Broken

.38.

A month later

I closed my eyes and curled up further in the bed. The lights were dimmed and I was attempting to have a nap. I hadn't slept well for the past few nights, nightmares plagued my sleep no matter how many times Rhex pulled me into his arms to quiet me.

One would have thought that falling into an exhausted and sated sleep would have kept the nightmares away but for the past week they had tormented me. I hadn't understood why but they had. I let out an exhausted sigh and buried my face further into the pillow. I had tried hard to make happy memories but I figured that everything surrounding the situation of my soul being torn from my body was catching up to me.

The past month had been wonderful for me. I had been surrounded by friends that swirled with happiness, laughter, and kindness. Ani had taken to the group of Orrian soldiers like a duck took to water. She was a favourite, rough housing and telling jokes with the best of them. It made me smile because I felt like for the first time in a very long time she felt like she belonged somewhere. With them she wasn't the odd one out, the one that was forced to the edges of the group. She was simply normal to them and I knew she loved that.

It took me a bit longer to get used to them. After so long of being scared of large Orrians, I had held back, trying to work through that fear. Rhex helped quite a bit, helping to pull me away when I would get too overwhelmed or just needed a break. None of the boys seemed to mind, always smiling at me even when I needed to retreat to gather my bearings. They never looked twice or poked fun at me needing my space. It seemed as they understood more than most why I would be timid and wary and I appreciated it.

I appreciated them all for making the past month a happy one for me. There were still those that glowered at me, muttering Orrian under their breath. I had learned even more of the language at the Learning Centre to know what they were saying more of the time. I had learned enough Orrian to carry on a small conversation and to understand a small portion of what was being talked about but I still had a ways to go.

The Learning Centre itself was even more difficult for me. I had thought that having Rhex back would ease some of the issues I had but it only seemed to highlight them. They stared at me like they hadn't before. Before it had simply been a string of words that told them I had been mated to an Orrian. Words were easy to shove away or ignore but my large Orrian husband coming to pick me up from my classes was not something they could ignore.

I had suddenly had a spotlight on me, they stared because I was different, an oddity, a freak. Kher's disgust had only grown since Rhex had returned and it had gotten to the point where even Dean Hilem had become concerned and had me permanently moved to Miss Geliensha's classes. It changed some of the core material I was taking and I had to supplement my lacking Orrian History education with books but it was safer.

To be honest I was simply happy to be away from Mr. Dahgme. He was nearly at the same level as Kher with his disgust. I hated having him pointing out humanity's flaws and calling down my relationship with Rhex as a simple mutation and something that should be reviled and squashed out. It was something I knew he was reprimanded severely for by Dean Hilem but prejudice sometimes ran deep and was hard to simply push away.

The dim lights turned up a fraction as the door creaked open. I turned my head on the pillow as Rhex moved over to the bed and crawled on it beside me. He lay down on his side before he brushed a lock of hair from my face. I closed my eyes in bliss at the contact. He had come back from training to be much more touchy and relaxed about our relationship. I appreciated it.

"Did you nap?" His accented voice made a small smile cross my face as it rolled over my skin. I wanted his fingers to follow the path his voice had. When I had said I would never get enough of him I hadn't been lying. There was nothing that I wanted more than Rhex touching me, being in my arms, or learning my body in such a way that had me uncontrollably shouting his name to the roof of our bedroom. "Liviya, as much as I like the trouble that expression on your face is painting, I need you to answer me." His words made me blush, despite the grin he had on his own face as one large hand covered my waist, his thumb brushing tantalizingly close to the bottom of my breast.