And that was why tears filled my eyes and I felt my lips quiver as those tears spilled down my cheeks but I held his angry gaze until it melted with the wet.
Then I looked to the side and whispered, “You will tear me apart. You do this; you do it knowing you will destroy me.” I pulled in a breath and dashed the tears away with the back of my hand and, when my vision cleared, I straightened by shoulders and looked back at him. “But you are Dax and you are warrior, so obviously, you are free to do as you will.”
That was when he growled, “You will not leave me.”
I didn’t respond.
“You will never leave me.”
I kept my silence, held his eyes and we went into stare down.
He broke it by stating, “You will never leave me, Circe, in any way you could leave me.”
I didn’t know what that meant exactly but I didn’t ask nor did I get the chance because he kept talking.
“To make that so, I will not ever take another woman but you.”
I sucked in a hopeful breath as I felt my eyes grow round at his capitulation but he wasn’t done and when he spoke his voice was way lower than normal and it rumbled through the tent.
“You have this one warning, I will not repeat it and I will point out that I have not once asked you to alter any of who you are. Not once. You are not of my people and you behave in ways that are strange to me, yet you seem not to understand that this is true. But never have I asked you to change who you are.”
I winced because this was true. He expected me to accept his way of life but he never asked me to change who I was.
He continued. “This is the last concession I will make for you. I am who I am, I am Korwahk, I am warrior, I am Dax and you must accept me as what I am. I may have forced my body on yours but I did not force your love, you gave it to me knowing who I am. As we live our lives, you cannot decide to disagree with parts of that and then decide to take your love away, Circe. I’ll not live like that. Therefore, you need to reflect on this, come to your peace with it and never, my golden queen, never request another such concession from me.”
My lips parted to respond but he didn’t give me the chance. He prowled to the cham flaps, slapped them back and he was gone.
He didn’t return until very late but I was awake when he did. I stayed still in our bed until he joined me in it and I knew how angry he still was when he didn’t curl into me or pull me to him but settled on his back not touching me.
So I whispered hesitantly into the cham, “Thank you for…” I paused then, “It was important to me, thank you.”
Lahn didn’t respond.
I forged ahead. “I will um… process things and come to peace with my life with you and the Korwahk.”
Nothing from Lahn.
I kept going. “I’ll, uh… never ask for another concession again, I promise.”
To that I got a growled, “Promise never to leave me.”
I closed my eyes tight, rolled, scooted to him and got up on an elbow but rested my other hand on his chest.
When my eyes locked with his, I whispered, “I promise never to leave you, baby.”
And I said it like I meant it because I did. And in that moment, he didn’t know that I actually gave up a world for him. But the weight of my words still communicated that.
He glared up at me, then his arms shot around me, pulling me down, his lips captured mine and then he rolled me to my back.
The next morning he left.
And tomorrow he would be home.
I know it sounded crazy, but I couldn’t wait.
I missed my king.
* * * * *