Page 19 of Betrothed

“You are upset,” he said. “I can smell it.”

“Well, stop smelling it!” Fawn yelled. She wiped her face, clearing the single tear that had escaped. She made several gasping, animal noises. Then she cleared her throat, and her voice became steady.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “This isn’t about you. You’re… you’re very sweet, Zax. I’ll try to be worthy of that sweetness.”

Zax nodded. His brothers had warned that mortals needed time to get used to their new lives. Maybe this was one of those things. Or maybe she was thinking of her old life and how hurt she was by it. But Zax could not help but think that he had done something wrong, and she was not telling him.

They stood there for a long minute, looking up at the glow worm stars.

“Zax?” Fawn whispered. “Can you take me home?”

“Of course,” he said.

He slunk out of the cave, disappointed that his first trip here with his wife had not gone better. Next time, he told himself as they emerged into the daylight. He would bring her back again—but only when she was perfectly content.

Seven

Fawn was angry.

Absolutely, incandescently angry. There had been a while in her marriage where she thought she had solved her anger, deadened it and flattened it until it no longer existed. But here it was, hot and raging.

How dare Zax be so kind? The monster who kidnapped her and ate her husband was treating her better than anyone had in her entire life: making her meals, tending to her healing ankle, drawing her a bath every day. And how dare she, against every instinct and desire, genuinely like this creature of nightmares? How dare she feel safe with him, this huge, hulking beast who could rip her apart with a single claw?

She had seen him do it. Zax had ripped Renly apart with minimal effort and extreme joy. And now he was letting a butterfly land on his claw while they sat on a tree branch just below the house that he had made for her.

Fawn leaned back against him, keeping her grip firmly on a nearby branch. She trusted that he would catch her if she fell. But she still felt better when she was clutching a branch and not looking at the ground looming so far below them.

“Zax,” she said as he examined the butterfly on his claw. “You said you would let me join you on a hunt someday.”

“Yes,” Zax said, admiring the butterfly’s wings in the afternoon light. “Would you like to?”

Fawn ignored him, moving on to the next question. “What if I wanted to, say, travel?”

“Where would we go?”

“It doesn’t matter. Would you say yes?”

Zax hummed distractedly. He was still examining the butterfly, its iridescent blue wings shining in the light.

“Zax,” Fawn said.

The butterfly took off. Zax looked up, his tail swishing. “What? We can go anywhere. But they do not like me in towns or cities.”

It was the reply she had expected. And still, she had to brace herself before she asked the next question.

“What if I didn’t want to have sex?”

Zax’s glowing eye widened. “Why would you not? Do you not like it anymore?”

“I like it,” she assured him. She didn’t even have to lie. He had eaten her out several times in the days—or maybe weeks, she had lost count—that they had spent together. He always finished himself off, and he didn’t even ask for her to join in. Which she appreciated… mostly. Part of her was starting to hope he would ask her to use her hands on him next time. Or even her mouth.

“What if I said I wanted you to wash my clothes?” she asked next, banishing the thought of his twin cocks from her mind. “And make my food, and tend to my needs? Even after I healed.”

“I was going to do that anyhow,” Zax said with a frown. He cocked his head, his tail wrapping around her good ankle. “My love. What is wrong?”

He could smell her anger again. Fawn gritted her teeth, wiping at her burning eyes. One good thing about men was that they could never tell how she felt—they never bothered to look close enough. Now she had a man who could smell her emotions? How was she meant to hide what she felt now?

She sighed, annoyed at herself for her burning eyes. “It’s nothing. I just… I was always told that it’s a wife’s role to serve. Do you understand? I thought it was my—my duty in life to make my husband happy.”