by Zara Zenia
How to describe the feeling she ignited in me?
“It made my blood run as hot as the fires of Desergan, my stomach clench and my heart yearn for something I never knew I needed.”
I hadn’t heard him close the few paces between us, but suddenly Brandt’s hand clapped down on my shoulder, patting me. “You always were better with words than I,” he says, dropping his hand and nudging his shoulder into mine.
“You can drop the act around me, you know. I know what a hopeless sap you are.”
I roll my eyes, but he’s not wrong. If anyone in all the Universe knows me, it’s Brandt. But this woman awoke feelings in me that even I didn’t know existed. So how could he know? Unless it was all true.
Believing in it almost makes it worse. It’s nothing more than a silly story when you don’t believe in those kinds of things. But experiencing this magnetic pull that I felt would be enough to make even the staunchest of skeptics change his mind. I know, because that was me. I didn’t believe it, until it was staring me in the face. Now, I’m nearly certain I can’t live without her and it’s enough to terrify me.
We stalk after her scent in silence, a final worry still prickling in my mind. “Brandt?”
“Yes, Trylor?”
“Do you think she will agree to it?” It feels foolish to seek reassurance from my younger brother, but he has always had the cooler head. He has always been able to see another perspective, provide a gentler touch. But that’s only because he doesn’t bear the responsibility I do. He doesn’t know the weight of my obligations. If he carried them as I do, he wouldn’t have such a bouncy step. But the very fact that Brandt is so different than I am is what makes him the perfect confidante. He never judges me, even if he does tease me relentlessly.
But the reassurance I’m waiting for doesn’t come immediately. In fact, it doesn’t come at all. He’s silent for a long time, clearly thinking it over, making me more nervous by the second with his prolonged silence. Finally, my brother sighs and shakes his head.
“I truly don’t know. I wish I could say yes, but it is so much to ask of anyone. All that we can hope for is that she have a strong heart big enough for all of us.”
“I’m not sure anyone could manage such a thing,” I say, giving voice to a concern I’d vowed to keep to myself.
Brandt nods, his expression grim. “I don’t disagree, but if there isn’t hope, what is there?”
It’s a valid question. With things the way they are back home, I’m not sure there is anything left for us or our people if not hope.
But before I can respond, there’s the crack of a twig breaking not too far away and I hold up a hand, gesturing to Brandt silently.
He nods, and we proceed, our prize nearly in hand.
Chapter Three
Eva
I know those two guys are following me. I’m counting on it in fact. I don’t know what came over me, but when I saw the way the both of them looked at me, I wanted to run. But not out of fear. Like a child playing hide and seek. Maybe it’s the lingering adrenaline from facing down the wolves, but I couldn’t just take a leisurely stroll with these strangers. Especially not with the weird feelings they sparked in me.
And by weird, I mean very sexual. That’s another reason why I ran off. That intense jolt of longing freaked me out. It’s not like I’m a nun in a convent or anything. I’ve seen attractive men before. I’ve even been approached by them on occasion, though I’ve never pursued anything with any of them.
Yes, at nearly twenty years old, I’m still a virgin, as untouched as freshly driven snow. Maybe other girls my age would be embarrassed by that, but I see no reason to be. It’s not like there are a ton of options out here in the woods, and that suits me just fine.
Or it did. Until now.
I should probably be kind of freaked out by their unusual features and intense gazes, but all I feel when I think about it is hot. Like there’s lava coursing through my veins and I just want to jump their bones.
Yes, their. Not at the same time or anything, but I don’t think I could pick one or the other. They’re both so incredibly, intensely attractive that my brain melts a little looking at either one of them.
This is what happens when you turn into a forest hermit, I chastise myself. It’s been over a year since my mom and sister left the woods after Dad died. Over a year that I’ve been out here all alone, with no one to talk to but the trees and the squirrels. No wonder the first sight of an attractive man has me turning to absolute jelly.
If I’m really honest with myself, I’m tired of being alone. The woods have always been home, but that’s because I’ve always had family here. It’s home because this is where the people I loved were. But now, now that I’m all alone… Nothing really feels the same. I’ve busied myself with helping animals and thwarting poachers, but even that only provides so much satisfaction. The thought of having a family again, of not being alone out here, it makes me excited. Giddy almost. But in order for anything to happen, I have to let them find me.
I can hear them picking through the trees, talking in that strange language behind me. They sound so serious and I can’t help wondering what they’re talking about. Why are they out here? And why are they following me? I’m playing a fun game, but are they doing the same? Or do they just want to thank me for saving them from the wolves?
It’s all a little weird, but I can’t think about it too much. They’re getting closer, closing the distance between us. I won’t be able to keep up this pace for much longer, so I should find a place to hide. Maybe I can surprise them or they’ll walk straight past me. I’ve always been pretty good at hiding in plain sight.
So, with a small, scheming grin, I push back into the shadows, camouflaging myself in the underbrush. They approach the spot I just left, sniffing the air like bloodhounds on the trail. That’s weird, too. I don’t wear any perfume or anything like that. They’d have to be part animal to be able to follow my scent through the air like that. Maybe they’re just enjoying the fresh mountain air.
I stifle a giggle as the green-eyed one turns to the other and grumbles something under his breath. The other one just shakes his head, turning it on a swivel, clearly looking for me. He looks right past me and I snicker again. I haven’t played in the woods like this in such a long time and it’s fun. I feel like a kid again, just enjoying the moment without knowing what’s coming.
The green-eyed one goes off in one direction and the golden-eyed one in another. I try to track them both, but the moment I turn my eyes away from one to the other, I can’t seem to find the first anymore. Then I can’t spot the other, either. It’s like they straight-up disappeared.
I’m looking all around, straining my ears for any sound of them approaching, but I don’t see anything. Maybe they gave up, I think, deflating. So much for that fun game.
I sigh and step out of my hiding place, wondering if I shouldn’t have run at all. At least then I could ask them who they were and what they were doing here.
But before I have a chance to finish that thought, strong hands grab me around my waist and I squeal as I’m pulled tight against a rock-hard body.
“Don’t be frightened,” he says softly into my ear, his warm breath stirring my hair and making me shiver. I look up to find those piercing neon green eyes staring back at me with something that looks a lot like awe. It’s weird, but I don’t dislike it.
“You can’t hide from us,” he practically purrs, his breath now stroking the sensitive side of my neck, forcing goosebumps up out of my flesh.
“We’ve been looking for you for far too long,” the other says, seemingly materializing out of nothing.
That’s…a really weird thing to say, but I almost can’t even dwell on it because of the intensity in their eyes. I certainly can’t question it. The truth of the statement is evident in the way he looks at me.
“Now, please. Tell us your name?” Golden-eyes steps forward and now I’m practically pressed up against both of them. Hard,
hot bodies on either side of me. And I do mean hot. These guys are like furnaces, burning me like the warmest summer sun, making me desperate to strip down just to cool off.
Now that’s an interesting thought. I’m not going to do it of course, but the idea of their shocked expressions makes me grin. Would they freeze in place affording me the chance to escape? Somehow, after hearing the one say I can’t hide from them, I don’t think so. I get the weird feeling that it would take an act of God to get them to release me now.
But surprisingly, that thought doesn’t scare me at all. Surprisingly, the idea that two strange, huge men have me cornered in a remote forest with no help around for miles, doesn’t worry me even a little. It’s actually a little exciting. I don’t know how I know it, but I know neither one of these men would ever hurt me. I know that they intend to keep me safe. It sounds like something a crazy naive girl would think before she gets kidnapped and murdered, but there are no alarm bells ringing in my head. No voice of intuition telling me to be careful. Just a persistent, cajoling voice urging me to jump right in with both feet.
“Eva,” I finally say, nearly breathless as I meet his golden gaze.
He nods. “Well met, Eva. I am Trylor, this is my brother Brandt.”
“Interesting names. You’re not from around here, are you?” I ask, trying to place their exotic features and coming up empty. I haven’t been many places in the world though, so that’s not too surprising.
“Not exactly.” Brandt, the green-eyed one, chuckles behind me.
I feel his laughter rumbling through his chest and up my spine and it sends a jolt of pure need between my legs.
“What do you mean you’ve been looking for me for too long? You couldn’t have been chasing me for more than fifteen minutes.”
Trylor smiles, but it’s not really a normal smile. It’s the smile someone gives you when you clearly don’t understand something that they think is beyond you. I don’t appreciate that patronizing look, but he’s so damn attractive giving it to me that I can’t even be mad.
“We’ve been looking for you for much longer than that.” He stops, retreating a step and looking around him nervously.
I want to tell him that there’s no one out here. No one to overhear our conversation but birds and bears, but he looks so serious that he makes me nervous too.
“What is it?” I ask, turning from Trylor to Brandt, worry rising up my throat.
Brandt shakes his head, rubbing his big, strong hands up and down my arms reassuringly. “You’re safe with us,” he says simply.
And I believe it. I don’t doubt that statement for a second, but it doesn’t really do anything to ease my worries.
“Come, we should discuss this elsewhere,” Trylor says, sliding his hand to the small of my back as his brother releases me.
I don’t know what ‘this’ is that we need to talk about somewhere else. I’m not even sure where else would be better to talk about sensitive information other than the middle of nowhere in the forest, but I don’t argue. I just nod, a strange unease prickling the hairs on the back of my neck as I start off toward my cabin.
Chapter Four
Brandt
“Look, it’s a little ways to my place,” Eva says, her voice nearly trembling.
I shoot a withering glance at Trylor for scaring her so. Yes, the danger is present and we need to be ever-vigilant, but he didn’t need to put such fear into our woman. Seeing that look of concern etching her features makes my heart ache.
“Can you tell me what this is about at all?”
Trylor gives me a sharp look and I know what he’s saying, but I disagree. She deserves to know. We can’t expect her to take us into her home, to let us into her life, without telling her anything. We are strangers. For all she knows, we could be the real danger to her. And she’s trusting us. This beautiful creature that I never saw coming. Sure, we knew she existed. We knew she was the one that could help us, and we understood our duty to Desergan and our people, but I never expected to be looking forward to that duty. I never expected that my body would ache to hold her again, that my fingers would burn from the heat of her touch.
Trylor seems to spot my resolve and narrows his eyes in a challenge, but I shake my head. “She deserves to know,” I say.
Eva stops where she stands and looks from me, to Trylor, and back to me again. “Know what? What’s going on?”
“We can’t talk about this here,” Trylor growls.
“Not in any detail, at least,” I correct, erasing Eva’s look of indignation.
“Brandt, don’t.”
I ignore him. “We were told about a girl. One that lives in the woods, and we’ve been searching for her.”
Eva considers that for a moment, then nods. “Well, looks like you found me. But why? What makes me so special?”
Trylor’s glare intensifies and I can’t stop myself from shrinking away from him. That is the power he holds. As his brother, I can disobey him more than most, but even I can’t defeat that silent command.
“We can’t talk about it in the open,” I say.
Eva frowns and looks all around exaggeratedly. “There’s no one out here for miles. It’s just us.”
I shake my head. “You don’t understand. There are greater dangers in these woods than you’re aware of and I won’t take any risks with your safety.”
“Nor will I,” Trylor agrees, his fingers curling into the flesh of her hip possessively.
I’m thankful that she’s going along with this so well, though. She could have run again. She could have made this a long and drawn-out hunt for us. But she’s not running this time. She’s walking in stride with us, leading us back to her place.
That thought alone is enough to make my blood boil. Her home will certainly include her bed, and I can’t stop the images of stripping her down, laying her back, and kissing her from head to toe until I make her come apart completely. There’s no doubt that this is the woman. No doubt at all.
It will be interesting to see how she fits in on Desergan, though. She’s so much smaller than our people, practically dainty — though watching her chase off those wolves, she seemed larger than life. And she seems accustomed to the weather here, wearing little in the way of covering though both my brother and I are wrapped in thick clothes to ward off the chill of this planet. Would she be able to tolerate the fires of Desergan? Would she want to?
Those are all questions for another day, though. For now, I’m content to know that she is safe and within reach. Even if she isn’t certain whether or not she will accept our proposition, I know deep down in my soul that I could never let harm come to her.
“I don’t know if you guys have noticed, but I’ve been doing pretty well for myself out here without any protection. I can take care of myself. Or have you already forgotten that I saved your asses from a bunch of wolves?”
She directs that last part at Trylor and I send him a grin. She’s endearing herself to me more and more with every moment. She’s got a fire in her, maybe as hot as the ones we carry in our hearts. And she’s not afraid. Not of us or of anything else in these woods — even though she probably should be.
“I have not, and will never forget that, Eva,” Trylor says solemnly, bringing her hand up to his lips. “But you are intended for a great purpose and we cannot risk that.”
Eva blushes when his lips brush her skin and a moment of jealousy sweeps through my heated veins. Not toward my brother — I knew coming into this what to expect with regards to that — but because it wasn’t me that made that beautiful color appear in her cheeks. Then, her face drains of all color and she stops again, wrapping her arms around herself as if to ward off a chill.
“What did you just say?” Her voice is hardly a whisper and if not for our superior hearing, we may not have heard her at all.
“What is it?” I ask, just as softly, taking a small step toward her, careful not to spook her. Suddenly, the woman that seemed so fearless, looks terrified.
She shakes her head, taking another step back. “He said I have a great purpose,” she says hurling the words at Trylor like an accusation. I don’t understand what she’s getting at though, so I nod.
“Yes. You are. But we can talk about that—”
“My dad used to say that,” she says, narrowing her eyes and reaching behind her back to produce a knife, gleaming bright in the sun. “Who are you guys and what are you doing here?”
“Please, Eva,” I say, holding my hands up to her. “We’re not here to hurt you, I swear it. We need your help. I do not know how your father knew of your destiny, but he was not wrong. Please, give us a chance to explain.”
“Put the knife away,” Trylor adds softly, standing his ground. If we both move in on her, she’ll likely run off and we’ll be chasing her again. Better to keep her right here, even if it takes us longer to convince her.
“But how did you know that? Those are the same words he said!”
Trylor shakes his head, looking down at the ground, his eyes sad. “I cannot offer you an explanation. Not here, not now. Please, Eva. Trust us.”
“Why should I?”
“You have no reason to,” I answer quickly, drawing a sharp look from my brother. I can practically hear him saying ‘are you insane?’ but I don’t let that deter me. “You have no reason to trust us, but I think you want to anyway. I think you can feel deep down that we’re not here to hurt you. That we care about you and want to protect you. I think deep down you want to hear what we have to say even if the idea of it frightens you. I think deep down, you’re curious and you’ve always known there’s something more for you and the fact that we’re confirming it has you worried, but also excited.”
She stares at me for a long time, her eyes narrowed, her mouth slightly slack. It takes a great force of will to stop myself from lunging forward and capturing her lips with mine. But I hold still, determined not to scare her any more than I already have.
