“She was being courted by someone she and I both thought was a decent male. He spoke of a great affection, and made promises of marriage. But as soon as Meryn was pregnant, he abandoned her.”
“Damn,” I said softly. At least Paul had never pretended to love me, or promise to marry me, before he stopped taking my calls.
“In Zabria,” Zohro said, somehow sounding both grave and furious, “this is ruination. My sister was facing the loss of her reputation, which would have destroyed her career as a brilliant surgeon. Our father had recently died. Though she is ten cycles older than I am, I was the eldest male of the family and thus, I felt responsible. For all of it.”
“Oh, Zohro…”
“I demanded a meeting with him. With Xander. Her suitor.” His lips curled into a vicious sneer. “But it turned out, he had never been her suitor at all. It was all a ruse meant to destroy us. He was the son of another surgeon, which he had hidden from us. Xander’s father lost his license in Zabria after our father testified as an expert witness against him in court. A patient had died, and our father knew it was Xander’s father’s fault. He acted with honesty, with honour. Exactly as he should have!” Zohro’s voice rose. He appeared to fight to steady it.
But he couldn’t steady those eyes. They were as bright as sunlight. As bright as the hellfire of a soul.
“Xander gloated during our meeting. Threw my sister’s love for him in my face. Told me that he’d lied to her the entire time. He’d always meant to leave her. He told me-” Zohro’s knuckles cracked as he formed fists I wasn’t even sure he was aware of. “-that he’d hated every moment of being inside her. While my sister had loved him, had imagined a future with him, he had held nothing but contempt and disgust for her. Even as he’d lain with her.”
“Holy shit,” I breathed. “No wonder you killed him!”
I’d never even met Zohro’s big sister and I wanted to strangle Xander myself.
“I did not kill him at that moment, though my control was cracking. And cracking swiftly,” he growled. “He tried to leave after that, and I grabbed his arm to stop him. As I said, I was the eldest male now that our father was gone. I was desperate to do… Do something! Something that would fix it all for Meryn. I demanded that he accept responsibility for the child, to claim it in front of all of Zabria. Even though he did not deserve to be near the child or my sister again, their lives would have been much improved if he had merely acknowledged the child in name only. I was prepared to bribe him to do it. But my touch sent him into a rage. I was my father’s son, and therefore just as much a target for his hatred as Meryn had been. He hit me hard, then pushed me. He might have gone on to beat me badly, maybe even to my death.”
“And?” I prompted gently when Zohro didn’t speak for a long time.
“And when he came for me again, his tail moving to wrap around my throat, I took a scalpel from my kit and stabbed him.” He tapped two claws against the side of his neck. “Right here.” His hand dropped. He looked at it for a moment before turning his attention to a single white cloud in the otherwise searing blue sky.
“He fell, and he bled, and I watched him bleed. I probably could have saved him. If I’d tried.”
“But you didn’t try.”
“No,” he said grimly. “I did not.” He scrubbed his hand across his eyes. “And that is the whole sordid tale of it. That is why I am here.” He took a shattered-sounding breath. But when his eyes met mine again, they were pink. “Do you still wish to go through with the ceremony?”
I tried to process everything he’d told me. Take the broken shards of his past and fit them together in a way that would make sense. In a way that would help me fit alongside them, too. The pieces were cutting me, even now. I felt such sorrow for Zohro. And for his sister.
And then, the sinking realization. I finally knew why Zohro was marrying me.
It was because of Meryn.
He couldn’t save her. So he’d chosen to save me instead.
Even if it meant marrying someone that he didn’t actually want. That he’d never actually love.
But wasn’t that what I’d signed up for? I knew going into this that my marriage might not be a romantic match. All I’d wanted was a safe home. Horses. Somewhere to raise Baby Girl in peace.
And that’s what I was getting. Zohro was giving me everything I could have possibly hoped for.
Even if it now felt like my hopes, and my heart, had just gotten stomped on.
Repeatedly.
“Yes,” I said, not recognizing my own voice. It sounded so quiet, so far away. “I’ll still go through with the ceremony.” And then, in a depressing echo of Zohro’s words before, I added, “Let’s get this done.”
20
ZOHRO
Jolene was solemn and a little pale as Warden Tenn read the marriage rites outside the house. When it came time for the human kiss portion of the ceremony, which I was well acquainted with and prepared for after reading Tasha’s book, she asked the warden if it could be skipped.
Warden Tenn furrowed his brow.
“I usually make them do it,” he said, his orange eyes bouncing between Jolene and me.
