Chapter 3
Back in the hall, Reyna found Whitney, Tanner, and Ben standing together on one side of the room. The Krataks sat around a long table across the room. They broke meat off the roasted carcass of some animal, but they didn’t seem to be talking to each other.
Reyna joined them, but she didn’t look at Whitney. “Where are Rose and Moira?”
“I have no idea,” Tanner replied. “I hope they come soon. You could get lost in this Keep and never get found.”
“I’m sure they’re fine. They probably went off exploring.”
“Have you had a chance to look around?”
“I just walked to the end of our passage and back after Rohn showed us to our rooms. There’s another entrance at the end of it, facing east into the mountains. As far as the eye can see, there’s no other sign of human habitation.”
“There must be other chambers in this Keep. There aren’t enough people in this Clan to fill the place up. Where do they keep the kitchen and their library, I’d like to know.”
“I don’t feel right, sticking my nose into every nook and cranny without an invitation.”
“It doesn’t seem like you’re going to get one. We might have to get more assertive, even at the risk of offending our hosts.”
“Has anyone invited us to join the meal?”
“No one’s said a thing. They seem particularly hostile toward males.”
“Males of our people, you mean,” Whitney added. “They’re perfectly agreeable to their own kind.”
“You can’t blame them for that. Maybe they think we’re trying to supplant their male authority with a female one.”
Just then, Rohn strode into the room with a load of the team’s gear slung across his shoulders. He flung it all in a heap in the corner of the room and sat down at the table. A few minutes later, Rose stumbled in after him. She carried a duffel bag in one hand and backpack hitched over her other shoulder. She added the bags to the pile and wiped her forehead with her hand. “Phew! That’s done. You guys can start taking notes.”
“I already have,” Tanner replied. “This place is incredible. It looks like something out of the distant past.”
She turned to Whitney. “What do you make of their skin patterns?”
“I never saw anything like it. It must be some kind of tattooing.” He fixed his eyes on Reyna while he spoke.
Her eyes wandered over to the table. Damen sat with his back to her. What was he thinking right now? Was he thinking about her? Had he forgotten all about her? She couldn’t see his skin to know one way or the other. Maybe he was just being chivalrous when he interfered with her conversation with Whitney. Maybe he was just being polite when he answered her questions about the medallion.
He filled her whole awareness. Nothing mattered to her but him. Rose kept talking to the men, but Reyna didn’t pay attention to any of it until Rose said, “Well, I’m hungry. I’m going to sit down and eat.”
Rose made her way to the table and found a place to sit down. Reyna followed, but she didn’t see any space on the long bench. She walked all the way around the table. She was just starting to despair when Damen moved over and made a space for her between himself and Rohn.
She stared at the space for a moment. Should she sit down right next to him? What if people got the wrong idea? Whitney already had the wrong idea about her and Damen. She didn’t want to give him anything more to complain about to Rose.
No one else made a place for her to sit down, so what did he or anyone else have to complain about? She sat down and helped herself to the meat. It fell apart between her teeth, and the juice ran down her throat. It did something to her very cells. She could almost believe the processed food she ate back home weakened her. Only now, with this crude, roasted meat, was she tasting real food for the first time.
She should stop eating it right away, but she couldn’t stop her hand moving to her mouth again and again. That meat satisfied a hidden hunger in her soul she never knew she had. She never would believe she was anything but a strong, capable woman, but this meat brought her back from the edge of starvation.
Voices touched her ears. What were they saying? When she deciphered their conversation, she heard her sister Rose talking to Rohn and Rowan about the Allies. The Krataks thought the Allies were militaristic and hostile. They wouldn’t listen to a word Rose said to the contrary.
Oh, well. The team had plenty of time to convince them otherwise. Damen didn’t seem particularly concerned about it, either. The team would accomplish their objective by convincing the Krataks of the benefits of joining the Allies.
Something touched her leg under the table. Reyna went rigid on her seat. She looked straight in front of her, right into Whitney’s soft brown eyes. He said something to Rohn about the animal on the table, but Reyna didn’t hear it.
Someone’s hand landed on her knee under the table. It gave her a squeeze. Then it rubbed up and down her thigh. Who could it be? It couldn’t be Rohn. He had both elbows on the table and was engaged in a discussion with Rose. Damen sat on her other side with one hand on the table, the hand on the opposite side as Reyna. The hand nearest her was under the table. It couldn’t be anyone but him.
He ran his hand up her thigh and back down to her knee. Then he squirreled his fingers down between her legs. His fingers traced the inner seam of her pants, all the way up to where it met the other seam in her crotch. He tickled her soft lips through the heavy canvas until her pussy fluttered in helpless commotion.
Reyna sat perfectly still. Her hand hovered in mid-air, somewhere between her plate and her mouth. The meat sat on her tongue, half chewed. She stared at Whitney, but she didn’t see him. What did he see? Did he see Damen’s arm moving under the table? Did he see his shoulder muscles rippling with movement? Did he see the blood rushing to her cheeks?
Never, in all the years they kept each other company, in the dozens of times they traveled together on distant space missions, had Whitney brought the blood to her cheeks like this. He wouldn’t understand what he saw if he did notice her reaction. He never brought the steaming juices flowing between her lips when he touched her. He never flooded her mind with images of heinous acts of carnal barbarity.
The pictures she imagined when Damen’s fingers scratched the surface of her crotch would get her a Disturbed psychological evaluation from the Allied Command. She could never admit to anyone what she really wanted him to do. She couldn’t be capable of such perversity. Could she?
He made her want to humiliate herself, to be degraded and abused by a man. As a matter of fact, she didn’t want to be degraded and humiliated by any man, but only by him. She wanted him to dominate her, to touch her in a way that pleased him without asking her permission first.
Among her people, a man never touched a woman without getting her permission first. Men respected women and admired their strength. She didn’t want Damen to respect or admire her. She wanted him to take her, to bend her to his will.
She had to keep still at all costs. She couldn’t rock her pelvis against those fingers. She couldn’t close her eyes and get lost in erotic hypnotism. She couldn’t let Whitney see what was happening to her right in front of his eyes.
As suddenly as he began, Damen took his hand back and resumed his meal like nothing ever happened. In that moment, he destroyed the Reyna Cooper that landed on this planet. He replaced it with this depraved desire screaming for release.
At a distance, Reyna heard Rohn agree to be examined for Rose’s medical report, and they left the table. A few minutes later, Damen got up and left, too. Reyna restrained herself with a great effort not to gaze after him or ask him where he was going. She stared straight at Whitney until Haya’s voice broke in on her thoughts. “Would you like me to show you around the Keep?”
Reyna’s head whipped around. No one remained at the table but Haya, Whitney, and her. “Would you do that? I’ve been dying to explore, and I know the others want to get to know their way around, too.”
Haya shook her head. “Not the others. Just you and me.”
Reyna’s eyes popped open. “Why not the others? Why just me?”
Haya stood up. “Do you want to come or not?”
Reyna hastened to her feet. Whitney sat where he was and listened. Haya showed no sign of being aware of his existence.
Haya walked away with Reyna hurrying after her. They headed down the passage toward the men’s quarters. “I know about this passage. This is where my friends are staying, isn’t it?”
“You might not know everything.” Haya came to the end of the passage. It ended in a bright doorway overlooking the other side of the mountain. The eastern landscape stretched into the distance. The mountain dropped away in a sheer cliff. A stone parapet separated the entrance from the chasm far below.
“My friend Tanner told me about this. I guess this is as far as he got a chance to explore.”
Haya turned her eyes up into the sun. “This is a nice spot. I like to come out here and go exploring the woods. This is the perfect launching place.”
“Launching place?”
Haya smiled. All her reserve melted away. She lifted her arms to the sun and closed her eyes. “Isn’t the clear air glorious? It makes me want to fly far away, over the mountains, and see the distant lands beyond.”
Reyna studied her. She would never have recognized this woman as the same person who turned her back and walked away from Reyna just a short time before. “Is there some reason you wanted to show me around the Keep?”
Haya opened her big eyes. “Come on. I want to show you something.”
She led the way, all the way back to the great hall and around a corner. She moved aside a tapestry to a hidden door set into the wall. Behind the door, a staircase wound down into the mountain’s black heart.
Down, down, down, they climbed. Only the occasional shaft let in a glimmer of light. Most of the time, Reyna followed Haya in darkness with only the tap of her footsteps to guide her.
At last, Reyna became aware of a change in those tapping sounds. The noise didn’t echo back to her ear the way it did on the stairs. They entered a cavern under the mountain. Only one tiny shaft in the roof let enough light to show the massive stone walls standing back in the darkness.
Haya kept walking, all the way to the far end of the cavern, before she stopped and turned around. Her expression changed again. The glorious smile of the open air vanished, and the reserved tension from the passage outside Reyna’s bedroom was nowhere to be seen.
Reyna’s blood ran cold. There was nothing to be seen in this cavern. Why had Haya brought her all the way down here? Did these savage Krataks harbor some evil scheme to destroy the research team?
Before Reyna could move, Haya stepped up close to her face and hissed in her ear. “You have to listen to me. You’re the only one I can trust.”
“What is it? Are you in danger?”
Haya shook her head. “Just listen to me. You’re the only one I can talk to. You asked about Clan Assan. I have to tell you something about them.”
Reyna fought for breath. Was this the secret Haya kept so closely guarded? “What about Clan Assan?”
“You asked if I got along with Callan’s family.”
“Do you? Is that what you brought me down here to say? Did they do something to you?”
“You don’t understand. At the gatherings, the men vie for mates from the available women. Sometimes fights break out, and even wars start that way.”
“What are you trying to tell me?”
“You wanted to know what kind of people Clan Assan are. They’re nothing like Clan Harkniss.”
Reyna swallowed. “Is the other team in danger? Is there a way to warn them?”
Haya’s eyes darted around the cavern in wild desperation. She flung herself back against the black stone wall. “Oh, if only I could make you understand. They’re a terrible people, hard and brutal. The men are beyond powerful. They take no prisoners and show no mercy.”
Her words sparked Reyna’s worst fears. She rushed up to Haya and laid a hand on her arm. “You’re married to one of them, Haya. Are you in danger? Is Callan cruel to you? Our people suspected something like this about the Krataks. We have ways to help you, but that could mean leaving your family. You already said you didn’t want to leave.”
Haya moaned under her breath. “You don’t understand. When my family took me to the gathering, Callan decided right away he wanted to marry me. He challenged the whole family to stop him. He took me off by himself so no one could get near me.”
“Is that different from the way other men do it?”
“Not at all. It’s very common. He was dominant. You know what I mean. He had me every way you can imagine, and he wouldn’t let me out of his sight. Every time I started to fall asleep, he would roll over and take me again. He told me which way to point my body so he could get at me better.”
Reyna squirmed. “Maybe you shouldn’t be telling me this.”
Haya didn’t hear her. “That was nothing the other men don’t do. Our men take what they want, and they always want to please the woman. I was in a swoon most of the time. He pleasured me more than any other man I’ve been with. I couldn’t resist him. My body belonged to him. I was his to command, but after five days with him, he started to relax. He went hunting with his cousins and left me alone in the Keep—at least, I thought I was alone. His brother Warku came up to Callan’s room and started talking to me. He was timid compared to Callan. He spent a long time coming around to moving close to me. Then he kissed me and took me by the hand.”
Reyna stopped trying to interrupt. Haya needed to talk about this. For some reason, she brought Reyna to this secret location to reveal something she didn’t want anyone else to hear.
“Warku took me to his room at the very top of the Keep. I looked out the window and saw the mountains stretching far away. He came up behind me and put his arms around me. I tried to explain Callan already claimed me for his own, but he already knew that. He was in the hall and heard Callan as plain as day. He paid no attention. He started kissing my neck and touching me. The next thing I knew, he threw me on the bed and started taking my clothes off.”
“Did he hurt you?”
“Oh, no. He started by pleasuring me, and after so many days with Callan, my body responded to him. He brought me to one climax after another, and then he changed right in front of my eyes. He turned into the same dominating man Callan was. He took me as his own, so I was utterly under his power. He was on top of me and spent his power on me. Then he turned me over and got me up on my hands and knees. He was just starting again when the door flew open and Callan walked in. His hands and clothes were still bloody from the hunt. He glared at me and at his brother.”
Reyna held her breath. “What did he do?”
“He slammed the door, and the two of them owned me for another ten days. We never left that room. They shared me and I belonged to them both equally, as to one man. I couldn’t choose between them.
“Oh, Haya! Is there anything I can do?”
“At the end of ten days, the old people started getting ready to leave. Word reached the brothers that my parents called me to go home. That’s when the trouble began. They both wanted to keep me and marry me. Callan said he claimed me first. Warku said he had as much right to marry me, as he shared me with his brother as an equal.”
“Didn’t the patriarchs intervene?”
“They tried to, but it was no use. The brothers fought in the main hall, in front of the whole assembly of both our Clans.”
“Don’t tell me Callan killed his own brother to win you.”
“He didn’t kill him, but he defeated him and left him alive.”
“Is that why he’s here, living with your Clan? Did his parents want to get him out of the Keep, so Warku wouldn’t have to see his brother married to the woman he wanted for himself?”
“No, no. My parents and Callan’s parents decided we should live here to help build up the Clan. Rowan’s brothers were killed in the war, so they never established families here. That’s why we have so few people living in this Keep. If Callan and Warku agreed, all three of us could have stayed in Assan Keep and I would be a wife to both of them.”
“A wife to two men? How is that possible?”
“It happens sometimes, when both men want the same woman, and they agree to share her for life, but Callan and Warku didn’t want that. They both insisted on having me to themselves, so they fought and Callan won.”
Reyna sighed. “So, what do you want me to do?”
“You have to help me. You have to help me get in touch with Warku.”
“Why do you want to get in touch with him? You’re married to Callan. I’m sure if he found out, he would be upset.”
“Upset isn’t the word for it. He would be murderous. He already told me he would kill Warku if he ever saw us together.”
“What happens when you go to the gatherings? You see Warku there. He can’t stop his own brother coming to the gathering.”
Haya shook her head. “Warku doesn’t come. He stays away in the mountains.”
“That’s not right. He should be free to come around his family.”
“He won’t be free until he marries someone else. If he came around while he was still unattached, Callan would think he was after me again.”
“This is terrible.”
“You have no idea what agony I’ve been living in for the last seventeen years. I gave my heart to two men, and I haven’t seen one of them in all that time. I should get in touch with him. I have to see him again.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“You can contact your friends at Assan Keep. You can tell him to come here.”
“Tell Warku....to come here? That doesn’t sound like a good idea. If Callan found out, there could be trouble. Not only would it restart the feud between the brothers, but it would sour relations between Kratak and the Allies. We’re already treading a tightrope here. I couldn’t interfere in an internal matter within your family.”
Haya clutched her hand so tight Reyna winced. “You have to help me! You’re the only person who knows the truth. I can’t live like this anymore. I’ll go insane if I don’t see Warku even one more time.”
“I’m sorry. I can’t help you. I would if I could. Maybe you should talk to Callan about it. Maybe after twenty years his feelings have changed. Maybe he’s ready to make peace with his brother.”
“He hates his brother more now than ever. He mentions it all the time. He still says if I even think about Warku, he’ll track him down and kill him.”
“This is bad. This is how wars get started.”
“If you won’t help me, I’ll travel to Assan Keep myself to find Warku.”
“That would not be wise. For all you know, Warku has a wife from some other Clan. You could be spoiling his happiness.”
“Warku will never marry. He gave his heart to me.”
“"What will you do when you find him? You can’t live with him, or you’ll start pining for Callan.”
Haya stared at her. “I never thought of that.”
“You love Callan, don’t you?”
“Of course, I do. I love him as much as Warku.”
“Maybe you should be satisfied with that. Maybe that’s the best you can hope for under the circumstances.”
Haya covered her mouth with her hand and turned away.
“We better go back up. The others will wonder where I am.”
Haya glanced over her shoulder. “You won’t tell anyone, will you?”
“Doesn’t your whole family already know? Weren’t your parents and your brothers there at the gathering when it happened?”
“They know, but no one knows how I’ve dreamed of being with Warku all these years.”
“I won’t tell anyone. Callan will never find out.”
“It’s not Callan I’m worried about. Callan already knows I dream of Warku. He says so all the time.”
“Then what are you worried about?”
“If my brothers thought I was unhappy, they would try to find a way to make me happy. My brother Rahni would try to find Warku and bring him to me.”
“Rahni? Who’s that?”
Haya waved her question away. “He always wants to make me happy. He would bring Warku here, no matter the consequences.”
“But isn’t that what you want me to do? You want me to contact my friends at Assan Keep so they can reunite you with Warku. What’s the difference?”
“You have ways of doing it that would keep it a secret from Callan. I don’t want to start another battle between the two men I love most in the world.”
“If you don’t want to start a battle, then give up this notion of seeing Warku again. You can’t, and I won’t get pulled into keeping secrets for you from your own husband. He won’t make peace with his brother. That’s his choice, and you made yours.”
“It’s not my choice to live with one and not the other. I chose both of them. They chose to fight.”
“Exactly. Warku must have known, when he fought with Callan, that he ran the risk of losing you forever. He took that risk, and he lost. This is the result. Now come on. I have no way to contact Assan Keep even if I wanted to. We have no technology, so it would be just as difficult for me to contact my friends as it would be for you to contact Warku yourself.”
She couldn’t wait around arguing anymore. Without waiting for Haya to lead her, Reyna made her way back up the stairs to the main hall. Somewhere in the passage, Haya’s footsteps veered off, and Reyna went on to her own room.