Page 36 of Taken to Voraxia
And Bo’Raku, one of my own, knew of it.
Caused it.
Bo’Raku…
He would have known of the younglings discarded. He would have seen with his own eyes the lessening population of human females. He would have known of the agreement with the Council and would have not only been complicit in it, he would have had to uphold it.
And he would have had to slake his lust on unwilling females.If I had come but a rotation later, my Miari might have been among them.The thought causes supernovas to flare in my mind.
Bo’Raku’s claims of innocense were untruths, told directly to his Raku when I first questioned him, when I first put him to trial.And even after evertyhing, he has no fear of me. But he will. He will.
I turn to my holo screen and quickly draw up communication with Bo’Raku. I send him an order to meet with me later this span. I want this taken care of before the ceremony. I want him burned and buried.
Fury makes my hands shake, so I flex them and quickly set our course for the High Galley of Illyria, near the river valley of our home, rather than the longer tour I’d planned to take her on.
She glances at me when the glider changes course, but she does not question it. I wonder if it is that she does not care or if she trusts that I will keep her safe no matter where we go. Somehow I doubt it is the latter. She has no trust for me other than in my ability to uphold a pact. Xok — have I been denser than a block of werro root this whole time? Every pact she has made has not been for herself, but for another.
My chest fills with a ranxcera-laced breath. I am honored, and humbled by my Rakukanna. “You are not a leader among your people,” I say, voice soft.
She makes the unattractive sound with her nose. Her arms tighten across her chest and I am distracted for a moment by the way the fabric folds around her mounds. I want to cup them with my hands and taste them with mylips. Nox…I cannot, because like her females joining in the Hunt, she is unwilling.
“Me? A hybrid? An orphan who killed her own mother? The one responsible for holding our entire colony hostage byyou? No. I’m not a leader. No one would listen to me even if I wanted to be.”
I ignore her insults, even if they do make my claws curl. “You are not a leader, yet you still watch over your people as a leader does. Is this the care of which you speak?”
She seems to consider for a moment, then nods tentatively. “I care about my people as a whole, yes. But there are some I care about more than others. There are some I don’t care about at all.”
I do not wholly understand, but I think I am beginning to. “And so it pleases you to bestow your kindness onto your people.”
“Yes. But I do it mostly for Svera and Kiki. I’d do anything for them.”
Anything. The thought troubles me and I sense her tense. She looks at me sharply and I wonder if we do not share the same thought in the same moment. I feel mired in the fog of emotions foreign to me. Shame. Fear. Regret.
“So this is why you make pacts with me. Because of your care for these humans. A care that is not unlike the affection a Raku or a xub’Raku has for those on his planet, or in his constellation.”
“Yes. I guess you could say that.”
“And it pleases you to be in the physical presence of your people, or your…friends,” I say the word in the human tongue, wondering if I am pronouncing it correctly.
“Hexa.” She cocks one of her brows and delicately curls a tuft of hair behind her ear.
“And it is for this reason and no other that you wish to journey to Qath.”
“Yes.” She nods. “That’s right.”
I exhale, relieved. “You have no need to venture to dangerous territories to see your friends. If you wish to see them, then it is at your request. I can be sure that if they are your friends, and that I have understood the definition of this friend correctly then they are of no danger to you. And if it brings you pleasure, then it is not to be denied.”
I understand now the widening of her eyes and the slight parting of her lips. It is the same as the turquoise ridges I struggle to restrain around her. I feel the pleasure expression claim my face. Her surprise becomes even more daring and I almost, quite nearly, make the pleasure sound myself. It has been spans since I have made such a sound…rotations.
“You’ll let me see my friends?”
“Let you? You are Rakukanna. Your interest in seeing your clansmen will cause you no harm, and does not threaten our bond. There would be no reason for me to intervene here. It is your decision should you like to see them.”
She balks. “It’s my…I can make…decisions? All I have to do is ask?”
“You are no slave.” I mean the statement as a pleasure statement, but the word tastes of acid against my tongue. My gaze slits. “You think yourself aslave?”
She rolls her shoulders back as she turns to face me fully. All the while, she does not break my gaze. “My whole life, I’ve grown up knowing that the aliens that come for us during the Hunt are there to hurt us and that there’s nothing we can do about it. I tried to do something, but I’m still here. I can’t do anything you don’t allow. I can’t go anywhere without your permission.”
