Table of Contents
Title Page
Chapter One
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Tirzah’s disobedience leads her to civilization and the man she dared not dream of.
Tirzah disobeys the rules of her tribe and ventures beyond the boundary into the forbidden zone convinced there has to be a more advanced species on the planet. Traveling mainly as her cat shape, she not only finds civilization, but also the man she believes to be her soul mate. His feline form is a black cat. How will her white furred tribe react to him?
Cain thinks he’s the only cat shifter on Earth until he scents another. To his astonishment, she’s a white cat and she speaks a very strange language. Will nature override social barriers and how can he get her out of his heart and into his arms?
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Tirzah’s Allure
Copyright © 2012 Gabriella Bradley
ISBN: 978-1-77111-308-3
Cover art by Martine Jardin
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.
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Tirzah’s Allure
By
Gabriella Bradley
Prologue
First Officer Calira opened her eyes and fought against the dizziness fogging her mind. She tried to focus, but everything was a blur. Closing her eyes for a few moments, she remembered hazily what had happened. I’m alive! Her disorientation dissipated and she struggled out of the tight safety harness. Commander Opek, in the chair next to her, seemed to be in one piece and breathing steadily. “Captain, wake up,” she shouted.
Getting out of her chair, she stood, swaying for a moment. Every bone in her body ached from the pressure of hurtling through space and she presumed the impact of the crash hadn’t helped either. She’d passed out before they crashed.
Smoke spiraled from between seams and small tears in the structure of the ship. She coughed and waved her hand before her face, her eyes tearing from the stinging smoky haze. The navigation console was on fire. Their navigator’s head slumped forward, blood dripping from a wound in his head.
Grabbing a fire extinguisher, she quickly doused the small flames. She threw the extinguisher on the floor. “Darat, can you hear me? Wake up, Darat!” No response, not a flicker of life. There was a slowly spreading pool of blood on the console. She lifted his head carefully and eased him back. A jagged piece of metal was lodged in his forehead. His eyes were fixed and staring.
Calira knew he was gone. She shuddered and felt for a pulse anyway. A tear escaped. She’d really liked the older man. Well, old in her eyes. He was in his forties, married, with a family, a woman who was now without a mate, children with no father. Normally their lifespan was very long. Their species lived for hundreds of years.
Choking back a sob, she realized there was nothing she could do for Darat and hurried to see how the rest of the crew had fared. She prayed she’d find no more fatalities. There were sixteen of them in the craft. Fifteen, now that Darat was gone. She needed to wake everyone up, check to see if they were hurt, even alive, and get the survivors out of the craft in case it exploded.
The first crewmember she checked was Torzo, their medical officer. He was fine, although still unconscious. “Torzo, wake up. I need help here. Torzo!” After a few moments, he stirred and looked at her.
“We’re alive?”
“Darat didn’t make it. You seem to be okay, but you’ll be sore as hell, like me. Every damn muscle in my body was pressurized by the impact.” She helped him out of the safety harness. After he stabilized himself with an injector and gave her a shot, he rushed to give aid where needed. The pain left her body almost instantly.
“Calira, get that fire extinguisher. We need to douse the fires before we lose the ship completely. Wake the rest of the crew up. Darat, any idea where we are?” The captain had regained consciousness and was busy checking some of the crew. “Torzo, I could use some help. Some of the crew are injured.”
“Darat is dead, Captain,” Calira told him. “And so is the navigation console.”
“Damn. What about the transmitter?”
“Smashed. We came down hard and the ship’s on fire.”
The rest of the crew were slowly coming around. They were all okay except for some abrasions and bruises. Torzo ran from one to the other mending their injuries.
It took them only moments to survey their situation and within minutes, the craft was a beehive of activity. They had to save whatever they could. They were sad, but had no time to grieve for their lost crewmember. The fires were quickly put out but all the wiring had been damaged beyond repair. There was, at least, no more danger of the ship blowing up.
“Where are we?” Zinpa, one of the female crewmembers and their science officer, asked.
“We don’t know yet. The view screens aren’t working. Nothing works. There’s only one way to find out,” the captain told her. “Tuk, get into your suit. Henke, you go with him. Find out what’s outside. Kalan and Halasha, take Darat and put his remains in a body bag. We’ll deal with a burial for him later.”
They worked hard. It didn’t take long for Opek and Calira to determine that although the craft was badly damaged, the fires were out. Each of them took to their stations to see if any of their instruments had survived the crash. Reports came in, one after another. At first inspection, most of their instruments, except their handhelds, were a total loss.
“We’ll have to open the hatches manually,” Tuk, ready in his suit, oxygen tank and helmet on, said. “That might not be easy if they’re warped.”
Much to their relief, the hatch opened quite easily. Tuk and Henke stepped into the exit chamber and closed it behind them.
Calira deftly worked her controls, stabbing at buttons with no success. She wondered what the two men would find outside. She took a moment to ponder what had happened.
They couldn’t get out of the path of the giant meteorite that had hurtled toward them. It should have smashed them into a million pieces. They had all expected to die. But there they were—all of the crew except one—alive, with nothing more serious than some bruises, small cuts, and aching bodies. She should be grateful, and she was in a way, but where the hell were they?
Twenty explorer ships had left their home planet, Alishur, to scour the galaxy to find a new home for thei
r civilization. Their planet was on the brink of destruction. A meteor, a hundred times the size of Alishur, was on its way. It would shatter the planet into oblivion. They only had months to find a suitable planet to which they could evacuate their people. Calira hoped the other ships had more success so her people could safely relocate. Tears welled when she thought about her parents, her brother and two sisters, and the rest of her family. Would she ever see them again?
The hatch opened. Tuk and Henke were back, carrying their helmets instead of wearing them.
“So?” the commander asked tersely.
Tuk handed him his enviro meter. Opek studied the small screen. “Mm, plenty of oxygen, heavy vegetation, life forms, some are mammals. What’s it like out there?”
“Hard to tell. Our craft is lodged between trees. The vegetation is so thick and wild, we decided not to go any farther,” Henke said.
“Well, for now, let’s see if we can repair the damage. I’d like to know which planet we’re on, which solar system it’s in. That meteorite has thrown us so far out of our galaxy, only the gods know where we are.” Opek turned back to his instruments.
“Most of it is beyond repair,” Calira said. “Unless we can find help on this planet, I don’t know if our ship will ever fly again.”
Opek nodded. “The enviro meter detected life forms. Maybe a few of us should go and find them and just hope they’re human, not hostiles, and that they’re technologically advanced enough to give us aid.” He stood and joined them.
“I’ll go,” Calira volunteered.
Tuk and Henke nodded. “We’ll have to shift,” Tuk said. “We can’t navigate through the heavy vegetation in human form.” They took their suits off, followed by their clothing.
Calira and Opek stripped. Tuk opened the hatch and waited for the others to follow him into the exit chamber. “Leave it open so we can get some oxygen into the ship and air out the smoke,” the commander told Calira. The air in the craft was still heavy with acrid smoke and it was hard to breathe. With nothing functional, they couldn’t turn on the air cleansing system. If they’d been forced to stay in the ship, they’d have run out of oxygen and suffocated within a day.
Another thing to be grateful for—breathable air, Calira thought. At least dying in a crash would have been instant. Suffocation was not a pleasant thought. She climbed down the narrow emergency ladder and stepped onto mossy ground. It was twilight. Above them, an umbrella of verdant green blocked the last of the light. They stood close to the trunk of a giant tree and closed their eyes. Within seconds, four snow-white cats, at least four feet in height at the shoulder, were ready to explore.
Calira looked at her surroundings. Tuk and Henke hadn’t been kidding when they’d said the vegetation was heavy. Always a lover of nature, she admired the foreign plants and shrubbery. Some leaves were so big, a human could sleep on one. Looking up at their ship, she saw how badly damaged the exterior was. Two giant trees had broken the fall as the ship had crashed through the thick foliage and branches. It was wedged firmly between the trees, resting on several very thick branches.
Follow me, Opek ordered. His voice communicated into her thoughts.
Calira always loved the feeling of freedom as a cat, the ability to move fast, to defeat enemies easily. She eagerly followed Opek into the thick shrubbery.
As they moved on, she took in everything around her, the strange plants, flowers, ferns, and vines. Opek stopped for a moment to relieve himself. The scent would lead them back to their ship. They would all take turns doing this during their trek through the forest.
Calira held her breath for a moment. The male pheromones that emanated from her mates never failed to turn her on. Even through the seriousness of their situation, she felt twinges of desire, but she quickly squashed them. How could she want to mate right now? And with whom? Before they’d left on their mission, she’d met a man whom she felt could be her future mate. Now, unless they were able to find help to repair their ship, he was lost to her forever.
They continued as fast as they could, often scattering flocks of multi-colored birds. Some were small or medium sized, others were huge. Calira pushed down the desire to chase some of the larger ones. She wondered if they were edible. Their normal fare mainly consisted of greens, nuts, fruit, fish and fowl. Wherever this place was, it was beautiful in its primitive untouched state. She’d never seen anything like it, not on any of the planets they’d visited.
They ran and walked for hours, sometimes climbing trees and transferring from tree to tree if the vegetation was too thick near the ground. Here and there, Calira spotted small dots of sky high above, a blue sky, as opposed to their own yellow sky.
I hear the sound of people, Opek said and stopped. Slow down and move forward carefully. We don’t know if they’re friendly and we don’t want to show ourselves in this form. We know nothing about this planet or its species.
They crept forward on their bellies until they saw a small clearing with a number of crude dwellings. Calira gasped. Yes, there were people, but hardly the kind they’d hoped to find. Their bodies were much like their own human form, except they were much smaller. Their skin was a copper hue with strange black symbols painted on their faces, their bodies and limbs, and their hair was matted and black. They were naked and looked dirty. The men had white protrusions growing from their nostrils. Children played in various areas. Women were busy with large green leaves, berries and what looked like fruits. Some of them had a suckling on their hip.
They watched for a while from behind their shelter of vegetation, their white fur changing to match the green foliage that hid them. Their chameleon-like ability to change color according to their surroundings had always served them well during missions and explorations.
Suddenly, a small group of men entered the village. Drums thundered, the sound echoing into the forest. Several men dragged the body of a man by his feet to the center of the village. The women pounced on the dead man and within seconds hacked off pieces of flesh. One of the women opened the stomach cavity and dug deep inside. Fresh blood covered their hands and arms. Entrails were thrown casually aside. Calira shuddered.
Primitive and savage, she said. And they’re cannibals. I wonder if there are more advanced humans on this planet.
We’ll have to explore further. I detect some of our crew outside the ship. I’ve sent them a message of our findings and that we may not be back for a while, Opek told them.
They could speak to each other, but they could also turn off the ability for all to hear. Opek’s message to the crew was a private one.
Darkness was upon them suddenly. The forest became alive with other sounds than birds—the sounds of predators. Calira wasn’t afraid. She and her people were big enough to put the fear of the gods into most creatures.
They climbed up a tree and lay on its branches to rest for the night. I see one that’s like us, except it’s black and much smaller, Calira said, peering down. It’s hunting for food.
Something I wouldn’t mind right now, Tuk grumbled. I’m hungry.
We don’t know what’s edible and what’s not. You’ve gone without food before. It won’t hurt you now, Opek’s voice was stern. Let’s get some rest. We’ll start early in the morning.
Their beautiful white fur had taken on the color of the branch they slept on. It didn’t take long for Calira to doze off, although her sleep was restless because of the unfamiliar, foreign sounds around her and her growling stomach.
* * * *
They woke to the song and chirping of many birds. Calira’s stomach growled and she wished they could eat something. But what? That was the only drawback when they explored in this form—they couldn’t carry any of their instruments or food.
Following directly behind Opek, she studied intently several strange little creatures that continuously followed them. They had long arms, brownish fur on their bodies and funny little faces. They swung from tree to tree and chittered in a strange language.
Stop, s
he called to Opek. Look at those little animals. They’re pulling yellow curved sticks off that tree and they’re eating them. If they can eat them, maybe we should try one.
Tuk agreed with her. I’ve been watching them, too, and saw them eat some large round fruits. They grow on the very top of the trees with the big green leaves.
Opek approached the tree, scattering the animals in all directions. Loud screeches indicated they were either afraid or angry. Using his teeth, he pulled one of the yellow sticks off a cluster and mimicked the animals by peeling off the skin. Not too easy with his canine teeth and claws. He smelled it, then carefully took a small bite. Not bad at all. The fruit tastes a bit like our galamto.
At least they’d found one edible item thanks to the funny little creatures. Calira took a bite. She liked it, as did the others. They ate enough of the fruit to still their hunger. She couldn’t help but smile at the antics of the animals. Screeching their disgust or anger, they swung from vine to vine, branch to branch. A couple of them jumped up and down a short distance away screeching like crazy. One dared to approach Calira. She growled softly and sent the little one flying up a tree. They seemed harmless enough and were quite amusing, she decided.
Their hunger pangs abated, they traveled through the forest for a long time, then climbed over a mountain ridge, to find more villagers on the other side. They didn’t even bother to get close because from what they could see, they were just as primitive and savage as the first tribe they’d seen.
It’s no use, Opek. The people on this planet are from the dark ages. They’re underdeveloped, savage, primitive, and flesh eaters. We might as well go back to the ship, Calira suggested.
You’re probably right. We’ve covered a lot of ground. Surely, if there were a more advanced species, we’d have seen them by now. We can explore more later. First, we need to set up camp when we get back. If we head back now, we’ll be back at the ship by nightfall.
Following their scent, without stopping, they hurried back to the crash site. They changed back to human form before climbing the ladder. Once inside the chamber, Opek closed the hatch tightly. “There should be enough oxygen now for the night. We don’t know if the savages hunt after nightfall. Best be safe.”
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