The Barbaric Fae's Soul

The Barbaric Fae’s Soul Wild Hunt 5 Lola Glass Copyright © 2023 Lola Glass authorlolaglass.com All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Names, characters, and places are products of the author’s imagination. Cover by Francesca Michelon https://www.merrybookround.com/ Contents Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Epilogue Afterthoughts All Series by Lola Glass Please Review Stay in Touch! About the Author To the books and people that don’t make your heart ache. One Dakota I forced my 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, was he’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. His breathing picked up, as he continued stroking himself. This was a horrible violation of his privacy. I needed to leave—I knew I needed to leave. But I couldn’t make my feet move. His fingers dug into the wooden chest, his strokes growing rougher, and heat flared in my lower belly. He was about to lose it. My toes curled into the soft carpet beneath them, and desire swelled inside me. I hadn’t been attracted to someone like this in so many years, if ever. I moved my foot slightly, parting my legs just the tiniest bit, and Aev’s head jerked toward me. His hand stilled as our eyes collided. My soft browns, and his vibrant blues. There was a moment of tense, heavy silence. He had to be able to smell my attraction to him. I could sure as hell smell how turned-on he was, though it had nothing to do with me. And— His head jerked backward as his spine arched harshly. An anguished roar escaped him. Panic swelled in my chest, in place of the desire I’d felt. The searing pain had only lasted a second for me, when Nev sealed things with Fovea, but the ache… the ache had gone on. And on. And on. Even now, I felt it. And Aev’s would be much worse. …unless I took it away. His fingers dug into the wooden chest so hard that the wood began to morph. His chin dropped to his chest, his breathing ragged and pained. My heart began to beat faster. I had only been coming to sit with him. To hug him, if he needed a friend. To distract him,