The fifth faction, the Aqinas, remain elusive and hidden in their watery home on the coasts southwest of the Felsite plains. They live in tidal pools on the edge of the sea where they maintain constant contact with the water. Little is known about them, even among other Angondrans. They appear to move through any body of water, no matter how meager or shallow, and they communicate chemically through the medium of water. No one understands how this mechanism works, but the Aqinas somehow seem to know where other Angondrans are and what they are doing at all times. The Aqinas have negotiated peace agreements between the other factions in times of war and strife, but some Angondrans suspect them of manipulating the other factions for their own gain, including provoking wars they can then mediate for their own benefit.
This is the world into which the women on the Romarie ship crashed. The ship crashed in Lycaon territory, and within minutes, a Lycaon scouting party surrounded the crash site and took charge of the survivors. After a grueling march over rough terrain, the Lycaon brought the women to their village, where they tended their injuries and made them as comfortable as possible.
In the months that followed, messages poured in from the other factions, begging the women to join them and help rebuild the Angondran population. Many left to seek new futures in the other factions, while others remained behind.
Chapter 1
Penelope Ann King burst into her house in the treetops. Her cheeks glowed with excitement, and her long blonde hair whipped around her head. Anna Evans jumped to her feet, but she didn’t stand higher than Penelope Ann’s shoulder. “What’s going on?”
“Aquilla’s back!” Penelope Ann breathed.
Anna froze. “Did they find Frieda?”
Penelope Ann waved her question away. “Of course not. It’s hopeless.”
Anna narrowed her eyes at her hostess. “How can you be so flippant? This is my sister we’re talking about.”
Penelope Ann bustled around, putting the house in order. “Your sister disappeared. No one can explain what happened to her, but the Avitras searched the whole forest several times and didn’t find her. You can’t expect our people to do anything more.”
“Frieda disappeared under mysterious circumstances,” Anna replied. “She was standing on a balcony near an Avitras house, and the next minute, she was gone. No trace of her body was ever found. I don’t expect the Avitras to keep looking for her indefinitely, but you don’t have to be so callus about it.”
Penelope Ann stopped in her tracks, and her expression softened. “I’m sorry. You and your sister just got here, and now she’s disappeared. I’m sorry. I’m just excited about seeing my mate again after so long.”
Anna sank onto the low couch against the wall. “I appreciate how hard Aquilla worked to find Frieda. No one could ask for more. He’s a good Alpha. You’re lucky to have him as a mate.”
Penelope Ann blushed with pride. “We all got lucky when we came to Angondra. The way the Angondran people took us in after the Romarie abducted us from Earth would make anyone proud to be one of them.”
Anna gazed out the window. The setting sun streaked through the leaves of the forest canopy. “I know. I just wonder sometimes.....”
Penelope Ann studied her. “What do you wonder?”
“I wonder if Frieda and I made a mistake leaving the Lycaon to come to the Avitras,” Anna replied. “Maybe we should have been happy with what we had and stayed where we were.”
Penelope Ann ran to the couch and sat down next to her. She gazed into Anna’s face with her brilliant blue eyes. “Don’t ever think that! Do you hear me? You made the right decision to leave the Lycaon, and you’ve been happy here ever since, haven’t you?”
“Sure, but....” Anna began.
Penelope Ann waved her hand. “I’m not talking about Frieda disappearing. You’ve been happy here with the Avitras except for that, haven’t you? Of course, you have. Who could be happy with the Lycaon? They’re savages.”
Anna shrugged. “I don’t know. I know a few women who are very happy there. Marissa....”
Penelope Ann jumped up. “I’m not talking about Marissa. I’m talking about you. You could never be happy with the Lycaon. They live in huts. They sit on the ground. They eat nothing but raw meat. No sane person could be happy there.”
“They don’t eat raw meat,” Anna murmured. “They do cook it first, and they...”
Penelope Ann went back to hurrying around the room. “No, you did the right thing by coming here. The Avitras are the most advanced faction on the planet. No one could be happy with any of the other factions. You’ve been here long enough to realize that for yourself.”
Anna kept her eyes on the distant sunlight streaming through the canopy. They’d been through this same conversation a dozen times in the weeks since she moved from the Lycaon village to the Avitras territory in the treetops. “I wonder sometimes what the other factions are like. Marissa says the Felsite live in cities, and we hear reports about the Ursidreans having advanced technology in their mountain caves.”
Penelope Ann snorted, but she didn’t turn around. She kept dusting and tidying the house. “You wouldn’t want to have anything to do with the Felsite with their shaggy manes of hair and their heavy limbs. Yuck! And the Ursidreans? You might as well mate with a goat.”
Anna’s voice dropped almost to a whisper. “I’ve heard that they’re more like bears than goats.”
Penelope Ann pretended not to hear. “I thank heaven I came to the Avitras first. I couldn’t stand any other faction. The Avitras are the only faction with any advanced social structure. The others are toads.”
Before Anna could answer, a shout went up from outside. Penelope Ann ran outside and leaned over the railing. “They’re coming!”
Anna hung back. Penelope Ann looked down into the shadowy canopy. All at once, a whirlwind whipped Anna’s brown hair back from her face, and a tall man sailed through the air and landed on his feet on the balcony. His eyes flashed, but he broke into a grin when he spotted Penelope Ann.
She rushed into his arms. “You’re home!”
He planted a passionate kiss on her lips. Then he threw back his head and laughed out loud. He hooked his arm around Penelope Ann’s shoulders and headed for the house. He didn’t stop smiling when he met Anna at the door. “Hello there.”
She smiled back at him. “Hello, Aquilla. Welcome home.”
His smile dimmed. “I’m sorry we didn’t find your sister.”
Anna made room for the happy couple to come inside. “I appreciate your trying.”
Aquilla threw himself on the couch, and Penelope Ann went back to whizzing around the room. “What a week! You don’t know how good it is to be home. I have less tolerance for the frontier every time I go out there. I think I’ll promote Piwaka to manage all the Border Guards from now on. I don’t have the stomach for it.”
Penelope Ann smiled at him over her shoulder. “There must be some advantage to being Alpha. If you don’t want to troop out to the frontier every time somebody stubs their toe, why should you?”
He lunged forward. “I’m sure glad I went this time, though. Even if this was the last time I ever had to go, it paid off. You won’t believe the prize we brought back.”
Penelope Ann spun around with a wooden bowl of mixed nuts and seeds in her hand. “What did you get?”
He jumped off the couch and kissed her again. “Just wait until you see.”
He strode out of the house, but before he got to the balcony railing, an even more powerful flurry of wind shook the treetops. Half a dozen Avitras men flew over the railing and landed in front of him. Aquilla pointed at one of them. “Bring him in here.”
He led the way into the house, and the other Avitras followed him. Then Anna noticed another man with them—and this man was not Avitras. He stood almost as tall as the Avitras, but he had no feathers and his muscular heavy body made him move slower.
He was unmistakably Angondran, but unlike any Angondran Anna had ever seen. He was too big
to be Lycaon, and he had rough, short, dark fur around his head instead of a flowing golden mane like the Felsite. He was a big hunk of a man, heavy brows hung low over his eyes, but they snapped around the room and took in every detail. His expression brightened when he saw Penelope Ann and Anna in the room.
Aquilla held out his arms to make room for the man, but no one came near him. The Avitras surrounded him on all sides. Aquilla threw back his shoulders. “You see! This is the prize we brought back from the frontier.”
Anna and Penelope Ann stared at the man with their mouths open. Penelope Ann swallowed. “Did you....?”
Aquilla puffed himself up even more. “What do you think? This is going to seal my place in history. I’m the first Alpha ever to bring back an Ursidrean captive.”
He crowed in triumph, but Anna’s heart sank. So this was an Ursidrean, the first she’d ever seen, but being in the same room with him shamed her. She had nothing to do with his capture, but she could barely look him in the eye. She was supposed to be Avitras now, too. She left the Lycaon to make her home with Avitras, so why couldn’t she celebrate their triumph over their enemies?
Anna’s mind whirled. Aquilla, Alpha of the Avitras faction, had captured an Ursidrean from the frontier between their territories. This could lead to war. Why did she ever leave the Lycaon?
Aquilla was too full of his own pride to notice anybody else. He waved to his men. “You can leave him here.”
The guards exchanged glances, but he spread his arms to usher them toward the door. “Don’t worry. He’s harmless. He’s not going anywhere. You made sure of that.” Aquilla laughed, and his voice grated on Anna’s nerves.
She cast another look at the prisoner. Blood darkened one of his nostrils and the fur on the side of his head. He held himself perfectly erect and stared straight back into her eyes, but she couldn’t help notice the discolored patches on the skin of his arms and neck. The Avitras did their best to subdue him before they brought him back.
Penelope Ann broke the silence. “What are you going to do with him? You can’t keep him here.”
Aquilla turned away. “I’m going to interrogate him until I find out which of their rotten breed killed my brother Erius in the war. Once I find that out, I’ll hold him for ransom until the Ursidreans turn over the murderer. Then I’ll have my revenge.”
Penelope Ann let out a shaky breath, but neither she nor Anna could take their eyes off the prisoner. “Do you have to keep him here? Isn’t there anywhere else you could keep him?” She hesitated. “I was hoping...”
Aquilla swept her up in his arms. “I know you were hoping we could spend our first night alone together. I feel the same way, but I can’t let this opportunity pass me by. I’ve been burning for revenge against my brother’s killer for years. Now the perfect means to accomplish that has fallen into my lap. I couldn’t let it slip away.”
Anna swallowed hard. For some reason, she kept her eyes locked on the Ursidrean’s face, and his gaze never wavered from her eyes. How did he know to look at her? What trick of the light told him his stare played on her heart strings in that room full of people who cared nothing about him? “He didn’t exactly fall into your lap, did he? It looks like you beat him up pretty bad. He didn’t come over to the Avitras of his own free will.”
Aquilla laughed again. “No need for your jokes now.”
“Who’s joking?” Anna barely heard her own voice.
Aquilla collapsed on the couch. “Give me that food, my love. I’m starving.”
Chapter 2
Penelope Ann set a wooden bowl in Aquilla’s hands. He leaned back on the couch and scooped nuts and seeds into his mouth while he kept his flashing eyes on his captive. The Ursidrean never moved a muscle.
Aquilla chuckled over his meal. “You’re right. He didn’t fall into our laps. We noticed a band of the lumbering brutes across the valley while we were patrolling the border. They’re so stupid, they didn’t notice us.”
“Is that when you got the idea of holding one of them for ransom?” Penelope Ann asked.
“I actually got the idea on the flight up there,” he told her. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before. I only just got the idea that, if I got my hands on one of the stinking creatures, I could force him to tell me which of his hairy comrades killed my brother. I’ve been brooding over this ever since the war ended. Not knowing who killed him drives me mad—almost more than knowing the murderer is walking free under the Angondran sky instead of rotting in a shallow grave the way he should be.”
Anna stood in the same spot. The Ursidrean held her gaze with unwavering attention. The one time she glanced at Aquilla, the sight of him eating his evening meal made her sick to her stomach. Looking at the Ursidrean calmed her in a way she couldn’t understand. He stood straight and still, with no fear for his future. His wounds didn’t touch him.
She trusted his solid form and watchful eyes. She never trusted the Lycaon or the Avitras this way. Nothing bad could happen as long as he held her gaze that way. She dreaded the moment Aquilla started questioning this prisoner, but she dreaded leaving the room and breaking that eye contact with him more.
Penelope Ann and Aquilla kept up a friendly chat about everything that happened since he left in search of Frieda. They even discussed Aquilla’s sleeping habits on the journey to the frontier. Penelope Ann’s voice drifted into Anna’s consciousness. “Did you find that Border troop you thought was lost?”
“We found them,” Aquilla replied. “They were miles away from their posts. We questioned them for three days, but we never got a straight answer out of them about what made them deviate from their patrol. I’ve got a good mind to strike the whole patrol and send them back to remedial training.”
“Is that really necessary?” Penelope Ann asked.
“I can’t trust them,” he replied. “If they can’t stay within their assigned patrol and have no reasonable explanation why they left it, I have no choice but to strike them. They left a whole stretch of border unguarded. Anything could have happened during that time. The enemy could have walked right over our border, and we would have been caught unprepared.”
The Ursidrean’s eyes brightened up, and one eyebrow twitched upwards.
The conversation paused. Then Penelope Ann murmured. “How can you eat with him staring at us like that?”
Aquilla chuckled. “I’m hungry.”
“Can’t you send him somewhere else?” she asked. “Does he have to stand here in our house?”
Aquilla set his bowl aside. “Looking at him makes me happy. You don’t know how satisfying it is to know he’s here, in our power, for a change instead of haunting our border, waiting to strike when our Guards’ backs are turned. I can do what I want with him, and he can’t do us any harm.”
“I wish you’d get rid of him,” Penelope Ann muttered.
Aquilla kissed her on the cheek. “I’ll get rid of him sooner or later, but right now I need him around. Now let’s stop talking about him. I want to relax and enjoy my first night back at home.”
Anna heard her own voice coming from somewhere outside herself. “He looks hungry.”
Aquilla snorted. “He’s not hungry. Look at him. Does he look like he’s fading away?”
She couldn’t stop herself. She walked to the counter across the room and picked up the other bowl of food. Penelope Ann prepared it for herself, but Anna held it out to the Ursidrean.
He gazed down at the mixture of nuts and seeds. Then he smiled at her and shook his head. Her cheeks burned.
“You see?” Aquilla called out. “He’s not hungry or tired or weak. He’d like you to think he is, but these Ursidreans are a tough breed.”
Anna couldn’t stand the Ursidrean gazing into her eyes and smiling at her that way. He didn’t really smile. No one could smile in his situation. But a fire burned in his eyes when he looked at her. He didn’t look at the Avitras men that way, and he didn’t look at Aquilla or Penelope Ann that way. What was he thinking
when he looked at her? She tore her eyes away, but there was nowhere else she could turn.
Aquilla and Penelope Ann cuddled on the couch. If the Ursidrean hadn’t been there, she would have sat on the floor, but she couldn’t settle down. Nervous shivers racked her body. She clenched her hands together to stop them shaking.
She turned first one way and then another in a desperate search for something to do with herself. Every time she looked at the Ursidrean, she found him looking back at her. Every time she looked at Aquilla and Penelope Ann, she found them immersed in each other, which made her even more uncomfortable. How long would they linger on the couch? She was supposed to sleep there tonight.
She made a circuit of the room and stopped at the counter again. She picked up the water jar and held that out to the Ursidrean. “Are you thirsty?”
He regarded her with a distant intensity, almost as though he was seeing her for the first time. Then he took the jar out of her hands and lifted it to his mouth. He drank more than she expected. He must have been thirsty. He handed it back to her with a sigh. “Thank you.”
Aquilla watched the whole episode from the couch. “Be careful. You’ll give him ideas.”
Anna blushed and turned away, but she couldn’t stay in that house a moment longer. She strode across the room to the door, but just before she stepped out into the night, some mysterious power compelled her to glance back over her shoulder.
He still stood in the same place, immoveable, like a mountain dropped into her living room from the clear blue sky. And still he stared directly at her. He paid Aquilla, his captor, his tormentor, no attention whatsoever. Even when she hurried away into the dark, he gazed at the empty doorway where she disappeared.
She hurried through the village, going nowhere. She ran as much to get away from him as to get anywhere else. She passed a dozen lighted windows. She could ask at any one of them for a place to spend the night and expect a welcome. Her neighbors would understand Aquilla and Penelope Ann wanted the house to themselves for his first night back after weeks away.
But she didn’t want welcome at any of those houses. She wanted....What did she want? She couldn’t put her finger on it. She didn’t want to go back to Penelope Ann’s house—that was certain. The last thing she wanted to see was......him. But not him. She did want to see him, but she didn’t want to see him standing there, a captive. She didn’t want to see him standing there on display while Aquilla and Penelope Ann nuzzled on the couch. She blushed even now at the thought of it.
Saved by a Bear (Legends of Black Salmon Falls Book 2) Page 75
