The Warrior's Reluctant Bride Pt. 02

"Were you not hunting this morning?" she asked in confusion.

"I hunt almost everyday," he replied. "Did you enjoy your morning with Davar?" he inquired cautiously.

"I did," she murmured, feeling odd by the casualness of their conversation after what had transpired the previous night.

Shifting her weight, Raina watched as Asim's thick hands worked the blade against the whetstone carefully. Taking note of her interest out of the corner of his eye, Asim ceased his movement. "Would you like me to teach you how to do this?" he offered.

Raina shook her head, "I know how, Rukh taught me when I was a child, it is the same as we do to the sickle to ease the labour of collecting wheat and corn. It sharpens the blade when it has grown dull," she explained, glancing up in time to see Asim beaming at her.

"Something we have in common then," he murmured, reflecting on Davar's words, "would you like to help me? To cure your obvious boredom?"

"I'd like to leave this place, I feel like an animal caught in a trap," Raina replied cautiously, assessing his face as he thought over her request, surprised when she was not met with a burst of anger.

"A compromise then, help me finish this and I'll take you riding," he offered, not bothering to look up from his work as he dismissed her real request, refusing to fight with her again.

Pushing herself to her feet begrudgingly, Raina retrieved a second whetstone from his basket and set to work beside him, reaching for one of his arrows, trying to keep their interaction civil. Asim studied her, impressed by her consistent angle and pressure. "It's easier on straight blades than curved," she murmured, lifting her work to study it in the light.

Nodding, Asim stood and grabbed an axe, "can you help me with this one?" He asked, extending the handle to her in a show of good faith she would not swing it at him.

Sitting a little straighter, Raina accepted the weapon, a small smile on her face. He'd given her a choice. His words a request and not an order for the first time. She set to work as Asim watched over her shoulder. "What other hidden talents do you possess?" he asked tentatively, complimenting her.

"I am good at many things," Raina mumbled, too focused on her task to take note of his attempt to bond.

Amused by her self-assuredness, Asim nodded, "what brings you joy though?"

Eyes brimming with unshed tears, Raina kept her head down as images of Rukh and Anik flashed in her mind. A wayward tear escaped the corner of her eye, her breath catching as she pictured the sunny morning only two days before when Marin had placed a flower in her hair, his crooked smile warm as he blushed, brushing loose strands behind her ear.

"My home," Raina murmured bitterly, thinking of the symbol of her love Marin had left in the dirt at his feet.

Pulling her hands away from her work with a tenderness that betrayed his strength, Asim turned in front of her, pillowing her hands over his heart. "It was not my intent to take your happiness from you," he apologized.

Frustrated by the sincerity in his eyes, Raina huffed, drawing her hands away from his grasp and back to her lap. "You could return me?" she offered, annoyed, her bottom still smarting from his rough treatment.

Asim smiled down at her sadly, "no, my little viper, garnering my sympathy will not win you your freedom. You belong to me now, but I promise you will see your family again soon," he reassured, "Your brother will bring tribute in two suns time. That is as close I can bring you to your home for now."

"I know you are still angry with me, I do not like this game you play," Mira told him firmly, unsure of herself and more than a little confused by his continued kindness.

Asim forced himself to go back to his work, "I am frustrated with your resistance, but my attempt not to fight with you is not a game... Unless you would prefer I take you under my palm again?" He replied, shooting her a curious glance from the corner of his eye.

Her nose scrunched at the reminder of their unpleasant night, but Raina showed no other signs of breaking their tentative truce, "Davar says you're hurt, because of me," she probed bluntly, searching his face for some evidence of the stranger his tribe knew.

Frowning, Asim inclined his head, "it is harder than I expected, having a wife that hates me," he agreed. "I am not keen to fight with you the rest of our lives."

Raina searched his face, surprised to see the pain etched across his features and the white lines around his mouth. His visage silencing the retort on her tongue, Raina's brow furrowed, acknowledging silently for the first time she may have had a small role to play in their continued standoff and constant missteps with one another.

After a long-drawn moment of silence, Asim sighed. If they continued to be terse to each other nothing would change. Closing his eyes, he prepared himself to be vulnerable with her, as his sister had demanded. To lead them both towards something better while he still had the opportunity.

"My parents hated each other," he told her frankly, ignoring the horrified flare of her eyes. "The tension was always thick in our tent, it was uncomfortable as a boy, when they were not fighting, my father resolved himself to be away from my mother as often as possible. I did not wish for the same fate, and so, I resigned myself to like you no matter how you displeased me. Your continued resistance and cutting tongue have taxed my resolve, but I have still found reasons to like you, Raina." He explained honestly, stamping down his pride in an attempt to make peace with her.

"Although I do not enjoy being on the receiving end of your insults, I admire your tenacity, your aggression, and your will. The fact you are my match in these things excites me. I like that you do not cower, that there is not a meek bone in your body...that the ferocity of your mouth fires my blood," he admitted, shooting her a heated look, pleased by the slight blush on her cheeks.

"You might try to find the good in our union as well," he prompted. "I do not have to be the monster you believe me to be. You need only give me the chance to prove it to you."

Surprised to hear praise for the very attributes all the other men in her life had rebuked her for, she blushed slightly, unsure how to feel about his admiration. She was not charming, patient, or obedient like the village girls she'd grown up with. Much to her mother's disappointment, she was too forthright in her opinions and feelings to show any aptitude for the subtle manipulation her mother had mastered of her male counterparts.

She frowned, thinking on the many occasions her outbursts had garnered her glowers of disapproval from those around her. Even Marin, who was the most patient with her, often reminded her she was too boisterous and headstrong for a woman. "How am I to believe you are not monstrous after last night?" she questioned him, testing the truth of his words.

Asim held his arms out to either side of him helplessly, "You angered me. Taking you is my responsibility, Raina, I offered tenderness after I punished you," he reminded her, "you rejected it."

"It's your duty to take me against my will?" she snapped, her tone laced with indignant disbelief.

Resting his forearms on his knees, his knife hanging limply from his grasp, Asim nodded, his eyes frustrated. "What do you want from me Raina? An apology for seeding my wife?" His tone letting her know he found the idea ridiculous.

"It'd be a good start," she muttered, "if you want to avoid an unhappy union, why not take a woman to wife who wants you?"

"It's not that simple. I'm not free to choose like other men. I'm a chieftain, I must do what is best for my tribe, not what is best for me," he explained, "my desires are third," he sighed, inspecting his blade as he set it once more against the whetstone.

"Third?" Raina chirped beside him, her stomach falling into her bowels as Rukh's face floated in her mind's eye, the phrase familiar to her.

"The tribe, you and Gods willing, our children soon enough, then me," he explained, his hands working the blade expertly, "I am third."

Frowning, Raina leaned over, inspecting his work, "well if the tribe comes first, shouldn't Mira's feelings have been considered before you gifted her to Davar?" she asked, grabbing another arrow to continue their work, unconsciously mirroring his actions.

Asim shook his head, "Davar is a freer man than me, more thoughtful, softer in his interactions with women. Mira will come to see that. He IS what is best for her."

"Shouldn't she be in charge of deciding what is best for her?" Raina snapped in annoyance, the arrowhead slipping over the stone, grading the edge, annoyed he thought her undeserving of tenderness and thoughtfulness.

Asim frowned, "you mean shouldn't Raina be in charge of deciding what is best for her? Do not try to manipulate me, wife. You and Mira are not the same. I have known her since I was a boy, she is very soft of heart and easily distressed. I care for her as one of my family, but I would never care for her the way Davar does. She is not strong enough to be my match. Mira will be happier with Davar; you will see, her heart simply lies elsewhere at the moment. It is a silly crush, and Mira will see the truth of my choice of husband for her. Just as I hope you will see the wisdom of your father's choice for your tribe."

When Raina just glared at him, looking as though she wanted nothing more than to stab him with the arrow in her hand, he added under his breath in amusement, "Mira would never defy me as you do."

Furious, Raina got to her feet, abandoning his arrows. "You mean she is not a sharped tongue snake," she snapped.

Asim sighed heavily, regretting his words even as she tossed them back at him, annoyed to have ruined their strained and momentary truce. "Raina. Sit down." He told her in a clipped tone of voice, brokering no argument.

"Explain to me how telling you Mira would never have the backbone to challenge me, could have possibly hurt your feelings?" he questioned, a dark brow arched in confusion.

She snapped, "you care so much for her happiness, you would gift her a man who loves her, yet you deprive me of the same curtesy."

He smirked, "I would be happy to grow to love you. You are the one making it difficult." Her breath hitched at how carelessly he said the words, as though it was as simple as her embracing their union to find the love she'd thought she'd lost. "Tell me how to make you happy, Raina."

Raina hesitated, wanting to believe his words, her heart aching. How could she trust him though after the way he'd treated her? How could she look at her reflection in a pool if she didn't fight for the love she'd already chosen? "Let me have Marin," Raina begged, returning to her knees at his side, her hands circling his bicep pleadingly.

His hand stilled for only a second at her love's name before continuing his steady movement. Asim frowned, thinking it pointless to threaten her love's life again even as he shook off her grasping hands. The woman seemed incapable of heeding him.

"We do not share women once they are seeded, no one will ever touch you but me," he told her firmly, certain open marriages were not a part of her culture. Annoyed she had even asked such a thing, his pride prickling, he was tempted to take her to his furs again and remind her just who's cock would fill her the rest of her days.

"Where is this Marin of yours anyways?" he muttered in annoyance. "Why is he not here challenging me for you if this love you share is so great? Where was his thunderous objection when your father promised you to me? Why did he not make off with you into the wood when I gave him the entire moon to do so?" He demanded, glaring at her.

Clenching her teeth, her heart fracturing, Raina's eyes welled with tears, perpetually unable to hide her feelings as Asim voiced her deepest insecurities, reviving the pain she'd felt when Marin had not come to do exactly that. "He's not a fighter, you would have cut him down," she murmured.

Asim scoffed, "even a coward finds courage when the potential reward is worth the risk. What a load of horse shit. Tell me, if roles were reversed, would you have let me take him away?"

A metallic taste filled her mouth as Raina bit down on her tongue, willing herself not to cry out that she would have died first. Taking note of the grief on her face, Asim smiled softly. "Tell me Raina, have you been so willfully opposed to our union because you actually dislike me? Or are you just furious that my presence brought your farmer's fickle love and cowardice to light?"

Her eyes brimming with fire and agony, Asim nodded to himself, needing no response from her to know he was at least partially right. Climbing to his feet, he cupped her cheeks, tilting her face up towards his as she fisted her hands so tightly her nails bit into her palms.

"Know this Raina, I would slay a hundred men, travel any distance, and debased myself to crawling through the dung heaps you spread over your father's fields, before I EVER gave you up," he vowed.

When her bottom lip trembled, he smiled wickedly, "and I don't even like you that much...yet," he teased good humouredly, emphasizing the last word, pleased when her lip quirked almost imperceptibly in amusement as she shoved him away from her.

"Ask me for something that won't affect the survival of both our tribes, and I will grant it," he promised in after thought, returning to his original question on her happiness.

Grateful for the change of topic, Raina schooled her features, trying to swallow the storm of emotion he'd unleashed in her. Dismissing his words with her hand, Raina glowered, "you are being dramatic."

His eyes narrowing suspiciously, Asim paused, turning towards his bride, "you've never seen the carnage Uruki warriors bring, have you?" he guessed, her flippant comment disturbing him.

"Before your shadow darkened the walls of my father's longhouse, I'd never had the displeasure of gazing upon any man outside the Shaniri," she agreed.

His lips twisting into amusement at her continued barbs, Asim nodded slightly, "your ignorance is what gives you the courage to continually challenge me then? Your father never explained the precariousness of your tribe's survival? That the Uruki would wipe the Shaniri off the face of the earth in one night if not for my warriors? Why do you think we are camped here, half a day's ride from your harvests on the boarder of the wild lands and your people's home?" He pointed out, gesturing towards the back of the tent in the direction of her tribe.

Something in his voice made Raina's confidence crack, 'Our tribe's survival depends on it,' her father's words haunted her. "You lie." She accused defiantly. "We don't need you, you need us. Our harvests!" He looked at her placatingly, as if she were a small child.

"You are the ones that would bring carnage if my father refused you," she whispered uncertainly, no longer self-assured. She shuddered, unable to picture anything more ferocious than the man before her. She'd been intimidated by Rukh at times, but Asim made Rukh seem tame in comparison.

"Some of my people would starve," Asim conceded, trying his best to keep their conversation civil, "the planes are sparse with game, it's true we need a new way of life or we will die out, but you are wrong if you think I do not risk much by allying myself with the Shaniri. Your people are defensively weak." He pointed out. Raina bristled at his tone, which held no distain, as though he were simply making an observation and had not just insulted her people.

"You have but a handful of warriors. You are not my battle allies; you are knowledge and a resource I have to protect. If the Uruki decimate you, I will lose the ability to feed my people," he paused, a grimace overtaking his mouth.

"They are after the same as I, we have fought for centuries over the game that once filled these lands, Baal and his people are starving. He doesn't have the good fortune of supplementing his diet with the tribute your people pay me. He needs your harvests as bad as I do."

Confused, Raina scowled, "then why not take the damn crops? Why me?"

Baring his teeth at her in something that much more resembled a warning than a smile, Asim explained, "You guarantee my tribe's survival. I asked for you, because as long as I protect your pretty little head, no matter what happens to the rest of your people, mine will survive. You know how to farm, that knowledge is all I need. That is why I asked for a marriage and not simply food during our renegotiation, I'm looking to feed my people forever, not just another season."

Frozen, Raina began to tremble, "you have no intention of protecting my people, my home," she accused icily, horrified her father had made a deal with the devious devil before her.

Asim shook his head resolutely, determined not to have her think poorly of him again when they were only now beginning to get along. "I will protect them, I am a man of my word, you are simply a guarantee should the worst happen...my men though...they follow me, believe in me. But aside from that, they have little reason to leave their families to lay down their lives for you and your people. My order may not be enough to move them when their own children are threatened, they need to see you and your people as an extension of me, and as of yet, there is no Kurilian life in your belly."

He pointed out, "What reason would they have to fight for you and your people when you reject and insult their chieftain? What reason did you give them to want to be one people? Did you forget the handful of warriors that witnessed your tantrum when your father gave you to me?"

Silent for a long minute, Raina's face grew ashen, "I am your wife, you are their chieftain, your people are my people now, it's their duty to protect me and OUR families." Raina protested weakly, finally understanding the circumstances surrounding her current position as the happy faces of her own tribe flashed in her mind's eye.

Her happiness had been sacrificed for their wellbeing, her father's deal falling sharply into focus for her. She scowled, deeply annoyed Rukh and her father's determination to share nothing with anyone had resulted in such ignorance on her part.

Both brows climbing his forehead, Asim assessed her pale face, "that's interesting, I thought you had no desire to be mine?"

Reading the challenge in his voice, Raina sat tight lipped as she warred with herself. "I care about my home, my people." She told him fiercely.

"You have a funny way of showing it."

"I was in love, my heart is broken," she told him calmly, fighting back emotion, admitting for the first time that perhaps she cared for Marin more than he had for her.

Asim shrugged, returning to his work, pleased she'd used the past tense about loving her coward, "and I told you, it would be best you forget him. You are daughter to a chieftain; I find it hard to accept you have such little sense of duty."

"You are very hard to like," Raina bit back, even if she acknowledged the stinging truth of his words.

"I have found through the years that being respected is more important than being liked. I do what I must, not what will make others happy," he explained.

"Your tribe likes you," she pointed out, glad they were no longer talking about her.

"Not always. They like me now because their bellies are full and there is peace. Wait for Baal to attack and they will be most displeased when I send off half my fighting force to protect your people. Men are fickle, criticism is easy when you are not the one leading," he countered.

"Did they want you to marry me?"

"Not in the slightest, some of my men even counselled me that taking you to wife would weaken the blood of our next chieftain."