Page 18 of The Naga Maverick’s Determined Mate

Cosima tapped her luscious bottom lip as she thought about it. “Krashe was still communicating with them in some way, right? Trying to help them solve their food issues.” She turned in my arms to meet my eyes and I loved how open and relaxed she looked. We were in pretty dire straits but she was calm, cool-headed. “He had me look over some plans he’d come up with, with Naomi last week, on how to build mountain terraces suitable for crops.”

“What I want to know,” I said, “Is how they went from having a Queen, to a King. What happened?” The day I’d made my entrance at Outcast Haven, Bitter Storm warriors had approached, led by a male called Aser. He and Krashe had talked for a long time and then the warriors had disappeared.

This Aser had been a strange male, an unusual figure to be in a position of authority, considering he was slight and did not carry himself as a warrior. I eyed the door as I wondered if this Aser was the one they had made into a King. In times of great unrest like this famine the Bitter Storm Clan was experiencing, it would not surprise me if a new figure took the chance to wrest control.

Not only that, but I believe Naomi and Krashe had talked about how the Queen had banished many good warriors after her failed attempt to attack the Thunder Rock village. This Aser had assured Krashe on his visit that he’d welcomed all those warriors back into the Clan. We should have realized right then that meant the Queen was no longer in control.

When I mentioned all of that to Cosima her eyes started to sparkle. “Maybe this is all good, Zsekhet. Think about it! Krashe said Aser was the best assistant he ever had. And they’ve been in talks, trying to open trade with Haven as a conduit for Bitter Storm toward the other Clans. Surely, this Aser wouldn’t want to see us killed, he can’t risk Krashe’s help falling through.”

She was right, we had leverage. My mate was a clever female and she was far better at dealing with being locked up in here than I was. Which surprised me, as I wasn’t the one that had been held captive for a long time before. Just thinking about my tiny, adorable mate locked up in a prison somewhere made my chest ache and rage simmered through my veins.

“You are right, Zsekhet. All we need to do is wait. And maybe eat… Do you have any food left in that bag?” She rubbed her flat stomach with a grin and I instantly yanked the satchel closer to pull out our options. It was a good thing they hadn’t even bothered to take my weapons or belongings. They counted on their numbers to keep us in check, I wasn’t sure if that was placidness or an oversight.

We ate the wrapped ration cakes of dried meat, fruits, and cereals packaged in fat to help them stick together. It was a common traveling staple everywhere, though each Clan tended to use slightly different recipes. The Shaman had made them with herbs that added spice which tingled across the tongue and left a pleasant, savory aftertaste. Cosima didn’t complain about having to eat meat but I still felt bad that she had no other options.

Once our stomachs were filled and we’d drank sips from the waterskin, I counted the remaining handful of rations to count out how many days it would last us. A few days should be alright, unless Bitter Storm decided to feed us, but I doubted that.

“Hey, what’s happening with you? You are so restless. Zsekhet, talk to me?” Cosima’s gray eyes were far too insightful as she ran them over my face. I rubbed my hands over my left horn, caught myself fidgeting, and curled my fingers into fists at my sides. Maybe I needed a distraction, like my mate but that thought fled me when I saw the look in her eyes.

She was trusting me to keep her safe. She had finally opened herself up to the possibility of being my mate. After all the tears she’d shed the past months, hiding herself inside Haven, she had taken that leap of faith to brave the world once more. I couldn’t be anything but honest with her, even if that meant sharing something that felt like a weakness.

“I know it’s silly, but I keep fearing that the cave roof will collapse on top of us. I am not used to being inside so much, back at Serqethos, it has always been open skies and endless sand dunes.” But I didn’t really miss that place or my Clan either, I missed the skies and soaring through them on Sesethul’s back. I didn’t like it when I couldn’t just give in to whatever mood struck me and go for a flight.

She reached up to pat my cheek, her fingers lingering along my scales, stroking along my jawline, and teasing down the black horn on my chin. “That’s not silly. I understand that. You’ve always lived outside while Thunder Rock and Bitter Storm spend a lot of time underground, using these tunnels as homes and to travel. But Ses doesn’t fit in here, of course you hate it.”

Technically, Ses would totally fit inside this cave, but her point stood. I was relieved she didn’t think it stupid and now that I’d shared it with her, I felt a little more settled. Then she smiled and indicated the roof above us. “I can assure you though, that the cave looks man-made. It was carved out and from just a glance, I can tell that they carved supporting arches to make this domed area inside the mountain extra strong. I doubt this place will ever collapse.”

I couldn’t help it, I laughed out loud. Endlessly amused to hear that a Clan so afraid of technology and the relics most other Clans scavenged to use, lived in an ancestral cave. To most Clans, they were the ones breaking the laws. Both Copper Tooth and Thunder Rock for instance had rules in place that disallowed anyone but Shamans to go into ancestral caves to explore.

Cosima talked through my laughter, her eyes warm and excited as she spouted off on the virtues of arches. I had not been prepared for a ten-minute long lecture on this architectural feature but I loved seeing her passion as she explained, even if some of the unfamiliar words she used made my eyes glaze over.

Then my eyes caught on Cosima’s pretty pink mouth and I couldn’t help myself, I leaned in and covered her lips with my own. My spine tingled, my senses flooded with her taste, and all I wanted was to sip at her for as long as she let me. Her mouth, or the delicious well I could scent between her legs.

Chapter 11

Cosima

I wasn’t sure why I had been so opposed to this idea of being with Zsekhet. I liked the way he talked, the sound of his voice, but mostly his words. Not to mention that he was always trying to please me with the things I liked. When Krashe had shown him how Naomi responded to getting flowers, he’d gotten with that program in an instant.

That lust brewed between us was undeniable but how could I move on with my heart, after Caleb? If I believed these Naga and their whole fated mate thing, then Zsekhet was my true love, not Caleb, and how could that be?

“You loved another,” Zsekhet whispered, pulling back from my mouth to gaze at me with his intense, golden eyes. The pupils weren’t quite round, shaped more like a vertical line, thicker in the middle, and with two dots on either end. I was startled by those words, and flushed guiltily when I realized my thoughts had strayed when he’d been showing me all the kissing skills he’d learned in the past couple of hours.

I raised a shoulder, unsure if I should mention Caleb when I was sitting in Zsekhet’s arms on a bed. That was a total mood kill, wasn’t it? And I was sure I wanted to lose myself for a little while in the pleasure that Zsekhet had to offer. There was no better way to pass the time.

“You can tell me, my sweet Cosima. I wish to understand. We need to have this talk if we ever want to move forward, don’t you think?” He spoke gently, kindly, but it was the tenderness in his eyes that got to me. He pulled me into his lap, cradling me close, and then he urged me again in the softest murmur to speak.

Fine, I guess I needed to tell someone about what had happened to me at some point anyway. Why not Zsekhet? He was funny, he was protective, and he was kind. But he was also my mate, and this was about Caleb. How would he take that?

“I was engaged to my childhood sweetheart. This boy who’d lived next door to me most of my life. Caleb and I were thick as thieves so it just made sense to get married, mated.” I hesitated as I remembered all the good times I’d shared with my best friend, the mischief we’d gotten up to as kids, or the pranks we’d pulled as college students.

With a deep breath I continued, “Then we were chosen as the pair of interns to accompany this big architectural firm to design the first city to be built on Scrak-4. A planet that had recently been added to the UAR.” Zsekhet was nodding along but I was pretty sure he had no idea what the UAR meant, even if the girls and I had regularly talked about it. According to Vera, it had been really hard to make Zathar grasp the enormity of what the UAR entailed.

“UAR means United Alliance of Races. You need to think of it as a collection of Clans together. Three Clans, only these Clans are so big they live on multiple words, all throughout a huge section of space. Inhabiting all these planets that just like Serant, circle the stars you can see at night.” I gestured up at the ceiling and then hid a wince when I realized it just emphasized how locked up were right now, trapped beneath a mountain as Zsekhet had described it.

“That is a lot of people,” Zsekhet said quietly. “I have seen how it looks, many people together from the sky. I have seen the skies. I can’t imagine traveling beyond them like you have.” He sounded intrigued and curious, almost eager to find out what it would be like and I felt myself shut down. There was nothing good out there, not anymore. And I realized that meant I kind of liked it here, on Serant.

“The UAR had a company of soldiers to accompany us on Scrak-4, named such as it was the fourth planet from the Scrak sun. On the very first day of our arrival, we were attacked, the soldiers killed, and Caleb and I were taken captive.” I shuddered from the memory. Makeshift explosions had blown up our vehicles, my ears ringing as Caleb and I crawled from the wreck; disoriented and scared. Sand in our noses, the hot air of the planet had beat down on us, dazzling our senses against the shimmering crystal sands.