Empress Hiding

by Y. M. Roger

  Rafal raised an amused eyebrow at his brother’s use of the older Blood-borne term.

  Hondo huffed, lightheartedly, “Yearlan’s word – and it makes the twins laugh.”

  Rafal’s lips quivered as if to smile, but then his amusement was lost as he truthfully answered his brother.

  “Too many kahrolasi memories,” Rafal’s voice slowly lowered further, “I decided years ago that even when I am Khedive, it will make a nice vacation place,” he paused, his hand tightening around his sise, “But I will never live there.”

  Hondo’s eyes lit with mischief – he did not like to see his brother get too introspective about the past, and it was time to find out more about the female his brother had seemingly embraced – this ‘Rafal’s female’ according to gentle Margreet.

  He handed his brother his empty sise as he casually asked, “So, your little dark-haired female is good with that?”

  Without seeming to miss a beat, Rafal began to answer as he continued to stare out the window.

  “My Chiyoto is not accustomed to anything like that cold, kahrolasi palace espec …,” Rafal trailed off.

  He and Hondo had not yet spoken about his female.

  There on Hondo’s face was one huge grin, and Rafal knew the little brat – okay, so he was a grown male, but he was still a brat – had played him.

  “Do tell,” Hondo’s attention was on fire with his brother’s smooth transition into speaking of this “his” Chiyoto – Rafal had never even spoken of knowing another female much less claiming one and what their likes and dislikes were, “She must have been quite the performer in bed for you to bring her ho …”

  Rafal’s head snapped toward his brother again.

  “She is untouched,” he paused thoughtfully, “At least until tonight,” Rafal warmed through and through with thoughts of their stubborn female as his voice became low and possessive, “And she is without doubt our mate, birader.”

  Hondo seemed to stop breathing and the smile ran away from his face.

  “But the prophecies …”

  Rafal finished the inquiry for him.

  “Were all true. We will have no Crimson mate.”

  Hondo froze. Then slowly realization dawned, and both he and his wartrige rumbled with low chuckles.

  “A Yazak mate for the future Khedive,” Hondo took the new sise from Rafal as the wheels in his mind started turning in earnest, “Khitam will be beside himself with joy.”

  Both Rafal and his beast growled again. This time, however, there was a forcefulness behind it.

  “Which is why he must die, Hondo,” there was a finality and even violence laced in Rafal’s tone, “He has made it clear that he wants your Shelvana dead meaning he is a known threat to my shioliah,” Rafal smiled almost evilly as his hand tightened on his new sise of fermenti, “And I will not allow that.”

  Hondo felt his wartrige bow his head in deference as Hondo did the same to his brother – Rafal’s tone demanded nothing less.

  “Which brings us to our first order of business, birader,” Rafal looked quite surprised that Hondo had taken that statement so lightly, but he continued to follow Hondo’s words, “Your coronation at the upcoming Anniversary Celebration.”

  Rafal’s breath caught in his chest as his beast roared in his head.

  Yes! About kahrolasi time! Kill the pich! Make clear the way for our …

  Rafal shook his head trying to silence the beast and focus on Hondo – Hondo stilled as his wartrige celebrated with the roaring beast. But, instead of sating the animals’ desire to discuss the Khedive’s death at the present moment, Rafal put his hand firmly on Hondo’s shoulder.

  “But, first, you are going to enlighten me about Blood-borne passion and such,” Rafal pulled his hand from his brother’s shoulder and stared at the mark that had, since earlier, become larger and was now smeared with the slight appearance of what could be greens and even some blues – almost as if the coloration were beginning to work its way toward the arm – but he mentally brushed it off for now. Learning more about his Chiyoto was more important at the moment.

  You will not listen to me – I have told you what you should do!

  Hondo looked quite taken off-guard.

  “You want to know …?”

  Hondo purposefully let his sentence trail off as he took but one more swallow of fermenti and placed the mostly full sise on the table beside him.

  “How to pleasure and what to expect with a powerful Blood-borne female, Hondo,” Rafal voice was firm yet somehow pleading as he ended in a confession, “Because I want her with me more than life itself.”

  As do I, Rafal. You must know that.

  Rafal stilled at his beast’s sincerity and calm – that had certainly been a first since their new “relationship” had begun. Rafal decided to contemplate that one later.

  Hondo’s gaze softened as he, too, put down his sise.

  “Yeah,” it was Hondo’s turn for a confession, “Your mate will do that to you,” he fisted his hand so tightly that the knuckles turned white, “And it kahrolasi drives you to kill to protect her … without even a breath of remorse … and you think there is no kahrolasi way to give away any more of who you are …”

  Rafal simply stared deep into his brother’s eyes and read all of the unspoken passion and, yes, possession there. Until Hondo broke their gaze and grinned.

  “And then you have sons.”

  They both laughed a bit to relax, but Rafal had to needle his brother just a bit.

  “What if, some day, you end up with a daughter, birader?”

  Once again, Hondo fisted his hands and actually shut his eyes tightly as he slowly shook his head – almost as if he were having real trouble imagining such a scenario.

  “The gods would not do that to me, Rafal,” Hondo figured denial was a good place to be with respect to this particular topic, “Now, let us speak of your Chiyoto.”

  Rafal could not help but chuckle at his brother.

  Kilgar’s beast woke him – the demercriere had become restless and whiney – very unlike its usual quiet yet dominant self. It definitely wanted something in the present, although for the life of him, Kilgar could not fathom what that could be.

  Until those wonderful sensations washed over his body and a nearly dizzying scent of glazed chili peppers invaded his olfactory. Kilgar slowly opened his eyes expecting to find that he had actually died and gone to the realm beyond.

  Closer. Closer to her.

  But, no. They still lay nearly flat in the bed – still unable to move anything. Except, now, a lovely white-haired female – Kilgar scented the air to find non-predatoral undertones to the peppers – with hands that had to be from that aforementioned realm sat beside his bed giving him the Empire’s best foot massage. Even though said massage was done with the blanket still covering his legs and feet. He could not see her face – really could not see much of anything about her – but she simply had to be beautiful. Neither he nor his beast could imagine any other scenario.

  Touch her skin.

  Oh, Kilgar intended to touch a godsfall lot more than that. He took in a deep cleansing breath and wiggled his toes to get her attention.

  No kızışma. But licking? Yes … licking …

  His beast was certainly exercised right now and growled heartily.

  The female immediately stilled – Kilgar wondered if she had heard his beast’s growl that followed that last suggestion. Holy gods! He did not want to spook her, but there was really no possible way she could have heard …

  Could she have?

  But when she turned her head toward them and Kilgar saw those shockingly chartreuse eyes, he felt desire pool really low and begin to crawl stiffly through his member. However, her eyes were not the only thing on her face that really stood out to Kilgar: she had a bit much in the cheeks and the neck and he
r nose did that turned-up, livestock thing …

  Beautiful. Touchable. Need to feel her skin …

  A blush rose in her cheeks as she slowly removed her hand.

  Her lips began to move and her words began to appear on his screen, but Kilgar could not pull himself or his beast away from her face to even read on the screen what she was saying into the small personal VTC someone had mounted on a small, wireless headset for her. Before Kilgar got enough sense to look at her words, she had completely withdrawn her hands and stood to move the chair away from the bed.

  No! Do not let her go!

  What in the godsfall was wrong with his beast – suddenly all tactile with another …? Yeah, it had been a little longer than usual since he had taken a female, but not that much longer since they last …

  His beast growled loudly in interruption and disagreement with him.

  As she carefully lifted the chair, the female froze again.

  Kilgar screamed mentally at his beast to stop the growling – that the female was able to hear it somehow and was obviously scared. Which was confounding in and of itself …

  He finally glanced at the screen.

  Our apologies, Captain Marid. We did not mean to wake you. I was simply trying to assure proper circulation in your limbs with your convalescence and immobility.

  Kilgar’s eyes immediately turned back to her – she still stood very passively, hands folded gently in front of her, eyes wide as saucers … beautiful, bright-green saucers a male could get lost in … he tried to smile in her direction.

  But just as she realized he was actually trying to smile at her, the female’s whole entire body smiled at him with the cutest deep dimples appearing to either side of those warm, full lips that began to move again.

  Touch her, please. Her arm. Her face. Touch something.

  But then Kilgar’s gaze moved down from those lips to those much-more-than-a-handful breasts … but, wait, everything about her was just like that: much more than the usual.

  Burrow in. Grab some. Taste her, please! Claws and teeth will not break her …

  And Kilgar now noticed the very thin, barely noticeable layer of powder-fine hair that lined the lower part of her cheeks, especially near her ears and how much heavier the hair on her arms appeared to be compared to most other females.

  She smells kahrolasi perfect, you esholeshek!

  Kilgar huffed as he turned toward the monitor again – this had to be Balstir’s tombul little sister his Teyman had told him about.

  It is good to see … err, meet you, Captain Marid. My name is Mystery …oh, the machine did not spell that correctly. My name is Misssstreeee. Huh? Oh, well. It is close enough. (laughter?)

  Kilgar felt a smile try to break the hardness of his face – she really was kinda cute in her own way he guessed. He moved his lips in an effort to make her come closer.

  Mysstree got the message and stepped toward the bed – her unique hands with the short fingers adorned by almost cartoon-like nails visible where she grasped the bed railing.

  Yes, closer. Touch. Oh, Makers, please!

  Again, his beast with the whining.

  Gods, but those nails of hers were interesting! Kilgar stared at them as her hands supported her weight in leaning over toward him, and he wondered what they would feel like scraping against his skin. And he began to grow hard again with her scent this close to him. Godsfall! His mouth actually began to water as she leaned an ear closer to his mouth.

  Taste! Need a taste! Have to know!

  Oh, he had to have some soon – he could not be this turned on by a heavenly-smelling but tombul female with hairy …

  The demercriere growled low and threateningly at Kilgar’s mental description of Balstir’s sister – it was as if the beast had finally lost patience with him … because … why?

  But Mysstree somehow heard the threatening growl, and, obviously thinking it directed at them, backed way off immediately – the chartreuse glow of her eyes screaming their fear as she swallowed hard and stepped away from the bed. But, even with such fear, Kilgar watched as a shaky, even more enticing – if such were possible – smile began to engulf their face.

  Internally, Kilgar cursed his beast as something deep inside of him screamed at the loss of the unique female so close to him. He fearfully glanced up at the screen, afraid of what words he would find there – he simply could not disrespect Balstir by mistreating his sister whether the mistreatment was his or his beast’s fault.

  Well, I can see we will need to work on a different way for you to speak to us. We apologize for getting so close without permission – please apologize to your demercriere for us as well – we meant no disrespect. Just give us a little more time to get to know you.

  She carefully stepped toward the bed to check the chart that hung there, but Kilgar noticed she stayed as far away from the bed as possible with her arm’s length.

  Again he cursed the beast and dared him to whine about touching her again – they would never get to touch her if his kahrolasi growling kept up.

  How about something to eat? Perhaps that might help settle you both. Miannmarr and I are actually pretty inventive cooks if there is anything you might like to try.

  Mysstree. Miannmarr. Mmmm. Want her. Want them. Bring. Mysstree. Closer. Now.

  Kilgar felt the dermercriere claw at him from inside as he had never done before. What in the realm of godsfall was the matter with … Kilgar was tired of trying to communicate mentally.

  That had really only worked for them in combat situations anyway.

  “What is your kahrolasi problem?” He ground out to his crazed beast just below a whisper.

  Apparently, however, even at her position against the wall, the female heard Kilgar and thought his words –

  You are the problem, esholeshek!

  – were directed at her.

  And her entire demeanor changed. And even as Kilgar was about to respond in a heated whisper to his unreasonable and apparently mentally-declining beast, Mysstree was at the bed side and practically in his face before he uttered a syllable.

  Her wonderful breath mixed with just a hint of spittle poured across Kilgar’s face and her glazed peppers became even spicier as her clearly forceful and defiant words raced across the screen. But Kilgar could not read them yet – all he could do was lick his lips and let his eyes run from her eyes to those lips to those looming breasts that teased him from under her low-cut top.

  And when she had finished mouthing her obviously whispered yet vehement retort just in front of their face, she snapped her beautiful and perfect teeth in their face and rose to stand right beside the bed.

  Mmmmmm. Perfect.

  The dermercriere now rolled himself around like a juvenile, licking his paws and grooming his long fur, all because some of her spittle had rained on their face … .? Okay, Kilgar had to admit that it had tasted just the slightest bit like honey, and he was having trouble pulling his mind back from wondering how other parts of her tasted, but seriously? He was still in shock that a docile non-predatory female had acted so crazy dominant to one of the most feared predators –

  No more others. We are home.

  And as his now certifiably insane beast stretched out – relaxed and without a care in the universe – Kilgar slowly let his eyes drift from the puzzling yet defiant female standing at his bedside to the screen to see what she had said with such emotion in those beautiful eyes.

  Look, Oh mighty captain. We are here as a favor to our Balstir not to you and not to your all-powerful dermercriere. Now, you do not have to like us and you do not even have to acknowledge our presence if that suites you, but you will treat us with respect and you will refrain from growling and using such distasteful language at least while you are incapacitated because we are IT, Dear Captain, so far as food and other service goes for you both. So we suggest you suck it
up for the time being and change your attitude while we see about getting you some fresh water. Got it? (smack?)

  Well, she had fire, that much was certain. And, damn! That fire really grabbed hold of something … he chanced a glance in her direction. Kilgar supposed she must have been quite angry because she fumbled a bit before she found the water container and her steps toward the door were slow and almost calculated – her hand only finding the latch after a few attempts.

  And just why in the unholy realm of godsfall did he suddenly want to yank her back against him and apologize? And, holy Gods, bury his face in her neck?

  Because that is why she is here.

  Kilgar simply chose to ignore the insanity that now seemed to define his beast – whatever it was. Maybe the kahrolasi beast would sleep off whatever its problem was.

  There is no problem. And there will be no more cognate sluts. Hmmmmm …

  Still ignoring his beast’s obvious madness, Kilgar took a deep breath and tried to think of what to do to try to repair what was probably the worst start to any meeting he had ever encountered in his life.

  But that was when more words started scrolling across the screen in front of him.

  Mysstree closed the door behind her and leaned against the passageway wall to catch her breath.

  “Oh, Miannmarr, they hate us!”

  Miannmarr stirred softly and answered in her usual, direct manner.

  Just the cocky Captain, my beauty. Her internal stroking of Mysstree very methodical – just like everything else the nestlinger ever did. I feel nothing but acceptance and protectiveness from his large animal. A hidden shiver originating in Miannmarr ran through both of them – it made Mysstree smile that the Captain’s legendary beast had actually shaken her solid, extremely intelligent altre. I am sure Captain Marid means no harm. Perhaps there was a misunderstanding?

  Mysstree pushed off from the wall.

  “No misunderstanding, professor,” Miannmarr’s cool intellectual behavior always gave Mysstree something to rib her about – Mysstree had always easily envisioned the nestingler in the cartoonish visage of instructing at some prestigious institution of higher learning somewhere, “Now, which way and how far?”