“What are you doing?” I cried, looking down at my nipple.
Mirari eyed me carefully and then let out a long sigh. “This is the Dakkari way,Missiki.”
“N-no,” I said, holding out my hands when she approached me. “Stop.”
“Missiki, this is for theVorakkar. You must.”
“How does this haveanythingto do with him?” I cried out, my voice climbing higher and higher in my panic. My heart was racing fast and my rushing blood was loud in my ears.
This might just be my breaking point. Out of everything, a short skirt and painted nipples had broken me.
“He will take the gold into his mouth tonight, consume it so it is a part of him,” Mirari explained, as if she were talking about how clear the skies were today and not about Arokanlickingmy nipples clean. “It is the Dakkari—”
“The Dakkari way, I know. I know,” I whispered, staring at the little gold pot like it was a blade in her hands.
Goddess help me. What was with the Dakkari andgold?
I knew there was no escaping this. Just like everything else that had happened thus far.
Inhaling a sharp breath, I snatched the pot from her grasp and said, “I’ll do it myself.”
Mirari let me have the pot and shuffled backwards, to stand next to Lavi, who I thought looked a littleamused.
Hands trembling, I painted my nipples and areolas gold until they glittered in the candlelight of the tent. Once I was done, I tugged the necklace plate, encrusted with red jewels, so that it helped cover my breasts. But it wasn’t enough.
“You are ready,” Mirari announced and another jolt of fear and nerves shot through me.
I felt like a stranger again, that desperate emotion rising inside me. I’d allowed Mirari and Lavi to have their way with me. They’d brushed and dried and volumized my hair until it fell in soft, big waves down my back. Into the strands, they’d threaded in little gold beads and cuffs that I heard jingle whenever I moved my head.
To my face, they’d taken a surprisingly light hand, only outlining my eyes with thin, gold strokes, bringing out colors in my irises I hadn’t even known I’d possessed. To my cheekbones and lips, they’d dusted both with a shimmery gold powder.
When I looked at myself in the small mirror they’d brought, I hardly recognized myself. My chest was heaving with shortened breaths as I took in their handiwork. My hair had never been fuller and my face seemed softened by the gold powder. My eyes looked desperate and wild and I couldn’t stand to look at myself for long, so I turned the mirror away.
“I’m ready,” I whispered, taking in a long breath. Better to get this over with.
Night had fallen hours ago. One of the darkest nights too, considering it was a ‘black moon.’ Or a new moon, as the humans called it. Mirari and Lavi guided me from the tent and when I stepped outside, shivering a bit in the cool air, my eyes found Arokan’s. He was waiting for me.
Breath hitching, I took him in. He’d gotten ready elsewhere considering that he wore a hanging fur cloth and not the pants he’d had on when he’d left the tent earlier. His hair was loose and long down his back, his tail was decorated in gold cuffs, and his eyes were lined in black, making the yellow ring of his irises that much more intense.
My belly quivered. He was watching me with a silent ferocity that made me feel like prey and when I straightened, the necklace bobbed at my bare breasts, drawing his gaze there.
Even from a distance, I heard him make a sound, almost like a growl. It made my nerves jump even higher, especially when I noticed he stood next to hispyroki, which was freshly painted with gold lines, whose reins he held in his large, six-fingered grip.
My palms went sweaty at the sight of the beast.
A part of me, the cowardly part, wanted to turn and dart back inside the tent, to hide there for the remainder of the night and bolt from the camp at my next opportunity, to try and brave the wild lands to navigate my way back home.
That was suicide, I knew, but I was afraid enough to want totry. At least, the unreasonable and emotional part of me wanted to try.
I’d made a promise, I reminded myself.
With that thought, my feet—which were bare and unprotected—guided me to Arokan, though I stumbled a bit. The clearing in front of the tent was empty, the whole camp was quiet, though a gentle yellow glow emanated over it, which seemed strange. Silently, Mirari and Lavi slipped away, threading around the quiet tents, disappearing from view.
Until it was just Arokan and I. And his beast.
He didn’t speak. He held out his free arm, extending his hand towards me, and with a final breath, I took it. His hand was warm and mine was cold. My whole body trembled though I desperately tried to stop shaking.
Arokan gripped me to him, pulling me close so that I felt the fur cloth covering his genitals brush against my bare belly. The fur tickled, it was so soft.
