by Kylie Gold
“I take it this is about the human staying in your hut,” Bru spoke as he moved to the small cooking surface in the corner of the hut, pouring us each a cup of herbal tea.
My eyes widened at his words, feeling as though he had struck me in the chest. “How did you know?” I breathed, lowering myself to sit on the floor. The hut was so small, about the size of my bathroom. All that it had in it was a bed, a small cooking surface and a fridge, a small table in the corner, and a door leading to his private toilet and shower. He had no belongings but his clothes and blankets.
“Well, it was just a matter of time before you came to me about it,” he chuckled. “I figured it would take you a while, with the hatred you felt towards Dracon and Amelia’s relationship.”
I blinked at him, completely thrown that he was speaking so casually. “So… you know about us then?”
“I’ve known since I heard that the target you were capturing was a female. It just fit too well with the prophecy for me to ignore,” Bru told me simply, walking over and sitting in the floor with me and handed me a cup of tea.
“Prophecy? What are you talking about?” I asked with curiosity burning in my eyes.
“The prophecy about our leader mating with an enemy and, I quote, ‘everything will be doomed, only to rise again’,” Bru spoke, his hand motioning in the air as he spoke each word of the quote.
My face screwed into a look of disbelief and confusion. What? “I thought that prophecy was about Dracon and his human?” I questioned him, my eyes narrowed a bit. Had the old man lost his wits?
“Well, the prophecy doesn’t say who it is about, nor does it limit to just one leader of the Navani. Prophecies are clear, yet vague. It can tell you what happens, but not everything. There has been more than one time that a prophecy has come true for many people,” the elder explained, taking a sip of his tea. “Don’t look so ill-tempered, Nova. This isn’t anything you can help. Sure, there will be some things to explain to the village, but just like Dracon’s, they will come around,” he tried to comfort me. But I was inconsolable.
I put my head in my hands, closing my eyes as tight as possible. “It’s more than that, Bru. She can’t be my fated mate…” I breathed to him, my voice not even a whisper.
Luckily, the old man wasn’t hard of hearing. “Oh? And why not?” he questioned, skepticism in his voice.
“Because…” I tried to start but voice trailed off, emotions causing my head to swim. “Because I have to sell her back to the humans.”
“Who said you had to?” Bru asked.
“I did. I told our people if I brought her into this village, then I would sell her back. And yesterday she tried to run back to the humans, even though I don’t know why for certain. After the massacre the other day… I just can’t afford for anything else to go wrong. And her being here will strike anger in our people,” I tried to explain, letting out a groan when my words finished. Why did it have to be this way? Why couldn’t I feel nothing for her? I wanted to be disgusted by her human body, not crave it. Julia plagued my every thought.
“But you love her, don’t you?” Bru asked after a long silence; his tone soft and understanding.
I let out a sigh, finally lifting my head from my hands. “I don’t know how I feel to be honest, Bru. I don’t know if it is love, but it’s an attraction. I feel almost magnetized to her. Yet we seem to hate each other. And of the midst of the hate, are these tender moments where I can feel my heart swell just at the sight of her. And her voice and her image haunt my thoughts, when I’m around her and when I’m not. I’m driving myself insane.”
Bru was silent, just swishing around his tea in his small cup as he thought. “Well, my boy, I don’t know what to tell you. What you just described to me was a fated mate. Of course fated mates, just like all other couples, don’t always see eye to eye, but that just merely cause for even a more intense attraction to one another. And it’s not a bond that can be broken once it is established.” Bru paused, looking down at his tea before up to me. “I just hope you understand the hurt you will be putting on your own soul if you decide to sell her back to the humans.”
I winced at the words. So she wouldn’t be out of sight and out of mind, I would feel her absence. The thought of the foreseen heartache about killed my soul. I didn’t want to be without her, not with knowing this information. I yearned to get to know her, to build something with her rather than the intense love-hate relationship we seemed to have at the time. But that wasn’t going to happen. No matter how I felt about her, I had to do right by my people—and her presence there in the village would only cause an upset if they all still realized that she was there. Closing my eyes and collecting myself, I took a deep breath. “Thank you for your counsel, Bru,” I spoke softly, knocking back my tea before standing. I moved to the door.
“I will pray for your heart, Nova. You are a selfless man to do this,” Bru called from behind me. While it made me feel as though I was doing the right thing, but didn’t make me feel any better emotionally when it came to selling Julia. I walked out of the hut and looked to the sky. The sun was beginning to rise and a quick glance to the village, I could see some already beginning to walk around. I walked to town with only one goal in mind, to assemble a team to go with me to Harp.
Dran, three other commanding warriors, and I made our way stealthily towards the entrance of Harp. I supposed with it being so early, they didn’t have the best patrol lurking in the jungle. Shaviro’s jungles were very dangerous at night with the beasts wandering the grounds at that time. But as we neared the entrance, a small party of humans gathered at the door. All of them were men, the one in the front had a metallic arm and an eye made of a red light. Were they leaders? Perhaps scouts had seen us and recognized me as a chief so they sent for their leaders as well. “To what do we owe the pleasure of meeting the men who have been terrorizing my drill sites?” the one with the metallic arm called to us, crossing his arms.
“Your drill sites?” one to the left of him retorted, that one was much younger than the first human. Were humans truly so vile that they would squabble over to the credit of such evils?
“You know what I mean,” the first one sounded with an annoyed tone.
“I have your Administrator, Julia. I’ve come to speak about arrangements for a trade,” I spoke with a firm tone, making sure to pronounce all of my English words with the best articulation I had.
“You have Julia?” the second man gaped.
But the first one was laughing, “And what makes you think you can come to my city and blackmail me? I don’t give a shit about that woman.”
The second human put a hand on the half-robot man’s shoulder, “The hell you talkin’ about? We need her to continue to drill at all—”
“You don’t tell them that, dumbass!” the first yelled at the other. He huffed and smoothed his hair. “Either way, drilling or no drilling, no savage comes into Harp and threatens me. And with just three men? Are you trying to get killed, or insult me? You better just give up now before my men shoot you dead.” The man gestured to the tall wall behind them, towers on the top of them every few hundred feet.
I couldn’t help but let out a maniacal, cynical laugh. Once my laughter died out a little, I looked to him with a vicious grin, “And what makes you think I came with just three men? How do you know whether or not I have an entire army waiting in the trees? While we might not win against your city, you sure as hell will be dead.” The man tensed then, his one human eye narrowing at me. I could tell the human before me was the lead scum. He valued his own life above everything else. He was silent, so I continued. “I’ll do a trade. Julia for the Navani warriors you have in captivity,” I proposed.
The man continued to be silent, I could feel his anger from where I stood. The puny human didn’t like being threatened, and it was eating him alive that I actually had the upper hand in the situation. His eyes glanced back to the men with him before looking back to me. “There’s no way in hell I’m ju
st going to give you all the savages I have for one broad. Try again.” Clearly, he was trying to look tough, even when he was backed into a corner.
I glared at him, wanting to snap at him and tell him he must not have wanted the woman back. But I realized then I had no idea the number of men he had. There were several tribes, and he could have several from each. While Julia was a valuable bargaining tool, she wasn’t so valuable as to win the release of numerous Navani soldiers. “Fine. Just the ones from my tribe.”
“How the hell am I supposed to know the difference?” he questioned with a serious attitude to his voice.
I pointed to my chest; at the center of my tribal tattoo was a unique symbol that looked a bit like a flame. That mark identified our tribe, and each of our citizens had it. “They will have a mark like this.”
The man squinted to get a better look, his robotic eye seeming to zoom in before zooming back out. “I think I’ve seen a few with that. You can have two of them for the girl.”
As far as I knew, we only had two that had been grabbed by the humans. I didn’t trust these humans, especially the main one speaking. He seemed vile and just horrible, I pondered if he even had a heart. But that meeting was the best I was going to get in terms of getting Julia out of the village and retrieving two of my best warriors. The village would rejoice in my name again. I gave the man a brisk nod. “Deal. I will send a scout to give you information as to when we will exchange hostages. We will meet at the clearing just east of the river. Do not bring more than five men with you, and neither will I.”
East of the river was Dracon’s tribe, the clearing not far from his village. I didn’t trust him to bring just five men. If he was going to ambush us, we were going to be close enough to our own kind that we could get help if needed—I would send a scout that way to notify Dracon. The man gave a grin and a nod, “Sounds like a plan.”
“I expect the scout to return unharmed, it will be my way of knowing you agree to my terms. If he does not return or comes back injured, then the deal is off—and the only way you will get your human back will be with her head on a spear,” I warned.
The younger man’s eyes widened, but the other just gave a bigger grin, “Of course, of course. This is about civility. You have something I want, I have something you want. We can go about this like civilized species,” he tried to assure me.
I just gave a nod and gave them all a glance over before turning on my heel and heading back to the village. Something about that man unnerved me, he seemed vicious and just… diabolical. But the thought of arrangements actually taking place to exchange Julia made my heart sink. It was really happening… Soon, Julia would be gone forever.
17
Julia
I had already woken up and dressed; thankful that Nova had helped me wash my clothes after our time in the shower the night before. I stayed on the bed though, tiredness still lingering over my body—I was exhausted from the night’s activities and all the exercise from running for what felt like forever in the jungle. Honestly, after the night we had shared, I found myself actually happy and relieved that he had caught me. While I still wasn’t entirely certain of my feelings for him, I knew that I had some feelings for him; and that night had solidified that for me.
I must have drifted back to sleep, as the sound of the door closing jerked me awake. Nova didn’t walk into the room, staying in the kitchen area. Was he cooking? I stood and walked in there. He stood at the counter with his back to me, his hands resting on the countertop. “Morning,” I called to him. He flinched a bit, turning to me just to give me a glance. “How long have you been up?” I asked, just trying to make conversation. With how tired my legs were, I couldn’t resist the urge to sit.
Nova was silent, as though he was thinking hard about something, which confused me a bit. Why think so hard about small talk? He then gave a sigh and turned and leaned his back against the counter. With his arms crossed over his chest, he looked at me with a placid expression. “I went to Harp and set up an arrangement with their leaders to exchange you for my warriors being held captive.”
My jaw dropped, my eyes staring at him. He… He seriously was going through with it? He was actually going to sell me back to the colony? The night before, I thought he had been bluffing about it. Once the initial shock was over, my body was flamed with anger and hurt. “So you seriously are going to just use me as a tool in your master plan, hm?” I bit at him bitterly.
Nova glared over at me, “What else was I supposed to do, Julia?” he retorted.
His words sent a spike of pain through my chest. Did he really not care about me in the slightest? Had I just imagined all the affection and intimacy of his actions towards me? I felt brokenhearted over a man that didn’t give a damn about me. I felt naïve and stupid for thinking he could have felt something for me as well. After all, he had been preaching and screaming his hatred for humans for I didn’t even know how many years. I was on my feet then, completely flustered by my new, all-consuming anger and hurt. “I don’t know,” I shot back, “Maybe not use me, a living being, as a weapon in your war that I’m not even a part of.”
“So what am I supposed to do with you then? Just release you back into the jungle?” he remarked, glaring in my direction.
“Well, yeah. That would be the polite thing to do,” I spat.
“You had your chance yesterday. As I recall, I didn’t drag you back by your hair. So you tell me, Julia, why didn’t you fight me if you wanted to be free so bad?”
“And why haven’t you killed me or sold me back before?” I rebutted, glaring hard in his direction. I didn’t have to answer his questions if he wouldn’t answer mine.
“I never planned to kill you, and selling you had honestly just slipped my mind with how busy I am running and protecting an entire village,” Nova defended. “Why did you bring up my selling you back to the humans if you don’t want me to?” he questioned.
“I don’t know,” I blurted out. “I just didn’t understand why you were after me and weren’t attacking me after I broke the only rule you had about me being in your hut.”
“Why are you so mad about the exchange, Julia? I never hurt you, the only injuries you have sustained were by accident. You’ve been fed, you’ve been bathed, you’ve been treated like royalty compared to any other prisoner on this planet. Exchanging you for warriors would give me back couple of my people after losing so many during that attack on the guard station. And you would get what you have always wanted—to return to the humans. So why in the hell are you so angry with me?” he barked at me, his arms uncrossing as he stood straight and began walking in my direction.
I was speechless. I had no idea how to answer his question; I couldn’t just say because I had caught strong feelings after he made love to me—he would just laugh in my face. I felt tongue-tied, unable to articulate any response that came to mind. After a few moments of silence, Nova spoke again, letting out one dry laugh, “You’re pathetic. You’re weak just like the rest of the humans. Completely fickle and self-absorbed. You can’t even have an argument without crumbling,” he mocked me. He locked eyes with mine, “And what makes you think you could ever handle a Navani man like me? You’re too weak to be a compatible companion for me.”
Tears stung my eyes then, my hands balling into fists. When he took another step towards me, I swung an arm out to strike him. With a flash, his hand jerked up and caught my arm. I swung back my other arm to hit him, he caught that one as well. Both of my forearms were in his grasp, his amber eyes burning into mine. My chest heaved with anger, all of my strength going to trying to free my arms from his grasp. His grip just grew tighter, his eyes never leaving mine. Just as I went to bring my foot up to stomp on his, his head swooped in and his lips were on mine. At first I wanted to claw at his face, to spit at him, to make him back up. But after just a few moments of feeling his lips passionately and hungrily attacking mine, I felt myself beginning to kiss him back.
While the anger still remained in t
he pit of my stomach and hurt still shot through my chest, passion began to take my mind over. Nova’s hands lifted away from my arms before grabbing my sides. He forced me back, through the entrance of the bedroom. As he moved me to the bed, his lips never left mine. Never before had the kissing been so passionate and feverish, like he would die if he wasn’t touching me. I began to reach down to stroke his cock, when his hand batted mine away. His hands flew down my shirt as he artfully unbuttoned every last button, and then he reached down and unbuttoned my pants. Without taking off my shirt, he began to shrug down my pants. Nova only ripped away from me to sit up and forcefully pull my shoes from my feet before pulling my pants off the rest of the way. I was completely dizzy by all of the intense emotions swarming my brain.
His lips were on my neck then, leaving sweet, wet kisses on my skin as he trailed down to my collarbone before my chest. His path continued down my sternum and then down my stomach. I felt his teeth begin to nip and nibble at my skin as he got to my hips. My cheeks burned from being aroused, not at all being able to anticipate what he was going to do as my body was focused on his touch. Then, I felt his lips press to my freshly cleaned underwear, making me gasp. I looked down to find his head between my legs, his eyes close as he placed a line of kisses from the top of my panties, down to my sex. He then opened his mouth and sucked at my sex through the fabric. While it didn’t necessarily feel titillating, it was extremely attractive and almost kinky feeling. His tongue swirled circles against the fabric, making my breathing hitch. His tongue trailed to the side of the panties then, licking at the hem of my panties. I knew I was meant to be mad at him, and hurt over what he was doing, but it was like I couldn’t resist him. And there was something almost desperate about his actions that made my heart hurt for him, even if I didn’t understand why. It was almost as though I could feel his emotions.
I could feel as his tongue poked under the hem of the thin panties, leaving a damp line over my skin as he licked down my flesh. Oh god, he was going to drive me completely mad with the teasing. Nova then abandoned that, but then I felt him suck at my clit through the panties, causing me to make a loud gasp. I could feel him smirk against the fabric. But then he pulled away and pulled the panties off. Before I could say or do anything, his tongue was pressed against my center, dragging his tongue upwards towards my clit. Nova’s tongue moved quickly in a lapping motion before pressing it inside. Groan after groan escaped me, my hand going to his short black hair. His tongue whirled around me, grazing against my tender walls. He felt so damn good, doing everything perfectly. While things were moving quickly and were much more intense and quick compared to the night before, it held the same sort of intimacy. Nova had to be expressing some sort of emotions or at least an apology for his words before—I never knew anyone to go down on another person in the middle of an argument.
