Chapter 6 - Fenriz

Her voice lured me in like a Siren; five little words, and I nearly lost whatever remained of my self-control. Baron kept his promise and behaved throughout the evening, even when I caught her sweet, innocent scent or felt her skin on mine. But the second she spoke, the second I heard her voice, something in me snapped.

/“You said you would control yourself!”/ I chastise Baron while walking her towards what would be our shared bedroom. She has remained quiet this entire time, with her handmaiden following her, but even in the silence, her presence is overwhelming.

/“Can you blame me, Fenriz?! You felt it too, and you know what she does to us!”/ He says, and I pinch the bridge of my nose in annoyance. /“I will keep my promise and not harm her, but you know as well as I do that we cannot reign this in while she remains unclaimed.”/

I sigh, knowing that what he says is true. However, I have no intention of claiming Umiko tonight, not with the risk hanging over my head.

/“Give me time to figure this out, and I promise you that we will claim her; you will get your mate and offspring once I know that you won’t lose control.”/ I say just as we reach the main bedroom, and Baron slinks away once more. He can pout all he wants; I call the shots right now.

I open the door and step aside so that she may enter first, and her handmaiden tells her that she will wait outside until she is ready for her. Umiko smiles sweetly at her, and I can feel my pulse quicken, but I breathe out a sigh to control the stupid organ in my chest.

When we both walk inside, she looks around the room and frowns before she turns to me and waits for an explanation. A few days ago, I had the main bedroom remodeled to house two separate beds along with a smoked glass partitioning down the middle and separate walk-in closets. We would still share a bathroom, but other than that, I have to keep up the appearance of sleeping with my wife.

“I thought this might be easier for the both of us since I have no intention of consummating this marriage,” I say, keeping my tone indifferent.

“We will not sleep in the same bed?” She asks with a frown and cocks her head to the side; that little movement looking both cute and alluring as fuck.

I nod. “We will sleep separately until the time comes when I need an heir; for now, I will not touch you,” I say, then loosen the braid on my head and run my fingers through my hair. “I’ll be in the shower.”

I watch as she bows her head when I walk past her and stop to tilt her chin so she can look at me. Her eyes seem to shimmer between their dark brown and a jade green, a color that deeply intrigues me. 

“Vega women do not look down, Umiko; there is no need to lower your head to me,” I say, then leave the room for the bathroom before she can answer me. 

Who would have thought that a silent, submissive woman would come to be my fated mate? I crave the violence and bloodshed of a good hunt and war; I fuck whoever I want to sate my needs and kill without remorse. 

And yet this woman has the power to control me like a puppet, and she has no idea. She's my mate; she should be the most precious thing to me... But she's better off without someone like me in her life. I know that I need to reject this Bond so she can live... 

However, if tonight proved anything, even the ability to breathe is ripped from me the second she looks my way.

“Get it together,” I growl, stripping from the confines of the suffocating three-piece suit. Tonight I had held it together even though Kaen Tsukishima annoyed the living shit out of me. I'm not too fond of formalities, hate pretending to be something I am not, and hate having to act civil when someone is clearly out to disrespect me and mine.

And that is exactly what happened this evening with her father, that fucker Tsukishima. I know his rules and customs differ vastly from mine, but you do not come into my home and disrespect me or what is mine. He gave his daughter away without so much as a care in the world, and I can tell by her demeanor that she has suffered under him. I didn’t want to get too fucking close or give her the idea that I cared but watching her shrink away in his presence ground my gears to dust.

She’s a fucking proud Vega woman now and needs to own that name. 

After my shower, I slip my towel around my waist and walk toward my closet. Umiko is perched on the edge of her bed with her hands in her lap, and when she hears me approach, she stands up but doesn’t look my way.

“You can go in,” I say without sparing her a glance and get my business done. 

I need to get some fucking sleep since I’ll have a few important meetings in the morning; today has been enough of a distraction as it is. However, when I eventually fell down on my bed and onto my back, I realized through my exhaustion that the interior designer had made a grave fucking error. 

Umiko’s walk-in closet is right in front of my bed when I specifically asked for mine to be closer to the bedroom door. 

“Fuck,” I mutter when she walks out of the bathroom with nothing but a towel around her still-damp, slender body. Her hair is wet and hanging down her face in damp tendrils, and her makeup has been removed to show her natural beauty. 

Everything about the graceful way she strolls to her closet, even if it was only for a few seconds, shoots straight down to my cock. I thought that would be the end of it, but my breath hitches in my throat when I realize that her fucking floor-length mirror is partially facing me.

I should say something - 

“She’s ours, Fenriz. Besides, we’re just watching,” Baron goads me, and I am not sure if it is this fucking pull or the exhaustion rooting me right in the spot. 

I watch as she slips the towel from around her body, and I take in the absolute Goddess that is my mate. From the swell of her breasts, her pink nipples, slender legs, and curve of her hips all the way down to her mound: everything about her screams perfection.

I tear my eyes away from the sight of her, knowing that I had just been a fucking perve watching her without her knowledge. These beds will need to be moved tomorrow or something because I can’t risk this again.

She steps out of the walk-in wearing a dark blue silk nightdress that reaches her knees and turns to look at me. Her scent is enveloping this entire room, and it does absolutely nothing for my hardened cock right now. 

“I will be going to bed now; goodnight Alp- Fenriz,” she says with a slight blush covering her cheeks before scurrying off to her side of the room.

I don’t know if that was a blush out of shyness or something else, but everything about this woman is so fucking sexy that it is taking everything in me not to go over there and take what’s mine. 

And it’s not even Baron in control right now. This is going to be a lot more complicated than I expected.