Chapter 17
“I love you, Reule,” she said at last.
They were the first words to slip out of her in all the time he’d spent gently trying to rouse her. He’d been too rough, too brutish. Again. And she woke speaking the words of his most perfect absolution.
He looked down into her face, stunned, as her lashes fluttered up and her eyes sparkled like silver prisms. Her expression was one of satiation and, amazingly, love.
For him. In all of his lifetime, he’d done much to earn love and devotion from a great many people.
He was used to accepting love with pleasure and grace.
But it wasn’t until that very instant that he knew what it felt like to actually need the love of another, and fear he wasn’t entirely worthy of it.
She was too remarkable, too passionate, and too perfect.
Even her fears, flaws, and stubborn little irritations wrapped his heart up into a neat little package and served it back up to him.
Now she lay in a stupor of pleasure, covered in the indelicate markings of his claim on her, and she told him she loved him.
“Why?”
She smiled at that, her eyes closing briefly as she struggled with humor, the light of it dancing in her pupils as she stroked her hand up the path of muscles along his arm.
“Because if I don’t you’ll toss me to the Yesu.” She sighed.
“That isn’t funny,” he snapped, rising on an elbow to loom ominously over her. “Don’t even joke about it.”
“Well then, don’t ask me that ridiculous question the next time I tell you I love you,” she scolded back with equal warning. “I don’t give trust nor love easily, and I don’t like having them questioned when I do.”
“It was a legitimate question,” he complained. “You held yourself in reserve until now, and I wanted to know what had changed.”
That surprised her and he watched her startled expression with a smug satisfaction. She was far too knowing for her own good. “Reserve?” she asked a little nervously.
“I’m an empath, baby. I don’t need a declaration to feel your love. Though don’t think I don’t find declarations enjoyable.”
She snorted out a soft laugh. “So you already knew I was in love with you?”
“Well, I was reasonably certain.” He chuckled.
“Well, I wasn’t,” she complained. “Not without knowing who I was. It was like offering you only half of myself, and I knew that wasn’t how I loved.
Not the proper way.” She softened as she reached to stroke her fingers over the beginning bristles of his whiskers.
“And that is what has changed. I know all of myself now. You can’t give something you don’t have.
Now that I have all of me, I’m giving me to you. ”
“Mmm, no. Just your heart. Give me just your heart. The rest is yours, kébé. I won’t take away any of your independence or your rights like your people so callously did.”
“Just my heart?” She lifted a brow.
“Well, and the occasional loan of this delectable body,” he amended with a chuckle, bending to lick one of the wounds he’d made once again. “And your loyalty.” He thought about it a moment. “Fidelity. Fidelity too.”
“I don’t know … this list is getting awfully long,” she complained. She burst into giggles when he nipped her earlobe in punishment. “Why don’t we simply say that we will give one another exactly what we get from each other for as long as we live.”
“That sounds suspiciously like a marriage vow.” He grinned. “I think I will have the minister add that to our ceremony.”
“And when will that be? I don’t mind letting the Yesu assume I’m Prima, but I won’t parade myself like a fake before your people. It would be an insult. It’s no way to earn their trust.”
“I know. That’s why only the Pack and Amando’s family will be at this meal with the Yesu.”
“Oh! You just reminded me of something,” she exclaimed, pushing herself over until he was on his back and she’d crawled atop him. She looked down into his eyes. “I wish to make Liandra Prima Counselor.”
“Your first Pack,” Reule said with pleasure. “I hadn’t even considered you’d find someone so soon. She’s an excellent choice for so prestigious a role. Amando’s little sister.”
“She’s a very powerful telepath, someone I’m well advised to have constantly at my side in this ’pathic society. It will keep everyone honest.”
“Ah. I see you’ve been making friends with the darker side of my court,” he said with a frown.”
“Nothing I cannot handle for myself. Especially with Liandra by my side. She is a fighter, that one.”
“Rather like her mistress,” Reule mused with a chuckle.
“Perhaps. But she’s also very wise and has proved herself invaluable and indispensable in the mere hours I have spent with her. My Intuition screams for her with every fiber of my being.”
“Hmm. Not to mention it’d place her well within reach of Darcio.”
Mystique gasped, her eyes widening.
“Darcio?”
“Not to fear. Her secret is safe with me.”
“I know that.” She tsked irritably, slapping his shoulder. “But why do you say Darcio? She didn’t tell me … and how did you…? Never mind,” she said hastily when he cocked an amused brow at the ridiculous question forthcoming. “What of Darcio?” she asked, suddenly eager for information.
“Completely oblivious,” Reule chuckled. “Darcio lives to serve me and the Pack. He doesn’t know how to live for himself.
Well, to be fair,” he amended, “Darcio loves me and the Pack, so in that way he is serving himself. It pleases him enormously to be here. But I don’t think he’s ever considered sectioning off a part of his life that has nothing to do with us.
Perhaps, though, it’s time my Pack learned to cultivate themselves more richly outside of Pack duty and loyalty. ”
“They’ll learn by your example,” she said fondly, stroking a finger over his lips before dipping her head to kiss him. She pulled back an inch, cocking her head. “Does Darcio even notice her a little?”
“I shouldn’t say, since you cannot always protect your thoughts. You do have impressively selective mental defenses, however. Have I mentioned that?”
“It takes a singular sort of focus, and I’m better at being open and giving than I am at shutting off and out. You’re dodging the question,” she noted.
“I am. Let us allow them to work it out for themselves, shall we? We will make Liandra Pack after you’re made Prima and Pack yourself. The rest will unfold as it will. Now, however, I think I need to send you off to Para. I’ve made a disaster of your pretty efforts to make me proud.”
“You were pleased,” she said with satisfaction.
“I’m always pleased,” he assured her. “With you.”
“I don’t give an icy damn, Knar! If you do anything to overtly threaten that woman again I’ll cut your throat and keep your kingdom for my future children to play with.
Do you understand?” Lothas said with a low and ominous sort of roar.
“Or better yet, I’ll let the Sánge Prima do it.
If she is who you say she is, then that will mean she will have single-handedly bested a royal family, and she will have your kingdom for her future children to play with! ”
“You’ve been charged by Derrik himself to bring that whore down!” Knar blustered furiously. “And I refuse to sit at table dining with my son’s killer!”
“Yes, you will,” Lothas gritted out. “The Yesu are a mighty tribe, but we’re spread far and wide and cannot afford to make an enemy as powerfully determined and notorious for their vengeance as the Sánge.
You look me in the eye and tell me you don’t think Prime Reule wouldn’t slaughter an entire world full of Yesu to protect what is very obviously his.
” Lothas took a deep, steadying breath. “Now you will sit at this table and be civil and you’ll let me do my job.
As you said, Derrik has charged me. with putting an end to this matter, and I’ll find a way to do that.
A way that won’t get us all slaughtered in our sleep. ”
Lothas was finishing his lecture just as Reule and Mystique were announced by Drago once again.
The bodyguards and other attendants filed in behind the couple who were, Lothas had to admit, looking even more grand than before.
The Prima was dressed in an off-the-shoulder gown made of a beautiful silver-white fur, the craftsmanship worthy of her queenly bearing.
She wore a silver pendant around her throat set with a ruby, an etching of the city crest lying on its front facet.
She was gloved again, but this time with simple white silk to midforearm.
Her husband was dressed Completely in state, an honor to his guests that wasn’t unappreciated by most of them, the resplendent red and black a striking counterpoint to the simple pale prettiness of his mate.
Another young couple entered shortly after, and the small group settled in their seats after a round of greetings and introductions.
The underlying tension could have been cut with the dagger at the Prime’s waist. Still, everyone remained either polite or quiet through the first course of the meal, a hot, hearty soup the mountain clansmen enjoyed greatly.
Knar, of course, stubbornly refused to eat a morsel.
He did remain quiet, however, though he shot evil glares of hatred at Mystique.
Not the wisest thing to do at a table full of empaths who honored her as a friend.
But the Sánge tolerated his rudeness as long as he remained firmly in his seat.
Lothas turned his attention to the Prima when she delicately cleared her throat just as they were beginning their main dishes.
“Commander Lothas, did His Majesty happen to mention to you that his pig-mannered son attempted to rape me before I killed him defending myself?”