1
Every shifter, man, and fae has a beast living inside them. It scratches for survival, to be heard, to be fed, to be loved.
It hides in that deep place inside, in the cavern of your heart, and it doesn't care about any moral code.
It wants what it wants, and nothing else will satisfy it.
That was the truth Delphi had learned long ago. Right now, her beast hungered for the tome the bookseller had in his hand.Its cover was stained and battered cloth, the title barely visible because the gilding had long since flaked away.
"It was sold to me from a deceased estate. The nephew said the owner had it wedged under a table leg to keep it steady. I knew as soon as I opened the cover that it would interest you," the bookseller said, holding it ever so slightly out of her reach in case she tried to grab it.
Gregoire Savatier was the only bookseller in the tiny backwater town of Grisvallon. He was too clever for his own good, but he had a weak spot for pretty things. Delphi was the prettiest thing in the whole miserable place, a fact she often resented when it didn't have its uses. She had learned to use herface and body to her advantage from a young age when she grew tired of the gnawing hunger in her belly.
Gregoire was nothing more than an easy mark. She usually would have toyed with him, played the game he wanted, but she hadn't slept. Her nightmares had caught up with her, and she had woken covered in sweat with the stench of burning flesh in her nose. She was in no mood for games.
"Just tell me what you want for it, Gregoire. I don't have time to dance around it today," Delphi sighed and locked the door to the little bookstore.
Gregoire's eyes widened, and his tongue wet his bottom lip. "Let me touch them."
"There will be no touching. The book looks interesting, but it's not worth that," she replied, shifting her dark brown braid over her shoulder and stepping into the back office. She raised a brow at him. "Coming or not? I have things to do today."
Gregoire didn't hesitate. Delphi had left him high and dry more than once when he decided to be stubborn. Delphi hated him and the deal they'd made when she was short of coin. She hated her father, too, for forcing her into the poverty she was living in.
She wasn't desperate enough to make her living with her body, not yet, but there had been a few times in leaner years when she had said yes to sex for coin. That had been in Chantelun's large port city of Bellemere before they had been forced to leave because of her father's disagreement with the local lord.
Grisvallon was too small to do such a thing without the entire village knowing about it. Letting Gregoire look at her tits occasionally was as far as Delphi was willing to go for the sake of needing to survive in the town.
They had already exhausted the cities. Grisvallon was their last refuge, or they would be forced to leave the realm entirely.
Grisvallon was far in the north, at the edge of the scar that was the Mistwood, or the Brume, as the locals called it right before they spat three times. The cursed forest split Chantelun from the neighboring kingdom, and there was a long detour to get around it. No one was dumb enough to try to go through it.
One day, when Delphi had enough money saved, she would hire a spot on a cart to take her far enough away that no one, not even her father, would be able to find her.
Think of the book. Think of the book, Delphi chanted before her thoughts could spiral into anger or despair. She would escape, change her name, go to the university in Kyllene, and never think of her father again.
Unlacing her bodice, Delphi turned back to Gregoire. He was already fumbling with his belt, so eager it was almost comical.
Goddess, spare me from men.Delphi went down on her knees, fixed her eyes on the university library in the future, and tried to keep the disgust from her face.
She was still going through her checklist of things to do that day when Gregoire grunted and sprayed hot come on her chest. Red-faced and panting hard, Gregoire looked like he was about to have a heart attack.
"Fuck, Delphi, you are too beautiful to be stuck in this place. Marry me, and I will take you out of here," he said, offering her a cloth to clean herself with.
"Alas, I will have to decline as always," she replied sweetly. "I have a duty to my father, and he wishes to remain here."
"Narcisse is a drunk, useless bastard. You shouldn't be so loyal to him."
"According to him, the wine eases his suffering and the whispers in his mind," Delphi replied and laced herself back into her bodice. "I can't abandon him."
Not yet, anyway. Being a drunk bastard was the least of her father's faults. Narcisse had always been keen for a drink,but since moving to Grisvallon, he had remained in a semi-permanent state of inebriation. He said being so close to the forest's cursed magic made him feel crazy, yet he refused to move, not even to the slightly larger town half a day's ride away.
Gregoire sighed. "I just think there should be a man in your life who can actually protect you, Delphi."
A man to protect her? Delphi tried not to laugh in his face. She held out her hand, and Gregoire reluctantly placed the book into it.
"It is kind of you to say so," she replied, putting the book safely into her bag. "But I'm quite capable of protecting myself, Gregoire."
"For now, but there are worse men than me that you could be married to," he said under his breath as she reached for the door. She pretended not to hear him, ignoring the way his words sent a cold spike through her gut.
