Page 14 of Keeping the Human's Heart

So out of fear, I refused his heartfelt request.

Drazak didn’t speak to me for a week. Just when I thought I might crumble and agree to making the pledge, if only to have him back, the cloud abruptly passed and he returned to normal. My relief had been a tidal wave. He wouldn’t demand it after all. We could continue our lives as before.

But now it’s clear he’s not forgiven me, not at all. The stitches have popped out and the wound is bleeding again.

“I...” My thoughts have slowed to molasses as I realize I’m now standing in the center of a room full of mousetraps. “Drazak...”

He just shakes his head, then turns around and stalks away, leaving me standing by the fire with the wineskin in hand.

I sit down on the log next to Esme, whose mouth is round as she watches Drazak leave us. Her eyes travel to me, and there’s pity in them. Maybe she can’t understand everything we’re saying, but it must be clear enough what happened.

I drove him away. I’ve hurt him, deeply. But it hurts me, too, that he refuses to see what’s right in front of us. That Esme is a part of our family, who shouldn’t be sleeping in the barn for bears or wolves to find.

She scoots towards me and puts a tiny, gentle hand on my shoulder. I lean into it because with the wine in my blood and my fire extinguished, all I want is comfort. Her little arm reaches around my back and she rubs in soothing circles there, the way I did for her. When I lower my head to rest on hers, I breathe her in and find it’s a sweet, almost fruity scent, though a little dusty from sleeping in the barn. It’s so reassuring that I bury my face in her hair and find myself pulling her closer.

I hold her like that, taking my selfish comfort in her, until the flames of the fire die down. When true darkness has fallen, Esme disentangles herself and gets to her feet, brushing off her dress. I don’t like how cold I feel without her, so I get up, too.

“Good night,” she tells me in her adorable, terrible accent, and starts off towards the barn to go to bed. But I follow along behind, and she quirks an eyebrow at me.

“Go on,” I say, and her eyebrows rise. Then with a nod, she continues back to the hay loft. Drazak won’t want me in our bed anyway, not if he’s as angry as I think he is.

Besides, I can’t leave her unprotected again, not after tonight.

I climb up the ladder behind her, getting a good look under her dress. The creamy expanse of her thigh sends a sharp burst of need straight down to my groin.

That’s just great. First Drazak kicks me out, and now the wine is making me horny for a human. I shake my head as she finds her place in her nest. This is only a result of my unspent need after Drazak and I were interrupted earlier.

I crawl into the hay next to Esme, holding in all the boiling hurt I feel. She quietly inches towards me and peers into my eyes, giving me a look of deep sympathy as she says, “I’m sorry, Han’zir.” She may not know what Drazak and I were fighting about, but she knows I need her. I draw her into my arms and crush her against my chest, where she stays, running her hand up and down my chest.

Maybe it isn’t fair to her to use her this way, but then again, maybe Drazak is right. She is just a pet, after all.

Chapter 6

Drazak

I didn’t mean to bring it up, but I couldn’t stop myself. I thought I’d forgiven him, that it was good enough for me to have Han’zir beside me at all.

We share a home and a life, but still he couldn’t make a commitment to me. Now he wants to share everything with some human who showed up out of the blue?

I’m glad Esme can’t understand us. How would she feel knowing that Han’zir only sees her as a toy, an object to be kept and petted until he stops being amused by her? The sting of it grows even sharper teeth when Han’zir doesn’t return to the house. My mind conjures all sorts of terrible thoughts the longer his side of the bed remains empty. He was addled with wine earlier, and I left him and Esme alone.

But there are no telltale sounds, no sign that anything untoward is happening out in the barn. Perhaps he’s trying to respect me by not coming to bed, though that’s the last thing I wanted.

Still, I imagine Han’zir on top of her, his cock sliding in and out of her, and I have to shut my eyes hard to keep the invasive thought away. Is it that I hate the idea of him enjoying her? Or is it the image of him doing it without me?

Eventually I fall asleep into a tangled web of dreams. In each one, the human is at the center of the storm, all of our eyes turning to her as if she is the one bright spot in the night.

The next morning I awake to find Han’zir and Esme both already up and making themselves useful. Esme’s cooking while Han’zir cleans up the remains of last night’s meal. He jerks upright when I step out the front door, pain clearly written across his face.

“Drazak—” he begins, taking a few steps towards me. I raise a hand flat, and he halts.

“You slept with the human?” I ask.

His eyes go wide. “I mean, I slept next to her, but nothing else happened.” He pauses, then his mouth creases in a smirk. “Are you jealous?”

“What, jealous that you were out in the barn all night?” I scoff, but I’m relieved to hear he kept his hands to himself. He has a hungry cock, too, and part of me did fear the worst—probably because if it were me, I wouldn’t have had so much self-control. “I’m not jealous of that in the least.”

Han’zir sighs with relief, and then glancing around to make sure we’re not being watched, he closes the distance between us. He seizes my face in his hands and drags me in for a kiss, and as much as I want to resist it—to punish him for the hurt that still festers just under the surface—I can’t. His mouth hungrily tastes mine and I let him in. Then I turn it around on him, bruising his lips in my quest to reassert my ownership of him. He groans underneath me, and I can’t stop my hands from venturing around his body, squeezing his tight ass, rubbing over his crotch. He thickens up under my hand and I’m gratified I can turn him on so easily.

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