To Defend A Bride (Entangled with the Enduar #3)

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

RA’SA

A t the age of sixteen, Enduares are sent deep into the caverns to perform a ceremony called the dual’moraan , which means “joining of stone.”

For us, it’s a rite of passage that marks our first days as an adult. Usually, at this time, our powers are set free. Some people will even find magic awakens in their bones—as it was for me.

Some Enduares will be given the gift of song and healing. A few will be given the gift of prophecy, like our queen and Mother Liana. Others will find themselves gifted with metal bending, as Svanna was. Even fewer will learn to bend their very bones.

Stone bending, my magic, is the most common gift, yet it has proven the most valuable time and time again. Our king, Teo, has a potent version of this magic that has kept us safe.

Thus far, few humans have exhibited magical powers, but today, all of the women we brought back from Zlosa will descend into the mountain and complete the ritual.

Though the air is charged with humans and Enduares rushing through the city, it’s a bittersweet time for me.

The entire city will gather to honor these new creatures. But half a decade ago, I was the first in Enduvida to perform the ceremony.

Shortly after the volcano erupted, I had descended entirely alone.

After, Mother Liana had joined the stone to my chest, and then my mother congratulated me. Sure, there was a small feast, but everyone was still grieving.

Today, I envy these humans for the celebration I never received. I was prepared to dwell on my displeasure for the rest of the day.

That is, until a stone bender came to my home and summoned me to a meeting with King Ma’Teo. This is not a political meeting; it’s also not meant to discuss strategy for another attack on the giants.

No, we are being corralled by Teo like small boys.

He lectures us on the importance of leaving the human women alone, and I tune him out, leaning against one of the walls and staring at the ceiling.

My mind has much better things to occupy my time.

“Would it please you if I was interested?” Melisa had said.

Why? Why would she care for me without a matehood?

Surely she would find Enduares strange and unattractive, just as I find her small, too soft, and...

My skin heats at the ghost of her touch. Black hair glimmering and coated in the glowing water. I see her splayed out against the other side of the pool, umber gold body floating in the water. Her breasts were round, firm, with dark brown nipples.

I’d never seen anything like it, but gods on their stony thrones, it had done something to my cock. I wanted to grab them, to draw them into my?—

One of the men shifts next to me, and I straighten, discreetly adjusting the pressure in my breeches. I shouldn’t think of her. Not in that manner.

Not at all, I correct. She’s some other man’s mate.

“I am serious as death. Do not speak to them unless they speak to you. And if, by some miracle, they come to you, do not snatch them away like common beasts,” Teo admonishes.

Those around me nod, but I let out an irritated sigh. What does he know of such things? He stole his wife and started this mess.

Besides, it’s not like anyone here would touch a woman without permission.

Would it please you if I was interested?

Melisa’s voice invades my head once again.

As if my strange thoughts called her, the smell of fragrant roses mixed with sultry cinnamon fills my nose. It’s like a forest garden grows right next to us.

But then I look to the side to see Melisa standing next to me.

My mouth parts, and she smiles.

“Good morning, Ra’Sa,” she says quietly.

Without thinking, my tail brushes toward her. She grins and reaches out to brush the furry tip. I shudder at such an intimate touch, then remember myself and snap my tail back to my body.

My heart stutters in my chest. “Melisa.”

Her name on my tongue feels different than before.

“What is this?” she whispers.

I roll my eyes. “Our king is treating us like infants.”

She grins, and my chest hurts again.

No one has heard us yet. How anyone could miss the woman at my side, I don’t know. Despite my best efforts, I can’t seem to stay away from her.

When I inhale, that somewhat spiced scent sings to me, inviting me to unwrap her mysteries one by one.

I still.

What are these thoughts?

“But there are so many of them. I can count at least eight houses that must be repaired if we hope to expand with so many families,” Foal, the scarred hunter, says.

Melisa leaves my side, but my eyes stay glued to her as she speaks. “If you think that a house will be enough to sway a woman into your bed, you might be right.”

Half a dozen whispers break out around me, shifting from surprise and curiosity at her arrival to determination. They scheme and plot for a place to keep their new mates. Some of them whisper over women that they hope to mate with.

Melisa’s name sounds once, and I turn to see one of my stone benders say, “That’s the one I spoke about last night.”

I give him a withering glare, but her words sink into my thoughts.

The humans just wanted... A home. Not gold or jewels.

I frown.

“Melisa, I do not know if it is wise for you to be here,” Teo says wearily.

Melisa steps forward and looks him up and down. She doesn’t bow—she doesn’t even dip her head. She uses no honorifics, either. It’s like she invites him to earn her trust.

Something about the blatant courage makes me smile. I like seeing him knocked down. Just a bit.

“I wanted to know what you were scheming about. And, believe me, I’ve handled worse than all of you,” she says. I don’t like the glint in her eye.

Teo, however, shifts his weight and crosses his arms.

“I am trying to explain why the women should be unbothered for a while.”

She raises an eyebrow, still not backing down or bowing.

“Do you know where they have been?”

“My queen told me most came from the breeding pens,” the king says.

“That’s right. They were tied to a table, treated like chattel, and still walk among us. These women are not fragile flowers who will crumble at any man’s attention. We knew what we signed up for when we met Estela outside the Zlosian Palace.”

My cheeks heat, as if Melisa slapped me across the face. I’d thought them weak… but to hear what they had been through…

I’d been too harsh.

More emotions gather inside my midsection. A new thought surfaces in my mind. Something I’d been too blind to see before.

For months, I had grieved my brother. I’d blamed the humans and my king. That thinking had blinded me to the true enemies and led me to ignore my brother’s vision.

He’d had a large, generous heart. He wanted a future for the Enduares and the humans.

My throat closes. I’d been selfish with his dreams.

“Not everyone seemed happy in that room with Estela,” Teo says.

She shrugs, and her silky hair spills over her shoulder. “They just finally have a voice. Don’t fault them for wanting to use it. But that doesn’t mean they don’t want to be here.”

How had I not realized what a beautiful, eloquent creature Melisa is?

“Estela is a wonderful woman, but she was never in the breeding pens. They consisted of a large expanse of rooms. Women were kept in close quarters, unable to work or leave for a period of four months while their cycles, temperatures, and bodies were monitored closely for signs that it was time for them to be placed in a room with a man.”

I hold my breath. The name alone gives a picture of what happened inside, but… gods. The cruelty. The injustice.

I can hardly believe what a complete ass I’d been to women who’d lived through that.

Melisa continues.

“Then, they are left there for three days. Once the man is spent, the women are returned to their beds. If they are pregnant, they are gifted a hut. Some men go along with it and become proper fathers, while others beat their women. Some forced them into any manner of painful positions.

“So that is where all of these women come from—four small walls. Sure, they are wounded, some already carry children, and they all are tired, but don’t think for a second they aren’t strong. They want what Estela has promised—homes, mates, families—lives where they work for what they eat and nothing more,” she finishes.

Everyone is silent, but my ears ring. I was surrounded by broken humans who only wanted a semblance of peace after a storm.

Had I not been born into the storm myself? And deep down, did I not long for the same thing?

Keio steps forward. “I will gladly care for a woman with a child. I spent all of last night rearranging my things, and there is space.”

Melisa returns to my side. As her body heat leeches into mine, my muscles relax. I turn to look at her and start to say something just as Vann comes into the crowd. He nods to me, and I catch a warning in his eye.

As a fellow council member, I step away from Melisa and fall in line behind him, but not before glancing back at the woman in red who has my heart racing.

Lord Vann leans over and whispers, “There’s been a problem. Go get weapons. Meet us on the way out of the city.”

“Understood.”

I look back one more time.