Page 68 of Taming Chaos

Seph gave him a strange look; a secret look he couldn’t quite decipher. There was affection there, but also something resembling awe.

No, Persephone, I am in awe of you.

She was his. After waiting for so long… after witnessing several of his brothers fall into chaos and emerge with a human mate in tow, Torin had finally found his one.

And he would spare no effort to make sure her every need was taken care of.

He nodded at the Veronian, who had managed to regain some of her composure. “Prepare something for my mate, Veronian. Make sure it doesn’t resemble anything close to what a Kordolian might eat. Make it sweet.” Rykal had once told him that certain human females had a weakness for sweet things.

“Y-yes, Sir.”

Seph elbowed him. “She has a name,” she whispered in English.

Ah, yes. The first stage of respect was to acknowledge the being as an individual; a person.

“What are you called, chichin?”

The Veronian stared at him in shock, as if Torin had suddenly re-grown his horns. “K-Kvorae, Sir.”

“Kvorae,” Seph said, her voice taking on a gentle note that he’d never heard before, showing him such a different side to the stoic, determined woman he’d encountered on Zarhab Groht. “Would you help me out? I don’t need anything fancy, just something edible that will keep me going for a while. Sugar, carbs, protein. That’s all I want.”

Appearing relieved to have something to do, Kvorae nodded, her eyes widening and her stripes glowing brighter as she stared at Seph. The Veronian had probably never seen a human before. “I’ll make you sapha. Everyone likes sapha.” Kvorae rolled back the sleeves of her grey tunic and began to rush around the room, giving Torin a wide berth as she fished for ingredients in the various unmarked preservation units.

And that was how Torin suddenly became responsible for the welfare of not just one, but three souls. Removed from the hard-edged world of his First Division crew, he found himself in a strange alternate reality, where flame-haired goddesses turned to lovers, and only the honed edges of his Callidum blades held the savage world at bay.

Chapter Eighteen

They sat side by side in extravagant gilded armchairs at Relahek’s ridiculously long table, the one they’d just had sex on. Set to ambient light, Seph’s link-band lay across from them, bathing them in a muted glow as they ate. She felt as if they were subjects in some decadent renaissance painting entitled Kordolian and human lovers dine at the table of the defeated rogue.

Seph munched on her sapha, a dense, finger-shaped cake thing that had a flavor somewhere between vanilla ice-cream and pancakes, only not as sweet. Crispy on the outside and warm and gooey on the inside, it was pure comfort food. She chased the stuff down with a hot bitter tea that washed her palate clean, preparing it for the next delicious bite.

Beside her, Torin ate quickly, efficiently, carving up small pieces of raw meat with one of his knives. So Kordolians were pure carnivores. Predators. The fangs, the nails, the hyper-acute hearing, the dark-vision… now it all made perfect sense.

Whether he enjoyed his meal or not, Seph had no idea, because his expression never changed.

Actually, his silence made her a little uneasy, so she decided to break it. “Torin?”

“Yes, my love?”

“Aren’t you worried the Bartharrans might attack us here? It’s their ship. They can probably get inside if they want.” As she took another bite of her sapha, the gooey center burst and trickled over her fingers. She didn’t know what the stuff was made of, and she didn’t know whether it was healthy or not. All she knew was that it tasted damn good. Now that her nausea had finally settled, her hunger came roaring back.

“Bartharrans are terribly noisy,” Torin replied. “I’d hear them long before they got anywhere near us. They know that.”

“So we’re essentially barricading ourselves in here?”

“With its narrow entry and exit point, it’s an easy place to defend.” Between bites, Torin shrugged. “My preference would have been to breach their command center and force the Skalreg Va back to Zarhab Groht, but fight to get there would spread me too thin and put you in too much danger. Don’t worry. You’re safe here with me, Seph.”

“Until we get to Bartharra.” A tendril of dread snaked its way into Seph’s heart. “That’s just a death-wish waiting to happen.”

“For some.” Torin licked a spot of dark red blood from his lower lip, revealing his gleaming fangs. He looked so damn relaxed, like a big cat after devouring its prey, that Seph almost forgot they were discussing matters of life and death. “I know Bartharra well. These pirates will dock at a place called the Rakthari Coast, a neutral zone. I am quite confident I will be able to get us from there to base without too much trouble.”

“Did you just say base?”

“Yes. The Empire once occupied Bartharra. There are hundreds of Kordolian military bases scattered across the planet. Once we are safely inside, I’ll access the comms and request a retrieval from the nearest friendly vessel. The bases are well fortified, and our technology doesn’t decay. I don’t expect anything will have changed much since we withdrew our main forces from Bartharra. We’ll nestle there until our rescue ship arrives.” Torin raised an eyebrow suggestively, and Seph nearly choked on her bitter tea.

Damn you, Torin! How irresistible he was; how heart-stoppingly attractive.

Something incredible had happened since Torin first started eating. Slowly, subtly, the planes of his face had filled out, becoming a little less gaunt, a little less harsh. His muscle bulk had filled out to its original state, his magnificent—and still bare—chest becoming a little more prominent, his mouth-watering abs standing out just a fraction more.

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