Page 2 of Promised to the Satyr

The tree’s leaves shiver with the vibration of my voice.

“I suppose you can’t.” He stands and faces the tree and me. “I swear on the old gods, I will not force you to do anything you do not wish for. I promise to go away if that’s what you want. All I ask is that you spend a week with me without distraction. If you don’t like me and never could, I’ll return to Canada and your father will blame me for the failure.”

“One week?” I like the idea of having a choice, and he is beautiful to look at.

“I heard you were planning to run off with a dragon. Do you love him?” There’s a tight warning in his otherwise caressing voice.

I step from the tree.

Niko scans my body from head to toe. “Lovely.” He focuses on my face. “Do you love the dragon?”

I pull on the jeans and shirt, which I button and tie at the waist before slipping my feet into the sneakers. “Drayce is a wyvern who is very fond of me. He thinks he loves me, but he is only lured in by my nature. I had hoped for him to take me far away from here and then find his true mate for him.” I have no idea why I told him all of that. It shouldn’t matter what he thinks of me, but I don’t like the idea of being some femme fetal who uses men.

A hint of a smile pulls at his lips, and it’s totally distracting. He stares at me, his hands on his hips and his head cocked. “Do we have a deal, Astra?”

“Where would we go that there wouldn’t be distractions and what would you demand of me once we arrived?” Half of me wants one thing, the other, another. Honestly, more than half can’t get the idea of being pressed up against him out of my head. What’s wrong with me?

“There is a cabin several kilometers from here. I bought it when I agreed to your father’s offer. We can go there unless you have another place you’d prefer. I will make no demands other than you spend at least one hour talking to me each day and we take our meals together.” He crosses his thick arms over his chest.

How can any man be this perfectly formed? He makes my mouth water.

I don’t want to lose my father, and this plan makes Niko the villain. Father is controlling and misguided in the ways of the modern world, but he is my only family. “I agree to your terms. After a week, you can leave and Father will blame you. I can go back to the way my life has always been.”

He bows. “If that is your wish, Astra, that’s how it will be.” He reaches a hand out.

Hesitant but not wanting to look cowardly, I take it and shake. Heat rushes through me at his touch. I pull back. “I have a message to send.” Closing my eyes, I call the owl roosting high in the trees.

It soars down to me, landing delicately on my arm. Its long talons are gentle on my skin, and it hoots.

I whisper along his feathers. “Tell the wyvern I cannot come. Tell him I’m sorry.”

With a flap of his wide wings, the owl lifts into the air and flies toward the lake.

“Ready?” Niko smiles at me as if he’s won something.

I’m not a prize. “Keep your grinning to yourself, satyr. I only agreed to one week. After that, you and I will never see each other again.”

It’s almost sad when his smile falters.

We walk through the forest, moving west, then north.

After twenty minutes, something nags at me. “What did you write in your letters?”

Shrugging, there’s a hint of a blush on his smooth cheeks. “I wrote the things a young man writes when he wants to impress a woman.”

Not much of an answer. “Why didn’t Father give them to me?”

“Perhaps he worried you would use the letters as an excuse for disobeying him.” Niko probably isn’t far off.

Father likes to be obeyed without question and when I was a little girl, that was fine, but I’m grown and have a mind of my own. Perhaps my father never expected to have a child. Mother died when I was small. She was human. That’s all I know since that’s another subject forbidden in his house.

A sigh escapes.

Niko stops. “If you are tired, I will carry you.”

Dammit, does he have to be so sweet and charming? “No. I’m thoughtful, not tired.”

“Would you like to share your thoughts?”

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