They made their way through the village streets in comfortable silence, their footsteps echoing off the stone walls of houses where families slept peacefully behind barred doors.
The mountain's cold air was crisp and clean, carrying the scents of pine and distant snow that was piling even more as the winter days passed.
Above them, the stars wheeled in their eternal dance, indifferent to the small dramas playing out in the valley below.
It was only when they reached the outskirts of the village, where the path to Rena's family compound branched off from the main thoroughfare, that she finally broke the silence that had stretched between them.
"You've been avoiding me," she said, her voice carrying a note of accusation that cut through the night air like a blade.
"No, I didn't. I just mind my business."
"Are you angry at me?"
"No, why would I be?"
"Then why are you not talking to me?"
Jaenor paused, considering his response carefully. "Things have been... nice; I like the way things are now."
"Because of my mother." It wasn't a question.
He turned to face her fully, seeing the way the moonlight caught the auburn highlights in her hair and cast shadows beneath her cheekbones.
She was beautiful in the way that mountain flowers were beautiful—wild and untamed, possessed of a fierce vitality that couldn't be contained by conventional expectations. She was just as beautiful as she was when he first saw her. There was a heavy pound on his chest when he gazed at her; something pained him.
"Rena—"
"I don't want to hear excuses," she interrupted, stepping closer until he could smell the subtle perfume that seemed to emanate from her skin.
"I want to hear the truth. Do you care for me, or am I just another conquest to add to your growing collection?"
What the!
The directness of the question caught him off guard.
Collection? Did she know?
This was not the shy village girl he had known since childhood but a woman who had clearly given considerable thought to what she wanted and how to get it.
"It's not that simple," he began, but she cut him off again.
"It is that simple. Either you want me or you don't. Either I matter to you, or I'm just a distraction while you pursue older, more experienced women."
There was pain in her voice now, mixed with anger and something that might have been desperation.
"If you are angry about me being with Daken, then you don't need to be. Because nothing was going on between us."
"Daken told me he could help me," she continued, her words tumbling out in a rush. "He knows people in the lowlands, connections who could help me join a proper coven instead of remaining trapped in this mountain village forever."
"You know how much I want to become a witch in the coven."
The mention of covens sent a chill down Jaenor's spine.
For a young woman like Rena, who had shown some small talent for channelling the origin power, they might represent freedom—or they might represent something far more dangerous.
"Rena, you don't understand what you're saying. Covens aren't—"
"Aren't what? Aren't they suitable for proper mountain girls who should be content to marry local boys and raise sheep for the rest of their lives?" Her eyes flashed with anger.
"I have power, Jaenor. Real power. I can feel it growing stronger every day, and I'll not waste it tending someone else's hearth."
Before he could respond, she stepped forward and pressed her lips to his with a fierce intensity that drove all coherent thought from his mind. Her arms wound around his neck, pulling him down to meet her kiss, and suddenly the careful distance he had been maintaining crumbled like a dam in flood season.
"I don't care what you do with my mother," she whispered against his mouth, her breath warm against his skin.
"I don't care about Daken or his promises or anyone else. I only care about this—about us."
Her hands moved to the front of his shirt, fingers working at the fastenings with an urgency that spoke of desires long suppressed. The practical part of his mind screamed warnings about the complications this would create, about the web of relationships that were already far too tangled for safety.
But the night air was cold, and she was warm against him, and the scent of her hair filled his senses like wine. When she pulled him deeper into the shadows beside the path, away from the village lights and prying eyes, he found himself following willingly.
His lust overwhelmed his rational thinking as he took her to the wall, a narrow space where prying eyes of the villagers and passersby would never fall.
She was all over him, kissing his neck, licking him, her breath was coming in hard and she was too aroused to move away from him.
"Take me, Jaenor," she whispered in his ear.
Jaenor could no longer ignore his lust and turned her back to him and lifted her skirt up to her waist. She put her hands on the wall, staring back at him, her eyes filled with desire for him.
Jaenor pulled out of his member and quickly guided it to her entrance.
She moaned in the air, closing her eyes, filling the hard shaft entering her.
He held her hips and thrust into her, making her squeal in pleasure. Like her mother, she was also tall, matching his height. Her thighs weren't thicc like her mother's, but they were starting to take shape in that way.
Rena was a couple of years older than Jaenor, in her early twenties, and she was one of the best origin power users in the village.
"Ah, Jaenor, you make me feel alive. Yes, that's it, pound me harder," she hissed. The sound of her moans mixed with the slapping noise of flesh filled the air. Rena's long, auburn hair cascaded down her back as she arched into Jaenor's touch. Her eyes sparkled with desire as she met his gaze, a hunger burning within her that matched his own.
Unaware to both of them, there was a pair of eyes that was watching the two of them go at it.
Valara was standing not far from them; as it was dark, they couldn't see her. She stared at the two of them for a couple of seconds and left.
Her expression varied from anger to jealousy; she shook her head and just left, not looking back.
The two of them continued, and Jaenor, feeling the tightness, continued to pound her harder, and soon he moved back and released all of his seed on her asscheeks.
Rena turned to him and kissed him again, for a lot longer and ignoring her need for breath, and after having her share of his lips, she moved back and said, "That was exhilarating, Jaenor."
"You are one feisty lady, Rena."