Chapter Nine #2
“Yup. I bit his lip the other day. Got a little enthusiastic. We agreed to try it. It works.”
Himera blinked. “Right. Of course.”
Ival set her teacup down.
“Are you fertile?” Himera winced. “Sorry for just blurting that out.”
“As far as Zera can see, I paused my ovarian activity for the last twenty years. The little suckers are just sleeping.”
“Oh. Well, are you planning on taking it off pause?”
“Yup. Well, no. Riimal is working on it. His beast has chemical secretions as well, and they are fairly effective on me. He said he will let me know when I am close.” She chuckled. “He’s very sportsmanlike.”
“Your union is a sport?”
“Yup. I win a lot, he wins a lot, and if there is a tie, we need a safe word.”
Himera blinked and then started to laugh. “You sound like your book.”
“Yeah, I get that a lot. Did you get through it?”
“Um, yes. May I forward it to one of my ladies? Just one. The others wouldn’t be up for it. My friend is twisted.”
“Sure. Go ahead. Anything else?”
“Riithan is playing polo this weekend, and we thought it would be nice to go and cheer him on. As a family.”
Ival paused. “Are you sure you want me out in public?”
Himera smiled. “Yes, sister, I do.”
“Sis... right. Family is a very fluid term to me.”
“Here, it can be everything or nothing.”
“I am shooting for actually considering it an option.”
Himera smiled. “I will try to help you. In that vein, the seamstress is coming to take your measurements for a proper wardrobe. There are events that Riimal has to attend as a prince that require you to be there.”
“I suspected. It’s his one downside.”
Himera laughed and then sobered. “Thorassen has contacted us.”
“Have you?”
“Yes. The king will discuss it with you. Do you want to see the ambassador of Thorassen?”
“They are here?”
“They are.”
“Who are they?”
“Suuro.”
Ival didn’t know how to feel. Her brother-in-law had been a minor when she had been sold. “I will not meet him without Riimal. I don’t know if his intentions are hostile or not.”
Himera frowned. “I thought you would be happy to meet with them.”
“I am, but I do not know if he was in favour of his mother selling me.”
Himera stared. “Oh. I didn’t know that he is your brother-in-law.”
“Was. I don’t know what he wants now.”
“Ah. Well, we are about to find out. They are meeting us in the audience chamber in five minutes.”
“Oh. I thought I was meeting with the seamstress.”
“After.”
“Wait, are you getting a play-by-play from the king?”
Himera smiled. “You are not the only one with an activation. I just chose which alpha to bless with my skills. Communication is my skill.”
“That is just fascinating.”
They got to their feet. Ival asked, “So, how did you get a son with a stinger on his butt?”
Himera smiled. “Just lucky, I guess.”
They laughed together, and Ival fought her nerves as they walked toward the audience chamber. They were side by side until they entered the court, and then Himera walked to stand next to her husband, and Ival walked to stand next to Riimal.
He wrapped her in his arms and kissed her softly. “Don’t worry.”
She grinned. “You can tell I am worried?”
“Sure. You didn’t threaten to blow me in a public place. You are worried.”
She grinned. “You are catching on.”
The king snorted and looked at them, shaking his head. Ival arranged herself next to Riimal, and the king nodded for the door to be opened.
Suuro had been sixteen when she saw him last. In the intervening two decades, he had filled out and looked strong and serious. He saw her, and his face split into a bright grin.
“Ival! We have missed you. Why did you leave?”
Ival paused. “Your mother sold me. They drugged me and smuggled me out of the country, returning me to Uradda for torture and using me as a means of destruction.”
Suuro paused. “She said you left in the middle of the night.”
The king said, “I have been granted access to Uraddan records regarding my sister-in-law. She was purchased by them twice. Once, when her family here surrendered her, and again when she was purchased from her deceased husband’s family. They were handsomely compensated.”
Suuro shook his head. “No. That was Zukker’s pension.”
The king said, “Zukker’s pension was just forwarded to his widow. This week. It had been held until she placed a claim or twenty years passed. She got in two weeks below the deadline. Your mother had tried to have her killed.”
Suuro paused and closed his eyes. “I read the brief, but I didn’t want to believe it.”
He opened his eyes slowly. “So, you didn’t abandon us?”
“I was doped and drooling. Oh, wait. There are recent images of me before I ended up in the lab.”
The king nodded, and a hologram of her in her cyber-eye, red other eye and scarred body was slowly rotating in front of Suuro.
“Oh, god.”
She leaned against Riimal. “So, that is what I was sent to. The large pores on my hands and feet constantly exuded poison. I was recently repaired through semi-violent means, and Your Majesty, could you show him those pictures as well?”
The king shuddered but sent the displays of her skin slipping off, her body in the tank, and then her skin slowly growing back.
Suuro stared, and he looked ill. “When was this?”
“A few weeks ago. My legal representation made the call to get Zukker’s death benefit. I am sure that it is what caused your mother to join with my aunt to put a hit out on me.”
Suuro paused. “She did what?”
“She tried to kill me. She tried it when Zukker was there, but I am immune to toxins, so she slowly starved me. I would gain weight when Zukker was home, and the cycle began again.”
Suuro was staring at the image of her with the cybernetic eye.
“And then he died, and you were thrown to the Uraddans. Your Majesty, may I get copies of these images? There has been a lot of curiosity as to where Ival went after Zukker passed on. She tamed the untameable and was a bit of a national hero.”
Riimal chuckled. “She’s certainly good at calming a rioting soul.”
She smiled and leaned against him. He put an arm behind her and gripped her waist.
Suuro sighed. “You have moved on.”
“It has been twenty years. Riimal and I have been together a week.”
Suuro winced. “I see.”
“If it makes you feel better, he marked me eight years ago, right before he killed me. Don’t worry. I got better. Uradda had a resurrectionist.” She smiled. “I was never for you, Suuro. I could kill you with a bad mood, for one thing.”
He paused, “What about him?”
Riimal smiled. “I am resistant to her toxins.”
Suuro frowned. “Was Zukker?”
She sighed. “He had natural immunity, but I wasn’t toxic back then. I could just cure a headache with it. When I was starved and tortured and forced to defend myself day after day, the toxins got more effective.”
He looked at the image of her skinless in the tank. “I understand.”
“Yeah, getting all of the enlarged cells and glands off was important. I had to start fresh.”
He smiled at her with a watery gaze. “It explains why you look like you did twenty years ago.”
She laughed. “I do not recommend the treatment.”
Suuro looked at her sadly. “Will you share a meal with me?”
“No.”
He blinked. “Why not?”
“Because for over five years you watched your mother starve me, and you were part of those who said nothing.”
“She said you were worried about Zukker.”
“And yet, she forced me to sit and watch everyone eat. She even made extra servings, and anytime I would reach for something, she would move it away and threaten me. And you and your other siblings said nothing. I was in a foreign country, and your mother made sure to remind me that I could quietly disappear while Zukker was out, and no one would notice.”
Suuro whispered, “I thought she was joking.”
Himera looked at him. “You are a grown man, would you say that to your son’s wife? Would you accept that being said to your own wife?”
He looked at Ival. “I would not. Why did Zukker?”
Ival shrugged. “He was told that my ways were not your ways and that I didn’t understand Thorassen family hierarchy.”
He nodded. “Yeah, he would have believed that. Mom was always pretty and friendly when he was around.”
“Yup.”
The king asked, “What did you want from her?”
“That she comes back for the celebrations for Zukker.”
“I can’t.” Ival shrugged.
Riimal murmured, “We can if you want to.”
Suuro looked slightly predatory.
What was going on hit her like a thunderclap. She looked to the royals. “May I speak with Riimal for a moment?”
They looked at her, and he led her to a small chamber with a locking door.
She pressed her lips to his ear and said, “Suuro can listen. He always watched me, and he got closer to me every time Zukker was gone. If I go to Thorassen, I can be reclaimed by his family.”
Riimal murmured, “But I am your mate.”
“They don’t recognize that. They go by legal ties only. There is no paperwork with your bite on it.”
He frowned. “So... he wants you there...”
“To snag me? Not a clue, but I have finished my files with the Thorassen government. I am good there.”
“So, Suuro wants you there.”
“As my husband’s brother, he could put a claim on me. I don’t want the stress.”
“I don’t want you stressed. I need to speak to Riithan so that we may head to Daycross today. Do you mind?”
“I need clothes. I was supposed to have a seamstress meeting today.”
“We will get you something on Daycross.”
“But... will it be as soft as I need?”
“I will make sure it is.” He hugged her.
“Can we leave the closet now?” She beamed up at him.
He lifted her and kissed her while pressing her against the door. When he let her up for air, she whispered, “Himera mentioned you are getting kinda big.”
He grinned. “Did you tell her why?”
“No, just something about you letting yourself evolve and not holding back anymore.”
“Oh, I am holding back, Ival, or that skirt would be up around your waist.”
She chuckled. “Don’t tease. That’s my job.”
He laughed and ran his thumb over her lower lip. “I am taking it on part-time.”
“There are no benefits.”
“I can think of a few.”