“I have said nothing except ask her if she’s spoken to Bryn or Matesh about this,” he said softly, looking down at his feet.
“Why don’t you speak to Bryn and Matesh about this?” Senri snarled at her husband. “Varon, you—”
“He agrees with me,” Mave said quickly. “Senri, I’ve just been sparring out here to ease my temper.”
“Don’t take your temper out on them, take it out on the idiot who decided to embarrass you in front of the entire leadership of the rebellion.” Senri huffed. “Now, you’re coming with me to look at that. You three.” She pointed a finger between the males around her and Mave. “You’ll think about this for a long time. You understand, rebellion or no, Luykas’ actions were intolerable. One of you will relay, if he wants his wife back from me, he’ll need to be ready to grovel. I have known all of you for over three thousand years. You know I’m not kidding when it comes to disrespectful males.”
All three of them jumped into the sky, leaving Senri glaring at the sky.
“Idiots,” she growled. Then she turned on Mave. “Why didn’t you tell me anything was wrong when you got back?”
“Because I didn’t think anything was wrong. We were planning on talking about it. All I had asked of him was not to do it or press the issue while we were on the road. I was upset he’d gone behind my back, but I never denied the usefulness.”
Senri sighed, and it seemed like the anger deflated.
“Are you sure about him?” her adopted mother asked softly.
“Yes. I knew he would be challenging, and he is,” Mave said, looking away. “I didn’t think he would do that, though.”
“He probably wasn’t thinking,” Senri conceded. “Every Andinna knows sometimes, things said in the heat of the moment can cause damage. Other than beating on those three, what have you been doing?”
“Training with Zayden, who is the only male in my house who isn’t trying to get me to forgive Luykas. Actually, I need to get to him now.”
“I’ll come with you,” Senri said, smiling. “We’ll bandage that up and make sure you’re good to keep training today. How do you think he’s doing on the flying front?”
“One more week until he’s allowed to try, but he’s taking it well enough. Keeping our training private has removed a lot of embarrassment from the problem. It’s helped settle his mood.”
“Someone finally figured him out. That’s good.” Senri chuckled.
It was a short flight to Mave’s home, and she was glad to see Zayden was already waiting outside. She wasn’t glad to see her husbands. Mat and Bryn were talking quietly on the porch, their legs hanging off like a couple of gossiping pigeons.
“That looks bad,” Zayden said mildly, looking down at her thigh.
“Varon got a good hit. Let us get it bandaged up, and I’ll be out here to train.”
He nodded his head, then looked up at her males. Mave stared at them as well as their heads came up, and they tried to smile.
“Ah. The husbands who don’t know what’s good for them,” Senri said with vicious happiness.
“Senri—” Mave tried to stop it. She was already tired of the situation.
“Kian will be coming to talk to you. Be ready for it.”
Mat and Bryn jumped down together, landing in front of Mave.
“We think you might want to go see Luykas—” Bryn started.
“He’ll come to me,” she snapped, “or he’ll wallow. Those are his choices.”
I am not being unreasonable.
“Okay. Are you going to spend some time with us today before Bryn leaves?” Mat seemed a little annoyed.
“Yes, of course. We’ll have the afternoon together.” She was hurt they considered she wouldn’t. “I just don’t want everyone telling me how to fix this with Luykas. He was an ass to me in front of…” Everyone—everyone who mattered.
Mat nodded slowly. “We’ll handle our morning duties then meet you for lunch?”
“Lunch is good,” she agreed, sighing as they walked away. Once they were out of sight, Senri ran inside and brought out bandages.
“It happens. Not every family works all the time,” she said kindly, washing off the cut again. The bleeding had already begun to slow and clot. Mave watched as Senri wrapped the bandage over her breeches. “That should hold.”
“Luykas probably knows exactly what he did and is regretting it,” Zayden said carefully from the side. “But that doesn’t mean it’s your job to find and confront him. I know everyone wants this settled fast since we don’t like it when anyone is fighting, especially not you and Luykas, but…”
“You’re a good male,” Senri told him, smiling. “Which is why you had such a strong marriage with Summer.” Senri, still smiling, turned back to Mave. “Terrible father sometimes, but a great husband most of the time. Every female in the village knew it.”
Mave raised an eyebrow, looking at her friend standing in their clearing. His face turned a funny shade of red, and Mave chuckled.
“Thank you for being on my side.”
“None of them know what it’s like. I haven’t tried talking to Mat, Brynec, and Luykas because it’s not my place. They’re your husbands, and Kian is your father. It’s better if he steps in as Senri has.”
Mave didn’t like the sound of that. She hated every time he said it wasn’t his place, or this wasn’t his family, and it refused to abate. She wanted to strangle him. He was part of this family, even if it wasn’t conventional.
Senri must have noticed something was off because she squeezed Mave’s injury slightly, enough to get Mave’s attention.
“Growling,” Senri whispered, and Mave was thankful Zayden was just out of earshot. “I could feel it.” Then she raised her voice. “Okay, I’m heading out because I’m preparing for…” Mave raised an eyebrow. Senri was about to quicken her fertile cycle and try to get pregnant. Mave hadn’t realized that was still the plan, but she wasn’t going to tell Senri not to either. “You two have fun training.”
Then she was gone, leaving Mave with an attractive male with a chip on his shoulder…or something. She wasn’t really sure what she thought of Zayden anymore. He was an enigma.
They didn’t talk anymore, launching into training. Mave took it slower this morning, knowing she was already burned out, but Zayden needed to maintain his form.
Once they were done, Mave sighed.
“Is this fixable?” she asked him. “Me and Luykas?”
“If he’s willing to do what he has to, yes. Everyone shoves their tail in their mouth at some point or another.”
“I don’t want to go to him. I went to him last time. This time, I want him to come to me.”
“Then you’ll have to wait it out and hope he comes to his senses. If he’s as smart as we all give him credit for, he will.” Zayden snorted. “Only a fool would leave a female like you.”
“Thank you,” she whispered, her heart squeezing at the compliment.
She reached out and squeezed his hand, then left him for a dip in the hot spring. She had left him looking surprised, but that was good. She liked throwing this happier Zayden off balance.
She wasn’t alone when she reached the hot spring. Mat and Bryn were obviously just getting there as well.
“Already need a bath?” she asked, dropping her chest piece onto a rock.
“It’s nearly lunch, and I have prep for the rest of the day, so I can’t be gross, handling the supplies,” Bryn answered. “How was training?”
“Good. It was good. Look. I’m sorry this is something going on between Luykas and me. I know you think I should be less hard on him—”
“We never said that,” Mat growled. “We know you think we believe that, but we’ve never said it. Yes, you got really angry about him doing it back in Kerit. We thought it might have been a bit too much, but what he did last week was out of line. We’re just tired of the fighting, Mave. When it was just us, we never had fights. You and Luykas are like oil and water.”
&
nbsp; She let that sink in as she sank into the water.
“I know,” she admitted. “He’s not the easiest male to live with.”
“And we’re not easy for him to live with. We know that. He’s stubborn. You’re stubborn. Everyone in the fucking village knows that. We just want this resolved because it’s not easy on us, either.”
She sighed and knew what she was about to say would sound childish.
“He hurt my feelings,” she mumbled, using a finger to cause ripples in the water.
“He’s a fucking prick, but don’t punish us for that, please,” Mat begged, sitting next to her. “You love him, and this is going to work out because he loves you, too. Don’t punish Brynec and me for his mistakes, though. Contrary to popular belief, we’ve already spoken to him.”
“What did he say?” It was the second time in the day she asked that.
“That he knows he’s an idiot but doesn’t know how to fix it. He knew he was an idiot the moment he opened his mouth in the war room,” Mat murmured, running a finger over her shoulder. “He’s trying to get some space to allow his more dominant nature some freedom, which is why he hasn’t come home. He doesn’t think he’s in his right mind to live under our roof right now, and you’re upset with him, so he’s just hiding. He’s hiding, Mave, because he’s stuck.”
The idea of Luykas hiding from her hurt. She hadn’t meant for it to go like that. She had been so angry, so pissed off by what he’d said, even though he tried to take it back.
“He was having a hard time toward the end of our stay in Kerit,” Mave remembered, sighing. “I’ll handle it tomorrow night,” she promised.
“Ya don’t have to handle anythin’. Just give him some space. He’s still reelin’ from learnin’ about his sister. He’s scared about the rebellion, and he handles more of the management than ya. He’s supposed to be on top of stuff for Alchan, and Lothen’s positionin’ caught him off guard.”
“So, you think I should just give him time to clear his head?” she asked softly.
“And give yerself some time,” Bryn said, moving to her opposite side. “Yeah, he fucked up and said something really fuckin’ stupid. If he came to ya right after that, ya know ya wouldn’t have been in a good place to deal with him. Ya and him have explosive arguments.”
“We do,” she agreed, groaning. “I’m terrible at this.” Frustration wasn’t an emotion Mave particularly enjoyed. “I’m just not good at it. I’m finally becoming friends with Zayden, and I’m fighting with Luykas again.”
“How’s he been with you? He’s really grouchy with us,” Mat said, stretching out. She watched as his chest and abs looked delicious as his arms went over his head.
“He’s really good with me. He smiles. It’s something else,” she smirked, thinking about it. “He’s on my side.”
“Of course, he is,” Mat mumbled, shaking his head. “Mave, everyone is on your side.”
“Nevyn isn’t,” she pointed out. Mat only rolled his eyes, so she splashed water at him. He growled playfully and pushed her legs open under the water.
“I love you,” he murmured, positioning himself between them. That was obviously the end of the conversation in his mind.
“Bryn leaves tomorrow, yet, you’re the one between my legs,” she teased. He chuckled and pulled away. “Really?” She was amazed he showed such restraint. Normally, being in the hot spring with these two was guaranteed to end in sex.
“You need all your energy for tonight because we need to make sure Bryn remembers he has to come home again,” Mat reminded her. “So we don’t have any repeats of last time.”
“I’m not goin’ alone. Nevyn and Varon are comin’ too.”
“Really? They didn’t mention that this morning.” She had heard nothing about that.
“Aye. Nevyn wants to get his own eyes on the situation. Yer still goin’ to have company, though. Ya got yer human, new parents to bother ya, and us. Kian found us and gave us a talkin’ to. Senri put the fear of the gods in him.” Bryn chuckled at the end of that. “Yer goin’ to need to find new sparring partners, though.”
“I can bother Alchan,” she said, sighing. “I can’t believe those two didn’t tell me they were going, too.”
“They probably didn’t want to worry you about it because you have enough on your plate. You would have heard tonight at the last meeting for the mission,” Mat pointed out. “How’s training the females?”
Mave shrugged. She didn’t give them much thought when she wasn’t in the clearing, working with them. “Better than it was before Kerit. Senri got a lot of them up to speed on self-defense, and Leria took the troublemakers and those who are better suited for other things. It feels easier now. Those we have are more focused.”
“Seanev leaves tomorrow. You goin’ to talk to him?”
“Nope.” She didn’t really care either way.
“And the gladiators haven’t given ya any trouble?” Bryn leaned closer in, and she knew he was making sure everything was right in their world before he left again.
“They don’t look at me. They don’t talk to me. There have been no incidents in the last week dealing with them, so everything is looking good so far,” she informed him. It was almost surprising, and she had a feeling it wouldn’t last. She hadn’t had a run-in with Kenav in weeks, but she was certain that was because she made it a point to never go near the gladiators. She knew where they were, knew who they were training with, and when Kenav walked into a meeting, she walked out without looking at him.
“Okay. Well, I’m wrinkling. Let’s clean up and get to the afternoon meetings, then enjoy a night together before we lose Bryn.” Mat stood up and began rubbing off dirt.
She felt a sudden wave of foreboding but pushed it aside. Bryn wasn’t going on this mission alone, and it wasn’t supposed to take long. Only three to four weeks. She wasn’t stupid enough to ask what could possibly go wrong. She knew well everything that could happen.
“Bryn,” she whispered as he stood up as well to scrub off.
“Aye, love?”
“Be safe,” she ordered.
“For you? Always.”
20
Trevan
Trevan woke up knowing what he faced.
Another day of nothing.
Another day of feeling like he wasn’t where he was meant to be.
Another day of loneliness.
Every day that passed in Anden, the more useless he felt.
He didn’t want to get out of the makeshift bed.
Emerian groaned across the room, rolling over roughly, his tail flicking around. Trevan pulled his leg out of the way before the tail flopped back to the floor. He was used to dodging it.
Knowing lying in bed was almost more dangerous than getting out of it, he rose, sighing as he pulled on breeches and a soft shirt. The clothing had been made for him, but by who, he didn’t know. Trevan didn’t know anyone. Day after day, he followed Dave around as he took quiet notes of everything, but no one spoke to him.
He stumbled out of the room and went into the kitchen. He wasn’t used to the building. He had been in the mountain village for two-and-a-half weeks now and still wasn’t used to the rough stone and dirt walls, smoothed to seem like they were built and not dug out. Some rooms had stones placed in patterns to block the dirt and give the space a more professional and crafted look, but most were raw. There were nooks dug into the sides for items to sit, not wooden shelves or bookcases like he was used to. Instead of the cold bed in Kerit, the home had a large room deep in the mountain that stayed cool, thanks to the earth.
Dave wasn’t awake yet, so Trevan made himself a small breakfast, then headed outside to eat, wanting fresh air instead of the rough walls this morning.
He stumbled onto the porch and breathed a sigh of relief it wasn’t blistering cold this morning. He wasn’t sure how the Andinna did it. They were always half undressed, never wore much for sleeves unless their armor had it, and didn’t use cloaks. He was freezing most d
ays, even though it was early spring.
And he was alone, which only made everything feel much colder.
He walked down the steps to one of the now several seating logs placed around the clearing shared with the home next door—her home. He saw her all the time but never had the courage to say anything. He wasn’t sure what to say. She never spoke to him, either. They would look at each other, then move on. One of her males, the smallest, tended to growl at him whenever he was around, but it was never threatening. More of a quiet warning that Trevan was being watched all the time.
What am I doing here?
He should have gone to Olost. He was Dave’s guard, but he had a feeling that was only to keep him occupied. No one knew why he was there or what he was supposed to be doing.
Trevan slowly ate the simple breakfast of bread and cheese, looking up from his food when he heard a door open and close to his right. Turning, he saw Mave walk out of her home, stretching.
Should I say anything?
She didn’t notice him, but he noticed her, had noticed her the moment he walked off the ship. She seemed healthier, happier. Even when she was stern, even when she was angry, there was a softness in her face that hadn’t been there the centuries he had watched her in the pits. Her body, still hard, was less stiff. She moved with more grace now, more at ease in her own skin. He wondered if anyone else noticed the changes since she had gotten to freedom or if it was only him, having watched her for centuries.
I feel like a stalker. Always watching and never talking to her. What is wrong with me?
“Good morning,” he finally called out, not sure where the courage had come from. He’d wanted to ask her what the music was and if she was the one who played it. When she turned and saw him, he swallowed. Her eyes went wide as she took him in, and he fretted at what she was seeing in him.
“Good morning,” she said carefully. “What are you doing?”
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