Rohn (Dragons of Kratak Book 1) Page 3

  “When would you like to do it?”

  “Well, not at the dinner table.”

  He smiled at that. “I didn’t mean at the dinner table.”

  She cast a glance at Fay. “You’ll have to forgive me. I don’t understand your customs and manners yet. I’m sorry if I said something to offend anyone.”

  “You haven’t offended anyone. Tell us more about the work you plan to do here.”

  “My sister Reyna is the genealogist. She’ll want to study your family histories and any other information you have on your relationships with the other Kratak Clans.”

  Reyna turned to Haya. “Are you on good terms with Clan Assan?”

  “Why wouldn’t I be on good terms with them? My husband Callan is Assan.”

  “I know. I just wondered, since the Clans sometimes go to war. I wondered if Clan Harkniss ever warred against Clan Assan. I wondered if hostility between the Clans caused Callan to move here.”

  Rowan Harkniss boomed across the table. “There is no hostility between Clan Harkniss and Clan Assan. Callan would not have come to live with us if there had been. Clan Harkniss and Clan Assan have always been the closest allies. We’ve fought together in the wars and died for each other. That is the reason Callan came to live with us, to help rebuild our numbers that got decimated in the wars.”

  “What causes the wars, then? Do you fight over mates and relationships gone wrong?”

  “Most of the wars break out over territory. One Clan decides to take the territory of another, but occasionally, as you say, wars break out over mating disagreements. Most matches happen without trouble, but every now and then, people disagree.”

  Reyna turned to Callan, who sat silent at his wife’s side. “Do you miss your people? Do you visit them much?”

  “Clan Harkniss became my people when I moved to this Keep. I see my family every year at the gatherings, but my life is here.”

  Whitney spoke up from the end of the table. “What animal is this we’re eating?”

  Rohn answered him. “It’s wild pig.”

  Whitney took another bite. “I’d like to get out into the woods and see some of them myself.”

  “That would be most unwise.”

  “Why is that?”

  “They’re very dangerous. You would take your life in your hands getting close enough to see one.”

  “I’ve seen wild pigs before. We even kept pigs back home. I think I can handle them. You just have to know how to throw your weight around.”

  “You wouldn’t throw your weight around with these. They stand twice as high as a full-grown man. They would trample you with their small toe and tear you apart with their tusks.”

  Whitney stared at him. “Wild pigs twice the height of a man? Now that I have to see.”

  Rohn shook his head. “You would be safer in the Keep.”

  “You eat them, so you must hunt them. You must get close enough to see them.”

  “I grew up hunting them with my father and my brothers. We know how to do it. You don’t.”

  “I know how to hunt.”

  Rohn scanned him up and down. He shook his head, but didn’t say anything.

  Whitney bristled. “The men of the Allies are just as much men as you are.”

  Rohn turned back to his meal. He pretended not to hear.

  Tanner interrupted. “How long have the Kratak people lived in these Keeps? They must be very old.”

  Rowan answered. “We have lived in Keeps as far back as our histories record.”

  “Who built the Keeps?”

  “We did. Our ancestors built them.”

  “When did they come to this planet? Did they migrate here from somewhere else?”

  “We have always lived on this planet. We developed here from...from other animals.”

  “I find that hard to believe. You’re too similar to humans on other planets. I’ll bet if I did some digging around, I would find out you came from somewhere else.”

  Rowan shook his head. “That’s impossible. Our histories would tell us if that was the case.”

  “Maybe your histories are wrong about that.”

  Rowan raised his flashing eyes to Tanner’s face. Rose saw the storm gathering and leapt to intervene. “I’m sure we’ll find the answers to all our questions when we start studying your people. You have to admit, Mr. Harkniss, your people offer us a fascinating puzzle to solve.”

  Rowan bent over his food. “I’m glad we offer such a fascinating puzzle for you to solve.”

  “That’s not what I meant.”

  Rohn stood up from the table. “Come along, Commander Doctor. If you want to examine me, you can do it now.”

  Rose glanced around. Now everyone stared down at their food. No one spoke to anyone else. “All right.” She put down her meat and got up.

  Chapter 4

  Rose sat down heavily on her bed and let out a deep sigh. She covered her eyes with her hands. “Oh, brother.”

  Rohn eyed her from across the room. “What’s the matter?”

  “That was a disaster. I can see there are going to be a lot of problems communicating between our two peoples.”

  “What was so disastrous about it? We communicated well enough. We spoke the same language, and we understood everything everybody said.”

  “You heard what happened. Every exchange between my team and your family turned into an argument. This is how wars start, and we’re supposed to be building understanding between the Allies and Kratak.”

  “Undoubtedly, we don’t agree on many subjects, but we understand each other perfectly well. As far as I can see, that’s the beginning of a strong relationship between two peoples.”

  Her head shot up. “You don’t really believe that, do you? You did everything but come straight out and tell Whitney to his face that he was too weak and inexperienced to hunt the wild pigs, when you yourself have hunted them all your life.”

  Rohn snorted. “Come now. You don’t really expect a spineless creature like him to fight the wild pigs, do you?” He laughed.

  “There. You see? You’re doing it again. You said he’s a spineless creature.”

  “Compared to me, he is.”

  Rose turned away with a shake of her head. What was the use in arguing with him? They would never agree.

  “If you had ever seen the wild pigs, you would know a man like Whitney could never hunt them. Look at me. I’m twice his size, and it takes up to seven or eight of us hunting together to bring down one pig.”

  She looked at him, all right. He towered over her, with powerful shoulders and a barrel chest. His legs ran down to the floor like tree trunks. No wonder he saw Whitney as a pathetic excuse for a man, especially since Whitney lived in a world controlled by females.

  Rose picked up her medical kit. “Let’s not argue anymore. We have the rest of the year to build understanding between our peoples, and arguing about our differences right at the start won’t help. Let’s concentrate on those things we do agree on.”

  “Like what?”

  “I don’t know. You tell me. What do we agree on?”

  “I don’t know, either. That’s why I’m here. You interest me, so I thought this would be a good way to find out more about you.”

  “I’m the one who’s studying you. I’m the one finding out more about you.”

  “That’s exactly what I mean.”

  Rose stood up with her kit in her hand. “Forget it. Let’s get on with the examination.”

  She got out a notebook and a pen. Without her usual recorder and scanning devices, she had to do everything the old-fashioned way. This was going to take some time.

  She faced Rohn and looked him over. He was certainly a fine specimen of a man. She rarely saw anyone as strong and healthy as him back home. The people she usually worked on needed all the Allies’ technology to keep them healthy. These Krataks had no technology, yet their bodies showed none of the usual signs of
break-down and decay. Even old Rowan and Fay remained vital and sturdy, in spite of their grey hair.

  Rohn studied her with his head leaning to one side. “What are you writing?”

  “I’m just writing down my initial observations. I’m writing down what you look like, and how strong and healthy you are. I’m writing down the color of your skin and eyes, and what clothes you wear.”

  He swept his eyes down to her feet and back up to her face. “Do you really need to write that down? Won’t you remember it?”

  She put her notebook aside and came toward him. “I definitely will remember, but someone else will want to see my notes when I get home. Since I have no other way to record my findings, I have to use a notebook and write it down.”

  They faced each other, each observing the other. Except that she had to look up to see his face, they matched each other in their direct gaze. She didn’t flinch from his inspection, and he studied her without malice or hostility. “What’s in the bag?”

  She picked up her kit. “Shall I show you? This is my stethoscope. I use this to listen to your heart and lungs. This is an otoscope for looking in your ears and mouth.”

  “What is that instrument? It looks like a knife.”

  “It is. It’s a scalpel. It’s used for cutting people open and working on their insides.”

  His eyebrows went up. “Do you mean like cutting up an animal before you eat it? Do you plan to cut me up?”

  “Of course not. We don’t cut people up or eat them. We use this to fix something on the inside that has gone wrong.”

  “If something goes wrong, doesn’t that mean you failed to do your job as their doctor? Isn’t your job to keep them healthy so you don’t have to cut them open to fix them?”

  The blood rushed to her cheeks. “Yeah, I guess that’s my job, but sometimes, I can’t keep them healthy. Sometimes something goes wrong, either their bodies break down or don’t work properly, and the only way to fix them is to cut them open.”

  He frowned. “How do their bodies break down?”

  “They just do. What do your people do when someone gets sick?”

  He hesitated. “What do you mean by ‘gets sick’?”

  “You must get sick sometime. Do you have medicines, or folk healing practices?”

  “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “Forget it. We’ll talk about it later.” She picked up her stethoscope and put the kit aside.

  Then she found herself confronted with a new problem. He stood so much taller, that she had to lift her arms above her head to reach his chest. “Maybe you should sit down.”

  He sat down on the chair next to the bed, and Rose put the stethoscope into her ears. “That’s better. Now take a few deep breaths.” She laid the instrument against his back and listened to the tide of air moving in and out of his lungs.

  He took several deep breaths and let them out. He stared straight in front of him. From behind his shoulder, Rose studied his body close up. He exuded a power and certainty she never encountered in a man before. Unquestionably, Tanner and Whitney didn’t give the same impression of solidity and unstoppable power. She couldn’t think of a single man she ever met who impressed her the same way.

  Why was that? Why did all the Allies’ men seem so weak and spineless? They gave way to the demands and motivations of the women around them. They rarely acted on their own initiative. No wonder women controlled the Allies. The men lacked the will to rule, or even to do the first thing for themselves.

  Since she never saw any men act any other way, she always thought men were weak and impressionable by nature. Now she found herself face to face with an entire race who turned that idea on its nose. If the Kratak men could be tall, strong, forceful and willful, what stopped the Allies’ men from doing the same thing?

  When she held up the two groups of men side by side in her mind, she hated the men of her own people. She hated her father and her brother and her colleagues and every man she’d ever known. Without will and power of their own, she couldn’t respect them. She saw them through the Krataks’ eyes, through Rohn’s eyes. They weren’t really men. They were tools of the women around them. They were pathetic, disgusting.

  She kicked herself for thinking those things. She hated Rohn for saying Whitney was spineless, and here she was, thinking exactly the same thing. How could Rohn, or any other Kratak man, respect her or any woman, if they chose one of these weak scarecrows for a mate? What woman in her right mind would want to mate with one of them, when she could choose a man like....?

  She forced that idea out of her mind. She could NOT allow herself to become attached to Rohn or any other man on Kratak. She was here for a year. Then she would leave all this behind. Men like Whitney and Tanner and all the other men she knew, would become normal for her again. She would love and respect them for their intelligence, their kindness and their respect for women. She would forget all about raw muscle and fighting prowess. She would forget about the hunters and warriors of Kratak, and she would be happy to choose a man from among her own people, the way she was supposed to.

  She tapped Rohn’s back, across his shoulders and down to his ribs. His chest thumped sturdy and hollow under her hand. His skin felt warm and tender under her fingers. He certainly was healthy. His lungs rang clear all the way down to the base of his ribcage, and his heart beat strong and steady in his chest.

  She walked around in front of him. Putting out her hand, she stopped short of touching him when he gazed straight into her eyes. “Is anything the matter?”

  “I’m supposed to listen to the front of your chest now.”

  “Go ahead. I submit myself entirely into your hands.”

  She caught a glint in his eye. He didn’t submit himself to anything. He would never submit. Submission didn’t exist for him. His way was power and dominance. He would smash anything submissive under his heel. He loathed anything submissive.

  For a fraction of an instant, he terrified her with that fiery glint in his eye. No matter how polite or conciliatory he might be, he challenged her to contradict anything he said. She might be Commanding Officer of a team of weaklings from another planet, but she could never stand against him if she tried.

  Then her innate fiery nature flared up. She’d never backed down from a challenge in her life, and she wouldn’t start now. He might be bigger and stronger than her or any of her team, but she would never let him defeat her. She would persist in her mission until she got the job done. She would bring these Krataks to an understanding with the Allies if that was the last thing she did.

  She lifted aside the buckler hanging sideways across his chest and opened the neck flap of his shirt. She slipped her stethoscope under the fabric and laid the diaphragm against his skin. His muscled chest rose and fell with his breath. The tide of air whispered through her earpieces, but Rose listened to something else. She heard something primal, something ancient, beating in his heart. His blood spoke to her in a language she didn’t know she understood.

  She raised her eyes to his face and found him staring into her eyes. His nostrils flared when he breathed. He was smelling her. His skin changed color before her eyes. The shifting patterns under the surface bloomed and dropped out of sight. His skin took on a different hue. It changed from bluish-purple to greenish-lavender and back again.

  Rose caught her breath, but he kept her fixed in place with his eyes. Something overwhelming kept her locked within the sphere of his magnetic presence. When had she felt that pull before? She couldn’t remember. He fired her blood, robbing her of all her ability to think.

  He let out a strong whoosh of air. Rose took the earpieces out of her ears and set the stethoscope aside. Her cheeks burned. “That part is done.”

  She turned away to hide her confusion. She didn’t understand that queer sensation running down her body. Her lips tingled, and electric energy spread over her chest, out to her nipples, and down her belly to a pit of roiling emotion between
her legs.

  She had to get away from him before she went insane. She couldn’t let herself get flustered by this man or his unaccountable kin. They were savages. They had no respect for women. They were brutes.

  Chapter 5

  Rose picked up her otoscope, but she couldn’t pull away from him. How could she ask him to open his mouth or to stare into the light? She shuddered at the thought of seeing his teeth up close, but she had to examine them for her report, too. Why had she failed to mention that?

  She turned back to him when he caught her by the backs of the thighs and yanked her toward him. She gasped out loud and dropped the otoscope. “What the...?”

  He pulled her between his knees and hauled her body against him. “Come here, Rose.”

  She tried to pull back. “What are you doing?”

  “Come here. Come closer. I want you.”

  “What are you talking about?” She didn’t have to ask. She already knew.

  His face loomed inches away from her eyes. His breath brushed her face, and his gleaming eyes bored into her soul. “You know you want me, too. Come on. Come to me.”

  She gave one last valiant effort to struggle away, but her body betrayed her. His hands sent licks of fire down her legs, and the burning ache between her legs drove her out of her mind. Her knees melted against him, and she gasped for breath.

  His face hovered before her, but he didn’t move in. He rubbed up and down the backs of her thighs and pushed her body against his. He nudged her hips between his legs and scraped that burning triangle against the bulging mound inside his pants.

  “You felt it, too, didn’t you? You want me. Admit it. You need a man, Rose. Come on. I’ll have you. I’ll give you what you need.”

  Her mouth fell open, but she couldn’t speak. He spoke to some mysterious part of her she’d forgot existed. He spoke to that maddening hunger between her legs, that yawning vacuum of insatiable desire longing to be filled.