Chapter 8

“She is unhappy here.” It had been nearly two weeks since they had mated, and Katryn seemed to like it there less and less every time she was called to the council chambers to spend time with her family. It worried Tarkesh a great deal. Their mating had been going so well. Katryn accepted them more each day, and they loved the sharing of her and each other. She trusted them—he could feel it in his bones. Everything had turned out as he’d hoped. Better. Katryn completed their union, and he loved her deeply.

“I’d noticed she’s having trouble adjusting.” Nadir lounged across the end of the bed the three of them shared each night.

“Yola rides her too hard.”

“Yola is being very lenient with her compared to others in her matriarchy. Though there is something to be said for being ridden hard.” His hand slid down Tarkesh’s stomach to grasp his cock. His hand slid up and down the shaft.

“I just—” Tarkesh hissed low and groaned at the conflicting sensation. Anger at Yola, desire at Nadir’s touch. “We need to take some action here. I found her crying yesterday.”

“Katryn?” Nadir paused, his hand cupping the sacs at the base of Tarkesh’s dick.

Tarkesh’s fingers caught Nadir’s and worked both their hands up the length of his cock. His hips arched into the hot caress. He gritted his teeth. “No, the other female we’re mated to. Of course, Katryn. I’m telling you she isn’t happy here, and she isn’t going to adjust. She’ll simply learn to be silent in her unhappiness. I have no desire to see her broken.”

“No. That is…an unacceptable option. What else do you have in mind?” Nadir bent to run his tongue around the head of Tarkesh’s cock.

Tarkesh moved down until he could take his mate’s dick into his hand. “I’m not certain.”

“That’s helpful.” Nadir groaned when Tarkesh tightened his grip on the base of his cock, the hard length darkening.

“You find a solution to the problem then.” He lost track of the conversation as Nadir’s skilled mouth and hands worked his flesh over. Just rough enough to push him right up against the edge of orgasm. The hot wetness of his mate’s mouth on him was more than he could take for long. He loved being sucked hard, and Nadir knew it.

“Be silent and put your mouth to better use.”

Tarkesh chuckled, flipping so he could take his mate’s cock into his mouth, and so Nadir could suck him fully between his lips. He hummed on the length of Nadir’s cock, and his mate’s hips arched hard to push his dick deeper into his mouth. He groaned, raising himself to tease the head of Nadir’s cock while his hand pumped the shaft in hard, fast strokes. Nadir groaned on Tarkesh’s cock, and Tarkesh couldn’t hold back a hiss at the vibrating sensation. Goddess, but that was good.

Nadir’s long finger swirled around Tarkesh’s anus, toying with him, taunting him. Tarkesh pushed his hips back, forcing the finger inside his ass. Nadir pushed deep, moving in and out, faster and faster. Tarkesh sucked the black dragon’s dick inside his mouth hard, just as he knew his mate liked it, shoving the head against the roof of his mouth. Nadir bucked beneath him, coming in hot spurts down Tarkesh’s throat. Tarkesh groaned, his own orgasm slamming into him with the subtle force of a Gila beast. He jetted hard into his mate’s mouth, sucking the last of his mate’s cum from his softening cock.

He climbed off his mate to lie on the bed. Nadir rolled onto his back, propping one arm behind his head and crossing his ankles. He ran his free hand down his goatee—his usual pose for thinking. “We could take her away, become renegades from society, and never have to deal with any of it again.”

Tarkesh snorted and sat up to face him. “And we’d also be hunted until they killed us and our fiery little desert blossom. Not to mention the fact that we would need to rob others in order to survive. Tell me that is an option you find acceptable.”

The black dragon waved that away. “Calm yourself, Tark. I was only jesting. I—”

“I am not. I do not like to see her upset.” His hands fisted against his thighs.

“Nor do I.”

Tarkesh heaved a sigh. “Taking her away would be a good option if it didn’t require criminal behavior.”

Nadir sat up. “That’s it.”

“What’s it? I just said it wouldn’t work. That’s no kind of solution to anything.” He shrugged, hopeless anger welling up inside him. There had to be an answer to this that they could all live with, but he’d been rolling it around in his mind for days and had come to nothing.

“No, we take her away. To Vesperi. As the new ambassadors.”

Tarkesh huffed a breath and flopped back in the bed, propping himself on one elbow. “They’ve already chosen a new ambassador.”

“I can get them to change their minds, to decide we are a more suitable option. Besides, Curind has as much intelligence as the rear end of a Gila beast. He is a political appointment because of his matriarchy, nothing more.” He flashed a dark, wicked grin. Tarkesh smiled back. He knew that smile. It was the one Nadir always used before he managed to convince someone to do something that was not in their best interest. He could remember a number of matriarchies in outlying settlements that were left wondering what had happened to them when Nadir set his mind to treating with them.

Would Nadir be happy walking away from a life in which he had found so much success? “Are you certain you are willing to do this? Give up everything you know and go to the tiger world? We could hate it there as much as Katryn hates it here.”

The black dragon lifted an eyebrow at him. “You know my feelings on this, Tarkesh. They have not changed. I will do whatever it takes to keep us together, to protect my mate. That now includes Katryn, but the sentiment remains the same as it always was with you.”

“And you are ruthless about it. Katryn is correct about that.” He grinned.

Nadir’s broad shoulder lifted in a negligent shrug. “Whatever it takes.”

He laughed outright at that. “So you’ve said.”

“The question, my mate, is whether you are willing to make such an enormous change for her.”

Tarkesh plucked at the saltwater silk coverlet for a moment, thinking before he looked up and met Nadir’s gaze. “I want what I have always wanted, to see my loved ones happy and near me. I will also do whatever it takes to make that happen. If Katryn needs to be on Vesperi to be happy, then so be it.”

“You’re certain? Once I make these arrangements, they cannot be unmade.” Nadir lifted a knee and propped his elbow on it.

Tarkesh held his mate’s dark gaze. “I’ve considered this problem for days. I can find no better solution that does not leave us hunted outlaws than the one you’ve suggested. I would never dishonor myself or either of you by choosing the path of a renegade.”

“Nor I. That’s settled then.” Nadir threw his legs over the side of the bed and rose, reaching for his pants. Tarkesh enjoyed the view of his mate’s well-formed ass. He grinned.

“Shall we tell Katryn?”

Nadir glanced back at him. “Where is she?”

He rose as well and shrugged into a robe. “I’m not sure. She was visiting with Adriana before the council meeting, but that is soon to convene. Let us meet her there.”

“Excellent.” Nadir curved his fingers around the back of Tarkesh’s neck and drew him forward for an easy kiss.

 

“I’ll negotiate a new treaty with the weretiger clans.” Curind, the pompous dragon who would leave with Varad and Mahlia in the next few days to take her father’s position as ambassador to Vesperi, spoke in a booming whine that scraped over Katryn’s already frayed nerves. Yola had been her usual obnoxious self all day. That Tarkesh and Nadir had joined Katryn a few moments before had served only as a marginal help. These sessions were torturous. And she would have to put up with them every day for the rest of her life. Goddess above.

Her eyebrows almost lifted to her hairline at what Curind had said. The man was joking, wasn’t he? This was a horrible jest. She looked around to see if anyone was smiling, but no one was. She couldn’t keep her tongue still. “Prides. The weretigers have prides, the werebears have clans. And you cannot negotiate with the prides individually.”

“This is men’s business, my lady. Women control the lands, but men go out to serve as emissaries to other matriarchs and ambassadors to other planets. Don’t concern yourself with this matter.” Curind cut her a dismissive glance.

“I’m afraid I cannot remain silent in this. You cannot negotiate with the prides themselves. All treaties are negotiated with Amir Varad only. To do otherwise will insert weredragons into weretiger politics. This can’t be allowed. They are contentious to a degree you cannot even imagine. The only way to solidify yourself as a power among them is to align with the royal family. Let the Amir deal with the infighting of the prides, and worry about outmaneuvering him to get what Harena needs. Nothing else is acceptable—Varad will cut ties with us before he lets any ambassador upset the balance among the prides. Trust me in this, my lord. I have spent my life on Vesperi.” During her explanation, the room had grown deathly still, and every dragon’s gaze turned to her as if she’d gone mad. She glanced at her mates for support—she was in the right here. Varad was far too intelligent a man, too good a king, to let an ambitious ambassador disrupt the always tenuous political structure of the tigers. But Tarkesh’s face was a blank, frozen mask, and a muscle jumped in Nadir’s strong jaw.

She turned to meet Yola’s gaze. The matriarch’s face was mottled with rage, but Katryn didn’t back down, met her stare for stare. Goddess on fire, she was right about this. They just didn’t know how it was on Vesperi. She needed to make them understand that the course of action this new ambassador wanted to take could damage a trade relationship that had been centuries in the making. Her stomach churned in unease as the thick silence stretched out.

Yola’s voice cut like glass across Katryn’s nerves, and she looked at Katryn while she spoke to the ambassador. “Forgive my niece. She is new to her home world and untrained in the ways of dragons. Her youth is showing the extent of her maturity. She lacks some knowledge about what is important to her own people.”

Righteous indignation rushed through Katryn like a tidal wave, and her eyes narrowed to dangerous slits. How dare anyone think she was being disloyal? She dug dragon’s claws into her temper to hold on and keep from spitting out her words like a challenge. She was an ambassador’s daughter, and she knew how to keep a cool head in any situation. “I do have my people’s interest in mind. If I did not, I would have said nothing and allowed him to go blithely on his way to possibly ruin the alliances we’ve built that benefit our people.”

Yola’s fists clenched on the arms of her chair, and the black of her irises spread to the corners of her eyes. Her breath bellowed in and out. Katryn saw Adriana half rise from her seat to intercede, but Katryn wasn’t certain on whose behalf. This was a matter of pride now. Yola had all but accused Katryn of betraying her own kind when she had spent her life on another planet helping her father make every dragon’s life better and more prosperous. The wound cut too deeply. She couldn’t back down now without losing face, and neither could Yola.

Apologize to her. Do it now, and be sufficiently humble. Nadir’s thought cut across her mind. Shock rippled through her, and every muscle in her body went rigid with it. Do it, Katryn. You challenged a matriarch in public. You must make amends. Now.

No! Everything in her rebelled at the mere thought.

Trust me, Nadir demanded.

Tarkesh’s thought broke in. Nadir had been communicating with both of them. Trust us, my love. We can make this right if you let us. Trust us not to fail you.

Did she? Could she? What they asked was too much, more than she could sacrifice. But did she trust them to do as they promised? Her hands trembled, and she clenched her fingers tightly. The room remained still as death, waiting to see what she would do. What Yola would do to her. Did she trust her mates in this? To save her? Yes, she answered herself and them at the same time.

On your knees.

No, it’s too much. I won’t. Katryn’s gaze met Nadir’s, defiance rolling over her. Every muscle in her body went rigid. Issuing a politically necessary apology was hard but acceptable—to debase herself in public was quite another. Bile rose to choke her, and she swallowed hard.

You already said yes. Will you go back on your word, Katryn? His midnight eyes narrowed to dangerous slits, demanding obedience and rejecting her position in this. Do it!

A sob bubbled up in her throat. No matter what she did, she would lose in this. Her pride, her respect. Agony tore at her. She held his gaze, unflinching. I will never forgive you for this.

Nadir winced, but his eyes were hard and unyielding. Tarkesh was pale, his skin stretched taut over his sharp cheekbones. He wouldn’t meet her gaze.

“I see,” she whispered aloud. “I think I finally see.” Cold realization rolled through her. She would never fit here. Weredragons were more foreign to her than weretigers could ever be, their unbending social structure not allowing Katryn to help in the one area she could be of use. The injustice of it cut her to the core.

Rising, she moved to kneel at Yola’s feet. Disgust ripped at her deep inside that she had to do this, that she would even consider it. She despised everything about this woman who shared her blood. Lifting her hand, Katryn placed it over her heart. Her voice rang clear, and she was proud to note there wasn’t even the slightest waver to it. “Matriarch Yola. My humblest apologies for speaking out of turn. Please understand I wished only to be of use to my fellow weredragons. I meant no offense.”

She saw Adriana twitch out of the corner of her eye and imagined telepathic words flew hot and fast between her cousin and aunt. Finally, after an eternity that made her keenly aware of how hard the marble floor was beneath her knees, Yola nodded her acceptance of the apology. Her dark eyes reformed to solid human irises, and a nasty, triumphant smile curled her lips. “I do know that you want the best for Harena, but you have much to learn before you can truly be a dragon.”

Wrong. She wanted to scream at them all, wanted for the first time in her life to let loose in public. She was a dragon. It was her birthright. Culture didn’t make her a dragon. Her physiology did that for her. She wasn’t a Harenan, perhaps, but no one could take her dragonness away from her. It was fact. She rose from the floor stiffly, nodded to Adriana, the only person on this cursed planet she didn’t wish trampled by an angry Gila beast, and walked to the doors.

She turned back to her mates before she slipped out, a part of her shattering forever. Her heart. Her eyes were dry and gritty—she was too broken to cry. I was right, wasn’t I? It’s always going to be the two of you on one side and me on the other. I am such a fool.