by Erin Raegan
I slapped the water and dunked my head. I opened my eyes and looked up at the wavy lights of the blue toyl stones burning in the sconces beside the pool. From under the water, they looked like bursts of fireworks that never faded.
A pale face tipped over the side of the pool with a curious half smile. I groaned and released the last of my air, popping my head above the water.
Vivian sat down and lifted the skirt of her dress, dipping her legs into the water.
“That’s rude,” I told her, scowling.
Vivian hadn’t respected my privacy since the moment I stepped foot into the castle. I put my back to the wall of the pool, hiding the nastiest of my scars.
She kicked her feet and leaned back on her arms. “Yeah, but I wouldn’t have to be rude if you didn’t hide in here all the time.”
“What are you doing here?” I picked up a bottle from the edge of the pool and dripped the contents into my hand before lathering it into my long hair.
The king didn’t often let the other human women travel to and from the castle. Peyton was here with Tahk because they had been getting the girls ready to leave, but Bailey, Linda, and the others were back in their homes, hiding from the Dahk population. Vivian should be back at her house with her mate, helping little baby bats come into the world.
“Hector is meeting with Uthyf.” She sighed and sat up, rolling her blond hair into a twist at the back of her neck. “Prin is with Peyton.”
Hector, or Vyr now that he was no longer human and instead a Juldo, met with the king a few times a week. The Dahk thought Vyr would have some kind of special insight into what the Juldo had planned, seeing as the Dahk were anticipating a war, but I had been enslaved there as the master’s personal pet for months, and I had never seen Vyr. I had seen one Juldo, whom Vyr reminded me of. They both had the same cold, dead black eyes. But he had turned his back on me. Vyr hadn’t. Vyr and Vivian had saved me and the others back on Juldoris.
“I’m surprised Vyr doesn’t have her,” I said. Vyr hadn’t let go of his baby girl very often since her birth. If Vivian wasn’t feeding her, then the baby was cradled against the Juldo’s chest.
She sighed happily. “She loves her daddy, but the separation will do her good. And him. He’s in her room all night long. She’s starting to cry every time we put her down.”
I didn’t see what was wrong with that. She was still so small, and on an alien planet. I wouldn’t trust anyone with my baby, if I could have one. But that was nearly impossible, or so the doctors told me after a particularly brutal attack from my father. But Peyton and Vivian were childhood friends.
“Besides, I needed to talk to you.”
I looked away from the pinched look she gave me.
“You didn’t want to go back home, and I supported you.” She sat forward and pinched her bottom lip nervously. “But you heard what Uthyf said. If you stay, you have to try to mingle with the natives.”
I scoffed. “I don’t get him. He’s the king, so I get that what he says goes. But he can’t even make up his own mind. One day we need to be hidden away. He says our safety is at risk. But the next he tells us to go out there and commune with the very aliens he thinks are going to kill us.”
“He doesn’t want you to leave the castle.” She rolled her eyes. “Not that you will anyway. But ever since I was taken from here, he and Tahk are personally screening everyone who steps through those doors. The warriors here are safe, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t wary. Uthyf’s just deciding the best way to introduce us to the rest of the planet. You need to leave your room and try to get along with them. It looks bad for Uthyf if us humans won’t even talk to the very Dahk housing and feeding us.” Her brows rose pointedly.
“You and Peyton talk to them.” I blew bubbles in the water. So what if I hid in my room? So what if I didn’t talk to anyone? I wasn’t hurting anybody. I helped when I was asked. Tahk’s first mother, Myrna, had the other girls and me working in the kitchens and cleaning the castle now that most of the staff had been kicked out. I was contributing. Why wasn’t that enough?
Vivian groaned and dropped her head back. “Mona, you’re being a pain. Uthyf catches all kinds of shit out there because he’s housing us. Why can’t you—”
“So why keep us here?” I interrupted her, my voice rising with frustration. “If we make his life so difficult, why did he fight against those who wanted to go home? Why didn’t he immediately agree?”
“It’s not that simple. Uthyf only wanted a small group of Dahk to go to Earth and meet up with the Dahk there. To transport twenty humans, he had to send way more Dahk than he had planned. They can’t afford to lose too many of their army right now.”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re hiding something. His reluctance had nothing to do with our safety. He wanted to keep us here. Why?”
Vivian looked toward the door, no doubt looking for an escape now that I was pressuring her. But I had a right to know. Tahk had been willing to escort us to Earth himself, but King Uthyf had protested too much those first few days. He claimed he couldn’t lose his commander. Maybe that was true, but I had a feeling it was something else as well. I didn’t know what or why, but the looks exchanged between Peyton, Vivian, and Bailey were too obvious to ignore. They knew something.
“Look, there’s just a lot of unrest here. Peyton can explain it better, but the general population is not happy that we’re here.”
“You mean Peyton and Bailey. The Dahk aren’t happy they’re here. They pissed everyone off.” I smiled grimly when Vivian flushed.
Peyton and Bailey had pissed off the Dahk long before the other girls and I arrived. Peyton first by mating their commander and chaining him to a monogamous relationship. Then Bailey incited them even more by mating two different Dahk, essentially taking them off the market for a lot of females. I got why the females of this planet were peeved with us. Their culture was different from ours. Sister wives were the norm here. To them, we were strange for our one-woman-for-one-man marriages. Peyton and Bailey had grabbed three of their most powerful bachelors and called dibs.
So I understood how that could piss off millions of alien females. And I wasn’t saying I wanted to shack up with a Dahk male and his harem, but if I were a Dahk female, I would see human women as a threat. There we were, dropping into their society and demanding they conform to our beliefs. It must have felt insulting. I didn’t see why Peyton or Bailey couldn’t show a little humility. Throwing their demands into these aliens’ faces would not endear them to the population. They were screwing it up for the rest of us— i.e., me. I had no problem with the Dahk’s harems. I had no plans to snatch away one of their males. I just wanted to live a quiet, peaceful, relatively safe life.
If we could get those around us to accept us, to see that we weren’t all going to be compatible with their males and bind them into a human-based relationship, maybe they would be more open to a peaceful cohabitation. It may be naïve, but I believed it was possible.
And if not, then maybe we could gently present the idea of monogamy to the Dahk over time, which so far had not been done. I didn’t believe the females of this world were all okay with sharing their mates with another female. There had to be some who longed for that kind of commitment.
It was how they had lived in the past. When a true Pythen mating had been more common. But some time ago, Pythes and Pythens had slowly disappeared from their culture. A male Dahk had once found his true mate by instinct or biology or something, but he knew his Pythe by touch alone. The Pythen was then overcome by a mating rage to claim his Pythe. The Dahk revered this type of mating. But such matches had become more and more rare as the Dahk females had more and more trouble conceiving a viable pregnancy.
Now Pythen matings were unheard of — until Tahk had touched Peyton back on Earth. Their true mating had caused an uproar throughout the Dahk population. Some of them viewed it as a miracle and a sign that their fertility issues were taking a turn for the better. That mating with humans co
uld be the answer. But others? The majority of the population felt threatened.
You couldn’t introduce that kind of change to a society so carelessly. I didn’t think Tahk or Peyton had handled the announcement well.
Uthyf’s brother, Aryx, hadn’t helped matters. Before he was assassinated, he hadn’t warned anyone about Tahk and Peyton’s mating. His council had. So when Peyton arrived on Home World, it wasn’t just to a species shell-shocked by her compatibility, it was to a kingdom grieving their dead king. Uthyf took up his brother’s throne and was now tasked with finding his brother’s murderer, consoling his grieving Dahk, preparing for a war, and on top of all that, he was trying to get his Dahk to accept a major change in their culture. I believed it could be done, that they could learn to accept us, but it would take time. Throwing myself in front of them hadn’t helped. Maybe we needed to keep our heads down until everything else calmed down. So I was perfectly fine hiding out in my room.
But that wasn’t the only reason. If I was honest with myself, fear lurked in the back of my mind every time one of the Dahk got within touching distance of me.
Peyton could have been an anomaly. But Bailey? Maybe the female Dahk had a right to be so wary of us. What were the odds that two human women would form a true Pythen mating bond in so short a time?
I thought it was good that most of us had been sent back home. Twenty unmated human women roaming Home World? It was only a matter of time before it happened again. And then this place wouldn’t be safe for me. The Dahk were hanging from a steep cliff already. One thing could push them over the edge. Don’t get me wrong, I preferred that kind of danger to slavery. I preferred it to what could be waiting for me on Earth. But what if it wasn’t Lydia? Or Roxanne? Or any of the others?
What if it was me?
Peyton had made it sound as though a Pythen mating was unavoidable. Once it happened, that was it. You were screwed. And I would be damned before I was tied to anyone ever again.
If I had to mingle with the Dahk, that opened me up to getting myself into a situation I couldn’t get out of. No. The fewer Dahk I came into contact with, the safer it was for my independence. The safer it was for me, period.
2
Mona
“Let’s go.” Vivian stood and held out a robe for me.
I glared at her and crossed my arms.
“Mona, I’m serious. You don’t have to like it, but you do have to cooperate. Otherwise, you’re going home.”
That did it. I reluctantly left the pool of hot water. I may be afraid of becoming an alien’s mate but not enough to risk being sent home.
Not that I thought Vivian had that kind of power, but Uthyf wasn’t exactly our biggest advocate. If Vivian opened her big mouth wide enough, I could be tossed onto a little ship and hurtling through the stars before I could say one word. There were too many dangers out there—not including the one waiting for me at home.
“This is so dumb,” I grumbled. “He wants us to hide. He wants to parade us around the castle. The guy can’t make up his mind.” I cinched the robe tightly, my fists curling around the silk tie.
She laughed. “He’s not so bad.”
I shot her a look of disbelief as I tied up my thick hair.
Uthyf would have left the other girls and me on Juldoris if Tahk hadn’t decided for him.
“Okay, okay. He’s kind of grumpy—”
I snorted. “Try egotistical, tyrannical, arrogant.” I stomped into my room. “The guy’s a dick.”
One of my guards made a choked growl and flushed. I glared at the back of his head.
“Maybe to you,” she sang and smiled at the other two guards. “Maybe if you weren’t shouting at him all the time, he wouldn’t shout back.”
My jaw dropped. “I do not shout at him. I just disagree with everything he says.”
“You are impossible.” She sighed and dropped onto my bed as I walked into my dressing room.
“No, he’s an ass.”
“He’s not that bad,” she shouted through the door. “He wants to keep us safe. Stop trying to escape your guards at every turn.”
I yanked on a long pearl-white gown and ripped open the door. “They follow me everywhere.” I looked pointedly at the Dahk holding open my dressing room door. “I can’t eat without one of them sitting beside me. I can’t sleep without them watching me. I can’t pee without them trying to follow me into the bathroom.”
“They have names. How are you, Gryl?”
The Dahk dogging my heels grinned and bowed to Vivian. “Very well, Veeveen. How is the babe?”
“Wonderful,” she sighed.
Gryl nearly tripped over my feet to get closer to her. I growled and ripped my too-long dress from under his size-fifty paws.
“I don’t need to know their names.” I crossed my arms and glared at the three guards openly gaping at Vivian’s milk-engorged tits.
“And you say I’m rude.” She dragged me from the room. “You, my dear friend, are a bitch.”
“And damn proud of it.” I smiled evilly at her.
Vivian sighed. I looked away before she could start talking about my feelings. Vivian loved to psychoanalyze me. She thought if she probed enough, I would eventually open up about my captivity and all the vile things the master loved to inflict on me. Nothing would deter her when she got in one of her moods.
But she didn’t get it. She had only been there for a few hours. She had no clue what it was like for me over the months and months I was trapped there. She, who knew Vyr would come for her, had no idea what it was like to be terrified every second of every day and feel like no matter what she did, no matter what she said, no one would help her. To feel like the only way out was to end it all. But to not have even that power? That was the worst. The helplessness, the complete loss of control—it built me. I was this person now, and no amount of talking or crying would ever change that.
I wore my bitch like a second skin. It was my armor.
I dutifully followed her down the stairwell and past the great hall. I averted my eyes as dozens of Dahk eyes followed us. We were like a sideshow to most of them, but the desire I spotted made the spikes in my stomach start stabbing. Humans may be strange and for the most part unwelcome, but Tahk’s warriors were a breed of their own. They saw what their commander and lieutenants shared with human women and wanted one for themselves.
None of them would dare touch me after Uthyf’s decree a few weeks ago, but it didn’t stop them from openly sharing their interest. After our arrival and Vivian’s capture, Uthyf had threatened everyone in the castle with death and dismemberment if they so much as placed a finger on a human female. But these guys? They weren’t scared of pain or death.
If they didn’t respect his law, their Houses would be shamed, dishonored. They were curious, they wanted to know if they could have a Pythen bond as well, but the Dahk serving under Uthyf and Tahk were honor bound. It was what made me feel so safe here.
Most men back home didn’t have an honorable bone in their body, but the Dahk? They lived and breathed it. At least Uthyf’s castle guards and Tahk’s warrior Dahk did.
And honor alone, none of them would lay a finger on me.
Outside the castle was a different story altogether, but I had no intention of venturing through Home World. I was perfectly okay living out the remainder of my days in the castle as a maid or a cook. It was like Disneyland compared to anything I had ever known before.
Vivian stopped outside the throne room, and I looked at her, my stomach dropping down at my feet to whimper on the ground. She was staring at her feet, and her pale skin was flushed. I glared until she looked up. The guilty glint in her eye was enough to send my blood pressure spiking.
“You were sent to drag me here, weren’t you?” I said.
Her silence was answer enough.
“So all that shit about communing with the aliens was what? Bullshit?” I pressed my lips tightly and urged fire to shoot from my eyes and fry her perfectly curled locks
.
Vivian gulped and twisted her hands frantically. “No. No, of course not. You do need to be more social. But yeah, they sent me for you.”
“Dammit.” I scrubbed at my face.
“I’m sorry, but you had to know it was coming.” She smiled apologetically and opened the big double doors.
I gritted my teeth and glared into the throne room. Several emotionless eyes met my furious ones. Vivian had to drag me the first few steps before I shook her off and marched to the alien males myself.
“Mohna.” Tahk bowed his head slightly with his arm around his pregnant mate.
Peyton flushed as guiltily as Vivian and buried her nose in Prin’s dark baby fuzz. I glared at the intimidating commander before skimming my gaze over his posse. Fihk, Vyr, and Haytu, I knew. Olynth must have been at home with Bailey, but Syn and four other vaguely familiar Dahk were all present and surrounding Uthyf. He stood beside a long table covered in papers and alien devices.
Each male bowed their heads as we stopped a few feet from them. Vivian patted my hand and abandoned me to circle her arms around her mate. Vyr breathed in the scent of her hair and whispered something in her ear. She nodded and lifted Prin from Peyton’s arms. Smiling nervously, Vivian and Peyton sat in chairs at the far end of the room while I swallowed the lump in my throat.
I knew they didn’t know me well. Peyton and Vivian didn’t owe me anything, but I had thought we had at least a burgeoning friendship. Vivian had shared a small part of my hell with me, and I wouldn’t have abandoned her to the inquisition I was about to get. I may not have held her hand throughout it, but I would have at least stood beside her. I wouldn’t have left her alone.
I missed Katrina acutely. It hadn’t quite hit me that she was gone until now. Until right now, as Uthyf turned his cold, intelligent eyes on me. Then I felt it. My hands shook and I hated the loss of control. Loathed it.
