The Choosing (The Pruxnae Book 1) (14 page)

Ziri sniffed.
Frying meat, the sharp tang of boiling vegetables, freshly baked bread. Her
stomach rumbled and pinched into her backbone. Whatever food was being prepared
smelled wonderful after the dried and reconstituted foodstuffs Ryn had been
feeding her.

Two women stood
around an island set between the kitchen area and the table. One was maybe in
her early twenties in Galactic Standards, the other older. Both were tall and
well-built with flaxen blonde hair and bright blue eyes, the older woman’s
darker than the younger’s by shades. Both looked up from the floured top of the
island as Ryn and Ziri approached.

The elder
woman’s face lit with a wide, friendly smile. “Ryn! You made it.”

He took his helmet
off and grinned. “Alna, this is Ziri Mokuru. Ziri, my second mother, Alna Lomig,
and my sister, Tyelu af Alna.”

“Welcome, Ziri.”
Alna rounded the counter, brushing flour off her hands as she walked. She wore dark
pants beneath a gray, thigh-length tunic the same color as the leaden sky, both
fashioned out of sturdy, homespun fabric. “You should’ve insisted he take the
chains off as soon as you came in.”

“He asked me not
to speak.”

Tyelu’s upper lip
curled into a sneer. “And you complied? How obedient of you.”

Ryn shot Tyelu a
sharp glance. “Ziri has spirit, when she needs it. She fended off a Sweeper by
herself, armed only with an unfamiliar gun and her wits.”

A flush heated
Ziri’s cheeks. “I spent most of my time searching for that gun. If Ryn hadn’t
come along, I don’t know what I would’ve done.”

“That sounds
like a tale your father will want to hear, Ryn. He’s at the farm overseeing
breeding. Molnog.” Alna shook her head and tsked. “Better him than me.”

Ryn handed Alna
his helmet and thumbed the locks on the manacles, then removed them from Ziri’s
wrists. “I’ll be doing that tomorrow.”

Ziri slipped her
hood off and unwound the scarf from around her face. “I suppose you want me to
help.”

“You’ll not help
on your first full day here.” Alna’s eyes crinkled and the corners of her mouth
turned down. “Ryn, child, couldn’t you have found one without such remarkable
coloring? Every single man from here to Fevl and back will be tromping through
my home wanting a look.”

Ryn’s lips
thinned into a hard line. “She won’t choose them.”

“Why would I
choose more trouble?” Ziri asked. “I’ve gotten plenty from you.”

Tyelu snickered.
“I see you’ve finally met a woman who doesn’t simper when you’re around,
brother.”

The front door
creaked and booted feet stamped hard against the wooden floor in the outer room.

Alna raised her
eyes to the ceiling. “Why does Gared insist on cleaning his shoes off inside?”

Ryn clasped
Ziri’s hand. “I’ll show Ziri where her room is.”

Alna’s
expression hardened. “Hands to yourself, Ryn. She’ll have her space to choose
in her own way.”

“She’ll have her
space,” he agreed mildly. His hand tightened on Ziri’s. “We’ll be back as soon
as she’s settled in.”

Alna shook her head,
and Tyelu snickered again. Ryn led Ziri back the way they’d come. He stopped in
the first room and introduced her to his second father, Gared ab Einif enig
Alna, a barrel-chested man with laughing blue eyes, shoulder-length brown hair
shot through with gray, and a fuzzy beard.

“Byungar will be
here soon with your things, Ziri.” Gared smacked her on the shoulder with a
beefy hand, sending her staggering into Ryn. “Good boy, he is. We’ll feed him
up and send him on his way, but not before we have a tale.”

“Ziri has one
for you,” Alna said from the doorway. “Now, take your boots off or you’ll be
cleaning the floors on the morrow instead of visiting council.”

Gared hunched
his shoulders and grinned sheepishly at Ziri. “She always catches me when I’ve
done wrong.”

Ziri lowered her
voice and leaned closer. “Don’t stomp your feet so hard when you come in. I bet
it gives you away every time.”

He waggled his
eyebrows. “But then she couldn’t catch me and there’d be no lovely cuddling
afterward to make it up to her.”

Ziri pressed her
lips together, containing a laugh. “That would be a shame.”

“It’ll be a
shame if we miss the meal.” Ryn nudged her toward the stairwell. “Back soon.”

The stairs ended
in an open hallway running the length of the house. Thick rugs similar to the
ones protecting the floors on the first floor hung over several openings in the
walls. These were all tucked to one side, revealing each room’s contents.

Ryn pointed out the
common bathroom and which rooms belonged to his parents and Tyelu, then urged
her into a room containing a large, freestanding bed, a tall piece of furniture
with two firmly shut doors, and another piece of furniture with four drawers
stacked one on top of the other. Everything was made of wood, the furniture,
the walls, the sloped ceiling, everything except an oddly shaped metal object
placed near the wall shared with Tyelu’s bedchamber. Ziri pulled off a glove
and ran her fingers over one wall as Ryn pressed a switch and light flooded the
room.

“I’ve never seen
so much wood before.” She stroked the smooth finish. It was warm under her hand
and slick, its golden color shimmery. “Such a luxury. Wood is so rare now on
Tersi, has been since before the birth of my mother’s mother.”

“We have it in
plenty here, though we take care to replant what we use.” Ryn’s hands fell on
her shoulders, their weight somehow comforting. “Let me take your coat.”

She shrugged out
of it and handed him it and her scarf. “Thanks. It’s warm in here.”

“Fire.” He
jerked his chin at the metal contraption, resting on top of a square area of
thin stones. “I’ll show you how to keep that going during the day, if you need
it, and how to bank it at night.”

Ziri wandered
over and held out a hand to the warmth radiating off its surface. “That feels
so good.”

“You chill
easily.” Ryn hung her coat and scarf up inside the two-doored piece of
furniture, then began stripping off his armor. “Come help me.”

“It’s not like
you can’t do that on your own.”

“I like having
your hands on me.”

“I thought this
was a hands-off house.”

His dimple
winked. “Only when we’re around everybody else.”

“Sneaky,” she
said, and clucked her tongue. She helped him disengage the arm pieces and laid
them on top of the bed. “You’ll get cold.”

“I’ll be warm
enough.”

They made short
work of the armor, stripping it off Ryn and setting it aside. As soon as the
last piece was off, he gripped her hips and tugged her close. “Leave the window
unlocked tonight.”

Ziri rested her
palms on his chest and tried to ignore the way his hips bumped into hers,
pressing his manhood into her stomach through the layers of clothing she wore.
A small surge of heat gathered between her thighs, warming her as surely as the
fire banked in the metal stove had. “So every single man from here to… What was
that place Alna said?”

“Fevl, and not
for every man. Just for me.” He nuzzled the juncture of her neck and shoulder.
“Let me sneak into your bed tonight and keep you warm.”

“Keep me warm,
huh.” His mouth found her skin and he licked. Ziri’s breath caught in her
throat. “What are you doing?”

“Keeping you warm.”
His low voice held sly humor. “Leave the window unlocked.”

His breath
feathered across her ear, and the comfortable heat pooling low in her gut
exploded into a wicked flame. His mouth found hers and his hands drifted to her
bottom, lifting her up, aligning them perfectly together. No, she couldn’t want
him, couldn’t want a man she could never keep, and especially not one who’d
taken her away from everything she’d ever known or loved and exposed her to so
much danger in the process. If he’d just stop kissing her that way, consuming
her in the mad rush of heat, maybe she could think rationally about it.

He tilted his
head the other way and claimed her again, and every worry she had melted away
as if it had never been. She kissed him back, clinging to him as the storm of
passion rose over them, sheltering them from anything that could possibly come
between them.

Supper was
boisterous, filled with laughter and the kind of food that kept a man full for
hours afterward. They ate at the table in the kitchen, Gared at one end, Alna
at the other, Tyelu next to Byungar on one side, Ryn and Ziri across from them
on the other. Byungar’s gray eyes landed on Ziri so often, Gared cuffed him on
the back of the head, a pointed reminder not to stare.

Ryn couldn’t
blame his young cousin. Ziri was beautiful, her smile sweet whenever it touched
on the boy, far sweeter than it ever had been for him. Together, Ryn and Ziri
related their encounter with the Sweepers, and while he, Gared, and Alna
discussed the ramifications of the savage aliens being so close to
human-settled space, Ziri’s hand crept onto his thigh and lingered there for
the rest of the meal.

Once the meal
was eaten and cleaned up, Byungar scampered home. Alna settled behind her loom,
her fingers working the thread into fabric intended for clothing. Ryn sat
beside Ziri and let the conversation flow around him. She seemed fascinated by
Alna’s efficient movements.

“Would you like
to learn how to weave?” he asked.

She rested her
head on his shoulder. “I’d like to finish learning how to knit first. It’s a
lot harder than it looks.”

“Anything worth
doing is.”

“From kidnapper
to philosopher,” she murmured. “Do your depths have no limits?”

“Do you enjoy
sharpening your wit along my hide?”

She smiled, soft
and sweet. “I was under the impression you didn’t care what I did with your
hide as long as I was doing something with it.”

“I care. Maybe I
want you to care, too.”

“Maybe you
should’ve thought about that before you stole me.”

“Maybe I liked
what I saw enough to risk your anger.”

Her gaze clashed
with his. “Did you ever think to just ask me?”

“Would you have
gone with me willingly?”

“I don’t know.”

Her whispered
words hardened his certainty. He’d been right to take her as he had, to lay
claim to her as the men of her world had refused to do.

“I think I’d
like to go to sleep now,” she said.

“Do you remember
the way?”

She nodded.
“Good night, Ryn.”

“Good night,
Ziri.”

She rose and
thanked Alna and Gared for their hospitality, uttered a terse goodnight to his
prickly sister, and climbed gracefully up the steps toward the bedroom Alna had
set aside for her.

Alna cleared her
throat, drawing his gaze away from the spot where Ziri had disappeared. “She’s
well-mannered.”

“She’s a molnog,”
Tyelu scoffed. “Too docile for life here. What were you thinking, brother?”

Ryn ground his
teeth together. “Acceptance isn’t the same thing as being docile. She’s
intelligent enough to know when to fight and when to yield.”

“I like her.”
Gared slouched in his seat and sprawled his long legs out across the floor.
“Good head on her shoulders. How much did you say she haggled that yarn
merchant down?”

“To the bone,
according to the merchant.” Though Ryn doubted that very much. Shopkeepers
always padded their prices enough to outwit even the most skilled negotiator. “She’s
nearly learned enough about the
Yarinska
to pilot it on her own and has
good hands.”

Tyelu’s mouth
twisted into a sour grimace. “We don’t need to hear about your sex life.”

“I was talking
about the way she handles herself with the
Yarinska
’s systems. On the
mat, too. She’ll be a worthy opponent during the Choosing.”

“If she makes it
past the women chasing after your pretty hide, I’ll be sure to set her on her
ass before she can reach you.”

Alna glanced
sharply at her daughter. “You’ll do no such thing. If Ryn wants her and she
chooses him, you’ll make her passage easy.”

“I intend to
have her, Tyelu.” Ryn laid a hand over his sister’s white-knuckled fist. “Don’t
go against me on this.”

“I don’t like
it,” she hissed.

“You don’t have
to. Just remember, I stand for you on the day of your Choosing.”

Gared thumped
his hands against his thighs. “And let that be a lesson for you, Tyelu. Now, I’m
off to bed myself.”

“I’ll be up
shortly,” Alna said.

Gared winked. “See
that you are, woman. You, too, Tyelu. Molnog breeding waits for no woman’s
sleep.”

Tyelu rolled her
eyes. “I’m right behind you.”

Ryn stood and
tousled Tyelu’s hair. “I’ll see you tomorrow, little bit.”

She smacked his
hand away and lifted her cheek for a kiss. “Don’t make too much noise bedding
your woman tonight,” she whispered. “Papa wasn’t kidding about the early
morning.”

“We’ll be
quiet,” he whispered back, though his hopes of actually doing anything besides
sleeping next to Ziri were low. She hadn’t once yielded to him outside of the
kisses he coaxed her into.

He kissed his
mother’s cheek and left, securing the front door behind himself. The night’s
chill cut through his thin clothing as easily as a knife through water. He
ignored it and jogged around the side of the house. The light was on in Ziri’s
room, the shutters open. He grinned, found the first toehold in the siding, and
heaved himself up, climbing steadily along the wood and rock face of the house
using finger holds worn into the material by many trips up and down over the
years as he’d sneaked into and out of his second family’s home.

He was sweating
lightly by the time he placed a hand on the sill and tested the window. It
opened under a gentle push of his hand. She’d left it unlocked after all. He wiggled
inside head first and crouched in front of the window.

Ziri was
standing in front of the door, her eyes wide. “What are you doing?”

He placed a
finger to his lips. She scowled at him and jerked the tie on the door rug. It
fell in a thwoosh of fabric, screening the doorway, giving them a small
semblance of privacy.

He rose and
reached through the window, closed the shutters, then the window, and locked
them both against the night. “You’re not ready for bed.”

“I was looking
for a book to read,” she said, her voice a harsh whisper.

“I told you I’d
be here.”

Her teeth
clicked together. “I wasn’t expecting you to actually climb through the kraden
window.”

“How else would
I get in?” He sat on the edge of the bed and yanked at his shoelaces. Climbing
the side of the house wasn’t nearly as easy in the thick-soled boots he wore
aboard the
Yarinska
as it had been in the shoes he’d worn as a boy.
“Come to bed. I miss holding you.”

She huffed out a
short breath. “You’ve been holding me all day, first on the ship, and then in
this very room. How much more holding do you think I need?”

“A lot.” He
shrugged his shirt off, folded it, and set it on the floor next to his boots. “Don’t
make me beg.”

“As if,” she
muttered.

They finished
readying for bed, him swiftly, her at a slower pace. He slipped into it nude,
followed her movements around the room as she put her clothes away and cut off
the light, plunging them into a thick darkness, and held the covers up for her.

She crawled in
and put her back to him. “I like your family.”

He curled around
her and rested a hand under her night shirt against the smooth skin of her
stomach. “Even Tyelu?”

“Her, I could
maybe do without.” Ziri wiggled closer to him and sighed. “Why are you always
so much warmer than me? You just came in from the cold and you’re still
warmer.”

He tucked the
covers around her shoulders and pressed a gentle kiss to the side of her neck.
“Let me warm you inside and out.”

“That’s
impossible,” she said, her voice filled with light humor.

“Let me show
you.”

He eased her
toward him and kissed her, fitting his mouth to hers in slow, easy measures.
His hand drifted up her torso and cupped her breast, and he groaned into her
mouth. She was perfect, firm and round, the shape an exact fit for his palm.
Her nipple hardened under his touch. He ached to taste her there, to suckle her
as she writhed under him, to please her with his lips and tongue and teeth.

She jerked away
from the kiss and laid her hands over his. “What are you doing, Ryn?”

“Warming you.”

“I’m pretty sure
this is called sex, not warming.”

“I’m being
efficient.” He nibbled his way down the graceful length of her throat and found
the flutter of her pulse. “Don’t you like efficiency?”

Her throat moved
under his mouth as she swallowed. “I’ve been waiting for you to…do something.”

“I’ve been
waiting for you to accept me.”

“You think I
have?”

“Not entirely. I
hope you’re comfortable enough with me to speak your mind.” He shifted his hold
on her breast and strummed a thumb over the firm peak of her nipple. “You can
say no whenever you want. I’ll stop.”

Her hands
gripped his in a fierce hold. “Promise?”

“I swear. Don’t
be afraid, Ziri. I won’t hurt you, not like that.”

“I know,” she
said softly. “I’ve known that for a while.”

“Then let me
touch you. Let me please you.”

Her hands fell
away from his. One skimmed over his arm and down his back. “Can I touch you,
too?”

Relief sighed
out of him. “Anything you want.”

“Anything?”

“Yes.”

“Then kiss me,
Ryn. Kiss me the way you did that first time, like you’ll never want another
woman again.”

He claimed her
mouth in a clamoring rush of heat and savored the small victory patience had
won him.

* * *

Ryn’s mouth
moved across Ziri’s, firm and beautiful and so tempting, she opened for him,
giving everything he demanded of her with gentle flicks of his tongue and the
steady pressure of his lips along hers. His hand drifted across her chest, his
touch feather light, and he cupped her other breast, teasing the nipple into a
tight bud.

The warmth
gathering in her loins exploded into an inferno of desire and need. It had been
so long since a man had touched her, so long since she’d allowed herself the
freedom to explore the pleasure shared between a man and a woman. She pushed
her worries about Ryn and the reason he’d brought her to Abyw aside. Those
could wait for another day. Tonight, she wanted to hold him, needed to feel the
way a woman should when she was with a man, feminine and desirable and beloved.
Tomorrow was soon enough to sort out the questions nipping at her reason.

He broke the
kiss and trailed  hot kisses down her neck. “I want to taste you, here.” His
hand squeezed her breast gently, and she bit her lip, containing the moan
threatening to spill from her throat. “Tell me you want that, too.”

“Ryn,” she
whispered. “It’s ok to love me.”

He covered her,
pressing her into the mattress with his weight. The rigid length of his
erection prodded her core, and she froze. The Sweeper had done that to her. It
had poked its tentacle thing along her skin, groping her as it searched for a
way into her pants to do who knew what to her. She could still feel its soft
skin sliding along her own, probing relentlessly while she scrambled to save
herself.

Ziri clutched
Ryn’s back, shoring herself up with the feel of his skin under her hands and
the heat of his body on hers. There were no Sweepers here in this room. It was
just her and Ryn, two people on the verge of truly caring about each other. She
needed him now, as much as she had when his injuries had sent him into a fitful
sleep for two days, leaving her alone with the stench of dead Sweepers and a
crazy ship that had helped her one tick and hindered her the next.

Ryn’s breath
feathered along the side of her neck. “I’m trying to be gentle.”

“It feels good,
Ryn. Everything feels good.”

“You went
stiff.”

She shunted
aside her fears and pressed a tender kiss to his cheek. It was smooth under her
lips, firm, and the faintest whiff of the soap he used tickled her nose. “Bad
memories, that’s all. It wasn’t you. Will you touch me some more?”

“Mmm. Now that
I’ve started, I don’t think I can stop.”

A curl of
amusement lifted her mouth into a smile. “You promised you would.”

“Only if you
want me to.” His hips thrust gently into hers and he moaned low and soft
against her ear. “Please don’t make me stop.”

“I don’t want
you to.” She skimmed her hands down his ribs and cupped his firm bottom. The
muscles flexed under her hands and Ryn’s breaths shallowed. He bit gently into
the side of her neck and sucked her skin into his mouth. Heat flickered through
her, hard and fast, and she gasped. “Do you think maybe you could be in me
now?”