Chapter 10
Chapter
Ten
Bokkan
After a short, very cold dip in the pond at the back of the estate, I went to the barracks. The soldiers were all eating breakfast and drinking cups of szite around the long wooden tables set up in the dining hall.
While Masu was responsible for making my food, the younger males took turns preparing meals for the other soldiers.
They weren’t fully grown and ready for the type of rough training we did.
They had their own training sessions and schooling after they prepared breakfast and lunch.
Dinner was made by the younger males and the soldiers together.
Aware that all eyes were on me, I moved to the back of the food line and patiently waited for my turn to be served. Voices quieted as more of the males became aware of my presence. After a few moments of silence, conversations continued, this time at a softer volume.
Once I received my food and szite, I carried them to the end of a half-empty table and plunked them down. The soldiers nodded at me when our eyes met, but no one approached. Which was for the best because I was still battling the primal urges inside me.
The mating instinct was growing stronger every hour I was near Leda.
This morning, I awoke with her soft body draped over mine, and the sweet tartness of her scent in my nose.
She hadn’t smelled frightened, only… ripe and ready for fucking.
But her eyes had been wide and a little afraid.
It had taken all my willpower to set her aside and leave the bedchamber.
I’d promised her I would not touch her that way. Even if it killed me, I would follow through on that vow. No matter how much I yearned for her.
As I ate, I wondered if all these unreciprocated feelings I had for a human were my punishment for some terrible wrong I’d committed. That would be the only explanation for this torture.
“You look frustrated.”
I glanced up as Guldan plopped his bowl on the table and settled on the bench across from me. My only response was a grunt.
“The human female making you miserable?” he asked.
“No.”
His answering look said he clearly didn’t believe me, but he didn’t voice that, or anything else, as we ate in silence.
When I finished and leaned back, the cup of szite in my hand, he said, “You should take the female to town and purchase her some clothing. And there’s something humans wear…
” He trailed off. “I believe they’re called shoes.
It seems humans’ feet are much softer than ours.
They need to wear shoes to protect them from rocks and sharp debris. ”
The longer he spoke, the more interested I became. “How did you find this out?” I asked.
Guldan shrugged. “I talked to some of your former commanders. Several of them have acquired humans with bargains. I asked them what sort of supplies we might need if we had a human female here.”
My eyes narrowed as I stared at him. “Was this before or after you purchased Leda?”
“Before. I would never buy a human without being prepared to care for it appropriately.”
My teeth ground together as I stared at him, my fist clenching around the empty cup in my hand so hard that I heard a sharp crack.
Guldan leaned back, staring at me cautiously as I set the cup aside.
It fell into three pieces on the table, and a small puddle of szite leaked out onto the wood surface.
“She may be human, but she is not an it, Guldan. Humans are not animals. They may be different than us, but they are sentient creatures who feel pain and fear. They are smaller and weaker than we are, especially the females. I’m not sure how you imagined a human female would survive a platoon of daemon soldiers, but one like Leda would have fought you until someone was dead. ”
My final words were little more than a snarl as I climbed to my feet.
“That was why I chose her. Though the soldiers would have been extremely gentle with her, I needed a strong female to handle them all,” Guldan replied, his tone and body language defensive.
He rose to his feet as well, and we faced off across the table.
“They all contributed a large amount of coin to her purchase. They would not have risked damaging such a large investment.”
“Get out of my sight,” I growled out. “Or I won’t be responsible for what I do to you.”
“She is merely a human. I don’t understand why you are so angry when humans have been used as such for—”
“You intended to let all thirty of the males in my command rape her at their leisure!” I roared.
My claws hooked beneath the edge of the table. With one violent heave, I flipped it into the air and out from between us.
“She belongs to me, and you were going to allow other males to harm her!”
Guldan lifted his hands in a gesture of surrender as I stomped across the space that separated us.
“I didn’t know that she had not signed a contract, General.
The possibility of bedding daemons is written into every contract that a human signs, male or female.
If I had known, I would have selected another female. ”
“That is no better!” I turned and saw that every male in the dining hall was staring at us. “Hear me now! If I hear of any of you forcing a female into your bed, human or daemon, without their consent, I will kill you, slowly and painfully!”
There was not a single sound in the dining hall. All the males stared at me with varying degrees of fear and disbelief.
“Am I UNDERSTOOD?” I bellowed, my voice echoing throughout the room and likely across the courtyard.
As one, the men all rose to their feet. “Yes, General!”
“Clear the hall and report to the yard. Today I will oversee your training.”
“Yes, General,” they cried out again.
The room cleared in less than a minute, each male taking his bowl and cup to counter where the boys too young for the heaviest physical training would take them to the barrack kitchens to be cleaned.
Guldan remained nearby, staring at me as though he didn’t recognize me. “General, perhaps you should wait until you’re calmer before you train the sold—”
“My order was for you as well, Commander. Our first order of business today will be a run and muscle conditioning. After that, we will see how their hand-to-hand fighting skills are progressing.”
At the terse response, Guldan drew himself up taller. But I was grateful he didn’t argue. The way I felt at the moment, I likely would have ripped his heart out of his chest if he spoke a single word of disagreement.
“Very well, sir,” he replied.
My commander’s posture was stiff as he stalked out of the dining hall. Unlike the other soldiers, he left his bowl and cup at the table.
Needing something to do, I carried his dishes, as well as my bowl, to the counter. The cup I broke was thrown in the garbage bin.
Once I was calmer, I left the dining hall for the courtyard where the men trained. I still had a great deal of aggression to work out and training with my soldiers sounded like the perfect way to accomplish that.
Hopefully, I wouldn’t kill any of them when we faced off in the ring.
But maiming them a bit was certainly on the schedule.
Three hours later, I dropped Talus on the ground at my feet. His body landed partially on top of one of his squadmates. They both groaned in pain at the impact, but neither did more than shift slightly.
I looked around at the platoon I was training and shook my head.
The training run after breakfast had lasted nearly an hour, and the brutal muscular conditioning exercises I put the males through had lasted almost as long.
Though I was angry with most of my males, I was impressed by how long they managed to keep up with me during the conditioning activities.
Six months ago, they would never have been able to do all we did this morning.
But it didn’t matter. No matter how strong they were now, they needed to be stronger.
So, once the run and strength training were complete, I brought the entire platoon outside for combat training.
To demonstrate the level of skill I intended for them to accomplish, I stepped into the fighting ring with one male daemon without a single weapon.
My opponent was allowed a wooden practice sword, a long staff, or a much shorter stick, while I faced him with nothing but my empty hands.
Guldan hadn’t looked happy about the example I intended to set, but he remained at the back of the group and watched with dark, skeptical eyes as I began the lesson with the first daemon to volunteer.
Within minutes, the male was lying flat on his back, his eyes gazing toward the sky, completely unfocused. He wasn’t dead, but he was definitely hovering on the edge of unconsciousness.
“Who’s next?” I bellowed.
My eyes skimmed the soldiers. They glanced at each other, obviously unsettled.
Talus looked at me but didn’t volunteer.
I understood him well enough to know he intended to step forward once I’d gone through three or four more men.
He was hoping I would grow tired, thinking he would have a better chance of besting me.
But there was a reason none of my soldiers had ever won against me. I spent decades honing my body and building my endurance. Now that I was no longer a soldier, I spent even more time training. Usually away from their prying eyes.
Finally, Ortus, one of the four who had asked to share Leda, came forward with a long staff in his hands.
He fought well, but he didn’t have the speed or strategy he needed to land more than one or two blows.
I left him conscious, but sitting on his ass at the edge of the ring with blood trickling from several cuts to his face.
For the next hour, I fought soldier after soldier. I held myself back from all of them except Talus. With him, I let loose. Even though he waited until I’d gone through six other males, he seemed shocked by the ferocity of my attack.