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now. Gathering her strength, she kneed him in the groin, shouting, “Get off me, you brute!”
    He doubled over, snarling and stumbling backward.
    As betrayal and confusion flickered across his features, she delivered the final blow. “I told you, many things have changed. You didn’t presume I would wait, pining for you for five years, did you?” She crossed her arms over her chest to contain the agony of her words. “You have the worst timing, Thereus.”
    Clearly still in pain, he grated, “Not true. I’ve been told my timing is rather perfect.”
    She huffed. “You do realize, then, that in five short weeks, I might have been free of you forever?” She raised a brow, a grim smile upon her lips.
    “Five weeks?” His brows drew together.
    “Yes, by centaur law, your absence equates the dissolution of our marriage. Five weeks, centaur, that’s all I needed. But you’ve ruined everything.” She kindled her anger, but she feared her words sounded too soft. Regardless, they had the desired effect.
    He sank to the ground, seeming more like a disheartened child than an irate husband. “Very well, my Lady. Do not let my presence interfere with your plans.” His reply was so cold, a dagger of ice in her heart, slashing open the wounds she’d pieced together after he’d left the first time.
    She spun on her heel and fled the room, terrified he might note misery in her eyes. Scurrying to her chamber, she slammed the door behind her, and leaning against it, collapsed. Her hand splayed across her mouth, she attempted to quieten her sobs, but they came anyway. She hated hurting him. She hated loving him. The two were incompatible.
    This was for the best. He must have been content these past years and he would be happy to resume that life.
    She refused to live in fear of him discovering the truth and she couldn’t bear to reveal it to him. Her thoughts constricted her throat with the venom of a thousand bees.
    If he learned who she truly was, she’d lose Thereus more completely than she ever had.

Chapter 4

    Nothing had changed. Time, distance, they didn’t make a difference. He still repulsed her, was a monster to her. To think, he’d actually been about to take her like a common whore.
    In his study, Thereus reclined in his armchair, nursing a bottle of brandy. If anything, he observed tonight that Kalliste was his opposite. She was everything he wasn’t.
    He snorted, disgusted with himself. It wasn’t her fault that she loathed being near him. A man didn’t leave his wife in charge of his failing estate while he sought pleasure in every form. No wonder she’d found someone else.
    Bloody hell. His horse reared in fury at the notion. She’s mine. He detested the notion of another man sampling her lips, lying between her sweet thighs, giving her everything he hadn’t. What was he to do about it?
    He hadn’t been counting the days, but Kalliste had. She was right about the five weeks. He grimaced at the flames of the fire. The honorable thing to do would be to bow out and let her have the future she’d chosen. He could renounce his rights as her husband, couldn’t he?
    He grunted. How impossible that was. What did he want from her? At first, he’d merely desired her in his bed. Yet he wasn’t certain bedding her would be enough. For the first time in his life, he craved more from a woman. From Kalliste. The longing was so unfamiliar to him, he wasn’t sure what to do with it.
    He knew the game he played. The dangerous fate he toyed with. His animal half was bonding to her. Any male descendant of the gods, or of their divine creatures, once bonded, was utterly at the mercy of his chosen female.
    Damn, he’d seen firsthand, mere weeks ago, how it had torn his friend Arsenius apart. A half-blood son of the war god Ares, Arsenius had fallen hard for Kyme, an Amazon warrior. Thereus’s unique centaur sense of smell allowed him to scent the bond most other species couldn’t. No matter how he’d explained