He hadn’t noticed my snowball’s demise, though, and was digging and running and barking, his tail going crazy. “Where ball? Where ball? Where ball where ball where ball where ball where ball?”

It became a routine. I’d help Aiko with chores and wedding things in the morning, then after lunch, I’d usually venture out with Shoshen, doing outdoor chores and throwing snowball after snowball for Brekken. Like this, with these kind people and this batshit-crazy, loveable, horned wolf of a dog, it almost felt like I could build some sort of life here.

At least, until Wylfrael finally came back.

It was the first time I’d seen him during daylight hours in ten days. I didn’t even know he was there. Not at first. I’d been lobbing snowballs for Brekken while Shoshen did some chores inside the barn when suddenly Brekken started growling. The growls turned to barks, and he sprinted to me, getting behind my back to face something.

That something was Wylfrael.

I hadn’t seen where he’d come from – presumably the sky, having landed soundlessly. He certainly hadn’t been inside the castle this morning. Brekken barked again, his hackles rising at Wylfrael’s presence.

“Get back big wing two-legs!”

Wylfrael’s silver-white brows rose slightly.

“Brekken,” I said, frantically petting him, worried he’d do something that would make Wylfrael retaliate, forgetting he couldn’t understand a fucking word of English. “It’s alright. That’s Wylfrael.”

“The master of this castle,” Wylfrael added. He obviously spoke in Sionnachan, because Brekken understood and replied.

“No,” barked Brekken. “Aiko Ashken Shoshen master. Big wing two-legs stranger. Torrance cub. Brekken protect cub. Big wing two-legs want tiny Torrance. Brekken smell want. Brekken smell hunger. This big wing two-legs hunter. Hunt Torrance. Eat Torrance. Brekken kill.”

“She’s not a cub, she’s my mate,” Wylfrael called coolly. If he was annoyed by Brekken’s barking, he didn’t show it.

“No,” Brekken growled. “No mate.”

Panic made my stomach drop. Jesus Christ, we couldn’t even convince a dog that this was real? I whipped my head, looking to see if Shoshen was around to hear Brekken. The barn wasn’t far away, but luckily, it looked like he was still inside it.

“No no no,” Brekken continued, gnashing his deadly teeth, claws sinking into snow. “No mate. No soft no protect no warm. No nice smell. All hunger all anger all want want want. Want like blood. Brekken smell. Brekken hunter. Brekken know hunter smell.”

Even though Shoshen wasn’t here to witness this, the panic was still inside and growing. Growing because I really was starting to think that Wylfrael would do something awful to shut Brekken up, and fast.

“It’s OK, Brekken!” I said again. I tried to step around his hulking form so that I could go to Wylfrael’s side and show the loyal alien hound this was all alright. But Brekken wasn’t having any of it. As soon as I took a step, he turned on me, fangs flashing, barking madly, “No no no cub stay cub no!”

I didn’t know if Wylfrael even heard the words or if he only saw the teeth so close to my outstretched hand. But he was there in an instant, getting between Brekken and me. He grasped the fur at the back of Brekken’s neck, holding him back by the scruff.

“Don’t hurt him, Wylfrael!” I cried, tugging at Wylfrael’s arms to no avail. “Please! Please!”

Wylfrael ignored me. He looked straight into Brekken’s burning eyes, showing not an ounce of fear at the madly snarling and frothing fangs a breath away from his nose.

“Don’t you ever, ever,” Wylfrael said, his voice barely above a silken whisper, “get your teeth that close to my bride’s skin again.”

Brekken stopped fighting, stopped snapping his jaws. His eyes got big and very focused. The two of them stared at each other in silence for a long, heart-pounding moment.

Finally, Brekken made a gruff whining sound.

“Brekken wrong. Brekken see now. Big wing two-legs Torrance mate. Protect. Protect.”

Wylfrael held Brekken a moment longer, as if making sure he was going to behave, before finally letting go.

“Mate! Mate!” Brekken yipped, running back and forth in the snow. “Brekken see now. Brekken know. Still strange smell. No soft no warm. Protect hunter hunger anger want want want smell all same time. Strange smell. Strange big wing two-legs. Strange mate.”

“Wylfrael,” I reminded Brekken nervously of his name, still worried that Wylfrael would change his mind and hurt the gigantic dog I’d grown to love. Thank God I wasn’t scared of Wylfrael anymore. If Brekken had smelled fear on me, this would not have ended well. He would have attacked, and Wylfrael would have killed him with nothing more than a flick of his fingers. I could forgive Wylfrael for killing the horrible soldiers who’d kidnapped me. I’d never be able to forgive him for hurting Brekken, though. Hurting a dog was a line you just did not cross on any planet.

Then again, I didn’t think my future husband cared about my forgiveness. He’d certainly never asked for it, or tried to earn it.

“He was just trying to protect me,” I said softly, this time to Wylfrael.

“I know,” he answered. And then, with something that sounded shockingly like approval (something I hadn’t even known him capable of) he lifted his chin and said, “That’s one good dog.”

When Shoshen emerged from the barn a moment later and hurried over to greet his lord, Wylfrael immediately told him that Brekken would sleep inside the castle from now on, starting today. This caused no small amount of near-apoplectic excitement in the massive horned hound.

“Brekken sleep live stay play inside! Friends! Friends smoke warm food smell eat eat eat!”

“What made you decide that?” I asked as Shoshen led a frenetic Brekken towards his new home inside the castle instead of the barn. Wylfrael didn’t exactly seem like a dog-lover, despite his pathetic promise to get me a pet.

“The Sionnachans are too gentle,” Wylfrael said, watching the other two go. “It’s good to know there’s someone else who’d kill for you when I’m not here. Might as well make sure he’s actually in the building.”

Someone else who’d kill for me.

Wylfrael would kill for me?

But the question that came out of my mouth wasn’t about that.

“Does that mean you plan on spending even more time away?”

Away from me?

He cast me a sideways look down over his leather-clad shoulder.

“Would you prefer that I were here?”

“Well... I don’t know! We’re supposed to look like we’re together! How can we do that when you’re not here?”

“I come back every night,” he reminded me slowly, as if I were stupid. “For all the Sionnachans know, I spend all night, every night, rutting you the way a starburning stone sky god should.”

Rutting. Oh, my God.

Heat rushed to my cheeks, and other places, at that image. There was something savage in the thought. Something desperate and primal that made my pulse quicken between my legs. I knew, without even the tiniest shred of doubt, that if I hadn’t stopped Wylfrael that night, that’s exactly what would have happened. He wouldn’t have made love. He would have rutted. Furious and pounding and punishing. Hard. So fucking hard...

“Sometimes I think you watch me,” I blurted, anything to change the subject, get away from the all-too-alluring idea of him rutting me like a beast. “When I’m sleeping.”

Wylfrael turned to face me fully.

“I do.”

“You... you do?” What kind of crazy person just admitted a thing like that? “Why?”

His mouth quirked downward.

“You ask too many questions.”

“You avoid too many questions.”

“I can’t tell you the answer to a question when I don’t know it.”