7. Rhydian
RHYDIAN
Evening air blows in from the open window.
It tosses Bloom’s dark hair as she takes me deeper into her wondrous mouth. My head falls back at the sheer pleasure of her lips on me. I have to fight not to spill down her throat.
Our dinner sits cold and forgotten on the table.
After our first time together, we awoke in each other's arms in the early evening. Bloom had been sore once she rose from the bed. With a trip to the bath and the help of my magic, I fixed her discomfort.
We had agreed we should eat before setting off for Dew Hollow.
The journey was decently long, and if we wanted to expose Pyke before he could use the villagers’ tithes, we would need to make haste. Yet, as Bloom sat across from me with her kiss-swollen mouth and her teasing stares, I couldn’t help but feel like our trip could be delayed an hour or two.
Bloom must’ve felt the same as she pushed her plate aside, undid my pants, and took me into her slick mouth. She grazes my shaft with her teeth. I bump the back of her throat as she chokes and sputters.
Pulling back, tears stream down her cheeks as my seed paints her pink lips. She looks more beautiful than she did this morning. Her loveliness grows the longer I’m in her company.
She smiles as she roughly pumps me with her hand.
I would go into the deepest pits of hell for just a glimpse of her smile.
It emboldens me. I can face my fears and journey to Dew Hollow.
If they reject me, I feel confident that Bloom will join me in the meadow.
She has made it clear I am her home—her family.
She wants to have my children and be bound to me forever.
If the people of Dew Hollow are as accepting as Bloom believes them to be, then we can stay there. The two of us will work in her father’s bakery and live amongst her people. I can protect them as their lord just as my father had done.
I will expose Pyke’s treachery.
My first act as protector will be getting him to return the people’s gold. Justice will be served. That should surely earn me some goodwill from the villagers.
Not that I care for anyone’s opinions beyond Bloom’s.
As she takes me back into her mouth, my fingers shift through her silken hair. I’ve taken it out of the braid she favored during our bath and rake my fingers through the tendrils. She is the only thing that matters.
With her by my side, I no longer fear the future.
She has given me the chance to have everything that I want.
A lover, a wife, someone to have children with.
She is life itself. I will spend every day proving to her that she wasn’t wrong for choosing me.
My life is hers to wield however she deems fit.
I will safeguard her heart and protect her from harm. The cruelty of this world will never lay a finger on her pure soul.
Bloom releases my cock with a pop.
Wickedness gleams in her hazel eyes as she rises to her feet. Her large breasts are level with my mouth. I can’t resist tasting each of her pink nipples. She sighs as she settles atop my lap.
Lifting onto her knees, her small hand guides me to her entrance.
“Again?” I ask.
“I need you inside me, Rhy.”
“Are you sure? The pain—”
“Is gone.” Her tongue licks my jaw. “I need more of your come.”
I growl as she positions me to her opening. With a throaty moan, she sinks down on my length. I am impossibly deep as she sheaths me inside her. Her arms wrap around my neck as her head snaps forward.
My fingers dig into her soft waist as I—
A scream tears from her lips. Bloom scrambles backward as I lurch to my feet. Her eyes are wide as acidic fear mars her lovely scent.
“Bloom—”
“There’s someone at the window. I—I—”
A loud bang rattles the oak door. I fear the ancient thing will fall off the hinges. Cursing, I wrap Bloom in a blanket from the couch and shove her behind me.
“I’ll deal with whoever it is,” I assure her.
“Rhydian, please be careful.”
I kiss her quickly.
“Let me keep you safe.”
“I trust you.”
I wear her statement like a badge of honor. Pulling up my pants, I button them closed and stomp towards the door. The anger is easy enough to summon. Whoever is there scared my Bloom. I’ll send them scurrying back to wherever they’ve come.
She is mine to protect, to keep. Mine, mine, mine.
Wrenching open the door, my snarl is cut off as a blade presses against the center of my chest. Vomit swims up my throat as fear freezes my muscles. This can’t be happening. Not with Bloom so close. It’s impossible.
I must be dreaming—trapped in a nightmare. After all this time, he’s finally made good on her promise. He’s returned to kill me.
The man who murdered my father.
Bloom lets out a gasp. Bloom. I can’t allow fear to grip me.
Even if every instinct in my body is telling me to run, I have her to protect. I shove the memories of my father’s corpse away. Of the pool of blood and burying him in the backyard as a child.
This man stole everything from me. He will not rob me of my future as well.
I open my mouth to snarl, but Bloom’s words stop me.
“What are you doing here, Pyke?”
Pyke. This is Pyke.
The man who has stolen from the people of Dew Hollow for years. The one who demanded Bloom’s hand as payment. She told me of his indecent proposal that sent her to my door during our bath.
The one who killed my father—he is one and the same.
It all makes sense.
Only he would know the minotaur would not find him out. The paltry tithe my father used to collect annually would raise suspicion of his passing. He used me to cover up his crimes, knowing that as the years passed and I didn’t take up my father’s mantle to protect, his threats had kept me in line.
He spread lies about me. Insulted the memory of my father. He would’ve forced Bloom to be with him against her will. He deserves to be punished not just for what he did to my father, but for daring to covet my Bloom.
For scaring her, the only punishment is death.
“I should ask you the same question,” Pyke snarls.
The blade presses deeper into my skin. He has aged. Time has curved his spine and shortened his stature. He had only bested my father because he struck from behind. I will not allow my guard to drop. I recognize the threat he is.
An opportunity to strike will present itself, and that’s when I’ll make him pay.
“I saw you through the window.” His lips curl in disgust. “My proposal was so revolting that you had to debase yourself with a monster. I should’ve killed him along with his father. But the quick thinker that I am, I saw an opportunity.”
The blade glints in the setting sun. I survey my surroundings as Pyke takes a step into my cottage and slams the door behind him. Bloom whimpers as a lone trail of crimson blood spills down my chest.
Rage blights the pain of the cut.
“The people of Dew Hollow are fools. As a trader, I’ve journeyed to my fair share of rural towns, and the villagers there are more simple-minded than most. They are easily manipulated by a few well-placed fires and scary stories of a Minotaur Lord.
” He chuckles darkly. “It was easy to rob all of you. No one ever sought to question me. Most were too afraid of the tales I sold them about him to venture out here where my lies could be discovered. All of them, except you.”
I snarl as his beady eyes drift to her. He shouldn’t be allowed to breathe the same air as Bloom, let alone gaze at her.
“I thought my offer of marriage was fair. Like before, I waited for the perfect opportunity. When your father fell ill, I knew it would be incentive enough for me to finally have you. The dark-haired beauty of Dew Hollow.”
Pyke licks his yellow-stained teeth before shaking his head.
“But you just had to go snooping where you didn’t belong. I came to visit your home and imagine my surprise when your father informs me where you are. The whole town demanded I set off to find you immediately.
“How do you think they’ll react when they find out you’ve been fucking a beast? How dare you rebuff me all these years and let this creature inside you? I should kill you.”
Bloom releases a gentle cry. The salty scent of her tears burns me alive. Pyke looks between us with a grin.
“Or better yet, I’ll fuck you in front of him and then make you watch as I slit his throat.”
A primal roar tears from my lungs.
Pyke is unprepared for my attack. I smack his hand aside. The blade goes flying along the wooden floorboards. His eyes go wide as I collar him by the throat and pin him to the door. His balding head smacks soundly against it.
The fear that plagued me as a child is gone.
Looking over my shoulder, I see Bloom’s tear-stained face. Her fear burns in my lungs. She dips her chin, and I know what I must do. My hand squeezes his meaty throat. His failing pulse flutters against my fingers. I slam his head against the door as blood blooms behind it.
In vain, he scratches at my hands, but it is of no use. His face is turning purple. Weakly, his boots deliver kicks to my shins, but I hold fast.
Bloom appears at my side, clutching the pan she cooked our dinner in. She hands it to me. Determination threads through her irises.
“Do it. For your father, for me—for us. End it.”
Pyke soaks the front of his trousers in piss.
I’ve feared a weak male for too long. He is nothing to me but a means to an end. This will all be over soon. With his death, I will be reborn into the male I was always meant to be.
I take the pan from her trembling hands.
With a steadying breath, I release Pyke’s throat. He sucks down lungfuls of air, but a true reprieve never comes. Not as I swing the pan forward and connect it squarely with his head. Blood sprays as bones crack and flesh squelches. He shrieks.
The sound is met by the resounding ring of the pan.
Over and over I bash his face in. His body slides thickly to the floor, and I follow it. With each strike of the pan, my father’s face flashes. Then my mother. Then Bloom’s. This is for them—for me. For the time I’ve lost and the future I’m securing with each blow.