Claiming His Human Wife (7 page)

She watched in amazement as he pulled a huge box from one of the low cabinets in the kitchen that she never used. It was wrapped in a pretty silky cloth. “Here,” Edwin said, “Happy birthday, my sweet lass.”

Rhiannon accepted the box and placed it on the end of the table. She stole a shy glance at Edwin before pulling the cloth away and sliding off the wooden lid. There were dozens of tiny books inside, healing books, stories of the Land of Zertrin, and songbooks. “Oh, Edwin. Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

She hugged her husband tightly and felt her throat burning. “You’re too good to me!”

Edwin laughed. “I hope you won’t be so bored during the days I’m gone hunting now.”

“Well, I’ll certainly miss you,” she confessed. “But I won’t be bored.” They both laughed and Rhiannon pulled each book out to inspect while Edwin stepped outside to butcher a blue turkey.

When Edwin returned, Rhiannon was seated near the fire with a book in hand. She looked up, suddenly realizing she hadn’t yet cleared the table or cleaned the kitchen. She should’ve started cooking lunch a while ago, but she had lost track of time. The stories concerning the legendary key makers and a spirit named Horyl had her captivated.

“Rhiannon. Come here.”

After gingerly setting the book back into the box, she reluctantly approached him. “I’m so sorry, Edwin,” she said, “I must have lost track of time. It won’t happen again.”

“See that it doesn’t,” he replied, a warning look in his blue eyes. “Or you know what the consequences will be.”

“Yes, Edwin,” she said, bowing her head. “I’ll clean up and start lunch right now.”

Edwin swatted her backside once sharply as she moved past him.

Chapter 4

Rhiannon was snuggled next to Edwin on the bearskin, enjoying the peaceful crackling of the fire in the otherwise silent night. That is, until she remembered the trouble from the Land of Holon.

“Edwin, have your dreams been strange lately?”

She noticed his eyes flash and he seemed hesitant to speak. “Yes. I am confident that it is a Holon shapeshifter nearing the Cold Top that has influenced my dream spirits.”

“Will he hurt us?”

“Before the snows started up again, I placed flaggarock underneath the ground in a circle around the cabin. If he sets foot inside, then he will turn to ash. When I smell him close, I will hunt him down so that he won’t be a problem while we are journeying to Strellia.”

Rhiannon cringed. It didn’t worry her that Edwin roamed the Cold Top hunting rolabears and other beasts, but a Holon shapeshifter sounded dreadfully dangerous. “I’m afraid for you, Edwin.”

He brushed her hair behind her ears. “There’s no need to fret, lass. I killed a shapeshifter once during my days as a mortal. I am much stronger now and their weaknesses haven’t changed in five hundred years. I will be fine.”

Before Rhiannon could reply, a wild roar pierced the night, an otherworldly noise that rang in their ears.

“The wild beasts know springtime is almost upon us. You have obeyed my rule to remain inside the cabin well since the last time I punished you for it. I know the temptation to venture outside will return to you full force once you see flowers and berries outside your window. I need to you understand how dangerous springtime on the Cold Top can be.” His voice was grave and deeper than usual.

“I understand. I won’t venture outside,” she promised.

“You mustn’t open the door or the windows for a moment.”

“Not even the windows?” Rhiannon complained. “But the air will smell so sweet and the breezes warm for a change.”

The stern look on Edwin’s face made her regret that statement. “No. Not even the windows. Many of the beasts would catch your scent and push an open window further up to gain entrance to the cabin so that they could enjoy you as a snack.”

Her heart sank. So much for enjoying the short but beautiful springtime upon the Cold Top. There was no summertime with the heat as blistering as in the Land of Zertrin. Only frigid cold and a short springtime at the appointed time each year. She cursed the dangerous Cold Top beasts and the Holon shapeshifter, wishing she could frolic about the mountain and through the surrounding forest as carefree as she used to venture around the village when the weather grew warmer. She reminded herself she wasn’t in the village anymore. Much had changed during the last few months, she thought as she looked at her handsome, fierce husband.

He pulled her close and kissed her hard, and for the next few hours her worries melted away.

* * * * *

When springtime officially arrived, Edwin brought home less wild game and more fruits and berries from the surrounding woods. He also brought plenty of fresh flowers each day for Rhiannon to arrange in vases around the house. But he still refused to allow her to open even one window, even when he was at home.

She longed to sit outside upon a bed of grass and read her books, and she contemplated disobeying Edwin, but she feared the punishment as much as she dreaded disappointing him. If only that awful Holon shapeshifter wasn’t lingering around in search of Edwin.

One afternoon, when Edwin was checking the woods for signs of the shapeshifter, Rhiannon caught sight of a small rolabear outside their home. In fact, it seemed to be walking circles around the cabin, rising upon its hind legs to gaze into the windows. Its color was strange, she thought, so strange that it might not even be a rolabear. Its dark fur gleamed with the hint of green.

She watched it for a while before coming to the conclusion that it wasn’t a rolabear or a beast of the Cold Top at all.

It was the Holon shapeshifter. It had to be.

Her heart pounded as she imagined having to watch Edwin battle the creature, fearful of what this shapeshifter could transform into. This creature had been commissioned by the kin of the men from Holon that Edwin had killed, no doubt. It had to be stopped so they could leave the Cold Top. Springtime would end soon and Edwin refused to travel down the mountain with Rhiannon while the shapeshifter roamed around.

Suddenly, Edwin’s words came back to her, “If he sets foot inside, then he will turn to ash.”

The flaggarock!

Without contemplating the situation further, Rhiannon bravely flung the front door open and stepped back, waiting to witness the Holon shapeshifter enter the cabin and turn to ash. This horrid creature’s death would be her release from the Cold Top.

She would see the Palace of Lights soon.

Her stomach flipped when she heard the green, furry creature shuffling around the cabin toward the door. Her heart pounded when its massive head poked around the doorway, loudly sniffing the air. It could smell her. Its feet were a smidge away from entering the house. Just a little further, she thought. Come inside you dreadful beast!

She watched the Holon shapeshifter take its first step inside, but its body didn’t turn to ash. She panicked when its black marble eyes looked up at her and a low growl rippled in the beast’s throat. The creature remained in an attack position, crouched with just its two front paws inside the cabin.

Just the two front paws. Perhaps its whole body had to be inside for it to become ash.

Rhiannon gulped and sent silent prayers to Stretta and Retta that she hadn’t made a foolish mistake. Then she stepped forward and shook her long hair, imagining this action would cause her scent to hit the creature’s nose full force.

It worked. The furry beast took several steps inside the cabin, but the fearsome creature did not turn to ash.

Her heart contracted and she thought of Edwin. She hadn’t listened to his warning about opening the door, and now she was about to die.

The creature wasn’t a Holon shapeshifter after all. It wasn’t a rolabear, but a strange creature of the Cold Top unfamiliar to her.

It moved closer, its large nose rippling as it drew in her scent. Her bottom lip quivered and her throat burned. There was nowhere to run and she would soon die. Since she was the last descendant of the House of Wansin, there would be no way for her grandmother’s debt to be repaid to Edwin, no matter what Edwin wished. Those she loved most would suffer for her foolishness.

The green creature bared its jagged teeth and growled loud enough to rattle the windows in the cabin. She closed her eyes and tensed for the attack. When moments passed and the attack never came, she thought perhaps she was already dead. Perhaps the creature had killed her that quickly.

Rhiannon slowly opened her eyes, but creature was dead on the floor, its neck snapped and its tongue hanging loose from between vicious teeth.

Edwin was there, standing above the beast and panting. She looked at him with wide eyes. She hadn’t even heard the struggle, yet her Crigon husband had apparently killed this beast with his bare hands.

“Are you all right?”

Too petrified to speak yet, Rhiannon only nodded.

Edwin tugged the creature outside and closed the door. From the window, she saw him dragging it toward the woods. She longed for his return, yet her anticipation was fearful. She had been foolish and blatantly disobedient of his strictest rule.

There would be consequences, and they would be harsh. Edwin always made sure the punishment fit the offense, and that knowledge left her blood running cold.

She thought of pulling out the tall chair and taking her clothes off in preparation for the inevitable punishment, but she was shaking too much to move from the window. When Edwin emerged from the edge of the woods, he was walking quickly toward the short tree near the side of the cabin. She watched him pull a thin branch from the tree and use a knife to smooth the leaves from it.

Her stomach turned to water and she almost crumpled to the floor.

A switch. Edwin was going to switch her.

“Rhiannon,” Edwin began, “I don’t even know what to say to you.” His voice was dangerously low with a chill as frigid as the peaks of the Cold Top at the height of winter.

“Edwin, please let me explain,” she said through her sobs. Edwin was looming over her, the frightening switch held tight in his hand.

“No!” he shouted, and he snapped the switch against the window sill, causing her to jump.

“Aren’t you going to allow me to explain myself? I can’t believe you would take a switch to me without even listening to my side of the story.”

“Let me guess,” he drawled. “You thought this yemblaboch was the Holon shapeshifter? You thought you could open the door and lure it inside so that it would turn to ash?”

Rhiannon felt faint. Edwin obviously understood her better than she imagined. Yet he still held the switch, and his eyes were on fire with the promise of a harsh thrashing. She gulped and wiped the tears from her face. “Yes, Edwin. That’s what happened.”

Edwin’s face briefly flickered with compassion. “You did a very foolish thing, Rhiannon. But surely you must know there are strange creatures on the Cold Top that you’ve never heard of before? I have warned you many times.”

“Yes, Edwin, I know now.”

His eyes darkened and he gripped her arm. “After this punishment, I doubt you will think twice of opening the door for anything other than me.”

It was all Rhiannon could do to force her body toward the tall chair with Edwin. He’d left the switch on the table along the way. Would he spank her with his hand first? Or would he start out with the switch?

With trembling fingers, she slid her dress down and stood naked before her livid husband.

The spanking began as soon as Rhiannon was over Edwin’s lap, pinned securely in place. He pelted her cheeks and thighs with stinging slaps, never once pausing or caressing her mounds, but at least he hadn’t picked the switch up yet. She cried out several times, especially when he concentrated two or three slaps repeatedly upon the same tender area.

The pain was as great as the shame she felt for having disobeyed her husband. Of all the punishments he’d given her before, this one was definitely the most deserved. Again and again his hand came down sharply across her bottom, and Rhiannon sobbed freely, now laying limp across his lap.

Just as his hand came to rest upon her blistered buttocks, Rhiannon began to whimper “I’m sorry” over and over again. Her heart was breaking under the realization of how stupid her actions had been. She could have been killed.

Edwin’s hand remained resting upon her bottom, but he didn’t caress her stinging flesh or give any indication that he would. This punishment was much different than all the previous ones had been. This time her disobedience had almost cost her her life and ruined their plans to enter Stretta as husband and wife, not to mention the impact upon Rhiannon’s grandmother’s soul being lost forever in the Caves of Terr.

Finally, Edwin sat her up on his lap and allowed her to cry against him for a while. “I’m so sorry, Edwin,” she sobbed. “I was so stupid!”

“Shh,” Edwin soothed, his voice much calmer. “Your punishment is almost over.”

The switch. Oh, Retta.

Rhiannon had almost forgotten about the awful switch on the table. “Oh, please, Edwin, not the switch!” she begged. “I learned my lesson, I swear it. I’ll never open the door again.” Her eyes turned toward the switch fearfully, and her heart sank when Edwin led her to the table.

With a trembling body and a burning bottom, Rhiannon reluctantly bent over the table to hide her face in her palms. She lifted her head just as Edwin retrieved the switch, bracing for the pain that would soon follow.

For a while, Edwin’s footsteps were the only noise in the room, and Rhiannon realized she’d been holding her breath in dreadful expectation. He seemed to be pacing behind her, prolonging her fear of experiencing this new method of punishment. Though she’d never been switched before, she imagined the sting would be far greater than that of the belt.

The switch grazed across her thighs and quivering behind. Edwin finally took position. She whimpered and covered her face again.

“The most important rule for you to survive the Cold Top is to remain inside the cabin. I’ve told you a thousand times to never open the front door, for any reason.” His voice was thunderous and icy at the same time, a tone that sent shivers down her spine.