Page 56 of Simon

Sugha approached, and I jerked my head towards him.

“You can speak? Last I heard, you were unable, and you haven’t even visited—”

I growled and bared my teeth again. This male spoke too much, and he was purposefully upsetting my mate.

“Silence! Don’t say her name.”

Sugha’s eyebrows furrowed, and he shook his head. “You know Calliope has been upset you haven’t been around. You could at least—”

A loud snore came from my arms. I sighed and hoisted my mate into my arms.

I knew Calliope would be upset that I had not visited. I, at least, let it be known that I was around every few days or so. I did not go near her, though. She didn’t need me, not anymore. She had her mate.

“I know I have not visited Calliope, but I have found my mate.” Lucy snuggled deeper into my neck again. “Calliope has a mate of her own, and he detests me.”

Sugha frowned and shook his head. “He doesn’t detest you. It’s Valpar. Besides, Valpar would do anything to make Calliope happy. That means letting you near their home.”

I grunted as I stepped away from him. Valpar did not like me there when I was more of an animal, and he would not like me now– especially now. He liked no male near Calliope, but I would not cause her distress or make her choose between the two of us.

She would choose him, anyhow.

“He said he would eat me.”

Sugha’s eyebrows rose, and he let out a bark of laughter. “Valpar doesn’t even eat goat. He prefers a redder meat. Besides, he would never eat his female’s pet.”

I scowled and let out a bleat. “Heeey, I was not a pet. I was her companion, and I watched over her!”

Sugha eyed me, taking my form up and down. “Calliope is just worried, and now I am worried for Lucy. The search party is looking for her, and she needs to return. Since you say she is your female, you can come with us.”

I growled. “I will go nowhere with you or those useless wolves. They have failed to protect her. I fed, sheltered, and healed her when she was sick. The goddess gave her to me and no one else! She will never leave here!”

The fear that she could leave me gripped me like a vice. I had been so caught up in our paradise that I forgot about the outside world. The search party, the ogre, they could all take her away and push me aside. What if they thought of me as an animal, a monster, and hunted me? Punished me for taking her?

They were poor excuses for males. I saved her when they couldn’t.

“Her father knows she is missing. You cannot hide her here.” Sugha sat down on a boulder near the stream. “He’s worried, and the king and queen are traveling with him. You do know the king of the Cerulean Moon Kingdom, right? He’s brutal, a worthy opponent to even an orc. He gave Lucy’s father his word he would bring her back. You do not want to be hunted by him.”

I turned my head and sniffed into my mate’s hair. I wouldn’t give her up; I refused. If she knew her father was coming to find her, would she leave me? I did not want others to know where I was or what I was. I was alone, and I would not have people see me as an animal. I did not want to feel that pain in my chest.

Only Lucy saw me as, well, me.

I wouldn’t give her up.

I stomped my hoof. “It’s dangerous. The ogre is hunting her. The ogre must be gone before my female can see her father, and only him.”

Would her father reject me? Tell me I was not a good enough male? Tell her to leave?

“And I must be with her.”

Sugha sighed heavily and settled his bag on his thigh. He shifted through the contents and pulled out a bag. “This has yellow cress in it. Hide her scent.”

“I already have that.” My face turned a deep shade of red.

“You need more; I can smell her. If I can smell her, so can an ogre.” Sugha snickered and threw it toward me. “How about you tell me what’s going on with her? I don’t know Lucy well, but I know she would not act the way she did, showing her tits and all.”

“Breasts!” I barked. “She calls them breasts; it isn’t proper to call them anything else!”

Sugha rolled his eyes. “Now that sounds like her. What did you do, anyway? Is she drunk?”

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