Taming the Giant Read online

  She shook her head. “If only it was that easy! But Thiera deals in magic—she’s indispensable, especially in matters of marriage, fertility, and birth.”

  “None of which you have since the plague took your males,” Bram pointed out. “She’s become obsolete and she knows it—she shouldn’t be allowed to have a say in your decisions any more.”

  Alanah shook her head. “Oh no, Bram! If we did decide to go with you, Thiera would be vital to our wellbeing. Without the fertility rituals she performs, a woman’s womb cannot be opened because her flower will never bloom.”

  “Her flower?” He frowned down at her, confusion creasing his forehead. “I don’t understand. Are you speaking of your sex? Your pussy?”

  His language was evocative but Alanah sensed he wasn’t trying to provoke her—he was genuinely confused as to the meaning of her words. But just the idea of trying to explain to him made her feel hot and cold all over with embarrassment and shame.

  She was relieved when Jenla fell back from the main group to talk to them.

  “We’re almost to the castle and some of the girls have already run ahead to tell how the giant, er, Bram, killed the gnasher,” she said, speaking in a low, worried tone. “You know how Thiera is likely to react to this, Alanah.”

  “Yes, I know.” Alanah sighed. “I’ve been thinking how to handle it.”

  “Well, you’d better make up your mind soon,” Jenla pointed out. “We’re nearly there.” She nodded at the gray stone castle and then walked ahead swiftly, rejoining the group she’d left.

  “I need to know your decision as well, little one,” Bram murmured as they reached the gates. “Will you come with me?”

  Alanah bit her lip. “Not now, Bram. I can’t just slip away in the night—it won’t look right, you know it won’t!”

  He sighed. “I suppose your people would think I kidnapped you.”

  “Exactly,” Alanah said. “If you’ll come to breakfast tomorrow I’ll give you my decision there in front of everyone. That way everything is out in the open and there’s less grist for the gossip mill.”

  He nodded briefly. “Very well. I’ll go back to my ship and clean up and meet you back here in the morning.”

  They had reached the gates of the castle—the rusty portcullis with its missing spikes grinned at them like a mouth full of rotten teeth. Alanah knew Bram would soon put her down but she felt his reluctance to do so. Still, he could hardly carry her up to her bedchamber—that wouldn’t be proper at all.

  Neither is what he’s proposing, whispered a little voice in her head. Are you really thinking of going with him? Of doing this ‘claiming period’ that he talked about? Of letting him touch you…and do more than touch you?

  Part of her couldn’t believe she would even consider it but another part—the part which loved to touch him and wanted to feel his big hands stroking her as well—couldn’t imagine anything else.

  I’ll decide tonight and tell him tomorrow, she told herself uncertainly. Until then, I have to let him go.

  “I suppose I have to let you go here.” Bram echoed her thoughts, sounding unhappy about the prospect of putting her down.

  Alanah sighed. “Yes, I’m afraid so. My ankle doesn’t hurt nearly as much as it did. I can lean on Jenla and manage well enough.”

  “I don’t want to put you down.” He looked into her eyes and his own eyes were glowing with intensity. “I’m afraid that witch will poison your mind against me and when I come back for you tomorrow, they won’t even let me in the front gate.”

  “Never,” Alanah promised. “I am the ruler here—I’ll make them let you in, I swear it.”

  “All right—I believe you.” Bram laid a tender kiss on her forehead and then sat her down gently on her good foot. Alanah put a little weight on the ankle she’d twisted and found that it hardly hurt at all. Still, she was glad when Jenla came back and offered her shoulder for Alanah to hold on to as she hobbled slowly into the castle.

  “Good bye, little one.” The deep, quiet voice of her giant came to her ears and Alanah turned her head to see him standing there watching her go. For a moment her heart throbbed painfully in her chest and she wanted to run back and throw herself in his arms and tell him she would come with him at once, anywhere he wanted to go so long as they could be alone together and touch each other.

  But such things could not be rushed. She wasn’t a foolish peasant girl who could afford to follow her heart over her head. She was the ruler of her people—what was left of them—and she had to lead the way.

  Still, her heart ached when she entered the interior of the castle and she couldn’t look back and see Bram anymore.

  Tomorrow, she thought. I’ll see you again tomorrow. We have only a night to get through before then.

  But why did the night seem so horribly long and empty without him?

  Chapter Seven

  “Well, you’ve complicated things considerably by blowing that wild beast to the Seven Hells—there’s no denying that.” Ren’s face was dour on the small viewscreen of the shuttle.

  “Saw that, did you?” Bram sat in the pilot’s chair and sighed as he rubbed at his slightly damp braids.

  The sonic shower hadn’t been enough to clean his long, thick hair completely so he’d had to resort to water. Still, he would need a long soak in the bathing pool back on his ship to completely wash away the last microscopic traces of the gnasher’s blood.

  “I could hardly miss it,” Ren said dryly. “You exploded the Goddess-damned thing like a roast in a wave-cooker. Did you really have to shoot it so many times?”

  “It was headed straight for Alanah,” Bram growled. “I think I went into Rage for a moment—I lost my head.”

  His friend sighed. “It’s understandable, I guess. You’ve been dream sharing with her for six solar months—you could hardly be expected to stand by while she was gored to death by a wild…whatever that damned thing was.”

  “Don’t even speak of it.” Bram closed his eyes briefly. “Gods, if I’d lost her…”

  “Well, you didn’t,” Ren reminded him. “You just made the entire population of females we’re trying to convince we’re harmless think you’re some kind of a dark sorcerer with a pocketful of black magic and a thirst for blood.”

  “This isn’t helping, Ren.” Bram pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to drive back the headache that threatened. Gods, he was so damned tired of sleeping in the cramped quarters of the short-range shuttle! Hopefully this would be the last night—if Alanah would consent to come with him tomorrow and try a Claiming Period, that was.

  “Do you think she’ll come with you?” Ren asked, speaking his thoughts aloud.

  “Gods, I don’t know,” Bram groaned. “I hope so. I know the connection between us is strong. I can almost feel her wanting me the way I want her—but her natural modesty and the way she’s been raised are holding her back.”

  “One of those cultures where a female’s virginity is prized above all else, hmm?” Ren raised an eyebrow.

  “That’s part of it,” Bram admitted. “But there’s something else as well—something I don’t quite understand yet. I think it’s tied to some kind of superstition that damn Elder Witch has planted in her brain—in all their brains, for that matter. But I don’t know what it is.”

  “Can’t you find out?” Ren asked.

  “Of course—if Alanah will tell me. But I got the impression she was embarrassed to speak of it. It’s a taboo subject, apparently.” He shook his head. “I wish I could have had more time with her to prove I’m trustworthy before asking her to make this choice.”

  “Well, you don’t. Time is short because of the world-killer,” Ren pointed out. “What are you going to do if she chooses not to come with you? Will you take her anyway, for her own good? Will we take a few dozen shuttles and round them up like cattle to bring back to the Mother Ship so they don’t die when the asteroid strikes?”

  “You know that’s not how I want to do it,” Bram