Caught in the Fox’s Teeth

Chapter 14: Odin

“Well, what are you doing standing here then? You should be out scouring the countryside. I want her by my side or at my feet within the fortnight. I will have her kissing the toes of my boot come Miserleine or it will be you in her stead. Before you entertain the thought, remember that I am not a gentle man, Ullo. I am not like my brother. It’s her ass… or yours.” I say cruelly.

Ullo’s face goes red. We all know he and my brother were lovers. I’m not into men but I also do not fault my brother for his tastes or desires. None of us care that he was gay, but the fact that they attempted to hide it from us only served to add insult to injury. Perhaps they were hiding it from themselves. Who is to say? The only thing that truly pissed me off about the whole thing was the fact that Bowen didn’t want Taryn and he wasn’t willing to face my father about his proclivities, so he married her. No. I don’t blame my brother for being gay and finding love with a man. I blame him for being a f*****g coward and seducing a woman he had little feelings for when he should have let me have her. He was so worried about making father proud that he thought siring an heir on a woman of noble birth like Taryn would earn him the respect he desperately craved. It wouldn’t have worked. Father isn’t impressed by such things. As far as he’s concerned that’s the bare minimum he expects of his sons. Make no mistake, father did not care if Bowen was gay, but Bowen was always expected to procreate. He would have been married to a woman regardless of his emotional connections. There was no reason my father had to give him the woman I desired. It was just another one of his f****d up games.

The thought still drives me crazy. I have not stopped thinking about her since they married nearly a year ago. I remember how beautiful she looked in her wedding dress. She was as pure as freshly fallen snow. I swear that she glowed with an ethereal beauty and yet Bowen looked as if he was attending a wake. He put on a decent enough show, but I knew my brother well. I could see the sorrow in his eyes. I noticed the morose glances at Ullo and saw the hurt in Ullo’s gaze as well. My eyes are keen. They see through the bullshit and that’s what that wedding was. Bullshit.

I couldn’t keep the fury from my heart. That whole night I glared at the happy couple as if I looked hard enough, mine and Bowen’s places would be swapped. Her hazel eyes flecked with shades of gold and green put me in a trance. They had landed on me a time or two that night, staring into the depths of my soul as if she could see me as well as I could see her. Gods. She had no idea of the effect she had on me. I had to f**k a few of her ladies maids that night just to keep my mind from wandering to my brother’s wife. My attempts at pushing Taryn from my mind were not successful. She has been an ever-present specter in my bed since I laid eyes on her. Since I began hoping it would be her I shared my life with, shared my bed with. Imagining it would be her to mother to my children. Gods. Maybe it is I who is the fool here.

She has haunted me so that I still see red when I think of her and my brother on their wedding night. The fact that it was Bowen who took her virginity nearly drives me to madness. I have no right to think of the two of them together, but I do, and I hate him for it. He was the one who tasted her maiden’s blood that night, but it should have been me. It should have been my c**k with her virginal blood on it. My sheets stained from our first of many nights of passion. Instead, I was robbed not once, but TWICE! I hurl the glass I’m drinking from into the hearth fire with a shouting curse.

“Odin.” My father warns; his tone is dark and thick. There is a promise of violence in that tone but I’m not a little boy anymore. I stand a head taller than he ever did in his prime. I am muscle and sinew where his muscle is less imposing. He is still an impressive man, make no mistake, but I am more-so. I will put him in his grave if he should lay a hand on me and he knows it.

I sneer at him with the darkest malice I can muster. “This is your doing. I know it. I know you as well as I knew Bowen and by the gods, I know you are to blame for this.” I growl. “Whether it by neglect or intention, I can’t be certain, but you are not blameless in her running away. I don’t care how you do it, but you will help bring her back to me.” I pound my fist against my chest. The monster inside me is crawling and begging to be loosed. I will tear this room apart. I’m a caged panther desperately looking for an opportunity to break free and maul my jailer.

“Careful how you speak to your betters, boy.” My father narrows his gray eyes. My green ones roll with fury.

“Better or not, I want my bride. I don’t care how you do it, but I want her here.” My father doesn’t even argue which tells me I am right about his running her off. As a hunter, my eyes are so sharp. They don’t miss much. They definitely didn’t miss the way my father also leered and coveted Taryn at her wedding. I don’t think he f****d her, but I’ll bet he threatened too, and that’s why she ran. Or at least that’s one of the reasons she ran. I’m not stupid. I know that the girl does not want to marry me but it’s not her choice. She will do as she is told. In time she will come to love me as she did Bowen. All Dryndenn had to do was manage to act like a decent human being for two weeks. Just fourteen days. That’s it. Any one can pretend to be normal for two weeks. I could have had her eating from the palm of my hand in two gods damned weeks! Perhaps I still will.

My teeth grit together. I have had scarce time to rest and already I am about to head back out on the road. “Ready my horse.” I bark at Ullo. He doesn’t hesitate. Smart lad. Turning on my heel, I grab my cloak and storm out the door. I’ve got a woman to hunt, and my father will be of little use.