Chapter Twelve
When she awoke thenext day, Zain was dressing himself in the same fur skins he had come to the ceremony in. The cave was dimply lit, and the entrance had been closed off by wooden doors. Lana watched him, her body content, her mind awakening. Other than his strange coloring and certain attributes of his lovemaking, Zain was like a large, well-muscled human man in every way.
Her mind became troubled as she began to awaken more, though. The magic of the night before was disappearing like a dream from her mind, and her thoughts set off for the problems that troubled her: where she was, whether she should still try to—if she even could—escape her captivity, because while what she had experienced here was glorious for her body, it was still captivity, and she—
“I can sense your troubled thoughts, mate,” Zain told her, still looking in the opposite direction as he reclaimed an article from the floor. Lana started, and her eyes went wide with fear.
He turned to her. His expression, while still fearsomely dominant, the stare of a fierce warrior, looked more relaxed than when she had first met him, and—dare she think it?—almost tender.
She tried to speak, but her throat was dry.
Zain retrieved a flask from a dark pocket of the room and handed it to her. “Water,” he explained, when she looked at it suspiciously.
She swallowed half the flask greedily, but realized she was being incredibly rude, and extended it to Zain, even though she thought she might die of thirst.
His lips, incredibly, moved up in a very slight smile, and he pushed it back toward her. “It is a good sign that you are thirsty,” he growled.
Lana drank greedily, until it was finished. “Of what?” she whispered, wiping her mouth.
Zain’s eyes locked on hers, and the amber briefly went black. Shimmers of glowing red traveled through his markings. “Of successful mating,” he said. “Of impregnation.”
Lana’s mouth fell open. Zain’s words sent a warm sensation through her body, but she felt that she should be outraged, or at least... at least...
“How do you know my thoughts are troubled?” she asked, and the boldness of the question surprised even her.
Zain stroked her face. “Now that I possess you, I can sense how you feel. Even though you are human. It is my responsibility now, to soothe your troubles. Especially if you are seeded with my child.” Changing the subject almost immediately, Zain rose. “You are thirsty,” he proclaimed, and disappeared into the shadows to retrieve another jug of water.
Lana drank it greedily.
When she finished, she looked at Zain. “So what... what will happen to me now?” she asked.
“Is this what troubles you, Katalana?” Zain touched her face. For a moment his very human features expressed concern, and Lana felt her eyes grow wet at the tender feel of her name in his mouth. Her heart felt like it would burst. She was unable to speak.
Zain’s features, almost as suddenly as they had grown tender, grew dark and sharp. His hand dropped and he rose from the tousled bed. “Your fate here will be the same as your fate would have been on Galleon,” he said, his voice suddenly cold.
Lana blinked away a tear and wiped one away briskly as it rolled down her cheek. She moved her mouth to speak but could not find the words.
Zain looked down at her, and between them she could feel a change in the air, a tension, which only made her eyes hotter and wetter. She pulled her knees to her chin and looked away.
“Your training with the Imperial Realm has prepared you for nothing different than what will happen to you here,” Zain explained, and his voice seemed almost angry. “As an Atrix of the breeding program, you were to be sold to a Galleon prince... a prince of cowards, who have submitted to the yoke of the Imperial Realm.”
Zain narrated all of this matter-of-factly, and when Lana did not respond, he made a noise that sounded very much like a growl and began to walk toward the doorway of the cave. “Nothing about your mating should be unexpected. If you were willing to give yourself to the cowards of the Imperial Realm, you should be pleased to—”
Lana dropped her legs and sat bolt upright, a sudden fury overtaking her. “I did notgivemyself to the Imperial Realm!” she spat, surprised by her own viciousness. She trembled, knowing that a punishment was likely soon to follow her audacity, but the outrage of being held captive and then given a lecture about... her expectations!... was too much. She lifted her chin defiantly as Zain turned slowly toward her.
“You are an Atrix of the Imperial Realm, in the training program—”
“I was kidnapped!” Lana shot back. “I was kidnapped and I... I don’t even know... what an Atrix is!”
She was shouting, her fists clenched. A small vein of fear was snaking through her, especially as the gaze of Zain’s eyes turned fiery. But she felt a huge sense of relief, at last speaking aloud her fury at her capture. Her eyes had overflowed with tears, but she didn’t care.
Zain was moving toward her. He stopped at the opposite edge of the bed, his muscles tense, his markings a dark, blood-red color as unlike the red of his passion as the red of his normal countenance. “Kidnapped,” he repeated. It was a statement, not a question.
“I am a free Viphean!” Lana said, her voice strangled.
“You are an Atrix,” Zain said, a note of confusion in his harsh tone. “You were kidnapped by this rebel colony from the Imperial Realm, it is true—”
“I was kidnappedbythe Imperial Realm!” Lana insisted forcefully. “And I don’t even... I don’t evenknowwhat this Atrixis.” She wiped her tears away impatiently.
