10

Ash dug his face into her neck and sniffed delicately. His grip around her waist tightened and his breathing was slow and exaggerated. He wanted to have her so bad but he was respecting her opinion and dismissing his cravings.

His dumb concubines would be back in a few weeks anyway. He had sent them off to show respect to his supposed new wife, but here his fake wife was, denying him access.

His concubines never rejected him, they would beg and cry to have a taste of the long pole below his belt. "Tear me master!" They would cry. Pathetic.

"Never been touched before." He repeated her words from earlier and craned her head backwards giving his head more space.

Myan unconsciously wrapped her arms around his wet back in reaction to his nose that was trailing up the skin of her neck. She had never felt so attached to someone in this manner before and she was having goosebumps invade her skin. Was this because of the cold or was he playing with her head?

Ash took note of this behaviour. Did this mean he could tame her? Was she afraid because nobody had tried to make her feel good before?

He needed to satisfy his sexual thirst. He had never gone this long without sex and would do almost anything to be pleasured.

He was about to cup her breast in his hand when she stuttered in a low voice. "M..my lo..rd."

He snapped his eyes open, frowned and grunted in disapproval.

"Carry on." He turned around again and extended his hand for the towel which he passed to her.

She felt her heart beating fast in its cage. She was attracted to the lord's touch but she was still afraid.  They were married and he could touch her if he wanted but this was the first time someone would overlook their desire because she asked them to and she respected him for that, absent mindedly wiping his back clean as he requested.

She took her time with it, soaking the small towel in water, squeezing it and padding his back before rubbing the surface.

"I'm done." She said after repeating this action for the umpteenth time.

"No one has ever taken that much time to clean my back." He said. "You will do that for as long as you will be here." He told her and nodded, silently asking her to hop out of the bath.

Did that mean he intended to keep her there with him for an even longer period?

"Yes lord." She said, standing upright in the bath. Her dress was soaking wet and its length stood as an obstacle when she lifted one leg to step out of there. She stumbled and leaned forward to fall but he was faster again, catching her by the wrist.

Her cheeks were red in embarrassment as she regained her balance. She lifted her dress up, walked out of the room leaving a trail of water. Ash shook his head and continued to finish his bath.

She went back to her room, at least, the room she had spent the last days in.

She found some charcoal sitting beside the stove and smiled to herself. He must have been considerate enough to leave them there, either that or they just happened to be there.

She got out of her wet clothes and realized she had nothing to wear.  She wished she would have been permitted to grab a few of her service gowns while they had been at the palace. She looked around for her wedding attire but it was gone. She would have made done with the elastic gown.

With a sigh,  she sat on the bed naked since she had nothing to do, she could as well stay all day until it dried.

Ash disconnected her thoughts when he walked into the room. He didn't bother with knocking and that freaked her out.

She stood up with a screech, trying to hide her private organs from view.

He stared at her blankly, one eyebrow raised. He had never seen someone so skinny. She needed to eat more and it was glaring. "You can go to the bath now, I left you another gown there." It was one of his concubines'.

"Okay." She wished he would stop looking directly at her even though there was nothing to look at exactly.

"I don't know when I'll be back from hunting, might be pretty late. You already have food, you don't need anything else." He said and turned to leave.

She stopped him with a little call for him. "Lord Ash?"

"Hm?" He said without looking back at her.

"W..would you mind if I tagged along? I won't waste time in the bath I promise. I'm afraid to stay all by myself and..."

"Hurry up." He cut her long story off and she sighed in relief, wrapping her wet gown around her naked self and hurried to the bath. She really didn't want to stay back at the mountains alone.

*

By the time she was done, he was waiting in the living area. His hair was in a ponytail now and a few loose strands framed both sides of his face. She noted how his hair was the first thing she always saw.

"Lord Ash?" She called. He seemed to be lost in thoughts and she thought it was rude to randomly call him but she must have wasted enough of his time already.

"Call me Ash." He said as he stood to his feet. He was in a brown leather shirt and black shorts.

"Excuse me?" She wondered in confusion.

"I like how you say it, exclude the lord. You'll be staying here for a while so get rid of it." She followed right after him as he took his exit from the room.

Another daylight. Myan sighed in relief. She knew at once that it was a terrible decision to have left her hair down but she had lost her scrunchie in the tub. The wind was not being friendly and his long rope showed that he was doing a long hunt.

She tried to see if she could pull her hair into one huge braid but the breeze was adamant.

Ash looked over his shoulder to find her struggling and wondered what she was on to. "And what are you trying to do?"

"My hair, it's bothering me." She said in her small voice.

He stopped walking and drew her closer to him with a pull on her wrist. As if he was born to do so, he pulled her hair in his hand in one grip and that did it for her. He braided it into one without struggle or detangling it first.

Myan thought he was overrated when it came to being afraid of him. He was actually a calm man yet a spoilt brat that caused trouble if he didn't get what he wanted.

If only Kassy had let him have his way and stayed back. She would have a lot to enjoy and he was the type of man one could grow to love.

But now, one week was all they had. If Kassy didn't return by the end of one week, not only would he mess with the palace, he was going to send attacks to the world of water because a mere man from their world had dared to take what 'belonged' to him. Myan worried for that part a lot.

The world of water citizens were usually considered weak but in the real sense, they were stronger. Water always conquered fire but even they had no idea how powerful they were.

People of fire were proud, boasted and made good use of their powers, threatening others but the world of water lacked knowledge of their value.

Myan feared what would happen if Ash tampered with that world. They had a new lord since the last war, and who knew if he was just as strong headed as Ash?

"What are you thinking?" Ash interrupted her thoughts system. She only shook her head in response.

They were going so slow, it could almost be mistaken for a nice morning stroll.

She spoke up after a few minutes had passed, "but lord, how do you intend to bring your hunt back home?"

"What do you mean?" He lifted his hand to show her the rope. "With this of course."

She didn't understand how one rope was supposed to help them get anything done but she decided not to push the story farther.

"You are not going to hurt the animals, are you?" She voiced her concern after a while.

He looked at her and chuckled, putting his hands behind him as they walked down the mountain and towards the forest. "No." He said with a smirk.

"Okay good. Because the animals are innocent and deserve to live." She made her point.

"But these same animals prey on smaller animals, you know why?" He raised an eyebrow at her. She had no answer and just looked directly at him, waiting for him to continue speaking.

"Because in this world we live in, you have to survive. You either eat, or be eaten. That's why it's called a hunt." He said.

"Okay but..."

"Wait." He stopped walking and extended his arms in an horizontal manner, crouching a little in defence mode, keeping her behind him.

"What?" She whispered in fear, hiding behind his shadow.

He didn't respond but his eyes were glued to the bushes. He took slow steps forward and then she heard it too, slight movements in the grass. She gripped on to his shoulder tight, her heart racing in fear. "What's that?" She swallowed.

He still maintained his focus on the trail of grass, completely ignoring her and her worry.

Out of nowhere, he dug his hand into the bush and dragged out a rattlesnake by its neck.

Myan moved backwards with a loud scream, shielding her face with her arms.

The snake hissed and stuck its tongue out, wiggling as it tried to move free from Ash's grip.

Ash had a tight grip on the snake and moved it closer to her. She shrieked in fear and started running. He laughed at the action before twisting and smashing its head against a rock.

She had stopped running when she assumed she was at a safe distance and came closer to him. She stared at the dead creature, feeling like it was only pretending and would jump back to life anytime soon.

"Like I was saying," he continued to walk with a smirk, "it's eat or be eaten. Still want to come with me on this hunt?"

"What if the snakes crawl up the mountain and try to attack me?" She shuddered in fear, gluing herself to him for the fear of unknown attack. "How did you know it was there?" She was amazed.

When there was no response, she asked, "so, tell me, how does it feel to be so powerful?" She was stating to feel a lot more comfortable around him and protected.

"How does it feel to be so powerless?" He retorted.

He separated two branches that had crossed from the opposite direction and serving as an obstacle to their route.

"You have so much power, I don't even understand it. The first time we met, I thought you would be the size of a rock with your earth shaking steps and your thubderous voice but you were doing that without any of those things and you can shift into a beast... no offense, it must be so... it is endless!" She shook her head in amusement.

"We are getting closer to our hunt. My servants should be back today and I'd like they prepare a good feast for everyone." He told her.

"Okay." She nodded. She was excited to meet the servants. At least, she wouldn't feel so out of place. Although they would be higher class servants since her masters were inferior to theirs. She knew she was treated as a superior when she met the random village servants.

"I need you to stay here and pluck those cha leaves. They make good vegetable soup. I'm about to head into a dangerous part of the forest and the wildest animals tour that route. Stay here and nothing will go wrong. I'll be with you shortly." He said and made moves to leave immediately.

She gasped and wrapped her hands around his arm. "You're leaving me b..by myself?" She panicked.

"If you stay here, nothing will go wrong." He requested, gently shoving her hands off.

"I'm sorry." She apologized. She had unconsciously grabbed his arm.

He clicked his tongue at her and disappeared from sight after uttering, "I'll be back."

She was alone and afraid. Even though she was supposed to trust him, she seemed to be unable to bring herself to do so.

She nodded to herself and dug into the leaves. Cha leaves used to be her favourite when they were made into soup but only the younger servants could eat them, since they supposedly made them stronger.

She was so anxious, crouching low and storing the leaves into a patch on the floor, having no way to bundle it together.

A little colourful butterfly perched on a leaf close to her and that scared the life out of her. She screamed so loud, she choked on her spit.

She sighed in relief after realizing it was only an harmless animal.

"Hello there." She greeted the butterfly that was flying away from the psycho.

Meanwhile, Ash had been targeting an antelope that was walking all by itself when he heard Myan scream. His brown eyes went a bright red and his ears shot up straight.

The panicked Antelope had run away from the scene and birds left their trees in response to the echoes from the scream.

"Servant." He growled, turning around so he could see what was wrong with her. He went on full speed. He had warned her not to leave that spot, why had she done otherwise?

Myan was recovering from the butterfly shock when she heard the rustling of leaves from a distance.

She stood to her feet sharply and began to panic, her eyes going everywhere in search of what could be a mark of defense.

She snapped a branch from the nearest tree, wondering if she was supposed to run. She could get lost and she had no idea what she was supposed to do if Ash was unable to find her.

The creature was getting closer. She swallowed in fear, what could a tree branch do to save her life.

She charged at the creature as soon as it came to view but Ash was faster and gripped her waist until she was close to his chest, at the speed of light.

She panted heavily, fear seizing her tight when she met his eyes. Why were they red? She didn't care though.

"Ash!" She wrapped her arms around his neck, letting go off the stick. "Thank goodness you're here."

I'll be removing this book from webnovel soon die to the lack of comments, I feel like I'm wasting my time.