Page 15 of Bound By the Vori

“Zana,” Rykaal began again patiently. “Enough games. You need to meet your tutor now. I have been made aware that your mother explained her reasoning to you earlier this morning. Kim can help you.”

Kim held back a snort. The only game Zana was playing was trying to snag a guard—and she was about to be very disappointed once she realized that he was off the table. That was at least one thing in favor of the Vori. Males were hardwired in a way that made it impossible for them to cheat once they were mated. The sooner the realization came, the better. Then they would be able to get down to business.

Zana sighed, her lip faintly curling in a dainty sneer. How charming. Leaning forward, she hugged Rykaal’s thick arm to her and tilted her head to give him a pleading look. “Rykaal,” she complained, drawing out the last syllable in a faint whine, “you would not really force me to be subjected to something so tedious.”

Something? Being around this child got better and better. Kim’s smile tightened as she considered what their first field trip should be and how distasteful she could make it for the little princess.

Rykaal frowned and glanced over at Kim before giving Zana an unhappy look as he extricated himself from her grasp. “Kim is a wonderful companion, Zana. You have my word.” The look he bent on Kim then was so full of adoration that it nearly made her forget the direction of her thoughts as it took her breath away. “She is my mate. There is no female of her like.”

Kim smiled, a warm sliver of happiness curling through her. It was perhaps silly that he had such a strong effect on her that he was able to distract her so thoroughly from the unpleasant direction of her thoughts, but it was impossible not to be happy with Rykaal around. She did not, however, miss the shocked look that briefly crossed the princess’s face as she looked over at Kim, perhaps seeing her for the first time. A mask quickly fell over the girl’s expression after her eyes flashed with anger.

“You are mated, Rykaal? I had not heard. I had thought that the guard were to remain unmated for the needs of the palace,” Zana observed lightly.

The needs of the palace. Right. In other words, she had planned to claim Rykaal the moment she was old enough to claim a mate. Kim saw through that in a second. It frustrated her that he didn’t. Nor that, when he bumped his tail against Zana’s in a way that was a playful gesture with nestlings, he did not notice when she tried and failed to wind her tail around his before his tail retreated.

“The Matriarch has implemented some changes. I am part of the first group that was allowed to mate,” he explained, his eyes flashing with pride as he looked over at Kim in a way that was adorably besotted in his own surly way. “Because of that you are fortunate to have a human companion, tutor, and friend who can help you navigate the changes in our world.”

“I see,” Zana murmured, her expression pinching as she began to sulk. “I suppose that is it then. I am resigned to this.”

Good Lord, some teen behavior really is universal.

Rykaal chuckled and scrubbed a hand affectionately against the girl’s crown coils, tousling them so that they whipped in confusion and had nothing to latch onto by the time he withdrew his hand. Despite her own territoriality when it came to her mate, she bit her lip with a small amount of sympathy at the shame on the female’s face. No doubt she oiled and smoothed her coils the same way that Rykaal and Sijhord did only to have them tousled like a child.

That age was so hard.

“I will be outside at my post with Zirith. He is here for today, and then Sijhord will be back at his post for part of the day while Kim is here.”

Zana groaned. “Not Sijhord. He treats me like a baby and never lets me do anything fun,” she complained.

Kim privately wondered if that really meant that Sijhord was wise to her tricks and games and didn’t let her get away with shit. If so, hallelujah.

A look of surprise crossed Rykaal’s face. “He has guarded you for a few revolutions now. I thought you liked him.”

“Yes, when I was a nestling,” Zana sniped. “But if he must, there is nothing I can do about it.”

Rykaal gave her a sympathetic smile, which he also directed toward Kim, no doubt sensing that it was going to be a difficult day even if he didn’t understand the cause of it.

“We will be fine,” Kim assured him. “Zana and I are just going to have a little chat and get to know each other.”

He nodded. “I will be just outside the door. Let me know if you require anything,” he murmured as he slid past, his tail curling briefly around her ankle in passing.

Kim smiled after him as he left. She really found a winner with her mates.

A tiny feminine huff burst her bubble of contentment. “This is ridiculous. Rykaal was to be mine. I told Mother that. What she did was not fair.”

“I see,” Kim said slowly as she sat on a bench facing the female. Zana had the same metallic brilliant gold scales of her mother, but unlike Leiora, she had a dapple of petal pink down her spine at the tips of her crown coils that gave her a soft, sweet look that the girl’s attitude failed to match. “And you don’t suppose that was inappropriate? He’s your guard and has been all your life, meaning he’s had a position of authority when it came to your care.”

Zana’s face darkened. “I wanted him. And instead, she gave him away to a… a… human,” she spat. “She had no right. As the heir, I should have had my pick of any of the males in the guard I desired as my mother did, and her mother before her.”

“A worthy tradition, I’m sure,” Kim commented dryly. “I suppose it’s perfectly fine to treat the guards as things without autonomy that you can just claim and have as you like.”

Zana blanched, the scales of her face dulling and losing some of their color and luster. “It would not be like that. The males always end up happy to be mated and with the choice made by the female to claim him.”

“If you say so,” Kim replied with a shrug as she stood and brushed off her skirt. “I admit that I’m not any kind of expert on Vora, but I do know Earth and in our history it was similar but also quite the opposite. There males had the power—still do, to a significant extent—and it wasn’t always so great for the females in times where they had no control over what happened to them, their fates determined by the whim of whatever male held it in his hand.” Her lips curled in a hard smile. “They could say all they want that they were happy, and maybe some found contentment in some way with their lot or a way to live with it. So forgive me if don’t see the way you spoke of my mate as compassionate. But now you know—this is my mate of whom you speak, and I’ll expect at least minimal consideration from you in the future.”

Straightening abruptly, she headed toward the front of the room and picked up her comm. She had already synced it with the comm system in the room and initiated the holograph. The light scattered against the wall, bringing a sharp image up from a familiar program.

Giving her student a bright smile, she nodded toward the image. “Let’s start with a little human history. After all, we are talking human-Vori relations, and just as humans have been working to learn about your history and find their place here, it’s good to know where they come from as well.”

---