Chapter 18
My interest is proving difficult to hide.
Tumva.
She is magnificent. I taste her wrath on my tongue, and so does every Ucfeni near us.
Many cup their scent pits and balk at her stench, but I bask in it.
She smells divine! Like a goddess of war.
Like fire and honey. My tail tip coils and flexes beside me as I resist the urge to slide it across her feet to make my claim over her clear.
She is mine, and no one will ever harm her.
Though, right now, she looks capable of snapping her enemies in two on her own.
My mouth waters. It’s her scent. It has to be.
I was drawn to her when I first saw her in the throne room, and I was intrigued by her pheromones when I carried her to the hospital.
More so when I spoke to her for the first time.
Now? My interest is proving difficult to hide.
But I must hide it.
I will not scare her off, and I will not have our peers warn her that she is unfortunate enough to be desired by a Death Striker.
I move my bulk to tower behind her, casting her in my shadow and glaring down at Johnson like I was thinking of how best to eat him.
Head or feet first. I clearly portrayed my ire well, as he paled and backed away from Hannah.
“Alright, that’s enough of that.” Ezid has finally decided to stop watching and takes the lead over his officers.
“I am Pit leader Ezid, and I’m your actual superior.
” He addresses Hannah directly and with his tail pushes Morty’s shoulder so he walks away.
If Hannah has noticed the way the other humans now gossip about her, she doesn’t show it.
Instead she casts me a sideways glance. I nod, confirming that Ezid is to be obeyed, and she straightens up to attention before him.
“As Pit leader of the 21st, everyone here answers to me. So if you’ve finished baring your fangs at everyone, your earlier assessment was correct.
You need a uniform and you need to start training.
Though, combat training isn’t usually where we start.
” He flashed me a curious look with his arms folded, and I didn’t even blink.
It’s my prerogative how to train my partner, not his.
Hannah said she wanted to hit something.
I will give her what she needs. “Make sure at some point to go through our policies and procedures. Give her the tour, the handbook, and see me later to agree what grunt work she can start with.”
Hannah has moved to stand beside me. I feel her heat radiating onto my scales, but I want more.
I want Ezid to shuck off. I want to coil around her.
I want to take her back to my nest and do to her what my biology demands of me.
Instincts I never knew I had were snapping their jaws and trying to claw to the surface.
But instead, I push it all down and focus on anything and everything other than her scent.
Or how close she is to me. Or how she declared she would answer only to me.
She practically stated for the whole pit that she is mine, and everyone else could shuck off.
I swallow more saliva and absently coil my tail loosely around her feet.
Not to touch her…but to guard her as mine.
“I shall.”
“My office is in the middle of the pit.” Ezid spoke to Hannah with a softer tone than he used with me.
There is worry in his eyes, and I don’t like it.
“You can come and see me with any questions or concerns you might have. Any time.” First Johnson says she will need more support because she is my partner, and now Ezid is making a point of telling her where she can find him if she has ‘questions or concerns’?
“Yes sir.” She salutes him, and bitterness starts to settle on my scales, when her hand presses with warm temptation against my left bicep. “But I’m sure Tumva has my back where that’s concerned.”
“Indeed.” I manage to say before carefully reaching down to hold her shoulder. “The uniform recs are this way.” I catch a curious look from Ezid as I walk Hannah away from him and towards the many hooks on a wooden wall with uniforms suspended for use.
We don’t talk outside of practical back and forth about her measurements and the fit of the kevlar body armour.
I steal as many glances at her as I can, and was bereft when she stepped out of my sight to use a changing cubicle.
When she emerged, however, my chest swelled with pride.
She wore black boots, kevlar reinforced combat trousers, and a long-sleeved shirt with a utility belt to hold future approved weapons.
She held a helmet in her hands and smiled up at me.
“How do I look?”
“You look like a Peacekeeper. Now, you simply need the training of one.”
“Oh, is that all?” She giggled and her ponytail swung behind her.
“Alright, let’s go. And don’t kick my ass too badly.
” Hannah laughed, snorted, and then pointed at me as she walked past me.
“What’s the Ucfeni version of kicking? Since you don’t have legs.
Tail whipping? Don’t whip my ass too badly. ”
I swallow thickly. I refuse to imagine what bringing my tail tip down with a teasing crack across her bottom or the backs of her thighs would feel like. Look like. What noise she’d make or if she’d ask me to do it again. I don’t think about it at all…