him for me to barter it away.”
“Really? Even though it’s affecting your fertility?” Penny raised her eyebrows.
“Even though I would gladly trade it to you for even the smallest, meanest item in your inventory.” Lady Bright Coat shook her head sadly and looked down at the items Penny had set out for display on the marble sink. “What’s this?” she asked, picking up the small blue, cut-glass bottle that the scent merchant had given Penny earlier.
“Oh, that?” Penny shook her head quickly. “That’s nothing—just a bottle of, uh, anal scents that a merchant gave me earlier when he heard V’rex and I were coming to meet you.”
She felt weird saying “anal scents” but Lady Bright Coat only nodded, as though this was perfectly normal. Which, for a Fox’en, apparent it was.
“Oh yes—I think I know who you mean. “My good friend, Lady Smooth Pelt, got some scents from him. She said it really spiced up her mating. May I?” she asked, looking at Penny.
“Yes, please—help yourself.” Penny made a motion for her to go ahead and open the bottle.
“Thank you.” The Fox’en female pulled out the cut-glass stopper and Penny tried not to wince as a rather strong, musky odor drifted out.
Lady Bright Coat sniffed the perfume bottle eagerly.
“Oh my—this is lovely!” she exclaimed. “Why, Swift Tail wouldn’t be able to keep his paws off me if I was wearing this!”
“By all means, please—take it,” Penny told her. “It should be yours anyway—the merchant who gave it to me specifically wanted me to open it around you and your mate.”
“That’s so kind of you!” Lady Bright Coat dabbed some of the scent at the base of both her ears and then put a generous amount under her tail as well. “You know—this gives me an idea.”
“What?” Penny asked. She hoped the idea had something to do with leaving the necessary chamber. The anal scent perfume was pretty strong.
“An idea about how I can give you this awful eye necklace without Swift Tail losing face.” Lady Bright Coat looked thoughtful. “Tell me, have you and your mate ever participated in a Hulu-rah?”
“A what?” Penny frowned.
“It’s a test of wills,” Lady Bright Coat explained. “It’s…well, before I tell you I had better ask—does your mate have good self-control”
“Self control?” Penny asked.
“I mean, can he keep himself from taking you sexually if he needs to?” the female Fox’en asked anxiously.
Penny thought of her first night with V’rex, after the Unification Ceremony. The Spice had been coursing through his system making him incredibly horny and yet he’d managed not to rape her.
“Yes,” she said firmly. “He can.”
“Oh good.” Lady Bright Coat looked relieved. “So as I said, a Hulu-rah is a contest of wills. And this is how it works…”
When she’d finished explaining, Penny looked at her with wide eyes.
“Wow, that sounds kind of…kinky,” she murmured at last.
“We are the Kin’kee tribe, but the Hulu-rah does not originate with us,” Lady Bright Coat said. “It is practiced by Fox’en tribes all over Yown Beta—it’s a known and respected contest. If you think your mate can win, perhaps we can both get what we want.”
“I know he can,” Penny said decisively.
The question was, would the big Hybrid be willing to enter the kinky little contest of wills Lady Bright Coat was proposing? He had, after all, Forsworn Penny, which seemed to mean they couldn’t have anything to do with each other anymore.
Well, he’s going to have to make an exception, Penny thought to herself. Because there’s no other way to complete this mission and get the Eye of Ten’gu!
Chapter 104
“Are you feeling all right, my darling mate?” Chieftain Swift Tail looked up anxiously as Lady Bright Coat came back to the table.
“I’m just fine, my husband,” she replied and gave him a flirtatious wink. Then she very deliberately turned for a moment, pretending to pick something up which put her tail right by his nose.
Penny, who was sitting back down beside V’rex, saw the Fox’en male’s eyes widened and the nostrils of his wet black nose flare. Apparently the stinky perfume the merchant in the marketplace had given her was working just as Lady Bright Coat had predicted. She thought of how V’rex had told her that Fox’ens were turned on by scents more than anything else and suddenly realized how the scent was affecting the male Fox’en.
It’s like she just flashed her boobs at him! she thought, trying not to grin.
“Well, you certainly smell as though you’re all right. Better than all right, I