“Of course we care about her, Highness, she’s our Arima,” Kyerion said with a smile, his estimation of Lariah having grown by leaps and bounds over the past half hour. He had no doubt that if they were to hurt Glory, Princess Nahoa-Arima Lariah Dracon, Soul of the Jasani and first of the Three, would flay the stripes from their hides, and she wouldn’t have to call forth her dracon alter-form to do it. They might be the only Clan Tigren and High Druids in millennia, but she wasn’t about to give them any slack because of it. Not when it came to her friend. He raised his right fist to his heart and bowed solemnly, liking her greatly. More than that, he admired her, and respected her. Cade and Kirk followed his lead, and they all waited until she rose to her feet and formally accepted their tribute.
As soon as she sat back down, Kyerion picked up an empty plate and began filling it with a little of every dish on the table. When the plate was full he handed it to Kirk, then filled a glass with juice while Cade filled a large mug with coffee. “If you’ll excuse us, we’ll just go take Glory her breakfast.”
“Good luck,” Garen said, smiling as they left the dining room.
“What do you think?” he asked Lariah when the door swung closed. “Will she let them in long enough to listen, or will they come back wearing that food?”
“I think it’s a toss-up,” she said. “They know nothing about women, and Glory knows even less about men, so it’s hard to say.”
“Trey, go ahead and make that call to Rand,” Garen said. “Let them know we aren’t certain whether or not Glory will be leaving us, but that we’ll let them know the moment it’s decided.”
“I’ll reply to Glory’s message,” Lariah said, reaching for her hand terminal. “I’ll ask her to tell us when she wants to go to the Ala Lahoi. That will let her know we’re supporting her, and puts the power of her next step in her hands.”
“I’m proud of you, Sharali,” Garen said when she finished sending her response to Glory. “You stood up to us for what you thought was right, and you handled the Tigren firmly, and with skill.”
Lariah smiled at the praise, her eyes widening as she watched Garen stand up and reach for her. He plucked her out of her chair and pulled her close. “Wrap your legs around my waist,” he said just before his mouth slanted down over hers, kissing her hard and deep. Lariah did as he asked, her arms going around his neck as she gave herself up to his mouth. The next time she opened her eyes they were in their stateroom. She turned to see Val and Trey on either side of her and smiled when they both began removing as many of her clothes as they could with Garen holding her.
“Hmmm, what can you possibly have in mind?” she asked as Garen lowered her to her feet before reaching for the buttons on her jeans.
“First, a spanking,” Trey said, his voice dark and hot, sending chills up her spine.
“A spanking?” she asked archly. “What did I do to deserve that?”
“We’re sure you’ve done something,” Garen said as he stroked her breasts and pinched her nipples while Val and Trey removed her shoes and pants. “We’ll figure that out later.”
“We just can’t help wanting to spank you,” Val said as he slid his palm up the inside of one leg. “You’re too damn adorable to resist.”
Lariah’s husky laugh trailed off into a deep moan when Garen’s fingers tightened on her nipples. “Then what?” she asked, watching Val and Trey strip out of their clothes.
“You’ll just have to wait and see,” Garen growled softly.
Lariah shivered with anticipation.
Chapter Thirty Three
Glory opened her eyes and sighed. She’d slept restlessly, awaking often throughout the night to pace her room. She’d really wanted to go up to the recreation deck to walk, but not enough to face the Tigren outside her door. She tossed the covers back and got out of bed, wondering if Lariah had received her message yet, and what her response would be. Her stomach growled hungrily and she paused on the way to the vid-terminal to check the previous night’s dinner tray for something to eat. She grimaced. After sitting uncovered all night long it looked the furthest thing from appetizing.
She spun around, then grabbed onto the table as a wave of dizziness washed through her. She had no idea how long it had been since she’d last eaten, but it was past time to get some food into herself. Once the dizziness passed she walked to the vid-terminal and turned it on. She bit her lip worriedly when Lariah’s response arrived just after she logged in, but she didn’t hesitate before opening it. Her lips curved into a relieved smile. Lariah had not let her down.
She turned the vid-terminal off and went to the closet. Just as she reached up to grab her empty bags from the shelf her stomach growled again. She’d intended to pack her things, get dressed, let Lariah know she was ready to go to the Ala Lahoi, then eat once she got there. Now, she changed her mind.
She would get dressed and go to the cafeteria for breakfast as she’d been doing since the beginning of this journey. If the Tigren wanted to follow along, that was their choice. She’d come back and pack after breakfast. Lariah’s support had given her self-confidence the boost she hadn’t even realized she’d needed.
The moment her decision was made, a knock sounded at her door. She frowned, knowing that it was almost certainly the Tigren. The knock sounded again and she sighed. She suspected that they’d stand out there knocking all day long if she didn’t open the door.
She crossed the room and jerked the door open just as Kyerion was preparing to knock again. She arched a brow but said nothing as she waited for them to tell her what they wanted. The smell of the food on the plate Kyerion was holding made her mouth water, but at least her stomach remained silent.
“Good morning, Glory,” Kyerion said.
“Good morning,” she replied coolly.
“We’d like to come in and speak with you,” Kyerion said. “We brought breakfast, and coffee for you,” he added quickly as she started to shake her head.
“You brought food for me?” she asked, equal parts surprised, pleased, and wary.
“Yes,” he replied. “We weren’t sure what you liked, so we brought a bit of everything.”
Glory wanted to laugh, but she squashed that dangerous urge immediately. “What do you want to talk about?”
“Us,” Kyerion said. She frowned, wondering which us he meant. Did he mean them, or did he mean her and them? Maybe he meant the Jasani as a whole. Or, maybe he meant everyone on the Ugaztun. Or….
“The food is getting cold,” Cade said, interrupting her thoughts. Glory’s eyes shifted to where he stood just behind Kyerion, and her resolve weakened at the undisguised hope she saw there. Cade had always been kindest to her, and she couldn’t find it within herself to refuse him. For one brief moment she considered inviting just him in, leaving Kirk and Kyerion in the corridor, but discarded the idea as unfair.
She stepped back and widened the door. “Come in.”
“Thank you,” Kyerion said with a little bow before stepping into her room, Kirk and Cade at his heels. She kept her eyes down as they passed by her, then closed the door, taking a moment to compose herself.
“You didn’t eat your dinner last night,” Kirk said from the table where they’d all taken seats.
“I wasn’t hungry,” she replied as she moved to the only empty seat. She picked up the coffee they’d set next to a glass of juice and the plate piled high with food, sipping it with pleasure.
“You were hungry until we upset you,” Kyerion said.
That was true, but Glory had no intention of admitting it. Instead she picked up the fork and studied the food in front of her. She stabbed a cube of melon and popped it into her mouth before reaching for the knife so she could cut the ham.
“We know that you didn’t sleep well last night,” Kyerion said. She flicked her eyes up at him but said nothing. “We were out in the hall and heard you pacing.” Glory decided silence was better than anything she could think of to say, and placed a bite of ham in her mouth.
> “Was it the memories of your past?” Cade asked in a low voice.
That was a surprise. “No, not at all, why would you think that?”
“We saw a portion of one of your memories,” he replied with a grimace. “We have an idea of how horrific they are.”
“I was trapped with them for what seemed like a very long time to me,” Glory said, reaching for her coffee again. “I was terrified of that door for years. I knew I’d hidden bad memories behind it, and I was afraid of accidentally releasing them. But, I discovered that seeing the same things over and over again actually caused them to lose some of their bite. By the time you guys pulled me out, I was far more worried about being trapped than I was the memories themselves. They’re horrible, that’s true, and they’ve shaped me in ways that I don’t know if I can change. At the same time, I see no reason to give them any more power over my life than they’ve already had. That was then. This is now.”
“It cannot be as easy as that,” Kirk said.
“I didn’t say it was easy,” Glory replied. “It is, however, far better than being afraid of the unknown. Might we change the subject now?”
“Of course,” Kirk said. “There is another matter we’d like to discuss.”
“All right,” she agreed before taking a bite of a waffle. They really had put a bit of everything on the plate.
Kirk glanced at Kyerion, who nodded his head, took a deep breath and turned to face her squarely. “We understand that you’re upset, maybe even hurt, by our gratitude,” he began. Glory tensed but did not look up from her plate as she speared a piece of what she thought might be fruit. “But you misunderstand us, Glory, if you think that is all we feel for you. We have other feelings as well. Stronger, more personal feelings.” Glory frowned, but did not interrupt. At least she’s listening, Kyerion thought. “The depth and intensity of our other feelings would have drowned out everything else, and we couldn’t allow your courage and sacrifice to go unacknowledged.”
Glory put her fork down and reached for the coffee again. She took a sip before slowly raising her eyes to his. “What other feelings?” she asked, reluctance weighing each word.
“Want, need, desire,” Kyerion said, his eyes growing darker and hotter with each word. “Other feelings that we have yet to find words for.”
“You want me?” she asked, pleased at how calm and cool she sounded to her own ears.
“More than anything, or anyone, ever,” Cade said. “You’re our Arima, Glory.”
She flinched. “Why would you say this when you know as well as I that it can’t be true?”
“I say it because it is true,” Cade said. Glory studied his face, but could find no deceit, no sarcasm, no anger. He meant what he was saying.
“I’m sorry, Cade, but you’ve made a mistake,” she said. “I’m not your Arima.”
“Why don’t you believe us?” Kyerion asked.
“A couple of reasons,” she said.
“Which are?”
Glory fixed her eyes on the plate in front of her. “Even if I have a bit of Tigren in me like you said, I’m still mostly human. You’re not. I wasn’t on Jasan for long, but I did learn that there’s a difference between Arimas and human mates. It’s possible I could be a human mate, in theory, but I am not Jasani, I cannot shift, therefore I’m not an Arima.
“Also, I’ve seen quite a few Rami with their Arimas, and one thing they all have in common is that they completely adore each other. Kirk has made it abundantly clear that he neither likes nor trusts me, and I’m not so sure you do, either, Kyerion. Cade seems to like me, but I’ve done some research on Jasani, and I know that you can’t claim a woman individually. It’s all of you, or none of you. Even if I am your Arima, I refuse to spend the rest of my life being treated as I was on Ramouri by one or two of you.”
The silence after Glory finished speaking stretched for so long that, against her will, her gaze shifted to Kyerion. Her breath caught in her throat at the pain on his face. She looked at Kirk, then Cade, and saw the same expressions on their faces, though she was at a complete loss as to why they looked so hurt.
“We’ve made a few mistakes with you, Glory,” Kyerion said. “Unfortunately, you’ve added them up and reached conclusions that are not correct. Will you allow us to repair your understanding of us, our motives, and our feelings?”
“There isn’t anything to repair,” Glory said, suddenly feeling tired and sad. She looked down at the plate of food in front of her and sighed. Her stomach gave a tiny, regretful rumble as she pushed the plate away, her appetite gone.
“I understand why you think that I don’t like you, Glory,” Kirk said, surprising her into looking up. “My behavior toward you has not been what it should be, and for that I apologize. But it wasn’t because I don’t like you.” He pushed his chair back and got up to walk around the table. “Before the Xanti captured us, we’d waited over four hundred years for our Arima. Such a long wait was unheard of in that time. We’d come to accept that she who was meant for us had not survived either her birth, or her childhood. It was a tragic occurrence, but not unheard of.”
Glory felt Kirk’s sadness as he stopped beside her chair and knelt down so that his silver eyes were level with hers. “Our despair grew with each decade that passed. We focused on our work, achieving the rank of High Druids far sooner than any male-set before us. There was no higher rank among Clan Tigren, though Clan Consul was equal to it. A century later we were honored with that position as well. We had nothing else to dedicate our lives to save our duties to our people, so we were perfect for both roles.
“The years continued to pass and, despite our love for our work, our loneliness continued to grow. In spite of our best efforts to stave off despair, we were quite close to giving up. I’ve no doubt that we would have, in time. Now that we know how long the Jasani waited to find just one Arima, it shames me to admit we were ready to give up after four hundred years, but I’ll not lie to you.”
Kirk reached out and tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear, his movements heartbreakingly gentle. “I didn’t remember all of those details in the beginning, but I still felt the anger and despair that I’d lived with for so long it had become a part of my being. It was that which colored my behavior toward you. I promise, it had nothing to do with you at all.
“When you told us that we’d been prisoners of the Xanti for seven thousand years, I was beyond horrified. I don’t think there’s a word in any language that could accurately express how I felt at that news. We are Druids, Glory. High Druids. We’d always lived in harmony with those around us, be they fellow Klanaren, the Narrastia of our sister world, or lesser beasts of the sky, earth, or sea. I could not help but wonder why the Creators would punish us in such a horrific manner. Had we not lived honorable lives? Had we committed some crime against our fellow creatures, or nature herself, that we were ignorant of? What had we done to deserve being locked away for so long that, when we were finally freed, it was only to discover that all we once knew, all we loved and held dear, was less than dust?”
Glory tried, but she couldn’t prevent the tears that fell from her eyes. Kirk’s pain was a lump lodged in her throat that she could barely breathe around. When he brushed away her tears and smiled at her, she shook her head in confusion. After what he’d just told her, what could he possibly be smiling about?
“I understand now,” he said. “We weren’t being punished at all. In truth, we are the luckiest of all Clan Tigren because we were chosen to survive. We were chosen to make sure Clan Tigren lived on, to prevent the extinction of our clan. And, most importantly, we were chosen to be Rami to you, Glory. Hibernation was the only way we could remain alive until you were born into the universe. I see this so clearly now, Zeta, and I no longer regret a single moment we spent in those tanks.
“You are precious to us, Glory, more precious than you can realize. You are the one woman created specifically for us. There has never been another, will never be another. We waited near
ly 7500 years for you, and now that we’ve found you, we will do anything you ask of us if you will only agree to allow us to remain at your side.”
Glory searched Kirk’s eyes carefully, and found only truth. She looked at Kyerion, then Cade, and found the same resolve, the same emotion. Then she spent a moment searching her own feelings. She didn’t rush it. This was an important moment for all of them and she didn’t want to make any mistakes. But, try as she might to use her head, to be logical and reasonable, her heart and body already had their answers, and they weren’t budging.
“What of the fact that I’m not Klanaren?”
“We’ve learned a few things since awaking in this century, one of which is that it doesn’t matter in terms of you being our Arima,” Kyerion said. “Whether or not we can convert you is uncertain but again, that doesn’t change the fact that you are meant to be ours.”
“Convert?” Glory asked in surprise.
“We’ll explain everything,” Kirk said. “There’s no rush, and we won’t do anything without your full understanding and consent.”
Glory nodded, uncertain what to say, how to tell them that yes, she wanted to be with them. More than anything. She opened her mouth, still not sure what words to use, but knowing she had to say something. Before she got a sound out, Cade held up one hand.
“Before you decide,” he said, “we have a confession to make.” Kirk and Kyerion frowned at Cade uncertainly. “Dreams,” he said cryptically.
“Yes, you are correct,” Kyerion said.
One corner of Kirk’s mouth kicked up as he faced Glory again. “When we were children our mother warned us that eavesdroppers are always punished by hearing things they wish they hadn’t. Even after all these years, I must concede that she was right.”
“Eavesdroppers?” Glory asked, confused.
“We thought to learn more about you by taking a peek into your dreams,” Kyerion said. “We saw things that we should not have seen.”
The Tigrens' Glory (Soul-Linked Saga) (Volume 9) Page 32