by Tana Stone
He grunted and his tail tightened around my waist. “You sound like a Vandar.”
“Thanks. That’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me. Usually people here think I use too many old Earth phrases.”
One of his dark eyebrows lifted. “Donal doesn’t say sweet things to you?”
My face warmed, but it was anger that flushed my cheeks, not arousal. “I will never marry Donal, no matter what he says.” I spit out each word.
“I believe you.” Corvak uncoiled his tail from my waist and turned from me. “Unfortunately, he doesn’t believe that.”
I put my fingers to my waist, already missing the warmth of his tail. “It doesn’t matter what he thinks. No matter how important his father is, he can’t force me to marry him. I’d rather die.”
Corvak walked a few steps and spun around to face me. “It’s shocking you aren’t Vandar. Still, I didn’t come here to get embroiled in domestic disputes or cause a scandal by teaching a female to be a warrior.” He held up a hand. “No matter how good she is. Even your presence would cause a disturbance, like it did today. That will not make it easier for me to prepare your people to defend themselves against the empire. And that is my priority.”
I opened my mouth to argue with him, then I stopped. He was right. The community would never allow me to train with the males. I’d been a fool to think they would and a stubborn idiot to try.
“Okay, Vandar,” I said, walking over to stand in front of him and crossing my arms over my chest, fighting to keep my gaze from drifting to the dark lines curling across his bare chest. “Then I have a proposal for you.”
Chapter Seven
Ch 7
Corvak
I peered down at the female standing in front of me with her arms folded over her chest and her eyes flashing. It took all my restraint not to curl my tail around her again and feel the warmth of her body. “What kind of proposal? I have no intention of taking you as a mate so you can escape Donal.”
She scowled at me. “Don’t flatter yourself, tough guy.”
I almost laughed. I was used to people cowering from me, but this female did not seem scared of me at all. Was I losing my touch? I growled, curling my lip in an attempt to intimidate her. “Do I need to remind you that you have no leverage with me, female?”
She lifted her chin. “Sure I do, you just don’t know it yet.”
I raked a hand through my hair. This female was nothing but an irritation I didn’t need and a distraction I could not afford. Although I now understood the attraction one could feel towards human females, they were still nothing but trouble for a Vandar. “What is your proposal? Tell me, before I grow weary and throw you out the door.”
Her gaze flickered to the arched door then back to me. “Fine. My proposal is that you teach me how to fight.” She held up a hand before I could interrupt. “Privately.”
I stared at her. “You mean secretly.”
“Well, yeah. Obviously, no one could know.”
Now that we were no longer in the dim hallway and stood in my small living area, my gaze was drawn to her hair. It was still pulled up into a tight knot on her head, but it was the most fascinating shade of golden brown, with strands of red and gold glinting in the flickering light.
“Well?” Her sharp question made me pull my gaze away from her hair and my urge to unknot it and watch it fall loose.
I mimicked her crossed arms with my own. I had no intention of granting her proposal, but I was curious to hear her reasoning. “How exactly do you envision I could train you secretly? My quarters aren’t large enough, and I doubt yours are either.”
She shook her head. “We’d have to do it outside the village and at night.”
“At night?” Now I was intrigued. “You wish us to sneak away from the village at night? Don’t you think someone will notice us creeping around?”
She gave me a pointed look. “We wouldn’t leave the village together obviously. We’d have to time it right, but most villagers are in their dwellings after the evening meal. I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, but this planet is pretty dull, especially after the suns go down. Most families play games in their dwellings and occasionally there’s a performance in the amphitheater, but people aren’t usually out after dark.”
I returned her look. “And your sister and father? Won’t they notice you missing at night? You don’t play games?”
Her expression darkened. “We aren’t one of those types of families. My father won’t notice, and my sister will cover for me.”
“You’ve thought this through.” I leaned forward so that she had to tip her head back to continue to meet my gaze. “But you haven’t told me yet what’s in it for me.”
She opened and closed her mouth. “What do you mean?”
“You’ve told me why this is important for you and how you think the logistics can work, even though I’m not sure if you’ve thought through every contingency, but you’ve yet to explain why I’d give up my evenings and risk my good standing in the community to sneak around with you.”
Color suffused her cheeks. “You wouldn’t be sneaking around with me. You’d be teaching me and helping the planet defend itself.”
I shrugged one shoulder, enjoying watching her outrage grow. “I’m already doing that during my training during the day. It’s a pretty big ask to want me to conduct another entire training session for one person.”
Her hazel eyes narrowed. “I didn’t know it would be too taxing for a big, tough Vandar like you but if you don’t have the stamina…”
I huffed out a laugh, and let my gaze drift down her body. “You are worried about my stamina, female?”
She swallowed and the pink in her cheeks became blotchy patches of red. “No. I don’t care anything about your stamina. I thought you might want to teach me out of the goodness of your heart.”
“I’m an exiled Vandar battle chief,” I growled. “There is no goodness in my heart.”
“I don’t believe that.” Her voice trembled as she spoke.
“Believe what you wish, female.” I wrapped my tail around the back of her legs. “But do so at your own risk.”
She blinked rapidly as she looked up at me. “Fine. If you won’t teach me out of the goodness of your heart or because you want to ensure that my planet is as prepared as possible to fight off the empire, then you should do because you don’t want me showing up in your dwelling every night for the rest of your exile on this planet.”
“What?”
She grinned, her voice stronger. “You heard me, tough guy. If you refuse to teach me, I’m going to keep after you until you wished you just agreed to it in the first place.” She held up one hand and started counting off her fingers. “I’m going to dog your steps. You won’t be able to go anywhere without me following you. And you’ll never know when I’ll be waiting for you in your dwelling, or maybe I’ll sneak in and wake you up every morning. You do like to wake to loud singing, don’t you? Or maybe you’d rather fall asleep to singing. I can always yodel you to sleep.”
As I studied the female’s face, I knew she was serious. And although I didn’t know what “yodeling” was, I did not want to find out. Part of me wanted to string her up by her ankles and another part of me admired her tenacity.
“I would give my kingdom for an oblek right now,” I said through gritted teeth while she smiled up at me. “You are truly a malevolent creature, do you know that?”
“I told you I had leverage.”
I grunted. “I will admit that you have the cunning of a Vandar, and the heart of a warrior. I will agree to your proposal if only to keep you from harassing me.”
She jumped up and threw her arms around my neck. “Thank you!”
I stiffened at her embrace. I was not used to females embracing me unless they were well-paid, and then their embraces were more practiced and less exuberant. Heat coiled in my core as her body pressed against me, and my tail instinctively slid up the back of her leg.
Then she dropped her arms and backed away, her eyes wide. “Sorry. I was excited and got carried away.”
My tail released her and then twitched in frustration, mirroring my internal turmoil.
Sienna continued backing up until she’d reached the door, but before she opened it, I advanced on her, leaning one hand against the door so she couldn’t open it. I towered over her, my chest heaving.
“You have given me your proposal. Now hear my terms.”
She bit her plump bottom lip, all traces of excitement gone as she nodded mutely.
“This will be our secret,” I continued, my voice a deadly rumble. “Tell no one. I will give you no special treatment because you are a female. I will train you just as hard and ruthlessly as I do the males. Maybe even more so because you want this so badly. And when your body aches and you want to beg me for mercy, don’t. I won’t suffer your complaints. You wish to be trained like a Vandar raider? This is what you should expect.”
The hazel of her eyes had been almost entirely swallowed up by the black pupils as she stared at me without blinking or looking down. “I agree to your terms, Vandar.”
“Good.” I shifted my hand on the door down so that it was just above her shoulder and I leaned in so that my lips brushed her ear. “There is one more matter to settle.”
“Okay,” she whispered, shivering from my touch. “What is it?”
I inhaled the scent of her skin as I curled my tail around her ankle, letting my eyes close as I fought every primal urge roaring through my body. “The matter of payment.”
Chapter Eight
Ch 8
Sienna
My knees almost buckled. “Payment?”
His whispered words skated down my spine and sent frissons of desire arrowing through me as the furry tip of his tail circled my ankle.
“This should be a fair exchange, don’t you think? And you agreeing not to torment me isn’t a fair payment, although it is appreciated.”
I drew in a sharp breath, wishing I wasn’t pinned against the door. “I don’t have anything to give you. My family has no money, unless you wish to be paid in my sister’s pastries.”
He hummed, shaking his head slightly. “I was not thinking of pastries, although I suspect I now know who to thank for the warm roll this morning. But you have something I do want.”
I held my breath, steeling myself for what was coming. I’d had Donal’s eyes on me enough to know what male desire felt like, although being close to Corvak was an entirely different proposition than being close to Donal. The Vandar’s closeness made it hard for me to breathe, and every place he touched on my skin felt scorched. Donal only made me cringe.
Despite Donal’s persistence, I’d never been alone with him—or with any male. Our society didn’t allow for males and females to be alone if they weren’t married, at least not in any interesting way. So, like every female on my planet who was unwed, I was also untouched.
But, like all the other rules imposed on me, I didn’t care about breaking it.
“Now?” I asked, my heart racing.
He leaned back and met my gaze. “Now what?”
I attempted to keep my voice from quivering. “Do you want to do it now, or after we’ve started the training?”
He studied me for a moment, cocking his head and then taking a big step back. “I think you misunderstand me, Sienna. I don’t want from you what you think I do.”
I locked my knees to keep from sliding down the door and onto the floor. “What?”
His gaze raked me up and down. “As appealing as you are, I have no intention of claiming your body as payment.”
Relief flooded me, then a twinge of regret. “Oh.” I steadied my breath and put my hands on my hips, a little irritated that he’d made me think he was about to fuck me up against the door. “Then what do you want?”
“I want you to help me get off this planet.”
It took a moment for the words to sink in, then I shook my head as if to dislodge them. “But you just got here.” I leveled my gaze at him. “And you just agreed to my deal, which was to teach me how to fight. How are you supposed to do that if you aren’t on the planet?”
He turned, crossed the living area, and entered the galley kitchen. “Don’t worry, female. I have no intention of leaving right away. I will fulfill my promise to your leaders and to you. I will teach you all to fight and defend yourselves against the empire. But then I must go.” He opened a cabinet and pulled down a wrapped bundle. “I can’t spend the rest of my life here, even if I was exiled.”
I couldn’t exactly fault him, since I’d just railed against my planet. Kimithion III was no place for a Vandar warrior, or anyone who bristled against rules.
I walked over and stood on the other side of the beige-stone counter as he fumbled with the wrapped food. “Where will you go, if you’re exiled from the Vandar?”
Corvak pulled a flattened strip of seaweed from the bundle and offered it to me first. I waved it off then he took a bite. “I was only exiled from one horde, not the entire species. If I cannot join another horde, I will join the Valox resistance. If that fails, I’ll become a solo guerrilla fighter. Anything to keep battling the empire.”
I admired his intensity and his devotion to the Vandar cause of destroying the empire. “Okay, so how do I come into it? I don’t know anything about any of the things you just mentioned.”
He chewed the crunchy seaweed, grimacing as he swallowed. “Maybe not, but you do inventory the arriving supplies from off-world, don’t you?”
“Yes,” I answered hesitantly. How did he know that? Had he been asking around about me?
“Then you’re just the person who can help me stow onto a supply transport ship when it’s time for me to go.”
As much as I dreamed about leaving Kimithion III, I’d never thought of stowing away on a supply ship. Mostly because I’d never leave my sister behind, but also because I’d never set foot off my planet. As much as I liked using old Earth slang, I couldn’t even imagine what it was like somewhere other than Kimithion III.
“So? Do we have a deal? You will help me leave when it is time, and I will teach you to fight like a Vandar?”
I nodded. For some reason, though, the thought that he was already plotting his escape from the planet stole some of the satisfaction from my victory. “We have a deal.”
It was better this way, I reminded myself. The Vandar didn’t fit in here, and he never would. He’d be just as miserable as I was if he had to stay, and I wouldn’t wish an eternity of drudgery and boredom on anyone. Corvak was never meant to stay forever, so it was good that I got used to the idea of him leaving now. Even if he was the most interesting thing that had ever happened to the planet or ever would happen.
“So,” I said, coming around the counter. “Who told you about my glamorous job?”
“Your future mate was more than eager to tell me about it.”
I shot him a deadly look. “I told you, I’m never going to marry him.”
The Vandar’s lips twitched. “I’m glad to hear it. I do not like him very much.”
“You and me both,” I mumbled, as I joined him in his kitchen. “Don’t you have anything to eat aside from dried seaweed?”
He glanced at the food packet then at me. “Is there anything to eat here but dried seaweed or algae or fish?”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re eating Kimitherian food. You should be eating human food. I can’t believe no one explained this to you.” I took the seaweed from him. “The species native to this planet evolved from amphibians, so they love anything that comes from the water. To be honest, the shallows provide us with a lot of protein between the fish, algae and kelp. It’s not bad for you, it’s just not the tastiest thing in the world—unless you’re Kimitherian. When humans came, we planted crops and berries and brought some small livestock. We also get supplies like grain from off-world trading. There are a couple of shops in the village that deal in food you’ll prefer.”
“I’ll bet.” I put my hand into my pocket and pulled out a slightly flattened roll. “Eat this. My sister is the best baker in the village. I’ll make sure she keeps you stocked up with the good stuff.”
His eyes widened and a smile teased the corner of his mouth. “You always keep bread in your pockets?”
“Do you want it or not?”
He looked down at the seaweed then snatched the bread from me. “Oh, I want it.”
I watched him take ravenous bites and then turned and headed for the window. “We should start tomorrow night. I’ll send you a time and place with tomorrow’s bread delivery.” I swung a leg through one of his windows. “Catch you later.”
“What are you doing?”
“Going out the same way I came in.” I winked at him. “I don’t think either of us wants me being seen walking from your dwelling after dark. Around here, no one would ever believe that a male like you would be able to control himself around a helpless female. No offense, but they think you’re a bit of a brute. Not that I believe that.”
He eyed me as I swung my other leg up. “You should be careful, female. They might be more right about me than you are.”
Chapter Nine
Ch 9
Corvak
I watched her disappear from the windowsill, her head ducking through the triangular hole in the stone, followed by her leg. The thin curtain flapped back in place and the room was silent, leaving no trace that the female had been in my quarters.
Good, I thought, turning on my heel and striding toward the small bathing chamber in the back. If I could, I’d forget she’d ever been there as well.