Raife: An Aquadomina Novel (16 page)

Sophie groaned and grabbed her aching head. Why did her mouth feel like
she had been sucking on old dirty socks? Rolling over she groaned again, this
time louder.

“Would someone tell whoever is pounding on the walls with a hammer to
please stop?” Wow. Since when did she have a ten pack a day cigarette voice?
Rolling over she put her hands on her temples to hold her head together. If she
didn’t, she had a feeling that it would fly right off her shoulders. Trying to
crack her eyes open she was blinded by the light coming into the room.

“PAC, turn the lights down.” She croaked out. When nothing happened, she
tried to talk louder. “PAC, lights to thirty percent.” Still nothing. What was
going on? Closing her eyes against the pain, she heard an agonized groan next
to her.

“What happened?”

Was that Raife? Feeling on the bed with one hand, she found a warm body
and patted along until she reached the head. Using her fingers, she traced the
nose, eyes…mouth. Yep, she was eighty percent sure, this was Raife.

“I don’t know what happened.” Sophie was surprised that this was the
truth. She had no recollection of anything that had happened. The last thing
she could remember was sipping some strong wine at the dinner table.

“Sophie?” Raife sounded like talking was painful his voice was so dry,
“Is that you? My head is pounding.”

“It’s me.” She assured him. Before she could say anything else, the door
opened. Sophie couldn’t open her eyes to see who it was but she pulled the
sheet higher up her chest just in case.

“Drink this.” Garritt was holding something to her mouth. “They told me
it will reverse the effects of the hangover fairly quickly and dull any pain.”

Sophie sipped and then gagged at the foul taste of the drink. “Ohh. That
is awful!” She kept sipping though because whoever “they” were had told the
truth. With every sip, she felt better. “Raife are you drinking this too?” Now
that she was feeling a little more herself, she was worried about Raife.

“Yes.” He rasped out, “I am drinking what Garritt handed me. Are you
feeling better as you sip?”

“Yes.” Sophie sighed happily. “I am feeling much better now.” She was
able to open her eyes and when she did, she was shocked speechless. “What
happened in here?” Turning her head, she looked over to Raife on the bed next
to her and her mouth dropped open. “Oh my god Raife. What happened to you!?”

Raife turned his head and looked her over for a second. Then he said with
utter nonchalance, “I imagine the same thing that has happened to you.”

Sophie’s eyes flashed to Garritt. “Do you have any idea what occurred
last night?”

Garritt looked like he wanted to laugh, but knew it would probably be the
last thing he ever did so he went into his report of what he knew had occurred.
“When you were dosed with the wine and taken for the gathering your guard were
taken to separate quarters to keep us out of the way. Before we left the dining
table, Raife drank the rest of your wine, so was dosed with what you had been
dosed with.”

“Raife you didn’t.” Sophie turned frantic eyes to his face, “That was so
dangerous.”

“It’s a good thing he did.” Garritt continued as if he hadn’t been
interrupted, “We were all able to slip out of our rooms and found Raife on the
docks. It was like he was in a trance, heading for a part of the city we hadn’t
entered yet. We came upon a large pool and while the rest of us moved into the
shadows to stay out of the way, Raife jumped on in.”

Raife sat up in the bed and Sophie groaned and held onto the mattress
with both hands to keep from moving. Then kept sipping the drink. This muck
really did help.

Raife said, “I remember drinking the wine at the dining table. The rest
of what you say I do not recall doing.”

Garritt broke out into a grin, “The next part should really make you
happy then. After you jumped into the water, every few seconds or so a
Wildehurst male would jump out of the water with a woman in his arms. At this
point, we figured what The Gathering was. It appeared to be some kind of mating
ritual. We agreed that if anyone but you came out of the water with The Chosen,
we would have stopped his progress down the dock. The only thing we didn’t
count on was how fast they moved. Just before you came out of the water, Prince
Meric did. He had a black-haired woman in his arms, so we didn’t stop him. It
would have been close trying to catch him anyway. We were very happy when you
suddenly appeared with The Chosen and then you moved down the dock. We followed
as fast as we could. You had her over your shoulder and we wanted to make sure
you were okay. When you got to this chamber, I stayed guard and sent the others
back to their beds.” His lips were twitching with amusement, and Sophie knew
there was more to the story. She wasn’t sure she wanted to hear it.

“Her name was Adina.” She said with sudden clarity. “The black-haired
woman that Meric grabbed. We were talking when she was taken by him.”

“I can fill you in on the rest after your meeting with King Marius.”
Garritt started back toward the door, “You have been requested to appear at
your convenience.” He made it to the door and stepped through. Just before
closing it, he added, “I have Allie out here with some clothes and makeup to
cover the…uh…well the bite marks and the bruising.” Bursting into laughter, he
closed the door and they could hear him outside just roaring.

Ignoring the man in the hall laughing like a loon, Sophie had finished
her drink and was feeling up to finding a bathroom. Rolling to the side of the
bed, she went to stand up and saw the destruction. There were parts of tables,
chairs and candles spread all over the floor. The blanket that had been on the
bed had been ripped and four strips of material were tied to the four posts of
the bed. When her eyes flew to Raife, she burst out laughing too. She couldn’t
help it. Now she knew what Garritt was talking about! Raife had gotten out of
bed and she could make out the imprint of a bite mark on one perfect butt cheek
along with scratch marks crisscrossing his back. When he turned to ask her what
was so funny, she gestured helplessly at his body. Gaining control of her
laughter, she hurried over to stand by him.

“Garritt did say that hangover drink dulled pain. Do you feel anything in
your back?” When he shook his head no, she asked, “What about your butt?”

His brow furrowed, “What about my butt?” He tried to turn and see his own
backside his fingers running along his butt.

Sophie felt her face flaming. “I think I bit it.”

Raife turned her in front of him to inspect her back and found a similar
mark in one of her butt cheeks. By the time, they were done inspecting each
other she had hickey like marks on her neck, breasts, inside of the thighs and
butt. Her body was sore from whatever sexual antics they had been up to and she
was tender between the legs. Raife had the same bruising on his neck, chest,
inside of the thigh, the bite mark on his butt along with faint crescent nail
shape indents on both cheeks and the scratch marks on his back.

Deciding a shower might improve their speed of recollection, they hurried
into the adjoining bathroom. It was similar to one you would find on Earth.
There wasn’t a computer to control your settings you just turned knobs. When
the water was ready, Sophie began with working soap gently over Raife in the
shower. She had been trying to remember what happened after the wine and things
were slowly coming back to her. When her head started to hurt the more she
forced herself to think, she decided to let it go for now and prepare for the
meeting with King Marius.

“I don’t know what to say.” She whispered softly.

“I do.” Raife turned her and soaped her back then slapped her butt
playfully, “We ask to be invited back for the next Gathering. At the very least
we can ask for the recipe for that wine.”

Sophie burst into laughter, “You are incorrigible.”

“Why all the subterfuge?” Sophie seethed at King Marius. “Why not just be
upfront with your situation?” Holding up her hand she snapped, “Don’t use your
pride as a shield.” She was pacing in front of all the males in the room. “I am
proud. Raife is proud.” She waved her hand to him. “All of the people of
Aquadomina are proud! That doesn’t justify what you have done.” She stopped to
stand behind where Raife sat. Her fingers going unconsciously to rest on his
shoulders.
 
“I would have helped you if
you had just swallowed a bit of that pride you hold so dear and asked me to.”
She turned her anger to Meric. “You traveled with us. You know me. Did you
think about any of those things when you went along with this plan?”

Meric stood firm, “I stand by my father’s decision to try to get you
mated to a male from Wildehurst in The Gathering.”

Sophie heard the unspoken part of his statement. He hadn’t agreed with
the plan, but it was his father he was backing. “Humph.” She wasn’t letting him
off that easy. “I already have a Chosen Consort.” She said stonily to the men
around the room. “I have to wait until the celebration in Aquarian to announce
it officially but Raife is that choice.” She massaged his shoulders as she
spoke, “I will never accept another consort. Not if I am allowed one hundred of
them. If you hope to have any kind of alliance with me, you had better accept
that fact right now.”

“We made an error in judgement.” King Marius bowed his head, “We accept
that you will not desire additional Consorts. I apologize for the underhanded
attempt to get a Wildehurst male in a union with you.”

“I accept your apology.” Sophie moved to sit back down next to Raife. “I
will agree to supply Wildehurst with technology from Aquarian, food items from
Norhurst and soil and minerals from Terragale as needed. In exchange, you will
have men made available to those three Kingdoms for assistance with mining,
farming and defense. The number required of you will be provided when I return
to Aquarian. You will install Aquarian communications here in Wildehurst so
that you can easier relay your needs to us, and vice versa. Also, you will
establish homes for any freed Deviant that requests Wildehurst as their new
living site.”

Sophie knew that not all of the released Deviants would want to go back
to the Kingdoms that had jailed them. Some of them might like a new start in a
place like Wildehurst. She had explained about the Deviant population getting
new trials. She had forgotten about the siblings that had never been guilty to
begin with. All of those people would be free to go where they wanted. She was
hoping some would choose Wildehurst.

“Also, I have informed Aquarian to send medical experts here immediately.
I think a priority is to figure out the mystery ailment impacting your
females.” Sophie looked around the room. “Is there anything else we need to
finalize right now?”

King Marius looked to his men and nobody said anything. “I think that
about covers it.” He stood and she followed suit. “Thank you Chosen. We are
happy to be part of the alliance once again.”

“Thank you.” Sophie walked over and took his hand to shake it. He was
surprised for a second then she released his hand. “That is how we seal a
bargain on Earth.” She smiled at him, “It means that I am going to honor my
word to you. That we are friends.”

The King looked relieved and happy. His face relaxing and the handsome
man he was peered out from the haggard one. “Until the Aquarian celebration
then.” He grabbed her into a bear hug. “We wouldn’t miss the party for
anything.”

Sophie, her delegation of guards and Raife left Wildehurst shortly after
the meeting. Meric had waved goodbye from the docks then tuned and strode
briskly away. Sophie had to admit that if Meric had caught her, in the drugged
state she had been in, she might not have fought him off very hard. That was a
very troubling thought for her. Turning into her private quarters from her
balcony, she called to PAC.

“How long to Aquarian?”

“At our current speed we will arrive in four suns.” The computer informed
her.

“Why did it take so long to get to Terragale, Norhurst and then to
Wildehaven if we can be back in four suns?”

“We were keeping pace with the Wildehurst longships on our travels to
Norhurst and Wildehaven.” PAC stated, “Their technology isn’t up to our
standards and they wouldn’t have kept up. As for the Aquavi taking so long to
get to Terragale, I figured you needed additional time, so we travelled slower
than our top speed.”

That gave Sophie pause and she wondered again if the computer didn’t have
more going on then she knew about. Not that the extra time with Raife wasn’t
worth it. “Hmmm. Make a note to add upgraded ships to the list of things
Wildehurst needs.” Sophie called out.

“Noted.”

Sophie had been in contact with both the Terragale and Norhurst councils
and all of the transitioning was going smoothly. Thas’in was in Aquarian
getting familiar with his new living quarters and his office in the Lextrium.
She had informed Debb to travel from Norhurst with their chosen delegate,
Councilwoman Vio’l and help her get settled in Aquarian also. Sophie had also
asked Debb to be the Aquarian delegate to the new Council of Four. Debb had
been shocked at the promotion but Sophie had assured her that it was a perfect
fit. She knew Debb would be a great benefit to the council. Therefore, that
just left a delegate for Wildehaven. She was expecting an answer on their
choice by the Aquarian celebration.

All in all things were coming together nicely. She would announce Raife
as her Chosen Consort, the plans were under way for the expansion of private
living quarters on the grounds of the Castrum for her guard and their families,
and the siblings of the Deviants were already released. Her guard and staff
members had all been given the choice to leave her service. Only Thomas had
requested to be re-assigned back to Terragale. He had a family farm that his
parents had left him that reverted back to him now that he was free. The rest
of her staff had insisted they wanted to stay. Even her elusive housekeeper
Viella.

Moving from her bedroom toward her sitting room PAC interrupted her happy
thoughts.

“You have someone requesting on audience in your private chambers.”

“Okay.” Sophie called out, and then walked through the doors. Garritt was
in the outer room with Raife, one of the reasons for being alone in her
bedroom. Raife insisted that Garritt was allowed into her private sitting room
but no further. “Sorry to interrupt your meeting, PAC said I have someone
requesting an audience.”

Raife moved to kiss her, “You didn’t interrupt, we were done anyway
sweetheart.” Garritt made himself invisible behind her and nodded to Ramsey to
open the door.

“I can’t believe how smooth things are going…” Sophie turned to the door,
her mouth dropped open when she saw who was standing there.

“I am requesting sanctuary.” A petite, black-haired female swept into the
room.

“Oh shit.”