of it that stretch tight over a very specific part of her crotch.
This is an erotic-flavored capture.
“Eww,” I whimper, covering my eyes. “I’m not seeing my brother like this, I’m not seeing my brother like this...”
“Here,” Halki says with a huge smile. “Take my loincloth.”
“Thanks,” Jöran mutters, taking it. He’s staring at Halki and then at me, and then back at Halki.
I cast my eyes around us while he puts the loincloth on, and I see why the village is empty. All of the women must be here. The youngest is maybe eighteen, the oldest maybe Yatanak’s age. Each and every one of them is tied up in a similar manner to the woman Jöran is currently paying attention to, and all of them aren’t wearing a stitch.
Not unless you count the hemp rope. And ugh, the friction they must be feeling…
But they took my brother. He’s naked, for goodness’ sake. If they’re uncomfortable, they deserve it; they deserve whatever he’s done to them. I clear my throat. “Jöran, this is Halki—”
“We are mated,” Halki informs him with an impressive amount of threat for as levelly as he delivers the news.
“—and we’re here to rescue you,” I finish weakly.
Jöran looks between us. His mouth quirks, and he sends me a smile. “Thanks, Nalle.” He reaches out and ruffles my hair.
I’m having trouble processing. “I saw this all going differently. I thought you’d desperately need our help to get free and come home.”
My brother laughs softly. “Why don’t you help me round up my women instead? I’m missing two.”
“Your women?”
Jöran smiles, and it’s a masculine, powerful thing. For the first time, I really see him. Not as my little brother that I’ve always protected. Not an innocent brat of a boy whom I love to over-mother. A man. Jöran is a full-grown man.
With debauched pride evident in his voice, he says, “Meet my naughty harem.”
I want to shudder at his words. But the evidence is all around us: these women did not get in this state because they were making wholesome appleleaf tea with him.
Apparently, whatever they were doing to land them here in ropes is the result of my brother teaching said harem a lesson. My brother flashes a raffish grin at two dozen sets of disbelieving (and some furious) eyes. “I warned you to behave.”
I wave my hands in the air. “So you’re not desperate to escape them? What about the young men they left dead on the plains?” I wheeze, thinking of those bodies, disgusted that I’m feeling relief because that fate wasn’t also my brother’s.
Jöran loses his smile. “What was done to those men wasn’t what you think, Nalle.” His gaze bores into mine before he gestures to a group of girls that I didn’t realize were even here. He’s left them untied, and they’re huddled together behind everyone else, looking terrified of me.
I shift in surprise—but none of their attention moves with me. Oh. They’re terrified of Halki behind me. I glance up at him to see he’s hulking over me a little, and with his strange eyes and his scales instead of regular skin, he does look a little frightening.
I silently snort to myself, thinking, You should see him when he’s full dragon.
Jöran continues, “No one bothered to ask my women why those males were staked out to die. Know this,” Jöran’s face turns harder, colder, “they deserved to be left out for the jackals to pick clean.”
And then my brother is enveloping me in a hug. And for the first time, I acknowledge the bulk he has to his body. He’s muscled and full-framed and taller than me by a head and a half and he’s… all grown up.
Jöran isn’t my ‘little’ brother anymore.
I suppose he hasn’t been for a long time.
He draws away, giving me a gentle smile. “Thank you for storming to my rescue, Nalle. And I’d appreciate it greatly if you can help me tie up a couple of loose ends.”
A few of his women growl, making his smile widen.
“Let’s go find my troublemakers,” Jöran says.
CHAPTER 14
HALKI
With my sensitive nose, we have no trouble rounding up the two women hiding from their mate. I find them in a little house covered with grass and dirt, and it’s no trouble to step inside and raise a wide, flat platform that holds a down-filled bed, revealing the two females flattened underneath it like pillbugs.
Nalle’s brother chuckles as he hunkers down and pets one of them. Then he catches them both by the wrist