The Mountain Clans

Konani laughed darkly. "Iti, she would gut the lot of us if given half a chance. Try to anyway. I think you don't really understand who she is. Come now, let's go inside."

I stayed quiet as he led me in, looking around the stone hallway and the arches that led to rooms and more hallways. It opened into a larger room, but we kept walking straight through into another hallway. This one was larger and the arches more ornate, the rooms and halls beyond lit with torches and candles. There were even a few people in some of the rooms.

Finally, the hall came to a grand arch and I could hear many people talking in the huge cavern beyond. Konani didn't hesitate, walking us straight in and turning to approach the giant throne up on a dais.

I looked at the man on it in fear, but he just looked like an old man. Not frightening or evil or even mean. He had a shine to his eyes and wrinkles around his eyes that said he loved to laugh.

"Captain!" the king called, a bit coldly.

"Your highness," Konani bowed.

"What is all of this?"

Konani motioned the soldier up with Lani and she screamed angrily in her bonds. "You remember Leilani, I assume?" Konani asked.

The king stood, his tall, heavy form imposing as he stepped down and looked Leilani over, looking over her tattoo. "So it is," he chuckled. "Kukumei! Fetch Wakea!"

A man standing near the door took off at a run as the king smiled, pacing in front of Leilani.

"Where has she been? How did you find her?"

"She came to me, tried to get through on a lie but I saw through it. Knew who she was immediately. "

"Why did she return?" he asked, leaning close to Lani to look at her face. "She's older than I imagined, for some reason. Wakea! That was fast!"

"I was close, training," a young man called, walking in with only pants on. He was tall and slender, his muscles seemed carved into his lithe form as he strode closer. He was also covered in tattoos, half of his head shaved to show another on the side of his head. "What is all of this?" he asked, stopping next to his father and looking down at Leilani.

"Our answer!" the king laughed. "Leilani, sole heir to the throne on the meadowland! I want it arranged immediately! Bring the priests to perform the ceremony!"

Wakea turned to look at his father incredulously. "I am NOT marrying that old woman!" he snapped angrily.

"She isn't so old and..."

"She IS old, look at her! She couldn't even bear me children! No, I won't do it! I don't care who she is!"

"Enough!" the king growled grumpily. "Sit down," he demanded, moving to go back to his throne.

Wakea threw himself onto the smaller throne petulantly, glaring at Leilani.

"Bring her forward, Captain!" the king called.

Konani nodded to the men holding the pole, then walked closer, his hand on my shoulder.

"Who is that you have there?" the king demanded, seeing me for the first time.

Konani pulled the cape off of me and led me forward a few steps. "The reason Leilani was coming here. This is Princess Isola of Mareshomese. The Miovian's invaded and Leilani fled with her to keep her out of their hands. Came here to see her protected. She didn't know of the divide, she was too long in the downworld acting as this girl's guardian. She thought to hide her among us until it was safe."

The king stood and stepped down to look me over. "Are all downworlders so small?"

"No. She is... unusually small. She is of age, though. Eighteen. That was how this all started, offers were being taken on her hand and the Miovian's were slighted. They didn't like it."

The prince stood as well and moved next to his father to look down at me, then circled around behind me. "I will take this one," the prince announced. "Not the hag."

"This one gains you nothing!" the king growled. "Leilani gains you your own crown!"

"I am in line for a crown," Wakea shrugged. "I don't need two. If you want the other crown so much, YOU marry Leilani and join the crowns again. I want this one."

I looked down, a bit terrified of Wakea. He didn't have the same pleasantness to him that everyone else here seemed to have.

The king moved back to the throne to sit down as if thinking it over.

Wakea looked at Konani, his hand still on my shoulder. "Unhand her, dog. Go see to the hag, this one doesn't need tending."

Konani quickly let me go and stepped away, his face red and angry. I looked at him pleadingly as the prince circled me again, his fingers trailing over my shoulders as he did. Leilani screamed angrily again and began fighting harder as tears welled up in my eyes.

The prince stopped in front of me, lookin at Leilani curiously. After a moment, he turned back to me and looked me over again, his look dangerous. No, I didn't like this man at all, he looked cruel.

He shifted on his feet and I took a half step back. As I did, his hand darted out and his huge hand and long fingers closed around my neck as I let out a yelp of fear and surprise.

I didn't know what happened beside me, but Wakea quickly looked to the side, cocking his head again. "Did you just move to protect this girl, dog?" he demanded.

"I shifted because I knew Leilani would try and break free again. It was a preemptive movement," Konani grated.

Wakea looked back down at me, his fingers still wrapped around my neck. He wasn't hurting me, or choking me, just holding me in place. "I want this one!" he called loudly over his shoulder to his father, his eyes never leaving mine.

"Your highness, if I may?" Konani asked, stepping forward.

"Yes, Captain?"

"They will accept Leilani back, but not with you by her side. You rule here, they won't let you rule there too. Wakea, however, does not rule here yet but he IS royalty and they would accept a royal prince as their king if he were married to Leilani. He will still be in line here, so when the time comes, the mountain will be unified again."

"I'm not marrying the hag!" Wakea snarled, yanking me close to him and spinning me, holding me to his chest as I gripped his wrist fearfully.

Leilani started fighting again and Konani took a step towards me before he made himself stop.

"Regardless of what else happens," Wakea spat, "I will cut the hags heart out while she is still bound if you try and force her on me. And I will have this girl."

"She is meant to be an offering of peace for another clansman," Konani told the king. "Chief Helemiki for example. He has a son her age and it would bind him closer to you for..."

"Makuru has a husband in mind already," Wakea snarled. "He would not like this girl, or any girl. Why do you try to protect this one? Who is she to you?"

Konani turned to the king. "Your highness, Leilani brought her here to protect her. She was trying to get her to safety. If things were different, if the meadow soldiers overran the heights and you had a single chance to get Kileleni out and to safety to the downworld, wouldn't you hope they would protect her and take care of her? Not given as a toy for a man to use and toss away?"

"You think I would use her and toss her away?" Wakea laughed. "I said I would marry her."

"Perhaps we should ask your first two wives how that went for them," Konani snapped, his face red.

"They bored me. This one is at least interesting and nice to look at. I'm guessing her cunt will be nice and tight too if her size is any measure."

"Wakea!" the king hissed in humiliation at his son's behavior. "Release the girl! You will marry Leilani and you will treat her well or I will name Kileleni my heir!"

Wakea snorted derisively. "And what will you do with this one? Pass her off to Chief Masawaki? Old and feeble? As some prize to one of your generals?"

"I would ask for that reward," Konani snapped, turning to the king. "I brought you Leilani, the key to the other throne. Let me keep the downworlder as a boon."

"I want the girl!" Wakea growled, yanking me closer to him, his fingers tightening around my neck until I let out a terrified sob.

"Wakea! Let her go! We will be done with this and you will marry Leilani!"

"I want one week," Wakea snapped. "One week with this girl before I marry the hag, then I will do as you bid me."

"No," Konani turned to the king imploringly. "She would not survive a week! She is a frail thing with a sweet disposition, do not let him destroy her!"

"One week," Wakea smirked, looking at Konani challengingly.

"An hour," the king countered. "And you cannot kill her or mutilate or disfigure her. No hurting her at all."

"That takes everything off the table!" Wakea scoffed. "I couldn't even fuck her under those stipulations! Three days and I will not hurt her... too much. Nothing she couldn't heal from."

"One day," the king sighed tiredly.

"Your highness," Konani began.

Wakea laughed and started pulling me away. "Done!" he yelled, not even looking back as he lifted me off my feet and carried me under his arm.

I was in shock as terror gripped me. What was happening? What was happening?!?

"Sir," I called to him, patting his arm. "Please? I wish to go back with Leilani now."

He laughed as if I'd said something funny.

"Sir? I can walk, please?"

"Not after I'm done with you," he countered, turning down a hallway.

I shook my head, trying not to cry again.

Konani, he would save me! Leilani couldn't, she was bound and unable to even move. Konani would help. He even tried to ask for me from the king so he could keep me safe! He would come, wouldn't he? Talk to the king? Not allow this... man to hurt me?

He pushed into a door and carried me in, slamming the door behind him before tossing me onto a large bed. He stood at the edge looking down at me as I looked up at him pleadingly. "You don't need to do this, sir, please! I'm no prize at all! Not worth all this fuss or your attention."

He cocked his head, arching an eyebrow as he looked me over. "You think a few words are going to change how you look to me?" he asked, confused. "You think I'm blind? A simpleton?"

"No! Of course not! I'm just... not worth it! I'm small and pale and I don't have beautiful sleek shiny hair. No long, willowy limbs or..."

"I don't know what you downworlders think a woman should look like... but you're wrong," he told me, cocking his head the other way, looking confused. "You are a prize and I want you," he told me, laying back on the bed next to me, propping up on his elbow as he looked me over. "I will make a deal with you... what's your name?"

"Isola."

"Isola. I will make a deal with you. I want you. Even without the hag in the balance, I would want you. You aren't like the other women who've been pushed on me and don't listen to the dog. Jocali died in childbed and Kanini was vicious, talking back too much and always coming at me. Her death was an accident. Yes, I caused it, but not with intent. I gave back what she was giving and she fell back and broke her neck. I do like to fuck, and I like it hard and rough, but I won't hurt you like he was insinuating. The deal is, I get you, you talk my father and the dog into it, and I will never harm you. I'll treat you as well as you treat me."

"I can't have children," I told him softly. "And I'm weak and sickly. I'm not like the women from here."

"That's why I want you, you AREN'T like the girls here. I can see it in you. You are soft and sweet and loving, your heart is huge. And I don't care about kids, my sister intends to have plenty and I'm not the fatherly type. But don't tell my father that, do you understand? You tell them you want me, tell Leilani you want me and convince her to marry my father with no fight if you are allowed to marry me. She'll do it if you ask her and you know it."

"Why do you call him 'dog'?" I asked, changing the subject.

"Because he is. When my mother died, he tried to protect her and the man she'd been sleeping with. It came out that it wasn't the man, but he'd still gone against my father and hid both my mother and the man. My father was angry, but the man was innocent, so instead of discharging him and putting him in prison, he sent him to the gate to serve. He was told to stay away and never return and he has. He could have just sent you both to us, but he came himself, as if it would earn him grace, like a dog coming back with his tail between his legs and begging for a bone. Wanting to come back."

"But he was right?"

"He still didn't have the right to go against his king, and he shouldn't have protected my whore of a mother. It's death to disrespect the king in such a way, especially to be so public with it as if she were thumbing her nose at him. Asking to be punished."

"I don't understand how you can be so upset with her? You are her son?"

"She should never have done what she did, she knew what she was doing and she knew what was on the line. She was always angry that she was forced to marry my father, her so much younger and so beautiful."

"So you look like her?"

He looked at me again, cocking his head like he did as if trying to gauge my seriousness. "You think I am handsome?"

I blushed and looked away. "You know you are. You know how you look, how appealing you are."

"Do I? Look around at the other men here, Isola. Do I look like them? Comparatively?"

"Yes? You have the same look about you, she same raven black hair and black eyes, dark skin."

"How large are the other men that you've seen?"

"Large, I guess?"

"How large am I?"

"Not at all really, you are lithe and chiseled."

"I work hard to try and gain the same muscle mass the others have, but no matter what I do, I cannot. I will never have the broad shoulders or large arms and huge chest. I am looked at like I am weak and will have weak children. My mother was tall and slender and I took after her. None here consider me handsome."

"But you are? Your face is beautiful and your body attractive to look upon."

"Perhaps it is that way in the downworld? And a man should not be beautiful. We are getting off track, Isola. Say yes, you will make this deal with me."

"Can we talk more? Get to know each other before I say yes?"

"Perhaps I could convince you another way," he smirked, rolling off of his shoulder and standing up.

I gasped when he pulled a knife from the sash at his waist and came at me. Throwing my arms up, he caught one and flipped me to my back, then sliced my dress away like it was paper.

"Wakea, please!" I cried, being as still as I could, terrified of being cut.

"I swore not to hurt you, did I not?" he asked, moving close enough that his mouth was next to my ear. His chest was hot against my bare back. "I intend to convince you in another way, Isola," he rumbled, nuzzling into my neck through the stray curls that had fallen.

I swallowed hard as goosebumps swept through me and I shivered hard.

"Be very still for me," he whispered, moving back and slicing the dress off of my arms. When he cut away my underwear, I couldn't help but break down sobbing and it was made worse by thinking that I wasn't being still enough to not be cut. "There's no need for tears," he promised me, rolling me to my back and pulling away the remnants of my clothes. "Look at me, Isola. I'm not going to hurt you, not at all. Do as I ask and you'll be happy you did, I promise you that."

"I'm afraid," I whispered. "I know what you are about and it must not be! Not until my wedding night!"

"Isola, be good for me and you need not worry over that at all. Listen to me, that's not what I'm about to do. Give yourself over to me, little Princess, it is not what you imagine."

I shook my head, still full of shame as I closed my eyes.

Wakea pulled back from me, going up on his knees on the bed and moving. I cried out in horror as he took hold of my legs and pulled them apart, even though he was gentle about it. He went still and I imagined his eyes on me, which terrified me even more as I clenched my eyes shut and tried to will him away from me.

"You are a vision, Isola. A perfect little treasure," he murmured, his hands sliding up my thighs as he moved closer to me. Leaning close, his lips pressed to my lower belly in a kiss and I jerked in surprise. He kissed lower, then lower and lower until he was nuzzling that small thatch of hair near my nether lips.

"Please! You must not do this!" I begged, my entire body shaking.

He didn't listen, lifting my legs higher to angle my hips up.

His tongue sliding up my slit, hot and wet made me whimper and cringe, but when he swirled that tongue around my bud, my eyes spang open as my entire body twitched. He leaned in closer, wrapping his lips around my bud and sucking gently, his tongue rubbing as he sucked. I felt devine! I tried to clear my head, remember to be upset and unwilling, but I didn't want him to stop anymore! I wanted him to keep going, keep doing that until the feeling stopped building.

He groaned slightly as I slid my fingers into his long, soft hair and relaxed my body completely, giving myself over to him like he'd told me to. Was this real? No, it couldn't be, it was too wonderful to be real! Someone would have told me about this! I was dreaming and somehow I had conjured up this bliss and this beautiful man who claimed I was beautiful and a treasure and he wanted to marry me. Of course it couldn't be real!

Still... I wanted it. I wanted to bask in it and let myself have it for the moment.

It climbed, the feeling of ecstasy, it climbed higher and higher and my body wanted to climb with it as I pushed my hips up against his lips.

I didn't know what was expecting to happen, I knew that rising bliss had to go somewhere, but when it happened I was both terrified and exultant as my body was ripped out of my control and the pulses of euphoria rang through me. My body jerked with every wave and I couldn't speak, only clench my teeth and whine as I tried to ride it out, his mouth still on me.

When I collapsed, Wakea kissed one thigh, then the other before moving higher and kissing my belly. His kisses trailed higher and higher as I lay there in languid satisfaction. He smirked as he rolled off of me to my side and looked down at me.

"Did I not tell you, little one?" he asked lightly, his eyes shining.

"I... did not know such a thing was possible! I've not heard of such a thing... and how it felt! How beautiful it was! Is that some trick you learn in the mountains?"

He chuckled. "No, little one, it is..."

He cut off as the door slammed open, then immediately rolled over me to shield my nakedness from the men walking in the door.

Konani was leading them. "Your father is requesting your presence, yours and the princess's. He has reconsidered his deal."

"Very well," Wakea smirked, his hand going to my face before he turned and kissed my lips. "Promise me, little one," he whispered. "I will make you happy you did."

Pulling a sheet up to cover us, he moved off of me and left the sheet covering me as he stood to pull his pants back on.

"She'll need new clothes," he told Konani with his smirk. "Or I can take her out in the sheet?"

"What happened to her clothes?" Konani demanded.

"I cut them off of her. Skinned her like a rabbit. She's such a meek little thing, she didn't put up a fuss at all. Isola? Do you want to wait for clothes to be brought or will my robe suffice?"

"May I see your robe?" I asked softly, my cheeks burning as Konani looked at me with pain in his features. He was afraid he had failed me.

Wakea pulled a robe out and held it up for me and I nodded. Helping me into it, he was free with his hands as he slid them around my waist to tie it, leaning in to kiss my neck and my jaw.

"Stop tormenting her! Your father is waiting. Iti, come, I will carry you to keep your bare feet from the cold stone."

Wakea chuckled darkly and picked me up, his forearm under my bottom as I grabbed his shoulder.

I was so confused as we all walked back, not knowing what I wanted or what to do. Was Wakea lying? Would he hurt me after I saved him from Leilani and he no longer had a use for me? What were my other choices?