14. Chapter 13

Jasmine woke early, but she didn't open her eyes. She curled into the warmth of Rocor behind her. His arms closed around her in sleep. He let out a deep breath, and his prick swelled between her butt cheeks.

Her eyes ached from staying awake another night, but she couldn't go back to sleep. What would this day bring? He would wake up hard the way he always did. He would take her again. Then he would leave. She would go to work supervising her team and he would...do something.

He nuzzled into her neck and she leaned back into his arms. Not all the doubts in the world could stop her responding to him. She hated to admit it to herself, but it wasn't all about sex, either.

She rolled over to face him, and she lifted her mouth to kiss him. She breathed his earthy scent into her nostrils. “What are you doing today?”

Her eyes snapped open. “Work, I guess. What about you?”

“Work, too. I'm going to the armory.”

She closed her eyes tight against that. She couldn't get dragged into another argument. She never wanted to hear the word ‘armory’ again as long as she lived.

He didn’t try to kiss her again. He just held her while she kept still. What was the use of trying to get close to him when she couldn’t get close to him? He showed no sign of being interested in her beyond the bedroom.

She sat up and pushed the coverlet away. She pulled on her clothes, but he didn’t move. Maybe he went back to sleep. She wouldn’t waste her time wishing he would call her back, or ask her what was bothering her, or even ask if they could meet later in the day. He wouldn’t do any of that. He would let her go about her business. He wouldn’t give her a second thought until he got ready to take her again.

Her heart weighed a ton. She hated this part of their encounters, the part where she looked his indifference square in the face. She couldn’t avoid it. Why did she even want him to be interested? Why did she want him to care when she didn’t care herself?

Did she care? Why did she get so upset about this if she didn’t care? Was he just a good lay to her? How could he be anything else?

She got completely dressed and headed for the door before he said anything. “Wait, Jasmine. I’ll come with you.”

She didn’t look at him while he got dressed. The sight of his body made her too sad. She couldn’t admire him and desire him at times like these. She hated her own desire for him.

They left the room without a word. She didn’t even bother to check if any of her teammates saw him coming out of her room. Who cared? Who cared about any of it? She wanted this whole sordid mess to be over so she could forget it.

They walked side by side to the hall. They didn’t talk or hold hands. They might as well be strangers. The rest of the team sat at the long table with the Assans. Sophia and Abigail scooted aside to make room for Jasmine. Rocor sat down a few seats away.

Jasmine helped herself to the food, and Sophia spoke up. “Hey, Jas. I was going to ask you if you want to take a hike outside later today. I want to make a map of the whole Keep complex, and you’ve been outside more than any of us. Maybe you can show me around.”

“I’m always happy to go outside,” Jasmine replied. “I can show you where I’ve been, but maybe we should take Freya with us. She can tell you a lot more than I can.”

“I won’t be able to show you around,” Freya put in. “I’m leaving later.”

Jasmine’s head shot up. “You’re leaving! Where are you going?”

Freya swept the table with a fierce gaze and raised her voice for all to hear. “I’ve decided to go see the Ulasso. I’m going to travel to their desert, and I’m leaving later today.”

Rocor whipped around to stare at her. “You can’t do that!”

Freya stood her ground. “Watch me. Jasmine says we should make peace with the Ulasso, and I agree with her.”

Callan surged out of his seat. “You can’t make an overture to the Ulasso without the consent of the whole Clan. They’ll shoot you on sight. They’ll kill you before you get anywhere close to their territory.”

“I doubt that,” Freya replied. “None of us has ventured there in centuries except in war. One individual won’t threaten them enough to cause them to attack. They’ll wait to see what I’m coming for, and when they find out, we’ll all be better off.”

“You are not going to the Ulasso,” Rocor snapped. “I forbid it.”

Freya rounded on him with her mouth contorted in a sneer. “You’re not patriarch—not yet. Not one man here has the authority to forbid me to go.”

“Then we’ll get Father to forbid it,” Callan replied. “He’s not so sick he doesn’t understand the need to protect ourselves.”

“You are protecting yourselves. I’m the only one who’s taking a risk. It’s my life, and I’ll risk it where I please. If I succeed, we won’t need to fight the Ulasso or the Allies. We’ll have all the defenses we need.”

Sophia whispered to Jasmine. “What’s she talking about?”

Jasmine replied in a regular voice. Why should she keep it a secret any longer? “The Ulasso have advanced technology and a huge population. They have the ability to defend this planet from any incursion the Allies care to make.”

“If they make an incursion,” Ron countered.

“Whether they make an incursion or not,” Freya replied, “we’ll be in a much better position with the Ulasso behind us than against us. We don’t have the resources to fight everybody, and we have no reason to fight our own people when we have bigger threats to worry about.”

“How will you get there?” Sophia asked. “Isn’t their desert hundreds of miles away?”

“I’ll fly there,” Freya replied.

Every eye at the table snapped to her face. Everyone stared at her in shock. No one was more surprised than Jasmine. “Fly there!” Abigail burst out in hysterical laughter. “How will you do that? You can’t flap your wings and fly there.”

The girls twittered. The rest of the team suppressed giggles. The Assan brothers gaped at their sister.

Freya threw back her head. She shook her hair back, and her eyes flashed over the company. She took a few rapid steps backward to stand clear of the table. Then she reared back. She threw her arms out at both sides. She arched her head back on her neck. In full view of everybody, she changed into an enormous brilliant green dragon. Freya spread her wings so wide they scraped the walls on either side.

The girls screamed. Abigail started away from the table and upset the bench on which she and the girls sat. The four of them scrambled away as fast as they could. Ron jumped to his feet. He grasped his wife around the shoulders and moved her away to protect her.

Rex snatched a knife off the table and brandished it toward the dragon. Dana’s hands flew up, and she overturned a cup across the platters of food. She cried out once, “What the...?”

As fast as she changed, Freya collapsed in on herself and once again took the form of a woman. She cast her ferocious gaze around the table. The company stared at her with their mouths open. Warku gasped under his breath. “Freya! What are you doing?”

Freya came back to the table. She held her chin high. “The people of this planet are dragons. We can change into dragons and back again at will. They,” she aimed an accusing finger at her brothers. “They decided to keep the fact hidden from you in case they ever needed to fight the Allies.”

The team exchanged glances, all except Jasmine. She couldn’t take her eyes off this tall, proud woman.

Callan chopped the air with his hand. “Do you realize what you’ve done? Are you trying to destroy the rest of us along with yourself?”

Rocor pointed at Gao. “Take her down to the basement. We’ll make sure she never sees the light of day again.”

Gao rose from his seat, but Warku interrupted. “What if she’s right? What if we could make the Ulasso our allies instead of planning an assault against them?”

“Are you insane?” Rocor shot back. “We have to retaliate against her for destroying our last advantage. We have to set an example for others who might betray us to the Allies later.”

“You won’t touch me,” Freya replied. “I’ll tear anybody who comes near me to pieces.” She fixed her eyes on Rocor. “What about you, Rocor? Why don’t you take me down to the basement yourself instead of ordering Gao to do it? No? I thought not. There’s not a man here who dares lay a finger on me.”

The girls wept in their mother’s arms. “What’s happening? Dear God, what’s happening?”

Ron guided his wife and daughters out of the room. “Come on, darlings. We don’t want to be anywhere near this.”

No one else seemed to notice. Dana and Sophia sat glued to their benches. Rex hadn’t lowered his knife, but continued to aim it in Freya’s direction. A silly grin spread across Jasmine’s face. Someone was finally standing up to these idiotic men. Someone was finally paying attention and making decisions to move this Clan forward instead of wallowing in primitive arguments.

Callan interrupted Freya. “You won’t go near the Ulasso. You won’t leave this Keep. You can’t make a decision like this on your own. You’ll never get off the ground.”

“You can’t stop me,” Freya countered. “You can’t stop me taking off, and once I’m in the air, I’ll fly south until I find them.”

“Good for you,” Jasmine exclaimed. “I’m so proud of you. You should be in charge of this Clan.”

Freya broke into a bright grin. “Thank you, Jasmine. I thought you would be pleased.”

“Stuff it!” Callan boomed “You’re not going anywhere.”

“You’ll never be in charge of this Clan,” Rocor added. “I’m in charge as long as Father is sick, and I forbid you to go, Freya. We have all our armaments in place to attack the Ulasso. You’re not betraying us by making peace with them. Do I have to remind you what they’ve done to us all these years?”

“Father is still patriarch, even when he is sick,” Freya replied, “and you will never be in charge. You’ll stay home with the women while I run this Clan. I challenge you, Rocor. I challenge you right now. One of us will leave our blood on this floor to decide who will order whom around from now on.”

Rocor gasped. “You! You challenge me!”

“That’s right.”

Gao murmured under his breath. “You can’t challenge him. You’re a woman.”

“I just did,” Freya shot back. “I can fight any of you, and if I win, you’ll follow my orders instead of the other way around.”

Callan threw up both hands. “This is unheard of! A woman can’t challenge her own brother for succession. You....you can’t!”

Freya drew herself up and faced Rocor. “Well? What are you waiting for? Show me your claws before I rip your throat out.”

Jasmine clapped her hands. “Yay! Go, Freya!”

Rocor rounded on her. “What are you talking about?”

“I hope she defeats you,” Jasmine snapped. “I don’t hope she kills you, but at least someone will take charge around here who has their head screwed on straight. All you can think about is fighting the Ulasso. You’ve got your nose buried in the ground. Put him in his place, Freya.”

Rocor bared his teeth at Jasmine, but before he could answer, Freya spoke again. “If I win, Rocor, you’ll drop all your preparations to attack the Ulasso. You’ll turn all our armaments against the Allies until I tell you differently.”

“This is outrageous!” Callan thundered. “This is unnatural! In all our history, there’s never been a woman in charge of a Clan. How dare you? How dare you?”

“Is that all you can say?” Freya laughed out loud. “If there’s never been a woman in charge of a Clan before, I’ll be the first. Come on, Rocor. Move around the table so you don’t hurt any of these bystanders.”

Dana and Sophia exchanged glances. “Is she really gonna fight him?”

“What are you waiting for, Rocor?” Freya sang out. “You’re not afraid, are you?”

Rocor hung back. “I won’t fight you, Freya. I never fought a woman in my life, and I won’t start now.”

She cackled with glee. “You’re afraid. You’re afraid I’ll injure you so you can’t defend yourself against the rest of these up-and-comers.”

He looked away. All his pomp and bluster drained out of his sturdy frame. “I won’t fight you. You can call me all the bad names you want. Fighting you would tear our Clan apart. You know that as well as I do. You don’t really want to fight me, either.”

“If anybody is tearing this Clan apart, it’s you men.” Freya swept her hand over her brothers. “Your petty bickering and throwing challenges around has left us vulnerable to an imminent threat from the Allies, and it’s stopped you from reaching out to the one potential ally who could help us defend ourselves. We’re making peace with the Ulasso. That’s my last word, and I’ll fight every last one of you if I have to in order to do it.”

Rocor’s chin fell on his chest. “You might be right about that. Fighting amongst ourselves isn’t good for anybody, but you can’t go to the Ulasso. They would take that as a sign of weakness. They would attack us.”

Freya shook her head. “I’m going and that’s final. You can support me, or you can fall under my claws. It’s up to you.”

“At least wait a little while,” Rocor insisted. “At least talk to us until we all decide what to do. Don’t make enemies of your whole family over this.”

“You’re already my enemies,” Freya growled. “You’re enemies of each other and you’re enemies of the rest of Kratak. You’re so stuck in your ways you wouldn’t even follow Rowan Harkniss’s advice to send fliers to warn the other Keeps. You’ve been so wound up in your stupid assault that you blinded yourselves to everything else. If you won’t answer my challenge, then I’m in charge.”

Jasmine looked around at the other three brothers. None of them argued with her. They accepted this. So, it really was true. If no one fought Freya to answer her challenge, that left her proven leader of this Clan.

“As long as I’m in charge,” she told them, “you’ll fall in line. You’ll drop this senseless hostility with the Ulasso. Until I get back, you’ll work with Jasmine and these other officers to prepare to meet the Allies when they come. Is that clear?”

Rocor shook his head and turned away without answering.

“You’ll do it, Rocor,” she called after him. “You’ll do it, or you’ll answer to me.”

Callan spoke up. “Let me send out the fliers now. Let’s not waste any more time.”

Freya nodded, but Rocor interrupted. “We don’t know if Freya will make peace with the Ulasso. They may take this as a sign of hostility. Wait to send out the fliers. At least wait until Freya gets back.”

“All right, Rocor,” Freya replied. “We’ll wait on that. In the meantime, you’ll change your plans. You’ll show Jasmine your armaments, and she’ll advise you what changes to make to counter the Allies in case they do come.”

“Thank you, Freya,” Jasmine exclaimed. “I’ll do my best.”

“I know you will. Now come with me to the launching bay. The sooner I go, the sooner we can know whether the Ulasso will support us.”

Freya turned on her heel and strode out of the hall. Jasmine looked over at Rocor, but he refused to meet her gaze. He shook his head and left.