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Chapter Seven

Freya

“Freya!”

Meriuam knocked on the door of my bedroom. I immediately dropped my book on the beside table to go answer it.

She held a small sack in her hand.

“Meriuam, you’re back early. I thought you said—”

“He’s here,” she said, with a blank expression on her face. “Your warrior is here for you.”

My heart jumped in my chest and something seized me, squeezing the air right out of my lungs. I clutched my chest and leaned against the wall as a vision of me as a girl with my aunt Gloria telling me that people were coming for me. Panic had already taken hold of me before I could catch my breath.

“It’s okay,” Meriuam said, easing her arm over my shoulder. “I’ll come to check on you in a day or so.”

“I’m fine. Really I am,” I said. “I’ve been at the dorm so long and with the kids at the orphan that I thought he forgot about me.”

“There’s no way anyone could have forgotten about you, Freya. You’re the nicest person I’ve met.”

I smiled. “Maybe he won’t like me after all. I’ll be happy to return to help at the orphanage. Do you think your king would allow it?”

“No one knows for sure what the King will do. But, I know the children would like that, however, you have something else to worry about now. The children will be fine. Don’t you want to start a new life with new memories?”

I nodded. “I think so, but is he really feral like I’ve heard?”

Meriuam looked down at the floor for a moment and then said, “You can hear rumors, but you can’t really know them. Now go, get your stuff. He’s waiting.”

After gathering my stuff and placing them in a chest for them to be transported later to Hvit’zark’s podhouse, wherever that was, I came out into the courtyard where he was waiting. As I walked through the narrow corridor, other women were watching. I recognized most of them. Like me, they were either waiting for their warrior to come back for them or had temporarily been assigned a different duty for some reason or another.

At the end of the hall, two girls were standing near a water sculpture, studying Hvit’zark as he paced the space. One even walked blatantly in his path as if trying to get his attention. They scowled when Hvit’zark turned and acknowledged my presence. I decided to ignore the other girls since that didn’t take much effort. My heart was already pounding erratically the closer and closer I got to Hvit’zark.

Nothing had changed about him. Among the male guards in the room, he commanded the most attention. He wore a different type of loin cloth this time. It was thinner. His thighs were big as tree trunks and every inch of muscles rippled beneath his flesh. His hair was slightly-dampened, and some strands were matted against his upper chest. In his hands, he held a rope, much like the ones the other warriors had carried their mates off in at the auction. Meriuam had told me that the practice of taking a woman off with a rope wasn’t seen as an insult but rather a gesture of acceptance. She said it stemmed from their distant past as part of an old Zunatorian mating ritual.

I lowered my gaze to the ground just before coming to a halt about two feet in front of him. By that time, the whole courtyard had gone quiet, observing the union between us.

He brought his hand up to my face and I shrunk back just a bit. He placed a finger under my chin and tipped my face upward. His stormy gray eyes studied me with such emotion, yet his battle-hardened face remained stoic. The auras beneath his skin reminded me of summer lightning, bright and intense.

He stepped back from me and walked a circle around me. His breath fanned across my neck, sending strong currents of desire through my body. I couldn’t figure out why I was feeling this way. He picked up a lock of my hair and brought it to his nose while inhaling deeply.

“You will go with me…” His voice was deep and husky.

I couldn’t tell whether his words were a question posed to me or a command, but I answered anyway. “Yes.”

He walked back in front of me, took my hands and meticulously tied the rope around my wrists. His fingers brushed my skin as he worked, slowly weaving the ends of the rope in and out until it was knotted securely.

He turned around and began walking towards the door. I swallowed and cringed when I saw the old scars on his back. He had gone through so much and he had the physical scars to prove it.

As he guided me through the market, along the walkways, and through a field, he turned around a few times to peer at me. He walked with purpose and almost everyone who saw him moved from his path.

I couldn’t help but wonder what he had in store for me. He had already made it clear to his King that he had wanted no part in the auction. But here we were...driven by fate or something else entirely.