Page 7 of Rauf: Minotaur Mates

The goat tried to pull away when she touched its shoulder. It managed a few inches and gave up. Teresa waited until it stopped struggling, then ran her hand along its leg and lifted the hoof clear of the ground. She checked between the little toes and set it down again. When she moved to its head, she was partly under the bush, but she didn’t seem to notice the thorns catching her sleeve. She looked into each eye, then eased its mouth open with two fingers.

“Step aside, you’re in the light,” she commanded and I moved before I could realize it was what I was doing. I shifted behind her and kept the branch lifted so it wouldn’t catch in her hair.

The goat didn’t look good. Its fur was matted and its eyes were wild. The little wild beasts came up to the farm every so often to eat the fruit or cause chaos, but I’d never seen one sick.

This one wasn’t going to make it. But Teresa had her hand under its neck and was making cooing noises. Of course a soft human wouldn’t be able to see death when it was right in front of her. I needed to send her on her way so I could put this thing out of its misery and spare her the pain of seeing me do it. She didn’t need to see the harsher side to life out here.

“Pick him up,” she told me as she straightened. “Carefully.”

“And take him where? It’s best we just leave him. He might sicken us both.”

But Teresa was insistent. “He’s too big for me to carry by myself and I don’t have my supplies, but the least we can do is get some water into him and examine him. Pick him up and take him somewhere I can take a look.” She stared me down, and after a moment added, “please.”

“What do you think you can do for the poor creature?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know, but I’m a veterinarian—an animal doctor. I owe it to him to at least try.”

3

TERESA

The goat was probably fucked.

He bleated pathetically and looked like he was in a lot of pain. I didn’t have anything diagnostic with me, or much expertise in alien goats, but a hurting animal was a hurting animal.

And this one’s days were numbered.

The doctor in town, Otho, might have had something I could use to ease the poor thing’s suffering, but I wasn’t sure if he had the drugs I’d need to end things as quickly and painlessly as possible.

I’d need to do it the old-fashioned way. If it came to that.

I might have said something to Rauf, but he was staring at the goat with an almost caring look in his eyes. I wondered if the creatures wandered around the farm; he might have even known this one. Telling Rauf I’d have to slit its throat right now seemed crueler than I needed to be.

Not that a former gladiator was any stranger to cruelty.

He had the scars to prove it. One curved from his jaw and disappeared beneath his shirt, while another silvered the thick muscle of his forearm. His damaged horn made the rest of him look even rougher.

But his enormous hand rested against the goat’s side without pressing down. When the poor thing gave another weak bleat, Rauf’s thumb moved through its dirty fur once, barely a stroke, before he caught me watching and pulled his hand away.

Would he look at a bride like that?

Not like she was an injured goat, of course. But with that same softness that suggested caring under the gruff exterior.

The gruff exterior had plenty to recommend it, too. I had to tip my head back to look Rauf in the face, and all that height came with shoulders that could have blocked the road. His shirt strained across his chest whenever he moved. I could guess exactly how those arms would feel wrapped around me, and my imagination was generous enough to remove the shirt while it was at it.

I shouldn’t have been looking at Rauf when I had a date planned with Korfas. Hell, by next week I could be married to the guy!

“Is something wrong?” Rauf asked. “Is it the goat?”

I must have made a face. Poor Korfas.

My gaze slipped back to Rauf. Did he want a bride? More importantly, did he want dinner?

I opened my mouth. The goat groaned.

“I can help with the legs,” I said and maneuvered around my patient.

“I’ve got it.” Rauf put his body between me and the goat and scooped the beast up like it weighed nothing.