When she settled her finished drink down, he reached for her, wanting to cup the side of her face.
“Don’t touch me,” she bit as she smacked his hand away.
Orpheus flinched, backing down until he was crouching to be smaller and needed to place one of his hands on the ground to support himself. She’d never done that to him before, had never told him to not touch her. This wasn’t the
same woman who had only stopped him from licking at her neck the day before because he’d been tickling her.
A small whine wheezed in his chest.
“What did I do wrong, Reia?”
“You hurt my feelings,” she answered, folding her arms across her chest and giving him her side.
His gut twisted like his intestines were tying into knots. I hurt her? He felt the acidic burn of guilt in his stomach.
“Is it because I won’t help the Mavka?”
“That is part of it.” Her voice was deep and cold, slicing away at him like a blade.
“Then what else is wrong?”
He couldn’t understand what else he’d done to upset her.
“You really can’t figure it out?” She turned her head to eye him over, raising a brow with a mouth that was twisted with a sneer. She faced him fully when he shook his head to answer her. “You said you didn’t trust me, Orpheus!”
He shrunk further at her shout, this little human making him retreat.
“But I do trust you,” he quickly said.
“I promised that if you took him to the Demon village that I would stay inside, and you said that I wouldn’t!” She threw her hands forward. “When I promise something, I generally mean it.”
He took a hesitant step forward, reaching his hand out to her, but safe enough distance away that she wouldn’t smack it.
“But you will go outside, Reia. You will need to get food from the garden.”
Her brows twitched like she hadn’t thought of that.
“But we can collect all the food I need before you leave so I don’t have to.”
Orpheus shook his head. “The village is towards the heart of the Veil. It is a four day walk just to get there, even for me. Your food will rot by the time I am coming back.”
Her face paled a little, her brows drawing together. “You would be gone for eight days? It’s really that far away?”
He took another step forward, desperate to be closer to her, to smell her scent when it was just coming off her skin, to be in reaching distance so he could touch her.
“Yes. Our home is near the border of the Veil.” He managed to slip his hand under the hem of her skirt and wrap it around one of her calves, feeling a tremor of relief when she didn’t pull away from him and he was able to feel her skin. “I trust that you would stay inside, Reia, but this is a promise you cannot make. You will need to get more food and would be stuck inside for eight days, and that is only if something doesn’t go wrong on the journey.”
“Then I will only go outside to get food and come straight back.”
Orpheus slowly started to rise, slipping his hand up her leg until he was almost at her thigh, then he let her dress fall so he could hold her side.
“I will not be here to place the salt circle if it breaks. If its windy or if it rains, you won’t be able to go outside at all.”
“I-I can fix it myself, Orpheus.”
His eyes flashed bright crimson.
“Never,” he growled lightly, staring down at her. “You are to never go near the circle if it is broken.”
Her beautiful green eyes bowed, and she began to nibble at her bottom lip. “But I want you to help him.”
He shot forward and startled her when he caged her against the kitchen counter with his arms.
“Do you care for that Mavka?”
His sight deepened in its reddened colour, his growl becoming more prominent as he rumbled from his chest constantly. Does she care for him more than me? The idea of it made those invisible hands sweep over his brain, caressing it like they might start squeezing it and force him into madness.
“You are mine, little human. I will not let him take you from me.”
“No, it’s not that.”
“You are mine!” he roared, feeling his fins and fur trying to raise beneath his shirt. Those hands gave their first tentative squeeze, and he felt himself growing more agitated by the second. “Only I can touch you, hold you, smell you, taste you. You are my human, and if I cannot have you, then no Mavka can!”
Reia reached up and cupped his snout in comfort, but a part of him had wanted to bite at her hand in aggression. To show her that if he couldn’t have her, then he’d eat her. He didn’t, had to snuff the violent urge in him as not to harm her. He dug his claws into the wooden counter and felt himself slicing through the timber.
“Shhh, shhh,” she soothed, brushing her hand over the bone of his snout. “It’s okay. I only care about you, Orpheus.
I’m not going to leave with him, ever. I promise.”
