“Do explain that shit,” Thor says, immediately offended. He really hates any insinuation he is not the good guy. Drako is already exploiting that. I wonder if Thor knows how easily he is manipulated?
“You think women are weak and need to be protected.”
“Our crew had plenty of women on it. I don’t think they’re weak. I just don’t think they deserve to be treated like animals or objects.”
“You deal with her your way. I’ll deal with her mine. We will see which of us has more success.”
“I’m not sucking your dick,” I tell Drako. “I haven’t had my breakfast yet.”
I go and sit next to Thor, knowing that he will not make me service Drako, and knowing that Drako isn’t going to risk injury just for a little morning delight. He is a piece of work, that man. He doesn’t think he is doing anything wrong in giving me suchintimate commands. Where he comes from, men get to do that. What a fucking barbarian he is.
Breakfast puts us all in a better mood. There’s not enough really, but Thor portions the eggs and meat out evenly, and refuses to take extra of mine when I offer them to him.
“Now’s not the time to be a gentleman,” I tell him. “You need this more than me.”
“You need your strength too,” he says. “Now eat up.”
“Look at the two of you, playing civilized. I can’t wait to see that evaporate,” Drako says, because he’s a jerk, and jerks like to say incendiary things just to piss people off.
“Maybe we’ll rub off on you,” I say. “Maybe you’ll turn into a better person.”
“There’s one thing you can rub,” Drako says.
I roll my eyes. “Now you just sound like a horny teenage boy,” I say. “Not really giving fearsome jarl right now.”
I know how to argue with dickheads. That’s kind of my special talent. So if Drako wants to get verbal, he’s fucked. If he decides to get physical, then I’m fucked.
He smirks at me as I lean back behind Thor just a little, using him as a human shield.
“That mouth of yours is going to get you in trouble,” he says casually. “But I’ll tend to it later. We should get moving. We need to put more distance between ourselves and the feeding site.”
Hearing him call his camp ‘the feeding site’ puts a cold chill right down my spine. Drako has adjusted to the loss of his people very, very quickly. Or he’s hiding his trauma very, very well. I have heard tales of how the Vikar raise their offspring, and I bet they’re all good at forcing them to eat trauma.
Thor agrees and we all stand up. I’d say we pack up camp, but we don’t have a lot of stuff. Thor has some things scavenged from the ship, and I wish we could go back and get some more, but I know that’s obviously too dangerous. Maybe. Probably. Really want to go back to that ship.
With everything ready to go, Drako, Thor, and I stand together alone. We have all lost our homes, our families, our crews. We are orphans on a harsh world that has the sole intention of killing us. Everywhere I look it feels like something is waiting to consume me.
I glance over at the two men by my side. Thor is to the left. His gaze is set to the sky, which reflects his eyes. He looks hopeful, which seems wild to me given our circumstances. He believes we are going to be saved at any moment, because that’s what he’d do.
Drako is to the right. His gaze is on the path before us. His jaw is tight, slightly gritted. I don’t think he’s angry. I think he is preparing himself for a fight. They are such different men, and I do not know how we are all going to survive together.
My body aches from the way they handled me. The passion of the fire in the dark has given way to a morning that is less overtly intense. Thor is definitely more sexually protective of me now,but he made rough use of me last night. They shared me. They got along while they were inside me. I feel a little like I am the connection between them.
“I have one thing to say before we set off,” Thor says. “Drako, if you hurt Selene, I will flay some part of you. I am not going to kill you, because we are going to need many hands for survival. But I will do things to you that you will forever regret.”
It is such a brutal, terrible threat, and it is given in such a casual way I almost don’t understand it at first. Then I think about flaying, and what that entails, and how it would to be left alive after it, and I cringe quite visibly.
Drako laughs. He is completely unperturbed. Maybe he doesn’t believe Thor. I do. There’s a certainty in the way he speaks that makes me think he means every single word.
“If you tried to hurt me, I would kill you,” Drako says. “I wouldn’t bother with the theatrics and the torture.”
“And then you would be left alone with this one,” Thor says. “And you are not prepared for that. She would ruin you.”
“She could try.”
“You are not understanding me. She would kill you. When there are only two people trying to survive a hostile world, and one of them doesn’t care what happens to her, the one who cares, dies.”
Drako looks like he doubts me. “A female, properly handled, will be obedient.”
