Page 15 of Warrioress

He was hungry. And it was better than the stew that would doubtlessly be served again. His ear turned as he heard Kam jog over and his secondary left eye rolled back to watch the approaching male. He was definitely looking at the bowl with far too much interest. Kam’s tongue slid over his teeth as he came to a stop beside him. He eyed the bowl for a moment before looking up at Uma with a hopeful smile.

“What is this?”

Vrin’s head cocked as he observed the way she smiled with what looked like pleasure as she turned to speak to Kam.

“It is just something I made for Vrin. It’s what is called a meat pocket.” Her gaze shifted back to him briefly before returning to Kam. “But he doesn’t seem to want it.”

“He does not?” Kam’s eyes widened and he glanced over at Vrin in surprise. A hungry look settled over his face as his eyes returned to the bowl that had Vrin bristling. Surely the male wouldn’t dare to take what was his. “If he does not want it, then I will be happy to...”

“I did not say that I did not want it,” Vrin interrupted with a growl of warning, incised.

Baring his teeth at Kam and then at Laro in case the lead got the idea to take his gift away so to tease him, he was somewhat mollified by the way both males lifted their hands and backed away with amusement as he snatched the bowl from the human and gripped it tightly against his chest. He felt a little ridiculous when Uma’s eyes widened in surprise at his sudden movement, but the feeling disappeared quickly when a look of satisfaction drifted over her face as her lashes lowered over her watchful gaze. He felt a moment of triumph at the submissive gesture and glanced down at the meat pocket in his hand.

Clearly she wished to see him enjoy what she made. Perhaps to reassure herself that he was properly satisfied with the offering. He gave the lumpy bread one last slightly dubious look as he did not typically enjoy bread, and his nose twitched again at the scent filling the air. It was not great, but at least it smelled better than the stew—that was definitely something in its favor. The fuller his stomach was then the less of that goop he would have to force himself to swallow.

Grabbing the meat pocket from the bowl, he ate it quickly within a few snaps of his teeth. His nose wrinkled slightly at the flavor. He did not understand how she was cooking the food that made it taste so strange. The meat pocket was not as tasteless as the stew, but it was peculiar. He ran his tongue over his teeth in an attempt to identify the flavor, his head tilting curiously.

A wide smile stretched across Uma’s face as she watched him, and his fur began to prickle and rise in instinctive reaction. Why was she looking so pleased?

“How was it? Tasty?”

“No,” he replied flatly. “Better than your stew which tastes like it could easily be mud, but there is an unappealing taste to it that I cannot identify.”

Her brows flew up, her eyes widening as her mouth rounded in surprise. “Really?”

He gave her an impatient look, not the least interested in entertaining humans now any more than he had been, but he stilled when her expression shifted from shock to a broad grin that made his hackles rise completely.

“What...” he began, but his teeth snapped together in alarm when his stomach twisted with a gurgling lurch.

He frowned, and it slowly deepened into a concerned scowl as the sensation dropped lower and lower. With a yelp, he sprang to action and raced from the training room straight for their designated space for relieving his bowels. He barely made it before he felt the release uncoil through him, tensing his every muscle as his body ejected every bit of nutrition in a foul, heaving projection that had his ass clenching with a painful spasm. His loud curse echoed through the small room, and from a distance he swore he could hear laughter.

“Damn female,” he snarled before he whimpered as another spasm seized his guts.

He would pay this agony back on her one way or another.

Chapter 12

Uma smirked as her eyes rose from her book and followed Vrin. The male still had not forgiven her for the other day—not that she cared in the least. Served him right for being an absolute bastard. She certainly wasn’t pitying his surly carcass. She reclined back in her chair as she watched him suspiciously eye her as he stalked through the room. A faint smile curled her lips. She had no doubt he was thinking unpleasant things about her, but at least he was keeping them to himself. It seemed that, despite his mouth, he was smart enough to acknowledge that not only did she have direct access to his food but had also proved that she wasn’t shy about tampering with it in retaliation.

As much as she wanted to laugh out loud at his pained expression, she decided that discretion was the better part of valor—especially if it meant maintaining the current uneasy peace between them—and dropped her gaze back to her book before he had the opportunity to look her way. She didn’t look back up, not even when her skin prickled with awareness as she felt his eyes drift over to her. Instead, she flipped the page and pointedly refused to acknowledge him until he finally walked past and exited the room.

Thank the gods for small favors. She snapped her book closed and stretched in her chair. It wasn’t as comfortable as the chair in her office, but as the main clerical and intake area as well as the front service of the armory, it was far better than sitting in the holding area. Let Vrin go brood elsewhere rather than ruin a perfectly comfortable spot.

That was at least one thing in her favor due to the snowstorm descending full strength upon them. It had allowed her to open the rest of the station up during the day so that they weren’t trapped in such a small space together. She had the only key, so it wasn’t like they could go anywhere. She was seated in the only space that was closed with a reinforced gate during the day when there wasn’t someone directly behind the desk. For security reasons given the files and weaponry in that part of the station. As a result, the Ragoru only got locked up at night in their cell before she retired to her own bunk—because while she was generous, she was also too cautious to take chances when her own life any sooner than she had to.

It would be different once they were out crossing Old Wayfairer’s territory and through the mountain passes at the borders. She would have to be on her guard at all times then, but she’d be damned if she were going to voluntarily subject herself to that any sooner than she had to. Even her personal tent was not Ragoru-proof.

“I could have saved myself a lot of trouble and not intervened with the guild’s foreman,” she muttered. “I could be spending the storm comfortably at home and left this to the usual assigned guardswomen to deal with.”

As captain, she wouldn’t have even been the one to escort them. Why wasn’t this something she had thought about more carefully? She groaned inwardly. Her conscience had been pricked by the obviously trumped-up allegations and, as a result, had been too damn charitable. But it seemed that life hadn’t hardened her so much that she could truly regret her decision. Even if she could have been comfortable with the idea of the males being locked up for days on end, she didn’t even want to think of how unbearable Vrin would have been to the guards. She didn’t want to put any of the women under her command in such unpleasant circumstances if it could be avoided.

“Vrin seems to be holding a grudge.”

Uma was startled at the sound of Kam’s voice so close to her and turned her head to peer up at him where he stood a respectful distance from her side. Catching her eye, he offered her a quick grin and leaned back against the wall as he lowered himself to a seated position. She peered at him for a long moment, but when he made no further move or commentary she simply shrugged and pretended to be busy as turned and she pulled open one of the numerous drawers that lined the wall behind her to flip through the files. The files waiting to be processed should at least keep her busy...

She frowned down in annoyance at the scant files remaining. Why wasn’t there more work to catch up on so that she would have more to occupy herself with? She had worked on a few files, but she hadn’t thought she had gotten quite so much done. Damn. So much for having a decent distraction. Sighing, she removed a file and set it on her desk before directing a pointed look at Kam, hoping that he would get the hint and follow Vrin’s example.

Unfortunately, the male was either dumber than a box of rocks or he was intentionally lingering to draw a response from her.

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