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Her smile broadened slightly. Drawing my face to hers, she pressed her forehead against mine. We held each other in silence for a moment. I knew this was only a reprieve, but I needed to figure out a way to make her happy because I couldn’t lose her—even if that meant renouncing Braxia.
Chapter 15
Mercy
Two days after my meltdown, I sat sipping on Rehmannia tea. I always carried loads of it with me wherever I traveled in case my season kicked in. It kept my hormonal imbalance in check, and prevented my aggressive and overly emotional behavior. It had taken me by surprise as I had not expected to go into heat for another few days. My cheeks still burned thinking of how I had all but given a free porn show to Ravik’s council. But worse, I’d made a spectacle of myself the morning after when he’d asked if I no longer wanted a child with him.
Every word spoken remained valid, but I hadn’t meant to dump them all on him like that. Guilt gnawed at me for having put more pressure on him with all the problems he already juggled on a daily basis. At the same time, I felt relieved to have it all out in the open. I couldn’t deny that Ravik was going out of his way to please me. That same day, he’d lifted all movement restrictions on me—not that they had ever been instated to begin with. He had not told the guards not to let me out of the fortress or board my shuttle; they’d simply applied to me the same rules they applied to Braxian females.
However, while I could come and go as I pleased, a bodyguard would be assigned to me whenever I wanted to leave the fortress. An annoying, but acceptable compromise… for now.
Held up by other duties, Gorav informed me he would be a little over an hour late to take me to my brother’s house. In between hacking into his computer, I’d taken to performing some experiments in his lab, not only on my personal stuff, but also on some of the ideas he’d been looking into that had me intrigued. Although eager to get back to it, I didn’t mind the delay. It gave me an excuse to visit Dajia who I hadn’t taken out riding in a few days. Gulping down the rest of my tea, I left Ravik’s Hall on my way to the racers’ stables. I’d barely exited the building when a familiar voice at my back called out to me.
“Good day, Ravena,” Keran said.
Surprised, I stopped and looked over my shoulder as Ravik’s oldest son approached me. His uncanny resemblance to his father never ceased to amaze me. If not for Ravik’s bulkier muscle mass, slightly greater height, and twenty extra years of maturity to his features, father and son could have passed for twins. They certainly did from a distance.
Keran raising a slightly amused eyebrow made me realize I’d been ogling him.
“Like what you see?” he asked in a teasing tone.
“Yes,” I said, unfazed. “I get to see in the flesh what my man looked like twenty years ago.”
He chuckled, his eyes lit with an undefinable glimmer. “Good answer.”
“I’m glad you approve,” I replied in the same teasing tone.
Although still smiling, his gaze took on a speculative edge. “Would you walk with me, Ravena?”
Uh oh. This should be interesting.
He led me in the opposite direction from the stables towards the training grounds behind the Hall where the guards were sparring. Formerly used as a dueling pit and gladiator arena before a much larger one was built outside the compound’s gates, four rows of elevated benches surrounded it on three sides. The Magnar’s box occupied the top row of the central set of benches, with enough room to accommodate a dozen dignitaries. Keran and I strolled along the thick, waist-high, stone fence which enclosed the combat area.
I shamelessly enjoyed the eye candy. How could I not with over fifty bare-chested men straining and grunting as they clashed? I’d have to be dead to remain impervious to such an extensive display of muscular man-flesh glistening with sweat. It didn’t arouse me, but I definitely didn’t mind the view.
This location had been a smart choice. We walked in plain view so everyone could see that nothing unbecoming was happening, but far enough from indiscreet ears to ensure privacy, further aided by the noise of battle.
“What did you wish to talk about?” I asked Keran as we casually strolled alongside the fence.
“First, I guess I should thank you for the unusual way in which you liberated us from a particularly boring council meeting,” he said with a smirk.
My cheeks heated at the reminder he’d seen me in such a primal, sex-hungry state.
“This is not the kind of incident you remind people of,” I said with barely veiled disapproval.
“Why?” he asked, his voice devoid of sarcasm or malice. “There’s no shame in having sex. You’ve been here long enough now to have witnessed it happening pretty much anywhere and anytime.”
“Yes. With whores,” I said, in a hardening tone.
Keran’s eyes lost their taunting glint as he sobered. “First, you are not a whore, Ravena. No one here thinks it. Second, it happens with wives and concubines as well. Since Father changed the law, he’s also been tempering this type of behavior, which is why you see so little of it in our Hall. If you spent more time in other clans’ compounds, you would see the reality that still is Braxia.”
His words lifted a weight off my shoulders I hadn’t realized I’d been carrying around. I didn’t care what people thought of me, personally, but I didn’t want Ravik’s people to think his female was trash.
“In order for us to draw more of the right kind of international partners to Braxia, and maybe even open its doors to tourism, we need to start behaving with more decorum. This would offend many dignitaries,” Keran continued.
I nodded. Many worlds considered Braxia too barbaric and primitive in its ways to want any kind of interaction with them. In the time of the Great Wars, Braxians made the perfect hired soldiers to crush their enemies and die on the field on their behalf. But once the Galactic Council helped bring peace in the Eastern Quadrant, all those planets discarded Braxia, deeming them unfit for polite company.
“However, your little incident has raised quite a few questions,” Keran said, the mocking spark returning in his dark eyes.
