“Why are you covered by blood?”
“It is his blood which covers me.”
He grabbed her and pressed her into his body. “I could not have borne any harm coming to you again, Clara.”
“Nor I,” Clara said into his tunic.
Edwin came upon them. “Do you protect her or harm her, Matthew?”
Matthew turned with Clara in his arms. “I may ask you the same, Edwin. What I came upon looked as if she fought you while you laid your intentions upon her.”
Edwin shifted his gaze to Clara and she flushed a deep red. “Did you wish for my attentions, Clara?” he asked in a low voice.
Matthew looked into her eyes, begging for her to answer him in the way he wanted.
She could not. “I did not wish for his attentions.” Matthew's face lit with triumph and Edwin's expression darkened. “Nor was I able to resist him.” Clara looked down at her hands, embarrassed beyond any measure she had ever known.
“Do you not care for me?” Matthew asked. Clara looked up at his searching gaze. “You know that I do,” Clara whispered.
He looked at Edwin. “You know what it is like for a select. They are meant to respond to us. You are forcing her hand. You cannot take an unwilling female and manipulate her biology.”
Edwin's eyes narrowed on Matthew and he spit a wad of blood onto the moss. “I do not have the advantage of time with Clara. I have not rescued her, or attempted to,” he gave Matthew a look and a shadow of doubt crossed Matthew's face. “She must see that another could make her just as happy as you. And,” he tapped his head, “your captain has bowed out of the race. He has his prize in her mother.”
“Do not talk of her as such!” Clara railed against him.
He looked at her. “It is the truth. The blood which pounds through your veins, runneth in hers as well. Why do you think he responds as strongly to her as he does to you? Do not be naïve, Clara.”
“When will this be over?” Clara cried.
“When you consummate the union of your choice!” he yelled back, his composure finally slipping.
Clara's surprise shocked him and he turned to Matthew. “Have you not told her? That when a male consummates a relationship with her she shall no longer feel the pull of the others?”
Matthew shook his head. “We did not want that to be a part of her choice-making. She should not be swayed by that.”
She turned on Matthew. “I do not like critical information being revealed in the eleventh hour.”
Edwin saw his chance and approached her, Matthew moving to put her behind him.
“No. Edwin is no threat to me.” She looked between them both then said, “Please leave me. I would bathe and not have the two of you within thirty horse lengths. Please leave.”
“Clara,” Edwin began.
“No,” she said with thinly veiled disgust. “You have rode a fine line of deceit: telling me only what assisted your motives.”
Matthew smiled at him and he glared back.
“And you,” she turned to Matthew. “You must stop attacking everyone who touches me. And we will never be together if you are not completely honest with me. I need all facts. Not the ones which others think I need to know. What they think I can manage. I am Queen, I must manage that which I care not to.”
She put her back to them and walked down the trail to the spring. Looking forward to a male free place in which to confer with Anna.
His eyes watched the red-haired female make her way to the pool where the females bathed and thought she must be something special for two of the Band to fight over. His eyes burned into her back and she faltered, spinning to look directly at him. His form was buried in the shadows and he did not move, he knew he remained unseen. He had a very good look at her face and found it striking. He had never seen a female like her. His throat slits flared, catching her scent.
Select, his senses translated. How he recognized the scent without having ever encountered one was a mystery.
Perhaps it was instinctual.
When he had his way with the traitorous female in the spring, he would take this one and play with her.
Savor her.
He smiled as a new plan unfolded before him.
Clara felt eyes on her and whirled around, fully anticipating Matthew or Edwin coming after her but there was nothing save the soft noises of the forest. Still, she could not stop the feeling of eyes crawling over her. She searched the trees, many with deep holes of blackness between them.
She shook her head at her unease. She was shaken by the encounter with the the males. It was only residual. She turned away, the creeping feeling clinging to her uncomfortably.
*
Anna waved when she spied Clara moving toward her. They had the spring to themselves. Actually, it had been a manipulation on Anna's part. She knew this point of the day was not used overly and thought it would be wonderful to have some feminine respite. She had grown quite fond of Clara and felt almost like herself again. The memory of the attack was a black stain she had all but eradicated from her mind. She was very happy with Joseph and looked forward to her mating ceremony upon their return to the clan. She sighed. She did not look forward to the five weeks of travel which awaited them. Rowenna had made mention that they could not leave a moment past the first of October if they were to get ahead of the cooler weather. Anna shivered. It would grow fierce and she did not want to be caught outside the comfort of the clan.
Clara disrobed and Anna watched her as she moved into the water, sinking into it like a lover's waiting arms.
Anna thought Clara beautiful. In fact, Clara did not see her own beauty. She was self-conscious of her size and thought her skin too pale. But it was not. Her skin was a rich, polished ivory, it glowed like the pearls she farmed. Anna smiled. It was not so bad to be ruled by someone that was not consumed by themselves. She noticed the dried blood on her face and asked her of it.
“It is Matthew and Edwin,” Clara said and explained the interchange.
Anna smiled a knowing smile. “It is typical male behavior of the Band.”
Clara arched a brow. “Truly?”
Anna nodded. “It is like that with the females of the clan. I do not know what it would be with a select.”
“Worse, apparently,” Clara said in a droll way.
Anna passed the soap to Clara and she lathered her head into an elaborate turban on her head and Anna giggled. “You look silly.”
“Yes, I know,” Clara said. “I do so enjoy it when no one is about to see.” She looked at Anna from beneath her lashes and they burst out laughing.
They visited about her mating ceremony with Joseph and Clara listened thinking how wonderful it would be to have a clear choice and nothing weighing on it but her will. She became more relaxed as she and Anna chatted and realized it was exactly what she had needed.
They decided it was high time to get out when their fingertips were as prunes. Clara and Anna toweled off, grabbing their undergarments. Anna asked Clara to help with the loose stays which bound her breasts. Clara put her back to the forest and tied the last, unreachable tether. Anna turned and thanked her.
It was her face that told Clara there was something to fear. A fist connected with the back of Clara's head. Stunned, she fell slowly, her image of Anna a sideways tumble, her vision blurring together.
Clara lay on her side, her head throbbing as a male whom she did not recognize loomed in front of Anna. Grabbing Anna he threw her to the ground, she screamed until her throat was raw and he slapped her across the face. Blood flew and hit Clara from Anna's wound.
Rage took hold of Clara and cleared her head. She crawled to where the male tore at Anna's undergarments, his intent obvious. Clara knew he was not from any Band that she knew and instantly remembered that the male that had attacked Anna had been shunned.
Was this he?
His hands wrapped Anna's slender neck, his goal to make her unconscious and then what?
Clara got beside him and he did n
ot notice, his fervor to rape Anna consuming him. She made her hand a weapon and gritting her teeth, she used the stiffness of her fingers and stabbed him deep in his throat slits.
She wished for salt.
She flattened her body on the moss as he screamed in agony after she tore her hand out of his gill. Her hand came away with sinew, blood and other bits covering her fingers to their first knuckle. Anna squirmed out from underneath him and ran.
Leaving Clara but a horse length away from him.
Where were the Band? Clara raged in her head, scrambling on all fours to escape. He grabbed her ankle and she kicked backward, but his hand was a vise about her, crushing it against him and she cried out. He used her foot as a tool and twisted it until she flipped over on her back. She saw his fist rear back.
It was a dark moon sailing down to her.
A crushing pain erupted at her temple and her vision tripled, narrowing to black.
Clara fell into an abyss of darkness.
CHAPTER 23
Anna burst out of the wood and saw two of the Band lay unconscious and screamed for help. Her hands and legs shook so badly she fell to the sand. The entire Band would have heard her.
Joseph was first and threw his arms about her. He pulled away, seeing her smashed face, her lip swelling and blood leaking out of her nose. Then he observed that she wore only her torn undergarments. “Who has laid their hands upon you?” he growled.
She hiccuped back a sob. “It was he! Clara is down there with him. Please help her!”
Maddoc, Matthew and Edwin came upon them. Seeing the downed Band they turned to Joseph. “Where is Clara?”
“Anna says she is down there with the man who attacked her.”
Their faces showed the rage and impotence of the moment so clearly. They ran into the woods at a sprint, the branches crashing about them.
Maddoc reached the spot where the moss lay crushed, blood staining it black.
Clara was nowhere to be found, the wood empty and still.
Edwin reached down and scooped up the stockings that she had been too modest to put on in front of him. He had never felt more like weeping in his life.
He had never cried.
“No!” Matthew roared. “How is it that they were unprotected?” he asked to no one in particular.
The men turned and rushed through the forest and met Joseph and Anna. They looked at her face and none said what was foremost on their minds.
Clara may be in worse condition.
Anna cowered against Joseph, her teeth chattering. “He is Band. He is the man from my Band. The one that... that...” her large brown eyes pleaded with them to understand.
“We need to be after her. Now!” Matthew yelled.
“Yes, my brother. But first, let us get the details before we charge after her,” Edwin said reasonably.
“She is my sister, I do not need too many details. I say we pursue and kill him,” Maddoc said.
Matthew nodded, moving to charge toward his horse.
“Wait!” Edwin said and he turned to Anna. “How was it you were able to escape?”
Anna told them.
“She stabbed him with her hand? In his throat slits? You are certain...?” Maddoc asked incredulously.
Edwin could not help it, he laughed.
Matthew glowered at him. “What brings humor? While this male of the Band is doing who knows what to Clara?”
“He is wounded, dolt. Can you not see, he will be able to be overcome. Our delicate Clara has a steely core. She has incapacitated him for our overtaking and rescued her friend as bonus.”
Maddoc smiled. “He speaks true.”
“It matters not, I cannot think until I lay hands on her and know she is safe once more. That one of the Band could overcome the Band here does not speak well.”
Maddoc's brows shot down over his eyes. “We are to guard against the fragment. Not other Band!”
“No more words, we must be after her,” Matthew said. He turned to Joseph. “Tell our captain what has happened here.” His eyes turned to Anna, they stole to her torn bodice, then moved to her face. A livid mark lay upon her cheekbone, her eye swelling above it, her lip puffy and cut.
He turned without a word and leaped onto the back of his steed, Edwin and Maddoc echoing his move with their own mounts nearby.
*
Evelyn cried uncontrollably, taking solace from no one. She absolutely loved Clara above all others. Why had this happened? She gave a disdainful look at Anna. How could she have left Clara behind? Why had she not stayed and tried to help her?
Now she was gone. She would never survive the violence of this deranged male of the Band.
Rowenna slapped the table with her bare hand, making all that lay upon it shake. Bracus lay a hand on her shoulder and she reached up without thinking, covering it with her own. “I take responsibility. I should have been more diligent with the guard. We have never had a problem but with the random fragment. I should have concerned myself more with that rogue Band. I knew that your Band sought you, Anna. But word must have got out that you were near. He came seeking revenge and found my daughter instead.”
Anna sat looking at her hands, the guilt a wretched ache in her chest.
Joseph leaned down and whispered in her ear, “You could have done nothing. If you had not run and alerted the Band, even now he would have you both or worse.”
Anna nodded. She definitely understood what the “or worse,” would have been.
It almost was.
Still, she could not protect Clara. She looked at Rowenna, full of remorse. “You should have seen her, Rowenna. She was so determined. She stabbed him. But her face, I will never get the memory of her face out of my head.”
“What of it?” Bracus asked.
“It was a fearsome thing. A perfect blend of fear and anger.”
Rowenna allowed herself a small smile. “She is so much my daughter.”
Bracus let his hand fall away from Rowenna and began to pace the room. “They will recover her. He is weakened by what Clara has done. The throat slits do not repair quickly like other parts.”
He was right, Anna thought. There was that small victory which may serve as an advantage.
“How can we just wait here and do nothing? Do you not love her Bracus?” Evelyn wailed, her heart breaking.
Bracus looked at her steadily. “I will always love Clara. We have done something. Three of the Band, one her own brother, seek her even now.”
Evelyn's eyes narrowed on him, then shifted to Rowenna. “No. It is she that your eyes seek.”
Bracus strode to her and grabbed her to him, hugging her against him. She stayed stiff in his arms, angry at him, at everything.
“It is she that broke things off between us. She could not have Matthew and I both. You know me, Evelyn. If she had chosen me, there would have been no other. That I may yet find happiness with another female is beyond what I had hoped for myself. Has Clara said to you that she begrudges me this?”
She pulled away. “She has not.”
“Well then, wee one, let it be. She will return to us, safe. She will choose her own mate and we will live together in happiness once more.” But it was not Evelyn's face that Bracus looked upon as he said this.
It was Rowenna.
*
Randall was worried about the female. She lay in front of him as a pale and lightweight lump, a horrid and swollen bruise at her temple. She was so still he had stopped his steed twice to check that she lived.
He had hit her harder than he had meant.
His breathing came in fits, her small fingers having lanced his throat slits deeply, one was not working at all.
As soon as he had picked her up he had known what it meant to be touched by the select.
A terrible heat like fire had raced up his arms when he pressed her unconscious body against his. She wore only the lightweight garments she had underneath the heavier skirt. Instantly, when all that unprotected skin had touched his b
ody it shook as if on fire and his need to protect the female that he had just beaten overcame him, nearly bringing him to his knees.
He had ignored the legends of the select his entire life. That the Band was bred specifically to protect the clan. But above all else, any of the select. That stupid female, Anna, had changed everything for him.
Now that he had taken a select, the Band would be coming for him. He had thought a loose plan of using her then dumping her wonderful. He would have his fun, then scamper away into the wilderness, continuing his existence in exile.
But no longer, he would fight one hundred of the fragment and ten of the Band for one day with her. The thought of them tearing away his fragile burden made sweat bead on his lip and his heart race in his chest.
He slowed his mount to a walk, then stilled the beast. Its sides heaved. He had galloped for miles, the entire way knowing it was jarring for the female but distance was his priority.
He gazed down at her. He pushed her deep red hair away from the temple. Almost before he knew what he was doing he kissed the bruise he had laid upon her.
Her eyes flew open and she stirred in his arms, turning to look at him.
She said nothing, just stared.
He lifted his hand to push the remainder of her hair out of her face and she lifted her arm weakly to defend her face.
His breath caught in his throat. She moved to defend herself against him, as weak as a kitten. “I will not hurt you again.” He knew what she had seen. Did she not realize the other female was not special? She had deserved his retribution but he knew that her scorn would soon turn to understanding.
He lowered her arm. “I will not beat you again.”
He carefully dismounted with Clara in his arms and she turned her head to the side, weakly throwing up, her head spinning, streamers of colors lay about her and she could not steady her head. That she lived while her head felt the way it did was beyond her.
Death would have been a mercy.
The SAVAGE Series, Books 1-3: The Pearl Savage, The Savage Blood and The Savage Principle Page 46
