Predatory Marriage

real.
Leah felt as if she were drifting in a dream, until shouts snapped her out of it.

“Leah!”

Nearby, Blain staggered to his feet, and shouted again.

“Leah! Leah!!!”

The sound of his voice was eerie and unhinged as he screamed her name, and only stopped when she finally turned to look at him.
Ishakan’s head turned to look at him only when she did.

For a long moment, the two men stared at each other, their gazes locked and taut with tension.
In his madness and injury, Blain had forgotten to be afraid, and he did not look as if he would back down.

Pushing Leah behind him, Ishakan strode toward Blain, whose eyes took on a wild light as the distance between them shrank.

“Am I not permitted here?” Ishakan smiled at the other man.
“Didn’t you invite me as your guest?”

It was Blain who had invited the Kurkans to the wedding.
He had been pleased to provoke them.
And this was where that pride had led him, to this pathetic end.
Even the spell they thought so perfect was breaking apart.

But Blain would not admit defeat even when it was staring him in the face.

“You act as if you’ve loved her a thousand years when you’ve only just met her, disgusting bastard!” He shouted.
His eyes were bloodshot.
“You’re just like that bastard, Byun Gyeongbaek! You just want to fuck the Princess of Estia!”

Ishakan looked as if he were listening with great interest.

“So what’s the difference between you and me?” He inquired.

“I’ve been with her all our lives,” Blain answered immediately.

Ishakan laughed, loud and long.
And then he stopped.
The humor drained away and his face hardened, and the air around him crackled with a cold, lethal energy.

Leah knew that expression.
He had been wearing it as he walked through a dark alley filled with corpses.
If he wanted to, he could snap Blain’s neck in an instant.

But instead, he turned his golden gaze to Leah, and Blain frowned as he followed Ishakan’s eyes to her belly.