“You realize the palace uses biometric scans as well as work passes now. Don’t you?” he queried lightly as he circled, probing a loose back tooth with his tongue. Draanth, this male could hit, and hard. “Purists had the same idea as you months ago, so security was upgraded.”
“Trallshit!” Farmer shot back, but Saal didn’t miss the sudden doubt in his eyes. “What would that lot of fanatical draanthic want a non-Lathar for? They’d rather fuck each other if’n it meant keeping their ‘racial purity.’”
He wasn’t wrong. Saal shrugged, not dropping his guard even though they were talking now rather than throwing punches. “Some crackpot prophecy about bringing the goddess back. They thought sacrificing a female would do it,” he said, wiping blood from the corner of his mouth.
Shock slackened the farmer’s face. “They would ‘arm a female? When we ‘ave none? What kind of—”
“Exactly.” Saal nodded, recognizing the horror and outrage on the male’s face at the idea. It was the same as he’d felt when he heard what they’d planned to do to the Lady Jessica… what they’d almost managed to do to her and her baby.
“You do know there is a potential mate program, right?” he asked, still not dropping his guard. Instinct might be telling him the fight was over, but experience knew not to count his raalix before they were hatched.
“There is?” The farmer’s look of surprise was replaced with one of hope and interest.
Saal had gone out on a limb by offering the information, but the quick flash of soul-deep loneliness told him he’d been right. This wasn’t a bad male, just a desperate one.
“I don’t think human females are used to multiple matings,” he warned in a low voice. “Some might be. I don’t know. Perhaps you can mention it as a possibility when you register your interest?”
The farmer nodded, rubbing at his beard. “We figured the only way we could ‘ave a chance at a female was if we were willin’ tae share. But we’ll take one any way she’s willin’ tae ‘ave us. It would just be nice tae ‘ave somethin’ nice to look at, yea know?”
Saal nodded. Most males he knew would agree to just about anything to get a female. Hells, he’d even share Lady Lizzie if he had to, if that was the only way she’d accept him. Anything to know the love and softness of a female in his life.
“You can register at the palace,” he suggested. “The mate program is open to all. As far as I know the emperor is negotiating with the human leaders about allowing us to have their unwanted females.”
“Unwanted females…” the farmer murmured, as though such a notion was completely alien to him. And to be fair, it was. Had the Lathar still had females, not one of them would be unwanted. They’d long ago learned their lesson on that score.
Then he snapped out of it, shaking his head and looking directly at Saal. A look of contrition crossed his face. “Sorry ‘bout that,” he said, gesturing toward Saal’s injuries.
Saal shrugged and smiled. “Don’t worry about it. One of the advantages of working in the healer’s hall, eh? Well… good luck with your application, my friend.”
“Ye too,” the farmer smiled, and with that turned to head out the way he’d come.
The rest of Saal’s journey to the palace was uneventful. Before long he’d logged in and was checking patient stats on one of the secondary healers’ orders when he stepped out of a bay and almost walked right into the lord healer himself.
Laarn’s hard expression didn’t alter but Saal knew he’d noticed his injuries from the would-be street fight.
“Anything you want to tell me, orderly?” he asked, one eyebrow raised.
Saal kept his expression level. As Laarn was hall master as well as lord healer, by law he should report any and all acts of violence to him. But… he couldn’t. The farmer had just been doing what he thought best for himself and his brothers. In his place Saal might have done exactly the same. It was an impossible situation. One he was glad he wasn’t in.
“No, my lord. Nothing to report.” He added a small, rueful smile. “Just an argument with a door, to my embarrassment.”
“Hmmm,” Laarn grunted, obviously not believing him. Neither would Saal if he’d been in his shoes. The marks of violence on a male’s face were unmistakable. “Well, make sure you limit your… disagreements with doors. I will not have any member bringing disrepute down on this hall. You will be exiled if you do. Understand?”
Saal didn’t argue but simply nodded.
“Yes, my lord. Perfectly.”
He didn’t move, waiting as per protocol.
Laarn looked at him for a long moment and then nodded. “Dismissed. Make sure I don’t see you again until your face is healed.”
4
She had to agree to his claim.
Lizzie hadn’t been able to get the handsome warrior’s words out of her head. They, and he, had haunted her dreams the night before. The memory of his lips on hers followed her out of sleep and into daydreams. She wanted more, of his kisses and his company.
Wandering through the healer’s hall, she couldn’t spot him, so she strolled out toward the gardens. Perhaps he was on duty out there today instead? But he wasn’t among the gardeners either, so she walked back toward the palace. Maybe it was his day off today? Her mood took a nose-dive at the thought of not seeing him today.
Then she found him, quite by accident. Turning a corner, she almost ran into him. He stopped abruptly in surprise, a hand out to stop her as dirty water from his bucket almost slopped over her toes.
“Careful, my lady!” he warned, setting it down carefully and urging her to take a step sideways away from the dirty puddle.
“What are you doing out here?” he asked, a surprised expression on his face as he indicated their surroundings. They were in a service area, where the servants went about their business.
It wasn’t an area she would normally have been in. If any of the servants saw her, usually they gently but firmly guided her back to the more “acceptable” areas of the palace. She didn’t see why. These areas were often far nicer with less ostentatious decoration.
“I was looking for you,” she admitted.
“For me?” A burst of pleasure showed in his eyes and he smiled. “How can I help, my lady?”
“I… Err—” He had to go and ask that. Didn’t he? Make her put it into words. Then she caught the edge of a wicked little smile cross his lips and she gasped. “You evil man!”
He chuckled, the deep sound sending shivers across her skin, and swept her up into his embrace. Pulling her into a darkened alcove nearby, his lips were on hers almost before she’d registered the movement, and she melted in his arms.
“Can you blame me?” he murmured when he broke the kiss, both their breathing ragged. He rested his forehead against hers. “It’s not often—like ever—that a female as beautiful as you comes looking for me.”
She smiled, winding her arms up around his neck. “I’m sure if the Lathar still had women, you wouldn’t even look twice at a plain little nobody like me.”