He continued to stare down at me angrily.
Shit. There was nothing for it.
I kept right on going. “Your king did not break through with me until his touch stopped taking and started giving and until, in our cham, he treated me with kindness. He is the mightiest of Suh Tunak, he recognized the battle he had on his hands, he analyzed it, created his strategy and then he went about winning that battle using any means necessary. And, Zahnin,” I edged closer and for the sake of this man who pledged to guard me even if it meant giving his life, who backed me against Dortak and who clearly wanted his wife to settle in her new life with him in his cham, I admitted to him at the same time I admitted to myself, “my Lahn won that battle. I now lay awake at night waiting for him to return. When he does not, I fall asleep looking forward to the morning when he will wake me with his hands. He is my king, he is my warrior, he is my husband and I am proud to say above all… he is mine.”
Zahnin said not one word and kept staring at me.
I returned his stare, all out of ideas.
Then he grunted and jerked up his chin.
I took that as a yes.
I smiled up at him hopefully. He watched me smile, shook his head, the scowl left his face and I saw his lips twitch.
Yep, definitely hot. If Sabine had it in her, there were hints that, soon, she would think she didn’t do so badly.
Then, hopefully, Zahnin would share with her his greatest gift and she’d feel touched and loved.
Like I felt that morning.
Good news for Sabine and Zahnin, confusing and worrying news for me.
Shit.
* * * * *
“My wife creates rainbows,” Lahn muttered to the roof of our cham.
It was late. We’d just gone at it hot and heavy, so hot and heavy I came three times, (yep, three). I was sated, drowsy and in a really good mood mostly because my husband had come home before I fell asleep but it must be noted it was also because he’d given me three orgasms. My mood was too good to let all that was weighing heavily on my mind weigh on it so I’d set it aside.
I was curled up against him, my legs tangled in his, my arm resting on his abs, my cheek to his shoulder. Lahn was on his back, his arm was under me, curled around, his fingertips trailing random patterns on the skin of my hip.
“Lahn,” I whispered to his chest.
“She is also mad,” he kept muttering and I pushed up onto a forearm and looked down at him.
“Mad?” I asked.
His eyes came to me and he used one word to explain. “Zahnin.”
I pressed my lips together.
Lahn kept talking. “Do not ask me to do something like that again, Circe. I understand your heart guides you in many matters. But I am warrior, he is warrior and this is a line we never cross. Am I understood?”
I kept my lips pressed together and nodded.
His eyes dropped to my mouth then his arm tightened around me, pulling me up on his body. His other hand lifted to shift my hair from one side of my face and hold it behind my neck.
Then he spoke in a murmur, “I do not like my queen’s lips pressed tight.”
I relaxed my lips and he gave a slight nod of satisfaction then his eyes locked on mine and when he spoke again, his voice was soft and even, f**k me, tender.
And I liked it.
“It means much to me that you let your heart guide you. It guided you back to me after I marked you and forced you to guard it from me.”
Oh God. He was being sweet again.
He kept talking. “But this, I fear, will cause you harm, my doe. And I want you to use caution as you open that heart. Zahnin is my closest lieutenant and I know much of him. He did not come to training direct from his parents’ care. His father was a warrior who died before he was born. A sickness took his mother not long after. His family took him in but they didn’t show him a great deal of kindness in the short time they had him. This would lead me to believe he does not understand how to provide this to his wife. Much time has passed since the Hunt so you must not hold high hopes for him winning her for, if you do, and he does not succeed, I know you will be crushed. This can happen and does. There are warriors who do not break through with their wives. If this does not happen, they can then cast them aside and attend another Hunt. It is their reward, as a warrior of Suh Tunak, to be provided a beauty to warm their bed, to do this willingly, to provide for their desires and to give them sons. And it is their right to keep seeking until that is found.”
My head tilted and I whispered, “Cast aside?”
He nodded. “Those cast aside are taken care of, given chams, even a slave. But they do not live the life of bounty that a warrior’s wife lives. Although the basics are provided, many of them must learn a trade to live a decent life. Sometimes, they will find a free man who will wish to take them as bride, and do, but this is rare. A warrior’s wife who is cast aside bears the reputation that she is unfit or unable to provide for a man’s needs and, although beautiful, will be avoided.”
Well, that sucked.
“Would… um, Sabine, Zahnin’s wife, if, um… this happens, since she’s not from Korwahk, will she be returned to her homeland?” I asked.
His eyes flashed and he stated firmly, “Absolutely not.”
Hmm.
“Why?”
“She is claimed, she is Korwahk,” Lahn stated just as firmly.
Hmm.
Time to change the subject because this one might irritate me and I wasn’t in the mood to be irritated.
“Did, uh… you, um… grow up under your parents’ care before training?”
It was the first personal question I’d ever asked him.
And he didn’t hesitate in answering. “I did, my tigress. My father was Dax and my mother was Korwahk, a great beauty. There was tenderness in his cham even though my mother could only give him one son, a difficult delivery rendering it impossible to provide him more. He was happy with the warrior she bestowed on him and he was happy with her.” His hand in my hair fisted when his voice dropped as he shared, “And I watched my father die during a challenge. I was warrior then and attended. As Dahksahna and as was her duty, my mother attended as well. His end marked her, as it did me, and she cared deeply for him. She would have lived a pleasant life as a deposed Dahksahna, the Korwahk people and myself providing for her but she chose not to live on without him. She took her own life the day after his body burned on the pyre.”
Oh my God. That was awful.
I felt myself melt into him as my hand lifted to cup his jaw and I whispered, “Lahn.”