by V. K. Ludwig
“Yeah, well, let me know once I make it from clueless and naive to smart and capable.”
Kerien grinned. “I told you once before, you are smart.”
As she was truthful, caring, and a number of other things he didn’t want her to be. They sped up his pulse, thudding in his ears the closer he came to her. The way she looked at him wasn’t helping either, almost as if she was appraising him. And he was the lunatic pushing his chest out, flexing muscles.
“You’re the first one who ever told me that I’m smart,” she said, her pupils once more taking him in with such curiosity his throat tied up.
Her eyes flicked up to his horns more times than he could count, and his neck heated. Did he have something stuck on them? Foliage from the tree? He shouldn’t have cared, and yet he cleared his throat, casually running a palm along his horns just to be certain.
She wrapped her arms around herself. “Did Gral respond?”
“Not yet.”
“I have the salve.” Vohri held the little tub out, panting.
“Thanks for getting it so fast.” With a smile, the heiress squatted down and held out her hand so that Vohri could apply it. “I better get back to work. Tarnak wants to show me how to harvest clumpleaf.”
She rose and dipped her head. “Varac.”
“Heiress.”
Kerien watched them walk away, his chest growing dense the moment Vohri took the woman’s hand. With an ukeshi by her side, the heiress stirred feelings in him better ignored. Perhaps she wasn’t as ugly on the inside as he’d first accused, but that didn’t make her beautiful.
Seven
Clumpleaf.
After a week of harvesting the deep blue pulses, a wild pattern covered Ada’s hands and arms with thin, angry scratches. Not that she complained.
She dug her fist into the bush, thorns tearing her skin, and grabbed another handful of today’s harvest. “I think this one’s completely picked.”
“The words of a human who has never known hunger.” Mariad scrunched up her nose, adding more wrinkles to her age-speckled forehead, and pointed at a shriveled legume hanging moldy from a branch deep at the stem. “Suck on a stone to sate your hunger for a moon, and your mouth will water at the sight of rot.”
Except that Ada had grown familiar with hunger, if only for the last couple of days. The rations, served twice a day, only took the edge off.
“Yesterday, you mentioned that osanium replenishes itself,” Ada said.
Mariad bared a set of fangs worn from age, though they still looked sharp enough to bite through bones. Nails probably, too. Of all the Aurani, she was the most difficult to impress, but also the most talkative when Ada did.
When her gray claw pointed at the sad, little pod, Ada suppressed a sigh. “Right…”
She pressed her lips together and leaned over, working her arm deep into the bush. Her fingertip brushed over the mold, fluffy at first, though it quickly turned viscous underneath pressure.
Another stretch of her arm.
So close!
“Ouch!”
A thorn scraped over the side of her nose, sharp and unforgiving. It immediately sent an itch across her face. She better not flinch, or Mariad would lecture her on human fussiness.
Ada closed her palm around the slimy pod and pulled it out of the bush, dropping it into the wicker basket beside her. “There has to be some sort of formula to calculate how much can be mined without interfering with the replenishment.”
The Aurani female scoffed a phlegm-covered rattle from her chest and cut wilting leaves with a swipe of her claw. “However much you give to Drana, you will receive as blessings in return.”
Her non-answer made the scratch sting all the more. That female had nerve. Clumpleaf probably didn’t as much as tickle Aurani skin, but Ada’s arms itched so bad, each night, she woke of it.
Behind them, the alarm beeped, and Ada pushed her basket closer to the plant so nobody would accidentally topple it.
She got up and reached her hand out, nerve ends screaming the moment Mariad’s fingers wrapped around infuriated skin. Once she helped the old Aurani up, Ada grabbed the bowl dangling from the cord strapped around her waist and walked over to where her group gathered.
“The hessa ram had little meat.” Larmek, the one-legged Aurani male, poured a ladleful of stew into Ada’s bowl.
“Ram,” Mariad mumbled. “The taint probably made the entire stew go rancid.”
Larmek didn’t bother hiding his grunt, a sound most Aurani fell back on when they disliked something, Ada had learned. “Be grateful there is meat. The females also prepared argoy buns from yesterday’s yield. They’re on the table over there, wrapped in linen.”
Ada dipped her head and walked away with careful steps, the thin, greenish stew threatening to slosh over the rim.
She kneeled beside Vohri and handed the girl her bowl, just like she had for the last four days. “Is it just me, or is the agridome getting colder by the day?”
“You have thin skin,” Vorhi said, gifting Ada a smile. “Women feel cold fast. The stew will warm you up.”
In the field across, the Varac pulled dead bushes from the fallow ground, tossing them onto the pile behind him. It sent a strange tingle across Ada’s arms. Could have come from the scratches. Or perhaps from how it was hard not to get affected by the shift of his muscles.
Ada watched him every day, that prince who was the first one to show up on the sparring field in the mornings, and the last one to leave the agridome in the evenings. The urge to learn more about him grew inside her, which concerned her. Nothing good could come from getting too involved with your captor.
“Here,” Vohri said, handing Ada a bowl still half full of stew.
Wooden rim split in some places, the bowl pressed against Ada’s lips. She took a sip, her tongue curling as if the organ tried to protect its taste receptors.
When she lowered the bowl back down, her eyes caught with the Varac’s. An unexpected shudder went down her spine. The rim slipped off her lips, and a mouthful of stew dribbled onto her tunic. Why did he keep watching her every move? Flaring his nostrils?
Something bumped against Ada’s arm. “Bring our Varac some water.”
Ada glanced over her shoulder, where Mariad held a water bladder outstretched. She grabbed the bladder, handed her bowl to Vohri, and walked to the field across.
“You continue to give Vohri your morning ration,” the Varac said, wiping his hands on the leather covering his thighs before he reached for the water and took a gulp. “By the time we return you, you will have lost weight.”
“I’m not giving her my entire meal. We’re sharing halvsies.”
His eyes trailed over her arms, his lips pinching together for a second before he jutted his chin back toward the others. “You’ve been working hard these days.”
“It feels good to be productive.” Back home, she’d never contributed to anything that went beyond swaying shareholders with a smile. “And I enjoy helping the others.”
“You have also been asking a lot of questions,” he said, either a smile or a snarl coming over his lips. With those fangs and his scar, Ada could only guess. “Do you doubt me after all?”
“My dad was a good father.” For the most part, and his role as ruthless businessman was a tough pill to swallow.
The Varac took a deep breath and released it with a sigh. “I’ve never questioned his qualities as a father. We play many roles in our lives; not all of them well. Not once did my father show me affection, but he was a competent leader.”
A silence settled between them heavy enough it added weight to the truth in his words.
To fill that silence, Ada forced her lips into a weak smile. “And you? Which role are you bad at?”
For the first time since they’d met, the Varac did something other than grunt. He chuckled. “Rumor has it I’m a bad host.”
Without any effort on her part, Ada’s lips pulled upward into a smile. “Awful. A prince curse
d with bad manners.”
“Around a woman blessed with beauty, no less.” Black claws slowly reached out to her, and Ada didn’t shrink back this time when he smoothed the backside over her nose. “Unless she keeps scratching herself on the clumpleaf.”
No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t rip her gaze from his golden eyes so much softer than only days ago.
Heat rose into her cheeks, amplified by the way the claw trailed down along her neck, resting on her sternum for a breath. And those flaring nostrils…
“Can you smell everything?”
“Not everything.” The Varac retrieved his hand with a sigh. “But sometimes certainly more than is good for my sanity.”
Ada cleared her throat as he took another gulp. “Vohri mentioned you find women ugly.”
The Varac choked, water running down his chin. He swung an arm over his mouth and turned away, one cough chasing the next.
When he turned back, he most definitely smiled, white fangs on terrifying display. “The girl —” He cleared his throat with a fist pounding against his chest. “Vohri clearly misunderstood my words.”
Did that mean he found her beautiful? That question did nothing to ease the heat in her cheeks. Quite the opposite, so she grabbed the bladder from him to give herself something to hold on to. “What makes you think beauty is a blessing?”
A final hrumph before he answered. “Is it not?”
“It can be a curse,” she said. “In case you haven’t noticed yet, I’m nothing but the poster child for Osacore. Having a pretty face is nice and all, until people think it’s the only quality you have to offer.”
“I believe you have many qualities, your curiosity being one of them. Though I’m wondering…” He regarded her carefully as if reconsidering whatever question would follow. “You keep asking about how quickly osanium replenishes. Why?”
Wasn’t that obvious? “I’m trying to figure out how to continue mining sustainably.”
“For the long-term benefit of the company?”
“For the benefit of my conscience.”
Something that reminded her of annoyance came over his features, but why would he be annoyed about that? “Your shareholders won’t like it.”
“But most shareholders are in agreement that I’m not the brightest one. They’re more than welcome to blame it on that.”
“Intelligence is the seed of all questions, and you have harvested a great deal of answers these past few days.”
Considering that he would exchange her for ransom, his words shouldn’t have tingled her tummy the way they did. There was just something wrong about finding encouragement from the very guy who should have loved to see her fail. Wrong to go weak-kneed from it.
“So you know I’ve been talking to the others. Guess the Aurani are tattling.”
And yet he hadn’t interfered which, in a way, meant he kept answering her questions by letting them be answered. There was so much more to this guy than he’d first let on, and Ada couldn’t begin to fathom why she wanted to know more about him.
“Aurani enjoy gossip as much as any human.” He opened his arm toward the incline at the back of the field. “Walk with me.”
Ada dropped the bladder and followed beside him, the loose soil pouring into her slippers as she pushed up the small hill. “Your parents aren’t alive anymore, are they?”
“No. My father… died when I was sixteen. Many Aurani don’t fare well when their mate passes. My mother was one of them, and she died less than a year later.”
“I’m sorry,” Ada said, her eyes flicking toward his horns. “Why are you Varac then, and not Vekosh? A king?”
“A Varac doesn’t become Vekosh unless he has a Vekoshi by his side,” he murmured. His eyes regarded her, and for a brief moment, Ada held her breath. “I have no mate to question my every decision and drive me mad with her opinions.”
“Vohri said a lot of females here would want to be your mate.” Her own statement pierced something in her chest.
He hid a grin underneath a lowered head. “The girl talks too much.”
When they reached the plateau, Ada’s jaw dropped. Something similar to lily pads floated on the surface of a pond, lined by long grasses, and shaded by red-leafed trees which filtered out the artificial light from above.
Beside her, leather slapped.
Black claws dug into the laces tying the Varac’s pants, loosening them, sending a rush of blood into her veins. “What are you doing?”
“Bathing,” he said, his voice calm enough one might have thought prudence didn’t exist. “I do allow myself this one luxury. Do you wish to bathe too?”
“No!” Her answer came faster than that weakness spreading across her knees, but not nearly as fast as his pants dropped to the ground.
“Aurani don’t hide their bodies.”
Clearly not, because he stood there, naked and unashamed. His cock was slightly erect, the shaft ridged all around much like his horns, with a full sack right beneath.
Her heart pounded something ragged in her chest. That curiosity he mentioned just five minutes ago? She cursed herself for it. Only someone who stared could have taken in such details. The sight of him squeezed her thighs together.
“It’s pretty up here,” Ada said, filling the moment with small talk while he lowered himself into the water.
The Varac rubbed the dirt from his palms, wetted them, and ran them over his braid. “I’m tempted to say it’s beautiful.”
Once he’d smoothed his black hair back into the braid, he scooped up water and let it dribble down his horns. Clasping them between fingers, he rubbed away whatever mud had caked between the ridges.
“Are you going to keep staring at my horns?” he asked, sending a jolt through her. He waded toward her, to the edge of the pond, folding his arms on the grassy edge. “Touch them once and for all and be done with it.”
A wave of embarrassment swept over her, and yet she caught herself staring, again, unable to rip her eyes from his horns. She would never look at them the same way, now that she’d seen his cock.
With hesitation, she walked toward the edge of the water and kneeled. He knew she wanted to touch them, so what was the point in pretending otherwise?
“I shouldn’t.” But she reached both hands out all the same.
“Each time you stare, I worry I might have something stuck in them,” he rasped low. “You’re doing me a favor by satisfying your curiosity. Perhaps then you will stop making me uncomfortable.”
She started at the pointy tips and let her fingers run down his horns, the ridges smooth against her skin. They widened the lower her fingers glided. When she reached the bottom, where horn transitioned to scalp, the hint of a moan breathed around her knees.
Ada jerked back. “It hurts?”
An unreadable expression came over his face, one she’d never seen on him before, and his stare sent a tingle into her groin nothing short of a warning.
“They’re sensitive around the base.” He slowly reached for her hands and placed them back, his claws guiding her fingers to wrap around them again. “Sate that curiosity of yours.”
She stroked her thumb over the bony protrusion on his skull, watching his chest expand wider as his nostrils flared again. “They’re warm.”
He strained his neck toward her, toward her thighs, letting out a dark groan of pleasure, which followed with a spike of her own. What was happening here?
The Varac trailed the back of his claw over her bottom lip, eyes flicking to her mouth with such torment in them. Ada wetted her lips in response, an unforgivable urge to explore the rest of him sparking something at her core.
She liked the way he looked at her, but not nearly as much as she enjoyed how he made her feel. Smart. Capable. More than just a pretty face. It satisfied a deep longing in her but stopped when a pensive expression came over his face.
“A week, and Gral has not responded to our demands,” he said, his voice dark and smooth. “Why not?”
> Fingers going numb, the Varac’s horns turned almost velvety against Ada’s skin.
“Um…” If she told him the truth now, that Gral most likely wouldn’t trade a dime for her, left alone a large core, how would he react?
He suddenly seemed irritated, and the way he dug his claws into the dirt, uprooting grass, only added to the impression. Was this just another push and pull thing again? A game she didn’t understand?
The hairs on her neck stood on end. “He, um, he might need more time. I’m sure he needs to discuss it with shareholders and investors.”
“I find it odd that nobody tried to keep me from stealing you away. And your struggle was short-lived for a woman who has the guts to bargain with a creature capable of ripping you into pieces with little effort. I’m beginning to worry…”
His gaze slipped to her lips before his eyes met hers again. “What if I’m stuck with you?”
Her hands stiffened, fingers still wrapped around his horns. Stuck? Because she was as much an inconvenience to him as she’d been to Gral? Worthless unless she served a purpose in their damn politics? She suddenly felt like a hostage all over again. A bargaining chip, and nothing more.
“Oh, don’t worry. He wants me back,” she said, quickly letting go of his horns. “Gral and I are, um… engaged.”
His jawline tensed. “Engaged in business?”
“Engaged to be married.”
That next second dragged into a crawl.
“I see.” He offered a telltale grunt. “I’ll give your fiancé three more days.”
Bracing his palms to the edge, he lifted himself out of the water. “We don’t have the resources to keep feeding you.”
The Varac rose, water pooling off his naked body and splashing to the ground. He bent over and grabbed for his trousers. His cock was fully erect, thick veins fueling a ridged shaft, the sight engulfing Ada in heat.
How far would he have taken this if she hadn’t mentioned the engagement? They had gone from talking to sharing touch and intimacy so easily, now that it was gone, she missed it. And she hated herself for it.