Page 5

Vahn was pacing about the room when she entered. He turned as she closed the door behind her. For a moment they stared at each other.

He looked tired, Kara thought. He shouldn’t be dealing with all this right now. He should be sleeping. Healing.

He’d changed out of his wedding clothes as well. He wore a casual shirt which couldn’t hide the slight slump of his shoulders or the way one serpetrus drooped lower than the other.

And because she knew him so well, she was able to read his mood from the precise angle of his chin, the tightness of his jaw.

Wariness. Mistrust. And a hint of doubt.

Well, better than murderous rage. She broke the silence.

“How are you feeling?”

“Confused.”

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry this happened to you.”

“Keep your sympathy.”

He looked at her coldly. “Let us get this over with. If I am to believe this correctly, you and I met whilst we were marooned on an empty planet.”

“Yes. That’s right. A planet called Minerva-6.”

She matched his clipped tone.

“We were forced to work together to pool resources. When your army found you, it was too late for me to hide. So you pretended I was your prisoner and brought me to Vraxos.”

“Where I promptly decided to initiate a peace deal with Earth by binding you in marriage.”

His lip curled cynically. “How convenient.”

“It wasn’t that simple. I had to enter the shaa’baara trials with other prospective mates.”

“Which you won.”

He tilted his head to one side. “Hard to believe.”

She ignored the deliberate insult.

“It was all part of the plan to get Vraxians to accept humans as allies. And it worked. Though some of your people are still opposed, the majority are in favour of peace.”

“So I am told. Rhyn has given me a very comprehensive rundown of the past few weeks.”

“I know it sounds incredible but it’s all true. You know it’s true, because you’ve seen the documents.”

She inhaled slowly. “But what Rhyn didn’t tell you – what the documents don’t show – is the way you and I feel about each other.”

His uninjured serpetrus twitched irritably.

“Please do enlighten me.”

“You didn’t want to marry me just to cement the peace deal. You wanted to marry me because we were in love.”

He gave a bark of laughter.

“A Vraxian in love with a human?”

“It was against all the odds, I know. But we fell in love while we were stranded together. You saved my life countless times. You hunted down and killed a beast that was attacking me. You gave me the last of your water. You even took care of my period pain.”

“Your…?”

“Please try to remember, Vahn.”

Kara took a step towards him and his face hardened.

“None of this makes sense. What you’re saying is abhorrent. A Vraxian wanting to mate with a human... it is unnatural.”

“Yes. We had the same argument on Minerva-6. But in the end, our feelings were stronger. Our love overcame all the barriers.”

“Wait. Are you saying…?”

His eyes widened. “We have already lain together?”

“Um…”

Shit. Hadn’t he twigged that? By the scandalized expression on his face, it seemed not.

“We have already mated? Physically?”

She swallowed.

“Yes.”

His gaze raked over her in disbelief. He had engaged in vastra with this tiny human? It wasn’t possible. She was too small, too fragile.

“How many times?”

he demanded.

“Well, uh, it’s hard to say.”

“Once? Twice?”

A slow blush worked its way over her cheeks.

“Many times.”

“Where?”

“Does it matter?”

“I want to know where this abnormal coupling took place,”

he snarled. She raised her chin.

“Anywhere we wanted. On Minerva-6. On Vraxos.”

“While you were competing in shaa’baara? While I was negotiating the peace deal?”

“Yes. Don’t you remember any of it? The way we… the way we were together?”

He tried to imagine it. Mating with a human. With her. He was disturbed to find the idea didn’t disgust him as it should.

He shook his head in frustration.

“You say we were in love. Prove it. Tell me something I would only tell my kalehsha.”

She tried to think.

“When we were on Minerva-6, you told me your favorite food was vinetya with sharlik grains and madanisk sauce.”

“That hardly proves anything.”

“You said you advised your father to carry on the conflict after your brother Zorin was killed, and that you regretted it.”

He shifted uncomfortably.

“That is personal, to be sure. But it doesn’t mean you’re my one true mate.”

“You swore we were destined to be together until the galaxies crumbled and the stars faded. You said we were fated, that Vannla had willed it.”

Vahn stilled. I spoke to her of Vannla? Of fate and destiny? He turned away so she wouldn’t see his face.

“None of this proves anything.”

“Well, what will?”

she snapped. “You’ve seen the proof, our wedding was broadcast all over Vraxos. Your best friends have told you everything and you know they wouldn’t lie. So what will it take to convince you?”

“Maybe this is all a bad dream. Maybe I’m hallucinating. Or maybe I’ve been captured by the enemy and this is all an elaborate torture designed to…”

“Oh for the love of God, do you hear yourself?”

Kara was exasperated. “I know it’s a lot to take in but seriously, get a grip snake-boy.”

Snake-boy. Vahn stiffened, unsure why the slur had jolted him. It sounded… familiar. And her presumptuous tone suggested she thought she could insult him with impunity.

Slow rage began to course through his veins. He turned back to her, eyes glinting dangerously.

“Watch your tongue, human,”

he growled. “You would do well to remember you are far from home.”

“Yes. Because you asked me to be.”

She stalked towards him, her own anger growing to match his. “I’ve gone through hell to make sure we can be together and get the peace deal off the ground. And I’m not about to let it all slip away because your drek’aa memory has gone to shit. So you’d better figure out a way of getting with the program, snake-boy.”

She was taunting him. Without stopping to think, he whipped out his uninjured serpetrus and wrapped it round her waist, yanking her off her feet.

“You will speak to me with respect,”

he snarled. “I am the Zhaal.”

“And I’m your wife, you zamash drek’aa zarnad.”

She unleashed a torrent of obscenities, most of them in the Vraxian tongue. Someone had taught her the best swear-words, he noted drily. And wondered if it had been him.

“Enough,”

he barked, giving her a little shake to emphasize his command. “You asked what it would take to believe you. There is one way.”

“And what’s that?”

“I will taste you.”

Her jaw dropped. Did he mean…? She shook her head.

“Uh-uh. No way, snake-boy. I’m definitely not in the mood for that.”

“For what?”

He was puzzled for a moment, before realizing she thought he was suggesting something far more intimate than he had intended. His lip curled. “What’s wrong? As you keep insisting, you are my wife. And according to you, we have lain together many times.”

“That’s different. You knew who I was.”

“And that’s precisely what I’m trying to remember.”

His mouth curved into a wicked grin. “Perhaps reacquainting myself with your feresh will be the push that I need.”

“You’re not reacquainting yourself with anything, you jerk.”

Kara struggled fruitlessly. “Put me down.”

He yanked her closer, the movement making her hair cloud around her face. In that moment an image popped into his mind as clear as day.

Kara leaning over him, arms braced on either side of his head, hair falling like a curtain around them both. Except her long locks weren’t black, as they were now, but a deep, burnished purple.

He blinked and it was gone.

“Let us be clear, human. Whether you are my wife or my prisoner, you will submit to me.”

“Go to hell.”

She kicked out and caught him on the thigh. Irritated, he wrapped his injured serpetrus around her legs, pinning them together. The pain made him wince.

“Vannla’s Sword, calm down. I merely want to sample your scent.”

“My…?”

“I will smell you. Then I will know if you are my kalehsha.”

He took hold of her hand and raised a brow. “If it’s not too much trouble?”

Ah. So he doesn’t want to taste my… Embarrassed, Kara nodded.

Vahn brought her wrist to his nose. He inhaled deeply, allowing her scent to wash over him. It filled his lungs, as fresh and warm as a forest breeze.

Her fragrance was familiar, he thought reluctantly. Familiar and… yes, intoxicating. He closed his eyes and inhaled again, savoring her unique aroma. It made him hungry for something he didn’t know he craved.

Inadvertently his lips brushed her skin and her pulse jumped erratically. Unable to help himself, he touched the very tip of his tongue to the delicate flesh of her forearm, letting the taste of her permeate his senses. The scales rose on the back of his neck.

Holy Zandarr. What’s happening to me?

He moved his mouth along her arm until he was nuzzling the crook of her elbow. Kara suppressed a shiver. Even though she would never have described this particular part of her anatomy as an erogenous zone, the slow exploration was sending delicious chills through her entire body.

It’s those damn Vraxian pheromones, she thought incoherently. He doesn’t even know he’s doing it. One touch and she was ready to tear his clothes off.

He continued upwards. His breath feathered lightly across her skin and heat coiled low in her stomach. She bit her lip, hiding her reaction as his lips reached the curve of her shoulder and lingered there.

Vahn breathed her in and was forced to acknowledge the irrefutable truth. In some incredible way, whether his conscious mind remembered it or not, this human was his.

With an effort he wrenched himself away. Kara blinked up at him, trying to pull herself together. He looked as dazed as she felt.

“Well?”

Her voice was husky.

“I need time to think.”

“But do you believe me? Will you sign the peace deal?”

“Kara, please. Leave me now. I’ll make a decision tomorrow.”

It was no use arguing. She left the room wordlessly, only realizing later that he’d finally used her name for the first time since he’d woken up.