Suddenly Ariella let out a cry and her knees buckled. Oro caught her and eased her gently down so that she rested on his legs again. The rosy flush across her chest and the brightness in her eyes made her even more beautiful and Oro felt an even greater need for her. Fortunately, it didn’t seem that Ariella was close to wanting their interaction to end. The smile on her lips balanced somewhere between satisfaction and desire, and before her breath had even fully slowed again she was walking backwards on her knees so that she straddled his legs. She leaned forward to dip her fingers into the waistband of his pants and started to pull them down. Oro lifted his hips to help her and soon the garment joined her dress on the floor beside them. He stripped away his shirt, not wanting any fabric to separate their skin.
Ariella ran her fingertips reverently along the length of Oro’s cock before dipped her head down to swirl her tongue around its crown in much the same way that he had worshipped her. The sensation was almost too much for him to handle. He closed his eyes and struggled to maintain his control. He didn’t want to give himself over to the climax that was already rushing toward him. He needed more time. He needed to stay longer in the pure bliss that Ariella created.
Her hot, velvety mouth slipped around Oro’s erection and Ariella sucked it tenderly, bringing the tip ever closer to her throat. Her hand cupped the base of his cock and her fingers massaged deeply into the hidden bundle of nerves there. Ariella seemed to know exactly what Oro was feeling at every moment and just as he was nearing the point when he wouldn’t be able to control himself any longer, she removed her mouth from him and held his erection tightly to give him a few moments to cool and calm down. His body had just begun to relax and move back from the edge of oblivion when he felt her moving back up his legs. Oro opened his eyes and watched as Ariella lifted her hips up and positioned the tip of his cock at her still-wet opening.
Oro reached between them to take his shaft in his own hand, easing hers out of the way. Flattening his other hand on her lower back, Oro made tight circles with his sensitive head into the heat of her core. Ariella’s breaths deepened and her hips started to move. Finally, he rested at her opening and allowed Ariella to sink down onto his lap, enveloping him completely in her tight, hot body. They both released groans of fulfillment as their bodies melded. It was a sense of completion like nothing else in Oro’s life could create. He sat up from the wall and gathered Ariella into his arms. Her skin was smooth and slick with sweat and he could feel the quickening rhythm of her heartbeat reaching out toward his through his chest.
Ariella’s hips rocked to move him within her body in deep, tight strokes and Oro lifted his hips to meet them. Powerful desire swept over Oro and he lifted himself up, taking Ariella with him as he repositioned himself onto his knees and then toppled her backwards. Ariella reached back and caught herself so that she reclined back with her knees up and her body open to him. Oro pushed forward over her so that he could capture her mouth with his again. Her legs parted further, sending him driving even deeper into her. He increased his pace so that each intense thrust seemed to correspond with his heartbeat. The sensations within him were spiraling out of control and he couldn’t hold himself back any longer.
Each drive of his hips brought another deep grunt from Oro’s chest. He heard Ariella’s gasps getting higher and faster, telling him that she was quickly moving toward another climax. Just as she cried out, her body clenching down onto his in an intense, body-trembling spasm, Oro tore his mouth away from hers and let out a roar as his own body tightened and then released into her. Ariella frantically searched for his mouth and he gave himself into her kiss as each pulse of his cock met her delicious embrace.
Their bodies were starting to relax, cooling together and seeming to meld even closer, when Oro heard Pyra’s voice bellowing from the other chamber.
“Everyone eat and get as much rest as you can. We’ll move out soon. If you hear anything, let me know immediately.”
Oro touched another kiss to Ariella’s lips and rested his forehead to hers.
“We should get some sleep,” he said. “It’s been a long day and we don’t know what tomorrow is going to bring.”
Ariella nodded.
“I feel like I can sleep better now,” she whispered.
Oro laughed softly and kissed her a final time before reluctantly withdrawing from her body. They dressed and walked hand-in-hand back toward the other chamber. Though he would have preferred to have curled up with her in the privacy of the other chamber and enjoy the warmth and bond that their bodies had created, he knew that the entire group was safer if they stayed together. They walked into the main chamber and saw the others spread out across the floor, some sleeping on the thick mats they had found rolled in one corner, others eating from the bags and canisters that held food crafted specifically to last nearly indefinitely in preparation for some unknown emergency. Pyra was sitting beside Eden, who cradled Lysander in her arms as she dozed with her head back against the wall.
“Close the door, Oro,” the head Denynso warrior said. “All of us are here now and we’ll be safer for the next few hours if we’re closed in here.”
“Not all of us,” Gyyx said from the other corner of the room.
Oro looked toward him and saw the desolate look in the warrior’s orange eyes.
“What do you mean, Gyyx?” Pyra asked. “Who’s not here?”
“Leia,” he said, naming his mate. “Zuri, Samira… except for Eden, Elianna and Ariella, the women went back to Zuri’s house when we came here.”
“They’re safe there, Gyyx,” Pyra tried to reassure the warrior.
“Are they?” he asked. “We don’t know where Ryan or his soldiers are. If they could find the wedding, they can find them. We’re hiding down here sleeping and eating, and they could be completely at his mercy.”
Oro pulled Ariella closer against his body and touched a kiss to her hair, relieved that his mate was right beside him.
“We have to be strong to survive,” Pyra said. “This isn’t like any battle that we have ever fought, and not all of us are accustomed to what the Denynso go through. We eat, we sleep, and then we move on. It’s the only way that we are going to be able to get out of here alive, and that is the first step before we can get to the women and then to the others.”
Gyyx didn’t seem fully satisfied by the response, but he fell silent and Oro could see him lean back onto the pillow behind him and close his eyes. He couldn’t tell if he was truly sleeping or if he just wanted to be left alone until they moved on.
Chapter Nine
Kyven felt as though they had been walking for hours, but when he glanced back over his shoulder he could still see the dark outline of the quarry behind them. He could feel Maxim and Lynx on either side of him, supporting him as he struggled to make his way across the sand. When they first dragged him and Emerie from beneath the ground he hadn’t thought that his injuries were so severe, but now that the adrenaline of their escape had eased away and they were traveling back toward the ship, he could feel the pain more intensely and the weakness caused by his blood loss seemed to be dragging him down harder with each step. He fought to keep himself on his feet and not to show on his face what he was going through. He needed to remain strong for Emerie and not allow his own suffering to frighten her.
His mate had been so brave in their time trapped in the cavern beneath the rocks of the quarry. The thought of the word brought the hint of a smile to Kyven’s lips. It wasn’t a term that the Mikana usually used, and the fact that his mind had immediately gone to it when he thought of Emerie made him realize just how much his time with the Denynso had influenced him. It wasn’t a negative feeling, but rather one of comfort and security, as if they were finally achieving the goals that their kinds had had for their alliances generations ago and truly coming together to defend themselves, their planet, and each other.
“Can you make it?” Maxim asked quietly.
Kyven looked to his brother and nodded.
“I’m going to be fine,” he said.
“Yes, you are,” Maxim replied. “We’re going to get you back to the ship and fix you up. We have all of the supplies from Ciyrs there and we’ll be able to heal these wounds before you know it.”
It was one of the few times in his life that Kyven could remember his older brother actually sounding afraid. He had always been the stronger, more positive of the two. Even when their father had died and they were suddenly thrown into a life of confusion and loss, with just their mother, Maxim had been the one that ensure that they carried through. Though Kyven didn’t have as many memories of Aegeus as Maxim did because he was far younger when he left, he still carried the love and respect for him that he always had, and treasured the thoughts of his father that he maintained. Often when he looked at Maxim he was able to see Aegeus in him. He could see him in his eyes and in the occasional expression that crossed his face. There was a presence there that kept Aegeus alive with every one of Maxim’s heartbeats, and sometimes it was almost as though they had melded to the point that Maxim had taken Aegeus’s place.
As soon as the thought crossed Kyven’s mind, he felt a shock through his heart. He remembered that his father was alive. At least he had been when Ryan talked to them through the screen on the ship. The thought was as startling and disquieting as it was exciting. He couldn’t imagine what Aegeus had been put through in the years since he had been gone and wondered what he would be like, if he was able to see him again. Would he be the same, or would the years of torture and captivity that he had suffered through have irrevocably changed him? Would he even remember his sons or his wife, and want to be a part of their family again?
He shook his head, trying to free himself of the bitterness that was beginning to creep into his thoughts. They would only weaken him further and slow him down, and they couldn’t afford to be out in the desert for even a moment longer than they had to be. Night had fallen deeply now and he could almost feel the energy of the hybrids on the planet increasing.
“What’s wrong?” Maxim asked. “Do you need to stop?”
Kyven shook his head again, forcing a smile this time in an effort to tell his brother that he could keep going.
“No,” he said. “I was just thinking.”
“About what?”
“Papa,” he admitted.
Maxim nodded and lifted Kyven a little higher, as if the mention of their father had somehow given him greater strength and endurance to keep them moving across the desert planet back toward their ship.
“He’s alive,” he said. “It’s a miracle.”
“Another miracle,” Emerie murmured from behind him.
“What does she mean?” Lynx asked.
Kyven didn’t know if he should tell them about Mhavyrch. The man had stayed in the cavern with them only long enough to rescue them from the creature that lurked beneath and threatened to devour them when their light failed. He had only fought off the creature enough for them to get back in control and given them the light that they needed to keep the animal at bay before disappearing back out of the cavern and into the night. It was obvious that he had been a hybrid. His appearance showed characteristics of both Denynso and Mikana along with something else that he couldn’t quite identify. It didn’t make sense, though. If that man had been a hybrid, that meant that he had been sent to Penthos by Ryan. He was a member of the army bred and built specifically for the purpose of destruction, and put on the mission of eliminating Maxim and him. Why would he have climbed down into the cavern to rescue Kyven and Emerie rather than killing them, or just allowing the creature to tear them apart?
He suddenly remembered some of the few words that the man had said to them.
No one deserves to die alone in the dark.
“We’re alive,” Kyven said.
“It seems like that might be just barely,” Zyyr said. “What was that thing that was underground with you?”
Meldor, he said to himself, remembering what Mhavyrch had called the creature. It was a word that he had never heard before and one that he would never forget.
“I don’t know,” Kyven said. “We couldn’t see it.”
“You couldn’t see it?” Maxim asked.
“No,” Emerie said. “It would only get near us when the light was gone. If we stayed in the light, it wouldn’t get close to us. We never got a chance to see it.”
“I know that it was huge,” Kyven said. “We could hear it breathing and I could feel it’s size when it attacked us. It had thick fur, sharp claws, and fangs. It was bigger than anything that I’ve ever encountered.”
“Have you ever heard of anything like that, Maxim?” Lynx asked.
Maxim shook his head.
“No,” Maxim said. “That doesn’t sound like anything that lives near the Mikana.”
“Emerie?” Lynx asked. “Is that something that might come from Earth?”
“I don’t know,” Emerie said. “It didn’t seem like anything that I know. It was too big, and the fangs and claws were too sharp.”
There were a few long seconds of silence as it seemed that each of them sank away into their own thoughts. Finally, Lynx spoke up, expressing something that had briefly crossed through Kyven’s mind.
“Do you think that it could be one of the hybrids?” he asked.
Kyven hissed as a sharper pain shot through the wounds on his back and he felt his body crumple toward the ground. There was something more than just the cuts in his skin that was affecting him, but he didn’t know what it could be.
“Put him down,” Maxim said. “We need to check his wounds again.”
“Not out here,” Kyven said. He was desperate for the group to get back to the ship. “You can’t all put yourself in danger because of me. Get me back to the ship and then check me over.”
“No,” Maxim said. “There’s something wrong. If we don’t figure out what it is, we might not have the chance to get you back to the ship.”
Kyven felt the men lower him to the sand and begin to pull at his bandages to reveal his wounds.
“There’s toxin in the wounds,” Lynx said. “The creature must have it in its fangs.”
“What will the toxin do?” Maxim asked. “Is he going to be able to recover from it?”
“I don’t know what the creature is,” Lynx said, “and I don’t know any more about toxins than the little bit that I picked up from Ciyrs. He taught you more about his ointments than me.”
The warrior’s voice was tense, but it seemed to come more from helplessness than it did anger. Emerie came to kneel beside him and rested his head in her lap. He gazed up at her as the men moved his body around, trying not to focus on the pain that was tearing through him and the burning feeling in his blood. It was dizzying and with every moment he felt like he was being dragged further and further away from this moment. He knew that he had to fight to keep himself aware and awake while the other men continued to work on him.
“I don’t think that it is one of the hybrids,” he said, not really directing it to any of them in particular but needing to keep words coming out of him so that he didn’t allow the black cloud that was creeping into the edges of his mind to take over. “I think that it was an animal that is native to Penthos.”
“Why?” Emerie asked. “Why couldn’t it be one of the hybrids?”
“None of us can think of any animals that could have been combined to make something like that,” Kyven said.
“That doesn’t necessarily mean that it couldn’t be a hybrid,” Lynx said. “We don’t know what kind of creatures Ryan has access to.”
“No,” Maxim said. “That’s not why. Ryan created the hybrids with the specific purpose of turning them into an army. He chose the species that he did because of their characteristics and their ability to fight. That creature wouldn’t be able to fight.”
“He’s right,” Kyven said, his eyes closed against the pain now. “Ryan wants hybrids that can stand up against us. That creature wasn’t abl
e to go into the light, which means that he is only effective underground or at night. I don’t think that Ryan would see any purpose in breeding something with such limited effect, especially since he would have to figure out how to keep it alive”
“I don’t think that he cares if any of the hybrids live,” Emerie said. “They’re disposable to him. They’re weapons, nothing more. He doesn’t care what he created or if it is destroyed.”
The tone of her voice was nearly as soft as the touch of her fingertips on his cheek and held meaning that Kyven didn’t want to dwell on any longer, even though he could feel it beginning within him as well. Ryan didn’t care about any type of life…but did the hybrids?
Chapter Ten
“I need to know what you’ve found out about Uoria,” Jem said.
The warrior was trying to control the aggression that was building through him. It was a feeling that he hadn’t experienced since he had been on Uoria. This was the feeling of impending battle, the fury and energy of a coming war. He knew that he had to keep it tampered or his warrior training would take over, making him incredibly dangerous to anyone he might encounter.
“I can’t be sure about any of it,” Rilex said. “These are just rumors, it is just hints that I’ve gotten that have led me down different paths in my research. I don’t even know what it all means.”
Despite the caution, Jem knew that if the information that Rilex had gathered didn’t seem compelling, he wouldn’t have acted as swiftly and insistently as he had. He had uncovered something that had made him feel concerned enough that he went to find Jem, and the warrior needed to know what that was. If his kind or his planet was in trouble, it was his responsibility, his duty to help them.
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