AllFreeNovel
Share Us
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Errok
That did not go asplanned.
The plan had been to best Gahn Thaleo and pry my mate from his claws. The plan had been to stand proud and victorious at the end. Not bloodied and saved from death by the begging of my woman.
The fact I am using Gahn Thaleo’s Vrika’s blood at all is shameful beyond measure.
The sense that I was losing control grew stronger with every step I took through the aguir circle. I never normally would have lost that taklok. Never, ever, would have gotten distracted before.
But things had changed. It seemed more and more as if there were two vastly different portions of my life now. Before my mate.
And after.
And no matter how I tried to reconcile those pieces, no matter how I tried to get their frayed edges to fit...
They didn’t.
Clearly, Gahn Thaleo had sent Warrek ahead. He was ready with a jar of Vrika’s blood when I entered into the broad entrance hall of the mountain. I stopped before I reached him.
I blinked.
It was bright in here. Much brighter than it should have been.
I took note, with mounting rage, of the firelight glinting from behind kaktuir pockets in the walls. We did not need such light to see.
This is for the new women.
My chest tightened, making me hiss with pain. That tightening wasn’t from the injury. It was from my fury. Fury for what Gahn Thaleo was up to. To the new women, his efforts likely seemed to be simple hospitality. But I knew better. Gahn Thaleo was a ruthlessly calculating Gahn and he never did anything lightly.
I had no doubt that his changes to the mountain, as well as his inviting the new women here so soon after their arrival, was all about positioning himself as the better Deep Sky ally. About making himself out to be the more agreeable Deep Sky Gahn. So that in case of conflict, the new women would side with him instead of me.
Both Lerokan and I had mates from among the new women. He did not. So, he needed some other connection. Some other way to ingratiate himself among the new women. And by specifically taking my mate into his mountain, he knew that I would be forced to come for her. He knew our culture dictated a taklok in such a situation. He’d orchestrated things perfectly so that he appeared to be the more responsible Gahn. ThebetterGahn.
My fury deepened and twisted when I realized that my charging in here so violently would have done nothing to dispel the image Gahn Thaleo had created in the new women’s eyes.
To a Deep Sky warrior, to any person of our culture, my actions would be understood. Everyone at that taklok knew I was justified. It’s why Gahn Thaleo’s warriors didn’t kill me on sight when I challenged him. They all knew that Gahn Thaleo should not have been taking care of my mate in my absence. No warrior would ever respect a Gahn who let his woman disappear into the mountain of another.
But the new women would not understand this. To the new women, and to my exacting mate, I’d only proven myself unpredictable and unreliable. A hazard of a Gahn who did not respect their treaty.
Every instinct I have leads me astray. Nothing I do, nothing I understand, will ever be right in her eyes.
I eyed the closest kaktuir lantern, barely resisting the urge to drive my fist through it.
Who cares if Gahn Thaleo made a few lanterns? I will make a hundred. A thousand. I’ll make so many that the stars will turn their faces away in shame, outdone by the gleaming beacon of my mountain.
