Chapter 4
Vrin chewed lazily on the long rib bone, his sharp teeth slowly rolling it in his mouth before biting down on it as he studied the females that passed by their cell. While there was the occasional hint of interest in their scent, it was overwhelmed by wariness as they gave the cell a wide berth. He snorted quietly to himself with grim amusement.
Was it not the way of things? Even with the fawning behavior of the females in the tavern, there was always a wariness masked with an eagerness to please that he found increasingly annoying. They did not hesitate to approach but they acted like prey—skittish and easily startled. Vrin had long begun to suspect that coming to the citadel at all had been a bad idea on their part. He did not wish for a female he would have to continuously be cautious around so as not to frighten her.
He snapped his teeth harder on the bone, and it cracked beneath the pressure. As expected, the guard closest to their cell winced and stepped farther away, drawing forth more of his dark amusement as he watched.
“If you continue to intentionally frighten them, you are going to guarantee that not a single guard is going to want to come close enough to the cell to make sure we have food to eat or water to drink,” Kam observed wryly.
Vrin glanced at his triad brother and shrugged, his ear flicking in faint annoyance. “I do not have anything better to do. I might as well get something out of our situation.”
A deep sigh came from the other side of the cell, and Vrin’s neck craned further so that he peered over at his lead reclining in the corner.
“Try to contain your humor a little, Vrin,” Laro rumbled. “We do not need to frighten humans. That is not why we are here. Besides, they are likely to not have the same appreciation for it that we do. Better to be bored and be able to eat for the duration of the time that we are stuck here.”
“And whose fault is it that we are here?” Vrin countered testily around the bone clasped between his teeth. “Not only did you insist that we come here to seek our mate, but you were also the one who decided to deal with our competition, which gave the human males leverage against us.”
Laro grunted quietly, his ears flattening. “A miscalculation on my part,” he admitted. “I did not believe that humans would involve themselves in affairs between triads.”
Vrin snorted quietly but did not bother to protest. He could not blame his lead on that point. Humans were naturally concerned about their own safety but rarely seemed to care about what went on between competing triads or the welfare of the Ragoru among them. Certainly no one within the tavern had leaped to their defense. The fact that anyone remembered the altercation between them and the other triad was surprising—and clearly calculated.
“There is no point in casting blame around,” Kam muttered. “It is not going to help us get out of this cell. Laro is right—none of us could have anticipated this happening when we were careful around the humans.”
Grunting in reluctant agreement, Vrin spat the bone out and leaned against the bars of the cell. “They do not accept us being here,” he pointed out.
Kam scoffed quietly and gave him a wry smile. “I did not see the females objecting to our presence. In fact, I would say that they were happy to have our company.”
“The females are not the ones who locked us up, even if they utilized the guardswomen to carry it out,” Vrin replied drily. “I speak of the males. They pretend to be agreeable to our faces as if we are so beneath them that they do not care about our presence—but you saw the truth. They wanted to get rid of us. The females merely complied with their wishes.”
“But why?” Kam gave him an incredulous look. “There are so many unmated females within the citadel—it is the reason that Ragoru triads were invited to seek mates among the humans here. The few males within that tavern would not have been enough to satisfy even half the females there.”
Vrin shrugged. He did not have an answer.
“Probably because they, like so many of the pampered males within the citadel, see Ragoru as an obstacle to their established way of life.” Vrin glanced over toward the voice, his muscles tensing as the lead female from the night before stepped into the room, her dark eyes pinned on them with a flinty hardness. The right corner of her full lips hitched up in an expression of amusement as she gestured to their guards, silently commanding them to leave. The females gave them one last wary look before departing together, but this female did not seem to be bothered at all to be alone with them. “Carousing with one’s pick of any lonely woman in sight has been an unfortunate pastime within Old Wayfairer for generations now.”
Claws scraped quietly against the stone floor as Lago rose from the floor and strode the few steps to Vrin’s side, his yellow eyes fastened on Captain. “How do we combat it?”
A dry laugh left the female, and for a moment he saw a hint of true amusement glimmer in her eyes before it was abruptly quashed. “There is no combating it. The Council will still favor and spoil the men because it will keep them happy and in line. They do not care what their husbands, fathers, and sons do in the lower district, far from their own pristine-walled homes. The new laws were created to satisfy the masses of unhappy women here, as well as eliminating the power of The Order, but little changes overnight and not all of the changes have been beneficial. In short—getting rid of you is the easiest answer.”
“Get rid of us? What exactly does that mean?” Kam asked with a tense growl, his ears tipping vigilantly toward Captain.
She leaned then against the wall, her arms crossing over her chest as she regarded them, her expression stony and revealing nothing of what she was thinking. “Don’t growl at me. It’s nothing dire. You will be detained here for a few days while the festivities are going on and the worse of the weather passes through, and then escorted out of the territory.”
Lago stiffened at Vrin’s side. “Detained? For how long?”
“Likely no more than a week. Two at the most if the storms take longer to clear out,” she replied nonchalantly even as Vrin felt alarm quickly crawl up his spine.
He shared a startled look with his lead and the male swallowed visibly. If they were trapped with a female during the Withering Days, they would not be able to control their need to mate. They would bind themselves to any female, defeating their whole purpose of seeking the perfect mate for their triad within the citadel.
“We cannot,” Lago argued, his words clipped with his urgency. “You do not understand. The Withering Days...”
“I have already been briefed on the problem,” Captain interrupted. “Which is why I will be here to keep an eye on you. Rest assured that no one will bother you as I will be fully responsible for anything that you do until I personally escort you off our land.” She slowly rotated her neck as if to release tension from it. “From here on out mine will be the only human face you will see for most of the day.”
Vrin eyed her, noting the grimness in her tone. This was no female looking to snare a male. There was too much resignation in her words, indicating that they were more of a burden for her than an opportunity. Still, there remained that risk.
“If you worry about your virtue, you don’t need to be,” she continued dryly, interpreting their watchful silence correctly. “If I’m with a male, it is because he is worthy of me. Not because he is the first available dick trapped with me. I’m not desperate. You will be returned to the Great Forest in the same state you were when you arrived from it.”
Lago grumbled quietly but shook his head, sending the small braids within the long fur of his mane that grew out from his head and the long fur at the back of his neck clattering. “We do not wish to be seen in that state,” he protested. “I would prefer to save our dignity and not be watched while we are unable to control our body’s reactions.”
There was not even the faintest softening of Captain’s expression as her gaze turned toward Lago.
“Unfortunately, your dignity is going to have to take a hit. You no longer have the option of just leaving,” she replied in a voice as severe as her expression. “If it makes you feel any better, though, I have no interest in witnessing all of that and will make myself scarce as much as possible.”
That was the only concession that they were going to get, and Lago recognized it as well as Vrin. The male’s shoulders hunched but he nodded in agreement, willing to accept that much.
Kam whined quietly, his ears flattening in embarrassment. “The Withering Days are between a triad and their mate. It is private. And yet we are expected to... in front of you.” The male swallowed thickly, stirring sympathy within the burnt-out husk of Vrin’s heart.
He glanced over at the female. She regarded Kam quietly for a moment, her expression finally softening with sympathy. He was relieved to see it. She would have to be heartless to feel nothing at all for Kam’s shame. Vrin was too scarred inside, too damaged, to feel that same sense of shame over sharing something so intimate with a female who was not their mate, but for Kam’s sake he was glad she was not disregarding it entirely.
“I will try to secure you as much privacy as possible,” she assured him. She then proceeded to give the male a small smile. “If it helps at all, there is a positive side to this. I spoke to my superior and got special permission for your situation. Until the Withering Days, and while the weather holds, I am allowed to give you as much freedom as possible so that you are not locked in your cell at all hours.” Her brow arched as she gave them all a measured look. “That, of course, depends on your cooperation.”
Vrin eyed her speculatively. She was offering them a small concession in return for their cooperation. They would still be helpless under the power of the guard and would be stripped of all their freedom and dignity—but what she offered was considerable to males unaccustomed to being confined in such small spaces. And they would have it so long as they did not try to escape or show aggression. He glanced over at Lago, wondering what their lead would decide. The male gave nothing away, his expression as stony as the female’s. Vrin nearly snorted in amusement that she was at least well matched for their triad in that. It was almost refreshing after all the females that simpered around them to see one that met Lago head on without flinching.
She did not realize it, but she would earn their lead’s respect that way.
Lago’s ears flicked and pricked toward her, shifting subtly as the male listened to the small clues her body gave that could betray the direction of her thoughts and feelings. His nostril’s flared and he glanced over at Vrin, his brow rising subtly. Vrin nodded faintly. This was the best and only offer they would get. If they dared to reject her and another female were assigned to them, it could easily make their situation far more miserable. At last Lago sighed as his gaze drifted back to their captor, and he inclined his head in reluctant agreement.
“You will have it,” he rumbled.
And for the first time a real smile broke across Captain’s face. It was small and fleeting, but it was real and gave Vrin a glimpse of the female locked behind the mantle of authority she wore.
“Excellent,” she replied as she strained from the wall against which she was leaning and spun away from them. “I will leave you to whatever you were doing then. I have some things I need to see to. In the meantime, no one else will bother you,” she threw over her shoulder in parting. “You won’t be stared at any more tonight.”
Vrin blinked in surprise. He had become accustomed to finding new ways to torture their audience, and now he was left at a loss with how to occupy his time. Grunting in exasperation, he snatched up another large hunk of meat and bit into it. He should be grateful, but somehow instead he was feeling petulant that they would be all alone within the room. Perhaps he was as wretched as Kam often accused him of being.
He shrugged and bit into the meat. He never said he was a good male.