Page 2 of Warrioress

“Perhaps these Ragoru are not the only ones who belong in lockup tonight,” she observed through clenched teeth.

“You can’t blame us,” a man objected as he stepped forward from the crowd and smoothed his embroidered tunic with a delicate brush of his fingers. “We could see that they were trouble ever since they paid the server to do something to another triad. We don’t know what it was, but they could easily do the same to any of us if we got in their way—and we are not going to take it,” he blustered, and then immediately flinched when the alpha growled low in his throat in response.

Keery sighed heavily and shifted on his feet. “Look, Uma, there is a storm coming in so why not just haul the Ragoru away and save us all a lot of trouble? The bottom line is that they attacked and harmed humans, which is in direct violation of the citadel’s current regulations. And I suspect that they were directly responsible for harming the other triad, even if I cannot prove it.”

“Perhaps I can speak to the server,” she suggested.

He shook his head. “I let him go. Caught him stealing from the storerooms and found some unsavory things he stashed back there. I don’t know what sort of operation he thought to run out of the tavern, but I don’t care either. Threatened to break both his legs if he dared to step through my door again.” His gaze hardened. “As you know, we handle such things internally so I didn’t think to inform the guardswomen.”

Uma’s lips pinched firmly together but she didn’t protest. All the citadel’s businesses were set up in various guilds, and dealing with transgressions was commonly kept within the guild unless it was a matter of public safety. She could argue that whatever the server was distributing could be considered harmful to the populace, but it didn’t make much sense now. She would just have to keep watch for him.

“What was his name? For my records,” she clarified, and she took out her small notebook and graphite stick.

Keery shrugged. “Lester something. I can’t remember. I didn’t care so long as he showed up on time and answered when called for.”

Uma refrained from rolling her eyes at his lazy business practices as she scrawled the name into her book. The tavern keeper at least was somewhat more helpful with a description and she was able to build up from there with the help of a few of the regular customers upon questioning them. By the time she returned to the table, all three Ragoru were studying her intently with identical glittering yellow eyes that varied only slightly in hue. Lynn straightened at her approach as Katiera and the other three guardswomen faced her expectantly. She met the alpha male’s gaze and dipped her head toward the door as she focused every bit of her authority into her clipped order.

“Let’s go.”

His expression didn’t change. His ear barely shifted to tip toward her, and then suddenly he was standing so that his huge frame loomed over her as the two other males followed suit. All three males were huge, but it was the ruined side of the alpha’s face that at once made him seem even more dangerous and yet stirred sympathy within her heart as she resisted the urge to touch the heavy scars marring her own cheek.

Thankfully that order was enough. The alpha dipped his head in acknowledgment, and Uma was able to breathe a sigh of relief as her guardswomen closed ranks around them and she led them all quickly from the tavern.

At least she was not on night shift at the guardhouse that night. Soon the males would be someone else’s problem, at least for a few hours while they were in lockup.

Chapter 2

Laro watched the human leading them from the tavern with annoyance. She held herself with an authority that rankled, even as he could not help but admire the strength that visible in every line of her body and the simple way that she carried herself. His nostrils flared, filling his nose with her rich, delectable scent. His tongue slid against his fangs as he savored it as he allowed his gaze to run over her. With a strong torso and thick thighs, she was far more powerfully built than the females that had fluttered around him over the last several days. And for the first time since entering the citadel, he felt a true heat of interest stir within him as his eyes fell upon her rounded hindquarters.

Of all the females, it was this one who succeeded in drawing his interest where others had failed—and all he had to do to find it was surrender to the humans to get exactly what he wasted so much effort looking for.

The irony of the situation was not lost upon him. He had competed ruthlessly with Ragoru and humans who vied to lure the females away from him—and for what? He was now noted as a male to be reviled, and he was certain that the humans would be removing him from their territory swiftly due to the accusations that the males within the tavern cast upon him. And she was the one subjecting him to his punishment! That alone should have made his lust wither like fruit upon a dead stalk. She sought to punish him—not mate with him.

No, this female could not be what he was looking for. He was not interested in a domineering mate who was quick to punish and ruled over their den with harsh authority. If he were interested in that, he would not have sought out a soft human to mate to his triad. But it was clear that even humans had females of such temperament among them.

His gaze shifted away disdainfully. He would be a bigger fool than he had begun to suspect himself of being if he allowed him to become enamored with a female escorting them as her captives. No matter how pleasing she smelled or looked—he wanted a soft, pleasing human for his mate, none of which were words he could feel confident using to describe the female striding ahead of them.

“Brother?” Kam prodded in ragii, the male’s brows rising in inquiry.

“We do nothing,” Laro replied curtly as he maintained the even, slow stride that kept them within a short distance of the female’s clipped pace ahead of them.

“Nothing?” A startled look crossed Kam’s face. “But why? I can scent your interest and she is...”

“Dangerous,” Vrin grunted at his other side, the male’s yellow gaze narrowing warily at the female’s back. His head tipped toward the weapons sheathed from where they were strapped on her body without any attempt to conceal them. “A huntsman perhaps.”

Kam peered around Laro to frown in disbelief at their triad brother. “There are no more huntsmen, not since the male Rager and his triad stole their mate back from this same place. Besides,” he continued in a grumble, “even if the Order still existed, everyone knows that a huntsman would be male. The huntresses they traveled with only followed his lead in their attacks and have never posed a direct threat to us on their own.”

Laro’s ears flicked in casual agreement. She would not be a comfortable mate to den with—and therefore unsuitable—but he did not believe her to be a threat to them. He could scent her annoyance but nothing more concerning than that.

“I like her,” Kam continued, outright ignoring the dark look Vrin leveled at him. “She smells good, she’s strong... and she possesses a warm beauty that makes her gleam like a polished stone and stand out against the ice and snow.”

Laro’s gaze shifted to his slight view of her face in profile unbidden. Kam was not thinking clearly, but the male was not wrong. There was a graceful beauty in the rhythm of her movements that called to him, one that was enhanced by the arrogant slash of her dark brows over a strong nose and plush lips, and mimicked by the swing of her carefully braided headfur that fell from where it was bound in a long stream from the back of her head. She was glorious, right down to the glowing warmth to her complexion that reminded him of the deep golden brown of a gemstone that he had painstakingly polished for days... He shook his head, dismissing the dark shadows lurking within his memory. As unpleasant as they were, however, it was a poignant reminder of why they needed to avoid her, one that made the scars on his body and face ache in recollection.

Huntress or not, Vrin was also correct—she posed a potential danger toward everything that they wanted.

“She’s unsuitable,” Laro repeated aloud for his brothers’ benefit, his ears flattening as he practically snarled the words.

His response was louder than he expected, however, because the female in question glanced back at them over her shoulder, her brows knotting suspiciously as her pace slowed to a stop. She turned to face them completely as her hand dropped to the weapon at her side.

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