Chapter 5
Chapter
Five
RANAN
W ell, that went well.
I swam for hours, thinking about what I’d say to the woman when I got back. How it had been a mistake and I’d drop her at the nearest port as soon as I could. How she doesn’t have to remain here as my bride. That I truly don’t want company. I’m not the sort that’s good at conversation, or keeping people entertained. I’m best alone.
But the moment I saw her digging around in my sacks, I forgot everything I planned. And from there, it just got worse. She kept talking and talking, and before I knew what I was doing I was lowering my loincloth just to catch her in a lie. To prove that I knew that she was full of stories, and that she didn’t need to pretend around me.
Instead, my actions just made her frantic. She clung to my leg and begged me to whip her.
Whip her.
It’s absurd. Why would I strike her just because I’m annoyed? If anything, I’m annoyed at myself. It’s my fault we’re both in this situation, all because I couldn’t say to the human captain, actually, no, give me your gold instead of a woman.
So I swim again, because at least if I’m swimming, I don’t have to look into her pleading gaze, her hungry, desperate-to-please eyes. I don’t want to hear more about the terrible fate that was awaiting her and why she thought being with me would be better for her than staying on the boat. Of course she spoke up and volunteered to be with me. I might be hideous and have too many limbs, but like she said, one master is better than a hundred.
I feel like a churl for scaring her. I feel like a churl for keeping her.
Tomorrow I should call to Akara, touch minds with her, let her know that I want to head to shore. We can get close to a human city with a morning’s easy travel.
We’ll set the woman on the beach there and forget we ever laid eyes upon her. Let her be the problem of the land dwellers.
Decided, I haul myself up on the turtle’s back once more and shake the excess water free from my skin. The red moon is high and there’s a distinct chill in the air that isn’t felt under the warm waves. I contemplate going back under the water and drifting in sleep. I can sleep as the whales do, automatically coming up for a breath when my lungs are emptied. But curiosity makes me approach my tent, because she will no doubt be there adorning herself in the many necklaces and gold jewels I’ve taken from others that have passed through my domain. I want to see her reaction when I wake her up and kick her out of my tent. I want to prod her and remind her that she’s not safe with me, because I didn’t want her in the first place.
I don’t even make it to my tent. Underneath Akara’s back spike, huddled around herself, is the small, shivering form of the human female. She’s not in my tent. She’s not wearing my stolen jewels. She’s a small, pathetic lump out in the open, with no blanket, and her teeth are chattering loud enough to raise the dead.
I stop in my tracks and stare at her. I don’t know what I feel, looking at her so pathetic. Is she doing this to earn pity from me? Or because she is truly afraid of me? Does she truly think I’m that much of a monster?
It doesn’t matter that I was planning to kick her out into the night a mere moment ago. A mere moment ago, she was draped in jewels in my mind’s eye, reveling in my riches. This is just…pitiful. A doomed soul should be sent to Vor’s arms with a quick slice to the throat, not forced to endure a long, painful death by freezing. I might not like the female, but I am not cruel.
Kneeling at her side, I jostle her shoulder rudely.
She comes awake with a start but makes no sound. Her eyes blink large into the darkness and then focus on me. “Husband?—”
“No,” I growl. I don’t want to hear that. Not from her. Not right now. I point at my tent, indicating she should go inside.
The female opens her mouth to speak and her stomach growls so loudly it comes up her throat. Horrified, she claps a hand over her mouth. “Well, that was a wretched sound. Apologies…master? Can I call you master?”
I get to my feet and glare down at her. Did she not see me pointing at the tent? Are we truly going to talk about names right now? I just want to sleep.
“I’m Vali,” she tells me again, tapping her chest. “I don’t expect you to remember it, so I’m happy to help out until you do. Let me serve you, master. It’d bring me great joy. Can I?—”
She breaks off as I stab a finger at my tent, indicating she should go into the shelter and out of the cold wind.
“Yes. Your tent. Of course. Time to earn my due. I don’t know why I didn’t realize that.”
Vali hops to her feet and heads for the tent. Finally. By the gods, it’s like trying to steer Akara when the stubborn hamarii is in a wandering mood. Relieved that we’re finally getting somewhere, I put a hand on her back and guide her into my tent.
It’s a mess, I realize, as we step inside. The red moon is bright, casting enough light to see by near the entrance. I have no bed in here because when Akara and I are on the seas, I sleep in the cradle of the waves. It’s only when I’m in my grotto that I use a bed with blankets and padding. I use my tent for nothing but storage, keeping bags tied and primed for a submersion. A few of them have spilled open because I chased her out earlier, but nothing in here looks comfortable or warm enough for a human woman who’s shivering with cold.
The woman—Vali—steps inside and immediately pulls her dress over her head and tosses it to the floor. She sinks to her knees and throws her shoulders back, her breasts jiggling with the movement, and she gazes up at me. “How would you like me to serve you, master?”
I might be seakind, but I am not dead. The sight of her, naked and willing, makes both my cocks quickly engorge. Even in the near-darkness, I can see the heavy weight of her rounded breasts, the dark tips that are always visible, even through the flimsy fabric. Her belly is gently rounded, her hips thick and her legs strong. If I were to pick a human for a wife, I’d pick one exactly like her, with a robust body and magnificent large breasts.
Her gaze flicks up to my face, full of uncertainty at my silence. Then she smiles, the expression coy and sly, and reaches for my belt. “I’m happy to take the initiative, master. Like I said, I know just what males like?—”
I grab her wrist before she can touch me. She’s misunderstood why I brought her in here. Of course she has. I’ve been nothing but cold and unfeeling to her since she arrived. I said I wanted a wife, and now she thinks she needs to fulfill her wifely duties. And while I might get aroused at the sight of her naked body, I have no wish to touch a female that clearly does not want me back. She’s offering because she’s afraid, and that’s not an offer at all.
“Sleep,” I bark out at her.
She flinches at my tone, pulling her hand back. “Yes. Of course. My apologies, master. I’m just trying to please?—”
“Not your master,” I say, exasperated. “I don’t own you.”
Vali blinks up at me. “I don’t know what to call you.”
I bite back a sigh of frustration. “Ranan.”
She smiles, the expression startlingly sweet. “Ranan. What a nice name. Does it mean anything in your tongue?”
“It means sleep,” I growl at her. I grab her discarded dress and shove it into her hands. “Put your clothes on and sleep.”
Vali meekly puts her dress back on, and I can hear material ripping even as she does. The garment is about to fall to pieces, I suspect. It looks hard used. But she smooths it down her body and then looks around my tent, cluttered with sacks and buoys. “Any particular spot you prefer I should sleep? I don’t want to be in your way.”
I step forward and shove three of the lighter bags aside, clearing out a spot. When I gesture at it, she immediately sinks to the floor and curls up there. “Thank you, Ranan.”
The way she says my name makes my cocks twitch again. I grunt, determined more than ever to find a human settlement and get rid of her. She’s distracting me, and the last thing I need is a distraction with pretty tits and all kinds of willing words born out of desperation. A hamarii is no place for a human, not even the wife of a sea-ogre. She’s not staying.
She wraps her arms around herself and shivers amidst the bags, and I realize she’s still cold. I have no bedding with me, not even fish leather that I can use as a makeshift blanket. Everything’s in my grotto a few days away.
By Rhagos’s eye, I’m going to have to provide the warmth for her.
Clenching my jaw, I lie down on the floor of the tent next to her and pull her against me. She makes a pleased sound and immediately turns into my embrace, putting her arms around my neck.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to pleasure you, Ranan?” she breathes, her voice soft and liquid against my neck.
“Sleep,” I growl at her.
“Right. Sorry.”
She doesn’t sound sorry, though. She sounds a little amused. It irks me for no reason at all, and I put my arms around her and close my eyes, determined to sleep despite the hard, unyielding scratching surface of Akara’s back. If the human can sleep here, so can I. Tomorrow I’ll find a beach and dump her so she can be on her way and I can be free of her. I’ll even give her a necklace so she won’t be totally destitute.
Vali tucks herself against me, her breath fanning against my neck. I start to drift, my nose full of her pleasant scent and tickled by her tangled hair, when she speaks up again. “Ranan? I don’t want to bother you, but I have to find a great fish to give Vor as thanks for bringing me to you.”
I pat her arm, letting that be my answer. I don’t tell her that she won’t need a fish, because she’s not staying.