Page 99 of The Tenth Muse

I burst through the door, my thighs trembling as I ran, barely able to keep myself upright as my raging emotions suppressed the beast within me. When I reached the edge of the woods, my cloven hooves weren’t digging into the dirt. Bare human toes clenched dirt, as I lost control of my emotions, appearing more human than kindred for a brief moment. As I reached a small clearing, my once smooth legs were once again covered in thick fur. My horns felt heavier, my body unsteady, as I hadn’t entirely shifted in years. Even this partial shift to my human form was overwhelming.

“Ugh!” I was thrust back, stumbling backward as I hit something hard. I tried to walk again and was propelled away. I rammed the invisible wall separating me from my alpha, desperate to break it.

But now, I was so damn weak even this spell exerted too much of my energy. A spell, a ward specifically meant to keep me away. But why?

Maybe she had placed it there to stop me. To give me a chance to turn away. I supposed I had a choice, but it was a false one. Of course, I’d go after my wife.

“She means to protect you, fawnling. Do not give in to that human alpha’s lies when she offers you one final truth. She loves you enough that she doesn’t want you harmed.”

I froze, my back rigid as I slowly turned around. An endearment falling from my brother’s lips only came one or two ways, as a jest, and when he felt sentimental. And the serenity of his fear sent a shudder down my spine.

“But why, Omolan?” I met his golden eyes and frowned. He was also shifted, his furry legs longer and broader than mine. He usually never took a more mortal shape. But I was happy to note my horns were still much longer than the obsidian twigs poking from his head, in comparison.

“To protect you,” he said flatly.

“I don’t need protecting,” I spat, and it was true.

Iwas the low goddess of these woods, the one blessed by the High Goddess to protect this realm. Alpha or not, a human under my care, mywife,shouldn’t have to give her life to save me.

“Maybe not. But if a mere mortal thinks you do, I’d reason it makes sense to at least consider you do. They will hunt you down. Shoot you.Dehornyou. Sell your blessing for some human bastard’s mantle. Don’t you think it odd, after all these years, that a bride comes with a reputation like hers? A bride who couldn’t tear her eyes away from the gold on your head, even when presented with her wedding gift.”

The quiver of arrows and bow materialized in my hands, and I clenched them in my fists, frustrated tears stinging my eyes. The only thing she didn’t take.

Omolan, my brother whose humanized name my bride bore, frowned, whispering, “She was much more honorable than I’d imagined. But a thief is a thief. Whatever business took her down the cliff’s edge was bad enough that she decided she didn’t want you to come. It’s for the best.”

I bristled. He was speaking of her in the past tense as if she were dead!

“I don’t care! I will protect her with my life if need be,” I gritted out. “You may have given up on claiming your mate, but I never will. Now, take down this ward!”

He glared at me, but there wasn’t an ounce of animosity in his gaze. Majesty, the gorgeous unicorn shifter he’d bonded with, was destined for another. Omolan knew this, freeing the man of his dreams after his injuries healed, and took my familiar dig in stride.

For him, love meant sacrifice. For me, it meant companionship even if it spat in the face of fate. But my brother was still fearful for me, an emotion he never shared unless under duress, which made me even more afraid, despite the steel-like inflection in my tone.

“You will never be able to return if you harm a human under the blessing of our ward!” he gritted out, “So what, you’ll die so she can run some more? Will you saw off your horns yourself to trade for her life? Seek reason from Solara and stop this fool’s errand.”

He said this even as the wall of invisible ice on my back melted away. He, too, was giving me a choice. But my brother should have known that Mother was right when she used to say I was bull-born, not deer. Once I had a thought, a path, a purpose, nothing and no one would shake it away.

“If it means I can never see my fated mate again, I will abandon you all. I will protect this bond. Thank you, brother. And farewell if I never return.”

I didn’t give him a chance to speak as I galloped away. Brielle meant more to me than protecting this empty forest. Without her, it was but a shelter, not a home.

seven

. . .

Brielle

“Where is the goddess,bitch,”the King of Thieves sneered, my partner in crime turned greatest enemy. “You left this filthy military base masquerading as a village after robbing me blind, leaving a note that you’d give me half of the bounty you plucked from her head. And yet instead of running north, you come back empty-handed? I don’t believe it. Tell me where she is!”

A bitter laugh tore through me. I wish I were a she-wolf, an alpha bitch. I’d rip his throat out and feed it to my wolves. But I was now an outcast in my human pack.

My groggy eyes opened slowly as his face came into view. Burning embers cooled into vengeful coals as he looked down at me. Literally. Barrack stood above me, one of his henchmen having dosed me in water not long ago. I didn’t have a clear sense of time, but I knew it had been a few weeks since I made it down the cliffside back to my village. And it had been hell on Lunaria ever since.

I was captured, dragged back to his lair, and beaten mercilessly. I escaped to save my life and returned to condemn it. I wasn’t surprised by the treatment, just by the length of my torture.

It was unmistakably torture; Barrack was like a mercenary when it came to eliminating loose ends. I’d stolen from him, sold off his treasures, and fled with the clothes he’d bought me, on my back. I should’ve been beheaded the second I was spotted.

Oh well. It wouldn’t lessen the pain or torment to ponder why he kept asking me the same useless fucking question.

---