Page 27 of The VaDorok's Unexpected Mate
Ren shrugged, his tail flicking in agitation. “I thought you were trying to discourage her from hoping for ulukskinon,” he admitted. “While no one can anticipate how or when the ulukskinon can strike, it is not like females have not pushed to become closer to males whom they have pleasure-mated with in order to achieve this goal. Or even that you might keep her as apleasure-mate for life.” His lip curled with distaste, revealing his thoughts on the matter, and Kull swallowed a wry chuckle.
Ren was still too young to truly understand how good it was to have a mate—even a temporary one for pleasure. There was a reason that their species pleasure-mated. That was something his younger brother would discover for himself soon enough.
That said, Ren’s words struck a little closer than the male realized. That was the reason he had not gone easy on her from the day she was thrust upon him, but it had nothing to do with why he was teaching her.
“That is not entirely accurate,” Kull muttered. “That is not my reason for teaching her, though it is perhaps true that I did not wish her to become too dependent on being pleasure-mated to me. That she is being taught basic skills to survive here, however, is at her request and is necessary for her to have while she is mine.”
“It does not make any sense, though,” Ren replied in bewilderment. “If they are eventually coming to retrieve the humans, then why is she bothering to mate or learn anything? She could just make herself comfortable and wait.”
“Make herself comfortable?” Kull echoed as he turned to fully look at the male. “Is this before you let the fire go untended for long periods so that she was cold or after you tried to frighten her with the durwa?”
“I was just having a laugh,” Ren muttered. “It was just a joke. As for the fire, I forgot sometimes is all, but it never gotthatcold.”
Kull shook his head and settled back tiredly as he regarded him. “Forgetting the fire could kill her if she didn’t know how to build it back up or restart it if it went out. Would that have pleased you?”
“Fine,” Ren mumbled, “I was wrong. I can even understand teaching her to sew to relieve her boredom. But if she is sosensitive to cold, then why bring her hunting? You provide food every day and if you are injured or sick, I know how to check the traps. So why bring her out here where she does not belong?”
“Because I don’t like having my fate decided for me. If I leave, it will be because I want to leave, and I’m not sure if that’s what I want,” Katie replied weakly from the bed, drawing their attention to her. “Besides, being Kull’s pleasure-mate does not mean that I should not know how to care for myself here over the long-term. Neither of us knows what might happen in the future.”
Turning back to her, Kull adjusted the fur over her and smoothed it. “How are you feeling?”
Groaning, she rolled to face them and blinked at them groggily. “I feel like shit, and you two arguing back and forth on full volume isn’t helping. I never realized that someone could get so cold that it literally stops feeling cold and warmth feels like the fire of hell.”
“That is because you nearly froze to death,” Kull growled. “You should have said something long before it got to that point so that I knew when the cold became intolerable for you.”
“The cold is always fucking intolerable,” she sighed. “I’m a warm climate kind of girl and this sucks balls.”
He blinked at the expression. Was she speaking of some sort of treat fashioned into the shape of a ball? Was it something she wanted? He leaned forward and peered at her. “What sort of balls?”
“Big, fat donkey balls,” she said with a giggle that just made him more perplexed.
He probably should have worded his question better. She was somewhat delirious, and he did not know anything about human food. “Is this made of meat?”
He did not expect her to burst out laughing. He rocked back a little as he regarded her with confusion.
“Never mind,” she wheezed through her laughter. “Damn, that was good. Are they meat, indeed. Don’t worry about it, Kull, it’s nothing you can source here.”
His lips pursed but he decided to let that matter go for the time being in order to refocus on the most important thing at hand.
“Very well, then we will discuss how what you did was stupid and suicidal, and has traumatized... Ren,” he said, not wishing to admit how frightened he had been. He could feel his younger brother’s startled gaze on him, but the male wisely remained silent. “What were you thinking by not communicating your condition?”
“I was trying to help,” she grumbled. “Who wants to teach someone who does nothing but whine all day? So, I was trying to be considerate by being stronger.”
He shook his head in utter disbelief. Between his brother’s attitude and his female’s idea of the best way to “help,” they were going to send him to an early grave while he was still in his prime.
“This is as much as I can take,” he growled, surprising both of them. Whirling toward his brother, he pointed a claw at him threateningly. “You are to be a model member of this family and tribe. Cease your recklessness, and cease trying to amuse yourself at Katie’s expense. She is here with us, and she is my pleasure-mate, so tolerate it. And you,” he continued as he rounded back on her, startling her as he jabbed his claw within a short distance of her pert little human nose. “Stop being so considerate and stubborn to the point of foolishness. Bend a little and ask for help. You are already a pain in my backside, and you knew that from the moment you came here with me, so do not push yourself to be anything less than that now. Be less considerate,” he growled.
With that he pushed to his feet and stalked to the door, only pausing once he reached it to look over his shoulder at the two staring at him wide-eyed. “Model male,” he barked with another glower at his brother. “And less considerate,” he repeated to her before storming out.
“Well, damn, what crawled up his ass?” he heard her say as the door swung closed.
He scrubbed his face with his hand again as the ulukskinon hummed through him, demanding that he be close to his mate after that scare. He shoved it aside and stormed to the cold storage deeper within his cave. Times like this called for root juice.
Chapter 22
Katie looked askance at Ren as the male stared back at her from where they faced each other across the low living room table. Kull had crawled into bed beside her very late at night with an incomprehensive grumble and then had been up again and gone long before she had awoken. It seemed that he was still a little angry if he had abandoned the plan to teach her and left her with Ren while he went out hunting far away from both of them.
As Ren appeared to have taken to moping around the den, that didn’t seem to be lost on him, either. But at least he was no longer taking potshots at her. Still, the silence stretching on between them was about to make her go insane, even if it didn’t appear to bother him. Instead, he appeared to be very focused on the long leather string that he was idly playing with as if it were some sort of low-tech fidget-toy. Maybe she could try to strike up a conversation since neither of them really had anything better to do. But what the hell did one talk to moody teens about?
