Chapter Eight

Drak left his suite in a state he was completely unaccustomed to—too disordered to think straight. A large part of it—most of it—was due to his state of high arousal and the psychotic break his system had had with his mind when he broke off his pursuit of completion rather than finishing what he had started. His system was still screaming for release and threatening to explode. His brain was wrestling with his desires and trying to figure out why it had seemed like the best course to stop when everything inside of him was screaming don’t stop.

Had she indicated that she was willing to fight to the death to prevent culmination?

He certainly did not recall that she had.

In point of fact—now that he thought about it really hard—it seemed to him that she had been completely open to the possibility.

Not eager of course, but then that was not to be expected—unless it was eagerness to cut one’s throat!

She had not struggled, though, and she had not been dead or unconscious.

That generally constituted ‘willing’ in the minds of any of his clansmen.

Inwardly, he shrugged. He was in the habit of considering that a conquest himself, if it came to that. Women who presented only a token protest or struggle were ready and willing to be bred. They fought long enough to convince themselves the man would be a strong breeder and then they pretended to be paralyzed when he bestowed the mating kiss, he was convinced, to make certain the man did not get the idea that they were actually wanted.

Which meant they were willing to allow a man to mount them as many times as it took to reach that goal.

Was it confusion because he knew she was not one of ‘the people’?

He did not think he could convince himself that it was reluctance or revulsion because she was not his kind. The nearly constant state of arousal that he had experienced since he had captured her gave that the lie.

He cooled as he strode automatically toward the great hall once more and, as he did, his brain began to function somewhat more rationally.

Kadin’s arrival with the clothing he had asked for—or at least the knock on the door panel—had recalled him to enough awareness to remember there was a need far more important than assuaging his lust.

The woman could be the key to superiority for his clan.

He was halfway down the stairs before he recalled that that was why he could not allow his lust to overrule his good sense. By the time he had stomped across the great hall to the great entrance, bellowing that they were going a-hunting for meat for their celebration feast, he had managed to regain most of his facilities and recall how he had arrived at that conclusion.

His beautiful little captive was not of his world, Aiper, or the god, Aiper’s, sister world, K’naiper. She came from the stars with her people—which meant that her people had knowledge that had been lost to his long ago.

He could not afford to risk alienating her only to assuage his lust on her. He needed to try to establish a friendship with her that might be parlayed into an alliance between his people and hers.

The little that remained to them of the ‘old times’ was rotting before their eyes no matter how hard they worked to preserve it. And most of it, truth to tell, had been useless—as far as they knew—even when it was found or captured.

She might be able to restore some of their treasures and if not, then possibly some of her people might.

They would not have the same things, he knew—but similar, maybe, and maybe similar enough they could figure out what purpose his mysterious treasures had been meant to serve.

For that to happen, however, they had to be willing to help.

He would have to convince them that an alliance with him would be an advantage to them.

* * * *

Noelle wondered what the hell was going on. She’d braced herself for rape, given herself a pep talk about how to behave as a victim to survive her ordeal and then—nothing.

She’d braced herself several times when it seemed he was about to do what he’d captured her to do.

And then—nothing!

He’d kissed her stupid and then just left! Or quit—in the middle of something that had actually begun to seem not so terrible after all!

Maybe he just wasn’t attracted to her?

Maybe she was just too different from the women he was accustomed to and that was a turnoff he couldn’t overcome? Either physically or because she wasn’t a warrior woman and that was glaringly obvious?

Reviewing the event log from her PMAI was no frigging help at all!

Basically, it just made everything seem way worse than she’d realized at the time—because she recalled she’d been feeling all sorts of things as the events unfolded and, reviewed without any sort of emotion, it looked like she’d just gone limp and he’d dropped her.

Maybe that was it? She didn’t have enough … spunk? Maybe he was so used to the women struggling that her going limp was like reeling in a … dead fish? Maybe he lost his hard-on the minute she turned to mush?

Or maybe they were physically different where it counted and he knew it and he hadn’t figured out what, if anything, could be done about it?

She didn’t know, but she did know he was driving her crazy!

She’d gotten over scared.

Well, most of it.

Maybe it would be more accurate to say she’d gotten over terrified? She wasn’t absolutely, blithering idiot terrified after having been around him through the capture and several days of captivity?

Because there was no indication that she needed to worry about anything painful.

Because even though the warrior women had acted as if they were terrified and panicked when the barbarians had come after them, and they had maintained distain and a lack of cooperation since capture, they didn’t behave as if they knew the torture would start any minute.

Truth to tell, she was starting to get bored.

Given her situation, she supposed she needed her head examined. She was a captive and she still didn’t really have a clue of what was to become of her, or what the plan was.

She was pretty sure, though, that this is how the women were reproducing! So much for the idea that they were asexual!

They should have known that it was highly unlikely that any higher life form would evolve in such a way as to spontaneously reproduce!

Of course, she’d begun to suspect when she and Monica had been taken to the river to bathe that they’d been mistaken about all of the villagers being female anyway. She’d forgotten that observation in light of the frightening events directly afterward, but she remembered then that she’d thought maybe the natives simply dressed androgynously, that there actually were male and female natives.

That must make things … unpleasant for the raiders when they captured a male instead of the female they were hoping for!

Or maybe that didn’t matter to either of them?

There was still more that she didn’t understand than there was that she did comprehend about these people of the sister worlds.

* * * *

Drak may have been known far and wide for his acute sense of fairness, but he was not famous for his patience. He steered clear of Noelle for days after the near total breakdown of his self-control.

It was nothing short of amazing that desire could make the most unreasonable things seem perfectly reasonable, he thought with a mixture of wry amusement and irritation.

Not that expending himself on her would have been the least bit unreasonable under typical circumstances. They went to outrageous lengths to have a woman to warm their beds and expend themselves on during the frigid winter months.

But he found it highly annoying that he could be ruled by his desires instead of in control of them.

Generally, he was in control!

Was he getting old, he wondered in self-disgust? Or was there just something about Noelle that weakened him?

“Women,” he muttered, drawing Kulle’s attention despite the fact that the noise level in the great hall was nearly deafening with the revelry of the men. He shook his head at the questioning look the older man sent him and abruptly pushed himself to his feet. He had spent three days in the damned uncomfortable great hall with his men to give Noelle time to calm down after his last near disastrous loss of control. That should be enough! And he was damned tired of trying to sleep on a hard pallet by the hearth instead of his bed.

Maybe he was getting old?

And soft?

His men would not have agreed with that assessment. In point of fact, although Drak did not notice it, the moment he got abruptly to his feet it so unnerved the men close enough to notice that they fell immediately silent. By the time he reached the stairs there was not a man—or woman—that had not noticed his thunderous expression or his abrupt departure and the hall was considerably quieter than it had been. Most of them had the sense to pick up their conversations again as soon as they were certain they weren’t the target of his wrath, but some of them had been too unnerved to recall what they’d been saying and there was no getting around the fact that a good bit of the revelry had soured.

What he needed to do, Drak decided when he reached the top of the stairs, was to steer clear of the bed and see what information he could pump from her by engaging her in conversation.

It was rather unfortunate that the word ‘pump’ leapt into his mind, because it completely diverted him from his original purpose.

* * * *

Noelle was startled when Prince Drak entered the room.

Mostly this was because she hadn’t seen him in a few days—not since the night he’d teased her with the possibility of ravishment and then left her feeling as if she’d missed something she regretted missing. But also because she felt guilty because she’d spent most of those days plundering his room to see what she could find of interest.

She’d done her best to cover her tracks and was hopeful he wouldn’t be able to discern her intrusion, but she wasn’t as certain of that as she would’ve liked to have been.

The young boys that had been seeing to her needs had damned near caught her twice—until she’d gotten used to the times they arrived with food and or more fuel for the fire they’d, thankfully, kept burning since her arrival so that the room had finally reached a point of being a tolerable temperature.

Actually, as embarrassed as she was to admit it even to herself, the leap in her pulse wasn’t entirely from either surprise or guilt. Hopefulness had also played a part.

Because she’d spent a good deal of time reliving those moments when he’d kissed her and raised her core temperature with desire and she was no longer convinced that being the Prince’s sex slave was completely repulsive to every feeling.

Instead of instantly whisking her to the bed to finish what he’d started, however, the Prince settled in one of the large chairs near the hearth and studied her thoughtfully for some moments.

“My son has seen that your needs have been attended?” he asked after a few moments.

The question both startled and disconcerted Noelle. “Yes,” she responded cautiously, wondering which of the two boys was his son. Well, she supposed he must be referring to the elder of the two. The younger boy didn’t seem old enough to be given such a task despite the fact that he’d helped the elder very adequately.

She had, in point of fact, been working for days on making overtures of friendship toward the two boys in hopes of a little company and entertainment if she couldn’t pry any useful information out of them. The younger of the two seemed willing enough, but the elder—apparently the Prince’s heir—was clearly suspicious of her motives. And not only wouldn’t let his guard down, he also prevented any attempts on the younger child’s part to talk to her.

It occurred to her to wonder at the Prince’s motive for bringing it up, to wonder if he was trying to establish a rapport purely for the sake of entertaining himself or if he was leading up to something by pointing out that she had been treated well.

Drak scanned the woman assessingly. “Kadin’s clothing seems to fit you quite well. I will see that the tailor uses those measurements.”

Meaning she would be there and in need of clothing for a while?

That possibility at least eased some of her anxiety since he surely wouldn’t be planning to do anything horrible—like kill her or torture her—if he was going to have clothing made for her.

On the other hand, that also seemed to indicate he planned to hold her quite a while.

“Kadin?” she asked, instead of posing the questions she really wanted to ask.

His dark brows rose. “My son.”

“Oh.” She glanced around uncomfortably and finally headed toward the stool on the opposite side of the hearth since it seemed to her that the time had come for the interrogation she’d been dreading and she thought she might be too wobbly-kneed to stand throughout.

She wasn’t going anywhere near the bed!

Not that she was convinced she would find it appalling if he did decide to have sex with her, but she also wasn’t sure it wouldn’t be an ordeal and she saw no sense in doing something that might provoke him.

He propped an arm on the arm of the chair, bending that arm to support his chin on his fist. “You are not of Aiper’s sister world, K’naiper, and you are certainly not from this world. Where is it that you come from?”

Noelle stared at him owl eyed, trying to think if she’d worked up a believable lie to cover that particular question, but if she had, it abandoned her the moment he asked.

“I suppose I should say, where are your people?”

Noelle blinked at him. Not for a moment did she believe he wanted to know so he could return her. She wasn’t sure why he did want to know, but it was certainly not for that reason.

More importantly, would it endanger the people of the colony if she told him?

She was pretty sure it would.

On the other hand, the colony was blatantly obvious if he should go looking—not hidden—and just as clearly alien so what would be the point in trying to lie and would it gain her valuable points in his favor if she simply went ahead and gave him information that he could easily obtain himself?

“We have established a colony on K’naiper,” she responded after a prolonged moment.

Amusement flickered in his eyes and she was certain that was because of her garbled pronunciation of the name.

He looked away, studying the flames on the hearth. “So your people have decided to make a place for themselves there. You are warring with the villagers at Tealdim?”

It was news to her that the place had a name, but she supposed he knew it since he was obviously referring to the village where she’d been held captive. And he seemed to know she’d been a captive rather than a welcome visitor. “It would be more accurate to say they were warring with us. We sent a delegation to make a treaty, but ….” She broke off and shrugged. “That’s when me and Monica were captured.”

He frowned, as if trying to recall the incident. “The darkling that was with you?”

Indignation fluttered in Noelle’s chest. “My friend with the dark skin,” she responded tightly.

He looked at her in surprise and then with a mixture of amusement and anger. “You are offended by my choice of words and yet you use much the same description. Why is darkling offensive and dark skinned not?”

Uneasiness slithered through Noelle. He was way too big—and powerful—for her to simply dismiss the possibility of pissing him off. “You called her a name. I described her,” she said a little weakly, it having occurred to her that she didn’t have a clue of whether he’d intended the comment as an insult or not.

He looked genuinely puzzled. “We all have names—for ourselves as individuals, for our tribe or clan …?”

Noelle felt her face redden. She didn’t want to try to explain prejudice even if it wasn’t something complicated enough she didn’t feel competent enough to explain it. Instead, she searched her mind for something to change the subject. “K’naiper means sister to Aiper?”

The amusement was unmistakable this time, but he sobered at once. “Yes. More accurately, I suppose, she is the wandering sister. Long, long ago, in the distant memory of the people, she came. She brought much sorrow with her, much death and destruction. But then the god, Aiper, set her in her place and bade her to behave herself or he would cast her from the family once more and she would wander forever. She promised to behave and so Aiper made a place for her, taking this colder path for himself so that little sister could stay warm.”

Noelle stared at him as she absorbed the story of the twin worlds, trying to decide if it was a story he and his people still believed in or if it was just how his people, in their distant, primitive past had explained what must have been a cataclysm to end all natural disasters! It sounded as if he was saying the sister world was a rogue that had wandered into their system and taken up a place, shoving their world further from the sun and making it far less habitable, maybe, than it had been.

But was that true? Or was it just made up to explain things much as primitive humans had tried to come up with stories to explain things that happened around them?

And how had it come about that some of their people were here and others on the other world? Specifically, it seemed that the sexes had been separated and that didn’t seem likely to be accidental at all.

Of course, she supposed they might have been separated and the women thrived there but not here and the men, maybe, were being systematically killed off in the raids these tribesmen made for females? Maybe that explained why the ‘Amazons’ made themselves up to look androgynous? It was to throw off the raiders?

“Your turn.”

Dragged from her thoughts so abruptly, Noelle stared at the Prince blankly. “My turn?” she echoed.

“To tell me about your people,” he prompted. “You see, I have been trying to decide how you can be most useful to me and I thought you might answer that yourself.”

Uh oh, Noelle thought.