"Check her, and somebody find Simeon. He better have a damn good reason for leaving her alone with those brutes."
"He's dead. Is that good enough for you?"
I rose to my feet as a muscular, ivory skinned man with a crossbow slung across his back came running over to me. He reached to help me up, but I pushed his hand away. Something about the way their leader talked about Simeon told me he was my future husband.
He sat atop a gorgeous black stallion. Looking every bit the chief he was described to be. His light brown hair was a wild mess that sat on his broad shoulders. His skin was almost as dark as the horse he sat on.
"What do you mean, he's dead?"
He jumped off the horse and walked over to me with ease. As he got closer, I saw the worry in his deep brown eyes. So maybe he wasn't a heartless monster. He pulled a linen cloth from somewhere and tried to touch my face. I smacked his hand away as well.
"Please, allow me to help you?"
He insisted and reached for my face again. This time I held still and let him wipe the blood from my face. His hands were strong, but his touch was gentle.
"How did he die?"
He dabbed at my right cheek as he asked the question. I stared into his eyes. It was hard not to. I got the strange feeling that he was challenging me in some way and if I looked away, he would win. I couldn't let that happen.
"I didn't see it. He distracted them so I could flee. I only overheard one of them say they gutted him."
I tried to come off as strong, but my voice broke as I spoke. It was strange how someone I had only known so briefly had affected me in such a powerful way.
"So he died a hero. We will honor his sacrifice on this day every year."
Oh great, Simeon was going to be celebrated every year. That wasn't going to bring him back! My breathing became labored, and I balled my hands into fists.
"He got to you, I see. He always was really good at first impressions. That man could make a best friend in seconds."
Apparently he had, because the only thing I wanted in the world was to see him again.
"Yeah, I got that from him."
A tear rolled down my cheek and Kato tried to wipe it away. I stopped him.
"Simeon was worth my tears."
"Yeah, he really was."
He backed away and looked at me as if he was inspecting me.
"Well, you're cleaned up except for the scrape and the wound. The scrape will be gone in a few days.
The wound he was talking about was the one Simeon's death had left on my heart. That would have to heal in its own time.
"Simeon's alive. He was stabbed in the abdomen, but for now, he's clinging to life," a soldier said, riding up to us.
The soldier's words hit me like a bolt of lightning and before I knew what I was doing, I was running back to the spot I last saw him. Kato tried to keep up with me, but he had on heavy iron armor. I left him in the dust as I raced to see Simeon. When I got to him, he was being placed on a makeshift gurney. His spiky hair was glued to his face by sweat. His chest rose and fell. It was shallow, but he was still alive. We raced back to their village. My new home, and rushed him into Kato's house. There was a physician attending to him within seconds.
"This wound is very serious, but it doesn't appear to have hit anything vital," the physician, an older man with white hair, said.
"So, does that mean he's going to be okay?"
The question came out of my mouth before I realized I was asking it. The doctor made a face that was anything but confident.
"If we can keep him from getting any infections and keep his temperature at an appropriate level, then he has a good chance of surviving."
The tentativeness of his words told me that he was being very careful not to give me any false hope. The problem with that was, any answer other than 'no' was going to do just that. I needed it. I didn't wanna live in a world where sweet, innocent guys just died senselessly.
"Hey, let's let the doctor work."
Kato placed a hand on my back and guided me out of the room. I wanted to resist, but I knew Simeon needed all the physician's concentration. We walked out of the house and into what looked like a garden. Flowers of different colors decorated both sides of the stone path we stood on. The light of the moon gave Kato's skin a silvery glow.
"He's going to be okay. I'm worried about you."
"What Why?"
I was fine. It wasn't me in that room fighting for my life. What was he getting at?
"Your hands have been shaking since we found you earlier."
My hands weren't shaking. I looked down and realized that my hands were indeed trembling. I instinctively stuck them behind me. Something about being vulnerable in front of him embarrassed me. He ran his hands down my arms and took my hands into his.
"Long day, huh?"
He smiled softly. I was suddenly overcome by a mixture of emotions. The first one was lust. When he smiled, the urge to kiss him flooded my senses. That feeling was quickly met with guilt. How could I be feeling anything but sadness right now? I let his hands go and turned away from him. This was too strange. He was supposed to be a savage. I was supposed to hate him and all of these people. So far, though, every person I met seemed decent and likable. Simeon was a brave sweetheart and Kato was heating me up in an entirely different way. Was this all some kind of ruse, or was my father's intel just horribly wrong?
"Hey, so this might be a little late, but I just realized we haven't actually met yet."
My head jerked involuntarily. He was absolutely right. For all I knew, this wasn't even Kato. What if he was a different tribal chief that just happened to be passing by and also knew Simeon? It was a long shot, but certainly possible. I turned around to face him. Something about the way the light hit his jaw made me want to taste him. He had better be my husband, or this was going to be extremely awkward.
"Hello, I'm Kato. Chief of Saoi. I am honored to meet you."
He held out a hand for me to shake. I placed my hand in his.
"I am Teresa, princess of Erolin and future Chiefess of Saoi."
He smirked at my introduction and then kissed the back of my hand he was holding.
"Your father said you were beautiful, but he undersold it. There should be poems written about the way you look at this exact moment."
Heat flooded my womanhood. What the fuck was that? Did they have lessons on what to say when you wanna get laid in Saoi? If the next man from there was a charmer too, I was looking into that theory. I embraced him, ignoring the guilt that was eating at me. This was the man I was supposed to marry. It was good that I wanted to explore every inch of him. Simeon was just a servant. When he was better, I would thank him and everything would be normal.
"I swear nothing will ever harm you again," he said and brushed a hair out of my face.
His embrace was so powerful that I believed him. He was a few inches taller than me and his body felt hard under the armor. I wanted to strip it all off and find out how accurate that was.
"What if I wanna be hurt? Maybe I like life a little rough."
I whispered into his ear before biting his earlobe. He let out a soft groan and then kissed me. Our mouths attacked one another's as our hands roamed freely. Everywhere I touched was hard. He was definitely built to handle me. And if the thing poking me in my thigh wasn't his sword, this marriage was going to be a lot of fun.
"Sorry to interrupt, sir, but we have a problem."
The man startled us so badly we jumped apart. My entire body buzzed as I ran my thumb across my bottom lip. His taste still lingered. I wanted so much more.
"What's wrong Enias?"
I couldn't help smiling at how frustrated he sounded. He wanted me just as badly, it seemed.
"The goblin pack we cleared out of Elderal is back somehow."