Work Text:
Nine Months after Egg-Mergency
It’s rare to have an afternoon off when you’re working in a National Park. It’s even more rare for your boss to have the afternoon off. It’s exceptionally rare when your boss—that you just so happen to be dating—and you both have the same afternoon off.
So, when Xaden sends me a message that he’s off and wants to meet up, I jump at the chance. I race to the ranger station he’s been working out of all day, climb into the truck with him, and we head off, my hand tucked in his.
“Good morning?” he asks casually, glancing at me as he speeds along.
“Decent. Rhi and I had to keep a group of tourists from getting incinerated by dragons when they tried to approach a feathertail earlier today. Thankfully, the group was pretty small when we were alerted, and we put up the proper barricades before it grew too much. No one was hurt while we were on duty, we only had a few issues with guests trying to skirt the barriers, and we handed off to Garrick and Bodhi after their lunch break. So, I doubt the status has changed. Honestly, I’m hoping the feathertail and her family have moved on.”
Xaden grins at me. “A little bit of excitement then.”
“I suppose so. I just don’t understand how our guests don’t know that dragons are literally the most terrifying creatures in the whole park. To approach one is as much a death sentence or more as walking up to a huffing buffalo or a snarling bear. Just because they look cute doesn’t mean you should walk up to them.”
“You’ll learn that you can’t count on the park guests to make any logical sense most of the time, love. They come to the park to see nature, and they want to see it as up close and personal as possible.”
I snort, smiling at him. “Yeah. You’re right.”
We turn onto a road marked for park staff access only, heading back into the trees. I know this route. Xaden has taken me on it a few times when we’ve had a few precious moments to sneak off on our own, and I know we’re headed for the clearing and the cute little meadow, one of several beautiful meadows planted amongst the mountains, with the stream running through it. In the heart of summer, the clearing is filled with beautiful wildflowers, and there are often deer or elk grazing at the base of the mountains or near the edges of the stream. In September, like it is now, it’s more likely we’ll hear the high-pitched bugle of the bull elks as they search for a mate. It’s elk rutting season after all.
Xaden parks the ranger truck in a secluded area off the path, and we walk out into the middle of the meadow hand in hand. There’s a little bench there, placed along the stream that looks out over the majority of the meadow. It’s meant as a resting point for guests on one of the multi-mile hikes here in the park, but at the moment, the area is completely unoccupied. I’m relieved to be here alone with Xaden. It’s quickly becoming one of my favorite places, too, because here, even at the much-lower altitude than the peaks jutting up behind us, we can see for miles.
The air is warm but not too hot on this late September afternoon; the sun shines, reflecting on the stream and casting the image of purple, shimmering mountains onto the surface of the water, too. The whole thing is picturesque, and once we’re settled on the bench, I lean into Xaden’s side, curling my feet up beside me, enjoying his presence and his solid frame against mine.
“I didn’t come out here to be used as a leaning post, you know,” Xaden says, a little smile on his face as he looks down at me.
“Oh, yeah? Then why?”
“Can you guess?”
I shake my head, enjoying this game more than I probably should.
A gleefully wicked grin that I recognize from nights spent in his bed curls across Xaden’s face. “Let me show you.” His voice is low, dangerous. Next thing I know, his hand is snaking out to cup my cheek. When I turn my face toward him, Xaden lowers his to mine, his lips finding mine for several deep, long kisses, kisses that are insistent and wanting.
I’m right on the precipice of falling into this moment, of climbing into his lap, straddling his hips, and giving into kissing him with abandon. But something catches my attention, and I pull away a bit to get a better look. Then I nudge Xaden, who is chasing my lips. “Look.”
His gaze follows mine to see a bull elk emerging from the grove of trees we just drove through. He’s tall, elegant, with a large rack that adds to his regality.
“Handsome boy, isn’t he?” Xaden comments, awe in his voice. I love the way he loves the animals, always delighted by them. He sees the majesty in them, the beauty of the wildlife. He appreciates them, which makes him one of the best rangers in the two parks.
As if to prove Xaden’s point, the bull bugles, high and long, his voice pitching back and forth like a yodel.
We both watch in rapt fascination, waiting to see if a cow will appear, eager to mate. Instead, the bull, after pitifully searching the horizon, begins to graze, unbothered and perhaps not even seeing us tucked away on our little bench.
After watching for a few minutes, Xaden pulls me back to him, intent on resuming what we started. Instead of letting me stay sitting on the bench beside him, Xaden guides me into his lap just as I had planned, and he pulls me against him. He rests his hand against my cheek again, holding me just where he wants me as his lips find mine again. The kisses start slow, languid, easy, most of the heat from earlier having faded into the background. They grow more intense as we continue to explore, as we let our tongues dance and lick, as we get lost in the moment again, the world narrowing to just us.
And then our friend the bull elk lets out a bugle again, and Xaden and I tear our eyes up to look. We have to be careful. A bull elk calling for a mate can certainly be more aggressive than it might normally be at the sight of people, and we’ll want to leave before the area gets too populous and we wind up trapped by a herd. The elk’s head is thrown back, his mouth to the sky, calling for a companion, calling for a new mate.
A moment later, a distant, answering bugle answers, another bull letting ours know that he should not try to approach. It’s as much a warning as it is a call to any nearby cows, letting them know that they should join him; he, too, is ready to mate.
Our bull answers with a longer, louder bugle, making me giggle.
“This is as close as it gets to comparing lengths for bull elk, isn’t it?” I ask Xaden.
He grins. “Basically.”
We return again to our kissing as the bull elk calls once more and then bows his head to eat. We haven’t heard any sounds of a cow approaching, no pounding of hooves as she—or possibly a whole herd of potential mistresses—heads for our lonely bull, so we stop looking for her.
Big mistake.
A few moments later, we hear heavy breathing close by, and both Xaden and I whip our heads up just in time to see a cow…
…headed right for us.
She’s breathing hard, her eyes wide, so wide we can see the whites of her eyes. She’s sprinting full force toward us, gate wild and erratic as if she’s been scared. It’s clear her only goal is to get away from whatever’s chasing her, real or imagined. If I had to guess, it might be a bull. It’s hard to tell whether or not she sees it, but it truly makes no difference; if she doesn’t change course, she’s going to plow right into Xaden and me, and there isn’t time to react. Any move we make may attract our bull elk friend as well, and that would only make him angry
Both Xaden and I duck on instinct as she runs closer, and our movement seems to do the trick. The cow apparently sees us and veers away at the last moment, rounding the bench we’re sitting on and continuing to run across the meadow and into another grove of trees. Her gait never slows, her steps still erratic and wild, and we brace for the male chasing her to emerge from the trees.
In those tense moments, there’s no sound but mine and Xaden’s scared, adrenaline-laced breathing. Then, when it’s been nearly a minute with no movement or sounds of another approaching elk, we slowly sit up and look at one another, eyes wide.
I can’t control the burst of laughter that suddenly shoots out of me. “Has that ever happened to you before?”
Xaden’s going for one of his classic “Really?” looks, but only succeeds in laughing himself as we both relieve the adrenaline coursing through us. Still, he says, “Have I ever been charged by a cow elk? No. No, I haven’t. This was a first for me, love.”
“She was going to jump over this bench if we hadn’t moved.”
It wasn’t a question, but Xaden still answers it as though it was. “I think so.”
He glances in the direction the cow elk left, as if he can still see her, face growing contemplative. “Are you worried?” I ask, rubbing lightly at his shoulder.
“No.” My touch seems to pull him out of whatever he’s stewing on, and he straightens up, tugging me tightly against his chest. “You’re alright, love?”
“Just fine. Nothing happened. We’re okay.”
“I know. I was just…”
“Adrenaline,” I say. “It’s just the adrenaline.”
He nods, pressing a kiss to my forehead. “Yeah.”
“Wanna continue our date from the safety of the ranger truck?”
Xaden scoffs. “That is not nearly as sexy as making out with you on this bench.”
“Definitely safer than being run over by a cow, though.”
“Good point.” He dumps me gracefully off his lap and onto my feet as he stands. Then he moves us toward the truck, careful to give our bugling bull elk a wide berth so as not to make him charge us, too.
When we make it to the truck, Xaden pulls the passenger door open and slides in first, then helps me in after him. He has me sit on his lap, straddling him, and he wastes no time in pulling my lips against his in a quick kiss.
“Nothing gets the blood moving quite like almost being run over by an elk,” he mutters against my lips, still lost in that terrifying moment.
“Shut up and kiss me,” I demand, and for once in his damn life, Xaden listens to me and kisses me deeper, more insistantly, hungry. And I let him. We both have the afternoon off, and I, for one, want to see where our time together will take us.