"Wait, wait," Jeera said. "Bri, I think we're asking this wrong." Then she turned to me. "Ayla, when you see a pretty woman, do you wish you could touch her leg, or maybe hold her hand? When you see a handsome man, do you wish you could touch his arm, or maybe hold his hand?"

"I like when the men hold my hand," I relented. "And sometimes I might stare at their chests, but that's only because they have muscles."

"Ha!" Jeera barked out.

Brielle waved her off. "But you only do that with boys? Well, men?"

I shrugged again, feeling like we shouldn't be talking about this here. Or maybe not this loudly. My face felt like it was heating up, and I was fighting the urge to look over my shoulder and see if anyone was staring at us.

"I don't..."

"It's okay," Jeera said, waving Brielle off. "Ayla, we can talk about this stuff. You're not going to get in trouble. And if someone gets mad, I'll tell them it's my fault, okay?"

"Really?" I asked.

She nodded her head once, and the gesture was very decisive. "I swear."

So I finally glanced back, not really surprised to find no one else seemed to even notice we were here. Then I leaned in and lowered my voice. "I was told it's evil to think about what I want like that. We're supposed to believe God will provide for us, and we're told we will learn to love our husbands, regardless of how they look - but I didn't want some old man. I kept hoping for this one man, Jamison. He was very handsome, and because he was a hunter, he had very broad shoulders. But he was courting someone else, so I knew he wouldn't propose to me. Never mind what happened with Gideon."

"So you do like men!" Jeera gasped before letting out a peal of laughter. "And you like the muscular ones, which means my brother might even have a shot."

"Or Rymar," Brielle pointed out.

"Kanik!" Jeera squealed, sounding more excited than I'd ever heard.

"But..." They didn't stop, rambling at each other like I'd just given them the best news. "I don't want to get married!" I blurted out.

Jeera just waved that off. "Then don't. That has nothing at all to do with kissing the guys."

"Yes, it does," I insisted. "Because kissing a man leads him on, and then he will want sex! Sometimes they even take it, and then the woman has to marry him - "

"No!" Jeera said, cutting me off. "Ayla, that's called rape. Here, if a man rapes a woman, he goes to jail and she never has to see him again. Men know better. There's nothing wrong with having sex, but only if the woman agrees, and sex - or kissing - has nothing at all to do with marriage, okay?"

"Okay," I relented just as Rymar made his way back with a tray full of food and drinks.

"Oh, this looks serious," he said as he began passing things out.

Jeera murmured in agreement. "I think I just found out why Ayla is so timid around you three."

"Oh?" He looked at me with a little smile, then back to Jeera. "Do tell."

"Because when a Mole man rapes a woman, she has to marry him."

Rymar's hands paused. No, it wasn't only his hands. It was all of him. For two whole seconds, it was as if time stopped for his body and he turned into a statue. I'd seen all of the Dragons do something similar, but it had never been this obvious. Leaned halfway across the table, with a drink only inches from where he was about to set it, Rymar had simply frozen.

"No..." he breathed as he began moving again. "Fuck, no wonder you keep getting freaked out when we do nice things, Ayla."

"I don't mean to," I mumbled.

"Not your fault," he assured me as he set a plate on the table before me. "And no one will make you get married."

"Like Father Dayne said," Brielle added, "they can't. You have to agree, otherwise it will simply be annulled."

"But is that before or after a man consummates it?" I asked.

Beside me, Rymar's tail lashed. "Ayla..." He quickly passed out the other plates, then turned to face me and squatted down so our faces were even. "We're friends, right?"

"Yes?"

"Good," he purred. "Then, as your friend, I'm going to make you a promise. I don't care what happens, or if a man says you 'led him on,' or anything else. If you do not want to get married, or have sex, or do anything else with anyone, then you will never have to. If they try, I will sting them. Even if they are immune to it, it will still hurt. And if I have to, I will keep stinging until they are dead, okay?"

My eyes went wide at the vehemence in his voice, but I nodded. "I don't want to, Rymar. The wives? They said it's horrible."

He reached out and smoothed his hand down the length of my braided hair. "But if you want to hold Kanik's hand - or Zasen's - that's okay. Even if you lead him on, he will not try to do more. He'll just smile."

"I'm sorry," I mumbled.

His hand swept down my hair again. "Don't be sorry, Ayla. This is what friends do. We take care of each other. We make sure it's okay to make mistakes when we try to learn new things. We have your back so you don't need to wonder all the time. You can actually try what you're curious about. And..." He smiled at me kindly. "...friends are the ones who will help you fix things when it all goes wrong. So take a chance, little orin. Be brave."

I looked up and met his pretty turquoise eyes. "Like a Dragon?"

"Like Ayla," he said. "Like the woman who burned down everything she knew and is making herself anew. Yeah, just like that."

Fifty-NineRymar

Ispent the rest of the day thinking about Ayla's reaction. The girl was terrified of marriage. Then again, that made sense. She'd been raised that it wasn't something people did for love. It was simply a way for a man to use her body to produce children. Fucking rape, I'd call it, so of course the idea terrified her.

When Brielle showed up that evening, just before I got off work, I wasn't surprised. "Rymar?" she called to me as she claimed a spot at the bar.

"Beer?" I asked, reaching for a glass.

"No," she said, waving me off. "I'm heading home, but I thought I'd give you a heads-up so you can tell the guys."

"About Ayla," I realized.

She nodded slowly. "Jeera said she was scared to go into the church because she was worried they'd send her back."

"Fuck," I groaned.

"Mhm," Brielle agreed. "But here's something interesting. She saw Drozel kiss Omden and called it loving."

"So she didn't care they were both men?"

"Nope," Brielle said. "She cared that they looked as if they liked it. I mean, the things she said?" Brielle pushed out a heavy breath. "Ry, she's never seen a kiss that was consensual. That girl? Her idea of relationships is nothing but pain and abuse! To her, marriage means pregnancy until she's all used up, because that's all married women are good for."

I pushed a hand across my mouth, thinking about it. "You know..." I said. "Zasen told me Ayla killed men with the straightest face. When the Moles attacked, she didn't hesitate. She didn't cry about it, or puke over it. She just did what had to be done."

"She got revenge," Brielle realized.