to moisten them made Graeme's chest rumble a response. Her blue eyes snapped to his.

"There is the fierce wolf," she smirked.

"Your eyes are even more beautiful like this," he remarked, reaching up to run his thumb over her eyebrow and around the orbital bone before making its way to her lips—that full bottom lip of hers that he loved to bite and tug on. "The eyes you were born with," he said and returned his focus to those eyes that were as enchanting a blue as the clearest summer sky. They twinkled back at him.

"She… my guardian," August gestured toward the hill. "She transforms from an old, ancient tree root covered in lichens, I know—it is crazy…" she laughed softly, "she said that after whatever happened with Jonathan in the forest, after the catalyst from Eliade, I had not fully recovered yet. I was still struggling with whatever transformation was happening. That is why my eyes were different and why I was having fevers and why I passed out today after Greta," her eyebrows threaded together.

"So this place is supposed to help with that?" he asked, allowing himself to look around once again.

This place was absolutely enchanting, and now that he thought about it, not entirely surprising considering the new information he had gained about August's genetics. This looked like a place in which one would find faeries.