Tribe Protector

by Stacy Jones

  Lily felt bad, but immensely relieved. The fact that neither brother looked devastated at her announcement—sad and disappointed, yes, but not crushed—let her know they hadn’t started the imprint thing.

  Dasak’s reaction, however, both surprised and worried her. Oddly enough, since he’d spent significantly less time with or around her than Rork or Lok, he seemed the most upset of the three at her rejection. His blue eyes were dull and he seemed genuinely distressed, his tail tucked close to his body and curling around his ankle in what looked like self-soothing .

  Rork and Lok dipped their heads at her before they left, swinging off without another word. Dasak took a small step closer, staring at a spot over her shoulder, and tried to hand her the bow he was still holding from his earlier practice.

  “Shh herii. Aout roaer shevari, ” she pushed it back at him, telling him to keep it and use it to help protect the tribe.

  His gaze flicked to hers, she thought to see if she was serious, as he slowly lowered the bow back down to his side. Dasak stared at her searchingly for a long moment. Lily wanted to make some kind of apologetic expression in the face of that searching look, but she stayed closed off, not giving him anything but polite emptiness. Finally, he dipped his chin and turned away, leaping into the branches of the next tree before he disappeared into the foliage.

  Lily felt like an asshole and turned to glare at Frrar for putting her in that position.

  Except he wasn’t looking at her. He was staring fixedly at nothing, his entire body nearly quivering with tension.

  Shaking her head, she sighed and stepped around him, too angry and upset to speak to him. Walking between Tor and Arruk she pushed aside the curtain of fronds making up their door and entered the comforting dimness of the hut.

  Lily hadn’t felt the need to be alone very often, if at all, since arriving on the planet. She adored her guys and loved their company. But just then, she needed solitude.

  She needed time to calm down and work through the tangled mix of emotions that entire situation had left her with.

  For the first time, she was glad when no one followed her.

  F rrar stared after Lily as she entered their hut, her back straight as a tree and her tiny fists balled tight.

  He felt… ashamed of himself.

  He hadn’t meant to upset her, never wanted to be the reason for her anger or hurt. But he knew he’d caused her to feel both.

  When the fronds swished back into place and hid her from his view, he looked to his harem brothers, only to find they were all staring at him. Drrak was glaring as if he could cheerfully push him out of the tree and feel no remorse. The scars on his face were pulled so tight with anger they were nearly white, almost blending into his fur, and served to make his expression even more menacing.

  Arruk looked torn between reluctant sympathy and utter disappointment. His normally genial expression was gone, and he was slowly shaking his head as if he couldn’t believe what he’d just witnessed.

  Tor was, for perhaps the first time since Frrar had known him, speechless. He’d expected him to have some quip about Frrar being senseless, but he just stared. Even the grim anticipation Frrar noticed earlier was gone. All that was left was exasperated anger.

  Frrar found Tor’s silence harder to hear than any biting remark the sharp-tongued male could have said.

  Even the kit was watching Frrar somberly, still and silent where he was sitting beside Drrak.

  Frrar felt his tail curl in on itself, trying to hide from the expressions of his brothers. They’d voiced their misgivings about bringing more males to Lily, had tried to tell him that it wouldn’t end well, but he hadn’t been able to let it go. The image of her dying like his Mother had died plagued him endlessly, haunting his dreams with visions of his beautiful, tiny, fierce Pasha staring at him lifelessly, her green eyes empty and accusing.

  He couldn’t think past the need to do everything possible to stop that vision from coming true.

  He knew his Lily, knew she wouldn’t be happy about him bringing her males, but he hadn’t been able to think of anything else that would ensure her safety as certainly as having more mates. Frrar had hoped, desperately, that she would feel a connection with at least one of the Unchosen he’d selected for her, and preferably all three.

  He’d spent the days he met with the Tribe Mother, trying to persuade her to share her knowledge, also watching the Unchosen around him, recalling everything he knew about them and trying to pick the ones he thought would be a good match for his Lily.

  He had so deeply buried the voice in the back of his head trying to tell him to stop, that it wouldn’t work, that he’d convinced himself it would.

  He knew now, with painful clarity, that the voice had been right and he’d been wrong. But that ball of dread and desperation that felt like poison in his stomach was still seething and roiling. It was still trying to push him, even after her reaction, to do anything and everything in his power to protect his mate.

  Drrak drew his attention when he picked up the kit and moved to leave their tree. The scarred male speared him a fuming glance before he moved off to collect Lily’s arrows. Tor was next to leave, giving Frrar a narrow-eyed look before going in the opposite direction with empty pouches to gather food.

  Arruk stayed, staring at him piercingly and rumbled simply, “Fix it.”

  Frrar watched him leap into the branches above and knew Arruk would stay there, watching for danger and listening to make sure Frrar did not say something to enrage their Pasha further.

  When he was alone, he stared at the fronds separating him from his Pasha, trying to think of something to say to justify his actions, to explain why, and to repair the damage he’d done.

  He came up with nothing.

  Straightening, he closed the space between him and the hut, feeling like he was willingly walking into a pantari den, knowing he would be ripped to shreds once he was spotted.

  Pushing back the fronds, he peered inside. When he found Lily sitting in the middle, her hands buried in her loosened hair and staring directly at him like she’d been waiting for him to appear, he froze. His heart jumped up from his chest to his throat, as if it, too, was angry with him and was trying to choke him.

  Dropping his eyes from hers, he continued inside and immediately fell to his knees in front of her then bent to press his forehead to the nest.

  It was the first time he’d bowed to her since shortly after she’d Chosen him. They’d all stopped after she pulled them up and demanded they not do so anymore.

  Frrar knew she didn’t like it, but he couldn’t think of anything else to do to show his remorse and ask for forgiveness.

  He was ready to stay in the uncomfortable position for as long as it took, days if that was what she required, but he heard her sigh and felt her fingertips brush the top of his head before he could even take a full hand of breaths .

  Sitting up warily, he rolled his eyes up to peek at her.

  She looked sad and angry and confused, and it made Frrar’s heart hurt and his chest feel suffocatingly tight.

  He had put that expression on her face. Him. Her Chosen. The one who was supposed to be her shelter, who was supposed to put her care and needs before all others, whose sacred duty it was to love her.

  The Goddess had gifted him a strong, delicate, singularly accepting Pasha, and he had hurt her. He wanted to protect her more than he wanted to breathe and, yet, he’d only succeeded in injuring her.

  That look cut through the roiling panic lingering in his mind, silenced the pleas that she take more males that still waited on the tip of his tongue, and smothered the anxiety that felt like fingers scratching at the back of his neck.

  Frrar went still as that look cut him.

  A low whine built in his throat.

  “My Lily… ” he started, but she spoke over him.

  “We were having a good day. I felt accepted by your people for the first time since coming here, and you took that away,” she began soft
ly, staring at him as if trying to understand why he would do such a thing.

  “Why would you do that? I had to hurt them. What if they had started the bond, the iarrshaa? What then , Frrar?” she hurled the words at him like stones. “I’d just be forced to accept new mates? Mates I didn’t love? Didn’t even know? All for what? Why, Frrar?”

  “I… wanted you to be safe, my Pasha. I… ” he stammered.

  “I am safe! I don’t have only three mates anymore. Why are you still so determined that I take more? Talk to me, Frrar. What is going on with you ?” she demanded, her expression imploring him to make her understand.

  “I… see you,” he started haltingly, his voice hoarse and low as he fought to speak the words he hadn’t dared to say aloud. “When I sleep, I see you dead. Like my Mother. You stare at me, and I know your death is my fault. I cannot stop seeing it. I cannot stop thinking about it. I have to keep it from happening, but… I am not enough to stop it. I could not save my Mother. What if I cannot save you? I thought more males would keep you safe ,” he whispered, his fears and doubts drowning him like the waters that rose from the ground to flood the land.

  When he raised his gaze to hers, he saw sorrow etched on her face and understanding shining out at him from her eyes. She moved to her knees and shuffled closer until she could cup his cheeks, making him hold her stare, forcing him to see her.

  “It was not your fault, Frrar. You were a child. If you had gone down there, you would have died too .”

  “I could have done something,” he croaked.

  “No, you couldn’t have. I need you to listen to me. Your parents’ deaths were not your fault, and it is not only your responsibility to protect me. I’m not helpless and Arruk, Tor, and Drrak are right there to help .”

  She let go of his cheeks to grab the wrists of his upper hands, bringing them to her face, making him touch her, making him feel her there with him.

  “I’m here, Frrar. I’m safe ,” she whispered.

  She leaned toward him, pressing a tender kiss to his lips, her eyes open and on his all the while, not letting him look away. She spoke against his mouth, whispering, ‘I’m safe, I’m right here’ over and over again between kisses.

  Frrar felt himself calming bit by bit as her words and her touch seeped into him. His heart slowed its racing, his tail stopped its jerking, and his shoulders gradually relaxed.

  He hadn’t known he’d needed this, needed to tell her his fears so she could crush them under the delicate press of her mouth and the gentle brush of her two hands.

  He released a shuddering breath against her as her quiet reassurance, the warmth of her caresses, and the sight of her, so intoxicatingly alive and there, began to replace the images in his mind.

  Frrar returned her kisses, both of them growing more and more passionate as the need to reassure and be reassured turned into something hungry and urgent until they were devouring one another, eager little sounds spilling from their lips.

  He welcomed it when she pushed him down to the nest, growled when she hurriedly stripped off her coverings, and groaned like he was dying when she bent to press hot, wet kisses to his soft maleness. She teased him with gradual pressure on his knot until he was harder than stone and desperate for her to mount him.

  He watched her breathlessly as she crawled up his body until she was positioned over his straining shaft and waited with frantic anticipation while she slid her pussy over him, slicking him with her wetness. Her moans, and the desirous way she stared down at him, drove him nearly mad.

  Frrar was utterly unable to lie still, shaking and twitching with the burning need to be claimed by her, but he didn’t push her to move faster. He loved that she allowed him the freedom to take her, but just then he needed her to take him .

  Still, when she lined them up and began to push his thickness into her tight heat, he couldn’t stop his hips from involuntarily lifting or his lower hands from gripping her waist to pull her down, his upper hands fisted in the leaves of their nest.

  They were both gasping by the time her groin was pressed tightly to his, his cock buried as deeply inside her center as her body would allow, her snug walls fluttering over his maleness in a way that sent his eyes rolling into the back of his head.

  Once her body adjusted to him, neither of them were able to move slowly, their need for each other too great to allow them to take their time and draw out their pleasure.

  Lily leaned forward, braced her hands on his chest, and slid her pussy up his shaft before dropping back down so quickly their bodies slapped together. She didn’t pause after that first plunge but rode him hard and fast. Her green eyes were glazed but always remained on his, making him see her as their moans, cries, and the furious sound of their mating blended into one song.

  She looked ethereal as she moved above him. Her long brown hair swung wildly, falling in a curtain around him so all he could see was her. Purples and reds stained her skin as the final rays of the setting sun filtered through the walls of their home, revealing her otherworldliness as she claimed him.

  She was his Goddess, his heart, his life, and he was hers completely.

  Every tiny piece of him belonged to her and her alone, from now until the sun fell from the sky and the floods washed the world bare.

  Frrar roared as his peak hit him, jerking with every pulse of seed that rushed from his maleness to fill her. Her answering cry as she found her release was beautiful, filling his chest with pride and joy even as bliss consumed his mind and overwhelmed his body.

  He was made for her, was made to bring her pleasure and happiness, to give her every part of himself, even when those parts were fearful or ugly. She took everything from him and replaced it with light.

  Lily collapsed on his chest and curled her arms around him, holding him to her as her rapid breaths ghosted over his furred skin and panted, “I love you, Frrar.”

  “My Life, my Lily, I love you,” he rasped, wrapping his arms and tail around her as the deep purr only an imprinted male was capable of vibrated both his body and hers.

  Sleep was descending over both of them when the curtain of fronds whispered open. Frrar cracked open an eye to see his harem brothers enter with the kit at their heels. They set aside their burdens, taking off vines and unloading food, before they joined them in bed.

  As they laid down, they each brushed their hands over first Lily, then him, giving him their forgiveness and showing their approval and happiness that he had mended the hurt he had caused.

  Frrar’s heart felt full and his mind quiet of worries as he fell asleep, surrounded by the love of his brothers and covered with the comforting weight of his Pasha.

  L ily awoke slowly, coming to awareness with the instinctual knowledge that it was too soon to be pulled from sleep. She blearily pried her eyes open and was met with darkness. It was the middle of the night. Squinting, confused, she glanced at her guys laid out around her, then Frrar under her. They, too, were waking up, just opening their eyes.

  It wasn’t until their tree seemed to shiver that she understood what had dragged her from sleep. She could hear the huge leaves rustling and shifting, the sound eerie and unsettling for reasons she couldn’t articulate, and the tree itself seemed to be trying to shake them awake .

  The guys’ comments from so long ago came back to her: their implication the trees were at least somewhat sentient.

  Lily pushed herself up on Frrar’s chest, much more alert than she had been seconds before, and looked around as if she could see past the walls of their home to the forest outside.

  She felt a pervading sense of danger and that was only heightened when Frrar and Arruk both gasped simultaneously and jerked upright, Frrar moving so fast his chest almost collided with her face.

  Leaping ungracefully off of Frrar, Lily stumbled in the darkness to her discarded clothes. She hurried to pull them and her vine on then gathered her weapons, snatching up her spear and knives before loading her quiver with as many arrows as it could hold. The g
uys followed her lead and armed themselves as well.

  Frrar grabbed the other bow, another full quiver of arrows, and multiple knives, as well as a couple of stone-tipped spears, arranging them on his body. Tor, Arruk, and Drrak emptied their stock of spears, collecting at least half-a-dozen each, tied them to their backs, and strapped on four big stone knives a piece.

  She didn’t know what the hell was going on, but they weren’t going to sit around waiting for someone to tell them.

  “What did you hear?” she asked as she snatched up her bow and tied her quiver to her vine, afraid she already knew the answer.

  “They arr herre,” Frrar growled, confirming her fears.

  Lily froze for a second and felt her heart skip a beat as fear slid through her veins like ice, but a sense of determination was right on the heels of that fear, spurring her to move faster.

  They’d done everything she could think of to prepare. Now, it was time to fight.

  Trrak was growling and pacing in front of the curtain of fronds and her guys were ready to go, but before she could move to leave, Frrar held her back.

  She could barely make out his expression in the dark, but enough moonlight came through to let her see that he was staring down at her. He opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out .

  Lily knew exactly what he wanted. He wanted her to stay behind in the relative safety of their home and out of danger, but he also knew there was no chance in hell of that happening.

  Frrar traced her features with his eyes, as if memorizing her, or searching for any hint of indecision that he could use to argue against her going. She gave him only resolute determination. A defeated gust of breath escaped him as he accepted her silent answer.

  He bent to kiss her, his touch hard as a low growl poured from his throat, before lifting her into his arms and following Drrak out of the hut and into the night.

  Drrak led the way, Lily and Frrar stayed in the middle, and Arruk, carrying Trrak, brought up the rear with Tor at his side as they headed to the nearest scout post. They needed to find out exactly what was happening and just how serious it was. They also needed to know in which section of tribe territory they were needed.