Vedikus made short work of the carcass, disposing the excess well away from the cave, and cleaning it.
“What is that?” she asked just to fill the quiet.
“A mountain tark. They are common here in the cliffs and more so as we ascend. They’re called to the heights and are often found high up in trees if they make their way out of this region.” He stuck it on the blade of her weapon and placed it in the fire, next to the jar that was boiling over with water. Before long, the smell of meat being roasted sent her stomach rumbling. She had eaten little in the last span of days, and she was beginning to feel it.
“Come.” Vedikus pulled apart sizzling strips of meat with his fingers. She moved to his side at his bidding, and with the same possessive look he gave her earlier, he fed her from his hand. Aldora chewed slowly and brushed her hair with her fingers.
“Vedikus,” she started, unsure, between bites, still feeling the wetness from their coupling every time she shifted her legs.
“What?”
“Why do you ask me to mount you?” Aldora blurted out quickly.
He glanced at her sharply before cutting off another strip. “It is a tradition among my people to claim our mate.”
She scrunched her face in confusion.
“Our strength comes from the animalistic side, but our power comes from our lineage with humans and the purity of our blood. When a bull mates, they mount the female, and we are driven to do the same, but sex is often had between the different clans of a tribe. We see our ancestors as greater than us because they have lived and have propagated, but it stems from the natural wrongness of the act itself. A female cannot mount a bull, it is not done, but we are human too and choose to protect that part of ourselves that the queen has given us. To have you mount me,” Vedikus lowered the dagger, “is a devious act and one not followed by many minotaurs. It binds us. It is not done unless it is between two who choose to mate for life because it wars with our instincts. For you to lower yourself onto me,” his voice deepened, “proves the union is sought... not forced.”
Her mouth dried up and she lifted the jug to clear the taste from her mouth. “I didn’t know. Does that mean we are married?”
“That is a human concept and one I have heard about. Yes, in vagueness, we are married but there is no way to break the bind which we have placed. ThatIhave placed.”
Her belly fluttered. Aldora wiped the back of her hand across her mouth and hid a small smile behind it.Trickery, again.She knew she should be irate, but such small things no longer mattered to her. A small piece of her knew she would have stayed the moment he bound her in rope to his side. That same part wanted to show her appreciation because she wanted her monstrous warrior, needed him in the quietness of her heart.
The thing I feared most...
The labyrinth.
It had become an otherworldly salvation. A dangerous one, but there hadn’t been a day in all the long years of residing in Thetras and working on the farm that her life hadn’t been in danger, that the corrupt, paranoid, deviant men and women of Savadon hadn’t oppressed her.
“So... we are mated,” she whispered to herself.
Vedikus’s gaze sharpened on her further, heating up her insides. “Yes, we are mated.”
She no longer hid her smile, overcome with a wonderful sense of freedom, and climbed back into his lap. He stiffened, unsure, as she settled over him, reaching down to move his leathers to the side once again to find his erect prick. Without meeting his eyes, she took him back into her body with a sigh and leaned into his chest. His hands came up to wrap back around her, holding her to him. “You do not know what you do, female,” his voice was raspy and thick above her.
“I know exactly what I’m doing.” Aldora rested her head upon him and closed her eyes. “This time I know what it means.”
I know you.
She pressed her lips to his skin and tasted his flesh, inhaling heavily to take in his scent at the same time. There was little energy left in her bones to move as she drowned in his heady aura, his enchanting voice, and his heat.
Vedikus leaned back and pulled her atop him, keeping them joined. Aldora matched her breathing to his, and with the early morning light brightening to day, she found true rest for the first time since she could remember, well away from all that she had known. The past she no longer wanted to dwell on. Because right at that moment...
She felt like a queen.
