Barbarian King’s Mate by Ivy Sparks
Chapter Seventeen
Daphne
Nissaya,Tennar, and I halted outside the Central Court of Caverncall. We exchanged a quick glance of understanding. After spending so many agonizing days transporting Garath through the forest, we communicated beyond words now. We’d seen the worst, and now that Garath was awake and healthy, nothing could disturb the bond between us.
We stepped inside at the same moment. The clansmen lined both sides of the court with the clan King on his throne at the far end. Narrock looked even more threatening than before—if that was even possible.
The three of us strode up the aisle under hundreds of eyes. Despite this, one thought bolstered my courage: Garath was alive. He was awake. He was sitting up and speaking coherently for the first time in days. He was waiting for me back in the healer’s tent.
The clan King could glare all he liked, but he couldn’t take away my victory. I saved Garath from the Vorlax. The tension and agony of the last few days’ uncertainty vanished in pure relief. Garath was all right, and that was all that mattered.
“You will explain how you escaped the Vorlax attack and let my son fall to the enemy,” the King boomed. “You brought him back barely alive, and yet none of you sustained even a scratch. Explain yourselves.”
I hesitated to speak at first as all eyes turned on me, but when I reminded myself of Garath’s recovery, I found the strength to speak. “I went with Garath to retrieve my equipment from the glade. I thought I could—”
“No one invited the alien to speak in this court!” Narrock thundered. “How dare you sully the sanctity of this court with your lies? You will hold your tongue or suffer the consequences, even if you are my son’s chosen mate.”
His face contorted into such horrible grimaces that I fell silent, but my insides churned in a rage. How dare he accuse me of lying? He was the one who needed a massive attitude adjustment.
“If the King will not listen to reason, perhaps the rest of our clan will,” Nissaya called over the crowd. “The King refused to listen to my brother regarding the possibility that the Ranxi have tracked us down. In a way, he forced Garath to return to the glade to bring back evidence. My brother accomplished this mission and nearly lost his life in the process. He would have been dead if his mate—the woman you so callously call an alien and a liar—hadn’t used her technology to save him.”
“Hold your insolent tongue,” the King snapped. “You have already spun our heads full of her praises. Now I want to know how she saved his life. Do not tell me again what a hero she is. Just tell me how she could have brought him back from the certain death that is a Vorlax sting. I am not interested in anything else.”
Nissaya and Tennar exchanged glances, and Nissaya’s tone changed. She lowered her eyes before her father’s wrath. “I’m sorry, Father, but I don’t know how she did it. She used one of her machines to…”
Narrock smacked his lips and turned on Tennar. “You! You were there. Explain it to me. How did she heal him?”
“I…” Tennar swallowed. “I… don’t exactly know, My King. She used her machine to identify a plant. She crushed it up and put it on the wound, then she forced it down Garath’s throat.”
The King made another grunting noise in his throat. “You two are useless.” He spun around in his chair and barked down at me. “Well? How does this machine of yours work? Is it another piece of alien witchcraft? You bewitched him, I suppose.”
Zixor spoke up from the King’s side. “She must be in league with the Vorlax, my King. How else could she survive before Garath found her in the glade? She must have alerted the Vorlax that the party was approaching and triggered them to attack.”
I couldn’t stand this character assassination any longer. “Is that what you think?” I blurted out. “You think I lured Garath to the glade to harm him, and then turned around and saved his life?” I had heard enough of this to choke on. I turned back to the King. “Garath never would have been anywhere near the glade if you believed his report in the first place. I never wanted to go back to the glade after the Vorlax killed my friend and almost killed me. You might think I’m an alien and a liar, but it was alien technology that saved your son, and will probably be responsible for saving all the Kavians surviving on this planet.”
“How so?” the King intoned.
“I developed an antidote to the Vorlax venom, and I can use the same device to create weapons that will poison them in return. It’s my device that will give you a fighting chance against your enemies, but if you’re going to continue to accuse me of these terrible crimes, I don’t see why I should bother to help you at all. If you feel that strongly about me, I might as well pack up my equipment and leave right now.”
I spat the last words with more hostility than I felt, but I didn’t even try to soften the blow. This idiot king nearly got the four of us killed—and two of us were his own children.
“Daphne!” Nissaya gasped. “You can’t talk to him like that! He’s the…”
I chopped the air. “I don’t care. Why do you think I saved Garath’s life and dragged his unconscious body back here? So you could throw me out? I saved him because I couldn’t bear the thought of losing him. I would do a lot more to save him and this is the thanks I get. We brought back a Vorlax body as proof, so now we can study them and find out what the Ranxi are doing to them. But you won’t get far without my technology, and I’m the only one who knows how to use it. If you think I’m lying, then I don’t belong here at all. I’ll take my gear with me, and you can take your chances with the Ranxi. I wish you good luck with that.”
Deadly silence fell over the court. No one so much as breathed—except for Zixor. He bent close to the King’s ear and murmured. “My King, if I may…”
Narrock raised his hand and cut him off. His eyes drilled into me with a new intensity. “You speak well for an alien.”
“Thanks,” I fired back, still riled up.
His eyebrows flew up and Nissaya and Tennar cringed, but the King only nodded. “You speak like a true Kavian. You speak like a true mate to my son. What can you tell us about how the Ranxi modified the Vorlax to make them more aggressive?”
“I can’t tell you that until I study them, and I need to make adjustments to my equipment. It’s designed to scan plant material, so I need to recalibrate it to detect physiological changes in creatures. I haven’t had a chance to do that because I’ve been at Garath’s bedside, but now that he’s awake and moving around…”
A cry went up from the crowd, and the King jolted in his seat. “He’s awake and moving!”
I started to explain that Garath had just woken up a few minutes ago, but I didn’t get a chance. The King rose from his throne and shoved Zixor out of the way. In a second, the court dissolved in chaos, with everyone talking at once and pushing to get outside. I didn’t have time to ask what was going on before the crowd swallowed me.
Tennar grabbed me, then pulled me and Nissaya to one side. The gathered clansmen slackened their stampede only enough to give the King a pathway to the exit. Zixor stood flabbergasted next to the throne where the King left him. The fool stared after the King with a mixture of horror and dread.
I got a sick thrill out of seeing the rug pulled out from under him. No doubt he thought he had finally pushed Garath aside so he could be next in line for the throne. For all I knew, he was the one who planted the idea in the King’s mind to not trust Garath. My saving Garath’s life must have been the biggest disaster of Zixor’s life.
Tennar towed me to one side and the three of us slipped out of the court. The rest of the mob went the other way, but I didn’t like their chances of getting near Garath with the healer on the watch. She could flatten someone with a flick of her eyebrow.
“You did it, Daphne,” Nissaya breathed. “You finally talked some sense into Father. You deserve an award for that.”
“I wasn’t going to stand around and let Zixor accuse me of betraying all of you. I’m done playing the wallflower.”
“You really told him.” Nissaya stole a peek behind the building. “We better get out of here before anyone else questions you.”
I started forward. “Let’s get the Vorlax carcass out of the deep freeze. I want to get started on dissecting it.”
Nissaya stuck her arm in front of me to stop me. “I wasn’t suggesting you go back to work, Daphne. You’ve been working non-stop since Garath got stung. You haven’t slept or even bathed since you first arrived. You’ve been thrown from one disaster to another. You need to recharge before you fall over. You won’t be much good to us if you collapse.”
Her suggestion made me glance down, but I didn’t want to see my dirty clothes and body. She was right. I hadn’t taken half a minute to look after myself since… well, since I left the Quest. “You’re right.”
Nissaya pointed downward. The houses, walkways, and buildings of the village blocked my view of the cavern bottom. “Go down there to the river. Follow the sound to the falls and you’ll find the bathing pool. After you’re rested, we’ll tackle the Vorlax carcass.”
She shot Tennar a significant glance, and they walked away. They left me alone in my grime, and I never felt dirtier in my life. That was enough motivation to send me down the gangways toward the bottom of the cavern.
The sound of the falls got louder the farther I went. Clouds of rainbow spray floated into the air long before I came within sight of the river. When I finally spotted it, I had to stop and catch my breath at the majestic beauty of the place.
Crystal water tumbled over enormous boulders and crashed down steep waterfalls into smooth, glistening pools. The river twined for miles across the cavern floor. It passed through several pools and falls, all separated by twists and turns and clumps of vegetation.
I climbed the rest of the way down and stopped again on a ledge overlooking the pools themselves. Several women occupied the biggest one. Their laughter echoed off the cliffs as they played and splashed water on each other.
Some of them noticed me and smiled and waved. I smiled and waved back, feeling an odd sense of belonging. A short distance down the river, men sat up to their necks in another pool. They talked in more subdued tones, but the congenial atmosphere was unmistakable.
A couple climbed out of a third pool farther down the river. They were stark naked, and they held hands, walking away together. That must’ve been the couples’ pool. I started toward the women’s pool when a man detached himself from the group in the men’s pool. I hardly could make out his features in the steam until he was ten feet from me.
There Garath stood in all his naked Kavian grandeur. Steam billowed from his tattooed shoulders and swirled around his horns. The primal cock that had claimed me not so long ago laid bare before me, and I felt my cheeks instantly redden. His eyes locked on me in their hypnotic power, even at that distance.
Slowly and deliberately, he strode down the river to the couples’ pool. He never took his eyes off me once as he slipped into the water and submerged up to his burly chest. A squirrelly sensation of excitement licked through my insides. Did I dare go over there?
An invisible cable towed me toward him. If I belonged in the women’s pool with those village women, I belonged in the couples’ pool with Garath even more.
I tiptoed down the slippery rocks. A few yards farther on, the boulders hid us from the rest. No one could see us. We were all alone.
I slipped into a haze of buzzing excitement as I stepped onto the bank. I could no longer deny that Garath was staring right at me. His gaze consumed my whole awareness. This was the man I gave myself to in front of the entire clan, but this was different. No one was watching. No one was judging. No one expected me to do anything.
If I went into that pool, I would give myself to him again, and this time, I would do it for myself. I would do it because I wanted him.
I wasn’t just blowing smoke when I told the King I couldn’t stand the thought of losing Garath. Those words came from a secret corner of my heart I never admitted to anyone. I didn’t even admit it to myself since the Vorlax attack.
I didn’t want to admit to myself that I was secretly glad when I found the communication device broken. I didn’t try to fix it. I didn’t even look at it to find out what I would have to do to fix it. I found any excuse to delay contacting the Quest to get off this planet. Why?
Because I didn’t want to leave Garath.
Now I stood before him on the cusp of what could be the watershed moment of my life. If this so-called mating of ours was just a ruse, then I should turn around and walk away right now. I should go back to the women’s pool. They would welcome me as one of their own. They would ask me for the thousandth time to relate the story of our trip to the glade. The story was all over the village by now. I would find plenty of friends over there.
I didn’t walk away, though. Instead, I slipped my clothes off and let him see me naked. This time was all for him. I wanted him to see me—not as a tool to convince the clan to give me sanctuary. I wanted him to see me for myself. I wanted him to see me wanting him. I wanted him to see me giving myself to him of my own free will.
His eyes skimmed down my body, one inch at a time. Was he as excited as I was? He didn’t show it. I stepped down into the water and found it warm and silky. It closed around my thighs and flooded me with liquid desire. Its warmth licked around my engorged tissues and enveloped my belly and breasts. Every sensation felt heightened until it threatened to overwhelm my being.
The last time I felt this intense was at the mating ritual, but I hadn’t drunk any of the ceremonial drink this time. Could it be that it did nothing at all? Maybe just being this close to Garath intensified my lack of will to resist. I felt myself tumbling into exhilarating rapture that I had experienced only once before in my life.
I bobbed through the water to where he floated. Steam and spray surrounded us in a mist. It secluded us from the world and everyone in it. We were alone.
That furious light in Garath’s eyes matched the mating ritual, but we both seemed to move through some viscous substance. It slowed everything to a snail’s pace, with no urgency or compulsion from outside. Only that undeniable pull inside me kept me gliding toward him on invisible strings.
Out of nowhere, his hand slipped around my waist under the water. A firecracker of adrenaline went through me as his palm slithered up my back and drew me the rest of the way against him. My breath caught in my throat and a wave of hot, melted hunger throbbed between my legs. God, I needed him right now!
He didn’t act in any hurry, though. He swayed in the water, letting my body dissolve in his grasp. His muscles commanded me to respond to him, and I dropped into a magical suspended state where all I could feel was him. My body released into his control, and I no longer cared where he took me or even how. As long as I was with him, I was safe, and I could look forward to unimaginable pleasure.
Somehow, my hands found their way to his shoulders. His body felt so incredibly hard and strong. He pulsated with strength and vitality. No one would ever believe he spent the last few days at death’s door.
My fingers explored his tattoos. This was the first time I looked at them so close up since we first met. They led me up to his neck, and from there my attention riveted on his mouth. My taste buds thirsted to taste his kiss and rediscover his tongue. Should I?
Under the water, he slid his giant hand down my backside and scooped my thigh up to his waist. His cock stroked between my folds, and a shiver of delicious thrill shot through me. Any second now, he would fill me up with himself and take me to the stars.
Right now, though, he hadn’t even kissed me yet. His mouth hovered before my eyes, infecting my mind with all kinds of suggestive notions. It was easier to focus on his mouth than his eyes. His next move would come from his lips. I felt certain of it.
He pressed his other hand against my tailbone and pushed me down on his pelvis. He pumped his length between my legs and excited my quivering folds even more. Every delirious lap of the waves around my nipples and arms sent me spinning into ecstasy bordering on orgasm. I could almost believe I was back in the mating ritual under the influence of that drink, but I wasn’t.
My devouring hunger for him made me stroke myself along his shaft. Agonized moans came from my lips. Was I making those erotic noises to encourage him and myself? He gripped my hip to guide my rhythm, and I felt myself careening out of control.
Just when I thought I couldn’t stand a second more of this insatiable desire, he raised his other hand and cupped my chin in one commanding hold. He lifted my face to his, and I had no choice but to look directly into his eyes.
Those eyes! They scorched me to a cinder. I panted and gasped and cried for one kiss, but when he finally gave it to me, it wasn’t enough. No amount of his kisses could ever be enough. His lips closed over my mouth, and I shuddered with broken need. The thought that I had almost lost him made me kiss him deeper.
He pulled back, and his eyes found hidden corners of my soul where I didn’t even know I needed him. He read it all. He observed me stroking myself on his erect cock and moaning in abject craven surrender. I knew I’d be giving myself to him when I got into this pool, but I never could have foreseen that it would feel like this. The mating ritual was nothing compared to this.
The simple fact that we were alone, that I came to him out of my own desire, made all the difference. I submitted myself to his possession, and he received everything I was without hesitation.
He pulled me into another kiss, and this time he didn’t let me go. His hot tongue wormed into my mouth, and I couldn’t maintain eye contact anymore. My vision blurred as I succumbed to the drunken rapture of wanting him.
The water washed my juices all around his throbbing cock. I tried my best to angle my hips to take him inside me, but he didn’t help me at all. He seemed to enjoy my brazen yearning for him. I slipped my arms around his neck and threw myself into kissing him with all my might. I couldn’t get enough of him.
Garath released his hold on my chin, but I was too desperate for his kiss to pull away. He scooped both hands up to close around my breasts, and I gasped in a sudden explosive craving. Without thinking twice, I grabbed the thick rod between my legs.
I didn’t realize what I was doing until I broke off his mouth and found him staring into the depths of my soul. I steered his cock toward my slit, but instead of stuffing it into myself without ceremony, the tip rubbed against my swollen clit.
I forgot to kiss him, instead gaping into his eyes in startled astonishment as a dizzying orgasm blasted through me. I rubbed the stiff flesh over my sensitive nub, and more unstoppable spasms of ecstasy shot through my body.
I groaned in such extreme rapture that I couldn’t even cry out. He saw. He knew. He had me in his arms, letting me drive myself over the edge. He let me use his body for my gratification, and in his eyes, I saw that he wanted me to. He wanted to make me feel this amazing bliss with him. He wanted to be the one to see me—really see me.
My body shuddered and quaked with successive waves tearing me apart. I couldn’t take it anymore, but my hand didn’t get the message. It kept rubbing his cock against my clit to elicit more and more and more orgasms. I couldn’t stop them. I didn’t want to.
He clamped his hand around my breast and pinched my nipple between his iron fingers. The sensation made me gasp onto his shoulder. I lost my grip on his cock. I couldn’t think. I couldn’t move. I floated limp and rubbery in his arms.
His hands kept exploring and touching and fingering and teasing. More enthralling ripples of exquisite shudders flowed through me, but they didn’t destroy me as before, because I was already completely gone. I had nothing left. I was in his arms. Nothing else mattered.
