I HAD MY OWN PLACE on the island, but it wasn’t for the life-sized version of myself. So, I followed the group back to the makeshift base we had created. I could have stayed in the Indian village. Tiger Lilly had graciously offered it to anyone in need of a place to rest their head.

But a part of me wanted to be as far away from Hook as possible. He was a tricky bastard, and I still didn’t believe his motives were purely to save Neverland.

There were too many holes in the story.

“What are you thinking about?”

I glanced away from the fire and saw Puck take a seat on a fallen log near mine.

“Hook,” I saw no reason to lie, we were in this mess together. Whether I trusted him long term, that was another matter.

“I don’t trust him,” Puck said simply, “Why would he be angry at Ebony for not killing Pan and in the next breath accuse Silver?”

I shrugged, “I don’t think Silver is innocent in all of this either.”

Puck sat there for a moment, “Long John Silver is a man who is in it for himself. I have a feeling there is something large we are missing here. Something neither pirate wants us to know. But I cannot put my finger on it. Why does Hook hate Peter so badly?”

I shrugged, “Peter and Hook used to fight over the treasure. Each one, stealing it from the other and hiding it in a new location.”

“What caused Peter to leave, Neverland?”

Wendy, Michael, and John popped into my head.

“Peter was growing bored of the game. More and more, I found him leaving here and flitting around on earth. He even brought a girl and her brothers here for a time. When he took them back home again, he stayed there.”

“He left you?” The incredulity in Puck’s tone brought a faint smile to my lips.

“I don’t think I factored into the equation,” I murmured, looking back into the fire.

Puck frowned, “Why would he take you from me only to abandon you?”

I winced. I didn’t want to remember those days. Not when I had been left behind by Peter, and I certainly didn’t want to recall those times with Puck.

“It was a long time ago,” I tried to play it off as if it didn’t matter.

I hadn’t realized that I was so taken in by Puck. Peter had told me how controlling Puck was behaving towards me. It had chaffed because I had thought we were something more than master and servant.

When I asked to go about more in fairyland, Puck had adamantly refused. He wouldn’t say why, only that I was to obey him.

Those seeds of doubt had festered in my mind, and we argued more and more until I began to hate Puck. I wouldn’t allow him to touch me and I certainly didn’t obey him.

“Why?” I didn’t realize that I had spoken, until Puck answered.

“Why, what?” he said gently.

“Why were you so controlling in fairyland?”

Puck stilled, his face turning to granite, “I was wrong, Tink. I am sorry, you can’t know how sorry I am.”

I nodded, “But that still doesn’t explain why?”

Puck ran a hand through his dark hair, “Must we rehash all of this?”

It was the closest I had seen him to losing his temper. I had to wonder if the old Puck was about to make an appearance.

“If you want me to understand and forgive you,” I replied honestly.

Puck groaned and swore under his breath, “I fear you might hate me more, when you learn the whole of it.”

“I suppose you will have to tell me and find out.”

He stared, “Alright.”

“You will tell me?” I felt my heart skip a beat.

He nodded, “Just let me tell the whole of it, before you pass judgment.”

I agreed, and he began.

“You were working out in the forest the first time Oberon, and I spied you. He was taken aback by your beauty and immediately commanded that you become one of his concubines. I convinced him that I would be the best person to claim you as his slave. I weaved all kinds of lies about the guard taking you for themselves or being too rough with you.”

My eyes widened, “You never claimed me for Oberon.”

Puck swallowed, “My deceit knew no depths, only that I couldn’t allow him to take you. I told him that you had fought at the claiming and perished by my sword. You see, I couldn’t allow you to roam free in fairy, you were dead. And I took away your chance to be a favored concubine for the king. You could have lived in riches at the royal court and instead were confined to my chambers. I never told Peter the truth. He had noticed how secretive I had become. Peter had commented to the king that I wasn’t myself, no longer whoring or drinking to excess.”

My cheeks heated. I remembered many nights tangled in Puck’s arms.

“And then Peter found out about you. He threatened to tell the king I was abusing a slave. I was terrified that the king would find out about you. I had come to care for you so deeply that I thought I would die if I lost you. I suppose that should have been my first inclination that it wasn’t meant to be. True love and the trickster king are not synonymous with each other.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I choked out.

Puck continued to stare at the fire, “We were fighting all of the time. I had come home in several instances and found you and Peter plotting and scheming. I was jealous, goddess, I was so jealous that you wanted to spend time with him and not me. And then you were gone, Peter had lifted the claim, and you escaped.”

By the time you both were discovered by Oberon, he had drawn his own conclusions. He blamed Peter for keeping you from him and faking your death. He had taken away your life-size form and banished you alongside with him.

“And you kept silent?” I murmured, more to myself than to him.

“And I kept silent,” his words were wrenched from him. “I thought you loved Peter. I was letting you go. I told myself that I had never loved you, for centuries I tried to convince myself that it was true.”

“I never loved Peter,” I turned to Puck, and he rested his violet eyes on my face.

“I know that now,” he said sorrowfully. “I never should have taken you as my own. My actions got you kicked out of fairyland. I can understand if you can’t forgive that.”

“Puck,” his name slipped out, like a prayer. “You should have trusted me.”

He closed his eyes, regret covering his face.

“I don’t hate you,” the words tumbled out of me. “I was hurt and angry. I thought you were embarrassed by me, and that is why you kept me hidden away. I began to doubt everything. Peter knew that something wasn’t right. I should have come to you instead of running. Puck, I would have hated being Oberon’s concubine.”

He opened his eyes, “Really?”

I took his face in my hands. His whiskers were gently abrading my palms.

“You claiming me? That saved me from being taken by a man that could never have loved me. All of the jewels and riches of the world wouldn’t have changed the fact that I was a glorified prostitute for the king.”

“Can you ever forgive me?” his plea shattered any remaining doubts that I had about this man.

I leaned forward and brushed my lips gently against his. A surge of heat swept through my belly, so fierce and insistent that I moved in for another kiss.

“I forgive you, Puck. Can you forgive me for leaving?”

His hands reached out and yanked me to him. My body was ablaze. I wanted this man, needed this man, and Goddess knew how desperately I loved him.