by Cara Bristol
Was she foolish to aspire to achieve something by herself and to have a male recognize her abilities? To earn respect and honor and capture the regard an alpha reserved for his beta?
“A target shot dead center is a target shot dead center,” she muttered.
“That is so.” Urazi surprised her by answering. She hadn’t thought he would hear, but sound carried in the stillness. “Why would you question it?” he asked.
“Why would you?” she countered.
“I do not.”
“Strength is strength.”
“I do not understand this conversation.”
“I am sure of that,” she snapped.
The density of the twisted, dwarfed trees grew thicker until a scrub forest of sorts formed around rocky outcroppings. A stubborn day still radiated a measure of light, but the rising Parseon moon foretold of its capitulation to darkness.
Urazi halted. “We have gone far enough. Qalin’s men will also make camp after nightfall—and that assumes they have gone in the right direction. They could be headed away from us. He scanned the shadowed terrain. “Over there.” He pointed to the largest outcropping of rock. “It will shelter us from the wind, and we will be able to build a fire.”
“Will not someone see it?”
“We are isolated enough that it will not draw attention. In this time of war, displacement has been vast, turning many into nomads. A fire will not raise undue suspicion. But you are wise to question it.”
For a female. He didn’t say it, but Anika heard the qualifier. She did not know why Urazi kindled her annoyance. She’d been happy to see him, at first, and he had defended her against Grogan. Of course, in killing the alpha, he had turned them into fugitives, but if that had not happened, she would not have realized until too late she’d been tricked into supporting the enemy.
They picked their way around the large rock, and on the other side discovered an overhang offering additional shelter. Anika shrugged out of her pack and let it fall to the ground. Urazi did likewise then jerked his head toward a large rodent foraging for food.
He pressed a finger to his lips and raised the crossbow he’d carried cocked and loaded, and released the bolt. The animal fell dead. “We shall eat fresh tonight,” he said. “Let us save the preserved meat for when we cannot get game.”
“I will collect the firewood,” she offered.
“Do not stray far.”
“I won’t.”
She gathered twigs for kindling then a few larger branches, carrying the armload to Urazi, so he could get the fire started. He’d fashioned a hearth from stones and, under the rock ledge, he’d erected a temporary domicile from a tarp and some flexible metal poles.
Anika deposited the wood and went in search of more. Only minutes of light remained, and she hurried to grab as many pieces as she could, including a couple of sturdy, forked twigs. She dumped her load at their makeshift camp.
“Stay,” he said. “It is dark.”
“Once more.” Anika ignored his admonition and darted into scrubby forest. She grabbed four larger logs and, using the flickers of fire light to guide her, returned to camp.
She placed the load within convenient reach of the fire, but not so close a spark might ignite it while they slept. “That should do it.”
Urazi had skinned and dressed the rodent and was roasting it on a spit he’d made from the forked twigs. He rested on his haunches and stared at the cracking flames.
Anika shrugged off a feeling of tension and knelt to warm her cold, stiff hands. Painful tingles tormented her fingers as sensation returned.
“When I told you to stay, it was not a suggestion,” he said quietly.
Anika rubbed her hands over the fire. “We needed more wood.”
“It is not safe for a female to venture off alone.”
There it was again. Female. Her gender restricted her to a tiny space enclosed within invisible, but unscalable, walls. “I can decide what is safe, and what is not.” Anika scrambled to her feet and scowled. “And who rendered our situation unsafe? You killed Grogan,” she pointed out. “If not for that, the Resistance would not be after us.”
Urazi turned the spitted rodent to roast the other side, and then rose. His chest appeared as wide as a barrel, his legs as long and stout as the trunks of trees. Anika lifted her chin, refusing to be cowed, although standing up to a male still caused flutters of nerves.
“If I had not killed Grogan, he would have beaten and used you.”
Urazi had witnessed Grogan striking her, so the first part came as no surprise, but how could he have known the alpha had intended to avail himself of her?
“Do you think I could not read his behavior? That I did not notice him rubbing himself against you? Do you think I am mentally deficient?” Urazi growled. “If I had not intervened, you would have joined forces against Marlix, Dak, and Ilian without knowing it.”
Anika’s face heated with guilt and shame.
“You are impulsive! Rash,” Urazi continued to rail. “You fled without concern for the consequences.”
“I knew the consequences! Marlix would have sent me to Ilian.”
Urazi looked away. “Commander Ilian would have kept you safe.”
“Maybe safety represents the greatest danger of all.”
“Your words do not make sense.”
“I wish to choose what I do. “
“Protocol makes the choice for you.”
“Protocol. Protocol. Protocol! I am sick of Protocol.” Anika stomped around, too angry to remain still.
“It is the way. Our way.”
“Our way allowed Corren, Commander Dak’s beta, to slit my throat and leave me for dead.” Anika traced the fine scar bisecting her neck. “It allowed Qalin’s guards to hunt Tara and me, to kill Tara’s friend Ramon.”
“That is not the fault of Protocol, but of the individuals involved,” Urazi said.
Anika shook her head. “No. It creates the environment that encourages such behavior.”
“That is incor—”
“Protocol allows the male offspring of my sire to send me to whomever he wishes without concern for my desires.” Anika cut him off.
“Ilian is Alpha. He is the best possible choice for you.”
“Qalin is Alpha, too. Would he not be a best possible choice?”
“Now you speak rubbish.” Urazi turned away.
“You know I am right.”
“I know we all have our duty. In obedience, we achieve honor.”
“Easy for you to say. You are male. Your duty affords you some choices.”
“I am beta. Do you not think I wish for more?” Urazi whipped around, his gray eyes ablaze. “But I owe my allegiance to Parseon and to my Alpha! I accept that.”
“Well, I do not!” If she had a hammer she would not be able to pound understanding into his stony male brain. He would never empathize with her position. No male could. Anika clenched her hands into fists. If she were a male, she would have punched him by now. Old and new resentments ballooned. If she could not calm herself, she would explode. She would punch him. Anika stomped toward the forest.
“Come back here!”
She ignored him. He did not get a choice in the matter. Let him see what it was like to have one’s wishes overruled.
“Anika, I warn you….” Urazi’s voice hardened.
She faltered, responding to the command, habit and lifelong training overruling self-determination. But only if she let it. I am more than what I have been taught. Anika whirled around, folded all her fingers except for the middle one, and showed him her hand. Tara had called it flipping the coro and explained it was a very rude, dismissive gesture on Terra. It would be more satisfying if Urazi knew what it meant, but, for now, it was enough that she did. She spun around and marched toward the woods.
Chapter Seven
Headstrong. Disrespectful. Disobedient. Impulsive. Maddening. He didn’t know the exact meaning of the Terran gesture Anika had flipped at him,
but from her smug expression, he discerned she intended disrespect.
A smoldering fury burst into a full flame. Urazi charged, grabbed her around the waist, and hoisted her off her feet. She kicked and shrieked in outrage, but he hauled her across their camp to a large boulder.
“Do you see how easy it is?” he goaded, as she ineffectually flailed her arms and legs. “Are you so foolish as to believe Qalin is your sole threat? That other males might not avail themselves of the opportunity afforded by a lone female?”
“You said we were safe here!” She continued to thrash.
Urazi planted himself on the boulder and Anika over his knees.
“Let me up! What are you doing?”
“What I should have done sooner,” he growled, and adjusted her to prevent her body from pressing against his thickening manhood. How her temper and stubbornness could infuriate him and arouse him in equal parts, he did not understand.
“I said the males from your Resistance would bed down for the night. I also said many others make their camp as well. Perhaps they gather firewood. Not to mention that night draws nocturnal predators.”
“I did not think about that.”
“No, you did not,” Urazi agreed, and yanked up her shift.
Anika slapped at his hands. “Stop it! What are you doing?”
He grabbed both wrists and secured them against her back. “I am demonstrating who is in charge.” He tugged at her leggings. The double layer proved as stubborn as she was and resisted his effort to lower them.
Anika bucked and twisted on his lap. “You are not my alpha. Or even my beta. You are not in charge.”
Her words pierced his bravado to lodge dead center in his insecurity. He yanked her leggings to her ankles. Her buttocks glowed in the firelight like two moons, only pale, not violet like the one in the sky—not yet anyway.
“Let me show you how wrong you are.” Urazi cracked his palm flat and hard against one cheek. He struck another hard spank dead center, and she kicked violently enough to almost free herself. Urazi swung a leg and pinned her down. Much better. He let loose with a fusillade of blows to both fleshy mounds.
“Let us examine what you have done with your choices,” he taunted. “You abandoned your duty; you joined the Resistance against your Alpha, your sibling; and you endangered your life and everyone’s associated with you. When I rescue you, you defy me.”
A pocket of gas within a log exploded with a pop, followed moments later by a sizzle when fat dripped from the rodent onto the hot coals. The aroma of roasting meat filled the air. He could smell Anika, too—warm and female, inviting. His intent had been to chastise her for disobedience, for the trouble she had caused—he had not expected to find enjoyment in the exercise. His palm burned from the blows—probably not as much as her buttocks. Her skin had turned crimson, although he couldn’t determine how much of the color had been caused by the impact and how much from the reflection of the flickering flames.
He did not know when his fury had subsided—only that it had, and other, more powerful emotions had taken hold—a heightening of his lust and a primal satisfaction of bending her to his will and watching her flesh take on a colorful hue.
Crack! Crack! Crack! He bounced several swats across her buttocks—just because he could.
“Please, stop! Please,” Anika choked. Since her initial shriek, she had muffled her cries as if she realized how sound carried.
He graced her flesh with volley of searing slaps. “Are you going to obey me when I instruct you for your benefit?”
“Y-yes.”
“And do you know what will happen if you don’t?”
“Yes.”
“What?”
“This.”
“Correct.” Urazi emphasized his point with several more slaps then unpinned her legs and wrists. Anika started to roll off his lap. “Not yet.” He caught her waist.
She went limp, her compliance stirring disappointment tinged by guilt. The burning tinder crackled and popped. Fire heated and protected, but, if left to rage unchecked, it destroyed. Fire needed to be tamed. Clearly, the freedoms at the Enclave had undermined Anika’s obedience, and she had flared out of control. But had his harshness extinguished her spirit, doused the flames?
She sniffled, her tears doing funny things to his chest. He rubbed his stinging palm over her punished buttocks in slow circles. Anika emitted an unintelligible murmur. He supposed one should not coddle a person deserving of chastisement, but would it hurt to soothe her if she had learned her lesson? And one could not expect her to shoulder the severity of discipline as stoically as a male. She was female, after all.
How his thoughts would annoy her if she knew of them. For some reason, referring to her gender irked her.
He squeezed one cheek, and she uttered that hitching sound again. The noises she made, the feel of her skin under his palm, worsened the ache in his tumescence. Urazi clenched his jaw. From the very beginning, he’d been powerless to resist the lust she provoked in him. No other female had affected him so. But she belonged to Ilian.
He yanked her leggings to their proper position, flipped down her shift, and set her away from him. “It grows late. I believe our meal is cooked. Let us eat and retire.”
* * * *
Though his eyelids drooped, just as he would nod off, the cold would jolt him awake. The meager fire could not compensate for the chill seeping up from frozen ground. The bed of dried grass he’d stuffed under their mats had proven too thin of a barrier, and the warming effects of the tea Anika had prepared for them before retiring had since worn off. It was going to be a long, frosty night.
The solution was clear; he did not know why he hesitated.
Such lies he whispered to himself. He knew the source of his reluctance with a certainty as solid as the knowledge morning would find them bone stiff and chafed from the frigid night. Anika’s scent, so warm and female, had arisen from her sex when he’d chastised her, beckoning him to cross the final line, to revel in crimes he’d resisted until now. So strong her allure, he did not trust himself.
But was honor worth the price of death caused by hypothermia?
Perhaps if he pretended to be strong, he could be strong. He wore alpha clothing, had affected the posture of a male of status—had fought and killed. The skirmish had been in defense of a female and not in a battle that counted, but he, a beta, had triumphed over an alpha, most likely one of a Commander’s elites.
For days, he had surveyed the camp, concealed in foliage. That morning, he’d observed the teams leave then followed as Grogan had led Anika into the field. What a sharp eye and steady hand she had. She’d shamed the alpha’s pathetic marksmanship. Urazi recognized none better than she. If not for her gender, Anika could have served as a sniper in an Alpha’s guard force.
But her slenderness could not compete with Grogan’s stout brawn. His blow had felled her like a pome knocked from a tree. Rage had propelled Urazi from his concealment in the brush. If he could kill Grogan again, he would. Anger still simmered.
That was not all that burned. How he could feel such concupiscence when he was so chilled by the frozen ground defied explanation. Urazi inhaled. Strength. You can overcome this.
If he didn’t succumb to hypothermia first. “Are you asleep?” he whispered.
“N-n-no.”
Her clicking teeth cinched his decision. Urazi flung back his covering, rolled over, and tugged at Anika’s. She had wrapped it around herself tighter than the cocoon around a larval whisperfly. He nudged her. “G-get up.” His teeth had begun to chatter as soon as the full force of the chill hit his unclad body. They’d been foolish to disrobe.
“It’s c-c-cold,” she protested.
“I intend to remedy that.”
Anika staggered to her feet still swaddled.
Urazi lifted her mat to place the dried grass from his bedding on top of her straw then covered the makeshift insulation with her mat and his, before layering their discarded uniforms on top.<
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“Lie d-d-down,” he said, so cold now, even lust had abated. He tossed another log on the fire.
Anika scurried onto the mat. He made her unwrap then lay beside her and drew her covering and his over them both. He pulled her body into the curve of his so her spine pressed to his chest. They both shivered, but already he could tell the difference the extra padding made. He did not feel the winter seeping up from the ground.
Gradually, their tremors ceased, and warmth spread. Anika emitted a sigh and hugged his arm. But with comfort came discomfort, her soft, yielding body reigniting lust. Urazi squeezed his eyelids tight as his manhood swelled. His fear had come to pass.
In the cradle of his hips, her buttocks fit perfectly, and his increasing erection settled between them. He remembered the redness of her skin after the chastisement. Did he imagine her fleshy moons now seemed to radiate a greater heat than the rest of her? Imagine that her female smell teased his senses? He opened his eyes and stared at flickering shadows from the firelight.
She belongs to Ilian.
A beta would never contemplate encroaching on an Alpha’s claim. And he wanted much more than that.
Anika squirmed. No doubt she could feel his manhood. She’d never objected in the past, nay, had sought him out, but perhaps she had come to her senses.
“Stay here,” he growled, and tightened his arms. “We have no choice but to use each other to ward off the chill.”
“That is what I am trying to do,” she replied. “My back is warm, but my front feels the cold.”
Urazi relaxed his hold, and allowed her to turn. She pressed her mammary glands against his chest and wiggled a leg between his thighs. He did not notice an appreciable difference in temperature between her front and back. Wherever she touched him, her skin seared his. Engorged, his manhood was trapped against the heated softness of her abdomen.
She purred like a feleen. “Mm. This is better.”
Surely not.
“I missed you.” She curled her fingertips into his chest, splayed the other hand against his back, and rubbed.
