‘Let us pray she behaves and the Great One is not angered.’
‘She’s a bairn no the End of Days.’
‘If she does throw a hissy fit,’ Rowan said, ‘I doubt her new Da will care. He dotes on his cub, aye?’
‘His cub?’ Ryki bestowed us a chilly smile, the set of her face smug as if she’d won something. She glided on silent, slippered feet to admire the frescoes painted onto the walls, their calcified surfaces dulled with age.
My cousin and I exchanged a laughing glance.
‘Worried about her?’ he asked.
‘I’m no, surprisingly.’
‘You must know you’re worth a hundred–Hello.’ Rowan gave his best smile, sensing he met someone of importance. ‘Nice to see you.’
Wulfyn had turned to include us in his conversation with Patrick and the older Verak male at his side. ‘Sjörn of House FeverBright, minor Alpha and Sentinel of the People’s Guard.’
Sjörn inclined his head. ‘Good Greetings.’ Ashy blonde facial hair with thick swathes of premature grey streaked around his mouth. It mirrored the greying braids at his temples. His plaited and thonged beard went to the leather bracer encircling his middle, the tanned leather stamped with a tusked boar. It was the same crest embroidered onto a verdant standard hung above. His tunic was plain green, but of good quality and his leathers natural brown, tucked into polished boots worn with age. ‘Finally, I meet the female who captured the Great One’s heart. I bid you and yours welcome.’
I tore my eyes from his mustachios. ‘You’re very kind.’
‘No.’ His mouth curved. ‘I am quite harsh, and I had decided to be suspicious of this alien female brought into our midst.’ His eyes were small for his face, but rather than give him a mean, piggish look, the kind set to his expression and high, rounded cheeks lent him a grandfatherly air. ‘Then I saw your cub filled with laughter and happiness. I watched you and your family approach with no artifice, no condescending arrogance to speak of as if you are above such petty behaviours.’ He offered his wrist. ‘I like you well.’
I offered my own wrist and squeezed his. My chest felt heavy and my neck prickled with heat. ‘You don’t hold back, do you, Sjörn?’
Horns tossed back, his laugh was a boom from his stout middle.
Wulfyn looked right pleased with himself and winked at me as he and Sjörn moved on to mingle.
‘See, lass?’ Patrick cupped my face. ‘You’re a natural. Proud of you, amn’t I?’ He kissed my forehead. ‘Stop fussing over the wee bit’s manners.’
Holding onto his arms, I nodded, ducking my head to smile.
Zephyrs cooled by the recumbent suns mixed with the spiced oils and peppery unguents used by the Verak. It playfully batted the heraldry and freshened the air with its salty tang. The breeze failed to disturb the phosphorus torch glow, shielded by their ormolu sconces. People mingled, several approached and greeted me with respect, but I mostly stuck with my clan, overwhelmed and shy among strangers.
Beowyn and Éorik arrived with no fanfare. Nevertheless, dressed in unrelieved black, silver armbands and ear studs glinting, they commanded authority by the set of their shoulders and radiated power with a tip of horn.
Hungry eyes sought and found me, smouldering and somnolent, causing a raw ache to spread throughout my body.
They greeted my family as their own then escorted Fergie and me to take our places in the middle of the long table, curious looks and unforgiving stares on our backs.
Our arrangement happened naturally. Lumen and her lot on one side of Beowyn, while I sat on the other. Éorik claimed the space next to me with Fergie on his lap, my clan arranged next to and opposite him.
The table was covered in woven cloth, silkier runners home to the serving platters, and the benches we perched on were softened with plump cushions. Liveried servants brought the feast in waves, and though the foreign cuisine was arranged in complicated, pretty ways, it remained hearty and filling. There were meaty stews, bean pies, vegetables sautéed in herbed oils, and leafy salads with grilled fish.
I liked food. I was skinny because I struggled to keep a healthy weight, but my stomach was bottomless, and my plate was never more than half empty.
Idle chatter surrounded me as I munched and crunched.
My eyes drifted towards the sea. A leviathan creature rose to the surface, sinuous and sleek body rolling under the waves. Its fanned tail saluted the moon, reflecting its light as a waterfall gushed from its flippers. The giant fin splashed down and disappeared with its master.
Gasping, I looked around, but no one else seemed to have witnessed the marvel or saw it as worthy of awe. I smiled at my plate feeling blessed.
My name was called.
Aware of the scrutiny of others, I leant forward.
Ryki did the same, fleshy breasts a shallow breath from flopping out her bodice. ‘I hear your birth planet is named after dirt.’
She was too far away for small talk.
I considered ignoring her, but several eyes fixed on me. I didn’t want to seem ungracious or give people reason to believe I saw this female as a threat.
I rose my voice to be heard over the buzzing volume that grew as nectar flowed and dusk gave way to night. ‘That’s right.’ I kept my tone curt and offered nothing more, hoping she’d get the message and leave me be.
‘Simple name for a simple place and people. You must miss it.’
I shrugged. ‘Homesickness is to be expected.’
‘What did you do there?’
I refrained from rolling my eyes. If she thought I’d be embarrassed and not want to reveal my humble origins, she’d be wrong. I’d been proud to be employed. There was no shame in doing what needed to be done to make your way in the world. ‘I worked in a restaurant as a server.’
The House leads visibly reacted to my statement, most blinking for long periods or bringing cups to their lips to disguise gasps, but it was nothing to make me feel shunned. They let it go between one breath and the next.
They were a people accustomed to strong candidates rising through the ranks using grit and determination.
I snuck a look at Beowyn.
He curled an arm around my waist, loose, comfortable, his conversation with Venomous uninterrupted.
Ryki sipped her drink, tripartite pupils glinting. ‘I cannot empathise with your low beginnings. I was born royal and–.’ She cut off, nostrils flared.
My brows pulled together, but then my eyes widened and watered as the pong wafted up my nose.
Aled looked straight ahead, eyes bulging as he tried to keep himself in check. Rowan was losing his battle, arm over his face, whole body jerking each time a peep escaped.
Patrick’s face was composed, but its red shade clashed with his hair. ‘Och, wee bit, excuse you.’
Jabbering to Éorik, she perked at her name then squealed and bounced when she saw the attention of the adults centred on her. ‘Hi!’
I rocked back to reach behind Éorik and whack Patrick’s arm. ‘Don’t blame it on the baby.’
Rowan lost it the same time as the rest of us and buried his head in his arms on the table, screaming laughter.
‘It’s all this rich, foreign food,’ Patrick muttered shamefacedly.
Ryki sat unruffled except for the sour twist to her lips. Her gaze leapt to Beowyn then darkened.
He slapped his palm on the table, an arm slung over his heaving middle, horns jerking in time to his howling.
Fiercely hissed. ‘This is amusing?’
Venomous’ chin lowered.
Wiping under my eyes, I cocked my head. ‘Do you no pass wind?’
‘They don’t have assholes.’ Lumen slapped a hand over her mouth.
Our segment of the table fell quiet.
We all lost it.
Wobbling in my seat, I brayed into Beowyn’s heaving shoulder.
Lumen cackled until Cobra patted her back so she could pull in a much-needed breath, face dull red despite her dusky colouring.
Even Éorik cracked a smile as he spooned rich, chunky stew into Fergie’s waiting mouth, running the spoon over her chin when she dribbled some.
‘I do not see the hilarity in coarse manners.’ Ryki adjusted her hair using the reflection in her eating knife. ‘Disgusting creatures.’
‘I would no go that far.’ I smiled at their banter. ‘Just men being men.’ I also suspected it had been done to break the tension rising between me and the truculent female.
She agitated the contents of her bowl. ‘He is foul.’
Humour petering, I angled my face in her direction. Heat bloomed across my chest and neck. ‘That’s my cousin you’re talking about.’
The males still joked between themselves, but Lumen calmed, aiming a narrow-eyed glare at Ryki.
Meeting my gaze head on, the female arched a daffodil-yellow brow. ‘Foul.’ She drawled the word.
‘You rude bloody cow.’ Lumen slammed down her knife and looked ready to climb over the table.
‘Ryki.’ Beowyn’s voice cracked like a whip. ‘Enough.’
‘Am I no longer allowed to voice my opinions, Great One?’
Far from manipulated by her sultry tenor, he sliced a hand through the air. ‘Not when it is an insult to my newfound kin. An attempt to provoke my One.’
‘Their behaviour is unworthy of your hall. We all see it.’ Chin jutting, she looked him in the eye. ‘Is this uncouth creature truly whom you desire for your chosen One?’
I stared without speaking.
‘What?’ Twisting his napkin, Aled’s blue eye twitched as it fixed on Ryki. ‘As opposed to you, I take it?’
‘Is she for real?’ Lumen looked askance at her cup. ‘Or do I need to avoid the nectar?’
‘There is a word for the likes of you, Concubine,’ Rowan said, ‘and it rhymes with cunt.’ His eyes crossed, and he flung his arms up. ‘Wait. That came out wrong.’
Patrick pinched his nose. ‘Wee ears are about.’ He nodded towards Fergie.
‘I think he needs to avoid the nectar.’ Lumen snickered.
I didn’t know what I was going to say in response to this catty bullshit but feeling my heart race and my blood boil, it would have been shrill and made no sense beyond furious noise.
Beowyn lifted a hand to stop me. He regarded the Baxnonian with flinty eyes. ‘You will hand over your duties and return to the harem by the end of the cycle.’ Chatter along the table quieted. ‘You will not return to the Royal Atoll until I bid it. Judging by how I cannot bear to look at you after your behaviour towards my One, your Queen, I would not be expecting the summons.’ He turned from her. ‘Ever.’
Yellow skin paled to whitened ash. Her breathing hitched. ‘Beowyn.’
‘Never did I give you leave to call me by name, Concubine.’
I winced at his dismissive tone.
How much of his coldness was for show and how much was because he no longer cared for the female he tossed aside? Liam once treated me in a similar manner before his new lover. I couldn’t help but make the unfavourable comparison though the situations were different. Liam had been my boyfriend, whereas Ryki had been brought into a harem to satisfy Beowyn when he needed something to play with.
I’d watched him with her. I’d expected lingering glances and flirtation.
What I’d seen was the concubine begging for Beowyn’s attention because he found her about as interesting as a potted plant; pretty to look at and touch, but easily dismissed and forgotten because, in the end, she was a possession.
It was harsh but honest, and the other concubines I’d bumped into during my explorations displayed a distant affection for their King while being enthusiastic in their welcome towards Fergie and me.
Ryki had not moved.
Hands gripping her jewelled bodice, her mouth worked. By the expression on her face, whatever she was about to say would not end well for her.
‘Don’t make it worse.’ I tipped my head towards the door. ‘This dinner is important to my family. You’re making it uncomfortable.’
Eyes flashing, her tail lashed behind her back. ‘Enjoying this are you?’
‘Allbeast strike me.’ The Sentinel fumed at her vicious tone. ‘You address our Queen.’ When her lips thinned, no apology forthcoming, shaking his head in disgust, Sjörn twisted away.
My fingers dug into the tablecloth. ‘You have no idea what I think.’
I wasn’t going to tell her I sympathised. She was bound to take it as a challenge, or an insult, instead of genuine commiseration. I’d reached the limit of my patience, however, and while I hadn’t wanted a scene, I wanted her gone. She wanted a confrontation? Fine. I’d drag her out by the hair and slap her stupid while I was at it.
Apparently, Beowyn felt she’d taken up enough of our time. ‘Orik.’
Éorik stood, set Fergie down on the bench to continue eating then stalked to Ryki’s seat across the table and down the row. ‘I will escort you.’ When she heaved a breath but still didn’t stand, his tone lowered to a minacious decibel. ‘Do not make me tell you again. Up. Or the Paladins will throw you out.’
Rising to her feet, she shrugged off his hold on her elbow then left. She sashayed the whole way until the doors clanged behind her.
Conversation filled the chilly void Ryki left behind.
I twiddled my thumbs. Holding my tongue would drive me to distraction. ‘You were harsh.’
‘Do you think me unaware of how she treated you since your arrival?’
‘You had to have known bringing home a wife would cause problems amongst your harem.’
He shook his head. ‘I gave her far more leeway than deserved because I expected you to handle the matter. You are my One, and it is your place to manage my concubines as you see fit.’ He tutted. ‘You accommodated her spiteful manner. While I understand your empathy, I do not agree with letting her believe she held a high place in my affections. That is what your lack of discipline signalled. She overstepped. Her place in our life was clearly defined. Her jealousy was an insult she had no right to feel.’
‘No right to feel?’ I lowered my voice as a server had come to clear away our dishes. ‘You slept with her.’
‘I bed my concubines in the harem. Never have I slept the night through with one, no matter how favoured. Not only would it send the wrong message, but such intimacy is reserved for your chosen life mate, not a paid concubine.’
‘Paid?’ I blinked. ‘Like a whore?’
‘Courtesan.’ His look was forbidding. ‘Baxnonian crystals most often. Otherwise in galactic credits.’
‘I thought you chose them because you cared for them.’
‘As much as I care for all our subjects. Being One is special. What I wish to build with you is far deeper than a sweaty rut to alleviate boredom.’
‘Well, that’s good to know.’
‘Verak are lusty. Brothels are well maintained, so expensive which is an excellent thing. It is more cost effective to build a harem, and I feel better for those who choose it as their profession.’
‘I don’t know what to think. Part of me is glad how you think, but part of me is angry you would treat sex as an emotionless transaction.’
‘You resent that I provide for my bedmates.’
I dropped my forehead into my hands, elbows to the table.
‘I like to know the people I have bedded are taken care of. It would not be fair to use them then leave them with nothing.’ He squinted. ‘This is a common practice on Earth?’ He shook his head. ‘You say we Verak are strange, but the lack of respect you show your lovers disturbs me.’
‘I could argue fucking people by the score shows a lack of respect towards certain people you claim to care for.’
I leant back as a fluted dish of purple mousse and red sponge cake lashed with a liquorice-scented coulis was set before me by a silent waiter.
Beowyn’s eyes flicked to his Commander. ‘To who do you refer?’
‘Are you going to play dumb?’
‘Your argument is
foolish. I had not met you.’
My eyes landed on Éorik. I looked back at Beowyn, bold in my questioning. ‘What about him?’
‘He did the same.’
‘That makes it right to jump from bed to bed with little to no thought?’
‘But it is the way of my people. Our people. What was I to do? Remain chaste for a One I might never find?’ He held up a hand. ‘You did the same. As did he. Have I judged either of you?’
‘That’s different.’ I poked his chest with a spoon. ‘I fell in love.’
Beowyn shovelled a mountain of dessert into my mouth. ‘That is worse than what I did.’
I swallowed the explosion of fruit and cream as I licked my lips. ‘How do you imagine that?’
‘You gave your heart to one who was not me! The evidence of it–no matter how beautiful–sits not two lengths from me. It hurts. You dare be jealous when you created life with another–were One with another? Have you never stopped to think how that makes me feel?’
Chapter 28
Blinking, I stared, dumbfounded.
I hadn’t thought about things from Beowyn’s perspective.
Was it unfair to view his sexual exploits as worse than my bearing the child of an unfaithful, unworthy man? Of giving another my heart then acting like a miser when the one who offered commitment tried to win it by offering me kindness and prosperity? Was I so self-involved, so bitter, I could not see my past poor judgement hurt him as his indiscretions harmed me?
‘Ah, cousin?’ Rowan saluted me. ‘You do realise we’re all still here?’
Our guests were mute and watching.
‘No shouting, Mammy. Naughty girl.’ With that lisping scold, Fergie shoved her face into her dessert dish.
Too emotional to be embarrassed at being in the centre of yet another spectacle, I muttered an apology to the audience then went back to my dessert.
A pitcher of fermented nectar was pushed across the table. It bumped my hand. I glared at who delivered it.
Lumen shrugged. ‘You need it way more than I do.’
Beowyn turned to straddle his bench then grabbed hold of me. He arranged my legs over his thighs and dragged our torso’s flush, groins pressed together.