Marriage consummation. It was the words that the man before her had repeatedly said to her since they encountered each other in this second eting.
Joanna would be calm if it were only a re word that was uttered without any true aning by him.
However, looking at the unusual, daunting expression of the man who had hugged her, along with an intimate action that she had never experienced before, Joanna turned alard. At so point, she sohow felt that he was not being playful by giving her an empty threat, as she could sense from the way he touched her before that he was burning with desire.
Joanna felt suffocated. She could not let that happen. Otherwise, she could not escape from him and their marriage forever. She would be trapped like Joanna in the dream.
She was about to open her mouth to argue with Canillas, but as if not seeing her about to talk to him, Canillas turned and walked away in large, relaxed strides with his long legs. At such a response, Joanna glared daggers at his back and really wanted to shout at him in a loud voice, but she knew she could not do that yet as they were not in a safe zone right now.
Joanna chased after Canillas at a quick pace with her legs that were not as long as his, so she could throw her complaint at him without yelling. Once she caught up close enough behind his broad back, she voiced her objection, "No! I don’t want to do that!"
Canillas turned around, facing down at Joanna. "Do what?" he asked with a quizzical look, tilting his head as if he had no idea what she referred to.
Joanna narrowed her eyes, nagging the annoying man in her head. She bit her lower lips before answering, "Marriage consummation!" She raised her chin despite her embarrassnt and timidity. She thought that the General would not dare force her once she firmly stood her ground.
At her response, Canillas let out a low chuckle of amusent. "Why not?" he calmly inquired, folding his hands in front of his chest.
"Because I don’t want to!" stated Joanna in a firm, low voice, still raising her chin, as if challenging the prominent General for a war.
"But you are my wife," the General simply responded, shrugging his shoulders. His expression was as calm as the sea, in contrast to the agitated woman who challenged him.
"That’s why I..." Joanna pursed her lips, swallowing back the words she wanted to spill out as she saw the swift change in the General’s deanor who had his eyes narrowed with his head tilted as if warning her what he would do if she did not stop speaking.
"Good on you that you didn’t continue what you were about to say, wife. Otherwise, this beautiful forest will be the witness of how we are united as husband and wife for the first ti," Canillas uttered in a voice barely above a whisper, with a solemn look. His calm, deep voice made the atmosphere around her turn colder and scarier.
"Don’t make any further unnecessary complaints if you don’t want to regret the impact of your reckless behavior later. Be good while I am still patient and respect you as my wife. Provoking any further, don’t bla if I lose control over my sanity." Canillas glanced at the dagger that was still in Joanna’s hand. He said, "Even if you stab thousands of tis..." He raised his eyes to look back at her wavering ones. "I will not stop even until you beg to stop."
A chill crawled down Joanna’s spine when she looked at the most serious and frightening side of the man who stared at her with a sharp, terrifying gaze. It was the side that she had never seen from the man before her since she t him in person. She wondered if it was his look when he was on the battlefield, facing his enemies.
Up until now, he had shown her his tender and gentle side, a stark contrast from what she had shown him. Even after she treated him disrespectfully, he was still here, finding her and protecting her from the previously unknown group of people.
It made Joanna continue to wonder if her behavior was too much, over the limit of normality, which made him seem to lose his patience. But she would not have behaved like this if he had not made their situation complicated by not granting her wish to get away from him.
However, Joanna then deliberated about sothing. If he had not appeared as he did now, would she still be alive?
Joanna was faced with a dilemma at the mont. She was not a person who was heartless and shaless to not know how to show gratitude to others who had helped or showed kindness to her, not even to the General’s n or the General himself.
She actually asked for a simple thing for her and the General, for them to part ways without any mishaps that made them have no reason to part ways, like the mishaps she encountered a few monts ago.
As she found the General still offering her a look that was calm but a worrying one, with a hint of rage hidden beneath, Joanna decided to step back. She did not dare act recklessly, as, from the way he looked at the mont, he did not seem to be playing a joke. Instead, he looked like a predator who was ready to pounce on its prey.
Subtly glancing around her, she had him as a companion, but at this mont she knew that she was literally alone. Aside from that, she did not want the forest that she had adored before the mishaps occurred to be the witness of the deed to which she strongly objected.
If she shouted for help, the party that would co to her first was probably the previous group of people who seed to target her.
If the ones who would co by her shout were her attendants, what would they do if the reason that made her shout for help was the deed as a marital couple?
Joanna’s heart thumped crazily at the mont. She wondered if her heart would function well after beating beyond its normal capacity repeatedly today.
Tightening her grip on the dagger that she was holding in her hand, she knew that even though she stabbed him, she could not make it thousands of tis, as he overstated. If she still had a little bit of luck on her side, based on how he tactfully held her wrist from stabbing him before, she could get at least one lucky stab.
Aside from that, her hand, which had been used to hit him rcilessly before as one of her defensive chanisms, was still hurt, to the point that it might get swollen later. It made her wonder if the dagger could pierce into a steel-like body.
Therefore, it was a clear sign for her to be back down at the mont and think about another plan later.
But how long would she stay in this situation, moving all the way around with this man? When could she free herself from him? When would he give up on their marriage?
Why was he adamant about making her his wife despite all the rude and insane things she had inflicted on him?
Wasn’t he afraid of having an insane wife who had a dagger with her that would be used to stab him at any ti? Was he overconfident that she would not dare or be able to stab a steel-like man like him?
Nevertheless, recalling how seriously he warned her, Joanna was downhearted, and she felt like she had lost her confidence that her next plans would be successful. Up until now, none of her plans had worked as she expected.
She also did not know how he could find her here. Was it because he had received a ssage from his n? Even if it were true, Joanna could not bla the General’s n anymore, rembering what they had done to protect her. Joanna sighed inwardly at her poor heart.
Joanna returned her focus from pitying her poor heart to unavoidable reality once she heard his voice.
"Now, if you get my not-joking words in your mind, you better put down your stubbornness and follow if you want to get out of this place." Having said that, Canillas turned and began to resu his walks.
When he sensed that there was no movent behind him, he halted and spoke over his shoulder,
"If you don’t want to follow the husband that you resent so much, you can stay in this forest. I will have no choice but to let you go wholeheartedly if you happen to be caught by the previous visitors, who seem to adore you so much. Don’t you think it is so touching to know how much they adore you that it made them bring their adorable pets to welco and be acquainted with you?" Canillas chuckled while resuming his pace.
Upon hearing the shocking information he shared, Joanna’s eyes went wide. Adorable pets? The wolves?
"Do you an the wolves?" Joanna asked the man, who walked further away and only answered her with another chuckle. She then saw him waving his hand at her without looking back at her.
Many questions had popped up in her mind about the mysterious people and the wolves, but she did not dare to be drowned in those wandering thoughts any longer. She quickened her pace to catch up with the husband that she resented so much.
When Canillas heard hurried footsteps trailing behind him, a smile cracked on his lips.
Joanna tailed Canillas, who walked in front of her, and when she saw that he kept looking ahead, she quickly slipped the dagger back into the sheath that was tied to her thigh.
In the dim, quiet forest, only the sound of the footsteps of husband and wife filled the placid morning air. None of them bothered to initiate a word to build a conversation during their journey back to where their attendants might have been waiting for them.
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