“My Rosie-lindy hurts, is sad, but doesn’t cry. Very strong.”
My hands folded in my lap and I fidgeted with the hem of my dress. Strong? Pfft.
Ah, yes, oh so strong. Mm-hm, m’kay. Please, blow more smoke up my butt. “Well, I’m not.” And, yeah, that so did not sound convincing. “Uhm, sad or yours, I mean.”
“Rosie sad, Rosie hurting, Rosie… mine.” That single word, uttered so vehemently, gutturally, had me shivering, but I played it off.
Making a show of rolling my eyes up in my head at that and snorting, I told him matter-of-factly, “I don’t negotiate with terrorists, kidnappers, or murderers.”
“What tear-a-wrist? Zhuii not do that long time.” The beast looked startled, before his brow pulled low, demanding, “Who tell Rosie?” The ferocious frown that graced his face had me studying the male.
I blinked a few times while I let that last bit there sink in. “You tore off someone’s wrist?!” Whaaaat? “Why?!”
Zhuii’s chest rumbled deeply and he muttered something in beast-speak before admitting in English, “Zhuii no like him.” His wide shoulders fidgeted and he started grunting sporadically. “Say bad things. Make Zhuii- Zhuii- Zhuii get mad.”
“So you tore his wrist off?” I was gawking, gaping, what the hell?!-ing it, hard.
Zhuii gave a sniff. “Arm, but Heckes and Lukar fix Denk.” The beast scoffed but continued. “Denk good now. Has ax arm still.”
“You… you tore his arm off… literally?”
“Lukar and Heckes put it back!”
Because, Cthulhu be praised, that just made it all better now, didn’t it?!! “Oh my god, I can’t even right now,” I whispered, clutching my skull, my head slowly shaking in denial.
“Denk not nice. Say bad things about-” The beast jerked and snapped his mouth shut, a brief, wild look about him, deep, simmering something, barely hidden, surfacing as his ire rose, before it was gone in a flash.
“Said bad things about..?” I prompted, to be left in the dark.
Resolute, Zhuii grunted but left it at that.
“Not that it mattered anyway…” Because ya just went and tore his arm off like a lunatic! But it’s cool ‘cause they ‘put it back’?!!
Zhuii watched me for a long moment, while I sat there mumbling and muttering to myself, shaking my head at this madness.
“Rosie-lindy hurt that much?” Eyes that could give marigolds a run for their money narrowed and he frowned worriedly, his gaze falling to the juncture of my thighs.
“I’m fine! Fine!” I squeaked out, following that squirrelly nonsense up with a nervous laugh no one in their right mind would buy, not even on a good day. My legs squeezed together, my knees rubbing against each other uncomfortably as I squirmed in his lap.
“No look fine to Zhuii.” The beast grunted, his grip on me tightening, but he didn’t argue further.
“I’m totally fine. Hah. Better than fine. Shit happens, right? No need to go poking around in people’s persons, where they aren’t invited or welcomed.”
“Not poke in Lindy-mine. Zhuii see Rosie okay. Hurting.” Glancing to Tokre, the pair began to gesture.
“Stop doing that. He’s going to tell you the same thing I did. We did it, I was still sore, and it… chafed, uhm, a bit.”
So I was lying, and I couldn’t rightly say why, but the words sprung forth and tumbled from my lips and before I’d really thought about it the lie was born. It was about the size of Tokre’s massive ding-dong right now, leaning towards epic, whopper proportions, but I really didn’t relish the idea of the beast having himself a little looksee.
Who did he think he was? Zhuii the medicine beastie-guy? Yup. Nope. That was Noyel’s deal. And these thighs? Staying firmly shut.
Like you haven’t said that before, Rosie the Realist chimed in.
Shut up, asshole, I growled at her.
When the silence in the room finally drew my notice, pulling me from my musings, I glanced up to find Zhuii and Tokre still deep in conversation. My gaze went from beast to beast, Tokre’s guilty, resigned look and Zhuii’s worried one giving me the heebie jeebies.
What was going on? What was I missing now? I smelled something in the works, not quite plotting, but some kind of beastly plan slowly coming together, and I probably wasn’t going to like it.
Swinging my foot a little, clearing my throat, I looked to the male whose lap I sat in, the male idly stroking my thigh, questioningly.
It was Tokre who caught my look, gesturing more rapidly to Zhuii, who in turn looked to me.
“Tokre worried. Thinks him too big for Rosie-lindy.”
As if he was following along, Tokre’s gaze dropped to his lap, where he glared at his dick.
“Well… it is too big,” I admitted, sparing his penis, now with its furry foreskin in place, a brief glance. And he’s also kinda too rough in the sack sometimes, but we were totally working on that. Or had been until he’d fallen and I’d taken the D, all of it, literally.
The dark scowl that graced Zhuii’s face had me sighing, but then wasn’t this my out with him? His cock was no less thick than Tokre’s, if a little shorter. “Tokre matings hurt Lindy-mine?”
But what if he tries to take me from Tokre, for my ‘safety’, I wondered, then did a bit of scowling of my own. Like fuck was anyone going to separate us!
A tiny growl built in my throat and I snarled. “I did not come this far, do the things I did, to be whisked away by yet another horny beast!”
“Uh…” Zhuii scratched at his forehead. Or so I thought he was, realizing after the fact he was actually checking his person for freaking horns.
“Horny, not horned, and I wasn’t talking to you,” I huffed and puffed.
Zhuii blinked and his face scrunched up. “Who Rosie-lindy talk to, then?” His gaze slid to Tokre’s and they shared a curious look, Zhuii one-handedly translating all the while.
“Look, Zhubalu,” okay, so now I was just doing it to do it, no actual rhyme or reason, aside from butchering my name beyond reason, but I wasn’t about to stop now, “Tokre and I, we’re fine. Just fine. We’re figuring this stuff out as we go, okay? We don’t need any,” my hand drifted to him and the door, waving them away, “mate wannabes or healer whatever’s help.”
Zhuii opened his mouth to comment, still scowling at the name mangling, but I beat him to it.
“Or advice, or alternative penises, or more mates, or- or- or anything! We just want-”
“Mama’s Jesus, what happened in here?!”
At Noyel’s heartfelt exclamation, I groaned.
With little effort Noyel accidently sent the door crashing, a cloud of dust billowing about in its wake.
The beast healer came charging in then, stomping right over the door in the process. “What happened?” The tall but slender beast was lookin’ kinda wild-eyed at the moment, harried and a little worse for the wear. What had he been doing, I wondered.
“Nothing,” I said quickly. Too quickly.
Noyel’s head shot up sharply, drifting from the door to my face, where he noticed Zhuii holding me in his lap, and his eyes narrowed.
“What happened?” he asked again. Then, as if the thought had suddenly come to him, “Rek didn’t try and barge in here again, did he?” He made to step towards Tokre, as if worried and or wondering if Rek had possibly come at him again, to take one deep inhale and freeze dead in his tracks.
Blinking stupidly, his nose wrinkling, sneezing hard, as if to dispel whatever he’d sucked up his sinuses, he grunted.
Lips pursing, dropping the bag he had on his shoulder at his feet, the tops of two oddly shaped, folded lumps of leather spilling out, he sniffed, lightly this time, and let out a harsh chuff.
“Won’t you come in?” I gestured towards the table, the only available place to actually sit. “Knock out tea? Hoo-hah salve? Perhaps you’d like to talk about your penis? Join the discussion?” Because why the heck not at this point?
Noyel’s furry brows shot up in s
urprise, but he slowly made his way to the table. “You’re alright?” he asked carefully, eyeing the occupants of the room avidly.
Oh, the picture we must’ve made.
“We no talk about Zhuii’s penis,” the orange-eyed blurter holding me tighter than moments before felt the need to confess. “Lindy-mine just say Tokre’s penis too big. Tokre hurt Rosie mating. Zhuii smelled blood. Tasted it…” the beast trailed off on a grunt.
“Tasted it?” Leaning forward, his hands planted firmly on the table, Noyel’s face pinched tight, until he looked like an angry old bitty with a beard.
“I told him not to?” I mumbled awkwardly, doing a bit of blurting myself.
Noyel’s eyes never left Zhuii. “How much?”
“How much what?” Zhuii blinked. Holding up his hand, two fingers up, he shrugged. “This much.”
“How much blood, you- Ugh.” Noyel stopped himself short, about to call his shorter counterpart something unflattering. For whatever reason, maybe because of the conversation he’d witnessed between Dorothy and the funnily haired beast, he’d held back. Taking a deep breath, he gritted out, “I don’t care how much of their bodily fluids you licked off your hands. I want to know exactly how much she was bleeding.”
It was my turn to grimace under that steady regard, his gaze swinging to me. Everything in the male softened, and he asked quietly, “Are you alright? Do you-” with some effort, he swallowed and continued. “Do you need me to look at… at…”
Lord love a duck, he couldn’t say it.
Well, me neither.
“Nope. I’m fine. Good. So good. So good it’s not even funny.” Tucking my arms in, I elbowed the beast I was using like a furry foldup chair. “Right, Zhuii-ma-louie? Just a bit of blood. Not much. It’s to be expected. I mean, I wasn’t exactly the village bicycle back home. I wasn’t running around giving the milk away for free, if you know what I mean.”
“No,” Zhuii grumbled, “Zhuii not know what Lindy-mine mean. It’s Zhuii. Zoo-ee. Rosie-lindy say it with Zhuii now. Zoo-ee.” Chuffing, he discreetly rubbed at his rib. Leaning in, he said in a too loud whisper, “What you jab Zhuii for? What Zhuii say?”
Noyel was still staring at me, an unnerving look about him. That penetrating stare, it was unfair to think it was kinda hot, but it was.
“You mean,” it took the taller beast some effort to speak, his voice strained and high, cracking a little, his head dipping, “y-y-you- you mean you haven’t been with another male? Besides Tokre?”
“Am I- Uh… was I, a virgin?” My cheeks flushed but I gave a short nod. “Yeah.”
“Hot damn,” Noyel whispered, a small, delighted grin streaking across his face as he stared off absently. He was making no effort to hide that silly grin, but I was feeling kind of lost.
“And this pleases you because…?”
Noyel’s head shot up, his blue eyes sparkling. “You’re like us. I mean, we’re all like you. We’re… we’re all the same.” He gestured as he spoke, long gone was the beast-speak he’d struggled to keep up with, lost in his excitement. It was nice, to hear one of these Abominables talk more normal, more human. It was something I didn’t realize I needed.
But more to the point… “You mean you’re all virgins?” I blurted, because say the frick what? “Every last one of you?”
“Lo denaii only one,” Zhuii’s deep voice rumbled.
“I- You- But why?” Was there that much of a shortage of ladies they couldn’t find one willing to give it to them, not once?
Well, they did go to your plane, planet, wherever and whatever it was in reference to here, hopping through a portal thing just to search for a woman and kidnap ya and drag ya home, honey. They had to hunt for mates.
“It’s always been that way.” Noyel shrugged like it was no big deal. It was how it was and he accepted it as that, no biggie.
My head swung towards Zhuii, who was watching the exchange. “We wait for mate.” The big beast began to shift in place. “Lo denaii big males, get… get grrrrr. Fight easy. We wait for mate. No switch mates. Female choose. Males fight less. Bond with female. Lo denaii hims mate’s. No other mates.”
“So basically you all are uber aggressive jealous types, but everyone agrees the lady chooses, and you all just deal with it, and… wait to give it up to her?”
Zhuii looked a little confused by my rambled, jumbled explanation, but nodded. “Zhuii think so?”
“Wow… Just, wow…”
“This bothers Lindy-mine?” Zhuii ventured tentatively.
“What? Oh, no. I was just… It’s just. I mean, back home, that’s just… Uhm, well, you don’t hear that too often, let’s say, and leave it at that. For either party,” I felt the need to tack on.
“This a bad thing, to wait, where Rosie from?” Zhuii’s head tilted, his expression unreadable. That meant he was worried but didn’t want to show his hand, I was learning.
“No,” I replied slowly, careful of my answer.
“Rosie different, then?” the male asked hopefully. Why that had his eyes shining at the idea, I had no clue.
“I guess, sure. You could say it made me part of a select few, especially at my damned age and-”
One second I was sitting there, stumbling through a conversation, the next I was being squashed into a furry chest, two large, muscled pecs smothering me.
“See, No-yell? Zhuii say Rosie special. Not just pretty and soft and little voice that makes those funny noises Zhuii likes. Lindy-mine special, like us, too.”
Stiff in his embrace, squirming to lift my chin or duck my damned head, desperate to catch my breath, I froze at his excited words. And, god, didn’t that lump in my chest lurch. My eyes pricked, my forehead and temples aching with those sudden, flooding, barely repressed tears.
Zhuii’s purr started up and he hummed happily. “Perfect,” he rumbled out, his voice beyond gravelly with the hemi he had stashed away in his massive chest, revving away.
“Ah, Zhu… she can’t breathe,” Noyel pointed out.
I could just make out him gesturing towards me, my hands slapping at the large beast’s sides uselessly.
Strong hands came up behind me, Zhuii barked out sharply, and suddenly I was released.
Flailing as I sailed backwards, through the open air, my arms flapping about wildly, I turned in time to find my mate cradling me to his chest, turning me to press my side into his abdomen.
Plopped down on the floor, he held me close, his hand at my ass, holding my dress firmly in place, the other supporting my back as he eyed the other males in the room warily.
Mine, he mouthed. My man wasn’t much for sharing. Mine, he mouthed again, grinding out his own version of the words.
Noyel gave Zhuii a look, then Tokre. “Tell him he’s first, Zhuii.” Noyel looked to me, then away. “Rank doesn’t matter to me.”
“Zhuii be second?” the shorter beast asked hopefully.
“If it’s that important to you.” Noyel shrugged. “It’s where I am in her affections that matters most to me.”
Zhuii nodded and began to sign to Tokre, who was still annoyed but willing to listen.
“Okay, hold up now. Order? What order?” I demanded. “And this her, I’m gonna take a wild guess, is me?”
“How are you? Are you okay?” Noyel asked, which was not what I’d just fucking asked, damn it.
“No,” I muttered snobbishly, “I’m not. I’m starting to get pissed. Now-”
“Tokre okay with that. Tokre know Rek bad warrior, not do right. Tokre worried for hims Rosie-Lindy. Worried leaving her alone. Tokre first, though,” Zhuii informed Noyel, who smiled a shit eating grin at the news and nodded. “And Zhuii second,” the beast hastily added.
“Second husband,” I murmured on a stunned whisper. Reaching up to grip Tokre’s face, I gave him a little shake. “Are you mad?! I can barely handle your cock shredding me in two! Now you want me to take two more? Have you lost your damned mind?!!”
Tokre grunted as his face flung
this way and that, but he didn’t stop me. Shifting me in his hold once I relinquished my grip on his face, he lifted his hand to Zhuii.
“Well,” I shouted, before Tokre had even had time to start signing to his friend, “what does he have to say for himself, huh?”
“Tokre want to learn. Want to please hims Rosie. Other males help. Protect, feed, please our Rosie. Tokre no worry. Noyel and Zhuii and Tokre learn. We be good mates.” A purr started up in Zhuii’s chest but my hand shot up warningly.
“I don’t recall agreeing to this,” I bit out, giving the three lugs censorious looks.
“For to protect our Rosie.” Zhuii’s hands lifted in a placating gesture, but I wasn’t fooled.
“Oh, you mean like when you ‘helped’ me take a bath?” At the double flinch from both guilty parties, I grumbled, “Boss me around and make me do what you say, it’s more like.” Folding my arms over my chest stubbornly, frowning mightily, I wasn’t budging.
I didn’t care that they were making ridiculous puppy dog eyes at me or that having Zhuii around to translate and Noyel to patch everyone up was actually kind of nifty, that’s three husbands we’re talking here! Three!
“Why don’t we talk about this more later?” Noyel suggested.
“Sure,” I said easily. Like, next year, or two or three or twenty from now? I’m down for that.
“Who go, who stays?” Zhuii signed to Tokre too, who signed back.
“Tokre is in no shape to be traipsing around doing whatever!” I informed our little party. “And neither am I! So, you all, you know, just go do whatever.”
“Because you’re hurting? You’re in pain? Is it bad? It’s bad, isn’t it?” Noyel moved closer, but the second I clenched up Tokre gave off a warning growl.
“Rosie in pain,” Zhuii signed as he talked, “Noyel just want to help her.”
“No, he doesn’t.” My hands slid to Tokre’s neck, where they encircled his neck to grip the hair at his nape. “Noyel just wants a peek at the goods!”
Mirth filled the tall male’s eyes as he stood over us. Hands on his hips, his lips twitched. “Technically, I’ve already seen them.” Bending down to lean in closer, smiling when whatever Zhuii was signing at Tokre did the trick and he calmed down, he smirked. “The goods, that is.”
Bride of Glass Page 28
