Chapter Twenty-Two
Rhydek
Taryn was trying to break me.
And she was succeeding.
Another sleepless night left me with a short temper.
It didn’t help that Taryn had dropped off to sleep the instant she covered herself with the gold shavariin, letting out a soft purr that made me want to pull her close.
Or that her eyes hadn’t left me since we’d risen, the weight of them following me around the field as I took out my frustrations on careless warriors.
“Kiren’kai’hesh vorrak’kai. Korrak’kai.”
My voice echoed within the black walls, grunts and growls following my taunt. I’d assigned one of the harshest training exercises, and every warrior on the field was dripping sweat and exhausted, and Vorrashan hadn’t reached its peak yet.
And Taryn watched from her place in the shade. Still. Silent. Yet drawing my focus every time my control slipped the slightest.
Growling under my breath, I nodded to the group of older warriors who helped with training. Everyone was probably relieved to see me leave, but I didn’t care. The sooner I got Taryn to the kennels, the sooner she’d be focused on something else.
And then I could have a turn watching from the shadows.
Not that it would help. It would only make things worse, but at this point, I had no choice. If I wasn’t fighting or training, she was all I could think of.
After what she’d asked of me in the River Caverns, even training didn’t help. She was everywhere, her scent clinging to my nostrils so even if I wasn’t looking at her, I still couldn’t escape her presence for even a breath.
I shook my head and tried to pull my thoughts together, but they scattered on the wind the moment it brought me another whiff of her crisp, sweet scent. It seemed more intense than it had ever been, but I didn’t know if that was a normal development, or a result of days without sleep.
We followed the pattern we’d fallen into, Taryn walking the path between the kennels, glancing at the varkuun until she found one that held her attention.
Sometimes it was one who seemed agitated, pacing and snarling.
She would ask questions about its history, and I would look it up on my datapad.
She’d hum and watch the animal, and then move on.
Sometimes it was a calmer one. One who chose to ignore our presence or barely glanced our way. These always turned out to be one with a rakhul, or one who had already trained that day.
“They’re bored. They need stimulation.”
My eyes narrowed on her, then moved to the beast she was watching pace.
“They’re… bored?”
The same problem she’d suffered from.
I glanced around its enclosure. It was large enough for it to be able to move freely and even run a short distance.
It was half shaded under the roof, and half exposed to Vorrashan.
The ground was the natural sand and stone it was adapted to.
The stone walls were thick enough to withstand something of their strength smashing against them, and prevent them from fighting with the varku housed at their sides.
Each end of the enclosure was bars, allowing them a view of the varku across from them and the world outside their cage.
But they were otherwise empty beyond the odd bone left over from their meals.
“They’re intelligent. At least as smart as the dogs I worked with, and the dogs needed hours of stimulation each day. Either training with a handler, exercise, or puzzles when they weren’t being worked.”
My mind was still moving slow from exhaustion and constant distraction, working to absorb what she was saying.
“Puzzles?”
The earnest look she turned on me had my thought slowing further, the animation on her face more than I’d seen since meeting her.
“We would put their food in a container with little doors. They would have to press buttons, flip levers, and figure out how to open the doors. We’d give them different ones each feeding.
Some were balls they had to roll around that would leave a couple of pieces of food behind, some were mats made of fabric, and some were plastic boxes.
It was something for them to do while stuck in their kennel. ”
Shaking my head, I considered what she was saying. There weren’t enough handlers for each varku to receive training every day. Many had to be worked in chains or on poles, limiting what they were able to do.
“Mental or physical, if they didn’t have something to do, they became destructive. Agitated. Sometimes aggressive.”
I found myself nodding. It made sense. The varku with a rakhul were the calmest, and we’d assumed it was the bond, but part of it could be that they received more attention and interaction.
If Taryn was right, giving the ones without a rakhul something to occupy them might make them easier to handle.
“We can share your idea with the Torthyhul and see if he is willing to try it.”
Her eyes sparkled above her thavren, holding my attention longer than they should have. Forcing myself to turn away, I strode down the path, searching for him.
I should have known I’d find him at Zharrek’s enclosure. No one else was willing to go near the feral beast, and it was feeding time.
“Vorresh! Veshakar!”
More curses followed as Dorash dodged a strike from Zharrek’s tail, the barb barely missing. Blood sloshed out of the bucket Dorash held, staining the sand on the path.
I slowed, trying not to interrupt or distract the older Morraki. I hadn’t expected Taryn to charge past me and reacted too slowly to grab her.
“Zharrek.”
She called the varku’s name, drawing both his and Dorash’s attention. Two pairs of narrowed green eyes focused on her and every muscle in my body tightened before she stopped just outside Zharrek’s reach.
“Calm, Zharrek.”
The beast’s head tipped the same way it had when she’d spoken to him the first time she saw him, his nostrils flaring. Holding her hand up, palm out, the way she’d seen other handlers do, she gave the command for him to back away.
“Threk.”
My tail lashed as I struggled not to snatch her back. Dorash scoffed, but Zharrek tipped his head farther. After a moment of consideration, he lifted one foot and placed it farther from the bars.
“Good, Zharrek!” Taryn cooed, and I would have smirked at the shocked expression on Dorash’s face if I hadn’t known mine matched.
“Threk, Zharrek.”
There was less hesitation before the beast lifted another foot and moved it back.
“I really need some kind of treat to throw him.”
I barely heard Taryn’s comment, then she was praising him again. Careful not to startle the varku, I walked behind her towards Dorash.
“Where’s his meat?”
Too stunned to question me, he jerked his chin towards a vezhakk haunch lying behind him. Kneeling beside it, I pulled my knife and sliced chunks from the meat, getting a handful before returning to Taryn.
She took the raw meat without flinching, tossing a chunk through the bars. It went to the side of Zharrek and slightly behind his shoulder, and when he turned towards it, she gave the back command again.
“Threk. Good, Zharrek. Threk.”
She tossed another chunk, and then another, repeating the command until she ran out of meat and Zharrek was far enough from the bars for Dorash to approach them with the bucket.
Zharrek’s eyes narrowed at the other Morraki, lips peeling back in a snarl that showed his sharp teeth, but when Taryn gave the command to stay, he complied.
Dorash poured the fresh blood into Zharrek’s trough while I grabbed the vezhakk haunch and crammed it through the bars. That seemed to be the end of Zharrek’s willingness to behave, because he lunged at the meat, snarling and darting his tail forward in a threat he didn’t bother to assure landed.
“Since when does Zharrek listen to the Human?”
Dorash’s question was half growl, but I couldn’t tell if it was directed at me or due to Zharrek.
“Since now. I’m as surprised as you, but she has experience with similar creatures on Earth.”
Dorash scoffed again but he clapped me on the arm with his single hand. He’d lost the other to a varku years prior, and he displayed the scarred stump of his lower arm with pride for living through the attack.
“Omega!”
I tensed as he turned to Taryn, his sharp voice cracking across the space between us. Dorash had a reputation for being as volatile as the beasts he oversaw. He was honest, but sometimes it was brutal, and the urge to put myself between them had me moving before I could stop myself.
“He seems to like you. If you want him to live, you’re going to work with him.”
He’d been walking towards her, forcing me to hurry to cut him off, but he stopped with a jerk as if he’d walked into a wall. Frowning, I watched his nostrils flare and then his pupils expand.
“After your heat.”
His focus turned to me, scowl cutting through the scars on his face.
“I don’t know why you’d bring her here, now. Get her below before she starts a brawl.”
He turned on his heel and stalked away, ochre kethra flashing his irritation, but his words had drawn my attention to Taryn. Confusion was written across her face as she stared after the other Morraki.
Taking a step closer, I leaned down and drew in a deep breath. Beneath the smell of the kennels and her crisp, fruity scent, her sweetness had deepened even more, growing rich with promise. It had been building, I just hadn’t caught it.
I jerked back, brows creased as I clenched my teeth so hard they ached.
“Did you hide it from me?”
My pulse pounded, each beat louder than the last, drowning out the sounds of anything beyond the omega in front of me. I’d missed the signs, brought her within range of countless unmated alphas, and the thought of what could have happened had sweat breaking out all over my body.
“What?”
She couldn’t have been faking the way she looked at me. The way her eyes widened, lips parting as she searched my face.
“Your heat. It’s begun.”
Her surprise was real, but I turned away, already stomping towards the door. I had to get her to the Karzhari before anyone else got a sniff of her.
I snarled at myself, digging my claws into the scabs constantly marring my palms. I’d put her in danger because I hadn’t paid enough attention, too focused on myself and my own issues.
“Rhydek, wait.”
Taryn jogged behind me, trying to keep up as I slammed my hand on the datapad to open the door. I stepped through as soon as there was space, and when Taryn hesitated to follow me out, I reached through and took hold of her arm to pull her with me.
“Rhydek! What happens now?”
It was the trace of fear in her voice that had me taking a breath to stave off my own confusing emotions. I had tried to pretend I hadn’t dreaded the coming of her heat, but with it upon us, my insides twisted around all the dark, ugly thoughts I’d hidden within.
“We have to get below. You have to go with the Karzhari. They will prepare you.”
I knew she’d read that part of the information, she’d mentioned it before, but I repeated it to her. I only vaguely knew what the Karzhari did when an omega went into heat, just that they took her to the River Caverns before delivering her to the Bonding Hall.
“Can’t I stay with you?”
My chest tightened and my steps slowed, the archway leading down into Korvashan ahead of us. Her plea pulled at the things I hadn’t been willing to face, and I was in no state to offer her comfort.
But I had to do my best. This was her first heat, the first time her body would go through something it hadn’t been designed for, and it was because of me.
She’d clung to my arm to keep up as we crossed the sand, and I reached over to cover her hand with mine. I couldn’t meet her eyes because I couldn’t let her see the conflict ripping me apart, but I had to do what I could.
“It is tradition for the omega to go with the Karzhari. They will prepare you for the Zha’Khorr Valryn. You will be safe with them, and I will await you in the Hall.”
The words were bitter on my tongue. Long ago, that promise had been saved for another.
For the omega I had thought I would spend my life with.
But Shaevrin had taken Shaira, and it was Taryn standing beside me, stirring my instincts.
Guilt and anger twisted in my gut, forcing my strides to come faster, but I couldn’t outrun how I felt. I was stuck between a vow to the dead, and a promise to my Torvakai. Shaira had been the future I’d chosen…
But Taryn was relying on me, and she was all I saw now.
I barely noticed the walk to my door, blinking and realizing I stood before it. Taryn followed me inside, breathing hard, her scent growing thicker than it had been on the surface as she shed her thavren.
“Wait in the shar’nessha. I will remain here.”
The words were directed at the floor, Taryn visible only from the corner of my eye. She hesitated and I heard a soft sigh before she turned away, complying without a fight.
My gut twisted again, blades of my own making stabbing through me with enough force to make me grunt. I watched her back as she disappeared through the doorway, the metal sliding into place between us.
“Shaevrin, Shaira, forgive me.”
The whisper disappeared as if I hadn’t released it. If I’d been hoping for some kind of response, there was none, the silence enveloping me as I continued to stare at the door.
Could I do this?
The question circled, slipping between my thoughts, mocking me.
Making me weak.
Straightening, I pulled my communicator from my belt. I’d given Kael my word, and honor prevented me from backing out now.
And kept me from having to admit I didn’t want to.