Mad, Bad & Dangerous

“Uh.” Bill put Bael’s beer on the bar and he picked it up, suddenly looking nervous. “Is there somewhere quieter we can go?”

“No,” Kett said. If they went somewhere quieter, she might forget that he’d almost gotten her killed earlier and jump him. Which would just be stupid.

“Outside, maybe?”

“You did just come from outside, I take it?” Kett asked incredulously. “It’s below freezing and it’s been snowing nonstop for weeks.”

“I really would rather talk to you in private,” Bael said.

“Well, tough.”

He sighed, drank some of his beer then tugged her over to a quieter corner of the pub. Since every single person there was silently listening, it didn’t make a whole lot of difference.

“Okay,” he said.

Kett waited.

“Okay.” He drank some more beer.

Wow, he really was nervous.

“Okay-”

“Bael?”

“Yeah?”

“Stop saying ‘okay’ or I’ll punch you.”

“Ok-” He swallowed. “Right.”

She rolled her eyes.

“You know your cousin, right?”

“Chance? I’m acquainted with her.”

“Well. You know how she’s sort of our queen?”

“Sort of?”

“Well, is. Because she’s the king’s mate.”

“Yes.” Kett folded her arms and leaned against the wall.

“Right.” Bael drank some more. “Uh. You’re not sleeping with Jarven, are you?”

Kett blinked at this mad conversational segue. “Why is that any of your business?”

Bael looked miserable. “It just is. Are you sleeping with anyone?”

She narrowed her eyes. “No. Happy now?”

“Have you, er, slept with anyone? Since me, I mean?”

“I really don’t see-”

“Just answer me. Please,” Bael said, and Kett saw the desperation in his eyes.

She blew out a sigh. “No,” she said. “I live in the middle of fucking nowhere and there are no eligible men here between the ages of eighteen and eighty. Except for Jarven, and he don’t count.”

Something flared in Bael’s eyes but it was hard to tell what. He drank the rest of his beer all in one go then held it out to Bill. “More, please.”

Bill silently refilled it, watching them intently, and Kett sighed. Bael was clearly really uncomfortable talking about this in public, but equally as clearly he wasn’t going to go away until he’d said it.

Maybe he did know something about the cave. She ought to hear him out.

“Bill,” she asked, “mind if we go upstairs?”

Amusement flared in the landlord’s face before he nodded. “Go ahead,” he said, and Kett picked up her mug of beer and led Bael to the door behind the bar that separated the pub’s private and public sections.

Upstairs was a small parlor, away from the sounds and smells of the bar. But Kett wasn’t used to drinking in such a clean atmosphere, so she lit up a cigar while Bael looked around nervously.

“Talk,” she said.

He sat down opposite her and ran a hand through his hair. “You’re not making this very easy,” he said.

“Wasn’t aware I was supposed to.”

He sighed. “Okay. Here’s the thing. I’m Nasc, right?”

“Right. What’s your animal?”

“Don’t distract me. I’m Nasc. Do you…know very much about us?”

Kett waved her hand to say she didn’t.

“Right. Well. Your cousin is mated to one.”

“We covered this already.”

“Yes, but do you know what that means? Mated?”

“I figure it’s like being married, only more…animally. More sex, maybe.” She blew out a smoke ring.

At the mention of sex, Bael’s eyes darkened. Well, she couldn’t blame him. If it had been half as good for him as it had for her, he’d be desperate for more.

“Well, yes. Sort of. It has a lot to do with sex.”

“What a surprise.”

“Once a Nasc is mated, they can’t have sex with anyone else.”

“Like marriage, then.”

“No, I mean literally can’t. It’s physically impossible.”

Kett blinked, an image of the insanely virile Dark being unable to get it up suddenly flashing into her mind. “Seriously?”

“Yep. And we can only have children with our mates too.”

“So…once you’re mated, that’s it? No get-out clause? No divorce? No shagging around on the side?”

“Nope. Once you’ve found your mate, that’s it.”

“Huh. Well, I suppose it’s a better system than ours.” Her fingers curled into a fist, remembering. “So long as you’re really, really sure you want to be mated to that person.”

Bael cleared his throat, drank some more beer then cleared it again. “Um. Well. That’s the thing.”

She narrowed her eyes. “That can’t be the thing; you already said ‘the thing’.”

“Well, this is another thing. Or part of the same thing. Um. You don’t actually get to decide if you want to be mated or not.”

“You don’t?” Kett scowled. It reeked of arranged marriages to her, and in Kett’s mind, an arranged marriage was like executing a random person when a crime had been committed. You might get lucky and get the right person, but chances were you’d just condemned someone innocent.

“No. It’s sort of a fate thing. Once you find each other, that’s sort of it.”

“Fate,” Kett said skeptically.

“Well, yes.”

“That’s bollocks,” she said.

“I thought you’d say that,” he sighed.

“No, it is. The whole fate thing. Written in the stars and all that. There’s not a thing written down can’t be changed.”

“It’s not written anywhere,” Bael said, looking miserable. “It’s just true. Once you find your mate, that’s it.”

He looked at her then, and those green eyes connected with something inside her. A nasty suspicion started in Kett’s mind.

“Please don’t be telling me what I think you’re telling me,” she said.

“What do you think I’m telling you?” Bael asked warily.

“That you think we’re these fated mate things.”

He swallowed. “Well, yes.”

Kett looked at him. He appeared to be serious. And not particularly cheerful about it, either. Well, fuck this.

She picked up her beer and drank some. Then some more. Then some more, until the mug was empty. Then she went to the stairs and yelled, “Bill, I need more,” and handed down her mug for a refill.

His bushy eyebrows waggled at her as he filled it. “How’s it going up there? Don’t you two stain my rugs.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Kett snapped, and took her beer back.