“I’m not,” he admitted.
“Then why did you allow it so easily?”
Orpheus looked at his hand, but this time to catch his child when it began crawling down his arm. They let out a weak and quiet shriek when he placed them back within the safety of his palm.
When Orpheus spoke, he did so with quiet pride. “She cannot be restrained, even when I will it. She will fight with Demons to protect our home, and venture to see her human companions when I wish to remain alone with her. She will find a way to make me see her side, so why fight her on it?”
These are all negative qualities,Gideon thought, with his brows furrowing deeply.
“That doesn’t sound like a fair compromise,” Gideon muttered.
A small chuckle fell from Orpheus, as he cupped his hand around his child when they remained seated in his palm. A small hug was shared between them.
“Reia is brave, foolishly so. It’s something I adore about her. She has shown me how to be at ease, even when I am wary. Without her doing these things, we would not have our friends’ companionship, nor would our home be as safe as it is.” Then, Orpheus finally directed his wolf skull to him. “Reia doesn’t ask for anything for herself. She doesn’t seek pretty things, or to travel when she once told me she wanted that more than anything. Yet, she does everything in her power to make me happy, so the least I can do for her is trust her instincts. She trusts Aleron, so I will do so as well.”
Gideon blew a strand of hair from his brow. “Are all you Duskwalkers nice? Until I met Aleron, I thought you were all bloodthirsty.”
Orpheus sniffed in sharply, then let out a heavy huff. “Before Reia, I was much more violent. Although less so than others. Your original assumption is correct for unbonded Mavka.”
Gideon pondered on this, on Orpheus and what he’d said. Despite the negative aspects he’d revealed about his woman, he’d done so with affection, as if these traits weren’t flaws to him.
He hummed out a harrumph. “You seem to really love her.”
“My little doe is perfect.” Orpheus brushed his clawed forefinger under what Gideon assumed was the baby Duskwalker’s jaw. “She is everything I need, even when I don’t know it, and she has given me everything I have wanted.”
Aleron mentioned earlier that he’d changed.He wondered how Orpheus had been before this woman came along.
He’d make a mental note to ask Aleron later.
“I didn’t know Duskwalkers could produce children with humans,” Gideon stated, staring at the featureless creature. “Are they a boy or a girl?”
Orpheus chuckled. “Mavka are born androgynous.”
“Ahkay.” He rubbed at his neck, oddly embarrassed when there would have been no way for him to have known that. “What’s their name then?”
“Reia has named them Kevin,” Orpheus stated with humour. “It brings her great enjoyment whenever she calls them.”
Gideon immediately drew his lips into his mouth when the urge to burst into laughter hit him like a boulder. He never expected such a basic human name for a Duskwalker.
“She is not good at giving names,” Orpheus continued. “She couldn’t even give Magnar his name. This was the best she could do.”
He turned his head away and covered his mouth.Now I can’t stop picturing her running after them, screaming, ‘Kevin!’
“The other females laughed as well. You are not alone.”
“Could you not think of one?” Gideon asked with a laugh, finally letting it out since he could tell it wouldn’t offend him.
“I had many names, but I wanted them to be named by her.” His orbs shifted to bright yellow as his wolf skull cocked in his direction. “Reia is never afraid, but she was nervous about them. I was beginning to worry that she would never be ready or want a youngling with me. I am happy with their name, little human, because it means that theyexist.”
His features tightened at the sudden turn of their conversation. “You were worried she didn’t want a child?”
Orpheus’ shoulders fell as he looked up to the sky once more, almost as if he was seeking a glimpse of her. They hadn’t returned.
“It was not something I desired until her, but the moment I discovered she could hold life for me, I craved it. She kept sayingno, until I stopped asking, but it... bothered me that the other Mavka were able to do this with their brides and we had not. I thought perhaps she did not love me as intensely as they did. If she could not have them, I do not think I would have minded, but the fact she could but refused to... I began to worry she did not want to make something with me. She gave me her soul, so I thought I had all of her heart, but I grew uncertain.”
“Having a child with someone doesn’t equate to a person’s love,” Gideon sternly told him.
Perhaps Orpheus was talking to the wrong person, but Gideon couldn’t suddenly grow a womb. He’d been born a man, so even if it was something Aleron wanted from him, having a child of theirs was completely impossible. Then there were women who just... couldn’t have one, for a myriad of reasons, and people who didn’t want them out of their own volition.