Page 8

Tori

" A re you two mated now?" Thro wakes me up with a question I don't understand even a little bit.

I groan and try to shift around in my bed, but I'm stopped when I realize I'm trapped between a cool, scaled body and the back of the couch. The couch? I crack my eyes open and look around as best I can, and yep, we're on the couch. Why are we on the couch when my bed was free?

"Go away. You will wake her," Marron grumbles from above me, his arms tightening around me. His chin nuzzles softly against my head.

I try to take stock of how we're laid out, especially since we're on the couch.

I know I'm wearing my clothes, which is good.

I'd hate to be naked and out in the open, wrapped up in Marron.

The way we're lying has it so one of Marron's thighs is splitting my legs, and as I start to feel how close he is, he shifts around, pressing his thigh between my legs in a way that has me biting my lip so I don't moan.

His body freezes as he realizes what he's done, and I hope I'm not soaked through.

I'm pressed up against him, and I have been all night.

I mean, if I turn my head just right, I'll be huffing his pheromones, so there's a good chance I've been horny since we went to bed.

I know I woke up horny and with a headache.

There's a chance Marron will move his leg, but he must think better of it because he's relaxing against me again. His breath manages to even out again, and he's fast asleep.

"Did you mate my brother?" Thro pops up from the back of the couch.

I let out a small shriek of surprise that has Marron snapping awake and pulling me underneath his body.

His eyes turn red, and he hisses a long, dangerous sound at Thro, who shrieks like I did and runs out of the living room, through the front door without closing it.

Marron stares at the front door for a few long seconds before his gaze turns down to me, the red gone and replaced with the deep black I'm used to seeing.

Seeing him upset isn't something I'm used to.

He's more himself when he looks down at me.

The same careless smile pulls at his lips that he's always wearing when I catch him looking at me, and his hand moves from beside my head to caress my cheek.

He shifts his body so he's not crouched over me but pressing down against me in the best possible way if we were anywhere except for the living room I share with other people.

"We did not mate last night," he tells me, as though I thought he would ever do that.

"I remember last night," I tell him, raising my hands to cup his face.

"All of it?" He tilts his head to the side, asking a question I don't completely understand, before darting his eyes away. "The crying?" He offers me a sympathetic smile as I let my head fall back with a disgruntled sigh.

"Yes, the crying, the talking, the touching." I wiggle my brows at him, and I'm pleasantly surprised when I feel his cock twitch against me.

"No talking of touching," he grunts through clenched teeth.

"Best not to touch at all," Beren says as he walks out of his bedroom, looking like he slept great. "We have much to do. Get off my ward, and let us get started."

"Nia said resting today," I counter, reaching around Marron's neck to keep him down with me even as he tries to scurry off.

I wouldn't be surprised if he's scared of Beren.

Beren enjoys knowing he can frighten him, but he has yet to tell Marron that he frequently uses his kind face and happy voice when speaking with him.

They can be difficult to notice unless you get to know him, and the mixed signals he gives Marron on looking like he wants to kill him sometimes don't help.

"Nia is not here to counter the change of plans, so we are working," Beren says, his gaze soft as he looks at both of us. The crinkling in the corners of his eyes is the only sign of his glee in this.

Marron tries to leave me on the couch again, but I use all my strength to keep him with me. He could still get up if he really wanted to, but he's not about to force me to do anything.

"What work?" I ask, peeking over Marron's shoulder so I can glare at Beren. When he's silent for a second too long, I frown at him and return to lying underneath Marron. "He is lying to you."

"For what purpose?" Marron asks.

The gears in his head are working to make sense of what I'm saying. He can't imagine Beren being capable of being a teasing male, so it must be something else.

"Because he will tell his male mate later, and they will laugh about it."

"This is very true," Lyath says as he walks out of the same bedroom Beren just left. "And as much as I enjoy listening, I would like to get food from the great hall. Nia is not feeling well, and we should feed her."

"Yes, yes," Beren says, linking his fingers with Lyath's. "Fine, we will leave, but no mating will be done in my home. No more touching, either. You have pressed my generosity by pushing off the mating ceremony. If you wish to be together as lovers, you need to do it properly."

I frown again at Beren and how his eyes stay fixated on me. He's only speaking to me. Beren's made it clear that everything I want hinges on me going through the mating ceremony.

I just need a little more time to get to know Marron. A little longer to make sure I can talk to him enough to make him understand me in all situations. I don't want to be tied down to someone who can't speak to me or who won't be able to understand me.

"I understand," Marron answers Beren like he's the one being warned. Beren makes a huffing sound that tells us how he feels about the whole situation before leaving the house with Lyath by his side.

"Make sure they do not mate," Beren says. I assume he's talking to Thro, who is still on the porch outside.

"But I would very much like them to mate," Thro says. "Once she is my blood, my brother will be the happiest male, making me just as happy. So if you are saying they are going to mate if I do not go inside, then I most certainly will never go in again."

Marron groans and rolls off me. This time, I let him, knowing he needs to put a damper on Thro's excitement.

There's no reason to get his hopes up when nothing's happening yet.

Marron looks down at me, his eyes falling down my body before snapping back to my face.

He's worried about leaving me, but I can't offer him anything more than I could when we talked yesterday.

"Go," I tell him, offering a small smile so he won't worry too much about me. "I will talk with Nia's mate. Get him to let you in the house more, so I can get to know you."

Marron tilts his head to the side, his lips moving side to side against his teeth like he's thinking about the perfect thing to say. He leans down and cups my cheek.

"I know you, Tori."

Before I have a chance to respond to that or the fact that it's Marron straight up saying he wants to mate me now, he's out the door and talking with his brother in hushed tones. I groan and remind myself that I want to be a little more fluent before we mate. Just a little bit more.

Maybe I can convince Beren to let us go on a few dates without threatening Marron's well-being. He allowed us to be together last night, and it only took convincing from all of the other human women mated to his friends. I just need to convince him that this is for the best.

I'll mate Marron as soon as we can make the communication issues work. I don't want to be a burden on someone, and I want to be able to share all of myself with someone. I want that to be Marron. I just need more time.

"Did you know they have like six women in each room here?" Jen says before stuffing another piece of grilled olack into her mouth. "I had to share a bed with a stranger. I mean, she was eight, but still, a whole stranger passed out in bed with me, and it's normal."

"We sleep in bed together every night," I remind her as I move the food around my plate.

I don't feel super hungover, but my stomach feels slightly rotted, and food is just not something I'm in the mood for.

I've already chugged a few cups of water because dehydration is real.

Especially on this planet, where if we're not drinking water constantly, we're sweating it all away.

"That's different. You're not a stranger."

"I might prefer a stranger. You kick me sometimes."

"And you snore."

"I do not," I gasp.

The offense I'm taking is entirely irrational, but I just woke up in Marron's arms this morning, and now I might have just learned that I snore. No, I'm not even thinking about it. Worst case scenario, I snore, but it's a cute snore like a cute sleeping animal.

"You do, but if you need me to lie to you, fine, you don't." Jen rolls her eyes and looks around the dining room.

The great hall is where all the human women live while waiting to join the mating ceremony or find their own homes.

A handful of girls are too young to join the mating ceremony, and they all stay here, too.

For the younger ones without mothers, a woman watches most of them, and I've heard a female from one of the other tribes is coming to help teach them all how to read in the language, since our translators don't work that way.

For the most part, the great hall is a good home.

It's mostly human women with a scattering of mated males who have come to visit with Ralleth or one of the other males in charge of different aspects of the tribe's running.

If anyone were to see the great hall to determine how many women are here, they'd think we were taking over this whole planet.

I finally manage to put something in my mouth, and it doesn't make my stomach turn. Jen's busy finishing her food and watching everyone around the great hall.

We've been coming up here more often since my ability to speak to others has improved.

We don't make it a daily habit, but at least a couple of times a week, we come up here and hang out.

Some of the women will talk with us, but most of the time, it's women from the original ones sent to the planet.

They feel more like family because they come out to the farm and hang out with Nia, Beren, and Lyath.

Jen drops her fork and stares at someone behind me. I pop another piece of meat in my mouth and watch her brows tug together, and her lips tilt down in a frown. I mimic her as I turn around to see who or what she's staring at.

"He looks serious," I say as I watch Ralleth look around the dining room tables with Olivia at his side. Their bodies are rigid, and their faces are stoic. They're searching for someone.

"What do you think is wrong?" Jen asks right as Ralleth's eyes land on us and stay there.

The queasiness in my stomach amplifies, and I wonder for a second if I'm finally going to throw up. I turn back around, thinking that if I don't look at them, maybe I'll have made it up in my mind that they were looking over here like they need to talk to us.

"They're walking this way," Jen whispers, picking up her fork and using it to move food around on her plate. She looks up through her lashes, tracking Ralleth and Olivia as they weave through the dining tables. "Oh yeah, shit, what did we do?"

"I don't know," I shrug, my stomach threatening to heave as the words leave my mouth.

Jen doesn't believe me for a second, but at this point, it's too late for her to ask because Ralleth is pulling out a chair for his mate to sit beside me and standing next to it with his hand on the back.

"Good morning," I try to sound cheery as I say the words, but I can feel how red my cheeks are, how much I'm clenching my fists to keep myself from throwing up, and the sweat now sliding down my back.

"No small talk," Jen says, setting her fork down, crossing her arms in front of her, and leaning toward the table. Her eyes are narrowed, and her lips are set in a firm line. "What do you think we did, and are you planning on kicking us out?"

"What?" Ralleth's startled voice is enough to make me look up and see his shock.

He's looking at his mate like this isn't how this talk is supposed to go.

"We do not kick females out. You are always welcome here.

I think your wardens would cause much trouble if they even thought we were thinking of it. Oh no, most definitely not."

Olivia reaches up and places a hand on Ralleth's to ease some of his worry. She keeps her eyes on us as she begins to speak. "It's come to our attention that Tori has been spotted alone with a male."

My face burns brighter, and my hand that was clenching itself into a fist relaxes for all of two seconds so I can use it to grab the chair's armrest. I lean over, and all of the contents of my stomach come right back up.

I don't know if it's because I know what's coming or because my body is finally revolting from the alcohol.

Either way, I'm almost positive I'm about to be told I have to go through a mating ceremony.