The Taming: Book 3 in the Tribe Warrior Series by Imogen Keeper (romantic novels in english TXT) 📕

She’d fallen in love with her captor just as he’d said she would.

In three days, Tor would come back. This time, it would be her choice.

She’d tell him that she loved him. She’d show him the holo.

They’d make peace with Argentus, and war with the Alliance, and love with each other. Forever.

34

A peace deal?

KLYM had just taken a bite of painnea when the steward appeared in the doorway, and she set down her fork.

There was only one reason he’d come for her at this time.

She’d spent nearly every minute with Staria and Janna during Tor’s absence, working on the holo-vid. It was like having friends again, like being back at the Institute with Malina, like having a family, only better because there was no regimen of strict meals, classes, and exercise. She even ate breakfast with them, and slowly, the other felanas softened toward her.

They should be allowed to stay at the cassia. She wanted to tell Tor that. He should let them choose. There was no reason they couldn’t. They’d formed a sisterhood, and slowly, they were opening their ranks to her.

She glanced at Staria and Janna across the table and rose.

Tor was back. The holo-vid was ready. She’d show it to him. She’d tell him that she wanted to stay. That she wanted to be his wife for real.

“How long has he been back?” she asked the steward, when she’d crossed to him.

“Nearly an hour.”

He’d been back for an hour, after three days, and she hadn’t known.

“Did he send for me?” She didn’t quite manage to hold back the plaintive note form her voice.

The steward shook his head reluctantly. “He’s in his office.”

She slid her hand into her pocket, wrapped her fingers around the holo-cam, and rehearsed what she’d say as she walked. I changed my mind. Forget the deal. If you’ll have me, I want to stay. I love you.

His voice boomed down the hall, and she increased her pace. He’d smile when she told him, he’d stop being mad, he’d kiss her and probably, definitely, he’d throw her over his shoulder and take her straight to bed, where he’d make love to her, finally without a single lie or untruth or barrier between them.

She just knew it.

She slowed as she approached his office, not wanting to interrupt. She recognized Jeor’s hesitant, soft voice, “It sends a bad message though. Shunning the felanas in favor of a foreign selissa.”

“Part of the treaty involves stopping harems,” Tor said.

Treaty? She wondered idly. By whom?

“That’s absurd,” said Jeor. “They can’t make a demand like that. It’s not just about Tamminia. The harems are everywhere. Didgermmion, Channis, Jiannnag. You really think you can convince them to agree to it?”

She had to see him. She peeked just one eye around the doorjamb, and her heart skittered at the sight of him. He was dressed as he’d been the last time she’d seen him, in military pants and a shirt, looking huge and deadly. There was a length of gauze around his left hand, and a bruise along his left jaw. She let her eyes rove along his body, staring hungrily at proof that he was fine.

“I think I can talk to them individually. Maybe get them to just sit down for a comm with Franno, or maybe the Premier.”

Gaspart blew out his cheeks. “I’ve got some leverage with Channis.”

Agammo’s father? And the Premier? Of Argentus? Klym pulled back, reeling.

“Sanger can deliver Didgermmion, but he’s not ready yet.”

“Is that what he was doing with Klym?” Jeor asked.

“It was his way of proving I could trust him.”

She covered her mouth with her hands. Maybe Franno was a Vestige. Maybe the name existed on both planets? That didn’t make sense.

Someone tapped a table, a steady drum.

“So, the deal would get them access to Vestige females on Argentus for mates, a cessation of engagement, an Argenti selissa, and boots on the ground here. What’s in it for us?”

Klym shook her head. Had she heard that right?

“Peace. The end of the Alliance. Freedom from their taxes.”

Gaspart chuckled. “The Vestige do love their freedom.”

“Exactly,” said Tor. “The Alliance is pushing too hard. They’re looking for an excuse to take thrones, like Pijuan here. Klym would serve as proof that we’re serious. Argenti value Bondings. They’d take her presence by my side as proof. The other rulers will understand that.”

Gaspart’s low chuckle sent a shiver down her spine. “It’s perfect. Tor’s marriage stops the war with Argentus and gives us the perfect way to provoke the Alliance. The perfect plan.”

She backed away from the doorway, her heart in her throat.

Klym would serve as proof. Just another part of a plan.

The holo-cam fell from her hand and hit the carpet in the hall. It bounced and rolled to a standing column beside a glass window overlooking the golden lake.

She shook her head, trying to clear it, replaying her conversation with her father through the holos on Tor’s ship. The way Tor shifted at the first mention of peace. How he’d told her to leave after the conversation with Agammo. Had he called him back?

Had he planned this from the beginning?

She remembered the look in his eyes on the streets of Frigorria, the look she hadn’t understood.

He hadn’t taken her because he’d wanted her.

He’d taken her because he’d had to. It had all been arranged. He’d tricked her. She’d been thinking of love and seeing stars and forevers and magic, and all the while, he’d been seeing money and peace deals.

Pathetic. She’d taken his honoring the terms of their agreement as proof that he loved her. But it wasn’t. It wasn’t him honoring her wishes or respecting her. It was just him using her to stop a war.

Her body moving like an automaton, she drifted through the cassia. Her feet just kept on plodding as if her body belonged to someone else, her hands pushed open the quatrefoil gate, and she entered the garden.

She had to shake herself, staring blankly. She barely remembered the walk from Tor’s office, down the