Page 15 of A Scar in the Bone
I did not miss the sneer in his voice. I tensed, wondering at the motive behind this line of questioning.
I’d never shared my history with him, with any member of the pride. Unless Fell had divulged my past in their brief time together, Vetr did not know I was brought up in the palace as a fake princess. I could see no reason why Fell would have told him that.
“I had tutors,” I allowed. “Governesses.”
“So you were taught your numbers then? Basic arithmetic?”
“Of course.” I bristled. “Mathematics was one of my best subjects.”
“Then do the math,” he snapped. “There are twenty-nine of us. And only nine females. Ten, now that you are here. Five of those females are already bonded. That leaves us with five unbondedfemales.” He held up a hand and counted off on his fingers for emphasis. “Estrid, Gudru, Erling, Kerstin, and … you.”
I stared. He countedmeamong them? He countedmeas one of the five unbonded?
I stroked the inside of my palm. A flickering heat nipped at my fingers, refuting that.
I didn’tfeelunbonded. I did not feel free or willing to bond with anyone.
I moistened my lips and swallowed against a throat that was suddenly as raw and rough as tree bark. “Are you saying that I am so very valuable because I’m …” I couldn’t finish.
He was not at a loss for words, however. “We have many strong males. Able and willing. They want partners.”Able and willing.He meant able and willing to bond with me. As though I was nothing more than a body to be rutted upon, a vessel to deliver dragonlings to the great pride. “We need you, Tamsyn. We need breeders. Dragonkind was nearly destroyed.Us. We are all that remains. I won’t stand by and watch as we fall to extinction.” He reached out and brushed the burnt tufts along my hairline. “Your duty is simple.”
The worddutybrought back a whole host of unwelcome feelings that felt like stones, each one dropping and sinking low in my stomach, pulling me down. I had not thought to hear the word flung at me again since I departed my old life.
I held his gaze, waiting.
“Stay alive,” he announced.
I turned that over in my mind.
“Stay alive,” I repeated, my lips moving numbly around the decree.
“Yes,” he said, his voice a low rumble. “You protect yourself at all costs. Even against foolish pups like Nayden. Teach him a lesson, if need be. You’re a fire-breather. Use your power.”
But that was not all of it. Not everything. He was saying so much more. I was to stay alive so that I could become a breeder.That was myduty. I fought to swallow against the sour taste coating my mouth.
Vetr expected me to be a breeder with someone in the pride, to bond and mate with one of the others who sneered at me and eyed me with distrust and relished breaking me and pushing me into the dirt every time I stepped into the arena.
No. No. No.No.
Suddenly I couldn’t breathe.
“Tamsyn?” Vetr peered at me. “Are you well?”
No. I was not. The ugliness of my fate had just been shared with me in no mincing terms, and I didn’t think the air would pass easily or freely from my lips ever again.
And yet I looked at him and lied because that was what the survivor, the warrior in me, told me to do.
There were times to fight and times to hold your tongue. Vetr not knowing me? Not seeing the real me? That felt the safest, wisest strategy for now.
“I’m fine.” A beat followed, and then I added, “Is it not time for dinner now?”
A long moment passed before Vetr nodded. For the first time since his arrival in my den, his icy gaze moved over me, assessing my state of undress. A flush warmed my face. “Yes. I will leave you to ready yourself.”
I held myself still, fury licking through me, sparking off every nerve until he was gone. Once alone, the tension ebbed from my shoulders.
I had not given it much thought when I said that I could leave this place, but suddenly my bold words did not feel like such a wild notion. Not now that he had laid out his plans for me in ruthless detail and my freedom felt an elusive thing, a banner ripped free of its mooring, lost in the breeze, impossible to catch.
I was a creature of magic and lore, after all. Power radiated from my skin.
