Page 73 of Bull Moon Rising

My nostrils flare as I seethe in silence. He knows I can’t stop what he’sput in motion. The guild is neutral when it comes to the squabbles and power plays of holders. They have to be. It doesn’t matter who is fighting whom, just that the guild gets paid for the artifacts they retrieve.

“So you should marry me,” Barnabus continues. “Marry me and I won’t tell everyone that I saw Lord Honori’s spinster heir Aspeth pretending to be a guild lackey. That she was slumming with commoners and thieves. Trust me, youwantmy silence.”

My mind is racing. I can’t even tell my father about this. Can’t warn him. If I get connected to the guild itself, Father will show up and drag me home and marry me off to Barnabus anyhow, just to stop the oncoming bloodbath. A marriage to me stops everything.

Which is why I threaten Barnabus instead of cowering. “You’re not going to tell anyone that I’m here.”

“Won’t I?”

“No, you won’t.” I straighten. “If you do, I’ll marry someone else—the first holder I see—and make him the heir to Honori Hold.”

His face flushes with angry color. “You wouldn’t.”

“Oh, I would. There are other holders with sons who aren’t married. What about Vurlith from Morsell Hold?” Mereden has mentioned her brother is courting another man, but I don’t care. “He seems nice enough, and he’s not married. We don’t have to be compatible, understand? We just have to be married for me to make him the heir.”

Barnabus leans in toward me. “You little bitch, listen here—”

I slide out of my seat, moving away from him before he can grab at me. I’m playing a deadly game—there’s nothing that would stop him from dragging me out of here with him tonight and hauling me in front of a priestess to marry me forcibly. I need to extricate myself, and quickly. “I have to go.”

And just then, I see a huge, hulking, angry Taurian shape in the doorway, horns swinging back and forth as Hawk scans the room looking for me.

Uh-oh.

“I’ll be in touch,” I tell Barnabus, and then race toward Hawk before he can see me with my ex.

TWENTY-THREE

HAWK

13 Days Before the Conquest Moon

Not every retrievalmission goes smoothly, no matter how many skilled Taurians are sent.

This one? This one was a fucking nightmare.

Everything that could go wrong did. The flags were in the wrong tunnel and we had to backtrack once we realized it. The trainees were useless. The tunnel we actually needed was collapsed. Then when we dug them free, it turned out they had found a nest of ratlings. I’m covered in bites and bruises, and one of the idiots I was trying to save slashed me with his blade because he was waving it about so crazily.

My shoulder throbs under the hasty bandage. My artificial hand aches as if to remind me that it worked doubly as hard as any real hand down in those tunnels. I’m tired, sore, and most of all, fed up with humanity for a day.

I want to go home and sleep and not think about anything until dawn. Maybe two dawns.

I want to go home and roll over the innocent, nubile human woman in my bed—my wife—and lick her cunt until she squeals against my tongue. I want to jerk my cock to the scent of her bathing my muzzle. I want to drink in her soft cries and her panting, let it soothe my irritations like a balm.

That’s what I want.

I want to forget all guild business for at least a night, and focus on plump thighs wrapped around my ears. Nothing would be finer.

When I open the door to Magpie’s, though, I’m surprised to see Gwenna in the hall. She sits in one of the chairs facing the fireplace, ablanket wrapped around her shoulders and a candle on the table next to her. She jumps to her feet at the sight of me, a worried look on her face.

“What are you doing here?” I ask. It’s late and all students need to be in bed, because drills start early.

She hesitates and then sighs, shoulders slumping. “Don’t get mad.”

My hackles rise. “And why would I be mad?”

She smiles brightly, her expression brisk. “Aspeth will be back very soon. Any moment now.”

Aspeth is…out? At this time of night? I narrow my eyes at Gwenna, taking in the worried expression she’s trying hard to hide. “Why is Aspeth out and where did she go?”

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