Chapter 8
#8 of The Mating Season: A Life of Dreams
Chapter 8
"You're Tyne!" Roan panted, his green eyes burning bright with the accusation. He stood with his paws balled into fists, his muscles were tense, and he wasn't aware of it, but his jaw was standing out hard. In that moment, he looked less like himself and more like a very furious Kel.
The chain rattled as the wolf slumped against the wall, massaging his aching jaw. His pale eyes drifted up to Roan's face and he cocked a brow, impressed.
"Aren't you? Answer me!" Roan growled. He lifted his fist. "Or by god --!"
The wolf's ears pricked forward at the sound of the strange voice. "Yes, I'm Tyne. But you're not Kilyan. Who are you?" His eyes darted over Roan, searching. He suddenly smiled, and Roan gasped to see the flash of an incredibly long fang.
Roan felt repulsed when those pale eyes passed over him lustily. It made him feel like a piece of meat. He resisted the urge to cover himself. "Hukida said you captured my father! What did you do to him?"
Tyne looked at Roan, amused. "Ah . . . they caught the son. Fools." He drew his knees up and rested his arms on them, still regarding Roan with something between curiosity and unapologetic hunger.
Standing angrily in the gloom, Roan thought the prisoner did not look very well taken care of. He was dirty from sitting in the straw, and his long gray mane was shaggy and unkempt. He wore a leather collar with a silver horned moon on it. The silver set off his pale blue eyes, which reflected the flame of the lantern in the darkness.
"You didn't answer me," Roan said icily. "What did you do?"
"Hm," was the reply. Tyne was studying Roan, delighted. "Look at the fury in those eyes," he said to himself. "Kilyan's fury, right in those eyes."
Roan stiffened. He suddenly lunged at Tyne and they went down together. He knew the slave was bigger and stronger, but he didn't care. He beat him with everything he had, grunting and sobbing that he would never hurt Kilyan again!
Roan choked when Tyne slammed him on his back. He was blinded by tears, but one blink sent them down his face. Tyne was pinning him to the straw by the shoulders, and the slave's big chest heaved as he sought to catch his breath. Roan was surprised to realize the slave was looking at him sympathetically.
"I'm sorry," Tyne whispered after a long pause, "for everything I did to your father. For everything. Kilyan has forgiven me. There is no bad blood."
Roan's eyes narrowed. He didn't believe him.
"I understand that you are angry," Tyne went on calmly, breathlessly, "but I can not allow you to harm me. In fact, I won't. When I let you up . . . you must promise to --"
"Kick your fucking teeth in?"
Tyne blinked to see the tight fury in Roan's face. He laughed. "Oh god. You're a wild one, aren't you? Your father was the exact opposite. He never fought me. He was tame as a doe --"
"Shut up about my father!"
"And how those green eyes fire," Tyne said softly. He hesitated, then touched the back of his fingers to Roan's face. "So . . . beautiful."
Roan flinched and made a move to slap Tyne's paw off. Tyne quickly pinned his paw above his head. He sat straddling Roan, and both of them were tense. Tyne was calm and his blue eyes admiring. Roan was furious and ready to spring.
"Don't make me hurt you," Tyne whispered sadly. "You're so pretty . . . I don't want to. And you're already hurt." He nodded at Roan's sling.
Roan's chest heaved. If only he wasn't! But his arm was aching in his sling now. He wanted to massage it. His ears flattened angrily at his own helplessness.
Tyne remained completely absorbed in gawking at Roan. His free paw cupped Roan's face. His finger brushed his lips, then his neck . . . his nipple. He tweaked gently. Roan bit his lip to keep from crying out: his nipples had always been very sensitive.
Tyne hesitated . . . then slowly let his paw slide lower.
"Stop!" Roan said indignantly.
Tyne did stop. "I could pin you down and fuck you good before they ever came. And you . . . you might like that. Hukida seems to think so."
Roan blushed furiously: he smelled like sex. Like sex with Hukida.
"Get off me!"
"Promise to remain calm. Promise not to hit me again." Tyne waited.
Roan looked at him, and realizing it was hopeless, he nodded slowly.
Tyne slowly eased off, and Roan scrambled up at once. He backed away and sat on the floor against a crate, his body burning and slightly aroused from Tyne's touch. Hating himself, he glared sullenly at Tyne as he rubbed his injured arm.
Tyne sat against the wall. He drew up his knees, rested his arms on them, and regarded Roan in amusement.
"So . . . what did you do to . . ." Roan waved an angry paw. "Wind up like this?"
Tyne shrugged moodily. "I was always like this. I've been a slave all my life. . . . in more ways than one. But to answer your question . . . I tried to help your father escape. The chief's slaves as well. Yana and Yuri escaped and were never seen again. But your father, he was taken to the moon village before I could help him."
Roan went still. "Did you say Yuri?"
Tyne nodded slowly. "That's right." He studied Roan curiously.
Roan looked away. Yuri had been a slave! He, Zane, and Enya had grown up believing Yuri's mother simply died in a shipwreck. That Yana and Yuri had been running from slavery . . . the very thought was heartrending. And they had been running from Tyne! Roan glared at the male.
"Then this is exactly what you deserve! You captured my father and took him away from me - now you help your slavers to capture him again!"
"But the fools took you instead. I have to admit, I can hardly blame them. Look at you! You look just like him. Only the little spots . . ."
Roan shifted uncomfortably as Tyne's blue eyes raked over him. He stared as he realized for the first time what his father had gone through in trying to reach the sun village for Kel.
"How is your father?" Tyne asked softly.
Roan glared at him. "Why!"
Tyne smiled. "I tried to help him escape. Did you forget that part?"
Roan hesitated. Yes. He _had_forgotten that part. To hear that Tyne had taken his father away was infuriating and he had forgotten everything else. Kilyan had lied. He told his sons that he met Avi when slavers tried to take him across the sea. He told his teenage sons that Avi and the shemales saved him from the slavers! No doubt Lea and Ohana knew the truth.
Roan looked at Tyne grudgingly. "Why did you help my father?"
Tyne smiled again, his long fang protruding over his bottom lip. "All my life," he said, "I never wanted anything for myself. I did what my master told me because I loved him and I wanted to please him. I lived for his accolades. And nothing else."
"What's your point?" Roan said flatly, indifferently.
Tyne looked at him fondly. "Your father," he said gently, "was the first thing I ever wanted for myself. I wanted him - and not because my master told me to want him. Not because being with him would please Kachada. I wanted Kilyan, to hold and to love . . . and I didn't want to share him with the chieftess or my master. I wanted him so desperately that I did what I had never done before . . . I tried to set him free. Because he set me free."
Roan studied Tyne with searching green eyes and didn't know what to say.
"Now have you finished passing judgment on me?" Tyne said quietly. "Will you continue your attempt to throttle me? Or will you escape?" He nodded at the door.
"I'm sorry," Roan said sincerely. "Dad never told me . . . anything about this." He pushed a weary paw back through his mane and stared at the ceiling. "I'm starting to see why."
"Why are you here anyway?" Tyne wondered. "Here in the sun village? Kilyan told me he was from the _summer_village. I purposely led the slavers here thinking they'd never find him."
"Oh no. I'm getting married and he's coming here soon!" Roan glanced at the round window behind Tyne. The water was still dark: it was still night.
Tyne smiled and stroked his chin. "Ah. A wedding. Who's the lucky girl?"
Roan gave a half-smile. "Her name's Theo."
Tyne laughed but his blue eyes were warm with lust. "Ah. How . . . delightful."
Roan made a face. "You're worse than Hukida."
"What'd he do? Ask to suck your dick? I'm sure he was quite chivalrous about it. He always is."
"He - he didn't do anything!" Roan lied, flattening his ears.
Tyne only laughed. "Sure, he didn't." He held up his paws. "Not that it's any of my affair."
Roan could see that Tyne's paws had been bound recently: the fur was pressed where the manacles had been. He suddenly felt a surge of reluctant sympathy.
"So this boy," Tyne said thoughtfully, and studied Roan, "you love him? Truly love him?"
Roan's ears pricked forward. "Yes!"
Tyne nodded. "You'd better be damn-sure. Marriage isn't something to fool around with. I watched my chief for years in an unhappy marriage - of course, it was arranged. Iyira came from a noble family. Her father was on the council and she had big hips and huge tits, so they thought she'd bear a few princes. And she loved Kachada. Loved him for years, same as I did."
Roan's brows shot up.
"Kachada could have said no to the marriage," Tyne went on, shrugging his powerful shoulders. "He could have said no and married someone he truly loved."
Roan looked at Tyne curiously: the male was starting to sound bitter . . . and sad. "So why didn't he?"
Tyne smiled unhappily and his long fang sliced through. "Because he loved someone he could not marry."
They fell silent as Tyne's meaning became clear.
Roan cleared his throat awkwardly. "Even if you weren't a slave . . . would they have let him marry a male?"
"Provided that he found a female to produce an heir with."
"Oh . . ." Roan stared off, thinking how little he knew of other villages. The only moon wolf he had ever known was Yuri, and she never spoke of her native tribe. In fact, Yuri seemed to hate her tribe and made a point never to speak of it.
"So you love him," Tyne said, his blue eyes dancing over Roan fondly. "That's good. Be good to him. And make sure he is good to you . . . More wolves need to treat each other kindly in this world."
Roan nodded, looking at Tyne with green eyes bright with pity. "Listen . . . since I'm escaping, why don't you just . . . come with me?"
"No," Tyne said at once.
Roan's ears pricked forward and he stared. "What? Why not?"
Tyne sighed heavily. "I told you I was a slave in more ways than one. I am slave to my love for Kachada."
Roan stared, not understanding.
"He is sick," Tyne said, frowning. "And he is dying. I will be there for him . . . until the end. I must return to the village. I can not . . . let him die alone."
Roan nodded slowly. He still didn't understand, but Tyne looked so sad that he didn't argue. He got up from the floor. "Then I guess this is goodbye. Thank for you trying to help my father - even though he's in this mess because of you!"
Tyne laughed. "You're welcome."
Roan hesitated - then came to Tyne and kissed him on the cheek. He laughed when Tyne blushed furiously.
"Oh . . . you are asking for it, pretty little thing," Tyne purred. He smoothed an affectionate paw down Roan's tail.
Roan smiled and flicked his tail back up as a thrill went through him. "Goodbye, Tyne."
Tyne smiled at him fondly. "Goodbye, Roan."
Roan was turning to leave when a voice in the hall made him freeze.
". . . permission to go out," the voice was saying.
"Why? So you can stay out all night and get drunk again?" said a weary voice and Roan stiffened - Hukida's voice!
"I promise I'll be back in the morning, sir."
"Calm down, Kuza. You're spitting on me . . ."
"Please, sir? My cousin doesn't have to know --"
"Be back by tomorrow morning, or your cousin will know."
"Oh! Thank you, sir!"
Footsteps sounded as one of the males ran off. Then what Roan had dreaded happened: Hukida pushed the door open and stood in the doorway, looking at him.
"Somehow, I knew you'd be in there," Hukida said, sounding very tired. "Come back to bed, Roan."
"Come back to bed," Tyne repeated, laughing. "I knew it."
Roan blushed bright. "Shut up!" he cried and hurried from the room.