Page 8 of Betrothed to the Yeti

“Is Ku Huang the reason you came out to save us?”

“No,” he says, not slowing his strides to talk. I tiptoe around the cluster of growling wolves to the bottom of the stairs. “Jaya, I heard your screams. I will always answer the screams of a human, for they fascinate me.” His shoulders round in defeat as he steps through the door. He hangs his head so I can’t catch his gaze while Ku Huang trots back into the temple. The door is pulled shut softly, but not fully engaged. His words are true…

He set me free…

Some sacrificial bride I turned out to be.

Good thing. He would protect the villages even if they stopped their stupid tributes. If he knew what really happens within Alpha’s walls, would he still have such a soft spot for humans? After getting to know me, would that image be soiled? Serves Alpha right for trying to discard their cast-off wretch onto the Yeti. Even a monster has standards.

Chapter 5

Pabu

When I heard her scream, my heart jumped into my throat. I could think of nothing but saving her. How did she get out? Why did she bury herself in the snow—in front of a wolf pack? If she wanted to kill herself, why didn’t she leave her beloved goat inside? My vision tunneled and tinted violet at the ring of wolves cornering her. With each beat of my heart, I inched closer to the beast she fears I am. The Yeti who emerged from the temple wasn’t the benevolent Protector God of the humans, but a killing machine with prey in his sights.

The goat follows me as I pace in front of the altar, which the Seer said would bring my human companion peace.

“Didn’t do its job, did it?” I say to the goat, who stares with a blank expression. I dismiss the thing with a wave, and it returns to happily nibbling on my furniture.

I didn’t think about the instincts rising within me, but now that she’s semi-safe on the temple stairs, I can admit I’m confused by my behavior. Is it the role I’ve always played as Protector of the people? I can’t pretend my blood roars and my head pounds every time the villages are in trouble. The urge to imprint on Jaya, when she’s not a priestess, is what fueled my anger. She is not just one of my humans…she may bemyhuman. More than a priestess, where my imprint links our thoughts, but a reason to wake each morning. My rational side rejects my claim of her after one day—the side that has evolved beyond the feral instincts of the other Yeti on this planet. However, the ancient piece of my makeup beats at the inside of my skull to retrieve her.

The door lock clicks behind me, but I can’t face Jaya with the violet-ringed evil in my eyes.

The guilt over her escape sits in my throat, blocking my mate-claiming roar. I would never forgive myself if I forced her to be in my bed. If I’m more than the savage beasts—evolved beyond the roaming Yetis of the tundra through years of studying the humans—I must control my urge to mate. She may know my name, but humans want to know the heart and soul of a partner. Their books say that they build a loving relationship and then fill the spaces with family. I inhale the need to experience the connectivity of family and the warmth of love, followed by the exhale of the urge to stake my claim and drag her into the shadowy forest.

To rut her like a mindless animal.

“I’m sorry.” Her quaver pulls my eyes closed to block out her fear, sorrow, and bitter remorse. Luckily, her goat hasn’t the tangled feelings I harbor and hops to her side. “We got off to a poor start. Let’s start over. I’m Jaya, your bride.”

Her tentative pat to my elbow startles me. I meet her eyes between incredulous blinks. She reaches her slim hand toward me in the human gesture of trade. The friendly effect is lost in her fearful shaking. Shadows bounce around the room in the shape of her extended digits. I pace toward the wall to resist the temptation of touching her hand when it’s not genuinely offered.

“What does she need to stay—I mean to live here—happily, not survive?” I stammer with my back to her. If we lock eyes, who knows what my instincts will do?

“Are you talking about me in the third person?” She snaps and my temperature soars.

“The goat!” I push my terse whisper through my clenched jaws.

“Ku Huang needs a straw bed, fresh water, and sleep—” she pauses to approach me “—for now. She’s days from kidding her young.”

“So close to birthing young, she should stay inside where they will be safe. You’ve met the wolves, but they are one of a dozen breeds of predators who love to eat herbivores,” I say as I turn to face her. I’m smacked by her wide-eyed stare. Do I dare hope her expression is one of curiosity and not fear? I’ve done nothing to earn either.

“I’m not the one who took her outside and paraded her in front of a wolf pack,” I sneer. “Will you be here to assist with the birth?” The loaded question flies from my mouth and hangs between us like the radiation of crystals. The warmth from her potential commitment caresses my skin, but the threat of injury lurks in the background.

Her nod shouldn’t swell my chest with happiness, but I puff up, nonetheless. She will stay for Ku Huang and give me time to win her friendship. If I dampen my animal desires, I will have someone who will fight the loneliness which haunts my home. ‘Sophistication is earned, not given’, according to one of the human books given to me generations ago.

I’ll spend each day showing her life in this temple is her best option—mostly to ward off a repeat of her escape attempt. I almost lost my soul by rescuing them and I can’t let the darkness in me rise to the surface again.

Jaya

His eyes glow. Not just the stars held within the murky depths, but light shone from within him while he fought the wolves. As he grinds his fists into his hips and huffs, a soft violet light bounces on the stone wall at the height of his face. I didn’t imagine the fire burning within him—not when I can see the evidence fading. I was naïve or stupid to think a friendly giant would be the protector of the villages. He would have to be a killer. I can’t deny the thrill of a feral hero killing to protect me, dancing up my spine.

His rescue and then retreat so I could choose my path is the push-pull of equality, not God and his sacrifice. I‘ve never had someone fight for me. Nima did her best to seduce the bullies who treated us with the least humanity. Somehow the softness promised by my eldest sister kept their hardest blows from raining down on Dronma and me. However, when her choice came down to life outside the walls or death in the brothel, she sold me out.

What did he mean by he never requested a human sacrifice but a companion? Am I a friend and not a bride? Is that why he’s building a straw heap within the radius of the crystal’s heat? Instead of Ku Huang being an accessory to me, am I the accessory to her? My guts coil into a hardened ball of malice. Am I jealous of a goat?

“Jaya?” He must have been talking. He stops fussing over Ku Huang to glower at me again. “I asked you if she will drink melted snow or if you boil water for her.”

“Melted snow,” I murmur to my shoes. In for a penny, in for a pound, right? “I never had the crystal’s warmth to boil water. Where did you find straw so fast? The mines are miles from here…I mean, the ground cover over the mines is the only place I know with ground warm enough to grow grass.”

---