Chapter 5

Five

Niko

I watch her storm into the house. She's nearly as beautiful angry as she is when full of lust. I slide the screen to accept the call.

Nocturn's angry voice forces me to hold the phone away from my ear. "Where are you? Where is my daughter? Why are you not here?"

"Why didn't you ask Astra if she wished to marry? Why didn't you tell her you had arranged a marriage? Why didn't you give her my letters?"

He can try, but I'm hard to push around.

There's a long pause. "She told you that? You saw Astra?"

Tired of questions and no answers, I calm my burst of annoyance and keep my voice even. "Astra has agreed to spend a few days in my house as my guest. She has not agreed to the marriage."

"Bring her here. I'll expect you in one hour." He grumbles something about disobedience. "Tell her that if she doesn't show herself, I will drag her home and keep her from her precious trees."

Even though I have no intention of allowing Nocturn to punish Astra, I say nothing about it. "I will convey your request, but I expect you to honor the agreement she and I have made. There will be no wedding today unless it is what Astra wishes."

"Be careful of your tone, boy. I'm not any ordinary monster." Darkness thrums in his warning.

I could throw a similar warning back at him. While my parents were not gods, my grandfather was a demigod. "I shall not take a wife who doesn't want me."

Softer in tone, he says, "I only wish to talk to her. She'll listen to me."

I have my doubts. "I'll see if she's available to pay a call in one hour."

Before Nocturn can protest, I disconnect the call.

I carry things inside and put the tray on the kitchen counter. The house is so quiet, I wonder if Astra has run away, but she promised the week and I believe she will honor her word. Making sure my hooves are heard on the stairs, I go to her door and knock. "May I come in?"

"I suppose so." She sounds petulant even though her father called me. She acts as if I'm in cahoots with him.

I step in and feel torn between being saved by the bell and wanting her amorous gaze back. She stares out the window with her arms crossed over her chest. Her phone is on the nightstand with the opened letter from yesterday and the one from today still sealed in its envelope.

Part of me hoped she'd read it right away, but I knew she probably wouldn't. "Your father has requested that we pay him a visit."

"You mean he demanded I come." She meets my gaze. "Did he make threats?"

"I won't lie to you. He said that if we don't come, he'll drag you home and lock you away from your trees." My gut tightens.

"Then, I suppose, I have no choice." She picks up her phone and puts it in her pocket. "I can go by myself, Niko."

Pushing down my urge to strip her naked and give her what she asked for on the porch, I close the distance between us. "Astra, I would never allow you to come to harm, not even at the hands of your father. He will not take you away from your trees or anything else that brings you joy. I will accompany you, unless you forbid it."

She worries her bottom lip between her teeth. "I'm not getting married today."

"No. I have informed your father that there will be no wedding this afternoon." Unable to stop myself, I run my fingers along her upper arm. Her skin is soft and warm. She prickles with gooseflesh at my touch and I don't know if that's good or bad.

Swaying slightly toward me, she blinks and catches herself. "Unless you want a fight with my father on your front door, we should go. It's a long walk."

"We don't have to walk. I have a vehicle." I can't help grinning when her mouth opens and now words come out.

"You are too big to fit in a human car." She cocks her head, but amusement lights her eyes and I like that I've put it there.

Once I've escorted her downstairs, I pull my specially made Jeep to the front driveway.

Astra gapes from the steps and then laughs. "That's the biggest, blackest, baddest Jeep I've ever seen." She skips to the passenger's door and leaps in and buckles her seat belt. "I love it."

Happy that I've done something to make her smile, I shift into gear and head toward her father's house. Even with the alterations, my head reaches the top of the roof and I'm happier when I can take the top off. I suspect it will rain. I wasn't willing to risk drenching us both and the interior for my comfort.

"Can we ride in this one day when the weather will be better?" She's grinning and my heart soars at the sight.

"I think tomorrow it will be sunny all day. We can ride with the top off." It's such a small thing, but her asking me for this seems bigger. No strings. No rules. Just going out and having fun together.

"I know a place that will be perfect to ride and after the rain this afternoon, it should be a lot of fun." She grips the grab bar on the dashboard with both hands as if it's the safety bar on an amusement ride.

"What other activities amuse you?" I pray she doesn't say anything alluring. The effects of her request have not fully vanished, nor do I expect they will any time soon.

"I like to swim and run with the whitetail deer that live in the woods. I climb my trees from the outside and oversee the forest. I have a few friends who are not under the spell of my sexual appeal and I visit with them. I study the stars and enjoy astronomy as well as astrology." She sighs. "I like books, though rarely make the time to read much these days."

"It sounds like a lot of fun." I wanted to go and watch her swim today, but it would have defeated the point of her wishing to be away from me.

"Do you have hobbies?" She blushes as if this is the first time she's inquired about someone.

"I read a great deal. I can't climb a tree, but I do enjoy taking a book and reading under them. I can swim, though I'm not very graceful in water." At least I won't drown. "I told you I enjoy cooking even though it is technically my profession, and I play several instruments better than most."

"Why are you so big?" She stares at my legs, then scans up to my face, with an adorable crease between her eyes.

"What do you mean?" It takes all my will not to get fully hard again.

She lets out a breath. "Goat legs shouldn't be so large. You could be part horse, but that wouldn't explain the horns."

"I am man and goat and perhaps because of my ancestors, bigger than most of either species. My father was the same." I shrug and make the turn that leads the last few miles to Nocturn's house.

"Who is your mother? Is she a monster?"

Thinking of my parents always makes me smile. "Mother is a Lycan. Very beautiful and very fierce. She can shift to human form but prefers to stay a beast. I think Father prefers it too."

"They live in Canada?" Her tone has grown sadder the closer we get to her home.

"Yes. In the mountains near Alaska. It's very remote and suits them." I touch her hand and she offers it for me to hold. My pulse speeds and my chest tightens. This small gesture of tenderness means so much more than her earlier offer. "Your mother was human?"

"She was a lovely person with little understanding of what I would become or what Father truly was. Then an illness took her away when I was small. Father took her to the human doctors, but they said there was nothing to be done." Her tone is even, as if she's told this a hundred times, or maybe the story was told to her and she's merely repeating it.

"Did he love her?" It's hard to imagine the overbearing demigod having an emotional attachment to anyone, let alone a human.

Astra cocks her head. "I don't know."

The house comes into view. It's as close to a palace as I've ever seen in North America. Three tall stories of white and blue with spires reaching to the sky. A golden gate is centered on a ten-foot, black, steel gate. As we approach, the gate opens.

To the left, a wide lawn is covered with white flowers and chairs streaming with tulle. Servants are bustling around, and I can't tell if they're tearing it down or putting things in place. "Do you think he still believes we'll be married in two hours?"

"Yes. Father doesn't like to be wrong." She releases my hand and draws a deep breath as we pull to a stop near the grand stairs leading up to an enormous arched entrance.

Standing in the open doorway is Nocturn. His appearance is that of a large man with pale hair that flows around his shoulders as it catches the breeze. His bright blue eyes burn with fury and his thick arms are crossed over the white dress shirt.

No one can doubt that Nocturn is formidable, even if he is misguided.

I get out and rush around to open the door for Astra. Offering my hand, I hope my support is obvious since we both know she doesn't need my help.

"What are you wearing?" her father bellows from above.

Unfazed, Astra steps toward him with her hand still in mine. "Clothes, Father. I plan to wear clothes and do as I please from now on." She drops my hand and steps around her father, into the house.

Smiling after her, I look Nocturn in the eyes. "She's strong-willed. I like her very much."

"You're more foolish than I expected. Nymphs need to be controlled or they will seduce everyone in their view." He rolls his eyes as if this is common knowledge that I'm too stupid to know.

"I hope those employees of yours are removing that wedding setup. It's going to rain and no one is getting married today." I cock my head. "Unless you're taking a bride, sir."

Jaw tight and muscles testing the threads of his dress shirt, Nocturn growls. "What is the arrangement the two of you have made?"

Facing him, I take the same stance. "Astra will tell you if she wishes you to know."

Frustration etched in the creases around his mouth and eyes, he spins and walks into the house.

I follow, trying to hide my amusement.

Astra lounges on a royal-blue chaise. It has rolled arms and Queen Anne feet. It looks as if it was plucked right out of the eighteenth century and dropped in the ornate sitting room. The large room is separated into three conversational areas and a fourth corner with a white grand piano that Liberace would envy.

My fingers itch to play the magnificent instrument. Instead, I sit in a chair far too delicate and small for me. Its only appeal is that it's next to Astra.

Nocturn glares at her.

Paula calls Astra's name. "Astra, my dear." She is the woman who runs the house, as far as I could tell from my earlier visits. She's a human with salt-and-pepper bobbed hair and large dark-rimmed glasses and no fear at all. Rushing in from a door at the other end of the room, she's grinning. "I'm so happy to see you. Shall I call for tea? I love this sundress. You look lovely."

Astra stands and hugs Paula. "Thank you."

"No tea," Nocturn commands.

Neither lady reacts to his loud voice. They continue to chat to each other.

After a few minutes, Paula says, "No tea, so we're going to have a chat and then what?"

"A wedding." Nocturn scowls at Astra, then me.

I stand. "It's nice to see you again, Ms. Paula."

"And you, Mr. Barbaros."

Letting my hooves clomp more than is polite, I say, "There will be no wedding today."

Nocturn sits in a very large chair that resembles a throne with a wide, fanned back that extends above his head. "What is the arrangement between the two of you?"

I offer my hand to Astra so that she will sit beside me on the love seat and I can abandon the smaller chair.

She looks confident and sure, but her hand shakes and her inhalation has a hitch.

Smiling, I give her a nod. I hope she knows I will stand beside her no matter what she says.