by Bethany Aan
“Can you understand me?” he asked, clasping her hands eagerly. She gasped and nodded in surprise. She could understand him! The nod sent pain shafting through her skull, momentarily blinding her and filling her with nausea and dizziness. He reached out to touch her face and draw some of the pain away from her then took a few moments to soothe and hold her steady until she was able to focus on him once more.
“You are a Reader,” he said softly, in deference to her aching head.
“What do you mean?” she asked in a whisper.
“You know what others are thinking, feeling.”
“Oh…” she hesitated. In her world, empaths and psychics were still anathema among the general population. She didn’t know if admitting to the talent would mean trouble or not, on this alien world. She and Hunter had been communicating that way, yes, but was he an anomaly? Hunter smiled and winked at her, sensing her hesitation at admitting her special talents.
“No need to be concerned,” he said softly. “Readers are highly valued in our society, so there is no need to fear.”
“As you are?” she asked quietly, then grimaced at the absurdity of the question.
“Yes,” he nodded, as though her question wasn’t stupid at all. “All of our battalion and ship commanders are, as are all of our territorial and municipal leaders, counselors, and law enforcement. A Reader is always ranked as a Commander, no matter what career they have chosen.”
She blinked at the unexpected stream of information. Her head was reeling with everything that had happened and she had a feeling that she didn’t have much stamina left. Her eyes locked with Hunter’s for a moment, lost in the bright green irises, tiny flecks of blue, and the dark ring around them. Lord, he was gorgeous! He must be, if she was able to think about something like that, with as much pain as she was in. He chuckled, sensing her efforts to take in all he had told her.
“Your mental touch was, in fact, how I singled you out from your people, once we got to your group,” he told her. “You are the only Reader among your women, though I sensed an emerging ability in the little blond that was by your side. You are also the eldest and most of the girls seemed to listen to you, eventually. I surmised from those two things that you were probably their leader… though I will be the first to admit that age does not denote leadership abilities.”
“I… Well, no, I’m not really their leader. I don’t know any of those girls, other than the blond, Bev, and I just met her in the woods. She helped me.” Ri sighed, pausing to catch her breath. “I’m not their leader, though. I just kind of… no one else was taking charge or seemed able to think quickly enough, except Amy, and she was getting it all wrong, wanted to attack you guys, instead of the animals. So I took charge. I don’t know how we came to be together in a space ship, either.” She widened her eyes, as though it had just sunk in. “But I was on a space-ship, and now I’m on another world, with … aliens!”
He chuckled at her breathless wonder. Hunter had the distinct feeling that if she wasn’t injured, she’d be bouncing in that chair with excitement. He stood, getting back to business. She needed medical attention, and very soon.
“We only have this and one other intracranial translator left,” he said, tapping the device at her temple, “And you won’t be able to use it for long. But there are already subcutaneous neuro-translators in place in all of you. It will simply take them time to build connections with the communication centers in your brains, assimilate your language and sync it with ours. It will also take time and exposure to both languages for them to work more quickly. Unfortunately, for now, you and someone of your choosing will be the only ones that can understand us. I wish that we had more of these, so we could speak with each of your women immediately, but we don’t. Now, I need to get you to the medical center, but I had to be able to talk with you so you can help direct the women, as needed, until the translators work.”
“You probably should give the other one to Bev,” she laughed ruefully. “She seems really capable. And I am not their leader. I don’t know if they’ll listen to me, especially if I’m in the med center and they’re somewhere else.”
He shrugged, dismissing her objection. “They listened back at the crash site,” he reminded her simply. She wanted to protest more vehemently, but was too tired and in too much pain to dredge up the energy to do so. Besides which, he could feel her frustration. Why waste her breath?
Instead, she closed her eyes as a wave of midgets wearing coconuts for shoes galloped through her skull. Hunter caught the mental image, and his eyes softened on the small woman. In such pain and still able to maintain her humor. If he had not already decided he would be taking a personal interest in her, that alone would have made his decision. Sensing that she was nearing her breaking point, Hunter picked her back up and cradled her against his chest.
He was so very warm, vital, strong. Ri felt so safe and even cherished when he held her. It was ridiculous, especially under their current circumstances, for her to trust him, to feel so natural with him, but the honest truth was that she did. Sagging against him, she gave herself up to his care. He took her back out to the main courtyard, where she could address her companions. It only took moments for the courtyard to quiet. In that time, she repeated her mantra, hopefully for the last time that day.
Center. Open. Flow. Wait. One one-thousand, two one-thousand, three one-thousand… By the time she was stronger, the courtyard was silent.
“The Commander has given me a translation device,” Ri said to the women, as loudly as she could, without preamble. “For right now, they seem to think I should be in charge, though God knows why. You’ve each been implanted with neuro-translators that are learning our language and will shortly be working so that you can talk to the men, as well. The more you interact with these people, the quicker your translators will work. But for now, if you need anything, simply ask for me. I’m Arianna, or Ri. You can ask for Bev, too. She’ll be my second for now.”
She paused to catch her breath and allow a wave of incredible thunder to pass through her skull. Panting through the pain now, she hurried to finish up. “If needed, the men will bring you to me or Bev and we can translate for you. Now, if any of you need medical attention, please follow us or ask for help to get to the medical center. If you’re not hurt, please try to work with these guys. They really do want to help us. They’ve already proved that there’s no reason to be afraid of them.”
The majority of the girls still looked a bit scared and not a little bit confused. A few even looked suspicious and rebellious, but they all nodded. What choice did they really have? Arianna tried to put herself in their place, with alien men surrounding her and a strange woman telling them what to do when she was too hurt to even stand on her own. She knew that they would need some time to process it all, and hoped that they would be okay until she could get some medical attention and hopefully be back among them to be their mentor, of sorts, until their translators were working.
That task accomplished, she couldn’t restrain a soft groan of agony as her leg, ribs, and head all seemed to realize that she was done being a leader and could now be a patient. Hunter felt her pain and growled low in his throat in protest at her discomfort. Her stomach lurched dizzily as he whirled and quickly carried her into what she assumed was the medical center.
CHAPTER FIVE
Minutes later, she had been given a shot that dulled the pain to a wonderful degree, though didn’t take it away entirely. Still, she was now feeling rather floaty and much happier about life than she had only ten minutes earlier. And she was loopy enough not to care very much that she was stark naked in front of alien men.
Hunter had swept his cloak away and settled her on a thick, absorbent pad on one of the beds. He and another medic were very gently washing the worst of the mud and blood off of her body. She was already covered with bruises. Two other medics were following behind Hunter, making sure her scratches and wounds were clean before slathering them with salves and bandaging them
. Four incredibly handsome, well-built men around her naked body. If she hadn’t been so weak, she might have indulged in a bit of naughty fantasy. Instead, she closed her eyes and tried not to think about how she must look to Hunter at the moment.
She was embarrassed at her nudity for all of a few seconds. Hunter and the men tending to her seemed to completely ignore her girlie bits, other than to lift them out of the way as they cleaned her up and worked on the minor injuries. Once her breasts were rinsed, they placed a towel over her chest, providing her with a modicum of modesty. Either they had no interest in her bare flesh because she was an alien, she just wasn’t all that attractive to them, or they were simply disciplined enough not to look at a helpless, injured woman in a sexual way. She would have asked Hunter, but he seemed rather intent on getting her cleaned up and had his mind focused on that.
When they reached her feet and she was completely bandaged on the front, the four men lifted her and expertly turned her over so that they could deal with her back. Her face was over a small hole in the padding, allowing her to breathe and keep her neck from twisting. Then the process started all over again.
Ri sighed and closed her eyes. The shot of pain killer, the warm water, and the men’s gentle touch lulled her a bit. The men used nicely warmed, incredibly soft towels to dry her. Finally, Hunter declared her to be as clean as they could get her without actually scrubbing for now. He lifted her naked body against his once more, holding her for a moment as the handsome doctor from the forest adjusted some settings on what appeared to be a flat-bed medical scanner. At a nod from the doc, Hunter very gently laid her on the scanner bed, then stepped back as it went through the quick scanning cycle.
Once it was done, he scooped her up and deposited her in a nice comfortable bed that someone had thoughtfully turned down for her. Pillows were piled behind her, allowing her to sit up a bit, and Hunter tucked the soft blankets around her body. Her head was still aching a little, but it seemed that at least she wouldn’t be moved much more, if they were tucking her in. There was a flurry of activity as two medics hurried over to her with bags of fluids and IV kits. She barely had time to take a breath before she had IVs running into both arms. She wondered what was in them, fervently hoping that these aliens knew what they were doing.
Nearby, several other women were also either propped up or lying down, having already been tended to. A few had yet to regain consciousness. The others looked to be in various stages of shock, but that was only to be expected. Teams of medics hovered over each bed, taking care of the women, each man seeming to act as though he were a smaller part of a well-oiled machine. Occasionally, as she waited her turn for attention from the doctor, the men would ask her to translate instructions or questions for them, which she did, though a bit groggily.
Finally, Arianna watched as the tall, good-looking young doctor from the crash site strode to her bed and took a quick look at her leg. He gave her an injection near the wound and in several heartbeats, the pain in her leg disappeared. In a shorter amount of time than she would have thought possible, he and his men had set the bones, sealed the wound with some sort of laser, bandaged everything, and applied a new, sturdier cast. Her leg felt much better.
Hunter stayed by her side the entire time, holding her hand and draining away the worst of the pain when she needed it. She was grateful for his presence. Her head was still killing her, but her leg was, thankfully, no longer in agony. Two of the medics tending to her moved to other duties after a nod from the lead doc, and Arianna looked at the handsome physician, who seemed to be in charge. He sat on the edge of her bed, holding a small but wide roll of material in one hand.
“I need to wrap your ribs,” he told her softly. “It will be uncomfortable, but it needs to be done. After that, I can give you a stronger general anesthetic and let you sleep for a while so the meds and fluids have a chance to work.”
“Thanks,” she said, offering him a weak smile. He blinked, staring at her for a moment, then shook himself, smiling back.
He looked at Hunter and nodded. Hunter helped her to sit away from the pillows and gently pulled the blanket from her chest, letting it puddle at her waist. She sucked in a shallow breath at being nude once more in front of him. Naked with a doctor was one thing. Now that she was clean and wasn’t in nearly as much pain, being naked with Hunter was …odd. She was incredibly self-conscious, even though she knew there was no help for it at the moment. She was trying to be pragmatic, but it was hard with such incredible men tending to her. She might be injured and weak, but she was still a woman, and she knew sexy when she saw it. These men were the definition of ‘hunk’, all of them. Hunter and the doc were even more so, in her opinion. She had the craziest thought, wondering what they would taste like if she kissed them. Lord, what was wrong with her, that she could even think about something like that right now? Definitely some brain trauma going on in her noggin. There had to be! Maybe she should ask the doc about that.
Her face heating, she stared straight ahead as Hunter lifted her large breasts and held them out of the way for the doctor to wrap her torso. She would have been happy to hold them, but the IVs’ placement prevented that. She closed her eyes in mortification, but knew that it had to be done. Her damn boobs had always been too big for her comfort. The doctor didn’t seem to think anything of it, but she could sense Hunter’s efforts to keep his hands from wandering.
He wanted them to wander? Ri sucked in a short breath. Surprised, she realized that he was wondering what her nipples would feel like when hard, that he wanted very much to flick his long finger over one to find out. But she was vulnerable, and he would never take advantage of a woman like that. So he kept his hands where they needed to be, instead of ‘accidentally’ slipping.
Arianna was suddenly flustered. He liked holding her breasts? That quickly, she wasn’t nearly as ashamed as she had been, and she grinned. She felt as well as heard the soft groan Hunter let out when he realized that he’d been broadcasting his little mental caress. She couldn’t help a tiny smile of delight. Apparently, the brain damage wasn’t affecting just her. She giggled at her own silliness. Wow, the drugs here were awesome!
At Hunter’s groan, the doctor glanced up at the tall, black-haired warrior holding her, rolled his eyes in amused exasperation, and went back to his task. The fabric encased her ribs now, from belly-button to just beneath her bosom. He wrapped her breasts next, securing them firmly a bit higher than they would normally rest, murmuring something about keeping the extra weight off of her broken ribs. It would be easier to breathe that way.
She was surprised at the depth of Hunter’s regret when he no longer needed to touch her. When he was done, the doctor and Hunter helped her lean back against the pillows, and the doc tucked the blanket securely beneath her arms. For a moment, he simply looked at her, as though assessing. She could not sense him trying to read her thoughts. Perhaps Hunter was the only one able to do that? But he was trying to figure out something about her, that much was clear. Finally, he sighed and spoke. He seemed to be a man of few words, but had a bright energy and lively intellect that made her want to talk to him for awhile, pick his brain and find out about his race.
“I understand that you are their leader, and for the time being, the translator for your group,” the doctor said. Arianna threw a frustrated look at a smug Hunter, but agreed. Again, no sense wasting her breath and energy. She had the feeling that as long as Hunter considered her the women’s leader, that’s what the men would think, as well.
“I have run a few preliminary tests as we scanned your ladies for injuries. Your physiology does not appear to be very different from ours,” he informed her. “Your women seem to have a few broken bones, some nasty bruises, cuts, and even a few burns, but over-all, look pretty damn good for having just crash-landed a spaceship in our forest. I will keep an eye on the more seriously wounded, just in case, but I think they will be fine.”
“Thank you,” she said softly. He nodded, smiled warmly, and we
nt on.
“You, on the other hand, have several broken ribs, and your leg is, obviously, mangled from the compound fracture. You also have a concussion and strained muscles all over. Tomorrow you will hurt a lot more, but we have good pain meds. Ask for them if you need them. That’s what they’re here for. The bottom line is, you will mend, and we will see to it that you do not injure yourself further before you have had a chance to rest and heal. I do not want you trying to get out of bed or putting any weight at all on that leg for now.”
He reached over to a mobile tray that held all sorts of equipment on it and returned with a syringe. Her eyes widened in curiosity, though not in fear. It was strange, but she got the same sense of instant trust with him that she’d had with Hunter from almost the first.
“Don’t worry, it’s perfectly safe,” the doc said, as though she’d spoken. “This is a vaccine that we give to all of our own men and injured. I modified it as soon as we had scans and lab results of your species. It will protect your system against most known indigenous pathogens for now and help build your immune system against them for the future. Also, the nanos in it will speed healing and repair any environmental genetic damage you may have sustained.”
Arianna blinked, wondering what he meant by that, but was distracted when the doctor injected her. There was a strange sensation that flowed through her, then a feeling of complete and utter relaxation.
“Wow!” she breathed, as her body suddenly felt weightless and every bit of pain disappeared. “That’s some good shit!”
Hunter and the doctor laughed, and she grinned up at them, knowing it was a rather goofy grin but unable to stop herself or even really care. She noticed for the first time that a translator blinked at the doctor’s temple, as well. That made sense. He’d need to be able to understand the women, too.
