When he was finally able to speak, he turned on his side toward her and hurried a blanket over them both, worried she would suffer a chill like she often did. “I didn’t hurt you, did I? I saw the pain in your eyes and—”
She pressed her fingers to his lips, silencing him. “It was nothing.” She smiled. “Everything else was—amazing.” She tapped his chest. “And so you know, I won’t mind doing it as often as you’d like.”
Wolf laughed and kissed her quick. “Often. I’d like to do it often.” His laughter faded, along with his smile and he dropped down on his back.
Raven turned on her side toward him this time. “I know what you want to ask, but you don’t want to spoil this moment, this new start, between us.”
Wolf turned on his side to face her. “It shouldn’t matter and yet it plagues me. What man would love a woman so strongly and yet not want to make love with her?” His brow shot up. “Unless he didn’t love you in return.”
“Or he loved me… like a father loves a daughter,” Raven said.
He shook his head, feeling a fool. “I never gave that thought.”
“I suppose I didn’t make it sound that way,” she said, knowing he wasn’t all to blame for the misunderstanding. “I am grateful every day for Charles finding me when he did. He came upon me as a man was forcing himself on me. I fought, but the man was large and bulky, and I was weak from lack of food and the cold. I didn’t have the strength to fight him off.”
Wolf grew enraged at the thought. “Please tell me Charles killed him, or I will hunt him down and kill him myself and none too quickly.”
The anger in her husband’s dark eyes left no doubt he would and she realized then what a staunch champion he would be for her.
Raven nodded. “He did, and then he told me he would teach me how to protect myself so no man could ever force himself on me again.”
“The reason you are so skilled with a knife.”
“Aye, Charles taught me well.”
Wolf ran his hand tenderly along her cheek. “I like Charles.”
Raven sighed softly, glad for his touch. “He was a good man, an honest man. He lost his wife and son to an illness that swept through the clan he belonged to, leaving few survivors. He had only his daughter left, and from what Charles said she was far too sweet and caring. A new chieftain arrived and he was a mean man. Unfortunately, he favored Charles’s daughter.” Sadness filled Raven’s every word. “Charles made plans to leave with his daughter but the chieftain found out and locked Charles away in a cell. When he was freed, it was to bury his daughter. She had died at the hands of the chieftain. Charles left and having nothing, he became a thief and planned his revenge.”
“Tell me he got his revenge,” Wolf said, anger brewing in him for what the man had suffered.
She shook her head, her sadness growing, her hand going to the small scar at her side. “I was too late to help him when a band of evil thieves hit us. He died from his wound, but before he did I pledged my word to him that I would see it done. That nothing would stop me.”
“I can see to that done for you, wife,” Wolf said, not taking the chance of letting her do something so dangerous.
Her blue eyes darkened and a sinister look crossed over her lovely face. “I already did and I made the chieftain well aware of why he was about to die.”
“If there is anyone else you must avenge, you will leave it to me,” he ordered, just the thought of the chance she had taken sent a fright through him he felt clear down to his bones. “And don’t bother to tell me you can see to it yourself. I’ll not have you taking such dangerous chances.”
“We can discuss it,” she said.
“There is nothing to discuss. You will obey me on this,” he ordered once again and braced himself for her protest.
“I told you about Charles. Now tell me of this scar that pains you that no one can see.”
That she ignored his order and changed the subject told him she had no intentions of obeying him. He’d let her think that for now.
“It’s my fault Oria was taken from our family,” he said, something he had never told anyone.
“What do you mean? You could have only been a young lad yourself.”
“Near seven years and tasked with seeing to staying with the slave who watched over Oria that day. I was impatient. I wanted to join the other young lads on the practice field. The slave told me to go, that she didn’t need my help. I left and gave her the opportunity she needed to abduct my sister. I thought only of myself and my sister paid dearly for my selfishness.”