Chapter 16
If he does not want to breed you, I will
Melanie
Ihad barely seen Ghauro all day, but felt his eyes on me everywhere I was pulled to. A shiver along my spine, a flutter in my stomach, warmth spreading on my cheek…No matter where Zhari and Eletie took me, his gaze followed.
When I found him again and his hand caught my hips to make me straddle his thighs, my heart settled. The muscles in my cheeks hurt as my smile became the widest it’s ever been when I picked a piece of cooked meat from the thick leaf I held and brought it to his lips.
His eyes gleamed as he started to chew. “Are you having fun, assa perti?”
His brothers turned their curiosity-filled faces to us. “I was worried your people would hate me. They’re all so nice…”
He licked the spicy sauce at the tips of my fingers without breaking our gaze and I internally cursed that we weren’t alone.
“Watch out for a female named Jerakeh,” one of his brothers groaned. “She will not be as nice and welcoming. I am Khaju, by the way. It is nice to meet you.”
His head tilted in some sort of bow so I eagerly did the same. His smile told me it was the right response.
“Who is this…Jerakeh?” I asked, trying to keep my tone playful despite the knots forming in my stomach. “Ghauro’s old lover?” I joked.
“Yes,” Khaju said. For some reason, said stomach fell. Why? It wasn’t like I never had lovers before coming here…None of them would ever be an issue, though… “It happened, what…three years ago?” he asked Ghauro who just grunted, tightening his hold around my waist.
“No, it was two,” the other said. “I’m Thanato.” Like before, I bowed when he did, but the smile on my face was now forced.
“Three or two, she has been relentless ever since,” Khaju continued, brushing it away. “How many times did you have to reject her by now, brother?”
“It does not matter,” Ghauro said, his voice making his chest rumble. “She will not be an issue, she left for another clan in protest before Melanie got here.”
In protest? People had protested against our union?
“Do not fret, little human,” Thanato said with a conspiratorial look, leaning closer and ignoring Ghauro’s growl as he reached my ear. “Your mate does not care for other females.”
“I do not,” my husband grumbled.
“Just be careful if she comes to you,” Khaju interjected. “Do not let her bless you with any oil like the others did, especially if no one is here to check that her hands are not drawing a curse instead.” Weird but alright. “And do not believe anything she says.”
“I won’t.” I nodded, ignoring their confused look. “I know Ghauro won’t lie if I ask about her.”
I saw it in his eyes, then—how right I was. How, no matter what I’d asked, the answer would always be truthful.
Ghauro slid a hand in my hair to bring my face closer, careful not to crumple any of the flowers he had placed while I was busy listening to their meaning and picking the ones I wanted to put on him.
He dropped a chaste kiss on my lips, not more than a caress and I smiled when he released me.
I picked another piece of meat and made sure to wrap the steamed red leaves around before bringing it to his mouth. I needed to feed my hulk of a husband; I hadn’t seen him eat anything all day, and the night was falling.
I was happily coming back from the edge of the forest where I’d been told I could relieve myself when things started to turn bad.
I froze on my spot when a tall, blue-grayish woman planted herself in front of me. Her gaze was hard and unflinching as she took a step closer, her arms crossed around her chest.
“So, you are the human female.”
I looked around, hoping to find Zhari, Eletie, Ghauro…anyone really, hovering nearby. But all the faces I could vaguely see were too far to even pay attention to me.
“I don’t see any other,” I shot back and waited. Waited for her to tell me why the hell she ambushed me so far from the rest of the other Tauris at night. “Do you mind stepping away? I won’t stay here all night.”
She scoffed in disbelief. “You are disrespectful.”
“So are you.”
She pursed her lips, taking another step to point an accusing finger in my direction. “I was invited. You intruded. You are not welcome here. Do not think for one moment that the others have really accepted you. You are—”
“I’m Ghauro’s mate, whether you like it or not—” I paused, looking her up and down with a disgusted frown. “Jerakeh.”
Her eyebrow shot up in surprise. “Oh, so he told you about me.”
“Warned would be more accurate. Thank you for confirming what I’ve been told.”
“Which is?”
“That you’re a total psycho.”
Her confused face confirmed that her translator did not catch that. Good. Let her sit on it. I took a step forward and turned to walk around her but she pushed me back, sending me stumbling into someone.
“Unclaimed,” the rough voice said after taking a big inhale of my scent, the tone sending ice through my veins. “Has Ghauro’s cock gone soft?”
“Soft isn’t a word I would use to qualify my mate,” I sneered. His cold red hand snapped around my forearm. I tried to pull it back but his grip was too strong. Bruising. “Let me go, you brute!”
“You are coming with me,” he said, pulling me back toward the forest. “If he does not want to breed you, I will.”
Sudden fear made my whole body shake as I tried to fight against his strong pull.
His fingers tightened, digging into my muscle and pressing the armlet into my skin.
My terrified gaze met Jerakeh’s cold one.
She didn’t care. She, somehow, orchestrated this whole mess.
In a last desperate attempt, I scratched at the skin of his hand with a frustrated scream.
He only growled, pulling me harder, nearly dislocating my shoulder in the process.
That was it. I was about to get abducted. Raped. And Ghauro would be looking for me, thinking I had abandoned him if Jerakeh had the time to lie to him. I—
“How dare you steal another leader’s mate,” a strong, booming female’s voice echoed and the brute stopped. My wide eyes met Ghauro’s mother’s, angry and unyielding. “Where is your honor, boy?”
“She is unclaimed,” he growled, his grip so strong I was worried it might snap my arm. I pulled against him, scratching at his hand and forearm like a feral cat.
“They are mated. It does not matter if she was bred yet. You were invited here as a guest and now you are betraying your host,” she spat, walking ever so slowly toward us until she reached a wide-eyed Jerakeh. “You will be dealt with,” she told her.
“But Ma—”
“No! You are out of line.” Looking back at the brute trying to fight my hands and nails away, she said, “Let my sakhati go. Now!”
Jerakeh’s face fell at her words, but the brute did—albeit reluctantly—shoving me for good measure.
I glowered at him, rubbing at the bruising spot on my arm before looking at my—mother in law?
Her eyes darted to the side, like hearing something I couldn’t before she set her softening gaze on me, waving me over. “Come, sakhati. Quick.”
I had no idea what that meant, but I did, glaring at the frozen Jerakeh when I reached them. Frozen and terrified, because the long black braid falling down her back was tightly wrapped in Ghauro’s mother's fist, and her grasp didn’t seem to loosen.
She slid an arm around my shoulder, bringing me closer. Okay, I thought that woman hated me. “All good, searse. She is safe.”
Before I could ask myself who she was talking to, the brute was sent flying back to the forest as a blur of green dashed straight into him. Muffled groans and noises of fists hitting bones and flesh echoed as other pairs of hands landed on my shoulders.
I jumped in surprise. “Mel! Are you okay?” Zhari's soft voice asked, cupping my face and turning it from side to side to inspect it. “You!” she growled, letting go of me to grab Jerakeh by the throat. “You would be lucky to be exiled. If it were up to me, I would gut you right here and there!”
Ghauro’s mother’s hand tightened and the blue bitch whimpered. Not so funny when you’re the one being manhandled, now is it?
“Ghauro is the one who will decide her fate,” she said, her voice cold but calm.
“In the meantime, I will deal with her,” Thanato grunted, grabbing her by the horn and jerking her roughly to him. She cried, a sound feeling more like a plea than pain. The second both Thanato and her were out of sight, Zhari and her mother pulled me with them toward a rock behind the market.
“Matoriti,” Eletie called, following behind us.
“I am no beast, sakhati,” Ghauro’s mother answered, looking over her shoulder. Wait, I thought I was sakhati… “Go and make sure my son finds us when his anger is spent.”
Eletie didn’t answer anything and turned around, going back to the forest.
I couldn’t hear them anymore and my heart was frantic in my chest. What if Ghauro was hurt? Worse, what if he was—
“Sit.”
And I did, because my legs basically gave out. My eyes wouldn’t tear away from the damn forest. From the place my attacker had disappeared at the same time my husband flew past.
“Do not worry,” Ghauro’s mother—matoriti?—said. “Ghauro is strong. Strongest of the clans’ leaders. He will be back in no time.”
Her hand grabbed my arm, turning it softly. She unhooked the armlet and studied the skin underneath with a frown. “Your skin is changing color there, I doubt this is a good sign.”
It was. The whole area under the armlet had become purple and swollen, and blood seeped out from where the metal had cut into my skin.
“I read some of the book before I gave it to Ghauro, matorise. Let me look at it.”
A book? What book? And matorise? I thought her name was— “Ouch!” I winced as Zhari’s thumb brushed over the bruise.
“Sorry! I—I do not think the arm is broken, but she is bleeding and there is a pretty mean bruise,” she said to her mother.
The latter looked at the red sliding down my arm. “This?” she asked. “The blood is red?”
“Yes. I read it in the book.”
“What book?” I finally asked, my voice a little more high-pitched than I intended.