Dark Empathy Archibald Bradford (best books to read in your 20s TXT) 📖

best he could and tried to protest between chattering teeth, but she pressed him back down.

How she and the others weren’t freezing their perfect asses off in the night’s chill he didn’t know, seeing as not a one of them wore more than Alcaia did, short skirts, scanty tops and simple sandals.

“As I said before, we failed you and it is up to us to make this right. Please allow me to tend to your needs.”

He gave up at that point, realizing that she wouldn’t accept no for an answer.

“I will help you, Wife.” A soft voice said from behind her.

Alcaia turned to face a human woman wrapped in a thick blanket and greeted her with a quick embrace.

“Thank you, my love. Adrian, this is my bond-mate, Maia.”

The slight woman stood in stark contrast to the towering Amazon at her side, she was quiet, but had a warm smile and kind eyes.

The bath that followed would have been a sexual fantasy to most men, but at first Adrian was just glad to be out of the cold when Alcaia lowered him into the water of the hot spring.

Even the stinging pain from his shoulder and leg in the water couldn’t dampen the simple pleasure of the hot bath and he groaned at the warm relief enveloping him.

He had never bathed outdoors during a snowstorm before, the juxtaposition of the cold air and the hot water was surprisingly delightful.

Adrian was so enamoured with watching the enormous snowflakes meet their end in the steamy water that he didn’t even notice when the Amazon and her bond-mate stripped off their own clothing, though he certainly noticed when they began to carefully wash him.

He opened his mouth to protest again, but the memory of similar baths from his past suddenly burst into his mind and caused his throat to close with grief.

Cheri loved bathing with him, and he with her.

Even the feeling of the two beautiful women’s breasts rubbing against his shoulders couldn’t pull him out of his memories and they stayed mercifully silent as he dealt with his grief.

After his spate of helpless tears subsided they finished the bath and brought him back into the village wrapped in a thick blanket and fed him a hot meal by a warm fire, by which point he was nodding over his plate.

Soon he found himself freshly bandaged and in a bed that smelled faintly of one of the Amazons, one who had obviously taken the time to warm it with her own body.

Alcaia’s eyes reflected dimly in the faint light of the moon as she spoke to him from the doorway, her voice soothing and kindly.

“We have much to do, but not this night. Rest, Aegis. Set aside tomorrow’s worries for now and find the peace of slumber.”

Amazingly, mercifully, he did.

Chapter 2: Respite

Far away from the wilds and all of the dangers therein, a Minotaur, a Katje and a diminutive human male were shopping in the city of Garland.

They were in a store the likes of which the young man had never entered in his life, but unlike the usual places the girls brought him to that fit that description, especially Erica, he felt no discomfort as the six foot six Minotaur picked something out for herself.

With the help of the store clerk, who cut a pair of holes in the rich brown hat to accommodate her horns, Milly was soon admiring herself in one of the shop’s many mirrors.

“What do you think?” She asked Nameless coquettishly.

“You look good.”

She really did, and a warm smile stole across his face as he looked her over.

“I know, but how does the hat look?” She giggled cheekily.

Erica the Katje had been examining some boots with a skeptical smile, her own cat-like feet unsuited to them. At the sound of Milly’s voice she looked over to them and couldn’t keep from letting out a snicker when she saw her bond-sister’s new headwear.

“Haha, you look like a cowgirl!”

Milly blinked.

“What do you mean? I am a cow-girl.”

Erica shook her head of rich purple hair quickly, one of her cat-like ears flicking in agitation.

“No! Not a cow-GIRL cow-girl, a cowBOY cowgirl.”

The Minotaur adjusted the hat on her head of chocolate brown hair self-consciously, her lips pursed in puzzlement as her own floppy ears twisted about beneath the unfamiliar feel of the hat’s wide brim, adjusting to the new headwear.

“What’s a cowboy?”

After a few seconds of trying to find the words to explain, Erica threw up her hands in disgust and twirled in place to walk out of the store, her purple hair flying behind her as she spun.

“What did I say?” Milly pouted as she watched her bond-sister’s overly dramatic exit.

Nameless rubbed her lower back reassuringly, taking a moment to stroke the tail poking out of the back of her shorts.

“I think she’s just jealous of your new hat.”

With one hand she absently adjusted her ears beneath the brim and mooed at his attentions before resuming her posing in front of the shop mirror.

“It is pretty nifty isn’t it?”

Again, he was quick to agree with her as he released her tail and gave her posterior a quick squeeze of appreciation.

“I love it. It makes you look like, I don’t know, someone who knows how the world works I guess?” He shrugged helplessly as he tried to articulate how the new accessory pulled her outfit together.

Dressed in a simple light blue button-up shirt, with a red polka-dot hanky trailing out of the back pocket of her jean shorts, she was a lovely sight that always made him smile, no matter his mood.

“Do you think that Paul would like it?” She swayed back and forth slightly, unashamedly fishing for more praise.

The polka-dot hanky had been a