****
Ohlen’s home territory during the wintertime was breathtaking. The golden tree trunks had darkened to almost a copper color. The vibrantly red leaves were mostly stripped. Leaving room for the fat flakes of snow to fall through. It was even more beautiful than she’d thought it would be. More fun too. He had introduced her to snowball fights. Chasing her joyfully through the trees on two legs and four. His laughter, his roars, and her shrieks while they played echoed loudly in the trees.
They stayed out until the sun started to set. Ohlen declared her to be far too cold and whisked her back to the village. To his favorite taproom to warm up by the roaring fire.
Andi was sitting close to the hearth, her cold fingers wrapped around a mug of deliciously spicy ale. It was made from some kind of fruit that was grown locally. It left a radiating feeling of warmth in her belly. Though that might have been the feeling she got while watching Ohlen speaking to the oldest looking Sarazen she’d yet seen.
Andi had literally been shocked speechless to learn that the male, the warrior, was over ten thousand years old. His wrinkles had wrinkles. His hair had probably once been dark as hers. Now it was solid white. Though his eyes were a little cloudy, age hadn’t dimmed the shine of intelligence.
Ohlen knew the elder warrior from the days when Ohlen had lived in this territory as a feral cub. Her mate kept looking her way. Trying to politely extricate him from the elders clutches. She could tell he respected the warrior and was enjoying the conversation. Andi smiled back at him and assured him that she was more than content to sit where she was.
The taproom was a lovely long house. The thick wooden beams supporting the ceiling were all very intricately carved. She could have spent hours in here just staring up at them. Marveling at the detail. The space itself was large enough to comfortably hold well over a hundred warriors. Though at the moment the bar was only perhaps a third full. It was rustic. Lounges and low tables made up most of the decor. Thick rugs on the floor by the fireplaces. What she imagined a hunting lodge on earth might have looked like. It was a comfortable place intended for families and friends.
Despite the warmth of the interior, every now and again the hairs on the back of her neck would twitch. Like a little tickle. She couldn’t say why it was happening. She saw no one staring at her or paying her much mind at all. Ohlen was not far away, so she didn’t bring the tiny discomfort to his attention.
She should have.
All it took was for him to turn his back. Just long enough to order himself and her another ale.
Her back had been to the wall, but there must have been a door or some kind of panel. Rough hands gripped her from behind and jerked her back. The stab of something in her neck made her go limp immediately. She couldn’t cry out because of the meaty hand over her mouth. Couldn’t scream at Ohlen through their bond because her thoughts were as weak as her body. Right before she lost consciousness she felt the slap of the snowy air.
Then nothing.
Nothing at all.
****
Tarut was taking great pleasure in recounting his memories. Specifically the time Ohlen had been drug out of the forest, like a cub, by his scruff. Chuckling with him over how Ohlen had howled and screamed in protest. Biting at any hands that got near his face.
“I had to thump you between the ears twice, to convince you to quit biting my ankles.” Tarut hooted. His body bent with age, his fingers no longer agile enough to hold a weapon. His mind still stayed sharp. Even as ancient as he was.
“Thump me? You nearly split my skull open, you ragged old beast.”
Tarut shook his gnarled fist at him with playful menace. “This ragged old beast can still split your thick skull. Don’t think I won’t, just because your beautiful mate is watching.”
Ohlen’s cheeks warmed at the old male’s proud tone. Like he was proud that Ohlen had finally found his mate. He glanced over his shoulder to look at Andi, at his one. Going still with alarm.
She wasn’t sitting beside the hearth.
She had just been right there. He looked around the taproom for her. Shouted her name aloud. Through their bond. But there was no answer. He turned tables over in his hurry to get to where she’d been sitting. His beast howled in rage when he saw the mug she’d been drinking from, overturned on the rug. He reached for her along their bond and doubled over when he felt…nothing.
Not the glow of their connection.
Not her emotions.
Not anything.
He ignored it when Tarut called out to him from the bar. Concern plain in the elder male’s voice. Ohlen ran out into the snow and drug in lungful’s of the frigid air to seek out her scent. He had to find her. Had to find his mate before his enraged beast turned feral and killed anything, anyone that stood between them.
Before he succumbed to his blood-lust.
Nineteen
Andi opened her gritty eyes. Throwing her hand up to shield herself from the harsh glare of the light shining down on her. Her head was pounding. Her tongue felt swollen because of how dry her mouth was. Where the hell was she? What happened?
Her first instinct was to reach for Ohlen through their bond.
The second she tried, she screamed. An excruciating spike of pain lanced through her head. Like a burning hot brand had been brutally shoved between her eyes.
“Excellent. You’ve awakened.” The voice was unfamiliar. Electronic. Like it was coming through a speaker. “As you have discovered, it is impossible for you to contact your mate at this time. Our initial tests of the flurra pollen revealed it to not be strong enough. I believe this time, however, it will be quite sufficient.”
The pain radiated down her spine. Very effectively discouraging her from attempting to seek out Ohlen’s presence. Without it, all she could do for the moment was curl into a little ball on the floor and suck in desperate gasps of air. She didn’t ask them if Ohlen was still alive or not. She had no idea if they would tell her the truth and she would be damned before she begged for information.
The electronic voice asked how she was feeling. If she was hungry. Cold. Asked her to describe the sensation of her absent bond. Asked her the most stupid, mundane, doctor like questions. Like she was some kind of lab experiment. Andi just lay there on the floor. Forcing herself to breathe. To calm down and not make any assumptions. She didn’t answer a single question asked of her and could hear the unknown male becoming agitated by her lack of a response.
“If you are hoping that your mate will come for you, abandon such thoughts. He has no idea where you are.”
Andi almost smiled. Almost let the relief the disembodied voice brought show in her posture. Her silence and this bastard’s impatience had already led him to make a mistake. He’d just told her Ohlen was alive. Which meant that she only needed to wait for the effects of the pollen to wear off to reach for their bond. Whoever her kidnappers were, they were dead already. Living on borrowed time. She just had to be strong. Be patient. Ohlen would find her.
“Perhaps the pain has left her unresponsive.”
That voice made her pause in her bit of gloating. Why did it sound so familiar?
“Doubtful,” The original speaker said. Clearly having left the system on. “You can see her vitals here are normal. No elevation in her pulse or the pain receptors here.”
The pounding going in her head was messing with her ability to call up any of Ohlen’s memories. The throb was so distracting. Agonizing. She had to think. Had to be smart and not fall apart. Andi breathed in through her nose, out through her mouth. Trying to filter through the sterile scent of the room to identify any familiar notes. Anything to recognize and describe later. All she got was a muddied mix. Ale from the taproom. The varied smells of the other people from the rug she’d been sitting on. Smoke from the fire. Ohlen’s beast on her hands.
She slowed down in the furious building of that mental list.
Ohlen. Ohlen’s scent on her hands.
The very thought of him, his s
cent, made one singular emotion rise above all the others. Love. Of course she loved him. How could she not love him? Regret slid right on in to mingle with her joy. How could she have been so stupid? Relying on their bond to let him feel it. Relying on the same feeling he pushed towards her anytime their eyes caught. How could she not have told him?
Andi curled her hands closer to her face for a minute, drawing Ohlen’s scent deeper into her lungs. Drawing it around her like a hug.
She was pulled from the comforting moment by that damned familiar voice. Where the hell had she heard it before?
“This one is the smallest out of all the mutants. I overheard it being discussed how she is unable to function without the constant presence of her mate. Perhaps she is just…too weak without him to do anything but lie there sniveling on the floor.”
Andi wanted to snarl and come up off the floor. Shove her claws through that second speaker’s throat. He sounded so damn condescending. Whoever he was, he was doing her a favor by underestimating her.
“My warriors reported that this one was the easiest to procure. Her mate was not watching her closely enough.” the first male grunted. “Would you like us to throw her back, Amaro?”
Amaro. A name. Yes!
“Have you also been able to procure the data we need from Ga’rae?” that asshole asked. Amaro. She had to remember that name.
“Regrettably not. Ga’rae has all the testing records we require on his personal encrypted data pad. He gives no access even to his own mutant. I have tried to acquire the data pad itself but both times I was interrupted.”
Amaro sighed at the failure of his subordinate. Like he had been seriously inconvenienced by Ga’rae’s protectiveness of his data pad.
“Unfortunate, indeed. This one’s mate has already made contact with the citadel and is quite distraught. Tarek’s mutant was so helpful in getting them all out in the open like this. Kill her. Even with the flurra pollen silencing their bond, Ohlen will feel her death. Make it painful. The more crazed he is, the better our test results will be. Contact me when you are through. I have to get back before I am missed.”
Andi’s heart stopped beating. These two bastards were discussing the painful murder of her mate. For test results? Who did these people think they were? Were they seriously thinking she would just lay here and let that happen? Let them kill her mate? She and Ohlen might be experiencing some drug induced radio silence, but her bond with her beast certainly was not silent.
Andi felt the animal stretch inside her. Fury rising and building, until all she could feel, was the thundering of her blood being pumped through her veins. Sounds became sharper. Smells. Her vision. All of her senses enhanced as her beast pushed forward. Thought she was a mutant, did they? Thought she was too weak to protect her mate?
She’d show them a mutant. Oh yes.
Twenty
Old as he was, Tarut was still the best tracker on S1. Tarut had scented the nearly imperceptible discharge of a molecular deconstruction pad. Scented the two males using outlawed Adiveeze technology to try and disguise their scent. Located Andi’s sweeter scent.
Together he and his old friend had followed the thread thin tendrils of Andi’s scent. All the way to an empty clearing in the woods. In his woods where only a few short hours ago Ohlen had chased Andi through the snow. Shared his joy of the winter season with her, tasted the sound of her laughter in her kiss. Ohlen held his breath, his muscles bulging with the effort it took to restrain himself.
Andi had been missing now for almost eight hours. Every warrior and their mates had been recalled to the citadel. All accounted for with the exception of Tarek and Clary. The two pride rulers had gone completely radio silent and would not be due to check in until tomorrow. Thanks to Clary, they had been ordered not to contact the pair on the emergency frequency. Unless it was a legitimate emergency.
Like impending invasion, kind of emergency. Brennaugh had decided to hold off on calling the pair back prematurely. Hoping to have found Andi several revs sooner.
His beast was constantly throwing himself at the bars of his fleshy prison. Relentlessly seeking freedom. If Ohlen released him, the snow would run red with blood. Friend or foe, it didn’t matter. As long as it brought his mate back. He bent his head. Bent forward to suck in stinging breaths of cold air. Struggled to stay sane. Andi needed him to stay sane.
Tarut gave a raspy roar.
Ohlen jerked upright to see the old beast circling a place in the snow. Digging at it with his paw before bending to sniff the slush. The mottled gray beast had uncovered some kind of trapdoor
His hand shook when he lifted it to touch the com in his ear.
“Brennaugh,” Ohlen’s voice sounded as though it had been shredded.
The commander responded immediately. “Here. Have you located Andi?”
“Not yet. Tarut has located some kind of hatch in the middle of my old territory. I am preparing to enter.”
“You will hold!” Brennaugh’s order had him giving a coughing roar into his comm.
“I will not hold if my mate is here. Mark my position. I will update you-“
“Ohlen. Wait for us to follow. That is an order!”
“Would you wait to find Tara?” Brennaugh didn’t answer immediately.
Ohlen knew the former commander would act exactly the same if it was his mate missing. Tarut moved out of his way so he could lift the hatch. Both of them nearly fell back at the overwhelming reek of blood and death that whooshed up from inside the dark hole. It was so thick, he choked on it. Choked back the urge to roar for Andi.
“Wait here. Your old bones will break at this height.” Tarut slapped him with his paw in reprimand.
Ohlen sucked in one more breath of clean air, touched the side of his torque to activate his armor and dropped down into the hole.
****
Ohlen had to breathe through his mouth, the scent of gore so thick it was almost solid. The ventilation must be damaged in some way for it to be this bad. Bad enough that it made his eyes water. The underground den appeared to be some kind of abandoned military post. One that looked to be from before his tenure in the military. He passed one, then two bodies in the darkened hallway. The lights flickered, most of them broken to reveal the carnage in horrific relief. One of the bodies in the hall had a laser pistol lying beside his lifeless corpse. Ohlen scooped it up, noticing there was only one pair of bloody paw prints on the floor. Claw marks raked down their backs, down the walls. The warriors had been running from a singular beast. Counted ten warriors so far, scattered in pieces throughout the post. Shredded to ribbons. None of the faces were ones he recognized.
What he did recognize was the scent of his mate.
“ANDI!” his roar echoed down the hallways.
He waited, paused in an open doorway with the laser pistol in front of him. Waited to listen for her answer. All he heard was a low, vicious snarl. It didn’t sound like the familiar rumble of Andi’s cat, but he followed it anyway.
“Andi? Answer me! Where are you?”
The snarl came again, louder. Guiding him down a hall and into what remained of a once sterile laboratory. There were monitors splashed with blood. A scanning table with sinister equipment in pieces nearby. Everything in the lab was meant to be used for experimentation. Injectors with unknown substances in them, restraints. Blades waiting to be used to cut open the subject. The warriors in the hall were lucky they were already dead. Lucky, all of the instruments scattered around the room, held not one single bit of his Andi’s scent. The viewing window directly in front of him had been smashed from the inside. His boots crunched on the glass when he moved forward, the smell of blood thicker here. Recently spilled. He looked down into a small white room. Or rather, it had been white. Now it was crimson.
A female Sarazen in her beast form was crouched over the remains of what he assumed had been the traitor responsible for using the equipment. The coward responsible for monitoring the female’s vital signs from the safety of th
e room above. The female had leaped three times the distance of what she should normally have been able to. Busted through glass meant to stop laser cannon fire. She must have grabbed and thrown the traitor down into the cell before having gone on her killing rampage.
“Andi?”
The female’s head swung up to him. Her truly horrific visage made a shudder ripple down his spine. She had grown to be even twice his height. Her muscled body covered in short black fur. Her crystalline claws flexed in the flickering light. Red and wet with blood. Her face was that of her beast, her lips peeled back to show him her gore spattered fangs. Her eyes were…savage. Bright orange with only a sliver of pupil left.
She was crouched possessively over her kill. Snarling at him in a low, warning rattle to keep him away. Her tail lashed back and forth, sending viscous arcs of blood through the air. One look and he knew what had happened. He had seen females in the grip of blood-lust before. Feral. Unreachable once their beast so fully took over. Something about their primal nature to protect what they claimed as theirs, a cub, a mate, a kill, made it impossible for them to be brought back. Every female who had succumbed to blood-lust that he knew of, had been put down.
Not this time. Not his mate. Andi was a hybrid and had thus far exceeded every expectation of what that might mean. She was strong enough to overcome this. He believed it with every fiber of his being. Ohlen put the laser pistol down. Released his armor and put his hands out to his sides. He spoke softly to her, remembering how Tarut had done the same to him when he was a feral cub. It didn’t matter what he said to her. In this state, she wouldn’t understand the words. Just the tone. His scent.
“Please, forgive me. I promised you no one would ever hurt you again. I gave you my promise in blood and look what happened. I am so sorry, Andi. I should never have let you out of my sight. We were in plain view of so many. I thought you would be safe there. Safe with me. I failed you. My heart, you can come out of there now. I’m here. I’m here. Please come back to me.”
Sarazen's Vengeance: Book 1.1 Page 12
