Page 33 of You're Not My King!

Absently, I wiped the slickness coating my hand onto the tree—payment for their allegiance. “My mate pleases me well. He is perfect.”

Ik’lyu snorted, and my hackles rose at the insinuation, but I ignored it. He was not worth it. “Then why are you here and not inside him?”

“None of your concern.”

He shrugged at my deflection, shoving off the tree to stalk forward, hips swaying with exaggerated force. “I would hate to see our Great Leader suffer.”

I rolled my eyes as his lean frame slotted into my space. He was not an unappealing male, despite his cropped mane. His features were proportionate and prettier than many of the other brutes in the clan, but he was clingy and did not know when to back off. Most significantly, he was not Roo-bin. “Do you not have a bedmate to entertain?”

“Pft, Nie’tr is fun, but a fumbling fool.”

He was not incorrect, my cousin was a fool, and though he was of my blood, I would not defend him in that matter. I had no business interfering with affairs of the furs. Or soul, whichever applied. They would figure it out on their own.

In my silence, Ik’lyu arched his neck, striving for allure. “I need a real male to satisfy me?—”

I gripped his wrist as he reached for my cock, squeezing the offending limb hard. “Hands. Off.”

Ik’lyu failed to hide his wince—whether at my tone or the pain, I did not care. He ripped his arm away from me, rubbing at the tender spot, his shit-eating smile faltering. “Does your mate also like it rough?”

“Leave me in peace, Ik’lyu,” I spat, low on patience. “You know we are no more.”

He pouted. “So you say, but I do not see why. We fit.”

“I am mated, and I would never do him that dishonor.” No matter the number of bedmates, my heart had always reserved itself for my soul-companion, and now that I had him, all others before proved no match. “You and I were never coupled. Our dalliances were for mutual pleasure alone.”

“Do not pretend,” he scoffed, disbelieving. “I was more to you than that. Besides, he is an Earthling, and a defective one, at that. He is not our kind.”

A thundering cloud of red burst behind my eyes.

I towered above my clanmate, blood boiling in my veins, tail whipping in agitation. “He is everything. You will respect that or leave. You were a hole when I craved one, a claw for the itch I needed scratched. That. Was. All.”

Ik’lyu’s seductive composure broke, and he glared up at me, lip peeled back from his fangs in challenge. I afforded him the chance to reconsider, folding my arms across my chest as I pinned him with a bored stare. It took several seconds longer than I had anticipated, but he was not so brainless, after all. He huffed, storming off to lick his wounds in the embrace of another, no doubt, leaving me to sigh in his absence.

I had been harsh, but it was necessary. Disrespect to my mate would not be tolerated. Despite his display, Ik’lyu had no malicious intent, I knew that—I would not have let him, as a scorned past-lover, near my Roo-bin if he had—but he was an obnoxious boor and as defiant as a youngling. I had made it clear that our tumbles in the furs were purely for mutual satisfaction, but Ik’lyu’s pride would not yet accept it. He had become attached and was now jealous of my affections being directed at another. It was a raw wound that needed time to heal, but I had every confidence he would forget the slight once he found his own special one.

With hope, a male who would take him over their knee and instill some respect.

Brushing off the encounter, I headed toward the bathing spring, intent on cleaning up and cooling off before tackling the whispers of an uprising in the north. It was a precarious task, but one of my many duties as Great Leader. I had to instill peace in U’suhk and subdue those who threatened it. With the added pressure of a mate to protect, it was now more crucial than ever to keep rebels within the confines of their territory.

Far away from all I held dear.

Until then, I had no choice but to confine Roo-bin to the camp and its borders, never to be left alone—a challenge proving difficult already. A stray speck of blood on my shoulder from the jagya scratch caught my eye. Healer Fee-oh-nah had dressed it after Roo-bin had fled from the tent, taking the scent of his arousal with him. I had glowered at her the entire time.

The wound had healed overnight, thanks to my hoo-man’s care, the ghosts of his fingertips mere memories on the knitted flesh. He had been worried for me, and I him. That beast would have swallowed him whole with how small he was, and I was only grateful to have made it in time. Taking damage for one’s mate was an honor, and having him fawn over me was even more so.

But I might not be so lucky again.

Though I wished to be at his side always, that would not be the case, and since shackling his wandering feet was no option either, I had to search for an alternative that the little beast would find agreeable. Perhaps fattening him up, teaching him defense in case danger breeched our perimeters would suffice? I could send out a trading party to collect bambuuh from the Sahrk species in the morning. It was a nutritional plant that urged weight gain, and once it took effect, it would be my responsibility to guide him in simple combat.

Yes. That was a solid plan.

I let an indulgent grin slide over my face. I would look forward to it.

Approaching the spring, thoughts distracted, my nose detected the presence of my blood-cousin before my eyes did. For a moment, rage flared in my gut, the desire to tear him limb from limb rearing its ugly head. He was the reason my mate had fallen into harm’s way. He had been careless, off bedding Ik’lyu instead of performing his vital task. He deserved punishment, but the knowledge that my Roo-bin was safe, combined with my decent mood, stifled the worst of my wrath.

No wars had to be fought amongst kin today.

Still, I glared.

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