“Rath…” Godr croaked.
Rath didn’t say anything. He walked away without a word, bypassing his tent to bring me to the river instead. He didn’t step into it; he kept his promise not to bathe there unless we absolutely had to. Instead, he sat on the banks with me cradled in his lap, hugging me so tightly, I had no hopes of escaping him. Not that I wanted to. If I could, I’d crawl under his tunic and hide forever.
He waited for the sobs to stop. Waited for my tears to dry. And waited more until I could speak around the hiccuping gasps to explain myself.
“Did… Did I ever tell you how I ended up here?”
I didn’t expect him to answer. I knew I hadn’t. I was ashamed of how it had happened. I’d hoped I would never have to tell him.
“My father had been expecting me to find a bride. He didn't know of my interests. I never planned on telling him. It isn’t legal in my town. And it’s seen as disgraceful. I knew I wouldn’t be able to force myself to be with a woman. I thought if I kept waiting, he’d forget about it and I could live my life alone. Butthe longer it took for me to find someone, the more irritated he got. I was scared he’d force the issue, and I cried about it in my room one night after he screamed at me. That’s when Fraser showed up.”
It still hurt, and it felt as though there was a ball of spikes in my throat, making each sentence painful to bear.
“He played the doting brother. We’d never been close, but not estranged either. He mostly ignored me. So I didn’t think to distrust him. He told me he wanted to help me, that he worried about me whenever father yelled, and he said if he knew what was going on, he could come up with a plan to fix things. I trusted him…” Another sob bubbled up, threatening to choke me, but I had to finish. Rath deserved to know. I was cast out by my own family. I had no home to go to besides here. I was scared it would sway his judgment of me, but after my outburst, I had no choice but to tell him.
“I told him I wasn’t interested in females. That I preferred men. I assured him I didn’t intend to act on it, I was happy to be alone with my books. He said he’d help…” Sucking in a deep breath, I continued. “H-he ended up going to my father, but not to help me. Instead, he told him everything. My father was so angry, he disowned me without giving me a chance to explain. Then he dragged me by my hair to the council estate and offered me as tribute. The whole town feels as he does. They said if I ever came back, they’d hang me. I don’t… I don’t have any family anymore. All because I trusted my brother.”
Hearinghow Finn’s family treated him, merely because of his interest in men, sickened me. He was sweet and loyal, and he worked hard to gain people’s approval. He worked so hard toknow the language and how things worked here that he could tell me his whole story without needing a translator, and it had been little over a week. To cast him out, despite all that, confused me. Who would give up someone like that?
As he explained his brother’s part in all of it, though, I slowly began to understand his reaction to Godr’s prank. He’d meant no harm in it, and he wasn’t trying to be cruel. But by targeting me through Finn, he’d unknowingly betrayed the man who had taken great leaps of faith to trust him enough to speak with him like that. The logical part of me knew if Godr had been aware, he would’ve never done such a thing, but the part of me determined to protect Finn was angry. Violently so. He shouldn’t have done it in the first place. Finn was too gentle to be part of his pranks. Anyone could see that.
“Why didn’t you come to me when you had questions? Have I done something to make you not trust me?”
That would hurt me greatly. I wanted nothing more than to earn Finn’s trust and keep it. Just like his heart.
“N-no!” he practically shouted, sitting up abruptly to look at me. “No, it wasn’t like that! I just…” He looked away again, embarrassment making his shoulders creep up. “I wanted to please you. You take such good care of me, and I know there’s more we haven’t tried. I thought if I surprised you, we could—” He grimaced, hugging his arms around himself.
I fought between elation that he was so eager to please me and upset that I hadn’t shown him well enough that he pleased me just by staying by my side. I didn’t need adventurous intimacy to be pleased with him, though we would’ve gotten to that eventually. I planned on easing him into it since I knew he was inexperienced. With the shy way he reacted to me, as well as the surprise when I tried something new, I didn’t need him to tell me straight out he was untouched. I didn’t want to frighten him with too much, too fast.
Cupping his cheek, I stroked at the dried tear tracks on his face. I hated so much to see him cry. It wasn’t something I could avoid, he was an emotional man, but I aimed to limit it as much as I could. He deserved to be always smiling.
After everything he’d told me, I wasn’t entirely sure where to start in reassuring him. There was so much he was holding in. I chose instead to show him how I felt, just as I had at the start of our time together. I drew him closer, kissing him softly with every ounce of love I felt for him until I felt tears dampen his cheeks again.
“Kolrav is the term we use with the ones we want to spend our lives with. It is given only once, to our bondmate, and signifies in words that we have chosen to spend our future with the one gifted it. In your tongue, it means ‘my love’. I asked Zoya to translate it for me because I wanted to tell it to you when I asked you to bond with me in front of the clan.”
Finn’s eyes went so wide, I feared they’d fall from his face. For a moment, he was silent, but just like I expected he would, tears filled his eyes and his beautiful smile overtook his face as he leaned his forehead against mine for a moment.
“Truly?”
“Mm. I am supposed to let you get to know the other men who would claim you, but I cannot. I want you for myself. I never want to let you go.”
The tears on his cheeks now were full of joy and happiness. He nodded over and over, telling me without words how he felt about my proposal. I thought to do it in front of the whole clan, to make it a celebration, but perhaps this was better. After everything that had happened to him, he deserved to have my full focus. And he would. For the rest of our lives.
Seventeen
We stayed out on the bank of the water, trading kisses filled with love and devotion until Finn got cold and kept trying to bury himself in my tunic. His icy hands on my skin were my punishment for keeping him out there in the chilled weather. When he began to shiver, I scooped him up and carried him back, tucking his head under my chin as we walked.
“Rath? Why did you take me to the water?”
“Privacy,” I answered, coming around to where my tent sat. And my brother waited. “I knew he’d come looking for us.”
Finn’s arms tightened around my neck and he burrowed closer, his voice terse. “I don’t want to talk to him.”
“No. I’ll deal with him. You get into bed. Warm it up for me.”
He didn’t reply. Instead, he hid his face as we came up to my brother until I could get him safely in the tent. No one entered a man’s tent without express permission. It was understood by all to be this way.
Setting Finn on the bed, I wrapped the blanket around him and narrowed my eyes. “I’ll get you something warmer soon. You shiver in your sleep if I move away from you.”
