“I agree. I think we should put her under Mave’s or Allaina’s protection. I would say Senri, but she’s—”
“She can’t go to any of them,” Alchan said softly, his shoulders slumping. “It would be unfair to whoever we pick and to her.”
“Why? Mave would die for someone—”
“Did you hear Mave’s reaction when she saw Lilliana? That first moment when she bowed to me, did you hear it?” Alchan turned back on him, pain in his eyes. “It’s the same reaction a female normally gives me, realizing how dominant I am.”
Rain tried to think back and remembered hearing a few growls as Lily had bowed before Alchan, her face flushed. He hadn’t been paying attention to who did it because he had been in shock about who was standing in front of him. He’d been too consumed by the fact an ahren was in Anden and was suddenly in front of them.
“Why did she growl?” Rain asked softly, obviously missing something important.
“Andinna have a lot of instincts. A dominant female sees a bedru and sees something out of place, a threat that needs to be crushed, an aberration that doesn’t belong, a male who is beyond the place allowed to him. In the same vein, females like Mave, Allaina, Senri, and Leria, the dominant ones with very little challenging them, will see an ahren and think…she’s a weakness that needs to be purged from our people. Only the worst of females act on that impulse. Murder is murder. I never met an ahren before, but my grandmother made sure I was educated on them. She met one long before I was born and had to fight the urge to crush the poor female. Normally, ahren are kept…out of society. The same way bedrus try to stay out of it.” Alchan leaned on the stone cliffside next to the door, sighing. “So, I can’t send her to Mave or Allaina or back to Leria.”
“I didn’t say send her back to Leria. That bitch needs to be taught a lesson,” Rain muttered, shaking his head. “I think she needs to stay with us if she can’t go anywhere else. At least we’ll respect her and what she wants more than Leria obviously did.” He hated it. He hated how Leria had abused Lilliana’s submissiveness to do this. It reeked of disrespect and now that he knew more, contempt.
“Agreed.”
Rain’s eyebrows went up. He hadn’t expected Alchan to agree with him.
“Leria used this poor female to play a game with me, and she will pay for that in due time,” Alchan explained, giving a dangerous smile. “She’s backed us into a corner, Rain. She’s not allowed to do that to her king, and she would have never tried if I were her queen. Lilliana will have to stay with us because we’re probably the best suited to keeping her safe and happy.”
“You hate this, don’t you?” Rain asked, seeing the frustration in his lover’s face. “Alchan…”
“Leria sent me a female who will never tell me no,” Alchan said, his voice straining. “Think about that, Rain. She set me up to…”
“Oh, my love,” Rain said, reaching out to touch Alchan’s face, holding it in both his hands. He didn’t want to lose the precious eye contact they had in that moment. “You would never do something like that.”
“Rain…What I want and what I will do are sometimes two very different things,” Alchan said, his eyes haunted by troubles, Rain knew he struggled with every day—the need to possess, to dominate, to control. The tight leash his lover held only loosened when Rain was in his bed at night, and it had begun slipping more and more each day. Alchan was probably scared he would snap that leash and lose himself.
“You are thinking of all the bad things about yourself, Alchan. You’re also loving, protective, and—”
“Because you’re mine,” Alchan growled, that possessive bedru nature flashing in his eyes. “Don’t think I’m like that with everyone.”
“What if…” Rain bit his lip, leaning in as a radical thought entered his mind. It was crazy and stupid, but it was an idea. It was playing with a fire he wasn’t sure he wanted to play with, but it had to be said. “We give her a chance.”
“Excuse me?” Alchan looked at him as though he was insane.
“You heard me. Let’s just live with her and see how things play out. Don’t close your mind to the possibility that—”