Hero's Bride

by C. J. Scarlett

  They will kill me anyway. I will at least fight, he said.

  No, I urged. And then, without even realizing that I had begun moving, I had parted from Kypher’s side and slid through the crowd of Ak-hal. I had never moved so fast in my life, and I could sense the confusion around me as I raced through, all the way to the front of the assembly and up to the semi-circle of armed Ak-hal. Then, without a second thought as to what I was doing, I threw myself at the Kamani, placing myself between him and his captors.

  What are you doing? They will kill both of us, said the voice. And sure enough the Ak-hal were preparing their weapons, turning them toward me without any seeming second thoughts about using them against me.

  Then, “Clara!” a voice called out—Kypher. “Do not harm her. She belongs to me,” he demanded of the assembled Ak-hal, who with some regret and a great deal more confusion lowered their weapons as he came up to face me and the Kamani, who now stood only a couple of feet behind me. “What are you doing?” he demanded of me.

  “What does it look like I’m doing?” I said. “I’m saving someone who doesn’t deserve to die.”

  “Get down,” he hissed. “Or else—”

  “Or else what?” I asked. “You’ll let them kill me too? Go ahead,” I said. “I’d rather die than live another moment under your control. I won’t be your slave after I’ve been free.” Having finally found my courage, everything that I had wanted to say in the time since I’d come back to the Ak-hal base came spilling out of me, all at once. “Allowing myself to become your mate was the worst mistake I ever made. I won’t let it happen a second time.”

  Anger flared in his eyes. He came toward me—and was immediately pushed back by the Kamani who now stood at my side. The surrounding Ak-hal sprang into action, which led to a flurry of activity. But somehow, in the resulting fray, the Kamani grabbed hold of me and pulled me through. With so much going on, he was able to shift, and I watched, mesmerized as I always was.

  Come with me, he said, once he was no longer man but a large, gray bear. I haltingly pulled myself astride his back, holding tight to his fur. And then, together, we fled to the edge of the Ak-hal base, into the sunlight, away from captivity and back toward freedom.

  Chapter 6

  “We need to help those women.”

  The Kamani I had fled with looked back at the spot that glimmered on the horizon—the Ak-hal base—his face betraying his feelings. It was obvious that he wanted to help them as much as I did, but he shook his head. “We cannot. There are only two of us. We are outnumbered.”

  “But surely there’s something we can do. They were going to execute them. And the others… they deserve to be free. Even Libba, she—”

  Turning, he caught me up in his gaze. I was momentarily dumbfounded by its intensity, unable to speak. Then I remembered the way his voice had resounded in my head back at the base, and what that meant. Mates, I thought. According to the Kamani, this meant that we were mates. But I wasn’t sure that this was something I wanted. Not after everything that I had been through. My heart pounded in my chest out of sheer nerves from standing this close to him, wondering what was going through his head in this exact moment.

  But I would find out very soon. As I stood there, I saw him begin to reach out, and the feeling in my chest intensified as his hand neared my face. I felt his fingertips brush my cheek, softly, and they lingered there for a long moment before he finally pulled away. “Clara,” he said in his deep, resounding voice, a voice that seemed to envelop me with its warmth as we stood there on that cold outcropping of ice under the blaring sun.

  “Wh—what is your name?” I asked, more than aware of the anxious tone in my voice.

  “I am Atik,” he said, and then, “Do not worry, Clara. We will find a way to help the others. I promise you this.”

  Though my worries weren’t completely assuaged, I did feel a little more confident with Atik there by my side. It was a strange thing. He was a stranger to me, and yet somehow, it was as if I knew him already—as if we were reunited after a long separation. Again, though, I tried to put these thoughts out of my head. The last thing I wanted or needed was to partner with a man, Kamani or not. Even if that man sent sensations racing through me that I had never experienced before.

  “We can get the others. We can work together to save them,” said Atik. “If we move quickly.”

  However, as he said that, I suddenly remembered everything that had just happened before the rescue. “But… Kypher said something. I think they want the Kamani to come to the Ak-hal base. I think they have something planned.”

  Atik furrowed his brow. “Yes. It is possible. But we cannot wait around and do nothing if there are lives at risk. Especially the lives of Kamani mates.”

  I watched his face—saw the frustration evident on those beautiful features—and thought on those words. Yes, what he said was true, and hadn’t I said much the same thing to Libba? But I also couldn’t fathom the idea of the Kamani being hurt, of any of them being killed. I had grown to love them as a people after my life spent among them. They were peaceful and kind, and they had given me the first true home I had ever known. However, it wasn’t my place to tell them what to do—to make decisions about how they should proceed.

  All I could do was relay what I had heard and what I knew, and I was fully aware that it wasn’t much. Once again, I felt helpless. Once again, I felt useless to do anything when it really mattered. I felt as though if someone else were here, someone like Shay, then perhaps something could really be done to get this problem resolved, or at the very least, that someone could come up with the start of a real solution. But all I could do was stand there and wring my hands and worry.

  “Clara.” I was startled out of my thoughts by the sound of Atik’s voice, and I looked up, into those golden eyes. It sent a sharp sensation shooting right through my chest, and I almost gasped at the intensity of it. Then he placed his hand on my shoulder. Almost instantaneously, I felt some of the pressure that had been building up inside me ease. “We will find a way,” he said. “I swear this to you.”

  And somehow, despite all of my doubt, worry, and apprehension, I believed him. It was impossible not to believe him. He was so confident and assured in the way that he spoke, in a way that I wasn’t—in a way that I had never felt. I wished instantly that in the same way he had transferred that feeling of pressure out of me, he could transfer some of his confidence into my soul. I wished that he could give me some of his strength.

  “We will return home,” he said, his hand still resting on my shoulder. I was more than aware of this fact, of his lingering touch. “There, we can speak with the others. We can decide how to act.”

  Still anxious, still hoping that I wasn’t making some mistake that would result in the deaths of people I cared about, I haltingly nodded my head. Atik finally pulled away, slightly. Then he began to shift. I watched mesmerized as the transformation of his body began to take place. I had seen many Kamani shift before, but somehow with Atik it was different. There was something vitally beautiful about the way his muscles stretched and pulled, about the way his pale-gray fur erupted along those muscles to cover his beautiful tawny skin. I watched mesmerized throughout the process until it was finished and an enormous gray bear stood before me.

  Come, Clara, came the voice in my head, as had happened before, and I was reminded once again of the strange connection between us. Feeling my heart jump in my chest, I edged forward and took a handhold of his fur, pulling myself up and onto his rippling back. Then once I was steady, he leapt out onto the frozen tundra, making great strides at an incredible pace that almost left me breathless.

  During the time that we rode back to the Kamani compound, I tried to think. I tried to make sense of everything that happened to me, but it was impossible to sort out my thoughts. All I could do was touch on the tumultuous feelings that whirled around inside of me.

  Again, I knew what it meant that I had this connection with the Kamani who had calle
d himself Atik, but already I pulled back from it and everything that it meant. Though I had been drawn to him from the moment I had seen him back at the Ak-hal base, I tried to tell myself that it was only because I couldn’t stand to see someone die, especially a peaceful Kamani. The fact that I had felt so intensely about the man that I had seen that I had been driven to stand between him and the executioner… well, I tried to put that fact out of my mind.

  Remain calm, Clara, his voice resounded in my mind as we moved over the ice. I didn’t speak back, but he continued to offer me these reassurances as we continued on our way toward the Kamani compound, and in some strange way, these reassurances did make me feel at least a little bit more at ease. They made me feel that perhaps something could be done to help those women. After all, we had escaped when everything had seemed hopeless, so perhaps some light at the end of the tunnel remained for the others as well.

  “We’re here,” I gasped out when I finally saw the light of the sun shining down on the compound, people milling around in its center in a whirl of activity. They looked even busier than usual and I wondered if they weren’t in the middle of their own plans to fight back against the Ak-hal already. I wouldn’t be surprised, though it meant that it was a good thing that we had arrived when we did. I could relay the information that I had about the base and everything happening with them.

  Atik took us right up to the edge of the clearing, and as we approached, several other Kamani came near us. Then I slid off his back and he shifted back to man. As he did, I saw several people turn to look at us, a few crying out in recognition.

  “Brother!” cried out one woman, and she ran through the group toward us, arms outstretched, and threw herself at Atik. He embraced her fully for a long moment before pulling back, a grin on his face. I stood there awkwardly as they spoke a smattering of words to one another in Kamani—I only recognized a few of them—before he turned back to me.

  “This is my sister, Nuna. Nuna, this is Clara.” He spoke, and then he hesitated. I was certain that he wanted to say more—that he wanted to tell her about the connection that we shared. I was grateful that he didn’t. However, he did continue speaking after a long moment. “She helped to save me from the Ak-hal at their base. They were going to execute me—or try.”

  Nuna’s eyes opened wide, and then she turned to me. I was stunned by how similar she was in appearance to her brother. They had the same high cheekbones and the same tilt to their eyes. However, her hair was long, held back in an elegant braid, and she was shorter in stature—about the same height as I.

  “You saved my brother,” she said. Like Atik, she had a powerful voice—one that seemed like it could command armies, and yet one that had a peaceful nature to it as well. “For that, I am forever grateful, Clara.”

  Nuna nodded her head toward me, a smile tugging at the corner of her lips. I wondered how I had never encountered these two before—though there were so many Kamani, it was perhaps no real surprise. I smiled back at her. However, there was no real time to go through pleasantries right now, and both Atik and I knew that. I turned to him, and as our eyes met, it was obvious that we both thought the same thing.

  “We need to find Shay and Khofti,” I said to him, beginning to reach out to take his hand. But as I did so, he gestured to some point behind him.

  “It seems they have already found us.”

  I turned, and coming through the crowd, I saw the familiar form of my friend and her mate. Relief soared through me as I reached out for Shay. She embraced me, pulling me tight to her chest.

  “Damn, girl! I thought for sure… ugh. No time to think about that now. Tell us everything that happened, and don’t leave anything out.” Then, noting that Atik stood very, very close behind me—almost possessively close—she lowered her voice. “Don’t leave anything out, you hear me?”

  Chapter 7

  Shay pulled me into her room and sat me down. Immediately, I felt all the tension coming out of me and I realized what a mess I had been. How had I even managed to hold myself together all the time that I had been in captivity. It was a wonder that I was still sane. Dropping my head down into my hands, I took several deep breaths as she kneeled beside me, patting my back.

  “Hey, it’s okay. You’re back where you’re safe,” she said. “But we need to talk.”

  “I know,” I replied. “I know.” I shook my head, trying to clear it enough to get out everything I wanted to say. “Where’s Atik?” I asked, looking to the door of the room as if he would be standing there.

  “He’s talking to Khofti right now,” said Shay.

  “Okay. Yes. Okay, good,” I said. I reasoned that at that very moment perhaps it was best if I wasn’t faced with one more thing to be confused and anxious about. However, as she looked at me, it was obvious that Shay could see exactly what was on my mind.

  “Clara, is he…?”

  “I don’t want…”

  “Okay. Not right now,” she said quickly. “We can talk about that later. But we will talk about it, Clara,” she added, and as I glanced at her, it was as if I could already see the wheels turning in her head. I knew that she had wanted this for me—a mate—for a very long time. Despite everything else that was going on, she was probably gleeful that Atik had turned up, even given the circumstances. In hopes of swaying her away from that train of thought, I decided to tell her everything that had happened while I was at the Ak-hal base.

  “I saw Libba. And a lot of the other women that were kidnapped from here,” I told her. “They haven’t hurt any of them yet, but they were planning executions when Atik and I managed to escape. I think they’ll put the executions off for now, but we need to figure something out if we want to stop them from killing those women.”

  “Damn it.” Immediately, Shay’s face had flared into anger. After everything that had led to her own initial escape, I knew that she wouldn’t take this news lying down. But there was still more to say.

  “Wait,” I said, sitting up and reaching out to her. “There’s more. I think this is part of a bigger plan. They want the Kamani to come to them. I’m sure of it. But I don’t know why. You have to tell Khofti… the Kamani can’t just go rushing in. Otherwise, they may die. I don’t want any women to get hurt—to get killed—but I don’t want the Kamani killed either. And I’m sure their mates wouldn’t want that either.”

  Shay’s face fell a little as she turned back to me. “Clara,” she said softly. “You know as well as I do, they won’t just hold back if their mates are there… if their mates are in danger. Khofti wouldn’t sit around doing nothing if he thought that I was in danger of being killed. No Kamani would.”

  I cringed. This was just the reaction that I had been expecting—just the reaction that I had been dreading. “So, they already have something planned?” I asked. Haltingly, Shay nodded. My heart thudded in my chest. “Shay, you have to speak to them. You have to tell them what I told you. Otherwise… we can’t…”

  Shay closed her eyes. “You know how determined the Kamani are, Clara. Nothing we could say or do would stop them now.”

  My head drooped down. I closed my eyes. Was there really nothing that could be done so that everybody could come out of this safe and sound? Right now, it didn’t seem as if that was the case, and if that was true, then it meant that the Ak-hal had won this little battle without even really trying. It made the fact that I had escaped with Atik seem like even more of a miracle.

  But why me? Why had I been spared when so many other women deserved a chance? As I sat there with Shay in her room, I wondered over that fact. It didn’t seem right. It would have been more appropriate for a stronger woman, someone like Jessica perhaps, to have made her way away from the Ak-hal base. Perhaps she could have actually done something useful were she here in my place. As it was, I couldn’t fight to free myself—not when I had been held captive originally, not when I had been recaptured, and now I couldn’t fight to help save the others.

  “Why can’t I do anything, Shay
?” I asked. “Why can’t I be like you?”

  Turning around, she looked at me with surprise evident in her features. “What?” she said. “What do you mean?”

  “You fought so hard to be with Khofti back then. It was because of you that we all found our freedom. But I’m not like you. I’m just… me.” Suddenly, I felt so small. So fragile. I felt like the doll that Shay had compared me to before.

  “Yes. You’re you,” said Shay, approaching me and taking me by the hand. “And you’re one of the strongest women I’ve ever known.”

  I let out a laugh. That was one of the most ridiculous things I had ever heard. Me? Strong? I don’t know where she got that idea.

  “You are strong,” Shay insisted. “Even if you don’t believe it, I do. Now. Why don’t you tell me about that sexy Kamani who brought you back here?” she said.

  Startled, I looked up at her suddenly, noting the amused look on her face. “I…”

  “Don’t think I didn’t notice something going on there,” she said. “So… Atik, was it?”

  Shay didn’t let me go until I told her the entire story of how I had encountered Atik at the execution—how I had heard his voice inside my head, and how we had fled together from the Ak-hal base all the way to the Kamani compound. She grew steadily more interested, until finally she broke out into a wide grin, throwing her arms around me.

  “I’m so happy for you!” she said. “Clara, this is so amazing!”

  “Shay…” I pulled back. “I don’t know if this is what I want.”

  “What?” She gave me a puzzled look. “What do you mean, you don’t know if this is what you want?”

  “I’ve had a mate,” I reminded her. “Kypher. And it was—”

  “He wasn’t your true mate. Not like a Kamani mate,” she insisted.

  I had known that she would react this way, and already, I could feel myself pulling away from the idea of being with Atik. I didn’t need a mate. I was perfectly fine being on my own. Perhaps I was drawn to him, but that was only natural. I could resist temptation, and I would resist temptation. At least, I told myself that I would… but already, the image of him was seared into my mind, and I wondered how long it would be before I saw him again.