“You have talked with him?” Caidi swallowed, one of her fingers tracing a pattern on his chest.
“Not personally.” Raven shrugged. “He informed a friend of mine who lives on Askara of your threats. My friend warned me of your fears and your promise of retribution should any of your people be harmed. I contacted my friend when everything had calmed. He informed Jarlek.”
“It wasn’t a threat.” Caidi’s voice hardened. “I was merely informing them of what would happen if any member of my pack was harmed due to that stupid trap.”
“He said that you were a suitable mate for me, that you were obviously accustomed to defending and protecting what is yours.” Raven gave her a small, tilted smile. One hand gently brushed the curtain of her hair away from her face.
“That is what you meant when you said that you had learned some interesting things about me?” Caidi gave him a hopeful smile. Deep inside she knew that that wasn’t what he meant, but she hoped that it was something like that. Simple, uncomplicated.
“Only partly.” Raven patted her buttocks. “You have knowledge of some interesting secrets that others of our kind have long searched for and haven’t been able to find.”
Caidi immediately understood his cryptic statement about secrets. He would soon be asking how to hide a Zarain’s presence from any other being with the ability to sense a shifter.
“You will tell me your secrets when you come to trust me.” Raven had decided before she arrived that he wouldn’t press her. The strength of the bond was on his side. Each day would bring her closer to him. “It is only a matter of time.”
“I don’t even like you right now.” Caidi narrowed her eyes and tried to push up off his chest, but he slid an arm around her waist and kept her pinned. “It will take me a long time to come to trust you.”
“You will like and trust me when you give yourself time to know me, to trust your instincts. You are fighting yourself right now,” Raven assured her.
“Your friend was on Askara and you could talk with him. Could you have contacted me after I left you?” Caidi frowned and then shook her head. “No, you would have used the link if you could have touched my mind as you did while I was close to you.”
“You are right. After you left the planet, I couldn’t find you. The path to you was still too new and, because you weren’t yet Shadatai, I couldn’t use the common path to find you. When you were close to me, I could easily touch your mind, even read the occasional thought if you felt strongly about it or you were upset, but after you left the tavern it became increasingly difficult and when you left the planet, it was impossible.” Raven smiled. That wouldn’t be happening again.
“After we left the tavern, what happened? How did you manage to catch Chey and the others with her?”
“The Zarain that you saw at the tavern that night weren’t the only members of my pack on the planet that night. We were scattered widely across the city. They were close enough to feel you as they came to my call, but weren’t close enough for an exact location.”
“I thought you would have more men. We rushed.” Caidi gave him a satisfied grin.
“Before they did get close enough, I assume that you and your women were once again protected by whatever enables you to move among us without detection. It was merely a coincidence that I was at that inn, a lucky one. If you would have stayed at the inn arguing with your friend a little longer, I would have had you as well.” Raven gave a toothy, predatory smile. He had cursed her speedy departure that night.
“I am sure that that would have made you very happy.” Caidi heaved a huge sigh and frowned. “That might have simplified things for you, made it so much easier, but it would have made things much harder on my people. They wouldn’t have expected me to return accompanied by a Shadatai pack. It would have put them in a bad position. They would have had to decide if they should fight against you or accept what might be an invading force into the Taivain.”
“Your dedication to your pack is admirable. You protect and worry about them as a mother tiarl does her cubs. I trust that that protectiveness and devotion will encompass the new pack with the same ferocity.” Raven raised an expectant eyebrow.
“Nothing has really changed in that respect. Although my pack is larger, I am now mated to you, and though there is a lot that I don’t know about how life with you will be, it is still my pack. My loyalty to them isn’t in question. I know that I will have to make some adjustments. I expected to do so when you came here. You and your men can be assured of my loyalty,” Caidi said with grave sincerity.
“Well, you aren’t quite mated formally.” Raven’s lips lifted in a crooked smile and laughter lurked in his silver eyes.
Caidi frowned down at him, confused by his statement and the amusement. “What do you mean?”
Raven held her chin in one hand, looking into her eyes as he said the formal, ritual, binding words. “I mean this, Caidi. A’haina col tol’estal. Enalac, etal meal toralis retal.”
Caidi gulped audibly when she heard the ritual words from him. She took a deep breath as it became clear that only now was he her bound mate. She had been free until this moment. “I assumed that you had already done that.”
“From some of your comments earlier, I guessed that you believed that you were already mated, but the bond isn’t binding unless you are with me when the words are said.” Raven encircled her waist with his arms and hugged her, pressing his chin to the top of her head.
Caidi sighed, a sad expression crossing her face. “I wish things could have been simpler, that I could have accepted you that night. Two years ago, I would have been a little aghast when I found out that you were Shadatai, but I would have welcomed finding my mate. Of course, we wouldn’t have met in anything close to the complicated way that we did if I had found you when I was searching two years ago.”
“You searched for a mate?” Raven ran his hands up to her ribs, causing her to squirm as his fingers tickled her.
“I concealed my identity as a shifter, but I actively searched for my mate on any planet that Zarain men were known to frequent. I had pretty much given up on finding a mate by the end of that year, but I kept searching until we came up with our plan to have babies without the encumbrance of men.” She lay her head down on her arm, exhausted from the emotional upheaval and the long journey here. Her heavy eyelids slowly lowered, her breathing slowed and deepened into the even rhythm of sleep.
Raven held her, content but a little worried about her. He knew that she needed the sleep. She had to be exhausted. She would have had to push herself and the women with her to their limits to get here as quickly as they did. He knew that he had caused the worry that had motivated her need to travel at such a pace. She had been troubled over the safety of her pack when they had confronted him and his men.
He hadn’t intended to cause her to worry about whether her pack would be safe from him. In truth, he had considered her pack his from the moment he had learned of it and wouldn’t have seen even one woman harmed in the taking of this fortress. He hadn’t known that she had had troubles with renegade groups trying to take control of the Taivain and that they had been forced to defend themselves against them.
Raven eased her to his side and simply enjoyed the contentment and the peace that came from merely having her with him again. It was near midday and a meal would be brought for them soon. He would have to wake her for it. He knew that she needed her rest, but she needed to eat, too. She needed meat, the energy it could provide. At the pace that they had had to set to get here, they wouldn’t have had time to hunt for fresh game. They would have eaten only the dried food that they had carried in their supplies.
Chapter Eight
Caidi woke a few hours after Raven had left her. He had stayed with her until after they had both finished eating and then he had left her with orders to rest, to sleep. Caidi had gone back to sleep in spite of her irritation over his commands. Her body’s demand for rest was much more dominant than her desire to defy
his autocratic orders. She had slept undisturbed and felt much better, more prepared than she had when she had faced him earlier.
She rolled out of bed and headed straight for the tub. After a short bath, she dressed in the clothing that she had chosen to wear earlier. She brushed her hair and secured it at the back of her neck with a black ribbon. Now, she needed to see how the women of her pack had fared and exactly what changes had been made.
Caidi suspected that things within the Taivain were far from settled. The pack had been strictly female for too long for the change to have been completed with such ease. She left the room and went to find out just how much of the change still occurring within the Taivain had been explained to her pack-mates. From what she had seen earlier, she knew that there had been some confusion among them and a little irritation. The confusion and irritation were to be expected, especially if the other Shadatai were as autocratic as Raven. Things were changing at a frantic pace and she wanted to make sure that it was going as smoothly as possible.
Caidi found that all of the women were busy when she went to the main hall. There were also a number of men around the hall and Caidi knew that most of the women would be a little hesitant to talk freely in front of the large warriors. She went to the kitchen.
The kitchen in a Taivain was a female haven. Caidi knew that she should be able to have an uninterrupted, unmonitored conversation here. She would be able to find out how everyone was adjusting to the sudden arrival of the men and just what had been changed while she had been gone. Raven had just given her the basics. He wouldn’t know how the women felt about all of these changes. He probably wouldn’t think to ask.
Caidi took a place at the deep brown worktable without saying a word after she entered the warm kitchen. Shelves and cupboards lined one full wall. There were two giant ovens and an open fire with a large hook hanging over it. Women bustled around the gray stone room as others gathered around the large, scarred work table to help with the almost unending duty of supplying food for a large company of men and women. She accepted the knife and the pile of vegetables that were shoved her way. Silence reigned for a while as everyone worked and thought.
“Are you sure he’s your mate?” Tamira Salain’s glance was pensive, hopeful when she looked at Caidi.
Caidi could understand the question and smiled in commiseration. Raven was arrogant and he was changing the entire way of life at this Taivain without pause or question. None of the women in the room would have ever sought a Shadatai warrior when they were searching for a mate. The stories had been bad enough to discourage even the most naïve. There was no hope of controlling a Shadatai Zarain warrior.
“I’m sure.” Caidi gave an uneasy laugh. “I know how you feel. It will take me a while to get used to him and much longer to get used to his way of doing things, if I ever do.”
“I’m not sure that I can get used to doing things the way that they do,” Senna volunteered from the end of the table. Her knife came down on the vegetables with more force than necessary. “Those men wouldn’t even tell us why we won’t be trading with the Bavaok anymore. They just gave us these looks as if they couldn’t understand why we were even asking.”
“The Bavaok are enemies.” Caidi closed her eyes. She had always been open with her pack-mates. They too might as well learn that their lack of contact with other shifters had almost led them to disaster.
“They are the Shadatai’s enemies?” Tamira shot a curious frown at Caidi.
“No, they aren’t the Shadatai’s enemies. Not specifically.” Caidi pushed the chopped vegetables aside to make room for those she hadn’t yet cut. “The Bavaok are enemies to all shifters. The only reason that we have been safe from them is that they didn’t know that we are shifters. They would have attacked us if they had known.”
“You believe that this is the real reason?” Chella leaned forward to look at Caidi’s face.
“Yes, I believe him. He wouldn’t lie to me about something like that.” Caidi had no doubts about that. “So tell me exactly what all of these men have done since they arrived at the Taivain.”
“They are determined and pushy. They had us halfway moved out of the old building that first day. We cleaned this place those first few days while they worked, tearing down, rearranging, especially in some of the lower-level bedchambers. The Achan asked some of us about what we did, where we traded, who we traded with, what we traded, what crops we had planted, how far the fields were, where we hunted, the type of game that was here, if it was abundant or scarce, where the other gates were, where the Feiral holding was and much more.” Chella grimaced and shrugged.
It was the grimace that caught and held Caidi’s attention. She knew that they had withheld something from Raven. “You told him everything he wanted to know? You told him everything about the Taivain?” Caidi slanted a knowing glance at the studiously lowered, red-gold head of her friend.
“Well, we didn’t lie to him,” Tamira stressed. “We just didn’t tell him everything that we could have told him. We knew that some of his men were the same men from the inn and he knew your chosen name, but we didn’t know him or have any reason to trust him. He and his men have been too busy up until recently to really look around their new home.”
“Has he found out about this?” Caidi worried about Raven’s reaction when he discovered that he hadn’t been told everything.
“Not yet,” Chella answered Caidi without blinking. “If you choose not to tell him, it could be years before they find any of them.”
“He would be rightfully furious when he discovered the truth. Keeping it a secret isn’t an option. He is my chalon and the Achan.” Caidi shook her head at the tangle she would be forced to carefully unknot. “Would one of the omissions be about a certain place where we store some of the tirsa and wine?”
Tamira and Chella merely nodded.
Caidi sighed. She knew that she could have managed to make the transition smoother than this if the man would have just given her time to think of a way. His insistence and rush to claim his position had caused this. “He will not think that that was merely an innocent oversight. He will know it for what it was, a way to protect our way of life. In spite of all of those big muscles, he’s not stupid.”
“I know that it is a problem, but at first, we didn’t know him. We didn’t even know for sure if he was truly the one who was your mate. Those women who went to Mijohin and who were left here couldn’t say for sure that he was the one you had chosen. We wanted to keep a few things secret just in case.”
Caidi grimaced. “I understand, but I don’t think he will. He isn’t used to having his word questioned. A man with the title of Achan is accustomed to having his every order followed. I will correct the matter after the evening meal. You and anyone else who kept things from him, eat and then disappear for the night. I’ll…see what I can do about the situation, but before any of you scatter, I’ll need to know exactly what you neglected to tell him when you gave him your tour of the Taivain.”
Those were apparently the words that the women had been waiting and wanting to hear. Caidi had to call for silence and order as all of the omitted secrets were revealed in an indecipherable rush and mixture of voices. It was a long list.
Caidi listened in surprise as they told her what they had “forgotten” to tell Raven. They had hardly told him anything. He had basically seen only the buildings and there was much more to the Taivain than what could be seen at first glance.
Caidi stared at them with wide, disbelieving eyes. “You didn’t tell him about the armory, about all of the weapons? Or the treasury? He didn’t ask any questions about how we defended ourselves, about where all our profits were?” She had expected them to tell him about the armory. Defense of the Taivain fell squarely on the Achan’s shoulders when there was one in residence. As he was here, it was his duty.
“No, he didn’t ask us anything more after the first round of questions.” Senna shrugged.
“And you didn’t tell him abo
ut the gems?” Caidi asked, closing her eyes in dread of the answer, because she was fairly certain of the answer. “Didn’t he wonder about why the rogues and such came here?”
“If he did, he didn’t ask us about it.” Tamira gave a smug smile that Caidi knew to be because of the success of their scheme.
“I am sure that he will appreciate your creative abilities when he gets to know you, but he probably won’t be happy about this. I will try to make him understand the position you were in.” Caidi exhaled slowly.
Caidi dreaded the evening meal and what would come after it. She expected that his reaction to the things that they had “forgotten” to tell him would be explosive. Her reaction to such omissions would be. She would tear into anyone who played with her in such a way. She knew that Raven had a temper. She had heard it that first night in the tones of his mental communication with her.
She was fairly certain that he wouldn’t do anything rash. He was a warrior. His patience, cunning and strength had been honed in battle. He had enough control to think about what he was going to do, take all of the factors into account before he actually did anything.
She would have to make him understand that there had been no real intent to lie to him, to deny him his position. It had merely been caution and a desire to protect the pack while they had been unsure of his true identity. After they were certain, they had been in a precarious position, because of what they had hidden. Their reaction was understandable.
Caidi helped out in the kitchen for a while before she went to check on some of the other women in the Taivain. She walked into the weaving room and saw that the work here was going smoothly. There was no outward sign that anyone was having trouble adjusting to the change.
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