From her position above the fire, she noticed the woman on the ground open her eyes and looked at Turk. She looked straight into his eyes, with none of the hesitation or hostility she felt for him before. She communicated everything through her eyes.
Turk returned her gaze with a firm, unwavering stare. He understood. He stood up and crossed the distance between them. He sat down next to her on the ground. When he passed in front of her, his body blocked the fire’s heat from warming her. The night chill stung her back. Then he moved aside, and the heat struck her face again.
When he sat down, the firelight glowed off his cheeks and nose. The line of fur running down his cheekbones gave him an even more powerful expression. He fixed her with his fierce eyes. She’d invited him. Now he was here, and she couldn’t un-invite him.
What would he do? What would she do? Could she really let this happen? Could she open herself up to this alien creature in the wilderness of a strange world? She slid back and forth between her position hovering over the treetops to her bed by the fire. She looked into his eyes at the same time that she observed them together from above. From far away, a shimmer of excitement shot through her being.
Why shouldn’t she enjoy this moment? It would never be anything more than a moment. She would love him and leave him. She would go home to Earth and he would choose an Angondran mate. She would float away into the past for him the same way he would float away into the past for her. They would remember each other and the night they spent together under the stars, but that was all. No one would ever know what she’d done. He would be her delicious little secret.
Her eyes widened and she extended her hand toward him. She traced the line of his cheek in the orange light. His nostrils flared, and his strong hands descended on her body. Her heartbeat quickened, but she didn’t hesitate or pull away. She raised her arms and threaded them around his neck. She pulled him down on top of her.
Turk slid the robe out from between them and stretched out at her side. His arms wound around her, and they closed in a passionate embrace. Chris buried her face in his neck to hide herself from what she was doing. She couldn’t think about it, or she would die of shame. She let his body rock her away on ebbs of delight, but she couldn’t look him in the eye. She couldn’t look herself in the eye.
He had other ideas, though. He wasn’t about to lie down next to her and hide his head in shame. He ran his hand up under the back of her neck and laced his fingers through her hair. He pulled her head back and arched up so his gaze drove directly into her eyes. He caught her in his undeniable stare and held her there.
Chris caught her breath. He bared her soul, and in that moment, he understood more about her than she understood herself. He judged every nuance of her face and body. He uncovered her deepest hopes and fears even before she knew they were there.
Without breaking eye contact, he lowered his head and kissed her. She couldn’t turn her eyes away. Her heart and soul belonged to him, even when razor-sharp torrents of light coursed through her veins. The subtle pressure of his lips, the irresistible pressure of his arms around her—every shade and permutation of his presence electrified her and carried her beyond the brink of experience.
She held on for dear life to the only thing she could find to hold onto—him. She clutched his body closer to hers and leaned into his kiss. His eyes kept her captive, and he was the only safety from the storm that was him.
She tumbled down from her perch above the trees and crashed back into her body. She gasped for breath underneath him, but at least she knew where she was now. She couldn’t fly away back to Earth, not with him lying on top of her. She couldn’t pretend anymore that this was her own little secret.
He wouldn’t let her go. If she found a way to get back to Earth and leave him behind on Angondra, he would haunt her dreams and fantasies for the rest of her life. Every man she ever loved would have to pass the test of living up to the standard Turk set. His touch and his love changed everything, and she would never be the same.
Chapter 9
The trees thinned out, and Chris paused at the edge of the forest to breathe a sigh of relief. “Thank heaven! I thought we’d never get out of there.”
Turk pointed to an escarpment of steep rock against the clear sky. “That’s the pass leading into Felsite territory.”
“Will they send out scouts to stop us entering it?” she asked.
“They won’t know we’re entering it until we do,” he replied. “We’re still in Lycaon territory. They won’t be watching us now. Their scouts will see us when we cross the pass.”
“Will they attack?” she asked.
“Not likely,” he replied. “They’ll report to Renier so he knows we’re coming.”
“Won’t they see us as a threat?” she asked.
He raised his eyebrows. “Us? We’re no threat to them.”
“I only meant....” she began.
He waved his hand and started forward. “I’m an Alpha. Renier knows me. He might be annoyed that I came, but he won’t harm us before he finds out our business.”
Chris started after him. “Does Carmen know you, too?”
He shook his head. “I only saw her twice—once at the gathering and once when Marissa visited her. I never talked to her in person.”
“Then how do you know she’s a reasonable person?” she asked.
He shrugged. “Most human females are, aren’t they?”
Chris snorted. “You obviously haven’t met very many of them.”
“I’ve met you, and I’ve met Marissa,” he replied. “And I’ve met all those other women you crashed with. They seem like reasonable people, too.”
Chris looked away toward the bluffs. “Most men on Earth would say human women are the most unreasonable creatures they can imagine.”
“Then how do you manage to live together?” he asked. “You couldn’t keep your species going if that was true?”
Chris chuckled. “That’s what they say. They think we’re too emotional and manipulative.”
He frowned. “That makes no sense at all.”
She laughed out loud. “Ask Caleb. He must have something to say about living with a female from Earth.”
“He says it’s exactly like living with a Lycaon woman,” he replied. “The only difference is Marissa can’t tell when he’s eaten Karola flowers. Lycaon women can tell instantly by the smell.”
“What are Karola flowers?” she asked.
“Karola is a plant that grows in our part of the forest,” he told her. “The flowers give you a fuzzy feeling all over, sort of like the fuzzy feeling you get right before you mate with someone. But they also make everything look sort of blurry and vibrating. It’s a very pleasant feeling.”
Chris stared at him. “So you people take drugs, too? I thought you were so much better than that.”
“I don’t recall ever saying we were so much better than anyone,” he replied. “Some of the men eat Karola just before they go home to their mates. The females can smell the flowers a mile away, so they know what the men want.”
Chris nodded. “Oh, I get it.”
“But Marissa can’t smell when Caleb eats Karola,” he went on. “So he has to be more direct about what he wants.”
Chris turned away. “Let’s change the subject.”
He eyed her. “What for?”
“Never mind,” she muttered. “What can you tell me about the Felsite?”
“Nothing Marissa hasn’t already told you,” he replied.
“Then maybe you can tell me about the Aqinas,” she prompted. “Marissa wasn’t able to tell me anything about them. They must be very mysterious.”
“I’ve seen them a few times,” he replied. “They aren’t any more mysterious than the other factions, though no one really understands how their communication system works. They have a way of propagating their chemical signals in the water to send them out to every other body of water in the area. Don’t ask me to explain it. That’s all I know.�
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“Maybe they have a way to travel into space,” she suggested.
He turned away. “I wouldn’t bet on it. Anyway, you have no friends living with them, so you wouldn’t be able to ask them.”
“There must be a way,” she muttered.
“What are you going to do if there isn’t?” he asked.
She cocked her head. “What do you mean?”
“You have your heart set of going back to Earth,” he replied. “What will you do if you can’t find a way?”
“There must be a way,” she argued. “We got here through space. There must be a way to get back.”
He didn’t answer.
“You want me to say I’d settle down here with you,” she went on. “Is that where this is going?”
He wouldn’t look at her, but kept walking. “You said it, not me.”
“I won’t settle here,” she told him. “I’ll keep working until I find a way off this planet. I’ll never rest until I succeed.”
“What do you have back on Earth that’s so important?” he asked. “Do you have a mate, and children? Is that it?”
“I don’t have a mate, as you call it,” she replied. “We call them husbands—husbands and wives. I don’t have one and I don’t have children, either. But I have a home and business and animals I take care of. I have a life, and I don’t want to give that up.”
“You already did give it up,” he pointed out. “You’re here, not there.”
“I didn’t give it up,” she replied. “The Romarie stole it from me, and I’m going to get it back. That’s one thing you’ll have to learn about me. I’m determined.”
“Tell me about your business,” he told her. “What did you do for a business?”
“I train horses,” she replied. “I’ve worked with horses since I was seven years old, and I never wanted to do anything else. Let me guess. You don’t have horses on this planet. Well, that tells you all you need to know about why I don’t want to stay here. What would I do if I stayed—sit around the fire and raise your children? No thanks. I want to do something meaningful with my life, something more meaningful than being a pack mule for some man.”
He cast her a sidelong glance. “Is that what you think the other Lycaon females are doing? Is that what you think Marissa and her friends are doing on this planet? You think they’re pack mules for the Alphas?” He shook his head.
“I don’t know what they’re doing with their lives, and I don’t care,” she shot back. “I only know I won’t stay here, and I won’t mate with any Angondran male. I don’t care if he is the Alpha of his faction—or the Alpha’s twin brother. I’m not a brood mare. I have a life.”
“You said that,” he replied. “You said you wouldn’t be a pack mule, and you said you wouldn’t be a brood mare. No one said you had to be.”
“But that’s what staying on this planet would mean,” she pointed out.
“Who said?” he asked.
“I said,” she countered. “What else is there to do on this planet? Aria’s got two babies and another two on the way. She must not have had anything she wanted to do with her life. She must not have had anything back on Earth that gave her life any meaning.”
“As a matter of fact,” he replied, “Marissa says she was a nurse. She took care of people the same way you take care of....what do you call them?”
“Horses.” Chris blushed. “I didn’t know she was a nurse.”
“And Carmen was a police officer,” he went on. “Marissa worked at something called a library where she educated children. And Penelope Ann had her own business, too.”
Chris looked the other way. “I didn’t know that.”
“No doubt the other women who crashed with you had meaningful lives, too,” he pointed out. “You won’t be the only one who had a meaningful life.”
“Then they’ll be all the more ready to go back,” she replied. “They’ll be thrilled that someone is working to get them back to their homes and isn’t just settling into this life in defeat.”
“Is that really what you think they’re doing?” he asked.
Chris scanned the horizon. His eyes bored into the back of her head and made her skin crawl. “Let’s talk about something else.”
He gazed into the distance, too. “As you wish.”
“How are we going to handle the Felsite when we come in sight of their scouts?” she asked. “Should we have a plan worked out?”
“No doubt the scouts will tell us what they want us to do,” he replied.
“Are you telling me you don’t have a plan?” she asked.
“None whatsoever,” he replied.
“Do you really just plan to wing it?” she asked. “Do you really think that’s wise?”
He cocked his head to the side. “What does that mean—wing it?”
She waved her hand. “You don’t have a plan. You’re going to let them tell you what to do.”
“That’s my plan,” he explained. “My plan is to wait until the scouts leap out from behind their observation posts and threaten us with their weapons and march us to their city at spearpoint. That’s my plan.”
Chris stopped dead in her tracks and stared at him. “You’re not serious.”
He rounded her with no expression on his face. “Do I look like I’m joking?”
“You can’t be serious,” she insisted. “You can’t seriously plan to let them threaten to kill us and drag us away as their prisoners.”
“Why can’t I?” he asked.
“You said you would help me find Carmen,” she cried. “You said you would help me find a way off this planet. Now you’re betraying me.”
“I am helping you,” he replied. “If they capture us and march us to their city at the point of their spears, the very first thing they’ll do is take us to Renier. When they do, we can explain the situation. The closer we get to him, the closer we’ll be to Carmen. She might even be present, since the scouts will send word ahead to Renier that they have a human female in custody. Carmen will want to know who you are and how you got here.”
Chris narrowed her eyes at him. “Are you sure this will work?”
“This is the simplest way to get directly to Renier and to Carmen,” he told her. “I wouldn’t do this if I thought there was any chance it wouldn’t succeed.”
“What makes you so certain they won’t kill us on the spot?” Chris asked.
“First of all,” he replied, “they wouldn’t kill any Lycaon that crossed their borders. That could set off a string of hostile events that could lead our factions to war. The worst they could do is keep me under lock and key until they contacted Caleb and determined I wasn’t a spy or a maverick out to plunder their city. But as it is, Renier’s scouts will recognize me. They’ll have to treat me well, since I’m Caleb’s brother and the son of the Alpha family. Only Renier has the authority to decide what to do with me, and when he hears your story, he’ll bring you and Carmen together.”
“What happens then?” she asked.
He started walking again. “What happens then is entirely up to you.”
Chapter 10
Turk strode down the path to the base of the pass. The path wound up through red clay walls and disappeared between odd-shaped rocks. Chris looked up to where the path vanished into a wall of red, and her steps faltered.
Turk didn’t stop. He climbed into the pass and started to disappear, too. Chris didn’t dare hesitate any longer. She scrambled up steep steps into the pass behind him. The path wound higher until her legs burned.
At the top of the slope, the path leveled out so they could walk abreast again. Chris caught her breath, but Turk showed no signs of exertion. He climbed those steps as easily as he walked on level ground. He kept his head steady and his eyes on the path in front of him, but he muttered under his breath, “We’ve crossed the border. The scouts are just ahead.”
Chris kept her step calm and her eyes forward. “I don’t see anything.”
“Behind t
he rock,” he replied. “They’re waiting for us to come up to them. That’s when they’ll show themselves.”
Her hand went out automatically and slipped into his. For a brief instant, he turned his head in surprise, but he recovered right away. He walked on with her hand in his. His feet made no sound on the stone path, but hers rang off the red walls. She listened to the beat of her own heels on the ground to keep it steady and strong.
The rock loomed closer, but she still saw nothing. Was Turk mistaken about the scouts waiting for them there? He could see and hear things she couldn’t, but maybe he was wrong this time.
She didn’t have time to question him, though. They strode alongside the rock. Even when his prediction came true and four Felsite scouts jumped into their path with spears pointed at them, Chris cried out in alarm and sprang back. Her hand pulled free of Turk’s grasp, but he kept his eyes locked on the scouts.
Not even Marissa’s description of the Felsite prepared Chris for meeting them in person. They had the manes of hair around their heads the way Marissa described, but they resembled the Lycaon enough that they had to be the same species. They stood just as tall, with the same body shape and direct, clear faces.
One of the scouts stepped forward with his spear aimed at Turk’s chest. He frowned when he saw Turk’s face. “What are you doing here? This is Felsite territory. You keep to your own territory.”
Turk lifted his head in silent challenge. “We have business with Renier. Take us to him.”
The scout shot Chris a glance, and his eyes widened imperceptibly. She must be developing the Lycaon ability to detect subtle changes in expression and body language. She wouldn’t have noticed his interest before. “State your business.”
Turk pulled his lips back from his teeth, and his hair bristled on the back of his neck. He snarled through his teeth, and Chris shuddered. “If my business was with you, I wouldn’t be asking to be taken to Renier. My business is with him, and I’ll state it to him.” His eyes slid down to the scout’s feet and back up to his shaggy head. “I won’t state it to you.”
The scout bared his teeth back at Turk, and his orange mane stood out from his head. He tightened his grip on his spear. “You won’t cross our border, and you won’t go anywhere near Renier until you state your business. He’ll never know you were here.”
Saved by a Bear (Legends of Black Salmon Falls Book 2) Page 60
