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Wolves and big cats who shifted with the moon’s cycles were just as typical a sight as dragons flying overhead in those days. But I only cared about getting north of our new borders, where humans still dominated. There, I could rebuild my business and leave behind the seedy lifestyle I’d always shifted in and out of when necessary. But I needed enough gold to single-handedly recapture the spice trade to do that.

What better way was there than snatching the horns of a deer goddess, offering her body for a babe? She needed an alpha to breed her during the spring equinox. A human captive was used to mate and discard if the folktales held true. And as an alpha woman, I could do just that. But I wouldn’t sell my soul without taking something in exchange.

If the omega goddess needed an alpha to breed her, one willing to potentially sacrifice their life to do so, I would be the one to reach her first. Well, I was the only one foolish enough to try, but that was beside the point.

Getting up and dusting off my godsawful emerald green wedding dress with intricate golden floral embroidery, I trudged on, my traveling pack bending my back just as much as the weight of magic in the air.

“This is it, huh?” I emerged from my long journey on a perilous cliff into a lush meadow overflowing with wildflowers,butterflies, and sunlight. A slice of paradise just as the legends foretold.

I supposed if an alpha was meant to abandon their world and sell their soul to a forest god or goddess, the accommodations had to be pleasant. But this was beyond my wildest imagination.

“Welcome, my bride.”

I jumped, spinning around, and nearly fell back on my ass. Before me was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen.

Her thick, black, coily hair fell to her backside in twists adorned with flowers of all the colors of the rainbow. Some of the flowers floated mid-air, creating a crown that illuminated her heart-shaped face and delicate features with a halo-like aura. The goddess’s golden-brown skin suited the earthy tones of her domain, naked from head to toe, making my ornate gown seem silly now.

Large white horns jutted from her forehead, draped with what looked like spools of golden thread, and once I got over my initial shock at her beauty, I gasped at her otherworldliness. Human thighs transformed into a deer’s hind legs at her knees, tapering off into hooves. The goddess’s moss green eyes shone with affection when I looked back up, joined in the meadow by an enormous buck who had arrows hanging from one black horn and the most exquisitely crafted bow I’d ever seen hanging from the other.

I noted absently that her horns were bigger than his.

She was tall and voluptuous, her lush curves and rolls and folds reminding me of the rolling hills of her domain; her earthy scent only further enchanted the illusion.

This is mybride,I thought with a shudder of pleasure, and then fear staked my rapidly beating heart.And I am hers. One kiss will seal my fate if I’m not quick.

But I couldn’t bring myself to strike. I had two options: play the long game or get what I wanted quick. I had a bespelleddagger hidden in my boot for option one, but I couldn’t bring myself to yank it out.

The hatred hidden in my heart for my hard life and circumstances beyond my control that drove me to this point was not for this precious creature. No, I’d made a fatal mistake. I knew it the second her eyes met mine with a soft smile playing on her plump, two-toned lips, a brown bow over the pinkish, most suckable bottom lip I’d ever witnessed. I was running out of ways to describe how truly one-of-a-kind she was.

If not option one, then option two. All I had to do to carry out my mission and reclaim my dignity was guard my heart. And now I was well and trulyfucked,because even I knew what this instant tug on my heart was. I knew deep down in my bones and my world-weary soul.

“Brielle. Brielle Omola. Welcome, my bride,” she repeated, looking for a response.

She extended her hands to me, and I brushed them aside, embarrassed or ashamed of myself now. I couldn’t tell as I scrambled to reclaim some sense of balance, her presence thrusting me into a whirlwind of conflicting emotions.

“I did not think two omegas could mate. But the goddess, Solara, is just and wise,” she said sagely, more to herself than me. “Excuse me. I am new to this. I was given this realm only two decades ago, and my brother has no fawns of his own despite being older. I am Fawana, by the way! But everyone calls me Fawn, for I have always been the smallest low goddess from the forest.”

I snorted, shrugging off my heavy travel backpack, and laughed. But the sound was much too hollow and bitter, and it caused her pretty face to contort with confusion.

“Dearheart, I may be many things, but an omega I am not. I promise I can fulfill my duty, my vow to breed you an heir to nourish this forest and restore your powers.”

Her eyes widened in shock, “... An alpha human is rare. An alpha female?”

“Woman,” I corrected, looking her up and down with unsuppressed lust, the tremor of desire undeniable. “And yes. I’ve often been called exceptionally rare by humans and kindred alike.”

Fawn demurred. Her skin flushed, her cheeks heating to a warm yellow-gold hue as if sprinkled with sundust. I chuckled, surprised by her shyness, standing a head taller than her despite her massive horns. I expected my goddess to be as bold as her bountiful curves. Until I realized that one hundred years was but a blink of an eye to the gods, and she was very young at exactly one hundred years old, recently worshiped by our living grandparents. I gritted my teeth at that.

How was I more haggard than a damn deer goddess sixty-five years my senior? After I retook the spice route, I was going on a vacation for a year to replenish my body and soul, maybe at a beach town by the Zira Ocean. Perhaps we could go together, and enjoy …

I almost slapped myself in frustration. I was there to steal not her heart but her magnificent horns. If I had thought my soul would meet damnation before, I was sure of it then as I forced a smile onto my trembling lips. The movement hurt, straining too broadly, too sugary sweet for a bitter bitch like me.

“Brother?” Fawn asked the domineering buck, who I was certain was now glaring. He kicked at the earth as she took the bow and quiver of arrows from each of his horns and handed them to me.

Her eyes twinkled when she looked back at me, holding the enchanted weapons, “A wedding gift. You carry Omolan’s diminutive as your family name, my brother. We are deeply connected by the ancestors, then. It feels like destiny more and more that we’ve met today.”

I frowned, taking the bow first and then slinging the arrows over my back. “But I have nothing for you.”

Fawn flashed me a glorious smile in return. She tipped her chin up to me, going up on the tips of her hooves, and I closed my eyes, pressing my lips to hers in a chaste kiss. Shame flooded me, my face framed perfectly by those gorgeous horns, covered in what looked like a faint glittery gold powder from the dangling golden threads.