The earlier fear subsidized and perplexity took its place.

Low sobs escaped her tongue and soon, she started to wail in anguish while rubbing the blood stains from the white floor. She vigorously does the exercise until her shoulders turn sore and her breaths labored.

"Oh, God! What is happening here?"

Gauri asked no one as she wipes her tears with the sleeve of her robe before returning to the process of removing the proof. 'This blood isn't entirely his.' Screams of her conscience tried to reason but she couldn't shake off the dread filtering through her pores. Her body shuddered in repulsion remembering the gore stuck in his sharp claws. Gauri cried in disdain. What was she doing? She should have run to the hills, call for help, and alerted everyone in the Fort about the animal invasion, yet her heart didn't let her move. She was a prisoner of her mind and body.

There's a possibility that it was the same monster behind Rekha's murder and many more in the forest. Yet, she failed to collect her rationality and call for help. Gauri thought she was brave but tonight, the illusion shattered. The dirt and blood soil her garments and she carries the weight of someone else's sin on her soul. Checking her work, she sighs in relief when found nothing out of blue, but that relief snapped when reality punches her in the gut.

This wasn't a dream but a brutal truth.

A monster was waiting inside her bathroom while she was busy cleaning the marks of his sin to hide the truth from probing eyes.

After what felt like an eternity, when her wrists turned sore, she numbly enters her room and slid on the ground feeling lifeless. The bloody rag slips from her grip and she lays on her side on the carpet.

Suddenly, the door to the bathroom opened and a stark-naked man steps out on trembling legs. What an absolutely stunning, murderous creature!

Another shock grabs her bones and she sits with a jolt. Her hands cover her mouth and wide eyes examine the specimen in the front in bewilderment. Water droplets were glistening on his entire frame. His wet hair was curtaining his eyes and dark hair covered his broad chest, leaving a trail down south.

The man whom she married two weeks ago, digs his fingers into the open wound on his shoulder and biting his lips, pulls out a bloody bullet. Tossing it behind his back, he stumbles towards her bed and falls on the soft mattress with a heavy sigh. In a matter of seconds, his snores pierce the silence and she cups her forehead feeling devastated. Her limbs buckle towards the bathroom and she found the tub filled with dirty water. Quickly draining the water, she washes the tub and takes the job of cleaning the bathroom. Anything that wouldn't let her sanity go astray.

'What is he?'

'A werewolf!'

Gauri scoffed at the absurdity and found the bullet which was embedded deeply in his shoulder a few moments ago. She examined it closely before washing it under warm water. Clenching it in her fist, she opens the bathroom cabinet and drops it in the first aid box. Washing her face, she pats it dry and discards the dirty robe in the laundry. Since it was white, the stains would never come off. She had to burn it along with the bedsheets and the rag.

Light on her feet, she slowly moves towards a sleeping Yagya and checks his shoulder. The deep bullet hole was slowly closing on its own. The bleeding has stopped. Gauri pulls at the roots of her hair and paces back and forth.

'He isn't entirely human!'

Her mind kept chanting. She rubs her bare shoulders before sliding into bed beside him. The moment their bare flesh touched, he unconsciously moves closer to her and inhales deeply. Tears slipped from the corner of her eyes and wet the pillow.

What is wrong with her fate? Were all the good things she heard about him and assumed were a farce to cover this side of his identity? Earlier, the thought of being a King's bride was scary but the truth of being a beast's wife took the cake.

Where the brute snored, napping carelessly beside her, she completely lost that peace. All her beliefs were challenged. She didn't do the toughest fasts of 16 Mondays and prayed to Mahadeva for a beastly king. Of all the woman population in the world, why was she chosen for this?

Chosen

Her eyes instantly widen. Now the reason behind Queen Mother's choice cleared. She must've known about her son's condition and realized that no girl of high society would be able to digest this secrete. They would run to hills at the first sign of trouble, whereas this poor village girl would have no choice but to deal with it. She doesn't have a strong background to voice the injustice or a powerful father to put an end to this. No one will believe any word coming from her mouth. She was doomed to dwell and weep forever in the shadow of a beast king.

The more she thought, the sicker she felt.

Depressed and disheveled.

Life was not mundane anymore.

She kept staring at the ceiling all night while getting bombarded by uncontrollable thoughts. Her worst fears were coming true, she was becoming a slave to her thoughts. Vulnerable.

As the first rays of the sun descended in her room, the man beside her stirred and stretched lazily. She heard his muscles and bones popping back into the right position as he yawned before opening his eyes.

The tension which she felt the moment she first saw the werewolf, returned. Yagya stilled beside her.

"Did you kill Rekha?"

A whisper pierces the warmth of the early morning and cold shrouds the rigid man.

"No."

He answered emotionlessly and she hiccupped. Before he could've deciphered her next move, she quickly positioned herself on his torso, with her thighs on either side of his hips.

"Swear on me." Her nails dug into his chest in anticipation and desperation. He looked her in the eyes.

"I swear on you and my mother, I didn't kill that girl."

Gauri nodded mutely, her eyes bloodshot and swollen from crying all night. Yagyavardhan was sure that the cat was out of the bag. For her to raise these questions means she has met his other side. But how come was she still alive when all who ever doubted him, kissed hell?

"Are you hurt?" he whispered as he pulls her closer by elbows. She leaned in him slowly and then closed her eyes. Fat teardrops descended on her cheeks and fell on his neck.

"Yes! Yes, I am hurt! How could you drag me into this? How dare you for making me equally responsible for all your sins? I... I spent the entire night wiping blood from the hallway and washing the bathroom! And here you were sleeping like a dead man. How dare you steal my peace?"

The aggression was slowly getting to her. The frustration and sleeplessness clouded her otherwise reasonable mind.

Yagyavardhan failed to answer. Guilt claws at his throat and moisture collect in his eyes, showing the trapped reflection of a heartbroken girl. At that moment, Gauri found so much beauty in the darkness of his eyes as she found horrors in light. In the depths of his dark pools, a vulnerability swam and she realized the danger was real, but fear was a choice. The emptiness lingers in the air and it weighs on her shoulders heavily.

Yagya brings her close to hug her. Gauri's hands remained trapped between them as she quenched the longing in him with her salty tears.

"If you think I'm a monster then know it is not by choice. If you think I have murdered people, then yes, but only those who came to hunt me. This beast residing in my bones is a different personality, a master of his own. I have little control over him. Neither do I direct all his acts, nor he cares about the boundaries laid by nature. He hungers, yes, not for blood and flesh, but a companionship. I apologize for putting you in a tight spot last night. Worse things could've happened. But here you are confronting the truth by looking me in the eye, unharmed and untouched."

Gauri listened quietly and hiccupped.

"If you don't wish to stay here anymore, I can make arrangements for your return to Shivpuri. Do not worry about my mother's reaction. She will understand eventually."

He tried to assure her by rubbing her back and she sighs in defeat.

"Does she know about this?"

"No."

And she stopped blaming Vasundhara for the old woman was unaware of her son's true nature.

"What are you?"

"The less you know the safer you are. For now, I can give you one big truth. You've been imprinted by the beast as his better half. He will never harm you."

Gauri broke out from the embrace and stared at her husband spellbound. Imprinted? She scratched her scalp and lazily climbed out of the bed.

"What does that mean?"

Yagya leans against the giant headboard before covering himself with the sheets properly.

"Have you ever heard of soulmates?

It is when you no longer feel like something is missing. It isn't a physical but cosmic connection that drives two stranger souls together as if they were one before a cruel meteor broke them apart. The best part is finding you when I wasn't even looking. When I first saw you, I had no idea why you seemed so familiar, as if you weren't someone I was getting to know, but the part of me that I forgot. Your smile and your voice make me think that I have known you before, in another time and a different place, some other existence. Your eyes hold everything I thirst for.

You scared me!

Because you have the power to make me say things that I am unable to confess to myself.

Your presence shook me to the core. I believed I have loved only one woman in my life and after she passed away, I vowed to never love again. But then you came and the monster in me felt alive as if he has found the purpose of living. Somehow, your stars align with him. All these years, I thought he was my curse until recently when he started voicing his thoughts about you. He is an individual who has always been alone, gone unseen, and hidden beneath my flesh. I realized his longing for a partner. So, he has imprinted your scent in his mind and claimed you as his better half in his heart."

Gauri shook her head frantically as more tears spilled from her eyes.

"I am married to you! I have nothing to with the beast."

"Gauri, he lives inside me. He is listening to our conversation right now. He was there when I tied the mangalsutra around your neck and held your hand during the 7 vows. It will be difficult to accept if you consider him as a separate entity when we have always shared this body. I am a man of two souls- one human and one demonic."

"Please don't say that." Gauri wailed and sat on the couch with her head in her hands. "I... how can you expect me to accept this side of yours just like that? Imagine being in my place. If I were that thing, would you have stayed back?"

"I am not forcing you into this union. If you don't wish to be a part of this arrangement, I am ready to sign an annulment." Yagya tried to console her. But this disturbed Gauri more.

"Annulment? Is this marriage a business deal to you? I am your wife and I have equal rights to have a say in every matter considering this relationship. If you divorced me, it will become difficult for my parents to live in that society. Their dignity lies in my positive actions. People won't hesitate from spurting dirt and question my virtue if you throw me out of this fort now. This relationship will end with my lifeless body!"

"GAURI"

"I know I am not the woman you want. I am aware you still love Kirti. I have accepted the fact that I am in a loveless marriage. The only thing that keeps me at peace is you'll never betray me. Knowing that you could've walked away, and refused to answer my questions, I am satiated that you decided to do otherwise and deal with it. If not fully, some part of you is invested here, which is more than enough for me.

I swear I won't whisper a word about last night, just don't throw me out. This will kill my family's reputation."

Now she was begging by joining her hands.

Yagya ties the sheet around his waist and cuts the distance between them. Brushing the hair sticking on her tear-stained cheeks, he kissed her forehead, his palms cupping her face.

"I apologize that you had to go through so much pressure at such a young age. Please don't think that I might leave you. Gauri, a new morning has come bearing hopes. I may not be the lover to kiss your tears, but I promise to be the husband you deserve. In return, promise me that will never cry on silly matters." He whispered while wiping her tears and she nodded slowly.

A beautiful smile broke on his face and she could only gawk. He wasn't that heartless after all.