Chapter 33
Spitted meat sizzled over the fire bowl, filling the air with its aroma. Lacey, Cole, Sophia, and Shir sat around it on cushions, with platters of fruit and vegetables arranged on the platform floor before them.
Lacey bit a piece of cooked meat off her stick and chewed, enjoying the savory spices as she closed her eyes and hummed. “So good…”
“I hear you,” Cole said around his own mouthful of food. “I’m starving.”
“Same,” Sophia said from her spot between Lacey and Cole.
Shir chittered. “You’ve all done well, and you deserve full bellies.”
Cole snickered. “Oh, I’m gonna fill it.”
Lacey opened her eyes with a chuckle and leaned forward to peer at him past Sophia. “You do know how to pack away the food.”
He grinned and patted his bare stomach. “Yep. Been working up quite an appetite.”
Smiling, Lacey shook her head and took another bite. The voices of the vrix around them joined with the gentle music being played to create a warm ambience.
It’d been another long, sweaty day of trekking through the jungle, and though she was exhausted, she could feel herself growing stronger.
Every day they were out there, she could push a little farther, a little faster.
Every day, she learned that what she’d thought of as her limits were just obstacles to overcome.
And as much as she adored life in Kaldarak, she’d needed this.
Needed the challenge, the joy of discovery and learning, to help her grow in ways that comfort and routine would never allow.
A cool breeze blew over her, and she tipped her face up toward it. It felt wonderful after today’s heat. These were some of her favorite times—sharing a meal and talking with friends after a hard day.
But there was someone missing.
Lacey glanced around the platform, and her eyebrows fell.
There was no sign of Telok. Over the days since they’d mated, he’d opened up a little more to the winddancers and had taken to sitting with her during meals instead of standing on the outskirts of the gatherings.
Perhaps finally claiming Lacey and putting his mark on her had settled some instinctual, possessive drive inside him, making him more relaxed while they were in the village.
Well…as relaxed as Telok could be.
Though he didn’t often join in on conversations, he’d allowed himself to be part of the community rather than separating himself from it, and seeing that warmed her heart.
But where was he now?
Earlier, as they’d left their den to join everyone for the evening meal, he’d told her to go ahead without him, that he had something to attend to and would join her shortly. But that had been a while ago…
“Damn,” Cole said with a chuckle. “Ayali’s living it up, isn’t she?”
Lacey followed Cole’s gaze to the huge brown thornskull and the two winddancers with her.
Ess was standing before her, feeding her bites of meat while Zesh braided her long black hair.
She had a pair of spears across her bent forelegs, much too small for her own use, which she was rebinding with fresh, gleaming silk thread.
She’s using her own silk for her mates’ spears.
Sophia sighed dreamily. “Oh, to be worshipped like that…”
Cole whipped his head toward her. “I’m literally cooking for you right now.”
“Are you going to feed me too?”
“Baby, I’ll do whatever you ask me to do.”
The woman leaned toward him and fluttered her lashes with a sweet smile. “Anything?”
He lowered his voice to a gravelly rumble as he caught her chin and stroked her bottom lip. “Anything.”
“Even…” Sophia placed a hand on his chest and whispered into his ear.
Cole’s eyes rounded, and his face reddened. Both the roundness of his eyes and the redness of his face increased as Sophia continued talking.
“Holy shit,” he rasped when she pulled back, a goofy smile slowly stretching across his lips. “Hey, uh, Shir… Can we have some silk rope?”
Shir chittered. “Are you planning to bind and conquer your mate?”
Sophia grinned. “He’ll have to catch me first.”
Cole caught the back of her neck and dragged her closer until their mouths were only a breath apart. “There’s no outrunning me, mate. You’re already mine.”
He slanted his mouth over hers, and Sophia moaned, wrapping her arms around him as she returned the kiss.
Lacey’s brows shot up as she grinned. This was definitely a side of Cole she hadn’t seen. “I guess the vrix are rubbing off on him.”
Shir trilled, mandibles rising and purple eyes narrowing in delight. “It brings my hearts joy to see Sophia happy.”
Breaking the kiss with a chuckle, Cole glanced at Shir. “Oh, I make her very happy. Every night.”
“Okay! Let’s not get into details,” Lacey said. “Unless you want to hear about how me and Telok—”
“Nope!” Cole threw a hand out, palm toward Lacey. “I’m good. I think we hear enough every night to guess without needing you to tell us anything.”
Sophia waggled her eyebrows at Lacey. “Telok must take good care of you.”
Heat suffused Lacey. She knew she’d been loud, but she hadn’t realized she’d been that loud. She cleared her throat. “He’s good for relieving my…tension.”
Never would Lacey have guessed that Telok was a pleasure dom, but for days his entire focus had been solely on her and her pleasure without taking any for himself. And God, he played her body so well…
The only thing he hadn’t done in all that time was give her what she craved most—his cock. She wanted to feel him inside her again, wanted to feel that physical connection binding them together.
She slipped a slice of moonblossom fruit into her mouth and tried to get her mind off Telok’s stroking fingers, lashing tongue, and throbbing shaft. While Cole and Sophia couldn’t smell Lacey’s desire, the many vrix in the vicinity would.
Excited whispers rippled through the crowd. Only then did Lacey realize that the music had changed to something slow and anticipatory. She turned her head toward the center of the platform, where vrix were already rearranging themselves to clear a space.
“Is there a mating dance tonight?” she asked.
She’d barely finished the question when the lighting began to change in a series of whooshes, the orange flames flaring into blue-green as winddancers poured something into the fire bowls, casting an eerie, otherworldly glow on the gathering.
Shir hummed thoughtfully as onlookers seated themselves in a broad circle around the center of the platform. “There will be another choosing tonight.”
Tas approached, his eyes and the blue and red markings on his hindquarters aglow in the firelight. Shir trilled as her mate lowered himself beside her and pressed his headcrest to hers.
“My heartssong,” he said, words barely audible over the music.
“Kir’ani luveen,” she replied gently.
The drums quickened, drawing Lacey’s attention back to the center of the platform. Anticipation was building with that beat, charging the air with electricity, and she tipped her head back to look up at the dancer who was about to descend.
Though she knew there were branches and leaves shrouded in shadow high overhead, all she could see was darkness. Her eyes scanned it, seeking any sign of movement or the glow of a winddancer’s patterns.
Something moved in the blackness. Gradually, strips of neon green came into view, gaining brightness like metal being heated in a furnace.
Her heart skipped a beat. She knew those patterns even before she could see the body they belonged to.
Lacey watched in disbelief as the shadowy form descended a length of silk, lowering himself into the light to reveal those glowing green markings against a jet-black hide.
“Telok?” she breathed.
“No freaking way,” Cole said.
But it was Telok on that rope, and Lacey couldn’t look away.
He began to swing from side to side, quickly gaining momentum. As his speed increased, he shifted his weight, turning that pendulum motion into a broadening circle that was soon carrying him over the onlookers below.
Telok released the rope with all but his upper right hand. Winddancers gasped as his body swung outward, widening his arc. Lacey bit her bottom lip, not only marveling at his sheer strength, but turned on by it.
He glided through the air, his markings vibrant against the shadows. Soon, that circle began to draw in on itself, and the drums grew louder and faster.
Extending his left legs, he snapped them back in and spun, becoming a whirl of neon green and spiraling silk. It was…exhilarating.
The music halted, and Telok plummeted.
With a gasp, Lacey leapt to her feet, chest constricting.
Telok landed upon the platform with a bang punctuated by a slam of the drums. He crouched there with his legs bent, his hands braced on the floor, and his head bowed, his loose hair hanging freely.
Silence fell heavy over the crowd.
And then his head jerked up, and his blazing green eyes met hers.
The music resumed, now with a primal, sultry rhythm.
Telok lifted his torso. That fierce gaze remained locked with Lacey’s as he moved to the beat.
Chest undulating, he thrust and pumped his arms and stamped his legs, each motion emphasized by the music.
And then he threw his hands toward her, curled his fingers, and pulled them back, his chest and abdomen sensually rolling.
Each time he repeated the motion, he drew himself a little closer to her, teasingly advancing foot by foot.
Even though Lacey was seeing this with her own eyes, she couldn’t believe it. Never in her wildest dreams would she have imagined that Telok would do this, that he would place himself in the spotlight before hundreds of eyes. Her quiet, stoic, grumpy vrix.
And God…he was terrible at it.
Telok danced with none of the grace the winddancers possessed.
His timing was off, and his movements were jerky, stiff, and at times awkward, as though he was too focused on remembering the next dance step.
She didn’t doubt that he would’ve been far more confident and comfortable fighting savage beasts or hostile vrix than he was right now.
Lacey smiled wide.
None of that mattered…because he was doing this for her.
And he was sexy as fuck.
Lacey’s heart pounded as warmth flooded her, and her eyes stung with tears. Maybe she was reading too much into this, maybe it was silly of her, but seeing him dance like this confirmed that he would truly do anything for her.
It made her feel seen, made her feel like she mattered, like she was worthy.
She’d never felt as treasured as she did in that moment.
Because in front of everyone, he was choosing her.
Vrix shifted and scooted aside to open a path for Telok as his unrelenting advance continued.
His dance persisted for a few more beats before it fell away, and he closed the distance remaining between him and Lacey in a few smooth, purposeful strides that brimmed with both confidence and impatience.
Everything and everyone blurred into the background. All she could see was Telok.
He stopped in front of her and held out one large hand.
A hand made rough by a lifetime of fighting to survive, a hand with claws that could rend flesh, with strength that could crush bone, a hand that had killed.
But it was also a hand that touched her with such gentleness, a hand that held her, soothed her, protected her.
A hand that had brought her immense pleasure.
Lacey placed her hand on his.
He curled those long, clawed fingers in a firm grip and tugged her close. His green eyes blazed as he slipped the fingers of another hand into her hair to cradle the back of her head.
“Say you are mine,” he commanded in a low, husky voice.
Rising on the toes of her boots, she caught the back of his neck and pulled him down, pressing her mouth to his in a hard kiss. She closed her eyes and breathed him in, letting the kiss linger. He shuddered, and his lower arms slipped around her waist to draw her against his body.
“I’m yours,” she whispered against his mouth.
With a growl, Telok straightened, lifting his head high.
Raising his voice over the music, he declared, “I, Telok tes Nazir’ani Ul’okari, have claimed Lacey Anderson as my mate.
” He looked away from her to rake his gaze over the crowd.
“And should anyone seek to harm her, I will tear them into so many pieces that even the Weaver himself would not be able to stitch them back together.”
Wow, okay. Violent, but fuck that was hot.
Cheers erupted around them, bolstered by stomping legs.
“Sooo…are we married?” Lacey asked.
He caught her jaw and stared down into her eyes. “We are bound. Even after the Tangle claims our bodies, our spirits will remain entwined. Nothing can part us.”
The pure possessiveness in his voice sent a shiver of delight through Lacey, making her belly flutter and her core clench. An aching, hungry need permeated her. She wanted nothing more than for them to be alone. Wanted nothing more than him.
Leaning into his body, she reached up and caught a strand of his loose hair, giving it a gentle tug as she coyly smiled. “Then, husband, you should take your wife to our den.”
A purr rumbled in his chest. “Wife.”
She laughed as he swept her into his arms, cradled her against his chest, and strode away from the cheering crowd.