Page 13 of Warrioress

Unbelievable.

She gritted her teeth. They were really going all out to test her self-control. Lips pursing, she stomped across the yard through the snow as she headed toward them. Her mouth pulled with grimace as every other footstep sank her deeper into the snow. With the way they had appeared to walk effortlessly across it, she hadn’t imagined it was so deep until her first several steps away from the shelter of the eaves made her sink nearly knee-deep in the powder—and it didn’t get any better from there. Well-placed curses fell quietly from her lips as more and more snow slipped into her boots with every step as she trudged toward them.

“Hey,” she called over once she came to a stop within a dozen feet of the males.

An ear twitched her way, and Kam shot her a furtive look, but she was given no further attention as the males continued to speak quietly together in their ragii. Her gaze bounced between them in growing frustration. Her eye twitched as they continued to talk among themselves, their voices rising in volume as their secondary eyes angled toward her every so often. They didn’t want her there with them or to know what they were saying, but they didn’t want her out of their sight. How fucking sweet.

“Look, I get that you are not interested in my company any more than I want yours,” she pointed out irritably. “But I have a couple of questions, so if you could stop and give me your attention for a moment...”

Vrin huffed a raspy laugh that lacked even the tiniest trace of amusement. “When is there not something that you want? You certainly allow us no peace or privacy. Without a doubt, you are a vicious, diseased rooter determined to ruin a place with your mere presence. We cannot even put a mound of deep snow between us without you determined to breach it.”

Uma’s brows rose little by little as he talked, until she was certain that they brushed her hairline. She could feel the hot coal of embarrassment settling deep within her stomach, set afire by the simmering anger that grew the more he talked.

“Is that so?” she replied flatly. “I can assure you I don’t take any pleasure crossing the yard either—and certainly not for your pitiful excuse for company. However, a thought occurred to me that was important enough to discuss with you now rather than later.”

Vrin scoffed, his ears flattening belligerently. “You think we should care about any of your thoughts or anything at all going through that head? We are captured here by your whim, but that does not mean that we must assist you in any fashion.”

She gave him a curious look and then looked over at Laro. “I don’t understand. Why wouldn’t you want to do everything you can to help make the citadel safer for your kind?”

“What does our kind have to do with us?” Vrin growled and he pushed away from the high wall to prowl past her, anger vibrating through his body. “It will not do us any favors.”

“Vrin,” Laro rumbled as his muzzle tipped toward the station. “Go and rest.”

The male’s ears pressed tightly against his skull as he gave his lead a long look, but after a moment he relaxed and nodded. All four of his hands uncurled from their tight fists at his side as he backed away several paces. “You are right.” He sighed deeply and ran a hand through the long braided hair his of his crown and scruff. “Better to sleep and escape all of... this.”

Giving her one last meaningful glance so that she had no doubt whatsoever what or who he wanted to escape, he turned away, leaving her alone with Laro and Kam.

“What is it you wished to ask?” Laro asked wearily, drawing her attention back to the lead.

“I was just curious about something. I don’t imagine that you usually hunt for mates in the middle of winter, but even if you do, what would provoke you to go into a citadel filled with unmated women so close to your Withering Days? And not just you but the other triad as well—and who knows how many others.”

Laro frowned thoughtfully and gave a puzzled shake of his head. “I do not know. When you say it out loud, it does not seem right, and yet at the time it seemed like the only thing to do. With the Withering Days approaching, there was an urgency that drove us, speaking within us to find a mate rather than focusing on making our den more comfortable to withstand the storms. It was an impulse that I cannot explain.”

“Strange,” she murmured. “And the other triad... did they seem to be under this same impulse.”

Laro exchanged a look with Kam but, to her frustration, rumbled at him in ragii.

Uma squeezed her eyes shut but forced a smile to her lips. “Talk to me, please. Just tell me rather than discussing it between the two of you in a way guaranteed to keep information that could be important away from me.”

The lead grimaced but tipped his head in agreement before answering. “Yes, I think they did share this impulse. We were competing aggressively against each other to draw the attention of every and any female within the tavern rather than performing for a lone female as we would normally do. In a normal situation, males would simply perform in a way to draw the female’s attention. Aggression is seldom used except by the more brutal males, and usually not directly in front of females. We seldom interact at all with other triads unless they are crossing into our territory, or we are traveling through theirs.”

“I see.” Her lips thinned as she considered his words. “And you have no idea what happened to them after they left the tavern?”

Kam shook his head, his ears drooping. “Their lead did not look well when the other two males hauled him out. The human said that he was diseased, and we considered it a win.”

“They were drugged,” Laro clarified bluntly, and her head whipped to him in surprise.

“Drugged? By whom?” She couldn’t imagine anyone having the fortitude to actually get close enough to a Ragoru to intentionally drug them who weren’t trained by the Order.

Apprehension tightened the back of her neck. But no, it was impossible. The Order was disbanded, and the majority of them stationed at Old Wayfairer dead. She was simply being paranoid to even consider the possibility. They Order was gone.

He shrugged. “Not directly by me, but I paid a human to carry it out. Just to make him appear sick so that the triad would be forced to leave.”

Uma frowned and crossed her arms over her chest, her fingers drumming on her bicep. “That seems to track. No one reported coming across a dead Ragoru. But then again, no one came to the station to file charges against your triad either, which is something I would have expected if it were a harmless drug. It is like they just disappeared. On top of the strange timing of your triads’ arrivals into the citadel, this is just... weird, for lack of a better word.”

Laro’s brow lowered slightly with concern that she felt right in the pit of her stomach. If the lead was giving it serious thought, then there almost assuredly was more going on than what there seemed. And all the more urgent that the triad be removed as quickly as possible.

“Are you coming in, or are you going to allow that female to push you around and root into our lives uselessly?” Vrin shouted from a short distance away, making her jump in spite of herself.

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