Ravik's Mercy (Braxians Book 2)

by Regine Abel

  “Have you changed your mind then, Ravena?” I asked, relieved that my voice had remained neutral.

  She huffed in frustration and shook her head.

  “Ravena,” she muttered under her breath, saying her name as if in disgust.

  Heedless of her nudity, she rolled off the bed and took a few steps toward the patio, stopping halfway there. I stared at her back, confused.

  “I’m sorry. I meant Mercy,” I said, baffled by her strange behavior.

  She sighed again and turned to look at me, her shoulders drooping. I got the distinct impression that, somehow, I’d completely missed the point.

  “I don’t understand why it’s such a big deal,” I said, at a total loss. “If you prefer to be called Mercy, why go by Ravena most of the time?”

  “Because she’s not me!” she said in a cry from the heart.

  I blinked, my mind frozen for a moment. What did that even mean? Did she suffer from some kind of dual personality disorder? Her face constricted with such sorrow it tore at my heart. I straightened and sat at the edge of the bed.

  “This,” Ravena said, waving at her body. “This is me, Mercy, with my Veredian markings and my sass. The carefree, independent woman who knows what she wants and goes for it, the side of me that you met on Venus Hive—the woman that I can be when we’re alone together. Ravena is a lie and Mercy is her prisoner!”

  She ran her hands over her horns, gripping the tips like one would fist their hair in despair.

  “I swore to myself I wouldn’t do this anymore. And yet, here I am, sinking deeper and deeper into the same pattern, pretending to be someone I’m not, following rules I don’t believe in so that you won’t be embarrassed or challenged, and curbing my personality to avoid creating conflicts and to fit in your world. I’m a free woman, but in practice, I’m your prisoner. I can’t do anything or go anywhere without first asking your permission.”

  I shot to my feet, offended. “That’s not true!” I interjected. “You are free to come and go as you please.”

  “It. Is. True!” she shouted. “Your fortress is my jail. I’m free to walk around—with guards shadowing me—as long as I remain within its gates. I can’t take Dajia out for a ride unless you accompany me. If I want to leave the compound for any reason other than going to my brother’s house, the guards turn me around because you’ve not authorized it. I can’t even get on my own fucking shuttle. So don’t tell me I’m not your prisoner!”

  I blinked, digesting her words. Yes, the guards would request my consent first as they would for any man’s wife or concubine; by Braxian culture, women had no business outside the gates on their own.

  “I will speak to them,” I said, curtly.

  “And tell them what?” she asked, hardly pacified. “Let her go where she will but stick a tail on her ass? Have them turn her around if they disapprove of her destination?”

  “You don’t know Braxia, and it isn’t safe!” I snapped, starting to feel irritated. Granted, the loss of privacy was unpleasant, but why couldn’t she understand that it was necessary and for her own protection?

  “Would you treat me the same if I were a man?” she asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

  “No, I would not,” I answered honestly, without flinching. “A female roaming around all alone is considered worthless and therefore free-for-all. But even males do not travel alone, Mercy. They will always have at least one person with them. You think I’d allow less for you? Am I extra protective because you are my woman? Yes. But even had there been no personal relationship between us, you would have been treated the same. This is Braxia.”

  She huffed and shook her head.

  “What of my career that takes me halfway across the galaxy on a regular basis to meet clients and assess their needs directly on their terrain? Sometimes I need to leave with minimal notice and be gone for weeks. Are you going to oppose that?”

  I didn’t speak, but my eyes expressed all that I felt at that prospect. To my shame, since her arrival in my life, I’d come to realize open-mindedness was easy to grant to others, but when it came to loved ones—to my woman—I still clung to a backwards and controlling mentality. I wasn’t as evolved as I’d believed.

  “So that’s my future, here?” she asked, bitterly. “That’s the future of my child if it is the Goddess’ will that she should be unfortunate enough to be born female? And what of a boy? Will he also be kept under lock and key to prevent him from being hunted by those who would ignore your laws protecting hybrids? If our children are born with markings,” she said, waving at the spotted pattern on her arm, “will they also be prisoners of their own bodies?”

  I’m losing her.

  I’d been sensing it for a while, but never so acutely as in this instant. Getting her pregnant and taking her on tours to the clans’ compounds had been but a few of the ways my subconscious had tried to bind her to me, to Braxia. But deep in my heart, I’d always known this world had too little to offer and too many constraints for one such as her. Still, it felt like my blood had turned to acid.

  “You want to leave me,” I said, making no effort to hide the pain crushing me from within.

  She recoiled and stared at me, stunned for a moment, and then her face crumpled into that earlier expression of pure sorrow. Ravena hugged herself, one hand rubbing her upper arm, as if seeking comfort.

  “No,” she said with a small voice, shaking her head.

  I approached her and carefully drew her into my embrace. To my relief, she didn’t fight, snuggling against me instead. One arm around her waist, I held the back of her head, her cheek resting on my chest. Her naked body trembled slightly against me, making my heart ache.

  “I’m falling in love with you, Ravik. But I don’t think I can do this, live like this,” she whispered.

  “And I’m falling in love with you, too, Mercy,” I said against her hair. “Give me time. Things are already radically changing on Braxia, in large part thanks to you. I can’t lose you. I won’t. We can make this work. I just need you to give me a bit more time. Can you do that for me? For us?”

  She looked up at me, her obsidian eyes overly bright and glistening, then nodded with a small, trembling smile. I smiled back and caressed her face, letting my fingers run over the markings along her neck and shoulder line.

  “Mercy will get to come out of the shadows and live in the light,” I pledged. “On my honor, I will personally see to it.”

  Her smile broadened slightly. Drawing my face to hers, she pressed her forehead against mine. We held each other in silence for a moment. I knew this was only a reprieve, but I needed to figure out a way to make her happy because I couldn’t lose her—even if that meant renouncing Braxia.

  CHAPTER 15

  Mercy

  Two days after my meltdown, I sat sipping on Rehmannia tea. I always carried loads of it with me wherever I traveled in case my season kicked in. It kept my hormonal imbalance in check, and prevented my aggressive and overly emotional behavior. It had taken me by surprise as I had not expected to go into heat for another few days. My cheeks still burned thinking of how I had all but given a free porn show to Ravik’s council. But worse, I’d made a spectacle of myself the morning after when he’d asked if I no longer wanted a child with him.

  Every word spoken remained valid, but I hadn’t meant to dump them all on him like that. Guilt gnawed at me for having put more pressure on him with all the problems he already juggled on a daily basis. At the same time, I felt relieved to have it all out in the open. I couldn’t deny that Ravik was going out of his way to please me. That same day, he’d lifted all movement restrictions on me—not that they had ever been instated to begin with. He had not told the guards not to let me out of the fortress or board my shuttle; they’d simply applied to me the same rules they applied to Braxian females.

  However, while I could come and go as I pleased, a bodyguard would be assigned to me whenever I wanted to leave the fortress. An annoying, but acceptable compromise…
for now.

  Held up by other duties, Gorav informed me he would be a little over an hour late to take me to my brother’s house. In between hacking into his computer, I’d taken to performing some experiments in his lab, not only on my personal stuff, but also on some of the ideas he’d been looking into that had me intrigued. Although eager to get back to it, I didn’t mind the delay. It gave me an excuse to visit Dajia who I hadn’t taken out riding in a few days. Gulping down the rest of my tea, I left Ravik’s Hall on my way to the racers’ stables. I’d barely exited the building when a familiar voice at my back called out to me.

  “Good day, Ravena,” Keran said.

  Surprised, I stopped and looked over my shoulder as Ravik’s oldest son approached me. His uncanny resemblance to his father never ceased to amaze me. If not for Ravik’s bulkier muscle mass, slightly greater height, and twenty extra years of maturity to his features, father and son could have passed for twins. They certainly did from a distance.

  Keran raising a slightly amused eyebrow made me realize I’d been ogling him.

  “Like what you see?” he asked in a teasing tone.

  “Yes,” I said, unfazed. “I get to see in the flesh what my man looked like twenty years ago.”

  He chuckled, his eyes lit with an undefinable glimmer. “Good answer.”

  “I’m glad you approve,” I replied in the same teasing tone.

  Although still smiling, his gaze took on a speculative edge. “Would you walk with me, Ravena?”

  Uh oh. This should be interesting.

  He led me in the opposite direction from the stables towards the training grounds behind the Hall where the guards were sparring. Formerly used as a dueling pit and gladiator arena before a much larger one was built outside the compound’s gates, four rows of elevated benches surrounded it on three sides. The Magnar’s box occupied the top row of the central set of benches, with enough room to accommodate a dozen dignitaries. Keran and I strolled along the thick, waist-high, stone fence which enclosed the combat area.

  I shamelessly enjoyed the eye candy. How could I not with over fifty bare-chested men straining and grunting as they clashed? I’d have to be dead to remain impervious to such an extensive display of muscular man-flesh glistening with sweat. It didn’t arouse me, but I definitely didn’t mind the view.

  This location had been a smart choice. We walked in plain view so everyone could see that nothing unbecoming was happening, but far enough from indiscreet ears to ensure privacy, further aided by the noise of battle.

  “What did you wish to talk about?” I asked Keran as we casually strolled alongside the fence.

  “First, I guess I should thank you for the unusual way in which you liberated us from a particularly boring council meeting,” he said with a smirk.

  My cheeks heated at the reminder he’d seen me in such a primal, sex-hungry state.

  “This is not the kind of incident you remind people of,” I said with barely veiled disapproval.

  “Why?” he asked, his voice devoid of sarcasm or malice. “There’s no shame in having sex. You’ve been here long enough now to have witnessed it happening pretty much anywhere and anytime.”

  “Yes. With whores,” I said, in a hardening tone.

  Keran’s eyes lost their taunting glint as he sobered. “First, you are not a whore, Ravena. No one here thinks it. Second, it happens with wives and concubines as well. Since Father changed the law, he’s also been tempering this type of behavior, which is why you see so little of it in our Hall. If you spent more time in other clans’ compounds, you would see the reality that still is Braxia.”

  His words lifted a weight off my shoulders I hadn’t realized I’d been carrying around. I didn’t care what people thought of me, personally, but I didn’t want Ravik’s people to think his female was trash.

  “In order for us to draw more of the right kind of international partners to Braxia, and maybe even open its doors to tourism, we need to start behaving with more decorum. This would offend many dignitaries,” Keran continued.

  I nodded. Many worlds considered Braxia too barbaric and primitive in its ways to want any kind of interaction with them. In the time of the Great Wars, Braxians made the perfect hired soldiers to crush their enemies and die on the field on their behalf. But once the Galactic Council helped bring peace in the Eastern Quadrant, all those planets discarded Braxia, deeming them unfit for polite company.

  “However, your little incident has raised quite a few questions,” Keran said, the mocking spark returning in his dark eyes.

  I gave him a ‘are you serious?’ look that he would return to that topic.

  He ignored it.

  “For a moment, the others and I feared Father would kill you, or at least cause you severe damage. After all, no non-Braxian female has ever managed to take one of us, least of all one of my father’s girth, without thorough preparation.”

  I gaped at him, disbelieving. “Are we seriously having a conversation about the size of your father’s cock?”

  “Yes, because it’s thrown a question mark in my theory about you,” Keran said.

  The intensity in his gaze made me uncomfortable. This wasn’t some random chitchat to see how much he could embarrass me, but a carefully planned conversation.

  “Theory?” I asked, my pace slowing down as we reached the halfway point of the training grounds.

  “Well, seeing how Guldans keep their females even more strictly under lock and key than we do, we know very little about you. After all, you’re the first one any of us has ever met in the flesh. Thing is, Guldan females do not go into heat. Very few species do.”

  My back stiffened, and my pulse picked up while I tried to maintain a neutral expression.

  “So I can’t decide if your ability to take my father without Denax is a Guldan trait or a Veredian one,” Keran said, matter-of-fact.

  I hadn’t meant to give myself away but stopping dead in my tracks did exactly that. All humor left Keran’s face as he stopped as well and turned to face me. Hands clasped behind his back, he lifted his chin, his eyes daring me to deny it. I considered it, but that had been too precise an answer for him to have taken a wild guess and correctly landed on Veredian. Had Ravik told him?

  “Who?” I asked, my voice filled with tension.

  “No one,” Keran said. “I just did the math.” He snorted at my disbelieving stare. “Of the three species that go into heat, only one goes almost feral like you did. Public records state you are the daughter of Gruuk Vrok and Maheva Vrok, formerly Maheva Fein, who happens to be a Veredian now living on Xelix Prime.”

  I swallowed hard, but kept quiet.

  “She also happens to be the mother of Aleina Fein, now Aleina Delphin, the Veredian Ambassador on Xelix Prime. The same Ambassador who happened to have signed the resource trade agreements with the Tuureans. That would make her your baby sister. I’d wondered how you had managed to get her to sign this agreement so quickly and why, according to the word on the street, the Tuurean leader was so protective of you, a Guldan and the daughter of the greatest Veredian slaver in history.”

  “Well,” I said, noncommittally, “someone has done a thorough investigation.”

  “As Father said, a good ruler knows everything that goes on in his realm, who walks within it, and what their intentions are.”

  “And what are my intentions?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest with defiance.

  “Now that is the real question.”

  “No theories about that one?” I asked with a bit of sarcasm.

  “Of course, I do.” Keran took in a deep breath, his gaze roaming over our surroundings. “Braxia is a harsh world, but not without beauty. It’s blossoming a bit more everyday into what it is meant to be,” he said wistfully before his eyes settled back on me. “In your short time among us, you have considerably contributed to that beauty. Father loves you. You love him. And you’re planning a child together, which you may already have conceived since you’re not drinking
moon juice.”

  “Any child we could have would not be a threat to your reign,” I said, defensively.

  Keran waved a dismissive hand. “By the time any child you may have comes of age, Father will have long stepped down in my favor. So my other theory about you is that you’re debating whether or not to break his heart.”

  My lips parted in shock, and a chill ran down my spine. I rubbed my upper arm, frazzled.

  “I see the longing way in which you look at the sky sometimes, and the troubled look in your eyes at last meal, asking yourself what you’re doing here, on this alien planet with customs so foreign to you.”

  I bit my lip, bewildered by his ability to see through me so clearly.

  “What you are doing, Ravena, is showing us that a strong, independent female isn’t a threat to us, but a blessing for our people. You are opening our eyes to the riches we possess but are too blind to see. You are helping my father get his reforms adopted years ahead of time. So, the question is: are you going to finish what you started, or is freedom and the call of the stars too great?”

  I turned away from him and resumed walking, my head jumbled.

  “It’s not that simple, Keran.”

  “Nothing worthwhile is ever simple,” he conceded. “But Braxia needs a Dagna that will lead by example. Braxia needs you. I need you.”

  I recoiled at those words. “What?”

  “My father would abdicate his throne for you. I need him to continue to rule for a few more years,” Keran said.

  I looked at him, slightly confused. “Why? Usually, the heirs are dying to get their hands on power.”

  He chuckled. “No one is eager to deal with the headache of Braxia,” he said, mockingly, although his words held a ring of truth. “You made me realize how little we know of the way other worlds are run and why it works. We’ve been too stuck in our ways. I intend to travel a lot over the upcoming years, as a Braxian Ambassador, to learn how the rest of the universe lives and functions, and to forge new alliances before my ascension. If my father steps down now, I will be bound to remain here.”