But my father had gotten his wish. I was merciless. At least that was what was said of me. I did not spare lives or hesitate to deliver punishment. Until now.
“Vaes!” I bellowed, turning toward the bathing chamber.
She appeared in the arch, her arms still covering her breasts as she dripped water in puddles around her feet and her bundle of dirty clothes tucked under one arm.
I walked to a high cabinet and opened a drawer, retrieving two lengths of buff-colored, tightly woven cloth, wrapping one around my waist and taking the other to her.
“Leave those.” I motioned to her clothes. “They will be no use to you here.”
She blanched and didn’t drop them.
I tempered my gruff voice. “Vandar females do not wear such tight leg coverings.”
She tipped her head up to meet my eyes. “I’m not a Vandar female.”
Irritation flared within me and my tail snapped from side to side. I was not used to being contradicted. “You are still mine, and I do not wish any other male seeing the shape of you.” My heart pounded as I let my gaze fall lower. “It is only for my eyes.” I snapped my head back up and steeled my voice. “Do you understand?”
She nodded and let the clothes fall to the floor. I wrapped the cloth around her, my fingers skimming her skin and buzzing from the touch. When the fabric reached from under her arms to her ankles, I rolled the top down several times until it held.
She peered down at the column of cloth. “You want me to wear this?”
I pressed my lips together to keep from smiling. “No. This is for drying. I will have clothes brought for you.”
Before she could ask more, I scooped her into my arms and carried her to the bed. She didn’t make a noise, but her body stiffened.
“Do not worry.” I lay her on one side of the bed that dwarfed her, and I straightened. “I have no intention of claiming you tonight.”
Even though the wrinkles in her brow smoothed, she tilted her head at me. “But I thought…”
I nodded to her hip. “You are injured. I am not such a brute that I would cause you more pain.” I leaned down and let my lips brush her ear. “Because when I do take you, I do not promise I will be able to go slow or be gentle.”
I felt the quick intake of breath followed by a warm huff of air on my neck. It was enough to make me want to rip off the cloth and bury my cock in her, no matter her injury. I closed my eyes and breathed in the scent of her as my cock swelled again, willing myself to control my urges and banishing the voice reminding me that I needed to take before it was taken from me.
Then I heard the pounding on the door.
Chapter Seven
Astrid
I tried not to whimper as he leaned so close to me that the hard planes of his chest brushed my skin. Even though he’d said he wouldn’t claim me because I was hurt, I didn’t believe him. Not when he was so close to me and so hard all over.
I couldn’t stop thinking about his massive cock—rising thick and long from his body with the same dark, curling lines marking it that marked his chest—and imagining what something that huge would feel like for my first time. A baptism by fire, my sister would have called it. Not that it would have terrified her. Nothing scared her, unlike me.
Kratos seemed to have no shame at being naked in front of me. Even if I’d stared directly at his cock, I doubt he would have cared. Still, looking at it while he’d crossed the bathroom had made my pulse skitter and my legs turn to jelly, so I’d kept my gaze anywhere but there.
When someone started to knock loudly on the door, he jerked up, and I allowed myself a long exhale.
“Vaes!” His voice boomed across the hard surfaces of the room.
I propped myself up on my elbows. The door slid open and a Vandar warrior stepped inside, clicking his heels together when he saw the Raas standing next to the bed.
“Is that her?” he asked, although the question seemed unnecessary, and he didn’t wait for an answer to move forward, shifting the leather bag that hung across his shoulder so that it was in front of him.
Kratos pulled the fabric covering me, so that one leg was exposed, and I swatted at his hand without thinking. Both Vandar males stopped moving, and the air in the room seemed to still.
“What are you doing?” I asked, holding my hand over the one Kratos still clutched to my fabric covering.
He drew in a long breath, his dark eyes sparking as he held my gaze. “Allowing the healer to see your injury.” His voice was low, but brimmed with impatience. “Would you rather risk internal bleeding?”
I wanted to tell him that I seriously doubted I had internal bleeding, but my leg did ache, and the color of the bruise had quickly shifted from red to blue to deep purple.
“I can do it,” I said, shifting the cloth so that it revealed my bruise, but not everything from the waist down.
Kratos grunted but released his grip. “You humans are afraid to show your skin.”
“You’re the one who doesn’t want me to wear pants because they’re too tight,” I snapped back. “What happened to not wanting any other male to see me?”
An exasperated sigh. “Vaaton is not any other male. He is our healer. Now, do you want him to take care of your injury?”
I stole a glance at the Vandar who hadn’t moved since we’d started our exchange. His eyes darted between us, and he didn’t seem to know what to do. Although he wore the same leather skirt that the rest of the warriors did, his expression was less fearsome, and he carried fewer scars on his exposed skin. Even his tail didn’t snap back and forth like those of the other Vandar.
I released my own impatient breath. “Fine.”
Kratos stepped back and waved the healer forward. “She hit herself on the corner of the table when our ship was impacted.”
The Vandar he’d called Vaaton knelt by the bed, narrowing his eyes at the bruise that was getting darker and darker. He placed his fingers on it, and I bit my bottom lip at the sharp pain. He made a noise in the back of his throat before removing a small, metal device from his bag and running it over my mottled skin. He studied the device for a moment, then gave a curt nod, as if to himself. “A deep bruise with some bleeding, but nothing broken. I will give her an injection to speed the healing and help with the pain.”
“An injection?” I sat up further. I hated needles.
The healer ignored me as he returned the device to his bag and took out a flat, steel box. He placed it next to me on the bed, popping it open to reveal a long syringe.
A wave of nausea made me flop back on the bed and suck in a deep breath. “How is it you have technology that can make ships disappear and scanners that can see if a bone is broken or not, but you’re still using needles like that? Are you really the sadists everyone says you are? Is that it?” I opened my eyes and saw Kratos standing with his arms folded over his chest, clearly unconcerned by my outburst. “You love to inflict pain, so you blow up ships and execute innocent people and…” A sharp sting in my hip made me yelp and look down at Vaaton, who was calmly putting away the syringe. “…use darn huge needles!”
Kratos blinked at me. “Darn?”
I ignored him. The Vandar probably had all sorts of filthy curse words, and he no doubt used them all the time—another reason Tara would have been a better pick for him.