Kraving Khiva by Zoey Draven

Chapter Sixteen

Khiva pushed open the door to the Cluster, a living space he shared with the three other Keriv’i at Madame Allegria’s.

After Evelyn had left, he hadn’t bothered to bathe, wanting to keep her scent on him a while longer, had only dressed to cover his nudity before making his way to the top floor of the brothel. The room they’d shared that night and early morning would be cleaned promptly, erasing all traces of her, and readied for the client he had scheduled for later that evening.

Weariness weighed heavy on his shoulders as he shut the Cluster door behind him. The common sitting room was empty, though he’d expected that. Tavak’s and Ravu’s doors were open, signaling that they were still with their clients, but Dravka’s was shut.

Khiva crossed to Dravka’s door and pushed it open. He found his friend flat on his back in the center of his bed.

“Dravka,” Khiva said, lingering on the threshold. “Has it started?”

“Yes,” his friend’s darkened voice came, his breaths labored. “Tell Valerie to cancel my client.”

“Do you need the chains?” Khiva asked in Keriv’i. “Valerie will check on you if I tell her. You should not be tempted.”

“I am always tempted,” Dravka growled, his eyes finding Khiva’s.

Khiva nodded and crossed inside, watching Dravka closely. The Rut made males unpredictable. It strengthened them, but violence was more common among males who were Rutting, an age old instinct when female attention had to be fought for on Kerivu.

Dravka was naked, his cock fully erect and pulsing. Khiva pitied him, knowing intimately how painful and frustrating a Rut was without a female to help ease it. But it happened every month for Keriv’i males. Even when Kerivu still existed, unbonded males withstood a Rut alone.

Khiva’s own Rut was due in a week or so. He could feel it coming, could sense the change in himself. It might come early, brought on by his desire and lust for Evelyn. He swallowed hard at that thought, an unfamiliar emotion making his chest clench.

“At least you will not have a client for a couple days,” Khiva told him, pulling the black chains from a chest at the foot of the bed. They rattled in his hands and quickly, he cuffed Dravka’s wrists, attaching each end to the bars drilled into the walls at the head of the bed. They were strong bolts, capable of withstanding a Rutting Keriv’i male’s strength. During the peak of a Rut, a male was reduced to an animalistic state and nothing was more important than finding a willing female to mate.

The chains were necessary.

“Thank you, my friend,” Dravka said, his body already gleaming with sweat as he thrashed in the chains.

“I will tell Valerie,” Khiva said, stepping out of Dravka’s sleeping quarters.

Before he shut the door, however, Dravka said quietly, “Do not let her come in here, Khiva. This Rut…it will be intense. I can feel it.”

Khiva exhaled sharply, looking over his shoulder at his Krave brother, whom he’d known for ten years. “You know Valerie well. You know how stubborn she is. Especially when it comes to you.”

With that, Khiva shut the door. He crossed to the Nu tablet installed in the stone wall and patched a connection to the bottom floor, the only line they were allowed to access from the Cluster.

Valerie’s blue hologram appeared immediately.

“Good morning, Khiva,” she chirped. “Is there anything you need?”

“Dravka’s Rut has begun a day early,” Khiva told her. “You will need to reschedule his client tonight.”

He watched her features still for a brief moment but then she nodded, her voice softening as she said, “I will. I’ll come check on him.”

“He prefers if you did not, Val,” Khiva told her, watching her carefully. Ever since Valerie had come to work for Madame Allegria five years ago, Khiva had always known of the strange friendship Dravka and Valerie shared.

“I don’t care what he prefers,” she said simply. “Do you need me to send up anything? For him? Or for you?”

“Veki,” Khiva said. A thought that had been in the back of mind ever since Evelyn left earlier that morning snuck up on him. Then he swallowed, debating whether to ask. “Val.”

“Yes?”

Khiva hesitated for only a moment before he asked, “Did Evelyn book another visit before she left?”

Khiva saw Valerie’s head turn, probably ensuring that she was alone at the entrance of the brothel and that her aunt wasn’t within hearing distance.

“No, she didn’t, Khiva,” Valerie said quietly.

Khiva tilted his head in a nod, intense disappointment, even perhaps panic, overcoming him. Valerie didn’t ask why he wanted to know, which Khiva was thankful for.

“Thank you,” Khiva said simply and then he ended the hologram call, staring at the black screen, at his reflection, for a brief moment before turning away, towards his own sleeping quarters.

He shut the door, alone, but that panicked disappointment didn’t leave him. The shirt he wore felt too constricting across his skin and he tugged it off, taking a deep breath, before striding over to the large window in his sleeping quarters. The next building over blocked most of the view, but he saw a strip of Everton over the top, towards what he knew was the Night District. He preferred the view of the Lake District from his assigned mating room, but the openness helped ease the tight feeling in his chest.

Khiva briefly eyed his bed, but didn’t feel the need to sleep. Keriv’i needed less sleep than humans and he’d even managed a few hours next to Evelyn the night before, something that never happened with his clients.

Restless, he paced the small room and then went to bathe, for something to do. As he washed, he ran over endless streams of the properties of metals, of the process of creating and crafting it, the heat of a forge, but he avoided thinking about the formula for creating firestones. Humans called it science. But for Khiva, it had been his way of life. It helped calm his mind until he felt more like himself, anything to avoid thinking about the human female he’d just been with.

When he exited the shared washing room in the Cluster, he saw Valerie enter. The blonde had a slim build, like many Everton females and piercing green eyes. While he appreciated her beauty, Khiva had never been attracted to her. Not in the way Dravka was attracted to her at least. To Khiva, she resembled her aunt too much for him to be truly comfortable around her. And while Valerie loathed Madame Allegria almost as much as the Krave did, Khiva knew that blood was blood.

It was impossible to deny blood.

Khiva tilted his head down in greeting, noting that Ravu’s door was now shut. He must’ve returned from his client while he’d been bathing. His brother, Tavak, had yet to return however.

“How is he?” Valerie asked, stepping towards Dravka’s door.

Khiva didn’t answer. Keriv’i male’s tended to like their privacy during the Rut and didn’t like to be disturbed.

Valerie clearly didn’t expect an answer from him because she opened Dravka’s door and stepped inside. Through the threshold, Khiva could see his friend’s expression when he saw the female. Khiva tensed only for a moment, prepared to rush in, but then he relaxed, knowing that Dravka would never harm Valerie in that way.

“Get away, Val,” Dravka growled to her. “Khiva! Get her away!”

“Hush, you big baby,” was all Valerie said in response.

“Leave the door open,” Khiva told her, knowing the human female wouldn’t be dissuaded from being at Dravka’s side, though it would torment his friend.

Valerie didn’t even blink when she saw Dravka’s raging erection, so used to being around the Krave that it seemed like a normal state. Khiva caught the way her eyes lingered, however, but he blew out a harsh breath and went to sit in the common area.

He listened to Valerie fuss over Dravka for a bit before his mind wandered and he snagged a Nu tablet off the common room table. Madame Allegria didn’t care if they had access to the networks of Everton, though he knew that she monitored their activity, their searches. She was aware how much Khiva contacted the Missing Beings branch in the United Worlds, how often he renewed his application and paid the hefty fee to do so, wiping out almost all of his savings from the meager amount Madame Allegria paid them per year.

A part of him was pessimistic. A part of him knew that finding his mother and brother was slim and that was if they were still alive. A part of him wondered if he would’ve had enough for passage off Everton by then if he hadn’t spent his credits searching for them.

The other part of him hoped that one day, all of his efforts, all of his blind hope would be rewarded. He dreamed of the day the United Worlds contacted him with the information that they’d been found, that they still lived, somewhere, in peace. And while Khiva knew he might never save enough for transport off Everton, while Khiva knew he might never see them again, just the knowledge that they’d survived the Great War would be enough to sustain him.

Tavak entered the Cluster right then, nude, his clothes bundled and clenched in his hands. With a side glance towards Dravka’s room, Khiva watched his expression darken when he spotted Valerie, but he didn’t say anything. Tavak had never trusted her, had never trusted any human. He’d recognized the type of female that Madame Allegria truly was from the beginning. He had a way of reading beings that was a gift, though it had burned him more times than Khiva could count when he’d gone against his instincts.

Out of all of them, Tavak simmered the most with restlessness, with the most anger, but he held it tightly reigned, as he must, at least for the sake of his brother, Ravu. Even still, he’d been whipped the most by Madame Allegria and the human female seemed to have a sadistic pleasure doing so.

“Has my brother returned?” Tavak asked Khiva on the way to his sleeping quarters.

Khiva nodded and something in Tavak’s shoulders relaxed. The two brothers had been lucky, Khiva mused often. They’d managed to escape Kerivu together, despite where they’d ended up with the rest of them in the end.

Tavak was older than Ravu. Not by a long span of time, but Tavak had always watched out for his brother.

“Has Dravka’s Rut begun?” Tavak asked next.

“Yes,” he replied. “Valerie is checking in on him.”

“She is a fool,” Tavak said plainly and then turned to his door, closing it behind him. Every morning, after returning from their respective clients, they all needed time to decompress, to shake whatever character or role the female had wanted them to take on the night before.

Khiva hadn’t needed to do that this morning, he realized. Because he’d been himself with Evelyn. He’d done what he wanted with her, touched her when it pleased him to do so, kissed her without permission, and allowed himself to tell her about his race, about the firestones, which he had never confided in anyone about before.

Of course, his Krave brothers knew who he was, which line he descended from. Though they never treated him poorly for it, Khiva had always felt…other because of it. Not completely one of them, but set apart.

But with Evelyn, she hadn’t judged him. She’d told him to change his perspective, to focus on the good the firestones had done for the universe, for the war.

Evelyn, with her soft voice and even softer skin, and brown eyes that made him want to climb inside and stay forever.

Khiva closed his own eyes, already mourning the loss of her. He highly doubted he would see her again.

And perhaps, in some way, before Madame Allegria found out what was going through his mind…that was for the best.