Jurik glanced at him with disgust. “Well, you have moved it lower, I see.”
Taurin chuckled and then groaned. “Pity.”
“I would feel more if I was not half insane for want of her myself,” Jurik said dryly. “If it was Muck’s plan to make us insane he is succeeding beyond anything he might have dreamed.”
That sobered Taurin completely. He pushed himself up with an effort, caught his head in his hands until the crushing pounding in his head eased off, and then braced himself a little sickly on the edge of the bunk. “What has happened?”
Jurik shook his head. “Nothing that I am aware of … yet. But I feel …. There is brooding violence among the men. I think the alien females have triggered the mating drive—in part of the men, anyway. Mayhap not all, but I think it will come to that before very long. And there will be no reasoning with any of them.”
Taurin studied him for a long moment. “And there are not enough so that could well result in fights to the death if we do nothing to forestall it,” he concluded grimly.
“What could we possibly do to change that or delay it?” Jurik asked as he handed out the food he’d brought.
Taurin took his, stared at it a moment, and then set it on the floor beside the bunk and fell back against his pillow, draping one arm across his eyes. “I think we will have to allow a mating contest—where the victor is allowed first mating rights. And, hopefully, that will encourage them not to try to kill one another—the realization that it is only to settle who is first. I had hoped to avoid it, but there seems no other way to deal with this situation—assuming you are correct and I see no reason to doubt that.”
“What about the women? They are still frightened of us. They will not yield willingly,” Jurik cautioned.
“It is the women who have put the men on the path to mating—deliberately or not,” Taurin said dryly,” and I do not believe it was something they were able to control or meant to do. But we are responding to their response to us, not the other way around. If they desire us enough to set our hormones against us, they will have to accept what they have wrought. I cannot stop it—no one can. All I can do is try to control the degree of damage.”
Niki was in too much turmoil to have any real interest in eating, but she was at pains to pretend she wasn’t in total disorder so she struggled with her food until she managed to divert herself, only peripherally aware of the conversation between the two men until it turned serious.
Neither one so much as glanced in her direction the entire time they discussed whatever it was that seemed to be a problem, but somehow she still got the impression that it had something to do with her.
She wasn’t sure of why that was.
It might have been pure paranoia because Jurik had come in and interrupted … whatever that was that Taurin was doing besides driving her up the wall.
But she couldn’t dismiss the uneasiness that it did any more than she could completely set aside the heat Taurin had generated inside her. She cooled with time, but she discovered she’d been set to slow burn the moment Taurin summoned her to him with a motion of his fingers.
She hesitated and glanced at the door speculatively.
When she returned her attention to Taurin, she saw that he had pushed himself up on one elbow. Capitulating immediately, she got up and went to him.
He grasped her waist, dragged her across his torso and deposited her on the bunk between himself and the wall.
She stiffened as soon as she landed.
But she felt the heat begin to churn inside of her almost faster than wariness.
She was disconcerted when he did nothing more than settle back and drape one heavy arm across her belly to hold her in place. “I’d sleep better in the chair,” she murmured hopefully after a few moments.
He rolled onto his side to face her when she spoke. “If you do not want me between your silky thighs tonight with my cock buried as deeply in you as I can get, you will be silent and as still as you can be,” he growled.
Oddly enough, even though she had no clue what he said, it affected her as if he’d made a lurid suggestion. Heat flooded her.
But then again, maybe it had nothing to do with the words themselves but the way he spoke, the way he looked, the promise/carnal threat in his eyes?
Sleep was a long time in coming … for both of them.
* * * *
Still feeling dangerously sick and weak—for self-protection—Taurin gritted his teeth and got up and dressed.
“Do you think this is … wise?” Jurik asked him.
“I think it is necessary,” Taurin responded tartly.
“But … if Kagan challenges you …?”
“He would likely kick my ass—if I was stupid enough to accept a challenge. Except, today, I will not. I am going to establish the rules of the mating contest and the time and nothing else. I do not feel like it is something that will be better received later. Because I am not at all sure they will be lucid enough to grasp it much longer. I know that I am already … struggling.”
“You were re-conditioned yesterday,” Jurik said dryly. “We are all foggy and a little disoriented afterward.”
“Or a lot.”
Jurik shrugged, but he was satisfied that Taurin knew his limitations.
He just hoped Kagan did not push it. Ordinarily, he would never have doubted that Kagan would yield to their leader. Now, already, he could see a deterioration of the chain of command.
As enthralled with Niki as he was, it was still unnerving to see the effect the women were having upon seasoned warriors.
No enemy that they had ever met on the field had even come close to defeating them.
And the women had not even challenged them.
* * * *
Niki had surprised herself by sleeping deeply and restfully. She awoke, though, as soon as Taurin got up.
He was still wearing what he’d worn the day before, but he crossed the room a little unsteadily and took out fresh clothing and stripped.
Niki didn’t even try to pretend she had no interest. She studied both men as they revealed every stunning facet of their forms.
What was the point? She was as convinced as she could be that they knew, at once, when she felt heated attraction to them. Her behavior wasn’t going to convince them otherwise when they could sense the chemical change—maybe even before she was aware of it herself.
It still boggled the mind, and yet it certainly wasn’t without precedent on Earth. Lower order animals could. Probably humans could, and they had just ‘lost’ the ability at some point or they were no longer really aware of it.
She was betting on the latter—at least in part. There had been times when she’d been approached by males that left her cold that seemed convinced she wanted them as desperately as they wanted her. So it certainly wasn’t foolproof—for humans.
But she knew the aliens weren’t ‘projecting’.
When she felt a rush of interest, they responded. They didn’t have to be looking at her or even in close proximity. They didn’t have to touch her.
She couldn’t help but wonder if it was somehow connected to the fact that Jurik was an empath healer. Maybe all of them were either empathy healers or had some aspects of the empath?
It seemed contrary to their natures as warriors, though.
So maybe they were like two sides of a coin? Because she had seen that all of them seemed connected to another—to work together as a pair, not just Taurin and Jurik. So maybe one had little or no empathy while the other had more than his share? Which made one a stronger, more ruthless warrior, while the other ‘absorbed’ pain? And then released it? Because she was convinced that she’d seen Jurik do that. He hadn’t completely healed Taurin, but he had absorbed enough to make his pain less debilitating.
Taurin proved that part of her theory on the walk down to the common room they’d used the day before. He didn’t stop—not once—or stumble, but she could see that he was far more pale than normal and he could
not maintain the brisk stride she was used to seeing. He slowed several times and each time Jurik would glance at him—not move toward him, but look, as if to make certain he did not need to assist.
They did stop, briefly, when they reached the door of the room, as if Taurin needed a short respite to gather himself, and then when they went in, he behaved as normal.
Except he found a table and sat, drawing her down with him and Jurik went to get their food.
And Taurin ate sparingly of his meal even though he’d eaten nothing the night before.
When they’d finished, he stood up and addressed the men.
She had no idea what it was that he said, but they seemed to wholeheartedly approve if their response was anything to go by.
When he’d finished, Taurin, pale and clearly shaken, sat back down.
Niki glanced at him several times and finally decided to see if he would allow her to leave the table.
It actually unnerved her that he didn’t try to stop her. She struggled with it, but she needed to try to talk to the women about the one thing that she had discovered the night before that had her truly worried.
She only actually gathered her crew together for a talk, though, figuring they could spread out more effectively and possibly less noticeably.
“They’re translating us,” she said immediately.
The women all exchanged worried looks. “Why do you say that?” Amy asked.
“Taurin showed me last night. Actually spoke and understood a few words and then let me listen to the translator/communicator they wear all the time. It’s collecting every time we talk and I’m think it won’t be long, at all, when we won’t be able to talk freely.”
“What are we going to do?” Annette asked.
“We can’t stop it, but … maybe we can slow it down. Maybe. It all depends on how cooperative the others are. But if we limit talk of any kind when they’re close enough for the microphone to pick it up, I’m thinking that could slow things down enough to give us a little time.”
“Will it make any difference, though?” Jenna asked wryly.
Niki released an irritated huff. “Most likely not … I agree. But somebody might think of something and that’s worth delaying the inevitable as long as we can. Everybody’s still in a state of shock right now. That isn’t conducive to clear thinking. Given a little time, somebody might see something that just can’t be grasped at the moment. It isn’t much of a ‘weapon’ but we’re fresh out of anything really effective—even brain power at this point.”
Shrugging, clearly doubtful that there was any point in it, they went off to talk to the other groups of women that had gathered in nervous knots around the room.
Niki hesitated and then returned to the table to sit with Taurin.
“Tell them?”
Niki gaped at him, feeling the blood drain from her face. “What?”
He tilted his head questioningly.
Or maybe as a sign of disbelief?
And then he lifted his hand and tapped his translator.
Niki’s lips tightened. “Of course,” she said coolly.
He nodded, but if he had intended to say more—or try—he dismissed it when he saw one of the lizard men had entered the room.
He stood just inside the door and began to call out words that were a complete mystery to Niki until she heard, very distinctly, Jurik and Kagan and Goran.
Roll call, she wondered doubtfully? Then she noticed the grim set of Taurin’s features and she realized exactly what it was.
A full quarter of the men filed out of the room and disappeared.
They hadn’t returned the following day when the same lizard man or another just like him appeared and called out another fourth of the men.
By the time the bastard had come back for the last of the men, the first to disappear, still clearly weak and ill, returned.
There was some relief in that, at least, but … Niki was thoroughly confused.
What the hell was the bastard doing to them?
And why?
Chapter Eight
Contrary to Taurin’s belief that nothing could divert the men from the path they had stepped upon towards claiming mates, it transpired that Muck had it within his power to delay the situation he had been concerned about for a full week. A quarter the men were summoned for conditioning the day after he went. The following day, another quarter was summoned and for two days after that—leaving very little time for any of the men to recover. And that insured that none of them were in any state to consider their hormones for nearly a week.
They weren’t even in any condition for exercise or training for a full week and, at that, it was only a portion of the men able to participate in the first few rounds. To make any contest fair to all, they waited another full week after that—training and exercising—before they settled the date for the mating contest.
And then Muck announced that he had managed to discover the home world of the females and had decided to raid it for more females.
It was far too late by that time to divert them, however. Taurin knew he would have a riot on his hands if he tried, and he was too far gone himself to give a fuck about waiting.
He had the woman he wanted.
And he was going to be a raving lunatic before much longer if he could not claim her.
She was fruitful. He could smell the intoxicating perfume of it—waking or sleeping—and he was not doing a lot of fucking sleeping.
All of the women had reached that peak and the scent alone was enough to drive all of the madrone warriors to the edge of reason.
Truthfully a few had lost their grip on it already and had to be subdued.
Beat down, tied up, and confined to quarters.
Taurin still wasn’t convinced it was a good idea to let any of them participate, but then again they’d had a hell of a beat down and he thought that might be enough of a handicap to prevent them from killing anyone.
It was fortunate, for the madrone males in heat and even more so for the alien females, that the women had grown accustomed enough to their war practice that they did not scream and run and have to be chased down anymore.
Because if they had run, very likely all of the males would have thrown down their weapons and given chase and that would have been the end of any ‘civilized’ contest to prove who was the best warrior to reproduce. The battle would have been waged over the females.
And then the females might not have survived the mating.
Probably would not have.
It was very likely also a very good thing for all concerned that the men had fought until they were next door to passing out from exhaustion before the winners were determined.
Because none of them had the energy to do what they really wanted to do—which was to fuck their chosen until they were exhausted, which would have taken at least half the night or possibly the entire sleep period otherwise.
Taurin, the fastest, strongest warrior of all, had had more time to recover from re-conditioning than Kagan—a full day more—but Kagan was a very close match for him—far too close for Taurin’s comfort. He still emerged victorious, the first to win his contest, threw his weapons down, and scanned the room for his prey.
She was seated with a large group of other females—which he noted absently, but with little interest.
He strode toward her and had nearly reached her when, apparently, some sense—or one of the other women—warned her.
She glanced around, did a double take when she saw the intent on his face and then hopped to her feet and ran like hell.
He had had no notion she could run as fast as she did and he was not happy to discover it when he was already winded from the battle to claim her.
Even with her tiny legs churning so fast they were a blur, though, he had a far superior stride and he managed to catch her before she reached the door.
She let out a squeak when he snatched her off her feet that ended in an inelegant grunt when she landed on his hard shou
lder.
She was surprising quiet—for her—as he strode down the corridor to their quarters, but he was not fooled into thinking she was not set to fight him the moment the opportunity arose.
And he had no intention of giving her that opening.
He allowed her to slide to the floor until her feet touched when they had entered his quarters.
“Taurin? What?” she gasped.
He caught her beneath her breasts and lifted her straight up, planting her against the wall and then pinning her there with his torso
She gaped at him in surprise.
He planted his mouth over hers and drowned any further protests she might have thought to make, claiming her with his mating enzymes even as he explored her mouth and took hers to himself. Dizziness wafted through him. Pleasure and satisfaction followed.
She was his. No one could usurp him as mate. It did not matter how many others mated with her, or if they produced a child, he was her true mate.
And she would know it.
Whether she acknowledged him or tried to denounce him, it made no difference. He had only to touch her and she would come to him, accept him, yearn for his touch if he was not with her.
He broke the kiss, met her gaze. “Mine woman, Niki,” he growled.
Niki had to work hard at stopping her eyeballs from wandering around in her head so that she could focus them on Taurin’s face. “Wha …?”
He plucked at her lips. “Say yes, Taurin.”
She blinked at him, struggling to gather her wits about her, but it was useless. All she could think about was the feel of his mouth, his taste, her want. “Yes?” she said vaguely, drunkenly.
“Close enough,” Taurin growled. Gathering her to him, he headed for his bunk and sprawled on it with her, unwilling to let her go long enough for her to gather the will to thwart him before he was done planting his seed.
It was crucial that he plant his seed, he thought vaguely, and he would plant it on the fucking bunk if he did not get inside of her in short order.
With that certainty riding him, he captured her lips beneath his again and lifted away from her long enough to peel her panties down and shove her thighs out of his way. He had already wallowed out a spot for his hips before he realized he had not unearthed his cock.
Alien Warriors: Invasion Page 7
