Cruel Union (Brutal Universe #1)

22. Aurora

22

AURORA

I was having the strangest dream… I was out in the cold, shivering, and knocking on a door, begging someone to let me in. I knew in the dream that if they would only open the door, I would find warmth and safety behind it. But I couldn’t get it and I was getting colder and colder…

I woke up with my teeth chattering, wondering where I was and why I was so cold. I blinked and looked around—where was Pansy ? She usually came in early and brought a breakfast tray with her. We would have breakfast together and gossip about what was going on in the Court before the day really started. But my maid—who was also my best friend—was nowhere to be seen.

Instead I found myself in a sleek, luxurious room on an expensive floating mattress covered in silk sheets. There was a strange scent in the room I didn’t recognize at first—a warm, spicy fragrance that was somehow masculine and deeply appealing for reasons I didn’t understand.

The scent seemed to be coming from the pillow beside my head. I pressed my face to it and breathed in deeply. At once, my teeth stopped chattering. Whatever this scent was, it seemed to be helping to ease the cold chill that racked my body.

Mmm , smells so good…whoever was using this pillow must wear the best cologne, I thought.

An image flashed through my mind—a huge, muscular form in the bed beside me…glowing golden eyes in the dark…a deep rumbling voice…long arms wrapped around me as he touched me and gave me pleasure like I’d never felt before…

Suddenly everything came rushing back—all the memories my mind had been trying to suppress rolled over me like a tidal wave.

“ Oh my Goddess — Slade ! I’m married to Slade !” I whispered to myself. “ And last night he…he…”

But it was too embarrassing to admit to myself what he’d done to me—what I had all but begged him to do. To my shame, I could still remember the feeling of his hot mouth on my tender nipples…his long fingers exploring my cunny…his deep voice in my ear telling me to come for him…

The cold chill was abruptly gone and my body was suddenly flushed with heat. My nipples throbbed and the V between my legs ached with unfulfilled longing.

“ The Need ,” I murmured to myself. Wasn’t that what Slade had called it? He’d said it had something to do with us being Fated Mates —a concept I still didn’t fully believe in. And he had insisted that he needed to lick me between my legs to help me feel better.

I shivered with a mixture of shame and desire at the thought. I couldn’t let him do that to me! It was dirty…but why did my mind keep returning to it? Imagining it?

Get up and get dressed, I scolded myself. Put it out of your head.

I found the white silk robe Slade had pulled off me the night before and wrapped it firmly around myself. Someone had placed my luggage at the foot of the bed. I rummaged inside it, looking for an outfit to wear…and my fingers happened upon the little tray filled with baby-stopper pills.

I pulled the tray out and looked at the bright green pills, each sequestered in its own tiny prison. Should I take one now? Pansy had said to take a pill every morning. Of course, nothing that would make a baby had happened between me and Slade yet, and he had promised that he wouldn’t force me. He had said that he wouldn’t “breed” me until I begged him to. And there was no way I was going to do that—right?

“ Right ,” I muttered to myself. And then I took out one of the little pills anyway.

I cupped it in my palm and looked at it, debating for a moment. Then I tossed it into my mouth and swallowed it dry.

Just in case, I thought to myself as I tucked the little tray back into the lining of my luggage. It doesn’t hurt to be prepared.

Not that I would ask Slade to do that to me. He was dreaming if he thought I would, so I should be safe. But still…

Trying to push the doubt away from my mind, I pulled out a dress and some underthings and went to the bathroom. I couldn’t help looking at the deep soaking tub where Slade had washed me the night before.

I had never dreamed that a husband might want to do that to his wife—to pamper her and wash her hair. It seemed strange, especially considering what I had been raised to believe was normal and right in a marriage.

In my culture, it was the wife who took care of the husband. She had to be certain all his meals were cooked on time and exactly to his liking…had to keep the house clean and bear and tend his children. In addition to that, she saw to his comfort—getting him a drink when he came home and giving him a shoulder massage—little things to make him happy and keep the peace around the house.

Sometimes listening to the married ladies in Court talk about everything they did to keep their homes running smoothly and their husbands happy, I had felt glad I was single with only myself to worry about. But other times I felt lonely. I wanted children too, but I was well aware that my peak fertility had passed. Of course I could still get pregnant if I wasn’t careful— I was glad that I’d swallowed the baby-stopper pill.

I mused on all these things as I took a shower and then toweled myself off. I got dressed and decided to see if I could find something for breakfast. I wasn’t sure where Slade was, so I went quietly as I opened the door to the bedroom and peered out. Had he left to go do some Clan Cruel business? Was I alone in the penthouse suite?

The idea filled me with a contradictory mixture of relief and loneliness—which was foolish, of course. Slade was my enemy— I wasn’t about to admit I missed the big Brute .

But even if my mind didn’t miss him, my body did. I could feel the chill creeping in again and my nipples were tight and achy. Between my legs, my cunny felt hot and needy as well. Was I really going to have to deal with this the entire six months I was with him? And where was he, anyway?

I walked through the living area with its central fire pit and tan and silver furniture and found myself in a large, modern kitchen that put the palace kitchens back home to shame.

There was a large, sleek cold-storage unit, a stove so complicated I thought it would take me some time to learn how to use it, and cabinets filled with foods I had never seen before. Luckily , most of their labels were in Standard —the language that everyone on every planet in the Imperium is required to learn. So I was able to read them, but I didn’t know what they were.

“ Blanched Lixech ,” I murmured, looking at a can that had a picture of something blue and knobby on the front. “ Powdered Hoiseth — Extra Fine !” read a box that had a picture of what looked like some kind of orange and purple bread. Was it a mix that you added ingredients to and then baked?

I had no idea but I would have liked to find out. My mother had thought it was important for me to learn how to cook and bake. She’d sent me for lessons in the palace kitchens every day for years.

“ Until your brother finds a wife, it will be your duty to host state dinners for him,” she’d lectured me. “ How can you tell if what the cooks are preparing is acceptable if you don’t know how to prepare it yourself?”

The result was that I had become a rather good cook and an excellent baker—but that was with ingredients I knew how to use. Everything in the cabinets and cold storage unit was completely unfamiliar. It must be Brutal food, I guessed. I would have to ask Slade how to make it.

In the meantime, my stomach was growling because I hadn’t had any dinner the night before. I couldn’t wait for a cooking lesson— I needed to eat something now .

The answer to my problems appeared when I opened the last cabinet in the row. It was extra tall with a frosted glass door and I thought at first it must have more cooking appliances in it. Instead , I found what looked like a miniature tree with tiny green leaves. It was about three feet high and it had all kinds of fruit growing from it.

The bottom of the cabinet pulled out and then rotated around like a lazy Suzan , so I was able to examine the mini-fruit tree thoroughly. Some of the fruits that grew on it were strange looking— I saw a purple, knobby thing that looked like the label on the can I’d been puzzling over and a bright pink fruit as big as my fist that looked a little like a giant strawberry—which is one of the fruits we humans had brought with us from the Dying Earth .

Then , to my delight, I saw a fruit I recognized. It was a banana—not very big and a little over-ripe, but I thought I’d never been so happy to see the oblong yellow fruit in my life. There was an apple too—well, it looked like an apple but it had blue skin.

I picked both fruits and then added the giant pink strawberry thing for good measure— I was really hungry. I washed all the fruits in the sink, piled them on a plate, and grabbed a napkin. I was just going to take my breakfast into the living area and eat in front of the fire pit so I could be soothed and warmed by the gold and blue flames—when I heard Slade’s voice, raised in anger.

“ No , you find him! You find that fucker!” I heard him growling.

“ Goddess !” I muttered to myself, and nearly dropped my plate filled with fruit. Where was his voice coming from and who was he shouting at?

My bare feet made no noise as I crossed the kitchen and went back to the living area. There was a hallway I hadn’t noticed before, curving off around the corner. That was where Slade’s voice was coming from.

I put the fruit down on the small table beside the leather couch and crept down the hallway, keeping my eyes open. About halfway down, I saw a door that was cracked open.

I knew better than to eavesdrop, but I needed to find out what had made the big Enforcer so angry. So I put my eye to the crack and saw what looked like a private study.

Slade was sitting at an expensive looking dark wood desk with his back to the door. In the middle of the desk was a holo projector which was projecting a 3- D image of another Brute .

I caught my breath when I saw him—he had slitted red eyes and wings like the one who had attacked me and tried to kidnap me the night before. But his horns were painted shiny blue, not metallic red.

“ It sounds like a male named Skeezex —he was punished and ejected from Clan Ruthless for trafficking under-aged females,” he was saying to Slade , who was listening intently. “ I’ll tell the Chief that he’s been trespassing in Clan Cruel territory.”

“ Not just trespassing—he tried to kidnap my wife and cut her up for cloning!” Slade growled and I could hear the menace in his voice. “ I let my Darkness out, but he flew off before I could fucking catch him!”

“ Yeah , he’s a relentless fucker,” the other Brute said, frowning. “ Look , Slade , you know we’ll do everything we can to find him. And when we do, I’m sure the Chief will let you name the penalty.”

“ No fucking penalty.” Slade’s deep voice was low and ominous. “ I don’t want to see him punished, I want him killed. And I’m going to do the killing— I claim Blood Rights on the bastard, do you understand me, Drake ?”

The other Brute nodded.

“ Got it. I don’t blame you—the male messed with your Fated Mate . He deserves what’s coming to him.”

“ He’s going to die slowly…in agony,” Slade rumbled. “ Nobody hurts my wife!”

I felt the small hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I had always thought that my new husband had an air of tightly controlled violence about him—all Brutes did. But to hear him talking about killing the male who had tried to kidnap me in that possessive, growling tone did something to me. I wasn’t quite sure what it was, but I felt suddenly weak in the knees.

I need to get out of here— I can’t let him know I was listening in on his conversation!

I wanted to sneak back to the living area but I stumbled and knocked my knee against the door to Slade’s study, pushing it open. He jerked his head up and turned towards me. Our eyes met…and held.

“ Excuse me, Drake ,” he said, without breaking our staring contest. “ I’m going to have to go now.”

“ I’ll let you know when we catch him,” the other male promised. “ He probably won’t be in your territory anymore.”

“ Not if he knows what’s fucking good for him,” Slade growled. Without looking, he slapped the button on the holo projector and the 3- D image of the other Brute abruptly disappeared. “ How long have you been listening, Princess ?” he asked me, getting up and coming to the door.

“ Not long,” I said quickly, backing up. I wasn’t sure how angry he might be at me for eavesdropping on him. “ I just heard you shouting and I wasn’t sure what was happening,” I added.

“ What’s happening is I’m going to find that fucker who tried to take you last night and fuck him up,” Slade said matter-of-factly. “ Nobody hurts or disrespects my wife and lives to tell about it.”

“ Are …are you really going to kill him?” I asked, backing up a step. He seemed so big, looming over me in the narrow hallway.

Slade nodded.

“ He’s going to die as soon as I can get my fucking hands on him.”

I felt a tingling rush go through me and I still didn’t know what it meant. Was I upset that he was going to kill my attacker? Or did it give me a rush to know he was so determined to protect and defend me? Also , why was I so cold again?

“ Hey , are you okay, Princess ?” Slade frowned at me. “ You look really pale.”

“ I … I …” I shook my head. “ I’m f-fine,” I got out at last. “ J -just cold, that’s all.”

“ Mmm -hmm, well that’s going to be a problem until we complete our Binding ,” Slade said matter-of-factly.

“ C -c-complete it h-how?” I demanded, my teeth chattering in earnest now.

“ Let’s go have a seat and talk about it,” Slade rumbled.

And before I could protest, he swept me up off my feet and carried me into the living area.