“We wouldn’t presume to tell you to do anything. We simply want to draw your attention to the advantages of keeping your position here as simple as possible. You plan to leave at the end of the year. Imagine the heartache of breaking off a connection you nurtured all that time. Imagine the heartache of finding out he planned to take a wife from another Clan when you thought he wanted you.”
She could imagine it well enough. The idea tore at her heart, but what could she do? She couldn’t turn her back on Damen, not after all she’d been through. He changed her whole idea of herself. She couldn’t go back on that now.
She would never meet another man like him off this planet. If that’s the kind of man she wanted, she had no options but to get it here.
Rowan was right about something else, too. How likely would Damen be to take a wife outside his own people? He would choose someone known to him, someone who fitted all the social rules he knew and understood. He might enjoy a brief dalliance with a stranger from another planet, but that would end in one year’s time.
She couldn’t stand by and watch him marry someone else. She couldn’t remain on this planet knowing he did to some other woman the same things he did to her.
She started to get up. “I understand. I’ll think about everything you’ve said.”
Rowan put out his hand. “Don’t leave just yet. There’s something else I want to talk to you about.”
“What is it?”
“Your Alliance—it has a strong military, doesn’t it?”
“Yes, it does.”
“And this military is controlled by women, isn’t it?”
“Well, not exactly controlled. Women hold the top positions and make the serious decisions. I guess that’s another way of saying they control it. So yes, in answer to your question, yes, it is controlled by women.”
“And what purpose does your military serve? Do they fight wars of conquest against other people?”
“No, we don’t wage wars against other people. The worlds inside the Allies’ territory live in harmony with each other, and the Allies live in peace with their neighbors.”
“So, what does this giant standing military do, if everyone lives in such perfect harmony?”
“The military keeps the peace. They enforce the laws and sort out any internal conflicts.”
“So, you admit you have internal conflicts. The Allies don’t always live in harmony with each other.”
“It’s not like that. People agree to join the Allies and abide by our laws. Every now and then, someone decides to break the rules. That’s when the military steps in.”
“Yet your team comes from the military.”
“We’re a research team.”
“A research team sent by the military. Your sister, the commanding officer, keeps telling us the Allies are perfectly benign, and that joining the Allies is the best thing that could happen to us. We have our doubts about that.”
“That’s understandable, but as far as I’m concerned, the Allies are perfectly benign, too. I can’t give you any more assurance than that. If the Allies harbor any hostile intentions toward this planet, no one on this team knows anything about it. I can’t do any better than that.”
“I appreciate you saying so, and we believe you. Just tell me one thing. What would you do if you found out the Allies did harbor hostile intentions toward this planet? Would that change your view on your mission here?”
“I suppose it would, but I can’t see that happening because I don’t believe the Allies are hostile. What could they possibly stand to gain by hostilities when they want you to join their Alliance in peace?”
“I can’t answer that, but all these questions lead to one further question. If you develop a significant attachment to anyone on Kratak in the course of your mission, you could find yourself in a compromised position if you find out after the fact that the Allies are not quite as benign as you believe.”
“I don’t foresee that happening.”
“No, you don’t. No one ever does.”
Reyna stood up. She’d heard enough. “Thank you for talking to me about this. I promise I’ll think about what you said.”
“Do you really promise to think about it? You’re not just saying that?”
“No, I really do promise. I don’t have any choice but to think about it, now that I’m in this position.”
She beat it out of that room as fast as she could. All this talk about the Allies made her fidget. Why were they talking to her about it in private when they already talked to Rose? They shouldn’t even be talking to Rose about the political situation. That was Moira’s job, and Moira was missing.
Did she just repeat those words in her own mind? Moira was missing. She couldn’t be missing. No one on the team had gone anywhere. Moira must still be somewhere inside the Keep.
Reyna set out to find her. Rose was right. Moira needed to know how relations between the Krataks and the team were shaping up. Every conversation so far on the subject of the two peoples’ contact with each other ended in hostile disagreement. Reyna didn’t want to hear it at the dinner table and she didn’t want to listen when Rose tried to tell her the same thing in the passage.
She had to acknowledge the truth now. The Krataks considered the Allies dangerous. They considered this research mission a military operation, a forerunner to conflict and pressure from the Allied Command.
She hurried down the long, ringing passages. Where could she go in this labyrinth to find Moira? She didn’t know the first thing about its winding passages and hidden rooms. The Krataks could have killed Moira and hidden her body in the basement.
The basement.... Haya! Haya would help her find Moira. Where did Haya live in this Keep? Reyna didn’t even know that much. She had no idea where to look for Haya, either.
Reyna raced back toward the east entrance. Haya said she often went there, but before she could go very far, she turned another of the countless windings and found Damen standing in her path.
Reyna caught her breath at the sight of him. He stood so tall his head almost touched the ceiling. Was he always that big? Smoldering, seething power radiated off him. His nostrils flared, and smoke puffed out of them—at least, Reyna imagined it did. He took a step toward her. He towered over her. What did he plan to do?
He came so close she could smell the smoky scent of his breath. His skin glowed in the dim light. Black wave shapes undulated across his skin and billowed across his eyes. His skin turned dark purple with eddying whirlpools of leafy fronds, flowing liquid forms, and strange animal faces.
He laid his hands on her shoulders. He bent down to peer into her eyes. Then his lips touched hers for the first time. She didn’t know until now that the Krataks understood the concept of kissing. He certainly never kissed her before.
His tongue pushed into her mouth. His saliva tasted of sulfur and brimstone. His hot breath trailed into her nostrils. Her head swam with a thousand doubts and possibilities. What was he telling her? He wanted her, but for what? Did he plan to use her for his pleasure and discard her at the end of the year—or sooner?
His kiss intoxicated her beyond comprehension. She didn’t care if she had him for one hour or one year. She gave herself to him without reservation. She didn’t need his kiss or his approval. She needed only him, his body, his hands, his fascinating skin.
He drew back, and his eyes searched her soul. What did he see in her? Did he read her thoughts the way she read his skin? Did her eyes reveal her feelings for him the way his eyes did?
Before she could fully fall under the spell of his kiss, he turned her around to face away from him. She leaned back against his chest, and his hips protruded into her from behind.
Her vision blurred. Then it cleared and she found herself looking into one of the Keep’s many rooms. It was a bedroom exactly like her own, only bigger. The same ornate curtains hung around the window, and decorated coverlets lay across the bed.
Clothes
lay spread on the chairs, and an open wooden trunk sat at the foot of the bed. Clothes and blankets draped the open lid. Unlike Reyna’s guest room, other signs around the room showed people lived in that room on a regular basis.
There, standing at the foot of the bed, stood Callan and Haya Assan.
Chapter 9
Callan and Haya stood face to face with their noses not an inch apart. Callan gripped Haya by the back of the neck with one hand. The other hand disappeared under her full skirts. He growled under his breath through gritted teeth, and his saliva sprayed into her face. “Where is he? Is he lurking around here right now, waiting to sneak in and see you?”
Haya panted and struggled against his hands. She tried to turn her head aside, but Callan kept her facing him. “I don’t know where he is. I told you that.”
“You think about him, don’t you? You think about him when you’re with me.”
Her eyes snapped open to glare at him. “I think about him all the time. I told you that.”
“Does he turn you on? Does thinking about him turn you on when you’re with me? Does thinking about him make you cum when I’m fucking you like the vixen you are?”
Haya bared her teeth and shrieked. That sound set Reyna’s hair on end, but she couldn’t stop herself from reacting to the scene. Her genitals swelled, and her nether lips drooled into her pants. She couldn’t tear her eyes away. She imagined fingers probing between her legs. A hand gripping her neck and demanding her innermost secrets. He would have her. He would take her, even as she thought about another man.
Haya fought for breath. “You know he turns me on. You know I think about him when I’m with you. I told you that a million times. Why do you have to torture me like this?”
Reyna became conscious of arms around her. Fingers marched down her stomach to her crotch. At the same time, another set of fingers tiptoed up her chest and found her pendulous breast. That hand massaged her breast and twisted her nipple until she panted for every agonizing breath.
His hand tilted her hips back. Her ass jabbed into the bulge in his pants. He nudged his cock between her cheeks, and his fingers glided lower toward her aching cunt.
Callan leaned forward to force Haya back. He imposed his presence on her so she couldn’t get away. “Does that turn you on? Does that make you hot the way he did?”
“You know you make me hot the way he did. You know I gave myself to both of you equally.”
“There is no equally. You’re mine. I won you in a fair fight, and he slunk off to the forest with his tail between his legs. Is that your champion?”
He dove in to kiss her, but she managed to wrench her head aside so his lips landed on her cheek. “You’re my champion. You always have been.”
His arm muscles contracted, and he drove his hand farther under her skirts. She yelped and arched her back to get away. “I’m your champion. I’m your master. He’s nothing to you. Do you hear me? Nothing!”
“I love him. I love him as much as I love you. If he was here and you were in the forest, I would dream of you instead of him.”
“Liar! You pine for him. You cum for him instead of me.”
“No! Never!”
He growled in her face. He fumbled under her dress, and his pants slipped down around his hips to reveal his bare butt cheeks. Blue swirls grew up around his sturdy thighs to cover his ass with tendrils. They invaded his copper skin and devoured it until not an inch of the smooth tan surface remained.
Blue paisley teardrops and starbursts buried their roots into his flesh and spread up his neck to his face. They turned his face into a terrible mask of animal ferocity. He terrified Reyna even as his wild wickedness excited her beyond measure.
Damen purred into Reyna’s ear. “Do you like to watch? Do you like what you see?”
Her head fell back against his chest. “He’s brutal. He’s an animal.”
“An animal. Yes, he’s a beast. That’s what she loves so much about him. His brother is the same way. Just imagine what it must have been like for her with both of them together.”
“Did you know about that? I thought it was a secret.”
“Everybody knows. I was there. I saw them fight. Callan was merciful to let his brother run away with his life.”
“How does she stand this treatment?”
“She loves it. They’re like this all the time. Everyone in the Keep has seen them together, even Asya. He reminds her of his brother. He talks to her about him, to continually keep him present in her mind. He desires her that way, yearning for a man who isn’t here. He likes to think she dreams of another man, that the thought of her lost love sparks her desire.”
He plunged his hand into her pants and found the wet slit between her legs. She moaned and rode his fingers.
“It excites you, doesn’t it? It excites you to think a man could be brutal and harsh, and at the same time erotic and tantalizing. You want a man to treat you like that, like the property of another man. Don’t you? Say you do. Say it excites you.”
She let her eyes drift closed, but she had to keep watching. The scene worked its way into her flesh. She felt what Haya felt and what Callan felt at the same time. She felt what Damen wanted her to feel when he showed her the scene. “It excites me because you excite me. I want you to treat me that way. I want you to treat me the way you want to.”
He wrapped his arms around her and lifted her feet off the floor. He sat her on his hips and pulled her legs around him. She leaned forward, but he held her up with his massive arms.
Callan worked his naked hips under Haya’s skirts. He pushed her back against the bedpost and crushed her with his chest. He pinned her against the bedpost and rocked his hips against her. With his free hand, he spread her legs around his hips and wedged his pelvis between her thighs.
Reyna couldn’t see anything beyond those full skirts, but Haya’s expression changed. She fixed Callan with burning eyes. She bared her teeth and growled at him. He leaned into her, and his buttocks clenched with every thrust. He shoved his hips into her and she rode higher on his up thrusts.
He grabbed her arms and tossed them over her head. She grabbed the bedpost over her head and hung suspended there with her feet off the ground. Callan took hold of her ass in both hands and guided her down onto his shaft even as he bumped her higher with his pumping hips.
Damen held Reyna up with one hand planted against her chest. Her breasts bounced against his hand. His other hand burrowed down between her legs where he found her clitoris ripe and ready for his attention.
He hitched her pants down her hips. They stuck around her thighs and left her ass and pussy bare. He set her feet on the floor, but her pants held her legs together. He bent her forward and touched her raw flesh with the exposed tip of his lance.
Her moist petals quivered at the touch. He screwed his tool between her legs on a river of wetness and found the blazing hole ready to welcome him inside. She bent forward at the waist, and at the same time, she arched back to point her ass up toward him.
Haya mewed with the steady rhythm of Callan’s jackhammer. She bumped up and down against the bedpost. He bit her lips in rough kisses, but he kept up his cruel talk in her face. “Did it feel like that? Did it feel like that when he fucked you in his room?”
“Oh, yes. Oh, yes, it felt good. God, his cock was hard.”
“Did he make you cum, you little beast? Did he make you this wet while my back was turned?”
“Oh, yes. Oh, God, yes, he made me so wet. I couldn’t stand it. He made me scream, his cock was so big and hard. He fucked me so hard.”
“Did you think about me while he fucked you? Did you? Huh? I’m talking to you. Tell me you thought about me with his cock inside you.”
“I thought about you. I wanted you when he fucked me.”
“Did thinking about me make you that wet, baby? Did you think how I would fuck you when I got back and found you sitting on another man’s cock?”
&nb
sp; “You made me so hot and wet. I wanted to sit on your cock. I wanted your cock in my mouth while he fucked me on my knees. Oh, yeah. Oh, that cock is so hard. Oh, yeah, give it to me hard.”
He redoubled his efforts and banged her hard against the bedpost until she yelped in agony.
“How did you like having both of us at once? Did that turn you on? Did you want to take both of us?”
“I wanted you both. I wanted to marry you both, but you were too jealous. You would rather kill your own brother than share me with him.”
“I shared you with him for ten days. That was enough.”
“You could have shared me with him forever. You could have made me that wet every day if you had only shared me.”
“You witch! How dare you? You’re my wife, and all you ever think about is him. You never stop thinking about him. Are you thinking about him right now, when I’m fucking you like the animal you are?”
“Yes! I’m thinking about him. I need him in my mouth while you nail me against the bedpost. I need both your cocks at once. Nothing else will make me happy.”
“I’ll show you what you need. I’ll make you scream like you never screamed for him. Go on and think about him. Think about him fucking you right now, and let me hear how he makes you cum.”
Damen bit Reyna’s ear. “Do you like what you see? Does that turn you on?”
She couldn’t concentrate anymore. “I don’t want to watch.”
“I want you to watch. I want you to see what it’s like.”
“I can’t. I don’t want anything but you.”
He drove his thick cock between her legs, and it thrust home to the very center of her being. She let out a quiet peep of surprise and aching fulfillment, but he took hold of her chin and turned her head around to face him.
He held her ass against his driving cock, but he kept her facing him to kiss her. He consumed her mouth while she sat her voluptuous ass down on his riding cock. Their tongues spoke to each other of insatiable desires quenched in the furnace of love.
Haya’s cries drifted through the door. They harmonized with Callan’s excited grunts, but Reyna couldn’t see them anymore. She couldn’t see Callan’s brutal glare or Haya’s enthralled mouth hanging open.
Damen (Dragons of Kratak Book 2) Page 7
