AllFreeNovel
Share Us
That’s when my stomach starts roiling.
I mean, no. Just no.
I’m not a country girl. I didn’t grow up in places where you go back and forth from prepping the thing you just skinned to cooking the meat you… what? Just tore flesh from bone mere hours earlier?
Also, where, oh where, is the freaking soap?
When he finally comes to the table, I keep my eyes downcast.
It’s not from submission or anything.
More from trying to keep my stomach under control.
The beast settles into his chair. A bang follows as the cooking pot lands on the table.
“Consort,” he demands in his characteristic brutish way. “Eat.”
I lift my gaze ever so slightly. Only to see him proffering down a claw with juicy, dripping meat. Only for the wind to blow, bringing the smell of the curing hide right to my nose.
I shake my head firmly, keeping my eyes downcast. “No, thank you.”
“Eat!” he demands.
I lift my eyes only so I can glare at him. “Wash your hands!” He’s not the only one who can prowl around demanding things.
His eyebrows rise in surprise.
Then he looks down at his hands in confusion. Only to glare back down at me. “I submerged in the lake after butchering the beast. My fur was quite bloody after I separated his shank from his pelvis for the meat. And skinning him was also quite mess—”
I shake my head and lift a hand.
I suppose it is considerate of him to not show up bloody from head to... claw. Except, sorry to say, his vivid visuals only make my stomach turn worse.
“I don’t need to know all the details.”
A low growl comes from deep in his chest. “Do you shun the food I provide for you, consort? Or the warmth you will gather from the bear’s fur?”
I glare at him, furious. I don’t care if he can’t understand normal human ways. He’s an insensitive brute who’s not making any attempt to understand what it’s like for me here. The way he jumped out at me earlier. God, I’m still pissed about that. “I’d rather starve!”
“Then starve!” he roars at me, baring all his teeth.
“Fine!” I scream back at him, baring all my teeth back at him.
He stares at me, obviously discomfited that I don’t appear frightened by him. It’s clear he usually gets more of a response when he does this. Or are my tiny nubby little teeth confusing him?
I don’t back down. Neither does he.
Until, finally, he does, shaking his head like he’s a dog shaking off water droplets. “Fine,” he half-growls, half-mutters. “More for me.”
And then he scarfs down the steaming meat in the pot that he’s cut into neat little cubes. He devours it within minutes.
I cross my arms over my chest and look away.
Chapter Sixteen
MONSTER
“She is not like what I thought she’d be,” I say.
“What did you think a consort would be like?” Not a chain rattles as Romulus speaks. He is calm now, after having eaten. For once, the dungeon is also quiet.
So I relax as I pause and consider. “Well, I did not have much time to think it over. She appeared at my cave, and I meant to rid myself of her like I had all the rest.”
“But you did not. Why?”
I heave out a breath. “She was so… small.”
“Most are, compared to you.”
I blink, considering his words. “She was not like the others. I could tell her intent was not…” I struggle for the right word. Words are not my specialty. Since I killed Creator-Father, I seldom use them. Finally, I find the correct one. “… malicious. She was seeking help.”
“Help?” Romulus chuckles at this. “From you?”
I shrug.
“And you chose to?” Romulus is the one who sounds surprised now.
I grunt out my assent. “Others had come to that cave demanding things. But she was the first to offer… kindness in return. So I did not think. As price for the help, she became my consort. Then we came here. And now I…”
“Now you have a consort you don’t know what to do with.”
“I know what to do with a consort,” I bite back.
Romulus snorts. “I was not questioning if your member is in working order. I meant when you are not fucking her.”
I am not so quick to respond this time, because he is right. I cannot fuck her all the time. Though it is an interesting thought. Perhaps I could try keeping her in bed longer. I have never tested how quickly it takes for my gush to refill. There has never been any reason. Until now.
“I feed her.” Though she would not eat the bear. I frown.
“Feeding and fucking can only take up so much of a day,” Romulus observes. Annoyingly wise. As always.
I grunt in agreement.
“Have you tried talking to her?” he asks.
I frown at him. “Talk?”
He rolls his eyes at me. I’ve always considered it just a strange muscle tic of his, but my consort does it, too. I point at his face, one claw extended. “What does that motion mean?”
