Chapter 10
Uma was not impressed. The triad was trying her last nerve. Not only were they not the least bit grateful or appreciative of the stew she had provided for them for dinner, but they were taking every opportunity to ignore her presence altogether while they spoke in their ragii. Normally that wouldn’t have bothered her, but it was their body language taken together with it that irritated her. Maybe she was being overly sensitive, but it was too much like having the group of them talking about her behind her back—except it was blatantly right in front of her face but in a language she didn’t understand. It was bad enough that they were clearly mocking her, but that they were laughing at her but not letting her in on the joke was as much disrespect as she was willing to take.
Especially after their comments regarding the mess that would be left for her during the Withering Days. It made her feel like a rookie again—a rookie with a messed-up face and a rocky beginning that no one wanted to be teamed with. But there had been plenty of speculation and rumors that went around the training academy. And more strategically planned pranks to humiliate her than she cared to remember. It had been intolerable back then, and she was certainly not putting up with it now. Of course, she also felt guilty too, which was why she was freezing her ass off outside while the males enjoyed the remnants of fairer weather before the true strength of the storm moved in.
She had only one rule: the prisoners were not to converse in a manner that she didn’t understand. She had no back up there while the storm slowly moved—no one to protect her and remain supportively at her side. Even Katiera had reluctantly returned to her own apartment when she couldn’t get Renny to revise her orders to allow a two-person team to remain at the station. Call her suspicious and a little paranoid but she just didn’t feel safe when they were speaking around her in a way she couldn’t understand when she was literally trapped within the station grounds with them. When they growled at each other in ragii, it made her feel vulnerable and trapped, which brought up terrible memories that plagued her in turn and followed her into her nightmares.
Drawing in a shaky breath, she blinked rapidly to clear her eyes from the snow clinging to her lashes. It was okay. She was the captain. She was still entirely in control. They couldn’t make her feel any less than she was unless she let them.
With those words settling deeper within her, she crossed her arms over her chest as she watched them lope around through the snow drifts of the enclosed yard. And some of those drifts were incredibly deep, even on the much larger Ragoru. Jessie and guards of similar stature would have been swallowed entirely by those same drifts. The Ragoru also sank but it didn’t last long before they burst out from the snow energetically, spraying white powder everywhere wherever it didn’t cling to their fur. Kam grinned as he kicked free, splattering snow into Vrin’s face so that the male jerked back reflexively and swiped at him with his lower right hand. Laro, however, was just circling the yard at an even lope. The heat of his breath was so regular in its little measured puffs of steam that she was certain he wasn’t even breathing hard as he made his paces.
Her attention shot back to Kam as the male shouted excitedly and broke off at a sprint with Vrin barreling down behind him. Her eyes followed them idly as Kam hurried after his lead with indistinct words shouted about the soft whine of the wind.
She frowned as she hugged herself to stave off the cold. Despite her layers, the cold was quickly finding a way to seep in through the seams, chilling the leather and woven fabrics. Why was it always so brutally cold when she was on shift? Damn the winters, perhaps she should have filed paperwork to transfer to one of the more southern citadels instead of letting sentimentality and guilt keep her in Old Wayfairer.
She grumbled to herself as she gave her arms a brisk rub. She hoped that the triad appreciated her sacrifice. It was likely the only romp they would enjoy outside before the weather finally turned vicious. Why didn’t they bother to do this mate hunting business in the summer when it was at least warm?
She cocked her head and frowned thoughtfully as she watched the Ragoru settle once more into an easy lope circling around the perimeter of the yard to its far end. That was a good question—why hadn’t they? Midwinter and so close to their own rut seemed like an odd choice of timing. And not just them but another triad as well according to those at the Lucky Bull. She hadn’t found any copy of a complaint issued regarding the incident they mentioned, but it still stood out in her mind that there had been two different triads in the lower district at such an inopportune time.
And what happened to the other triad? The report from the tavern that merely mentioned the previous incident hadn’t been overburdened with details outside of the fact that there was a conflict, and one triad was removed as a result of it.
Perhaps she should just ask the males in her custody. It was unlikely that they knew the fate of the other triad unless they buried the other males in a shallow pit somewhere, but perhaps they could offer some sort of perspective on the matter. If this was becoming a behavioral shift in the Ragoru, migrating into the citadels with the urge to find mates so near the rut... this would be something important for the council to be aware of, especially if it would result in potentially violent encounters between competing males. There would be too many, such as those men at the tavern, who would weaponize it against the males.
“Well, no time like the present to ask and find out,” Uma muttered to herself.
Of course they had to cease their pacing to congregate out at the farthest edge of the training yard. The angle kept them entirely obscure from the street so she couldn’t imagine what they found so fascinating out there. Whatever it was, it certainly seemed to be holding their attention remarkably well. She couldn’t even wave them over because other than casually allowing their gaze to drift over the yard, they were ignoring her. Or at least Laro and Vrin were. Kam peered over at her, but when she lifted her hand to wave him over, he opened his mouth for a moment as if to say something to his triad brothers, and all it took was a sharp look from Vrin and he studiously turned away from her as if he too were entirely unaware of her presence.
Unbelievable.
She gritted her teeth. They were really going all out to test her self-control. Lips pursing, she stomped across the yard through the snow as she headed toward them. Her mouth pulled with grimace as every other footstep sank her deeper into the snow. With the way they had appeared to walk effortlessly across it, she hadn’t imagined it was so deep until her first several steps away from the shelter of the eaves made her sink nearly knee-deep in the powder—and it didn’t get any better from there. Well-placed curses fell quietly from her lips as more and more snow slipped into her boots with every step as she trudged toward them.
“Hey,” she called over once she came to a stop within a dozen feet of the males.
An ear twitched her way, and Kam shot her a furtive look, but she was given no further attention as the males continued to speak quietly together in their ragii. Her gaze bounced between them in growing frustration. Her eye twitched as they continued to talk among themselves, their voices rising in volume as their secondary eyes angled toward her every so often. They didn’t want her there with them or to know what they were saying, but they didn’t want her out of their sight. How fucking sweet.
“Look, I get that you are not interested in my company any more than I want yours,” she pointed out irritably. “But I have a couple of questions, so if you could stop and give me your attention for a moment...”
Vrin huffed a raspy laugh that lacked even the tiniest trace of amusement. “When is there not something that you want? You certainly allow us no peace or privacy. Without a doubt, you are a vicious, diseased rooter determined to ruin a place with your mere presence. We cannot even put a mound of deep snow between us without you determined to breach it.”
Uma’s brows rose little by little as he talked, until she was certain that they brushed her hairline. She could feel the hot coal of embarrassment settling deep within her stomach, set afire by the simmering anger that grew the more he talked.
“Is that so?” she replied flatly. “I can assure you I don’t take any pleasure crossing the yard either—and certainly not for your pitiful excuse for company. However, a thought occurred to me that was important enough to discuss with you now rather than later.”
Vrin scoffed, his ears flattening belligerently. “You think we should care about any of your thoughts or anything at all going through that head? We are captured here by your whim, but that does not mean that we must assist you in any fashion.”
She gave him a curious look and then looked over at Laro. “I don’t understand. Why wouldn’t you want to do everything you can to help make the citadel safer for your kind?”
“What does our kind have to do with us?” Vrin growled and he pushed away from the high wall to prowl past her, anger vibrating through his body. “It will not do us any favors.”
“Vrin,” Laro rumbled as his muzzle tipped toward the station. “Go and rest.”
The male’s ears pressed tightly against his skull as he gave his lead a long look, but after a moment he relaxed and nodded. All four of his hands uncurled from their tight fists at his side as he backed away several paces. “You are right.” He sighed deeply and ran a hand through the long braided hair his of his crown and scruff. “Better to sleep and escape all of... this .”
Giving her one last meaningful glance so that she had no doubt whatsoever what or who he wanted to escape, he turned away, leaving her alone with Laro and Kam.
“What is it you wished to ask?” Laro asked wearily, drawing her attention back to the lead.
“I was just curious about something. I don’t imagine that you usually hunt for mates in the middle of winter, but even if you do, what would provoke you to go into a citadel filled with unmated women so close to your Withering Days? And not just you but the other triad as well—and who knows how many others.”
Laro frowned thoughtfully and gave a puzzled shake of his head. “I do not know. When you say it out loud, it does not seem right, and yet at the time it seemed like the only thing to do. With the Withering Days approaching, there was an urgency that drove us, speaking within us to find a mate rather than focusing on making our den more comfortable to withstand the storms. It was an impulse that I cannot explain.”
“Strange,” she murmured. “And the other triad... did they seem to be under this same impulse.”
Laro exchanged a look with Kam but, to her frustration, rumbled at him in ragii.
Uma squeezed her eyes shut but forced a smile to her lips. “Talk to me, please. Just tell me rather than discussing it between the two of you in a way guaranteed to keep information that could be important away from me.”
The lead grimaced but tipped his head in agreement before answering. “Yes, I think they did share this impulse. We were competing aggressively against each other to draw the attention of every and any female within the tavern rather than performing for a lone female as we would normally do. In a normal situation, males would simply perform in a way to draw the female’s attention. Aggression is seldom used except by the more brutal males, and usually not directly in front of females. We seldom interact at all with other triads unless they are crossing into our territory, or we are traveling through theirs.”
“I see.” Her lips thinned as she considered his words. “And you have no idea what happened to them after they left the tavern?”
Kam shook his head, his ears drooping. “Their lead did not look well when the other two males hauled him out. The human said that he was diseased, and we considered it a win.”
“They were drugged,” Laro clarified bluntly, and her head whipped to him in surprise.
“Drugged? By whom?” She couldn’t imagine anyone having the fortitude to actually get close enough to a Ragoru to intentionally drug them who weren’t trained by the Order.
Apprehension tightened the back of her neck. But no, it was impossible. The Order was disbanded, and the majority of them stationed at Old Wayfairer dead. She was simply being paranoid to even consider the possibility. They Order was gone.
He shrugged. “Not directly by me, but I paid a human to carry it out. Just to make him appear sick so that the triad would be forced to leave.”
Uma frowned and crossed her arms over her chest, her fingers drumming on her bicep. “That seems to track. No one reported coming across a dead Ragoru. But then again, no one came to the station to file charges against your triad either, which is something I would have expected if it were a harmless drug. It is like they just disappeared. On top of the strange timing of your triads’ arrivals into the citadel, this is just... weird, for lack of a better word.”
Laro’s brow lowered slightly with concern that she felt right in the pit of her stomach. If the lead was giving it serious thought, then there almost assuredly was more going on than what there seemed. And all the more urgent that the triad be removed as quickly as possible.
“Are you coming in, or are you going to allow that female to push you around and root into our lives uselessly?” Vrin shouted from a short distance away, making her jump in spite of herself.
“We are coming,” Laro replied as he strode past Uma with Kam close on his heels.
She watched them go, her brow beetling irritably as she glared at Vrin. He had the worst timing, and by his smirk, she gathered that he knew it.
As much as she needed to deliver the triad from her citadel, she would do whatever human woman he mated a favor and teach Vrin a well-deserved lesson first. A nasty smile tugged at her mouth as she casually walked across the yard, no longer minding the snow sinking deeper into her boots as it filled them with melting slush and water. There would be one good thing to come from this mess. It was just a pity that their mate would never know the selfless benevolence that Uma was undertaking for their future.