I translated the page, writing a few lines before I gave my hand a break to stretch away the ache. My fingers throbbed every time I
bent and straightened them, after only a few days of abuse.
I stood from my chair, giving my legs a chance to move while I tried to work the blood back into my fingers. I needed to teach someone how to write just to have a person to alternate with. Walking over to the books on the shelf, I perused the spines once again to decide which book I would do next, if I ever finished my current one about the creation of Alfheimr.
The knock at the doorway made me spin to face it. Only Melian and Caelum came to visit me in the library, the others seeming to have little use for the tomes that they couldn’t read.
Jensen stood in the doorway, leaning his shoulder against the arch carved into the stone. His face was twisted into a smile that didn’t seem wholehearted, like it was all part of the ruse he’d created to get what he wanted from the people of the Resistance.
“I see Melian found a use for you after all,” he said, stepping into the room. He ran his hand over the scrolls rolled up and stored in boxes on the floor as he moved toward the table where I worked every day.
“It appears that way,” I said, barely restraining my grimace. I had no doubt he would have rather I accepted his first proposal for my occupation. The unfortunate reality was that Jensen was far from unattractive. He was someone that I might have taken casual comfort in, if it hadn’t been for Caelum. At least, if I’d never seen the less appealing aspect of his
personality. I doubted he lacked female companionship somehow, in spite of his toxic, slimy words anytime he opened his mouth.
“Do you know what the ratio of men to women is here now?” Jensen asked, stepping around the edge of the table until he was in my personal space. I remained at the bookshelf, but the way he leaned his ass into the edge of my table meant I wouldn’t be able to get around him or return to my task.
“I don’t,” I said, shaking my head.
“Women make up less than one fourth of our numbers. There is good reason why I wanted you to take other men to your bed. It isn’t healthy for so many men to have to share so few women,” Jensen said, reaching behind him to grip the table where he rested his ass. “A lot of us don’t think it’s fair that Caelum gets to have you all to himself. It isn’t as though there are children involved yet, are there?” He gave a glance toward my stomach, making my eyes narrow as I fought to retain my composure.
“That sounds like a personal problem, Jensen. My body is not for public use, regardless of my relationship with Caelum. I would never allow men who feel entitled to my body to use me. I’d be better off with the Fae,” I said, pausing to cross my arms over my chest. “At least they don’t share,” I added, glaring at him and the audacity he’d had to come here, spewing his nonsense and acting like it was my duty to spread my legs for the good of the Resistance.
I snorted at his nerve.
“Monogamy won’t work here any longer, because we don’t have the numbers to sustain it. Think of what will happen if some of the Fae Marked girls see your relationship with Caelum and think they can have that too. One less pussy for the rest of us to fuck, and when men are locked up together with nothing to fuck, we fight. We will kill each other, Estrella. You’re being selfish by not doing your part to keep the peace.”
“Fuck you,” I snarled. “Do you harass all the women here this way? Or am I just lucky?”
He ignored my question, focusing on the vulgarity as he leaned closer. “I would love that, sweetheart. You’re the one playing hard to get. All you have to do is come and sit on my cock. I’ll make it good for you, too,” he murmured, lowering himself into my chair and patting his lap. He dropped his hand to the laces of his trousers, unknotting them slowly as if he actually thought I would behave like a dog and service him. “I don’t even
mind that your pussy is probably still filled with his cum from when he made you scream this morning. It feels better that way.”
I resisted the urge to throw up all over him, holding completely still as I thought through my options. I didn’t know Jensen well enough to know if he would go far enough to force himself on me if I said no or tried to slip past him and get out.
What I did know was that the main tunnels and the commons were too far away for anyone else to help me if he did.
“I would sooner walk naked into a blizzard and welcome frostbite than allow your vile cock to touch me,” I growled, watching as all pretense of civility fell from his face.
He stood from the chair slowly, stretching to his full height as he approached me. My back hit the shelves, his hand coming to rest on the one next to my head as he leaned into me. “Don’t be such a prude, Estrella. It will be fun.”
“I said no,” I reiterated, wrapping my hand around the spine of a book. If he pushed the issue, I didn’t care that I would probably destroy the ancient text. All that would matter would be his broken nose.
“Your mouth said no, but should we find out what your body says?” he asked, touching a hand to my waist.
“I believe the word her mouth spoke is the end of it for you,” Caelum said, his deep voice echoing from where he stood in the doorway. He crossed over the threshold, the air in the room seeming to drop in temperature as soon as he was inside with us.
Jensen didn’t move from where he leaned into my space, turning his head to face Caelum but keeping his body close to mine. “Surely you understand the women here need to fulfill a certain purpose. Keeping just you entertained is hardly fair when there are so many of us who have needs too.”
“Why don’t you run and tell Melian that she isn’t serving her purpose because she isn’t fucking you? I’m sure that will go over well,” Caelum said, earning a sharp laugh from me. The older woman would knock Jensen on his ass if he ever proposed that she owed him sex.
“She at least fucks several of the men. At once, I’m told. I’m happy to let Caelum join the two of us if that is what you’d prefer?” Jensen asked stupidly. How he could miss the violence thrumming through Caelum’s body, the barely restrained rage that made him look more weapon than man.
“Unhand my woman. Now,” Caelum ordered, leaving little opportunity for argument. He stepped closer to Jensen, waiting for him to comply. He did, taking his hands away from me and stepping away.
“Not even fucking worth the trouble. Melian has me cleaning floors for a week because you ran to her the first time,” Jensen said, spitting on the floor at my feet. The rude gesture was the last straw for Caelum, growling a curse as he lunged for Jensen. The two men toppled to the ground, then Caelum straddled Jensen’s hips and punched him in the face.
Blood burst from the other man’s nose, staining the fabric of his tunic as I stepped forward and tried to pull Caelum off him. “She is worth more than you will ever understand, you vile piece of shit.”
“Caelum!” I warned, trying to get his attention as he struck Jensen again. “Stop.”
I didn’t know the Resistance’s position on fighting among members, but I couldn’t let a snake like Jensen be the reason Caelum and I were on our own in the woods again. We needed a safe place to stay. We needed the wards that protected us.
He stopped finally, standing and coming over to check on me. He took my hand, guiding me out of the library and into the tunnels. Instead of going back toward the commons, he turned to go up the back side of the hollows within the mountain.
“You can’t just go hitting people here,” I objected as he hurried me along the path. I didn’t know where he was taking me, but I suspected it would be somewhere that he could cool off before we had to face the consequences of his violence.
“He touched what’s mine,” he said, as if it was the answer for everything. The part of me that suspected I might have done the same found joy in that, but something stopped me from enjoying it entirely.
“Do you mean to tell me that none of the women here have touched you at all?” I asked, tearing my hand out of his grip.
“They respect the word no. Unlike him,” he said.
“But I haven’t hurt them is my point. By your standards, I should have broken the nose of every last woman in here at this point, but I trust you to handle it. You have to trust me to handle it too. I am not a piece of property, Caelum. I’m your partner. I just want to feel like you see me that way.” I said, shaking my head in exasperation.
I liked Caelum’s jealousy. It heated the blood in my veins and brought me joy to know that he wanted to keep me to himself, but that didn’t mean I didn’t feel the other edge of the sword, as well. It didn’t mean I didn’t feel like I might suffocate under the weight of his possession.
In a world that was determined to make me a piece of property, I just wanted to feel free with the man I loved at my side.
“He didn’t take no for an answer, and you want to claim I am no better than him?” He shook his head vehemently. “Have I ever made you feel like you do not have a choice with me? In fact, I would say I’ve been very accommodating, allowing you to make your choice about whether you wanted me or not,” he said impatiently, reminding me of the fact that he’d never touched me until I gave him permission and agreed we would be faithful to each other. “But now you’ve made that choice. If I had it my way, I would have fucked you in that barn before your brother came back and tried to take you away from me.”
A part of me delighted in the words, knowing that he’d been drawn to me as quickly as I had to him. But the other part of me craved my freedom and didn’t want to go straight from one man’s authority to another.
“I made my choice, but I made it thinking I would gain a partner. Not a keeper. You need to find a way to claim me without turning into a beast and risking our place here,” I said, continuing down the tunnel. He walked at my side, his fingers brushing against mine in the same way they had that day in the barn when we’d lain side by side in the straw.
“You are my partner, my star. You own me just as much as I own you.” “We need to stay here. We aren’t safe anywhere else. There has to be a
way to lay our claims without risking expulsion for violence,” I mused thoughtfully. We fell into silence as we continued the way Caelum had led us.
I didn’t know where we were going. Only that I would follow him anywhere.
