Their Wife

Fifteen

"Enjoying the view, doll? I'm going to have to charge you if you plan to keep watching."

His words jolted me out of my nonplussed state. My mouth opened and closed, unsure how to respond to him. It didn't help that he was still pounding into Andreas as his lavender eyes were locked onto mine.

His eyes lit with epicaricacy at my discomfort. He seemed to enjoy it more than the man beneath him.

Andreas moaned loudly as I swooped down to gather my scattered supplies. I could feel the flames in my face surely turning it red.

I should have knocked.

Once gathered, I gripped the handle of the bucket so tightly my knuckles were white and the wire felt like it was cutting into my skin.

I mumbled an apology as I hastily exited, avoiding looking at them as he seemed to go harder. The sound of Andreas's moans and skin meeting skin grew louder. I could hear Zev's rumbling laughter follow me before turning into grunts.

I would clean his room later.

* * *

I decided to finish cleaning the floors that I had abandoned earlier before moving on to my next task. It took longer than I thought it was, so when I finished I rushed to the supply closet.

I wanted to finish my work before dinner so I didn't have to go to bed hungry once again.

Putting away the supplies, I changed into the boots that Kai had found for me and headed out to the stables. I had to clean them daily. Sometimes I had henry to help, others I was left on my own to defend against Lyria's nipping bites. Maybe she just had a thing for my ass.

Like Zev had a thing for Andreas's.

I squeezed my eyes shut to try to get the image of them out of my mind. It was useless. The image seemed to be burned into my retinas. Hopefully, the hard labour of cleaning large piles of mythical animal shit would be enough to distract me. Apparently, dirty floors weren't. The scene I had walked into had been replaying in my head ever since.

I grabbed the wheelbarrow and shovel before making my way to the empty stall that belonged to the clumsy griffin, Blue. I scrunched my nose at the scent. The sight wasn't any better. I got to work, wanting to finish before Blue was back. Most of the animals were well behaved and left me to do my work, but some, ahem, Lyria, we're more challenging to work around.

I jumped when the griffin in the next stall sneezed loudly.

Shovel gripping in hand, I dived right in. I wanted to breathe through my mouth to avoid the stench that grew as I shoved the excretes, but I'd rather smell it than feel like I was huffing shit particles. Not the most logical thought process since the air I breathed through my nose ended up in the same place.

When I finished, I moved on to the next. It was a large barn and there were many stalls. It was going to take a while.

Some time later Henry returned with the reins attached to Blue who walked by his side. It was still strange seeing all the animals. I was only instructed to handle the stalls that held the pegasus' and griffins, but I could still see the animals I was told to stay away from. Further into the barn were a few larger stalls and cages that held phoenixes, hippogriffs, qilins, and dragons the sizes of SUVs. Kai told me they also had another structure on the lake down the hill that held some water creatures.

"Greetin', lass," he said as Blue walked him to his stall.

"Hi, mother hen," I replied as I avoided stepping in shit and piss.