“I don’t think so. Not so much that I’ve noticed, anyway.”
“That doesn’t make any sense. A bite that essentially changes you from one species to another must do something to your brain, don’t you think?”
Arlynn shrugged and tugged at another strand. I continued questioning her.
“For example, do you think you’re as creative as before?”
“Oh, absolutely. If not more. Have you seen the mural I’ve been working on inside the meeting hall? I’ve never made anything so majestic before.”
It was turning out to be quite a beautiful scene. I tried to nod but her tugging and tucking stopped me. It was turning out to be quite a beautiful scene.
“But isn’t that because you only had access to small painting pads at the Center? You never had a chance to try painting on a grand scale.”
“That’s true,” she conceded, though her tone sounded doubtful.
“What about your language skills?”
“Skills language fine my are.” I could feel her smirking behind me.
“Very funny. Seriously.”
“Seriously, you complain about my nonstop jabbering all the time.”
“But the other day you had trouble with the name of a plant.”
“You mean when I forgot ‘strothornium’?’” She gave my hair an extra hard yank. “Give me a break, Nat. It’s not like I instinctively know the names for all the weird stuff in this forest. What’s this all about, anyway?”
“Nothing,” I lied.
The truth was that Jorek’s refusal to defend me still stung like a swarm of nettle bees. I thought he believed in me, but he didn’t even try to stand up for me. I’d submitted to Arlynn’s hair torture hoping it would take my mind off the situation.
“Is it because Chorn wouldn’t let you go look for more plants in Hill territory?”
“Yes,” I said, eager to latch onto a more logical reason for trying to distract myself than that a guy I kind of liked hurt my feelings.
“He’s right, you know. I wouldn’t even try going to the river alone. I’m too new to this Warg thing. I’m sure I’d die.”
I had to snicker. “Yeah, you’d be more likely to hug a monster than to kill it.” She thwapped me on the head, but giggled too.
“Do you ever wish you weren’t a Warg, that Thrane hadn’t give you the bite?”
Arlynn didn’t answer at first and I worried I’d hurt her feelings. I had a tendency to blurt things out that others found painful.
“Not exactly,” she finally said. “I wish it had been voluntary, though, because I can’t help feeling something’s…missing.”
“What?”
“No idea. But something must be wrong since I haven’t found my fated mate yet.”
I reached back and squeezed one of her suddenly trembling hands. “You will. Remember what Solan said, that most mates are bonded at the claiming.”
“I’m sure you’re right,” she whispered, obviously not at all sure.
“Do you feel any different now that you’re a Warg? Emotionally speaking?” I probed, honestly curious and doing my best to move the conversation in a different direction.
“I’d have to say yes. I definitely feel my emotions more. For example, the other day when you stole my piece of reet bread? As a Terran, I would have been irked, but now, I was actually angry. Not like I wanted to kill you or anything, just mad.”
“That’s comforting,” I teased. “It is interesting, though. Is it the same for other emotions?”
“Well, I didn’t love you as much after that meal, but generally speaking, I think my senses and emotions are heightened. Just the other day, I was thinking about my parents and I thought my heart would explode from the love I felt.”
I coughed in surprise. Arlynn had a blind spot when it came to the parents who dumped her at the Training Center, and no amount of logic would convince her that they didn’t love her and miss her every day.
“Your turn,” she said, tipping my head down slightly to access the hair on the nape of my neck. “Tell me about your parents.”
Every muscle in my body tensed. I’d spent years trying to forget them. The last thing I wanted to do was chat about them.
“Pass.”
“Come on, Nat. You never talk about them.”
“You ever think there’s a reason for that?”
Seriously.
“It’s only fair,” she whined. “I answered all your questions. Tit for tat, and all that.”
I couldn’t stop myself from letting out a big sigh, which told Arlynn she’d won.
“Fine. But it’s the same story you heard a hundred times from other orphans at the Center.”
She remained mute, waiting for me to tell my story. A story that cramped my stomach whenever I thought about it.
“They never liked me, you know. My parents.”
“I’m sure that’s not true,” she soothed.
“No, it’s true. They were musicians. My mother had taken all the right supplements and submitted herself to a bunch of crazy treatments to ensure their baby was a musical genius. Instead, they got me.”
“But you are a genius,” Arlynn protested as she weaved the braid.
“A scientific genius. I surpassed them in intelligence by the time I turned five. They had no idea what to do with me. Not only that, I’m tone deaf. My singing sounds a lot like the horrible screeching that grumpus made when Solan killed it.”
Arlynn laughed. “Tell me about it. I used to put cotton balls in my ears when I had to stand next to you in chorale class at the Center. Still, it’s endearing.”
“My parents didn’t seem to think so. As soon as I turned thirteen, and they could legally dump me at the Center, they did. On my birthday. They didn’t even say goodbye.”
The memory of watching my parents turn and walk out the Center’s set of triple air-lock doors threatened to close my throat. Hot wetness pricked at the back of my eyes, but I refused to shed a single tear for such horrible people. Perhaps I wasn’t better off at the Center, but at least I met my true family there: Arlynn and Sienna.
“I’m so sorry, Nat. I didn’t realize.”
Arlynn laid a comforting hand on my shoulder and squeezed. The warmth of her love drew me back from that dark, lonely place and into the light.
“It’s okay. I’m over it.”
I’m full of lies today.
“Done.”
Arlynn spun me around and gave me tiny handheld mirror she’d found in the lab, no doubt salvaged from some Terran wreck. A thin braid started on the right side of my brow and followed my hairline to my left ear. There, more hair was added to create a thick braid that curled around the nape of my neck and disappeared from view. Probing with my fingers, I could tell it curled around in a spiral until all my hair was contained in the braid.
“Wow,” I breathed. Arlynn beamed with pride.
“I wish I had another mirror so you could see how it looks like a flower.”
I turned my moist eyes up to her. If becoming a Warg would heighten my emotions, maybe it wasn’t safe for me to take the bite. I could barely stand the tidal wave of love I felt for my ‘sister’ as it was.
“Thank you,” I whispered. She pulled me into a fierce embrace.
“Hey, why wasn’t I invited to the hug fest?”
Sienna stood in the doorway, smiling. Still, I knew her well enough to see she wasn’t happy about something.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, sniffing back my tears.
“Heh, I’m that easy to read, huh?”
“To us, you are,” Arlynn said, looping her arm through Sienna’s and leading her to the table. “Now spill.”
Sienna shrugged, settling between Arlynn and me. “I’m just pouting a little. Solan has some super-secret meeting with the new alpha of the Hill tribe and they kicked me out of our hut.”
“The new alpha? Thrane’s out?” Arlynn asked, a quaver in her voice. She was probably as shocked as me that a tribe would ous
t their leader simply because he hadn’t been murdered after losing a battle.
“Sounds that way,” she said. “His name’s Markon, Thrane’s brother. He’s been spying for Solan for quite some time, I guess. He’s fully onboard with uniting the tribes, but it’ll take time to convince each side. That’s why he and his second in command are here. They’re discussing strategies with Solan and Chorn.”
“That all sounds really promising, Sienna,” Arlynn said, grabbing her hand. “So why are you pouting?”
Sienna laughed. “It’s so stupid. I’m pouting because I wasn’t invited.”
Arlynn and I exchanged glances. Sienna was used to being in charge, at least of us.
“I have ideas, too, you know,” she railed. “They all yammer on about how they revere women and want to protect them, but do they ever listen to them? No.”
So true. The Warg males had spent so many years protecting their quickly dwindling female population that they must have grown to think anyone with a vagina was weak. Men were idiots everywhere, it seemed.
“Maybe you’ll get to share your thoughts later,” Arlynn mused. “Maybe they just wanted to meet privately first and do, ya know, man stuff.”
“Nope. After the meeting is over, Markon and his second are immediately returning to the Hill tribe. They don’t want to take a chance of any Valley Wargs getting wind of the meeting and ambushing them.”
The silver thread that precedes an idea spun around in my head so fast that I barely had time to register it before I was shoving back my chair and sprinting for the door.
“Where are you going?” Sienna called after me.
“To find out exactly how stupid these men are!”
6
Markon
“It would be a lot easier if the Valley Wargs weren’t such savages.”
The words tumbled out of Rikor’s mouth before I could stop him. Perhaps I’d chosen poorly when faced with picking my second-in-command. Of all our top warriors, Rikor seemed to have the coolest head, but he couldn’t even hold his tongue for a simple diplomatic mission.
Solan’s second, Chorn, pounded a fist on the table, causing the cups of reet spirits and bowls of pink-headed ferns to jump.
“Look who’s talking!”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Means the same as you meant, I’d wager!”
Solan and I shared a discouraged look as our most trusted advisors bickered back and forth, their voices growing louder with each jibe and barb. See? This is what we’re up against, the look said.
“Enough!” Solan shouted, quieting them. “Too many years have we argued over who’s to blame for the Great Split. I can tell you that it was none of us at this table. It was the fault of two stubborn, selfish, bitter old Wargs who should have been ashamed to call themselves brothers.”
Rikor and Chorn gaped at him. “You speak ill of Tooibas and Vanter?”
“As he should,” I interjected. “All this hate, all this rivalry. It’s ancient history. Literally. We must always remember the past, but it’s time we look to the future.”
“And I hate to break it to everyone,” Solan added, “but right now, our future is pretty damn bleak. We won’t last two more generations, at most, if we can’t reverse this drought, and the Terrans have already invaded the southern end of the forest. It’s only a matter of time before they attack.”
“Attack you,” Rikor sneered.
If he was the most levelheaded Hill Warg available to me, this idea of unity was a fantasy. Solan’s face turned red but he held his tongue, allowing me to handle my second.
“Rikor, do you honestly believe the aliens will stop after taking the Valley and killing off Solan’s entire tribe? You served faithfully under Thrane for many years. Is that the kind of military strategy he taught you? Conquer one tribe but leave their cousins alone to live happily ever after?”
Doubt swirled in Rikor’s eyes as he considered the gravity of my words. He glanced at the other two and back at me. Understanding settled on his heart and his face fell.
“Oh shit,” he breathed
“That we can agree on,” Chorn said.
“Speaking of Thrane,” Solan said, “is there any chance of him returning? We certainly could use his military expertise.”
I tried to shut off the grief that consumed me at the mention of his name, but I failed. Just like I’d failed at convincing Thrane to stay and share alpha duties with me, as the council wanted.
Not a day would go by for the rest of my life that I wouldn’t remember the pain that burned in his eyes when I told him the secret I’d been keeping for months. That I was the spy.
He’d stared slack-jawed at me for a moment, his entire body tense. Disbelief shone in his eyes as he no doubt tried to talk himself into believing he’d misheard me. Next came the shock of my words sinking in. Then came the betrayal, and finally the anger. It was the betrayal that cut me to the core of my soul. Then he turned and slammed out of the hut.
My brother was gone.
I had just become alpha of the Hill Warg.
And now I was sitting down with the leader of our blood-sworn enemies, talking about uniting against a greater threat to both of our tribes. Thrane would be enraged if he knew. But he would never know because he was gone. To where, I had no idea. Maybe the other side of the Hill to establish a new tribe, just like I’d tried as a naive whelp.
“No,” I finally replied. “He’s not coming back.”
Solan accepted the finality in my tone with a curt nod. He stood, indicating the meeting was over, and held out a hand. I took it and we touched foreheads, the traditional greeting of tribe mates. Chorn and Rikor watched carefully, then locked eyes. I almost laughed watching their internal struggle about whether they should follow our lead. In the end, they simply nodded at each other. Good enough.
“Let’s all come up with some ideas of how to ease the transition between the tribes,” Solan said as he walked us to the door, “as well as draw up some plans for dealing with the aliens.”
The moment the door cracked open, a streak of pale flesh and yellow hair rushed past him into the hut. Rikor snarled and prepared to draw his beast out but Chorn calmed him.
“She’s not a threat,” he said. “Natalie, what are you doing here? How did you even know about this meeting?”
She waved him off, then turned to me. I’d never seen a more mesmerizing creature in my life. It had to be one of the alien females, but she was like no Terran I’d ever seen. Taller and more substantial than most, she looked at me with eyes the color of the sky at dawn, pale and clear and simply hypnotic. Her yellow hair had been plaited around her head, showing off her high cheekbones, long neck, and lips pinker than berries.
“I need to talk to you,” Natalie said, staring up at me and leaving me breathless.
Her scent shot a bolt of desire through me. If I stood much closer to her, everyone in the hut would see her effect on me. Easing back a step, I met her gaze.
“How may I help you, Natalie of the Terrans?”
“You’re going back to your tribe, right?”
I flicked my gaze over to Solan. He shrugged.
“We were just leaving, in fact.”
“Good. I need to get on your land.”
Rikor barked out a surprised laugh. Chorn shook his head. Only Solan watched with curiosity.
“Do you now?”
“Yes, I—“
“Natalie, I already told you,” Chorn interrupted.
Natalie cut him off without even looking at him.
“It’s imperative that you allow me to collect flora samples from your side of the river. We’ve exhausted all the plants on this side, and I believe the missing component is on your side.”
Samples? Components? “What on Thracos are you talking about?”
“The cure!” She looked almost panicked. “The solution to why your people can’t produce females. We’re so close to solving this, and the sooner I get on your lands, th
e sooner we can reverse this gender imbalance.”
“As much as I want that very thing, I can’t allow you to roam freely in Hill territory. First of all, the two tribes have not united yet, and I’m afraid some of our more zealous members might hurt you. Even if they didn’t, you wouldn’t stand a chance against a hopwart attack, much less a grumpus.”
Her full lips pressed into a thin, hard line. “Then take me with you.”
Stillness so thick filled the hut that I was surprised we were all still breathing.
“What?”
“Take me with you. If you don’t want your entire race to die out in a few decades, you’ll take me with you so I can collect non-Valley samples. I swear we’ll share the cure with you, won’t we, Solan?”
I tore my gaze from Natalie’s sheer beauty only to see Solan smirking at me. “I swear on my life. And for the record, I think this is an excellent idea.”
“Well?” she asked, tilting her head back to look up at me.
She stood with her hands planted on her rounded hips, determination written all over her face. Clearly, she was intelligent, if she was so close to finding a cure to our drought. And she certainly was physically appealing.
Yes, she will do nicely.
“I accept,” I said, waiting until she grinned to continue. “On one condition.”
An adorable crinkle formed on her brow, and she shot a glance at Solan. He continued smirking.
“What condition?”
“That you join us as the ambassador of the Valley tribe.”
Solan tipped his head back and laughed. “Brilliant!”
“Wait, what? I’m no ambassador. I’m not even a Warg.”
“Even better. My tribe would never accept a Valley Warg so early in the process. You’re the perfect go-between.”
Her head snapped between a grinning Solan and me. “But I’m too busy. I have to find a cure, if you don’t remember.”
“No problem. You can work with our shaman, who has also been searching for the answer to our problem.”
Her mouth opened and closed like a sawmouth fish lying on the riverbank, desperate to find some reason not to accept. Thrane would have simply thrown her over his shoulder and dragged her off, but I firmly believed that persuasion worked better than force in delicate situations such as this.
Markon's Claim: A SciFi Shifter Romance (The Last Alphas of Thracos Book 2) Page 3
