Page 10 of The VaDorok's Unexpected Mate
“What kind of conversation?”
“A compromise.”
That caught her attention. Her brows drew together as she quietly regarded him for several minutes. “About what?” she finally asked.
He walked into the center of the room and gestured to the space. “You were determined to accompany me, despite my refusal. You did it so that you could have a safe place like this. It just so happens that I need something too.”
“I’m not fucking you,” she spat, her tone filled with so much loathing that he grimaced with distaste.
“Nor do I want you to,” he shot back and shuddered. That would definitely doom him and complete the ulukskinon. “As I said before, I have no interest in touching you or being in your company more than what is necessary.”
Some of the tension eased from her expression as she peered back at him in confusion. “Then what, exactly, do you want?”
“Cooperation,” he said bluntly. “VaDorok males do not live communally once they become adults unless they have a mate or offspring. Having a female here who is not my mate is going to confuse Ren. For the duration of your time here, I would like your cooperation in pretending to be my very impermanent pleasure-mate so that I can help him develop a healthy understanding of how he is expected to treat females.”
A look of unease crept across her face. “Are you saying that all the other women will be expected to be mates?” she demanded. “Do they know this?”
“Do not be ridiculous,” he snapped. Another lie on his part... at least partially. “Other males do not have impressionable younglings within their dens. I am asking you for your help with this, and in exchange I will share the comforts of my nest with you. If not, then I can send you back out to the central room with a couple of pelts to bed down with on the rug.”
“Okay. That’s valid, I suppose.” Katie glanced at the rug in front of the small hearth built in his room. “But why do we have to share? Can’t you just lie on the rug in here?”
“I am not giving up my bed,” he said flatly. “But there is plenty of space for both of us, and you have my vow that I will remain away from you. Besides which, if you agree to carry out this performance with me, it will work better if my scent is on you. Sharing a nest is the most effective way to accomplish that. Everything here I will share with you.”
She grimaced and paced absently toward the hearth, her expression anxious as she thought over his offer. He did not move but studied her as he patiently waited for her answer. Suddenly, her head tipped toward the low table to one side of the rug, her eyes falling on the bone flute that rested on a stand there. He had not played it in years, not since his mate died, as he had carved it to court her with. Back then, he had played it for her every evening. But now it remained in its place on that table in quiet testimony to all his losses. No one could touch it!
His heart clenched as her body bent, her hand reaching for it, but Kull lunged forward, startling her so that she stumbled back several steps as he snatched it up. He held the flute to his chest as she stared back at him fearfully, her own much smaller hand pressed against her chest. Guilt knifed through his gut at the look of fear he inspired.
“I... I apologize. This... no one is allowed to touch this,” he rasped around the knot of pain that had risen in his throat, choking him.
Her expression quieted as she silently studied him. “That has great meaning to you,” she quietly concluded.”
Kull nodded, and he turned, placing the flute back on its stand. “Memories of better times,” he agreed somberly. “Before my mate died.”
He did not wish to share that pain with her and expose it, but he knew he did not have much choice. It was not information he could hide, even he refused to discuss it.
She nodded slowly in understanding. “I apologize. I didn’t realize.” She drew a deep breath and slowly expelled it. “So, we pretend to be... ah... pleasure-mates, and share the bed, but otherwise we live our own lives while I am here. No expectations.”
“No expectations,” he agreed with relief.
She nodded again. “Okay. I accept.”
Though he did not show it, relief flooded him. Without another word, he turned and left her to rest. When they came together at mealtime, however, she sat close to his side with a relaxed and happy expression that could almost be believed if he did not look too closely. Naturally, it made Ren withdraw and glower petulantly, but that too was part of the process. The male would adjust slowly with some help and be better for it.
And as promised, Kull happily gave Katie plenty of space. He even waited until he was certain that she was asleep before he crawled into bed beside her, so as not to frighten her. And when she woke up in the middle of the night and lay there panting fearfully, he did not move or indicate that he was awake in any way. He remained silent in place, feigning sleep, until her breath evened out and sleep reclaimed her once again. His heart clenched again, but this time in sympathy for how much the female had to have suffered to be so afraid. He would make sure that she felt safe, just as he promised, and like Ren, she too would eventually grow and no longer need it. But for now, he could help her. As much as possible.
Chapter 9
Katie cautiously entered the main living space and took her seat as Kull crouched by the fire, preparing their food. After several minutes, Ren entered the room and hesitated as he stared at where she was seated for a long moment before sullenly dropping onto one of the cushions across from her. He would have to get used to it—this was the shared living space after all. She wasn’t about to go hide in the bedroom day in and day out when not summoned to eat. Not only did she refuse to be treated like an unwelcome guest who should be shamefully staying hidden away, but that wouldn’t do any good when it came to what Kull asked of her. The main room would be the best place to accomplish that.
Although the den had deep walk-in storage areas for food and supplies, it seemed that the living room was not only where the family socialized but also cooked and did much of everything else. Not only was all the cooking done there over open-flame, and the dining done at a large table just opposite it, but the large room also contained two other tables on opposite sides of the room that were obviously work areas. Each table held trays filled with knives and tools of various sizes and other supplies, while large baskets full of leather sat neatly beside them. There were even other baskets on shelves that contained various other goods used which just reinforced that literally everything was done there.
It should have felt claustrophobic to her when it was so different from how her own apartment had been arranged, or the home that she’d grown up in where there was a designated separate room for practically everything. But after months of living either in a cell where she was shuffled back and forth between a tiny cell and various little rooms of horrors withinthe Agraak Lab, having one large open room filled with normal household things rather than being stark and sterile, and where she wouldn’t be isolated, was comforting. Especially after the weeks she’d spent being imprisoned in the recovery room that she was never allowed to leave. It was probably natural then that she found the open style of VaDorok living to be surprisingly homey. Just so long as the aliens didn’t gettoocomfortable around her.
Katie eyed the males as Kull set the platters of food on the table and lowered himself onto the cushion directly opposite from her. He quietly studied her, but she pretended to ignore it as she plucked a piece of meat from the platter directly in front of her and blew on it to cool it. Naturally, she had intentionally selected the lone pile of cushions so as to establish some defined space between herself and them as they shared what Kull referred to as the “morning meal.” Unfortunately, she was starting to regret it now that she felt incredibly outnumbered by the males staring back at her as they picked at the food on the plates between them.
“So,” she said, drawing out the word as she shredded and nibbled on a piece of meat, “what’s the plan?”
Kull blinked at her, his mouth downturn with puzzlement. “Plan? It is exactly as I explained to you previously. I spend much of my time out hunting. You will remain here and keep yourself occupied however you like. I will make sure that you are comfortably fed and provided for as I promised, and you will fulfill your end of our arrangement.”
