Page 120 of Warrior's Reign
How many girls had she left behind on Earth who would spend their lives toiling in some factory, eventually assigned husbands whether they liked the man or not, then prodded to produce the requisite three children to renew the workforce?
Reign closed her eyes. Maybe that was the crux of it. She’d escaped, and it hadn’t been through her own hard work. It had been because of her mother. It had been luck. Why the hell did she deserve all the luck?
And at home, even some of the Yadeshi had questioned her privilege. Trained by anAdekhan, accepted into elite Yna Ipaluk even the planet’s natives had to beg, barter, and steal to enroll. Because she was Benyon’s daughter.
“Damn,” she said softly. And she’d thought Vykhan had issues.
“Is that the sound of personal growth?” Lohail asked. “I do hope so, for all this melodrama is becoming tedious. If you haven’t managed to seduce him by now, it’s only because you were wallowing in your own issues and not trying hard enough. It’s easy to accuse him of rejection, isn’t it? So you don’t have to face rejecting yourself.”
“I don’t like you very much. And all this bar side psychology is kind of heavy-handed. Just beat me over the head with a moral of the story, why don’t you.”
“Oh, we know you like me very much, my dear,” he purred. “Unfortunately I am now prohibited from proving my point.”
She rolled her eyes. “Because you told Vykhan you wouldn’t touch me again?”
“Because Vykhan hunted me down after you left and made me take an Oath.”
Her eyes bugged out. “That bastard. He didn’t!”
“Oh, yes he did, girl,” the bartender murmured.
Lohail snorted. “The incomparable Kelva here has known Vykhan as long as I. Tell me, what happens when a male touches a female our dear warrior priest has marked as his?”
“He didn’t always kill them. Sometimes they just disappeared.”
“That’s really the same thing. One can presume their deaths.”
Reign was shocked. “Vykhan? Are we talking about Vykhan? He would never murder someone.”
“It’s not murder on Anthhori.” Lohail straightened. “I have some work to do. My wealth doesn’t generate through the force of my wishful thinking. Ihavetried.”
“Wait,” Reign said when he began to walk away. “How long will he be mad at me?”
“For what?”
“Are you stupid? For, you know.”
“Oh.” Lohail flicked his fingers. “He was never angry at you. He knows me too well, and loves me still.” Lohail smiled at her, a sweet predatory curve of the lips that chilled. “It could be good between the three of us, if you ever talk him into it, my dear.”
This time she let him go.
“Good thing Lord Vykhan got an Oath out of Lord Lohail,” Kelva said. “Or else I don’t think you’d be leaving Anthhori. Ever.”
43
Reign walked the corridors,gathering her courage. She was a big girl. She could face a male she’d deliberately pissed off by making out with his ex. . .whose ex seemed to want them to be in a threeway relationship of some sort.
She entered her suite and after changing her dress, stood. “Vykhan.” He’d already proven he had some sort of alert set up to comm him if she spoke his name.
:Reign.:
“Can we talk?”
:I am not in a pleasant mood, Reign.:
“Where are you, damn you?”
:In my quarters.: He gave her directions. Reign left her suite and navigated to his wing.
