My gaze snaps back to my idiot brother, and I don’t even have to say anything - he already looks chagrined. My jaw ticks nonetheless.
“In my defense, I made sure she had a really good time,” the idiot says, lifting his palms as if that would placate me.
“You stupid fucking geliklik! What the fuck were you-”
As soon as I’d launched myself at him, Az is in front of me, tackling my onward motion and stopping me from advancing. Vel is in the middle of us, too.
“Look, look, look,” Zann repeats, his hands up in surrender as he tries to get me to calm down. He should be thankful he’s out of my reach. “Sheasked me to show her what it was like. Xoe is my friend!”
“You don’tfuckyour friends, Zann! You could have bitten her for fuck’s sake! You could have just given her your permission like a sane person!”
“She was scared, alright?!” Zann shouts back at me. “She’s got her first contract coming up and she trusted me to show her what it would be like. Permissions don’t show you shit, Kiahn, c’mon. You know that.”
I snort a short breath from my nose and shrug out of Az’s hold. He keeps his hand on my chest, giving me a look that asks if I’m going to try and launch myself at our youngest brother again. I shake my head minutely, but continue to glare at Zann.
“I’ve known Xoe for years.” Zann continues, spearing his fingers through his hair. “She approached me with this, Kiahn, not the other way around, and I had my reservations. But no one else she knew or trusted would be as willing as me to take the bite suppressants.”
I tip my face up to the ceiling, closing my eyes as I let out a long, weary sigh.
“Sheasked me,” he repeats.
“Oh, and I suppose you got nothing out of this, huh?”
Zann rubs at his horn, his gaze focusing on nothing at all as he seems to conjure the memory in question. “It was all a bit weird, actually. Not bad. But…” he shrugs and gives me that boyish grin that has gotten him out of so many questionable situations before. “… well, I don’t normally know the female so well before we…you know.”
Of course he doesn’t. He’s the one that flits here, there and everywhere to meet new women of every different species. It occurs to me then, that this probably happened a few months ago when he’s suddenly made a trip to the capital without warning or much explanation. I groan and scrub my hands down my face. “You do know that father is going to demand you make this right, right?”
Zann only lifts a brow.
Hemustknow what I’m talking about.
“He’s going to demand you enter a contract with Xoe… probably a long, recurring one, too. Until you’ve made amends with her senator father by binding our two families together through you siring a child on her. Maybe more than one. They may even make you keep going until she bears you a daughter.”
Zann’s face goes so pale, I swear it’s like I’ve just told him he’s being shipped off to war.
26
Chapter 26 - Niska
It’s been two days since we arrived on Xaavia, and unfortunately, I’ve not seen a whole lot of Kiahn. Apparently he’s been busy with his princely duties - duties that now include making sure his brother, Zann doesn’t try to flee the planet. The king did not stay long, and I’m not going to be so arrogant as to claim that I understand the dynamic between him and his sons, but to say there is a certain kind of strain between them would be an understatement.
He had been polite to Jaya, Lois and I at dinner that evening, but had left soon after. In truth, he’d seemed more interested in the prospect that my contract with Kiahn will pave the way for future contracts with Xaviann women who can help strengthen relationships between the various principalities than anything else.
Which… I guess was the whole point of me agreeing to this whole thing. That’s what I signed up to when Lady Zalora and Vel explained their plan before they bought my freedom.
Kiahn had gripped his fancy golden dinner-spork tightly in a fist while his father had been talking about which lucky female he should be considering next, though. So maybe he’s not so open to the idea of further contracts as everyone claims he should be?
Is it wrong that I find comfort in that?
“Are either of you at the center yet?!” Lois calls from somewhere else in the palace hedge maze. Vel had given us a very brief tour of the various palace gardens and terraces yesterday but we’d made her promise to bring us back to the maze today for some fun. Xaviann mazes are not too dissimilar to ones back on Earth, except the shrubbery is super tall to account for Xaviann height, and the neat, topiary hedging is a deep plum purple instead of the usual green.
“No!” I shout back. “I think I got turned around. I’m pretty sure I’m heading in the wrong direction completely!”
It doesn’t matter, though. It’s all part of the fun and I know I’ll get there eventually.
“Maybe splitting up wasn’t a good idea!” a voice pipes up, sounding further away.
“Where’s your sense of competition, Jaya?!” Lois shouts back, teasing, her words almost echoing.
