Page 10 of The VaDorok’s Unexpected Mate (The Mate Index: Dorok #1)

Katie cautiously entered the main living space and took her seat as Kull crouched by the fire, preparing their food.

After several minutes, Ren entered the room and hesitated as he stared at where she was seated for a long moment before sullenly dropping onto one of the cushions across from her.

He would have to get used to it—this was the shared living space after all.

She wasn’t about to go hide in the bedroom day in and day out when not summoned to eat.

Not only did she refuse to be treated like an unwelcome guest who should be shamefully staying hidden away, but that wouldn’t do any good when it came to what Kull asked of her.

The main room would be the best place to accomplish that.

Although the den had deep walk-in storage areas for food and supplies, it seemed that the living room was not only where the family socialized but also cooked and did much of everything else.

Not only was all the cooking done there over open-flame, and the dining done at a large table just opposite it, but the large room also contained two other tables on opposite sides of the room that were obviously work areas.

Each table held trays filled with knives and tools of various sizes and other supplies, while large baskets full of leather sat neatly beside them.

There were even other baskets on shelves that contained various other goods used which just reinforced that literally everything was done there.

It should have felt claustrophobic to her when it was so different from how her own apartment had been arranged, or the home that she’d grown up in where there was a designated separate room for practically everything.

But after months of living either in a cell where she was shuffled back and forth between a tiny cell and various little rooms of horrors within the Agraak Lab, having one large open room filled with normal household things rather than being stark and sterile, and where she wouldn’t be isolated, was comforting.

Especially after the weeks she’d spent being imprisoned in the recovery room that she was never allowed to leave.

It was probably natural then that she found the open style of VaDorok living to be surprisingly homey.

Just so long as the aliens didn’t get too comfortable around her.

Katie eyed the males as Kull set the platters of food on the table and lowered himself onto the cushion directly opposite from her.

He quietly studied her, but she pretended to ignore it as she plucked a piece of meat from the platter directly in front of her and blew on it to cool it.

Naturally, she had intentionally selected the lone pile of cushions so as to establish some defined space between herself and them as they shared what Kull referred to as the “morning meal.” Unfortunately, she was starting to regret it now that she felt incredibly outnumbered by the males staring back at her as they picked at the food on the plates between them.

“So,” she said, drawing out the word as she shredded and nibbled on a piece of meat, “what’s the plan?”

Kull blinked at her, his mouth downturn with puzzlement.

“Plan? It is exactly as I explained to you previously. I spend much of my time out hunting. You will remain here and keep yourself occupied however you like. I will make sure that you are comfortably fed and provided for as I promised, and you will fulfill your end of our arrangement.”

Ren made a disgusted face, conveying exactly what he thought of that idea, and Katie just barely refrained from rolling her eyes.

It was like that, was it? What was he...

twelve? Granted, Kull intentionally was allowing the male to mistake their arrangement to suit his purpose, but Ren’s reaction was a bit more juvenile than she’d expected.

It was no wonder that Kull added that bit of fine print to their arrangement.

The last thing any society needed was another emotionally stunted, immature male who was incapable of getting along with women.

“Ah, right,” she murmured, and her eyes dropped to the bowl of food sitting on the table. Joy of joys. She was going to be bored out of her skull with nothing but Ren for company. “I don’t suppose you have streaming services?”

Kull’s brow furrowed, and she sighed. Of course not.

From what she’d seen so far, she was living like the freaking Flintstones.

As if dealing with an alien teenager wasn’t enough, she hadn’t realized that things would be quite so rough—especially not after being transported by a spaceship from the lab.

Not that it would have changed her mind any, but it was going to be a bit of an adjustment.

She would just have to think of it as... camping.

Fuck. When was the last time she went camping?

Did she even enjoy camping? A memory briefly surfaced of a tick that her uncle had pulled off her leg with a pair of tweezers, and she shuddered.

Thank fuck it was largely an ice planet.

Sure, there was the horrific cold, but there were also no bugs crawling out of hell, and plenty of water that was easy to access.

“I’m guessing that I will have to melt snow over the fire if I want to bathe, though,” she murmured to herself.

Something like amusement shifted in his eyes. “Only if you wish to do things the difficult way. There are some who are fortunate enough to have dwellings connected to thermal springs, but for the rest of us, we have solar-powered generators that heat water drawn from deep ground wells.”

Wait... what? She blinked, caught off guard. “You have electricity?” she blurted out as she looked pointedly at the roaring fire in the hearth with confusion.

Ren sneered. “We do not waste unnecessarily. Keeping the den heated at all times would waste more energy than the generator would be able to collect. Be grateful that there are interior lights.”

“There are?” she asked as she scrutinized the soft glow of what she assumed was flickering firelight illuminating the walls.

Her eyebrows flew up with the realization that, beyond the firelight, there were entire sections of the wall steadily illuminated as if from some sort of concealed sconce.

The effect was pretty neat. She wanted to get a closer look but was immediately distracted by Kull’s sigh.

She wasn’t entirely sure if it was directed more at her for her obvious cluelessness or at his brother, but it was certainly very loud within the room.

“While technically correct, choose your words more respectfully, Ren,” he admonished the younger male before directly his attention fully on her.

“Most technology brought to Dorok does not work exceptionally well here, though the chief’s den is in a location where he can get a limited short-range connection for the communication system that A’Jular brought him so that his arrivals were not catching the tribe off guard all the time.

But as Ren pointed out, we are conservative with what we use, and how we use it.

The lighting systems specifically are built into the walls to provide extra illumination without being a significant drain on the generator.

It is viewed as improvement in our overall quality of lives.

There are those who have traded for other small bits of technology, but I do not care much for such things when I have everything that I need. ”

“I see,” Katie mumbled. So, it was a small upgrade from the Flintstones—barely.

That, at least, made her a bit more optimistic about remaining on a planet like Dorok.

The fact that there were options out there just added to how attractive it already was for its isolation from the rest of the universe.

It wasn’t exactly a prime tourist destination.

Even the Agraak—though utilizing it for that reason—seemed to loathe the planet and didn’t venture outside of their lab if they could help it.

As far as discouraging visitors went, it had that in its favor.

So, Earth had streaming services and take-out restaurants. It also had the Buto and any other aliens that ended up being welcomed there. She would take her chances with a Flintstones-Plus lifestyle.

“The bath was the one real luxury that I asked for,” Kull added after a brief span of silence. “I can show you how to operate it before I leave.”

Katie nodded as she selected what seemed to be some kind of large nut and nibbled on it.

It would definitely be nice to be clean again.

Despite the sterility of the lab, she had always found the Agraak bathing products unpleasant to use.

Because of that, she had used them minimally and never really felt quite clean.

After an escape and then traveling for days with Kull, she was more than ready for a proper bath.

She was actually pretty disgusted that she’d slept in Kull’s bed without bathing first.

“I would appreciate that,” she replied, to which Kull grunted with a nod of his head before lowering his gaze once more to his food.

They ate in silence, with Ren giving her occasional furtive looks of disgust as if her presence alone annoyed him.

In response, she took considerable pleasure in pinging the remainder of the nut off one of his horn-spikes when he wasn’t looking.

Despite being such a small piece, he jerked back and nearly came to his feet, his head whipping as he searched for whatever his him.

Katie studiously ate her food, feigning innocence.

“What is it?” Kull rumbled, and from beneath her lashes she watched him as his head turned to peer over at his younger brother.

Ren shook his head and lowered himself back onto his cushion again. “Nothing. I thought I felt something hit me,” he muttered.