This was something the old Katerina would have done, something so careless and self-centred. Orpheus liked his

bells, he wanted to wear them. Yet, if she didn’t like something, she would make sure he knew of it.

But in her touching them, making them ring, she reminded Orpheus that Reia had made them. Katerina had never given him anything but her body, and she told him when she went with the Demon King that she’d hated it and every moment with him.

Her face had been filled with a glare, the same glare she’d worn while being with him often.

Orpheus didn’t trust her anymore.

Katerina had hurt him irreparably, whether that was by unwillingness or not. He trusted Reia, refused to believe she would be with the Demon King after everything they’d shared.

She hadn’t needed to give her body to Orpheus, but instead she had wanted to. She had wanted to cuddle with him, read to him, give him gifts, and sweet little kisses against his skull.

“Where is she?” Orpheus growled.

“I’m telling you that I want to go with you,” Katerina said, her brows creasing so deeply that her forehead began to crinkle. “I told you where she is. She is with the Demon King. Why do you keep asking about her when you have me?”

“Because I don’t want you.” He turned away from her to go after the woman who smelled like the sweetest garden.

“I want to find Reia.”

“You will regret that, Orpheus,” she said with a dark tone.

He didn’t care. He didn’t even bother to turn back and look at her, not when his brave little human was currently somewhere in this castle, possibly in danger.

Reia suddenly appeared out of thin air.

His heart warmed just at seeing her. She was running to him.

Actually, she was sprinting, and she looked angry.

She looked so angry, in fact, her eyes filled with hate and spite in his direction, that the warmth he felt suddenly left him. Had he been mistaken? Had Katerina been telling him the truth, and he’d mistakenly chosen the wrong path?

But he didn’t want Katerina anymore.

Even if it meant he was alone, he didn’t want the woman who had made him feel hollow all these eons. The person that, when he looked back in his memories after hearing the words of her forsaking him for another, had never looked at him pleasantly.

He wanted this woman, the one sprinting towards him like she was about to fearlessly fight him with spite in her eyes.

Orpheus retreated a step and slunk lower in worry.

Showing her he was surrendering, submitting, his eyes going white, he watched her approach. Perhaps she is just angry with me because she was taken. He was hoping she would just scold him and wasn’t here to say she hated him too.

She ran past him.

He turned just in time to see Reia tackle Katerina who had been holding a dagger above his head while he was looking away. It clanked against the stone ground, ringing in the echoey room.

He shuffled back in surprise. She was going to attack me?

And it looked as though she’d been aiming straight for his skull – a blow that would have killed him had she managed to pierce his skull and crack it.

Katerina screeched in surprise before she hit the ground with Reia on top of her, who then reached her arm back and proceeded to punch her in the face as she straddled her waist.

“What the hell, Jabez!?” Katerina yelled, trying to fight Reia by reaching to grab her arms. “You were supposed to hold onto her!”

Orpheus turned his head to the smell of the Demon King scent that suddenly pierced the air of the room. He was

holding his groin, his teeth bared as if he was hissing in a breath.

“She bit my hand and punched me in the fucking seam!”

Orpheus knew how much being hit in the seam hurt. It radiated pain through his cock, the sac that was embedded at the base, and all the way through his groin. No wonder he’d let go of Reia. Orpheus doubted he’d be able to hold onto anything if he was dealt with such extreme agony.

But Reia was in danger, being rolled over so that Katerina could be above her instead. He spun to them to help.

She protected me. Hope soared within him. Katerina had lied, Reia didn’t want to be here.

Jabez materialised in front of him before he could even take a step.

“Where do you think you’re going, Mavka?”

Orpheus roared and leaped forward, tackling the biggest threat to the ground. He stole her. The Demon King had taken his female from him, and currently he was a danger to them both.

When they hit the ground, before Orpheus could lower his claws that he’d raised to strike, Jabez disappeared. He slashed the stone instead.

He looked behind him to where his scent reappeared and ran in that direction. Jabez disappeared before he could reach him.

Materialising behind him, he wound his arms around Orpheus’ neck and grabbed a horn and started pulling his head to the side.

“I know how to kill you now,” he chuckled, making his head turn as he pulled harder. “That skull of yours will be nice when it’s broken into pieces.”

Orpheus’ neck twisted as he rotated his head on his neck, turning, and turning, and turning until he was facing Jabez behind him. Like an owl, he could turn his head almost three-sixty degrees. With a snarl, he launched it forward and bit into his shoulder.

Sweet because of the Elven in his blood, but also putrid because of the Demon in him, his reddish-purple blood slipped into Orpheus’ mouth. His eyes had long ago turned crimson, and they deepened as anger and hunger took focus.

Jabez winced before disappearing to escape Orpheus’

fangs.

“Jabez!” Katerina screamed with her hand held up to the side.

Reia had grabbed her sword and was now running towards Katerina with the intention of swinging it. A sword appeared in her hand just in time for her to deflect Reia’s blow.

Orpheus was launched across the room when a fist landed against his cheekbone because he’d been distracted. Pain shot through him, his neck crumbling sideways due to the strike, and he hit the ground with a deep crunching thud.

There was nothing that could keep him down as he spun back to his four limbs, roaring once more as he sprinted for Jabez.

He disappeared just as he tried to slash him with his claws. Orpheus laid down on his stomach when he reappeared beside him to miss the fist that was sailing through the air to hit him.