Taig scanned the dark. Outliers moved beyond his vision. “I don’t know how, but we have to find a way. I won’t let them lead us back there to the slaughter. I won’t go down without a fight.”
Reina sighed. “It’s too bad we don’t have Taman and Allen with us. They would know how to work those weapons.”
Taig shook his head. “We can’t count on them. The Outliers probably captured them, too. I don’t see how they could have gotten away with so many Outliers surrounding them.”
Reina cocked her head. “You’re worried about Tara. I understand that.”
He rounded on her. “I’m not worried about Tara. She’s with Allen. She’s the last person in this I’m worried about.”
Reina’s eyes widened. “Really? Who are you most worried about?”
He thought about it. “Sarai....and Aimee.”
Reina nodded.
“Anyway,” he went on, “we can’t count on anybody to get us out of this. We have to do it ourselves.”
“What do you want me to do?” she asked. “Just tell me what to do and I’ll do it.”
He paused. “Let me figure it out for myself first, and I’ll let you know.”
Silence fell. They couldn’t see each other in the dark. “How far do you think we are from Rolling Ridges?”
“I don’t know,” he replied, “but we must be getting close. Do you notice how they don’t really bother to guard us? They have nothing to worry about from anyone finding us. They’re in familiar territory.”
A high-pitched voice pierced the night, and a lower voice, but still high, answered it. Taig pricked up his ears. “Sarai is awake.”
“Aimee is with him.” Reina’s hand rested on his knee. “Don’t worry about them.”
“I have to,” he murmured.
“Aimee will protect Sarai,” she told him.
“If we’re going to break out of here,” he returned, “we need everyone fighting, and that includes Aimee. I’ll have to convince her to fight.”
“That won’t be easy,” Reina pointed out. “She won’t want to put Sarai in danger.”
Taig nodded. “I’ll have to convince her he’s in more danger going along with these Outliers than fighting back. If we don’t strike soon, we won’t get away at all.”
Her hand left his knee and rested on his shoulder. “Lie back and get some sleep. You won’t be able to think of a plan if you don’t rest.”
He wanted to protest, but he couldn’t struggle against that hand. It weighed him down. He couldn’t keep his eyes open a moment longer, and his eyelids sank against his will. With his eyes closed, he couldn’t keep himself upright. She pulled him back, down on the ground, onto his back. He threw his arm over his eyes and sighed.
Reina lay down next to him, but she didn’t touch him. She’d done her work to get him to lie down for the first time in days. He listened to her breathing next to him. An instant later, he started awake from a deep, black sleep. The night had passed, and dawn lurked just beyond the horizon. Another day of mindless marching would overtake them.
He surged up. “Why did you let me sleep so long?”
Her hand materialized on his shoulder, and this time, she pulled him down with commanding strength. “Lie still.”
“But I have to....” he protested.
She pinned him to the ground with one hand. When did he get so weak? Or maybe she’d become incredibly strong overnight. “Be quiet. The guards are right over there. Don’t let them hear you.”
He obeyed her, but his mind roiled in anger and confusion. How could he sleep like that, without watching their enemies? He had to remain alert. He listened, but caught no sound from Aimee or Sarai. Sarai at least would be sleeping at this hour. Hopefully Aimee would be sleeping, too. She needed it as much as Sarai.
Then Taig sensed something unusual from Reina. She lay at his side, exactly where she’d been when he fell asleep, but something was different. He couldn’t put his finger on it. He turned his senses toward her without moving his body. She made no sound nor movement, her breathing told him she was awake and alert. Had she slept at all? Had she watched over him all night?
His nostrils flared, and that’s when he picked up the scent. He knew her scent well enough after months on the trail. He knew all his companions by scent alone, but he didn’t recognize this scent. He’d first noticed her normal pungent scent in the cave where she’d kissed him. In all the weeks of living in close proximity to her and even sleeping inches away from her, he’d never smelled this scent before.
It reminded him of the wild berries growing on low bushes along the river where he and Tara used to swim. The purple juice gushed out of them when he bit into a mouthful. They flooded his mind with sweet syrup. This scent tingled along his nerves and filled his mind with memories of hot summer days at home. Sweet nostalgia and erotic dreams flooded his brain. His exhausted nerves revolted against any suggestion of pleasure, especially with her, but he couldn’t resist. He turned over on his side and faced her.
His face came within inches of hers. She breathed steadily. Did she understand the change in her? What could have caused it? Maybe this was another Felsite secret no one knew.
They lay face to face....how long? The dawn light didn’t penetrate the darkness. Could he have misjudged the time after all? A snapping twig exploded in his ears. The Outliers still patrolled beyond sight, but he didn’t turn away from her. He couldn’t move closer to her and he couldn’t break away.
Her hands found him out of the dark. She rested her hands on his shoulders. Taig went rigid. She inched closer to him. He listened with every fiber to her breathing for any clue, but the air glided in and out of her nostrils with unnatural calm. Touching him didn’t ruffle her.
Her hands traced down his chest to his waist until she found the strings holding his pants closed. She tugged one of them to untie them, and her warm hand slid down into the nest of dark hair inside. Taig sucked his breath through her teeth. He should stop her, but he couldn’t move. This wasn’t like Lilith mauling him at Rolling Ridges. He wanted nothing more than for Reina to stroke him until he got hard, and to stroke her until she climaxed in his hand. So what stopped him?
To test it out, he put out his hand to her. His fingertips grazed her round belly, and a shudder quivered through her. Inside his pants. She squeezed his cock and massaged its length. The blood rushed into it and it swelled in her hand. She pinching along the shaft and around the underside of its head to encourage it. He pushed it into her hand, and she ran her palm down its length to the base.
Craven need broke him out of his paralysis and goaded him on. He ran his fingers down her belly to her waistband and untied her pants. They fell open to reveal a perfect triangle of black hair pointing down to the nexus of her legs. He ran his middle finger down into the furrow between her lips to the cleft below.
Her hand stroking his cock sent him into a frenzy. He hadn’t satisfied himself with anyone since before they left the village. He’d turned a blind eye to Tara hooking up with Allen and Aeifa pairing off with Taman. He’d worked overtime day and night to block Lilith out of his mind, but he couldn’t stop thinking about her hands rubbing him to full erection or her breasts pressing against his chest and her thighs wrapping around his hips. He closed his eyes.
He should leave Reina alone. Some change in her made her reach out to him, and he didn’t understand it. She proved that the way she kissed him in the cave, like a child kissing her little brother. She didn’t really want him. She wanted to satisfy some physical need, too, but she would never take him as her mate.
But he needed this, and she needed it, too. This was one night out of a thousand. Once she got her need satisfied, she might never look sideways at him again. They would go back to being companions and friends, and nothing more. Why couldn’t he find satisfaction with her the same way? Why should he hold himself back from what he needed, when she didn’t.
He banished those though
ts and gave himself to the moment. He imagined she was someone else—who, he didn’t try to fathom—not Reina, certainly. He wouldn’t take her for his mate, either. He wanted a warrior, a Lycaon, someone tall, strong, and capable. Reina was certainly capable, but she wasn’t tall, and she wasn’t a warrior. She’d learned a lot in the time she’d traveled with them, but she would never be Lycaon. He would never mate with anyone but a Lycaon.
With his eyes closed, he imagined she was Lycaon, that some young warrior girl from his village was stroking his cock inside his pants, and his fingers explored the damp petals between her legs. No village girl he knew came to mind, so he invented one. He thrust his cock into her hand, the inevitable rage of desire flared in his hips, and she stroked faster.
His fingers stirring and fondling her lips, her clitoris, and her throbbing hole disturbed her impenetrable calm. Her breathing quickened, and she spread her legs to give him full access. She moved closer to him so he could reach her better.
Her hand clenched around his shaft. Taig gasped for air. He couldn’t hold back much longer with her yanking on him like that. He took his cue from her and buried his big finger in her smoking hole. She whined and bucked against his hand. He withdrew it and plunged it in deeper. She rode his hand harder, and with every penetration, she pulled his cock to its limit. He crushed her hand against the ground with his hips and thrust his cock against her palm. He imagined he was driving it into that dripping hole instead of his finger.
He slammed his palm against her pubic bone, and sticky juice made a slapping sound on his hand. He slipped another finger into her, and she moaned out loud. Did the Outlier guards hear them? Did Aimee hear them? Did their noise wake up Sarai? Taig listened, but they weren’t really making a sound. He sank his two fingers to their hilt into her steaming cavern and rubbed that bumpy spot on its front wall where it curved upwards.
He’d tried that trick on girls he knew back home, and it always drove them wild. It drove Reina wild now. Her mouth hung open in wordless astonishment, and she brought her hips back and forth in wild intoxication, but she couldn’t drive him off that spot. He stayed on it with his fingertips against all her efforts to make him bang her again. Her juices gushed into his hand.
He stroked his cock through her hand, faster and harder. Hot syrup leaked out of the end and ran through her fingers. It would shoot forth a boiling flood in a minute, but he didn’t slow down. He listened to Reina gasping and mewing against his hand. When he judged she would explode in orgasmic ecstasy, he stopped.
He ran his fingers in and out of her molten slit. She writhed in anguish, but he kept up a steady rhythm until her thrusts matched him in perfect synchronicity. She banged her own hips against his palm, harder and faster. Her mouth hung open in a silent howl.
He jammed his fingers into her one last time and fixed his fingertips on her pleasure spot. He rubbed it and stroked his cock in her hand. His Lycaon warrior hovered before his eyes. He lay on top of her in his own hut back home, and she welcomed him between her legs.
Chapter 2
Taman stuck his head up over the edge of the canyon and pulled it back down. Aeifa leaned her back against the ground next to him. “Can you see anything?”
“I can see a whole lot of Outliers and not much else,” he replied.
“No sign of the others?” she asked.
He shook his head.
Allen and Tara lay on their stomachs next to them. “How can we find out where they are?”
Taman checked his reciprocator. The indicator bar still showed full power. These weapons must be state of the art. Where could the Outliers have gotten their hands on them? “I think we can assume they’re there somewhere.”
“They could be dead,” Allen pointed out.
Taman shook his head. “They aren’t dead. The Outliers took them prisoner.”
“How can you tell?” Tara asked.
“Did you notice the way they marched down the canyon, in one long column?” Taman asked. “They walked slowly, taking their time. Now remember how they streamed out of the canyon toward us on the plain. Most of them ran Lycaon style. If they killed the others and wanted to get back to Rolling Ridges in a hurry, they wouldn’t drag their feet from dawn to dusk and stop for the night when the sun went down. We would have trouble keeping up with them if they had.”
“If that’s true,” Tara countered, “why are they marching them back down south? It makes no sense.”
“It makes perfect sense,” Taman told her. “They’re taking our friends back to Rolling Ridges with them. That’s the only reason they would walk like that. The Outliers have to keep them under guard.”
“What are they taking them back for?” Aeifa asked.
Taman studied his reciprocator so he wouldn’t have to look at her. “There’s only one reason I can think of.”
Tara and Allen exchanged glances. Tara pushed herself up on her knees. “We have to go after them. We can’t let the Outliers take them back to be sacrificed.”
Taman laid a hand on her arm to stop her. “Not so fast. We can’t just charge in there and start shooting. They still have the numbers on their side.”
“What about all the weapons we stole from them?” Tara asked. “We could mow them down.”
He shook his head with a sad smile. “We might mow a few of them down, but once they realized what was happening, they would mow us down. We only took a few weapons, and they’ve got all the rest. We have to plan this carefully and surprise them. It’s the only way we’ll be able to save them.”
Tara frowned. “Who put you in charge here?”
Taman only smiled and shook his head. Aeifa looked down at the ground. Only Allen spoke. “What do you have in mind?”
Taman peeked over the canyon wall again. “They’ll be moving out soon. They’ll relax their vigilance on the march.”
“What makes you think that?” Tara asked. “What makes you think they aren’t waiting for us to attack?”
“They won’t be thinking about us,” Taman replied. “No one would be crazy enough to attack a column like that with only four people, no matter how many weapons we had. We can’t use more than eight weapons at a time. Attacking them would be suicide. They know that as well as we do.”
Tara gulped. “But you just said.....”
“We can’t let them take our people back to Rolling Ridges,” Taman told her. “We have to come up with a plan to get them out.”
Aeifa checked the other reciprocators. “If only we had just a few more people, we might stand a chance.”
“We can’t count on that,” Taman replied.
“So what’s your grand plan?” Tara asked. “Do you want us to die fighting, and get our friends killed in the process? I don’t have to remind you my brother is out there.”
“No, you don’t have to remind me,” Taman replied. “I wouldn’t be suggesting we attack them if I didn’t think we had a decent chance of saving our people and getting out with our lives, too.”
“How?” Aeifa asked.
He glanced at the Outliers. “They’re moving out now. They’re leaving the canyon and heading out onto the steppe. We can flank them there.”
“Flank them how?” Allen asked.
Taman pointed up the stream bed behind them. “We’ll head back up the canyon. I noticed two paths leading up to the rim not too far back, one on either side. You and Tara will take one path to that side of the canyon, and Aeifa and I will take the one going this way. You two will be on that side of the canyon and we’ll be over here. Then we’ll follow the column south onto the steppe.”
“They’ll be able to see us on the steppe,” Aeifa pointed out. “We’ll have no trees to hide us.”
Taman nodded. “We’ll be two on either side of them. As long as we stay low, we can stay hidden, and even so, if you’re ever in any danger of being seen, just drop back out of sight. We won’t attack them until after nightfall anyway.”
“Tha
t’s ridiculous,” Tara snapped. “The column is strung out over miles during the day. Only a few Outliers will be near our people at any given time. Once they camp for the night, all the Outliers will surround them at once. We would have no chance.”
Taman cocked his head. “Do you really think all those hundreds of Outliers will gather around four people to guard them? No, Old Ponchy will station a handful of his trusted people to guard the prisoners while everyone else eats and sleeps. Besides, Aeifa just said we would be seen if we tried to approach the column on the steppe during the day. We won’t get anywhere near enough to fight unless we sneak into position under cover of darkness. Then we’ll attack just before dawn.”
“How will we communicate if we’re on opposite sides of the column?” Allen asked. “How will we know when to strike?”
“You’ll know.” Taman held up his reciprocator. “When I start shooting, you start shooting, too, but if my plan works, we won’t have to shoot at all.”
“How do you figure?” Allen asked.
“Sneak up as close as you can to the prisoners,” Taman told him. “Take a lesson from your Lycaon mate here and get her to show you her stalking techniques. Sneak up in the dark and knock off as many of the guards as you can without making a sound. If we’re successful, we’ll have our friends freed before the other Outliers know they’re gone.”
“And then what?” Tara asked.
“Then we run like hell,” Taman replied. “We run for all we’re worth.”
“Where do we run to?” Allen asked.
“Back to Harbeiz,” Taman replied. “We were safe there, and Donen needs to know about these weapons being stolen.”
Allen and Tara looked at each other again. Then Allen got up onto his knees. “All right. We’ll do it.” He shoved two more reciprocators into his belt. “I hope this works.”
He crawled back through the trees. Tara turned to follow him, but Aeifa grabbed her hand. “Tara.....”
Tara faced her for a moment. Then she squeezed Aeifa’s hand and nodded when a guttural croak startled them apart. Tara dropped Aeifa’s hand and snatched the reciprocator from her belt. “What was that?”
The New Angondra Complete Series Page 25
