Rule (The Draax Series Book 2)

by Elizabeth Kelly

  “Good,” Court said. “Then we have an understanding. Now eat.”

  I ate a spoonful of faven to appease him before drinking some more gallberry juice. “Just out of curiosity, why were you in the bed with me this morning?”

  Now it was Court’s turn to look embarrassed. “You were very cold, and it was hurting you to shake the way you did. We were trying to warm you.”

  “Oh,” I said. “It worked. I was, um, nice and toasty warm this morning when I woke up.”

  Court frowned. “Toasty warm? Toast is cooked Earth bread, is it not? Why would you compare yourself to toast?”

  “It’s an expression,” I said. “Because toast is warm.”

  They didn’t say anything, and I took another drink of juice, feeling like a world-class idiot. “Thank you for giving me gallberry juice. I feel much better.”

  “You are not completely healed,” Court said. “Who injured you this way?”

  I supposed I could have told them the truth. It seemed like they were of the opinion that the less the king knew about any of us, the better, but I couldn’t bring myself to admit that I was beaten by my stepbrother. It was shameful and humiliating, and I didn’t feel like sharing my life story with a couple of aliens I barely knew.

  “I was in a vehicle accident right before I came here,” I said.

  “Were you?” Court said.

  I nodded, squirming under the sudden intensity of his gaze.

  “Strange, considering that not two days ago, you told us that you’d never been in a vehicle. Is that not right, Bran?”

  “Court, do not -”

  “Is that not right?” Court repeated slowly.

  “Yes,” Bran said.

  “Were you lying before, or lying now?” Court asked me.

  I swallowed hard, my hand tightening around my spoon in a fist. The familiar fear was stealing into my chest, making it tighten, making it hard to breathe, to think past the panic.

  “Answer me, human.”

  “Before,” I whispered.

  I knew immediately that I’d made the wrong choice. Court’s eyes flashed copper fire and his nostrils flared as he dragged in a breath. “Stop lying, human. We saw the bruising on your side. Who hurt you? Tell us immediately.”

  My hand touched the foot-shaped bruise on my ribs and when I didn’t answer, he slammed his hand down on the table. A whimper of fear escaped my throat and I pushed my chair back, my arms crossing across my torso and my hands automatically trying to cover my kidneys and liver.

  “Uda, mean.”

  Court froze before turning to stare at Bella. Her little face was drawn down in a scowl and she pointed her faven-covered spoon at Court. “No be mean to girl, Uda. Bad, Uda. Bad!”

  Bran patted her arm. “Uda did not mean to yell, meena.”

  “Bad, Uda.” Bella’s scowl grew fiercer and she puffed her chest out before her long purple tail snaked out from behind her and made a jabbing motion at Court. She certainly wasn’t afraid of the angry Draax. “Say sorry to girl, Uda.”

  Court’s tail was flicking rapidly in the air behind him and his chest was rising and falling rapidly. He gripped the edge of the table before studying me again. “I am sorry, human.”

  I nodded. Fear had made my throat dry as a bone and my heart was beating faster than a havoc cruiser hitting hyperdrive. My hand shaking, I picked up my glass of juice and drained it dry before standing. “Please excuse me.”

  My legs trembling, I walked out of the kitchen.

  * * *

  “No, Evie, you can’t go out there,” I whispered to my reflection in the bathroom mirror before returning to the bedroom, climbing back into the bed and pulling the covers up. I laid on my uninjured side and closed my eyes. I was freezing again, more from the never-ending chill in my bedroom, rather than being injured, and I buried my cold nose under the covers as my back and side ached dully.

  It was early afternoon. After the horrible scene at breakfast, my determination to stay in my room was renewed. But that was before the craving for the juice had come back. I groaned, trying to ignore both my gallberry juice cravings and the way my stomach growled with hunger.

  “Hi, girl!”

  I screamed thinly and almost fell out of the bed. I rolled over and stared wide-eyed at Bella who was lying under the covers of my bed. Her dark brown eyes were full of glee and she sat up when I did, sitting cross-legged on the bed.

  I glanced at the door to my bedroom. It was closed and I stared at Bella. “How did you get in here?”

  “Door,” she said and pointed at it. “Girl, napping?”

  “Um, yes. Sort of,” I said. “Honey, you have to stop coming into my room, okay?”

  “Okay,” Bella said before touching my hair. She scooted closer. Her tail poked at my face and I tried to bat it away. She slid into my lap while I was distracted and clung to my sweater when I tried to lift her off my lap.

  “No, girl!” she shouted.

  “Shh, honey,” I said with a nervous look at the door. “Shh, okay?”

  “Shh,” she said before holding her hand next to mine. She studied my pale skin then traced her fingers along the back of my hand. “Pretty.”

  “Thank you,” I said.

  “Bella is pretty?” She cocked her head at me and batted her eyelashes and I couldn’t help but laugh.

  “Yes, you’re very pretty.”

  She held up two fingers. “Bella is two. Bella is smart.”

  “Very smart,” I said.

  She touched my face with her small fingers, tracing my eyebrows and the shape of my lips before staring intently at my eyes.

  “Green,” she said.

  “That’s right, my eyes are green,” I said.

  “Papa and Uda are green. Bella is purple.”

  Her tail was waving back and forth behind her and when she saw me staring at it, she grabbed it and stroked the tuft of black hair at the end. “Bella’s tail.”

  “It’s, um, nice,” I said.

  “Where girl’s tail?”

  “Oh, um…”

  There was a knock on the door and Bran’s voice drifted through it. “Human, may I come in?”

  I froze, my breath escaping in a harsh gasp when Bella shouted. “Come in, Papa.”

  The door opened. Bran, carrying a tray of food and – my mouth began to water – a glass of gallberry juice, stared at the way Bella sat in my lap.

  “Hi, Papa.” Bella waved at him.

  “I’m sorry,” I said, holding my hands next to my head like I was being arrested as panic settled in my belly. “I didn’t know she was in my room when I returned from the bathroom. She-she was hiding in the bed and she climbed into my lap on her own. I swear I didn’t touch her. Please don’t hurt me.”

  A grimace crossed his face. “I will not hurt you for touching Bella, human.”

  I wanted to believe him, but I didn’t know him at all, and it was obvious that both he and Court were incredibly protective of Bella.

  He obviously saw the doubt in my face because he walked forward, set the tray on the bed, and stared intently at me. “No one in this house will hurt you, human. Ever.”

  I believed him this time. Maybe it was the sincerity in his dark eyes or maybe it was just because he’d been worried enough about my safety to give me gallberry juice and sleep in a bed with me to keep me warm.

  “You are supposed to be napping, Bella,” he said as he handed me the glass of juice. “Drink, human.”

  I took the glass and drank eagerly. It quelled the craving in my belly and Bran studied me. “Better?”

  “Yes, thank you.”

  “Do you need more?”

  I shook my head and he frowned a little. “If you need more, just say so, human. There is plenty and there is no point to you being in pain and also suffering with cravings.”

  “Why do I crave it?” I asked as Bella climbed off my lap and snuck a piece of something yellow and juicy off the tray. She popped it into her mouth and smiled happily. />
  “Bella, the warracot is for the human,” Bran chastised. He glanced at me. “If you are sick, you crave the gallberry juice until you are healed. Why did you not join us for lunch?”

  “I wasn’t hungry,” I said just as my stomach growled loudly.

  Bella giggled. “Eat, girl.”

  Bran picked up the tray and set it closer to me.

  “Thank you,” I said.

  “Come, Bella,” Bran said.

  Bella pouted at him. “No, I stay with girl.”

  Her tail wrapped around my forearm like a snake. “I stay with you. Okay, girl?”

  I gave Bran a timid look. “It’s okay with me if she stays.”

  “It is her nap time,” Bran said. “Bella, do not argue with me.”

  Her lower lip pouted out, but her tail unwrapped from around my arm and she slid across the bed to drop onto the floor. She crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head when Bran held out his hand. “No. Papa mean.”

  Bran ruffled her dark hair. “Perhaps, but you still need your afternoon nap. Come, meena.”

  He stopped in the doorway. “Court did not mean to scare you earlier.”

  “He didn’t,” I said.

  He sighed and stroked Bella’s dark hair again as she leaned against his legs. “May I give you some advice, human?”

  I nodded and he said, “We will be spending the next month together. Stop lying to us. Court does not care for lying, nor do I.”

  He picked up Bella and walked out of the room, shutting the door behind him.

  Chapter Nine

  Bran

  I sat on the edge of my bed, staring at my cock. I’d been hard this morning. A woman had made me hard. That hadn’t happened since…

  Since Dana stopped allowing Court into her bed.

  I closed my eyes, scowling a little. There hadn’t been an exact moment where I’d stopped getting an erection, but I couldn’t deny that the day Dana finally made it clear she no longer wished to have both of us was the catalyst.

  The old and familiar guilt creeped into me. I rubbed at my forehead, my tail flicking back and forth across the bed. I’d chosen Dana over Court, and I would never forgive myself for it. Even worse – neither would Court.

  I studied my crotch again. In the beginning, when it became clear that I wouldn’t get an erection, no matter what she did, Dana was hurt. The hurt quickly turned to anger, like it so often did with her. The woman Court and I had both loved had a quick temper and sharp tongue.

  Did you love her though?

  I had loved her. As did Court. We’d brought her to our planet with the belief that she was our mate and we would spend the rest of our lives together.

  I snorted in disgust. The way she kept putting off the mating ritual once she moved in with us should have been our first clue. But my paternal urges had begun, and I was blinded by my love for Dana and the need to have a child, and while Court hadn’t yet felt the same desire to be a father, he wanted a mate as much as I did.

  She never loved either of you. Nor did she love Bella.

  No, she hadn’t. While I was over the fact that that she’d left me, I would never understand how she could have left her child.

  She left because you couldn’t satisfy her, and she knew you would never allow her to take Bella with her. It’s your fault Bella doesn’t have a mother.

  More guilt tinged with despair made me feel sick. I pushed all thoughts of Dana out of my head and headed to the kitchen. It was Court’s turn to cook and he was scrolling through recipes on his tablet. He glanced up at me. “What do you think about maluken stew for supper?”

  “We need to talk about the human.” I sank into the chair beside him.

  “What about her?” Court said.

  I scowled at him. “What if she tells the king what we did?”

  “She will not,” Court said.

  “You cannot be certain of that.”

  Court pushed his tablet aside. “I am. Bran, you saw the look on her face this morning at breakfast. She is more terrified of the king finding out what happened than we are.”

  Court made a good point. The human did look panicked that we would tell the king. Of course, she looked panicked about everything.

  “She is afraid of us,” I said. “You need to be nicer to her.”

  “Me?” Court said. “You were the one who threatened her if she even touched Bella.”

  “You yelled at her this morning,” I said.

  Court took a deep breath, running his hand through his hair with short, angry pokes. “Fine. I will be nicer to the human, as will you. But, honestly, I do not think it will make a difference. She startles as easily as a grundleswat.”

  “She does,” I agreed. “Bella is fascinated by her. She was in the human’s room again when I took her lunch to her.”

  Court shrugged. “That is not a bad thing, is it? I am confident that the human will not hurt her. And, when we finally do get our actual nanny, perhaps it will make the transition easier for Bella. She will already be used to a human.”

  “You believe I should allow Bella to spend time with this human?”

  “I believe it will be impossible to stop her,” Court said with a wry grin. “You know how Bella is.”

  “I do.” My own smile curved up my lips.

  “Do you find the human attractive?” Court asked suddenly.

  “Why does that matter?”

  “She liked what we were doing to her this morning,” he said.

  “She was terrified, not aroused,” I said.

  “Only after I realized it was her and she believed I was angry,” Court said. “Before that she was aroused.”

  “So, what?” I replied. “She was half asleep, just like we were.”

  “It has been a long time since we shared a woman,” Court said.

  My mouth gaped open. “You want to share this human? Have you gone mad? She is our queen and not for us, Court.”

  Court shrugged. “She is not queen yet. If she is willing, why should we not take her to our bed? It will make the time pass faster and perhaps improve your mood.”

  “You are one to talk,” I said. “You have been acting like a moody teenager for moons.”

  Instead of getting angry, Court nodded. “I know.”

  I sighed and stared at the table as Court leaned back in his chair. “We could ask her. There is no harm in asking.”

  “She is terrified of us,” I repeated.

  Court crossed his arms over his chest, a look of defeat on his face. “You are right. It was a stupid idea. Besides, even if she stopped being so afraid of us, no doubt she is an innocent. The king would want an innocent for his queen and if we took her virginity…”

  “The female who was supposed to be our nanny, this Sabrina, was an innocent,” I said.

  Court blinked at me. “How do you know?”

  “It was in her application for the nanny job.”

  “Why does it matter as a nanny if she is an innocent?” Court asked.

  “I do not know,” I said. “But it is one of the questions they are required to fill out.”

  “We could ask her,” Court said again.

  “Ask her what? If she is an innocent or if she would like to fuck us both until the storm ends and she goes to the king?” My voice was sarcastic, but Court simply shrugged.

  “Both.”

  “We cannot,” I said. “What if the human fell in love with us? Then what?”

  Anger flashed across Court’s face. “Fell in love with us or with you?”

  “Stop it,” I said. “Dana loved you too.”

  “Dana never loved me,” Court said. “She only used me to get what she really wanted.”

  “That is not true,” I said.

  “It is and we both know it.” Court gave me an angry look. “You are right. Not about mating with this Evelyn, but about sharing her. It is not a good idea.”

  Hurt flooded through me. “You would fuck the human without me?”

  I
winced even as I was saying it. Why shouldn’t Court sleep with a female without me? Afterall, I’d slept with Dana without him. Besides, in the moons after Court moved out, he would have had plenty of opportunity to go to Earth and fuck a human on his own. It’s not like we could only sleep with a human if we were together.

  “Do not look at me that way, Bran,” Court said. “It is probably best if I am the only one who fucks the human. If she does tell the king, then it will be only me who is imprisoned or killed, and you can find a new mate and raise Bella with her alone. The way you want.”

  “That is not what I want!” Dark and dangerous anger was curling my hands into fists. “That was never what I wanted and if you truly believe that, then our friendship is damaged irreparably.”

  We stared at each other, our skin identical shades of dark green, our tails flicking back and forth, our breathing laboured and rough with anger. This was the closest we’d ever come to talking about Dana and what happened, and there was a part of me that wanted to turn and run away with my tail tucked between my legs.

  “That is not what I believe,” Court finally said.

  “Good.” My hands uncurled and I took a deep breath. Now was the perfect time to talk about what happened with Dana, but when Court grabbed his tablet and scrolled through it again, I didn’t say anything. Even after two years, the anger and hurt between us had not lessened.

  Maybe it never would.

  * * *

  Evelyn

  When I woke up from my afternoon nap, my craving for the gallberry juice wasn’t the only thing that had returned.

  I sat up, pushing my hair out of my face and rubbing my shoulder a bit gingerly. “Hello, Bella.”

  “Hi, girl!” Bella was sitting cross-legged at the end of my bed. “Girl have a nap like Bella?”

  “Yes,” I said.

  She crawled toward me and I didn’t stop her when she sat in my lap again. Her tail brushed back and forth over my arm. I had stripped down to my tank top and sleep shorts to have a nap and away from the warm cocoon of the covers, I was growing cold.

  Bella studied the goosebumps on my arms before pressing one small hand against my breasts. “What these, girl?”