Warrioress (Ragoru #2)

Chapter 1

“We’ve got another one, Captain,” Katiera sighed as she stepped into the guardswoman’s station, snow spilling off her cloak.

Uma looked up from her desk in surprise and scrubbed a hand over her face in an attempt to banish the exhaustion dogging her as she closed her logbook. “Another one?”

The other woman grimaced apologetically. “I misspoke. Actually, we have three.”

What the hell? Her brow furrowing, she pushed back her chair and ignored the loud scrape of wood against wood as she stood. She would listen to maintenance complain about the scratches later. She couldn’t take time to worry about it when there were three problems waiting for her. It was no wonder that Katiera came back for reinforcement.

Snatching her sword from its peg on the wall behind her desk, she silently gestured for three other guardswomen to accompany her as she followed Katiera into the windswept snow. Scrunching her nose, she lifted her gaze to the clouds overhead, blinking the snowflakes out of her eyes. The wind was starting to pick up. Another few hours and the snowstorm would create near whiteout conditions. Although the approaching storm was seasonally appropriate for Old Wayfairer Citadel, it just added one more thing to her plate.

“Is there anyone with them?” she asked as she strode briskly through the snow.

“Lynn is keeping watch with the tavern keeper,” Katiera dutifully reported. “They aren’t going anywhere. In any case, it’s not like there is anywhere in the citadel that they can easily hide without someone noticing them.”

Uma cast the guardswoman a curious glance, her eyebrow raising faintly. Katiera glanced her way and her cheeks pinkened with embarrassment as she cleared her throat. “Ragoru, Captain. You know how everyone in the citadel is about them lately.”

Ragoru. Even after what happened more recently in Old Wayfairer, the Ragoru were still viewed with an air of mystery among the citadel’s populace. And with the shortage of men—highly desirable among many. Katiera was right—their presence would not go unnoticed. And if they didn’t get the situation handled quickly, there would no doubt be more than one woman at the tavern willing to step up and take responsibility for them with the hope of securing highly attentive and protective males.

She certainly didn’t blame them. When it came right down to it, reasonable caution aside, what women didn’t feel some sort of allure toward Ragoru males in a world where there were so few men to go around? While that would solve the more immediate headache, the last thing Uma needed was more troublemakers in the citadel. And if the situation was bad enough to warrant her presence, they were definitely not a triad she wanted hanging around Old Wayfairer while they were struggling to recover and rebuild following generations of being under the thumb of the Order of the Huntsmen.

She shook her head as she wound her way along the roads toward the tavern. To think that she had come close to being enlisted in the Order at her parents’ urging. At the time she’d been resistant to having a lesser station among the multitudes of women employed as combat fodder. Call her crazy, but she simply didn’t relish the idea of being thrown directly into containing the dangers of their world under the orders of the pampered men who served as huntsmen in exchange for being able to feed into their own sadism.

She’d heard enough rumors over the years about some of the things that came out of the Order’s headquarters that made her glad that it had been brought down in all official capacities. There was talk of surviving huntsmen refusing to disband and heading out into the wilderness, but as long as they stayed out there, far from the citizens of the citadel, that was all Uma cared about. They certainly didn’t need any reemergence of the Order now. While the founding families still held most of the power, and there were still plenty of dangers to be found within and outside of the citadel, there was a shift going on that made her hopeful for the future of the common people. And the Ragoru were a part of that.

It was a pity that every now and then there was a triad who seemed incapable of following the very simple rules of the citadel. And more often than not, trouble always seemed to start at the Lucky Bull.

Uma’s lips thinned as she squinted at the massive Ragoru visible through the tavern’s street front window. Her skin prickled in an instinctive prey reaction. The rules, few as they were, were necessary. Although Ragoru were just as sentient and intelligent as any human, they were also large, dangerous predators that could easily hurt any humans who accidentally got in the path of their natural territorial skirmishes. As the captain of the citadel’s guardswomen, few saw this as quite as clearly as she did as she made a point of studying the Ragoru to the best of her ability ever since Arie and her mates opened Old Wayfairer to their presence. But that also meant that she didn’t possess the sort of the more romantic notions regarding the males that a lot of women possessed.

A good triad’s strength was a boon to their mates and the community at large. But they weren’t perfect any more than humans were, and there were plenty who could be just as harmful as some of the elite men of the citadel who waived their power around. Those who were dodgy were best to get rid of as expediently as possible. It was safer for the peace of mind of the humans within their community, as well as for the general safety and welfare of their Ragoru members that had recently joined them who otherwise lacked any other social status or protections. So Uma doggedly enforced the rules that were put in place for the safety of humans and Ragoru alike.

At least this triad doesn’t appear to be very aggressive , Uma observed as she stepped into the tavern with her guardswomen and brushed the snow from her cloak. The males were settled around a table complacently enough, their heads lowered as they stared at some unknown point in the center of the table. In fact, given their current situation, they were surprisingly mellow. Even Lynn, stationed just off to the side, wore a semi-relaxed expression if one knew what to look for beneath her carefully cultivated blank mask that all guardswomen aimed for while on duty.

Her gaze shifted to the tavern keeper. Keery West. At least he was there instead of one of his usual girls on duty. Despite his simple attire and the modest appearance of his tavern, she knew that he was one of the wealthier men in the low district over which she was directly in charge. He also possessed an assertive enough disposition to maintain some sense of order even when things suddenly went drastically south. Physically he was no match for the Ragoru, but he appeared to hold his own well enough while keeping the citadel’s men under control within his establishment.

At least he had the sense to summon the guard rather than trying to take care of the situation entirely by himself. They had a few cases of overconfident men and women that had only caused problems to escalate further.

Uma cleared her throat, bringing his attention to her. His brow dipped faintly with impatience, but Uma ignored it. No one enjoyed the disruption to their business but there were procedures to follow, and if doing so made the guardswomen the bad guys, then so be it.

Dipping her head politely, she nodded toward the seated males. “I heard that you wished to report a problem?”

Keery’s lip curled faintly, but he nodded begrudgingly. “I had a complaint from another triad about them a few days ago. I was forced to drive them out of here to keep my tavern intact, but they claimed that this lot harmed their alpha somehow. I run an honest business but would have overlooked it, especially with there being no evidence, except this time they decided to take an exception toward a few of my customers and injured them.”

A ripple of movement from the table caught Uma’s eye and her gaze dropped to a scarred gray male to meet his yellow gaze. There was a sharp cunning in that gaze but also a hardened strength that reminded her exactly why Ragoru were so appealing to so many women.

“We were defending ourselves,” the male growled, and the deep rumbling sound rushed over her skin in a surprisingly pleasant way that made every little hair stand on end.

She frowned in reaction—to both her own body’s impulses and the pitiful excuse the alpha made. How many people fell back on the idea of self-defense when the easier solution would have been to simply walk away? Especially for Ragoru. There wasn’t a human alive outside of a retired huntsman who could really be considered a threat to the males seated in front of her.

“I see. Defending yourself from what exactly?”

His gaze narrowed on her, no doubt catching quickly onto her skepticism. “They were attempting to drive us away. We refused. When they tried to force us out, we corrected them.”

Her eyebrows winged up as she looked at Keery for confirmation. The tavern keeper’s face reddened in reaction but ultimately, he merely shrugged.

“It’s just boys being boys. These Ragoru have been guests for several days now, and my regulars were getting tired of sharing the attention of the ladies. You know how it is.”

Uma’s frown deepened, her jaw ticking as it clenched. She most certainly knew how it was. So many of the men within the citadel acted like spoiled children when it came to the presence of other males. Breaking up small crowds of men protesting the presence of the Ragoru was enough of a pain in the ass, but now there was this.

“Perhaps these Ragoru are not the only ones who belong in lockup tonight,” she observed through clenched teeth.

“You can’t blame us,” a man objected as he stepped forward from the crowd and smoothed his embroidered tunic with a delicate brush of his fingers. “We could see that they were trouble ever since they paid the server to do something to another triad. We don’t know what it was, but they could easily do the same to any of us if we got in their way—and we are not going to take it,” he blustered, and then immediately flinched when the alpha growled low in his throat in response.

Keery sighed heavily and shifted on his feet. “Look, Uma, there is a storm coming in so why not just haul the Ragoru away and save us all a lot of trouble? The bottom line is that they attacked and harmed humans, which is in direct violation of the citadel’s current regulations. And I suspect that they were directly responsible for harming the other triad, even if I cannot prove it.”

“Perhaps I can speak to the server,” she suggested.

He shook his head. “I let him go. Caught him stealing from the storerooms and found some unsavory things he stashed back there. I don’t know what sort of operation he thought to run out of the tavern, but I don’t care either. Threatened to break both his legs if he dared to step through my door again.” His gaze hardened. “As you know, we handle such things internally so I didn’t think to inform the guardswomen.”

Uma’s lips pinched firmly together but she didn’t protest. All the citadel’s businesses were set up in various guilds, and dealing with transgressions was commonly kept within the guild unless it was a matter of public safety. She could argue that whatever the server was distributing could be considered harmful to the populace, but it didn’t make much sense now. She would just have to keep watch for him.

“What was his name? For my records,” she clarified, and she took out her small notebook and graphite stick.

Keery shrugged. “Lester something. I can’t remember. I didn’t care so long as he showed up on time and answered when called for.”

Uma refrained from rolling her eyes at his lazy business practices as she scrawled the name into her book. The tavern keeper at least was somewhat more helpful with a description and she was able to build up from there with the help of a few of the regular customers upon questioning them. By the time she returned to the table, all three Ragoru were studying her intently with identical glittering yellow eyes that varied only slightly in hue. Lynn straightened at her approach as Katiera and the other three guardswomen faced her expectantly. She met the alpha male’s gaze and dipped her head toward the door as she focused every bit of her authority into her clipped order.

“Let’s go.”

His expression didn’t change. His ear barely shifted to tip toward her, and then suddenly he was standing so that his huge frame loomed over her as the two other males followed suit. All three males were huge, but it was the ruined side of the alpha’s face that at once made him seem even more dangerous and yet stirred sympathy within her heart as she resisted the urge to touch the heavy scars marring her own cheek.

Thankfully that order was enough. The alpha dipped his head in acknowledgment, and Uma was able to breathe a sigh of relief as her guardswomen closed ranks around them and she led them all quickly from the tavern.

At least she was not on night shift at the guardhouse that night. Soon the males would be someone else’s problem, at least for a few hours while they were in lockup.