Page 38 of The Hellbeast's Betrayal

As for the camp, this turned out to be more than some temporary place the small army of Koro’s had set up as a place to sleep for a few nights. It looked more like some pop-up village. Clearly, there were other people that lived here that weren’t geared up to fight. But instead, they seemingly kept the place running smoothly.

Both woman and men were here that cooked, cleaned, and made weaponry. Whether they were demon or human or something else, I didn’t know, but it amazed me to see how they all interacted with each other like there was no differences between them at all.

“I think we could all use the respite,” Jared said, with me sitting in between his legs with my back against him, just like when he had been feeding me his blood.

As for the rest of our group, Orthrus was drinking with Asher by a tent that was set up like a makeshift bar. Marcus was, of course, invested in playing his violin, and Lerna was dancing with her husband Koro, with other locals that had joined in the fun. She looked so carefree and happy, it was heartwarming to see, making me comment,

“It’s nice that she’s so happy.” But then I realized what I said, or more like who I said it to, making me quickly add, “I’m sorry, that was insensitive.”

Jared groaned behind me as he squeezed me tighter.

“Ella, baby.”

“It must be painful, especially after so long and then learning that she wasn’t dead and…” I tried to explain when he ordered gently,

“Baby, stop.” Then he went on to tell me, “Your fears are unwarranted.”

“They are?” I asked, surprised, because I knew how much all of this should have been affecting him. But then he surprised me.

“I don’t feel that way about your sister, even with our past… I actually don’t feel anything at all about it.”

“You mean, not even when seeing her with Koro?” I asked, my shock evident.

“No, especially not that. Ella baby, you are the only one for me, and where I might have once thought myself to be in love with her, I now know the difference.” At this my heart started hammering faster in my chest.

“The difference?” I dared to ask in what I knew was a hopeful tone.

“Yes, sweetheart, as what I had with her is nothing like what I have with you. It doesn’t even come close and now that I know what true love feels like, I realize that what I had wasn’t real. Not like with you and I… this, Ella…this is what is real,”he said, squeezing me again to emphasize his point and making me sigh into him.

However, this was when I noticed that one person was watching this interaction between us with great interest. Tyr was standing by where they served the ale, not far from Orth and Asher, yet his eyes were firmly set on me.

“I don’t like the way he looks at you,” Jared said, obviously noticing where my gaze had landed.

“Then perhaps you need to make it more obvious that I’m yours.”

He scoffed.

“I doubt we could make it any more obvious than what we did earlier,” he said, as we had slept for a few hours before the music and laughter had woken us up.

The noise had prompted me to ask if we could join them, because it was like Jared had said, we all needed the respite. So, he had amazingly conjured me up a black outfit made from the same material he wore, making us match. It was also similar in style to what I wore before, but the jacket wasn’t as long and had ties at the sides to pull in so it fit better. It also came with a hood and wide sleeves that also tied at my wrists.

He had told me how the material was fire resistant and what creature it was made from. I had asked him how he managed to just make it appear, and he told me it wasn’t a supernatural skill he was very good at, which was why the design was more function over style. I didn’t care, it was comfortable, warm, and protective, so I had praised him for doing a good job, making him grant me a warm‘baby’before kissing me.

“What do you mean?” I asked in response to his comment about what we did earlier.

“Half the walls are made of cloth, Ella, what do you think I mean?”

My hands flew to my lips, and I gasped.

“Oh God, do you think people heard us?”

A woman serving ale paused by the demons sitting near us and said,

“Yes, we did… oh, and next time, just so you know, things echo quite loud down the length of this valley.” Then she winked, making me mortified, while Jared just chuckled as I gasped.

“Hey! This isn’t funny.” I smacked his arm after first twisting in his hold to face him.

“I beg to differ, as I think it’s very funny,” he argued with a smirk.

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