Page 16 of Taken to Lemora
She looks up at Merquin who pegs me with a glare before softening to a female I don’t even recognize as she looks back at Essmira and says, “If you’re comfortable, I have a room and spare clothes you’re more than welcome to. There’s no time limit on this invitation either. You can stay as long as you like.”
Essmira bites her bottom lip and I feel my heart hammer towards her again in that sickening habit it’s developed. She nods. “Thank you.”
“Good. Then that’s settled.” Merquin looks back at me. “You have your answer.”
“But!” I jerk, whole body rising with anger as she dares to steer my female away. “Merquin, I need to talk to you in private right now.”
“Sure.” She rolls her eyes but follows me back onto the ship regardless.
I shove my finger in her face and seethe as quietly as my rage will allow for, “You have no right to keep me from my mate. She should stay with me!”
“Raingar, I’m trying to help you.” Her eyes are a different color pattern than mine. More blues and purples than browns and pinks. Her lips are fuller and her white horns beam at me with mocking.
“Well, you aren’t!”
“I am. You’re not using that thick appendage you call a head. Can you not see the obvious? Maybe you can’t. Maybe I didn’t either.” She huffs out a laugh and her eyes get all twinkly and distant. I hate it!
“When I first met Librida, I knew she was my mate instantly because of these.” She taps her right horn with two fingers. “But guess what? Librida doesn’t have horns. She looked at me, saw me and saw straight through me. It was a difficult moment, but I wasn’t going to give up on her. I couldn’t. So, I had to woo her.”
Woo her.Woo her?
My jaw drops and I stare at this female, aghast. Horrified. “You can’t possibly expect me to wwwww…wwwww….” I can’t get the word out. “I CAN’T WOO THIS FEMALE! Why should I have to? I paid for her!” Merquin’s stare is incriminating. My heart beats like a gong. Pain in my horns pulses and surges. “I…I didn’t mean…”
Merquin cuts me off before I dig my grave any deeper. She snaps, “You’re right. Youdidn’t. What did I tell you before? You can’t buy your own mate and you definitelydon’thave that to hold over her or me or anyone. You didn’t pay for her.Idid. Reyna did. Tana did. Bebette did. And so did all of our clans. And we paid rotations’ worth of work for her.”
She takes a step forward, her breasts shoving up against my chest as she stares straight at me, gaze nearly eye level. “You are the only male clan chief for a reason. It’s because of how you care.”
“Pagh! I do not. Despicable. I hate everything…”
“If it had been Librida we’d discovered with Igmora and Tyto, what would you have done?”
“Librida! I’d have wrung their bloody necks! I’d have…” I quiet, cheeks smoldering with rage that the lovely Librida would have anything to do with those horrible old croons — but also at the realization that Merquin’s right. She’s always right. My shoulders hunch and slump and I sag half a foot shorter than I was before. “I’d have bought her for you.”
“I know.” She places her hand on my shoulder and squeezes. “And that is why I think your clan made the right choice. But don’t let them come to regret their choice. She may be your mate, but you can’t own her and right now, you’re thinking only about yourself. Have you given one single thought to what she’s been through? What she needs? You thinkyou’rethe kind of mate a female with this level of lifelong emotional trauma needs right now?
“Nob,” she answers before I can try. “You aren’t. So you’re going to have to wait, be patient and put in the work to get to know her. Because while you’re meeting her, remember, she’s also meeting herself for the first time, too.”
I flounder for an answer as Merquin turns from me and heads back out into the cold, moss-scented air. It’s wind blows across my bare chest, making the blood crusted across my skin feel tighter than it did. I scratch at it uncomfortably and green flakes off of my chest, like war paint. It is war paint. And in this moment, I’d fight that war again if it meant I could just skip all the parts where I’m supposed to attempt to attract her.
I’m a rock and she’s more beautiful than a star. How do you attract the sun?
“You know she’s not all that meek,” I grumble, catching up to Merquin halfway down the ramp. “She hit me with a statue of one of those ugly princes. I think I still have a piece of his foot stuck in my forehead.” At least I hope it was a foot, though it was odd since the statue had three legs.
Merquin smiles but doesn’t answer me. Instead, we’ve reached the group and she steps between Bebette and Reyna to Essmira’s side. “Are you ready, Essmira? We’ll take pad pads to my home. The stables are right over there.”
She nods but Reyna pipes up. “Wait! I didn’t get my hug earlier.” She jumps forward and swoops Essmira up in a hug that looks on the border to being painful. Not to mention the fact that she’s bare-chested. What if Essmira likes the feel of Reyna’s rocky breasts pushing against her much softer ones?
Frowning, I grunt, “Don’t suffocate her, Reyna.”
But Essmira is smiling when Reyna sets her down on her feet. “You’ll be alright here. And if you need anything — even just a break from boring old Merquin — you can come hang out with me anytime.”
“Me, too!” Bebette pipes.
“And me, of course,” Tana says, “I have the best keep, after all. We have an axe throwing competition every eighth lunar. You should come!”
“She isnotthrowing axes at one of your bawdy parties,” I groan.
Merquin gives me a penetrating look then that I can’t make any sense of. Her hand pinches on Essmira’s shoulder, pulling Essmira’s attention away from my face. It’s both a blessing and a torment. “I think she’d be great at it, if she’d like to try. You were the one who said she had quite the arm on her. Apparently, she threw a statue at Raingar’s head.”
