Page 4 of Rauf: Minotaur Mates

He narrowed his eyes and breathed deep. My lips parted before I’d worked out what I was going to say. I swore I saw them flash with some kind of… something. I wished I had a word for it, but my brain was in the middle of short-circuiting and I couldn’t manage anything more than the vaguest syllables.

Korfas yelled for everyone to disperse and the minotaur’s lips pulled back in a scowl. He tore his gaze away from me and looked to the deputy before he finally turned away and climbed into a surprisingly battered truck.

Nothing in New Knossos should have looked old. The town had existed for less than a decade, and Ceres-9 had been little more than an uninhabited rock that no one cared about until the minotaurs made it home. At least, that was what the Alien Matchmaking Agency brochure had said. I had no reason to doubt it. But the scary-hot minotaur’s truck looked like something that had been sitting in the back of an old barn for decades, covered by a dusty tarp and forgotten for years.

It sounded like it, too, coughing and sputtering for a few beats before he drove away.

This place was getting to me. Hopefully Mr. Scars lived far outside of town and I wouldn’t have to see him again.

I didn’t know what about him made my body interested, but he didn’t look like husband material. Korfas was.

And that made any tingly thoughts evaporate.

The excitement was dying down with Korfas directing traffic now, and I decided to head back to the barracks before he got free and could do something ridiculous like offer to walk me home. Ceres-9 was about as safe as a place full of emotionally traumatized, horned, retired killing machines could be.

Okay, that made it sound bad.

But the minotaurs didn’t want to fight, and they didn’t want to hurt me, and the barracks were just at the end of the street.

They were even newer than the rest of town, having been built in the last few months. The earlier brides had apparently chosen their husbands, or been chosen by them, the moment they stepped off the transport and jumped straight into trial marriages without knowing more than their man’s name. It was still an option, and two of the women on my transport had hopped right into their trial marriages, but I wasn’t so spontaneous.

The barracks smelled of fresh wood and fresher paint, though plenty of spaces still weren’t fully painted. It was nice, in a brand-new summer camp sort of way, and I was happy for the space to myself. I’d planned to sit with my book until I could think about tomorrow’s dinner without seeing that scarred face instead.

So why was a woman unpacking her bags in my room?

The rooms were all doubles, but there weren’t enough of us to need to double up yet. The woman startled when she saw me. She whipped around and her blue eyes were as big as saucers and filled to the brim with unshed tears.

“Are you all right?” Compassion came out first, thankfully, because there was enough exasperation inside me too and I didn’t need to be a total asshole. “It’s Julia, right?” We’d met a few nights ago at a bride welcome night at the tavern put on by Maisie and Chloe.

Julia nodded and sniffled, wiping angrily at her eyes. “Nezara said I should take this bed. Is that okay?”

“Nezara’s the boss.” She ran the bride program, and if she had declared I was getting a roommate, I guess I was.

Julia managed a weak smile. “Yeah, she’s definitely that. She said—” She had to suck in a deep breath and didn’t finish whatever she was thinking.

I didn’t want to pry, but I had thought Julia was married to one of the minotaurs. So what was she doing here?

Before I could figure out how to ask, she saved me. “I couldn’t take it anymore. Dezan and I… gosh, it was like I was living in a stranger’s house. I mean, I guess I was.” She made a sound that might have been a laugh. “And every time he touched me…” She shivered. “I thought he was going to break me in half.”

“Did he⁠—”

“No.” She was quick to answer. “Nothing like that. We didn’t do much more than kiss. But he was so strong and I couldn’t stop… maybe I’m not made for this place. Nezara said I should move in here and think about it for a bit.”

I tried to think of Korfas the way Julia was talking about Dezan. Yes, he was giant, and strong, and could snap me in half, but I hadn’t been at all afraid.

And then there was the scarred minotaur and thinking of him at all sent a surge of heat through me.

Not the time.

“Did Dezan give you that scarf?” I asked. Julia had on a finely woven ombre scarf that seemed to magically transform from orange to pink to purple depending on the angle you viewed it from.

She raised her hand up to pet the fabric. “Oh, no, he didn’t give me anything. My brother sent me this.” She smiled warmly. “He said he didn’t want me to get cold.”

“Sounds like a nice guy.”

“He’s really the best.” Her tears had cleared up for the most part and she started pulling things out of her suitcase again. “Is there anyone back home who sent stuff with you?” she asked.

Earth was one failed relationship after another, and the less said about my family, the better. But if I said any of that out loud, I feared Julia was going to start crying again.