Given

Chapter 3:1

The Island girl—his Given—pointed the sharp tip of her metal spear right at his throat, and Weysh could only stare at her, astounded. This was certainly a far cry from the scenario he'd pictured upon meeting.

"What does this mean, 'given'?" she demanded.

"En? It means we're bonded through the will of Bian."

How could she not know that? He took her in, not only the heady scent of her but her stance and her attire. White paint made strange marks all over her body, and her shirt was nothing more than a swath of yellow material that wrapped around her middle and looped over each shoulder, leaving her arms bare and showing a tantalizing hint of her midriff. A brown leather skirt hugged her hips. It was far more skin than he was used to seeing a woman show in polite society, not that he was complaining. She didn't look like any Islander he knew, certainly not like his cousins. Where had she said she was from? Weysh's eyebrows shot up. Did she say the Moonrise Isles? Well, that would be why she had no concept of Given. In fact, she continued to glare at him in obvious confusion.

"It means we'll be married soon," he clarified.

Her eyes went wide, then angry. "Lunacy," she said. "I will not wed you, dragon."

"What? You can't say that." Weysh turned to Harth. "Can she say that?"

Harth shrugged. "Apparently so."

He turned back to Yenni. "Look, lovely, I'm sorry if I've done anything to offend you, but you have to understand that we're Given, it's natural that we should be familiar with each other, en?"

"What do you not understand? Stay away from me!"

"Oh ho!" shouted Harth, that ass boil. He was probably enjoying every second of this mess. Weysh tuned him out.

"Don't you have a mouth on you," he said, and then he was distracted by her mouth. A small mouth with full lips he very much wanted to kiss.

"I am leaving. Follow me and you will regret it."

He raised his hands in surrender. "Alright, lovely. As you say."

She jerked her spear away and marched off, her hips swaying hypnotically as she disappeared down the whitestone path, bound for the sharp spires of Lelond Hall.

"Bian, Weysh!" said Sui, grabbing Harth's hand. "Come on, let's catch up with her."

Harth shook his head at Weysh and hurried with Sui after his Given. Weysh wanted to run after her too, but it was best to give females space when they got like that. For now, he'd make do with the scent of her. It still clung to his nostrils like perfume on his sheets the morning after he'd taken a woman home. Bian above, he wasn't even in dragon and he'd been able to catch her scent yards away. She smelled like flowers...no. Earth...no. Sun? Meat...hmm. No. Grass?  She smelled like...forever.

A goofy grin spread across his face. He'd thought that maybe, due to the circumstances of his birth, he was a severed dragon, but he'd finally found her. He wanted to shout it across the quad. He'd met his Given!

"Weysh!"

A hard slap to his arm brought him back to reality. He looked down into a pair of angry brown eyes, and cold horror doused all his feelings of joy.

"C-Carmenna!" He'd completely forgotten about her! They were meant to meet at Bertrand's East once he returned from work.

"What, by Bian, was that?" She was shaking with rage.

"I-I..." He was a dung worm. "I-I'm sorry. Come, Carmenna. Let's not make a scene. We'll go somewhere private—"

"No!" She yanked her slender fingers from his grasp. "How could you humiliate me like this?"