“Of course.” Ria smiled. “Remiss of Dante not to have shown you the lords’ living quarters.”
“Mother, Mother!” A tiny whirlwind of crimson curls came running up to Ria and threw his arms around her waist. “Pika is being mean.” He nuzzled into her side.
Ria smoothed his curls. “What do we do when people are mean to us?”
The youngling looked up. “We burn them?”
Ria sighed. “No, sweet boy, we kill them with kindness.”
“That’s not what Uncle Vesper says.”
“Yes, well, I’ll be having words with your uncle.”
Uncle?
The boy turned his attention to me. “Who are you?” he asked.
His ember eyes bore into me and my heart slammed against my ribs. Crimson hair and ember eyes.
There was no doubt in my mind that this was Dante’s son. My suspicion was confirmed a moment later.
“When can I see Father?”
“Dante will be along after supper, so run along and play.”
It was as if the breath had been knocked from my lungs, leaving a hollow, empty feeling. Dante and Ria had a son. They were a couple, so why had he kissed me? Why did he ask me to sleep with him?
“Anya?” Ria looked concerned. “You look pale. Are you all right?”
I covered my tumult of emotions with a smile. “I’m fine. You and Dante have a beautiful son.”
She caught her bottom lip between her teeth. “I know as brood mothers we aren’t supposed to have a favorite, but Tor has a special place in my heart. He’s inherited Lord Dante’s compassion, but his brother Pika takes after his father Vesper in every way. He can be vindictive and cruel.” She sighed.
“Are they both yours?”
She smiled. “We try not to claim our younglings. Here in the nursery, the brood mothers share responsibility for all the young, but yes, Pika and Tor were birthed by me.”
Vesper and Dante.
She canted her head. “Oh, my dear, breeding is just that—breeding. We must do what we can to ensure the strongest genes survive, and with so few females this system works. Brood mothers give up their right to a mate; instead we agree to breed with the males sent to us by the lords’ decree to swell our ranks. Right now, the nursery is small, only a handful of younglings, as the older ones have been sent to training barracks far east of here, but come the winter we will breed again.” She smiled warmly. “It is our way. Several future brood mothers are in the nursery now, and in a few years they will mature and take over, and then we will be permitted to mate.”
“And…How many children do Dante and Vesper have?”
“Tor and Pika are the first. They are to be trained by their fathers when the time comes.” She touched my arm lightly. “You should know that Dante and Vesper are free to mate with whomever they wish when they decide to do so, but that mate will be a Dreki female. A retired brood mother.”
There was a prickliness to her tone that had previously been absent. Fuck, she was warning me off. What did she think? That I was looking for a Dreki mate? Pfft.
“I’m here to fight, Ria, nothing more. If I fancy a fuck, I’ll take it, but I’m not the kind of Skin to be tied down.”
She blinked in surprise at my candor. “I see you prefer straight-talking.”
“I do.”
She nodded. “In that case, you should know that Dante is mine. When the time comes, he will choose me as his mate. I’ve born him a son.”
Ah, so here was the real Ria. Her words shouldn’t piss me off, but they did, bringing out the bitch. “Yeah? Well, in the meantime, his tongue, his hands, and his lips are making damn good use of their freedom.” I arched a brow. “He might not want to mate with a Skin, but he sure wants to fuck one. Bad.”
She blanched. “A Dreki may sleep with whomever he or she wishes until they are mated.”
“Now are you going to show me where Dante is, or will I have to enlighten him about this conversation when he finds me next?”
She brushed past me, back ramrod-straight. “Follow me.”
* * *
Ria left me outside a double-turreted tower and strode off without a word. Maybe I’d been rash taunting her—she had my kids in her care, after all—but something told me she wasn’t petty enough to take out her annoyance on innocent children. At least she better not, otherwise I’d be using my fists instead of my words.
I pushed open the door and entered to the sound of raised voices coming from the room beyond the entranceway. The thick wooden door was ajar, and I slowed my pace to eavesdrop.
“Get rid of them,” Vesper said. “You heard what Lorance said—what he’s always said—and today’s little experiment proved it. Dreki can’t wield technology.”
“Maybe so, but we have a whole settlement of Skins who could, if trained. Anya can do that. She can train them.”
“First it was bring her to the Furtherlands so she can train Dreki; now it’s keep her here so she can train Skins. Why don’t you just be honest for once and say you want her here for you. You want her cunny and you’ll make any excuse to get it.”
“Don’t talk about her like that,” Dante said.
“Why not? It’s true.”
“Are you telling me you see nothing formidable about her?”
Silence.
“We need warriors,” Vesper finally said, avoiding a direct answer to the question. “If you want to keep her, then she can join the guard, along with any Skin willing to fight. If she can get the machines running, even better. But that’s all she is, Dante. All she can ever be. You put your heart on the line once and where did it get you? Trapped in a loveless binding with a
