Page 25 of Betrothed to the Yeti

I’m lost in the sensation until it disappears. Pabu lifts me over his length. In one tentative stroke, we are as joined physically as mentally. My marriage barrier burns as it breaks, and my needy body sucks him inside until he bottoms out. His happiness warms my heart and soul as he waits for my body to adjust to the invasion.

I focus on his desire to love me beyond the icy walls I use to protect my heart. Instead of a battering ram, as I had feared, he claims me gently. The fires of passion glow hotter than a crystal fusion reactor and the ice around my heart is no match for the heat. The ruffles at his tip blanket my cervix and undulate against hidden pleasure spots I never reached with my own hand.

“Take control now, my treasure,” he whispers. “Discover how your husband can please you.”

“You please me by existing in my life.” I don’t wait for him to reply before lifting so his tip balances at my opening. I watch his eyes light up and roll back as I impale myself. The second time, his jaw drops. My eyes close at the third. Hips, hearts, and orgasms beat in tempo like a band playing our song. I need something just out of reach, so I lean forward to chase it. The new position strikes my G-spot like lightning.

His knot swells to slow our frenzied movements to a gentle sway. The shift in sensation startles my eyes wide open. Liquid splashes my insides and paints me a new color—the color of Pabu’s beloved. My pelvis bulges and aches with fullness. Is it supposed to look like that? Panic blots out the pleasure from Pabu’s gentle treatment of my body. My eyes can’t look away from the growth and retreat of him beneath my skin or the bulb of flesh stretching at my entrance.

“Can I take more without splitting in two?” I wiggle in retreat until Pabu’s arms envelop me.

“Shhh, my treasure,” he whispers against my lips. “It’s not meant to fit. Take what feels good and sit upon the rest. My knot can’t prevent my seed from escaping your body if you engulf the whole thing, so don’t be greedy.”

I gaze into the dark galaxies of his eyes and revel in the love pulsing through our link. His insistent palm between my shoulder blades pushes me against his chest. He arranges my languid limbs before rocking himself to lie flat on the bed. Sprawled across his chest and stuffed full, I allow the gentle thumps of our heartbeats to calm my overstimulated nerves. Our song ends with the echoes of our labored breathing.

“Once my knot releases you, I will carry you to the bathing pool. There are a few herbal pain relievers from the Seer in the treasure room. You will have to help me pick out which one will help with the soreness. Don’t worry, I’ll take care of you.”

“I’m not worried—not anymore and not when I’m with you,” I say with a yawn.

I couldn’t have asked for a sweeter wedding dance…or husband.

Chapter 15

Pabu

Happiness.

This is happiness. My wife smiles without prompting. Do I dare hope she has put the pain of her past behind us? We have fallen into a comfortable rhythm since our joining. The activities are the same—goat weaning, gardening, bathing, and processing the harvest for storage—but the energy we put into them is different. I kick myself for not linking to her mind earlier. She needed a quick defrost to remove her prickles. Our love embraces all the beings in the temple, from the innocent goats to my nefarious darkness.

We are enamored with life. Best of all, Jaya no longer hoards food or worries she will starve.

“What has painted that goofy smile on your face?”

“My darling wife,” I say as we stride across the snowy landscape. “I’m happy you decided to leave Runt with Ku Huang.”

“This is probably the old girl’s last kidding, so allowing her to raise her miracle baby is a gift of mercy.”

Sorrow pulses through our bond, setting my senses on high alert. When we left the goat room, as we call the front worship room now, she declared the two larger lambs must go to Alpha. I held her close and rubbed her back as her tears soaked my fur. She cried until she deteriorated into a hiccupping mass of tired limbs. I didn’t have the heart to contradict her when the decision ate at her insides like a disease. My role is to support her choice as these are her lambs, brought to the temple from her former life.

“I don’t want to give them up,” she confesses. Images fly around her mind too quickly for me to deduce what’s wrong. I’m preoccupied with the predators following us in the trees. They seek to pluck one of the lambs from our grasp as if we are a mindless herd and not a sentient family. “I want to keep them, but they aren’t weaning well. It’s cruel and eventually, they will starve to death. The only one thriving is Runt because he’s bottle-fed. Are we criminals for taking their milk when we can eat other things?”

“No more a criminal for stealing milk than murderers for slaughtering animals for food,” I reply between flashes of my fangs at the shadows in the trees. I usher Jaya forward on the snowy path to the villages, so as not to tempt them. The tree line is more than ten yards away, but on both sides. We could be ambushed and surrounded in minutes if a coordinated pack hunts us.

“What?! What kind of soothing response is that? Butchers aren’t murderers! Seriously Pabu,” she scolds me and swats my shoulder. “Nawang will be merciful. While I don’t need the scraps, I’m sure his family needs the meat for his butcher shop…which feeds Dronma.”

She hasn’t thought of Dronma in over a week. Will she be happily reunited with her sister? Of the three of them, Jaya believes Dronma was the luckiest on their wedding day. Although I would argue Jaya’s circumstances are now the best. Will they greet Jaya with cool kindness, like her memories of Nawang or with hugs and kisses like sisters? She’s the wife of the Protect God, so I want to make them bow before Jaya. But my sweet wife wishes they’d exchange stories until she gathers the courage to ask about Nima. Through our link, Jaya emits anxiety about Nima’s due date—perhaps her sister delivered the baby already.

“The lambs help your sister. But let it be known, I was happy with all four goats in my living room,” I declare with a furrowed brow and severe frown. The more predators gather; the more I wish we stayed in our domain. I hate Jaya is exposed to danger. I hate giving the lambs to the butcher even more. While Jaya can sense this, she feels I don’t want to argue with her either. We are new to sharing a mind. Our flimsy boundary, between what is thought and what is said, is our protection against fighting over lambs. Moreover, our heart bond tells me Jaya would love it if I took the decision from her and demand we keep them.

What would happen if I listened to her heart and ignored her words?

Would she resent my decision if her fear of the lambs starving to death came true? They trigger her fear of hunger, so letting them go may be for the best. Will she go back to hoarding food after today? Is it wise for her to see the interior of Alpha again? I fear for the new mental strength she built.

But I refuse to risk our fragile truce—I’m just too selfish to let her go.

“I wish you would have worn one of the treasure gowns—perhaps the one made of spun gold with jewels sewed into the hem. They will bow to me as we enter, but I want them to bow to you as well. You could claim to be a Goddess as my wife instead of a temple-whatever you called yourself. I keep the people safe. They will kiss your toes or lie facedown in the mud at your feet if I say—”

“Pabu stop! Most humans have never seen real gold, so they wouldn’t know the value of what they’re looking at.”

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