Lahn kept talking. “Do not ask me to do something like that again, Circe. I understand your heart guides you in many matters. But I am warrior, he is warrior and this is a line we never cross. Am I understood?”
I kept my lips pressed together and nodded.
His eyes dropped to my mouth then his arm tightened around me, pulling me up on his body. His other hand lifted to shift my hair from one side of my face and hold it behind my neck.
Then he spoke in a murmur, “I do not like my queen’s lips pressed tight.”
I relaxed my lips and he gave a slight nod of satisfaction then his eyes locked on mine and when he spoke again, his voice was soft and even, f**k me, tender.
And I liked it.
“It means much to me that you let your heart guide you. It guided you back to me after I marked you and forced you to guard it from me.”
Oh God. He was being sweet again.
He kept talking. “But this, I fear, will cause you harm, my doe. And I want you to use caution as you open that heart. Zahnin is my closest lieutenant and I know much of him. He did not come to training direct from his parents’ care. His father was a warrior who died before he was born. A sickness took his mother not long after. His family took him in but they didn’t show him a great deal of kindness in the short time they had him. This would lead me to believe he does not understand how to provide this to his wife. Much time has passed since the Hunt so you must not hold high hopes for him winning her for, if you do, and he does not succeed, I know you will be crushed. This can happen and does. There are warriors who do not break through with their wives. If this does not happen, they can then cast them aside and attend another Hunt. It is their reward, as a warrior of Suh Tunak, to be provided a beauty to warm their bed, to do this willingly, to provide for their desires and to give them sons. And it is their right to keep seeking until that is found.”
My head tilted and I whispered, “Cast aside?”
He nodded. “Those cast aside are taken care of, given chams, even a slave. But they do not live the life of bounty that a warrior’s wife lives. Although the basics are provided, many of them must learn a trade to live a decent life. Sometimes, they will find a free man who will wish to take them as bride, and do, but this is rare. A warrior’s wife who is cast aside bears the reputation that she is unfit or unable to provide for a man’s needs and, although beautiful, will be avoided.”
Well, that sucked.
“Would… um, Sabine, Zahnin’s wife, if, um… this happens, since she’s not from Korwahk, will she be returned to her homeland?” I asked.
His eyes flashed and he stated firmly, “Absolutely not.”
Hmm.
“Why?”
“She is claimed, she is Korwahk,” Lahn stated just as firmly.
Hmm.
Time to change the subject because this one might irritate me and I wasn’t in the mood to be irritated.
“Did, uh… you, um… grow up under your parents’ care before training?”
It was the first personal question I’d ever asked him.
And he didn’t hesitate in answering. “I did, my tigress. My father was Dax and my mother was Korwahk, a great beauty. There was tenderness in his cham even though my mother could only give him one son, a difficult delivery rendering it impossible to provide him more. He was happy with the warrior she bestowed on him and he was happy with her.” His hand in my hair fisted when his voice dropped as he shared, “And I watched my father die during a challenge. I was warrior then and attended. As Dahksahna and as was her duty, my mother attended as well. His end marked her, as it did me, and she cared deeply for him. She would have lived a pleasant life as a deposed Dahksahna, the Korwahk people and myself providing for her but she chose not to live on without him. She took her own life the day after his body burned on the pyre.”
Oh my God. That was awful.
I felt myself melt into him as my hand lifted to cup his jaw and I whispered, “Lahn.”
His eyes held mine. “I regret she did not live to see her son best the Dax who bested her king. He was a man it was difficult to respect and not simply because he took my father’s head. It was a triumph in more ways than avenging my father to take his.”
“Honey,” I breathed and his hand moved to the side of my neck, his thumb beginning to stroke my jaw as I watched his eyes grow warm.
“Would that you were in my bed those years ago, Circe,” he whispered, staring deep into my eyes, “sharing with me like you are now your golden spirit to balm my own.” I held my breath as the silk of his words glided through me then he grinned. “And also here to celebrate my triumph when I took my vengeance.”
God, he was such a man.
I couldn’t help it, I grinned back at him.
“I take it that would have been…” I paused, searching for the word in Korwahk and hoping I found it, “energetic.”