Page 16 of Bound By the Vori

Ah, the groan of a teen being educated was something she had dearly missed.

Thirteen

Rykaal curled his tail around his mate and sighed as he nuzzled the nape of her neck. “I apologize for Zana. She has always been very opinionated and mischievous, but I have never seen her behave in such a way.”

From Kim’s other side, Sijhord snorted. “You are blind to the antics of that nestling, Rykaal. You see her as the hatchling you were entrusted with guarding and not the grown female she has become. She makes guards want to pull out their crown coils.”

Rykaal frowned down at his mate as she stifled a chuckle before looking over at the male. “You jest.”

The male’s bark of laughter came quick in response as he sat up. “Have you never wondered why, in all the revolutions we have guarded that part of the nestling wing, none of the guards remain for more than a few lunar cycles? There was one who made it a full revolution before he could not take the manipulation anymore,” he pointed out. “The only guard she does not intentionally needle is you.” Stretching out next to Kim, he pressed a kiss to her shoulder. “Your resiliency with Zana is impressive.”

“Oh, please,” Kim retorted with another of her soft chuckles as she pillowed her head on Rykaal’s arm. “It’s nothing new. I’ve dealt with my share of stubborn teenagers who think that the world should revolve around them. Not all teens of course—and there’s always hope for them—but enough to know the game. She got it into her mind that Rykaal was to be her mate and so busy mentally planning the day like she was free to do as she wanted that she just needed a little reality check.”

“Zana?” Rykaal croaked, feeling sick. He had held her when she was just big enough to fit into his large hand. Nearly all of his memories of her were as a small nestling. She had wanted to make him her mate? He shuddered as his mate made a sound of sympathy.

“It’s just a bit of puppy love, as we like to call it. Once she has more exposure to other adult males outside of her caregivers, she’ll develop a healthier perspective.” She paused for a moment. “Well, that’s usually how it works out. In any case, she will eventually pin her sights on another male and life will go on.”

He exhaled in relief, hoping that his mate was right. At least he was mated and safe from any schemes. But he also knew Zana and knew that the princess could be a little unforgiving at perceived slights. If she felt that Kim stole her chosen mate from her, she would not make things easy for his female, especially if what Sijhord observed was true. He briefly entertained the idea of requesting a change of duties but dismissed it.

If Kim were right, Zana would already have suffered one blow and a significant change to what she perceived to be her future wherein she would choose her mates among the pool of guards as the Matriarchs always did. If he requested to be reassigned to another part of the palace, she would feel abandoned. As much as it disturbed him to discover this change in feelings from the female, he still had a soft spot in his hearts for her and did not wish to cause her additional emotional distress. Still, as he valued the opinion of his mate and would leave his post if she truly desired it, he mentioned his thoughts to Kim and was pleased when she nodded in agreement.

“It’s a good idea just to stay put. It’s going to be a difficult patch for her so keeping things familiar so that she doesn’t feel like whatever support and affection she’s had is going to just disappear due to a poor decision on her part is going to be important.”

“And I will be there to draw Zana’s wrath and attempt to defuse any situations that may arise if the female appears to be ready to lash out,” Sijhord pointed out.

Although Sijhord was no longer technically a guard, since he would be accompanying Kim whenever she left their nest now—something which made Rykaal more comfortable in retrospect—Esheb had asked that he would still serve as an acting guard for the time he was there. That gave the male a bit more control over any potential situations that arose, which set Rykaal further at ease.

Rykaal rumbled in agreement, grateful for his choice in nestmate. He could depend on Sijhord to do what needed to be done without being too hard on Zana. The male did not have an unkind bone in his body. His tail slid through the jewel-colored pillows and cushions to curl around his mate and entwine with Sijhord’s tail which was already looped around her. Her eyes drooped as she yawned softly and curled in closer to Rykaal so that she tucked her cheek against his chest. Her hand absently moved to the part of his coil tucked close to her hip, and she stroked a long maroon pattern marking his scales there. Contentment spread through him at the light touch. Even drowsy, his female instinctively reached for him and wanted to touch him. It lightened his hearts and made him feel as if he were swaying in the highest tree tops of the teriaf.

At her other side, Sijhord murmured contently as he snuggled in closer to her back, tucking his cheek on the top of her head so that his crown coils flowed along Rykaal’s chest, shoulders, and neck and tangled with his own. Wrapping an arm around his mate and nest-mate, Rykaal closed his eyes, savoring the contact with his family.

The situation with Zana was inconvenient, but Kim was right—it would be fine. A little patience was all that it would take while they helped Zana work out how to go forward. Everything would settle down soon enough. He was sure of it.

Fourteen

Zana, her face a mask of teenage boredom and disdain, stared vacantly as Kim finished their lesson. For five days the female had been uncooperative in the politest terms, enduring Kim’s lessons with the sort of stoic displeasure of any unwilling student. But she did at least appear to be listening, and that was something.

Kim glanced at the time on her comm and smiled over at her charge. “I think we’ll stop there for today. If you can please do the reading I recommended, it will give us something to discuss when we meet again in a couple of days after our break.”

Vori did not conceptually have weekends like humans did, but they scheduled breaks. Apparently, in the education systems on Vora, students and teachers, like all others employed planetwide in their various positions, were rotated in groups which allowed for six relatively short days on, and three days off. And after six days, Kim was more than ready to spend some downtime with her mates. Rykaal’s schedule did not quite line up with hers, and that their breaks only lined up two of three days, which was why he was currently absent, and currently working on some remodeling within their nest, and another male was talking Sijhord’s ear off just outside the glass door of the tutoring room.

As with everything in the palace, it seemed that no expense was spared with the tutoring room. Shelves lined a wall filled with any conceivable item that could possibly be needed in terms of supplies and models—and many other things that Kim didn’t recognize furnished with the grace of a royal sitting room with touches of greenery in potted plants, and walls richly sculpted, engraved, gilded, and inlaid with vibrant hues that clearly appealed to the princess as each of those particularly colors were ones that Zana wore in a snug fit across her upper body.

The princess rolled her eyes with a gusty sigh. “If you insist. I hope you realize that, despite the fact that my apartments are currently within the nestling wing, I am no longer one. I may not be of age yet, but I have completed all of my necessary educational requirements and am now taking specialized courses that will assist me as the next Matriarch. All of this,” she wiggled a hand, “is simply to indulge my mother’s wishes. So even if I will complete your little projects and assignments and endure meeting with you because it is what she insists, rest assured that I do not need you.”

“Of course not,” Kim agreed as she tucked her things back into her bag. “You could easily learn all this yourself and go out on outings with your guards to meet and interact with humans if you had the inclination.” She lifted her eyes and gave her a pointed look. “Which you don’t. Hence, why I’m here.”

A disgusted huff met her observation, acknowledging that Kim had hit her intended mark.

“And why exactly should I do all of that?” Zana replied in a bored voice. “My education far exceeds anything even available to your primitive species. We exceed your race in technology, science, and in every conceivable way. It is laughable that humans have anything at all to teach even the most common of Vori.”

“And yet you have humans here among you,” Kim gently reminded her.

The female shrugged. “To keep the populations appeased. They are inconsequential, if biologically necessary members of our society for that reason alone. My mother wishes to coddle humans and make them happy. Why should we? They should be grateful to be here at all.”

“I see,” Kim murmured. “And you came to this conclusion how?”

“I looked it up, of course,” Zana replied sourly.

---