She shrugged. “That? That was nothing I haven’t done dozens of times at the Convocation with...oh, maybe hundreds of men. Did you think that made you special?” She laughed and patted him on the cheek. “You’re a nice boy, Taig. Go back to your family. I’ll see you later....maybe.”
She started to walk away from him again. Her heart raced so fast she could barely breath. She had to get away from him, and fast. She couldn’t let him see how much he hurt her by letting her go.
He didn’t try to convince her. He pulled her in one more time, but he didn’t ravage or possess her the way he did before. He kissed her—on the lips. She stared him. From that distance, she could make out the pores in his skin. He kissed her, and went on kissing her. What was he trying to do to her? Why would he make this harder than it already was?
She struggled against his hold, more than once, but he wouldn’t let her go. He kept kissing her until she stopped trying to get away. She gazed at him in silent wonder and waited for his intentions to become clear. He just kept kissing her, and kissing her, and kissing her. His lips fluttered on her mouth. The sweet honey light stirred in her heart. It hadn’t vanished when he set her on the ground. It still thrived and bloomed inside her. It waited in silent anticipation for him to reignite it with his touch and his kiss.
Could it possibly be he meant what he said? Could he really want her—for herself? Why else would he kiss her like this? If he wanted to let her go, he could just walk away and never see her again. Why else would he insist on holding her back?
Little by little, the reality dawned on her. Her lips submitted to the pressure of his kiss. Her body softened in his arms, and they surrounded her with their protective shield. He made no move to dominate her or escalate to a full sexual embrace. He only held her and kissed her. He wanted nothing more.
All of a sudden, she couldn’t contain her emotions any longer. She couldn’t maintain her tough facade, and it crumbled to pieces in her hands. She flung her arms around his neck and hung onto him. She couldn’t let him go, after everything they’d been through together. No one else in the world knew what she’d done and how depraved she’d become with the Outliers, and he wanted her anyway.
She hung around his neck in desperate terror that he would change his mind and leave her behind. She would die if he did that. If he turned his back on her now, after risking his life to save her, she would have no more reason to live. She could have wept on his neck, but his kiss kept her afloat. He never let her down.
Chapter 5
Melnili shone bright and fair on the Felsite plain. Lilith paused at the top of the hill to gaze down on it, but Taig kept walking. He kept hold of her hand so she had to keep walking, too. They climbed down the rocky slope and crossed the last sun-baked miles to the city walls.
A cry went up from the observation deck on the city ramparts, and Aimee came running down the stairs. She vaulted the parapet and raced toward them. She threw her arms around Lilith. “You came back.”
Lilith blushed. Her hand tightened around Taig’s. He anchored her. She couldn’t face this moment without him at her side.
Aimee held Lilith at arm’s length and petted her head and face. Tears welled up in her eyes. Then she embraced her all over again. “I didn’t think I’d ever see you again.”
Sarai came down the stairs. He studied Lilith from a distance. Lilith held out her hand to him. “Let me say good-bye to you.”
He moved forward, but slowly. He eyed her with suspicion, and he stopped well behind his mother.
Lilith laid her hand on his shoulder. “Promise me you’ll come to Lycaon territory to visit me....and the rest of us.”
He shrugged. “I might.”
Lilith’s smile faded. “I’m sorry....about all this. I’m sorry I was so cold to all of you.”
Aimee started to say, “That’s all right. We all understand how you feel,” but Lilith cut her off with a shake of her head.
She addressed Sarai. “I never should have pushed you away. You deserve better than that.”
Aimee started to speak again, but the expression on Lilith’s face made her close her mouth. Lilith squatted down in front of Sarai. “I won’t ask you to forgive me, but I promise I won’t let it happen again.”
Sarai kicked at a clump of grass. “If you say so.”
“Will you come visit me?” she asked. “Or will you let me come visit you?”
Sarai stole a glance at her. “I won’t try to stop you.”
She broke into a glowing smile. “Thank you. You don’t know what that means to me.”
He cocked his head to one side. “Do you really mean it? You promise you won’t let it happen again?”
She swallowed hard. “I never should have done it. I thought everyone would be better off if I wasn’t around. You don’t know what it was like out there....” She broke off.
He frowned. “I don’t need to know what it was like. All that matters is that you’re my sister. We’ve waited a long time to get you back. No one cares what happened out there.”
Lilith glanced at Taig. He knew what happened out there. He knew everything, and he didn’t say anything. He looked on and let her work this out on her own.
She turned back to her brother. “I don’t remember the time we lived together. Maybe you could help me remember.”
He raised his head a fraction more, and his face opened up. “No one cares about the time before. You’re a different person now.” He hastened to reassure her when he saw he start. “We all are. A lot can happen in seven years. You’re not a baby anymore, and no one wants you to be a baby. You grew up, and we want you the way you are now. We want you for you.”
Lilith dropped her eyes. “I understand that now. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry,” he shot back. “Just don’t do it anymore.”
She held his gaze. “I won’t.”
He straightened up. “Good. Then you better get on your way.” He glanced over his shoulder toward the south. “I guess you won’t be running there.”
She sighed. “I’ll have to learn.
Taig stepped forward to stand at her side. “But not today. We’ll walk back.”
Aimee took Taig’s hand, but her voice cracked when she tried to speak. “Thank you.”
Taig only smiled. “Let’s go.”
Aimee held out her hand. “Wait a minute. There’s someone else who wants to say good-bye to you before you leave.”
Taig turned back. “Who?”
Aimee raised her face into the sun reflecting off Melnili’s myriad windows. A distant shout and a gaggle of laughter rang against the brick walls, and footsteps rang down the stairs. Taig shielded his eyes against the glare. Lilith would have drawn back from another emotional encounter, but she recognized something in the sound and kept her place.
The laughter came closer, and Tara and Allen, Taman and Aeifa, and Ari and Reina ran out towards them. They surrounded Taig and Lilith. Tara took Lilith’s free hand, and Taman clapped Taig on the back. They swirled around them, and little by little, the whole group migrated south, past Melnili’s walls glowing red in the falling sun. Aimee and Sarai remained behind and watched them out of sight, until the next time Lilith looked back for them, they were no longer there.
Reina urged her forward. “Come on, Lilith!”
She suffered them to lead her farther down the path, farther away from the mother and brother she never knew, farther away from everything in her past. The little group never ran, even though she was the only one who couldn’t keep up. They walked with deliberate casual care. They strolled and stopped often to rest and refresh themselves. Aeifa and the twins hunted for their food, but Taig and Tara stayed close to Lilith. They never left her alone, and they kept her laughing and talking until the rocky hills and plains turned to lush, dank forest.
The dark trees made Lilith walk slower, but the others hurried onward. Every sight and sound of their home territory encouraged them to
get home faster. When they came to a sheer chasm of rock cliffs, everyone stripped to their bare skin and swam in the freezing water until the sun disappeared behind the precipice. The boys jumped off rocks and catapulted into deep pools, and Reina splashed water in Tara’s face. Their laughter frightened the unseen creatures in the forest around them.
Lilith watched with a smile, but she didn’t join the fun. Every step brought her closer to the Lycaon village, to Taig’s family and all the people he’d known his whole life. Tara and Aeifa understood about Lilith, but what about the others? The village loomed in Lilith’s mind surrounded by so many questions.
They quit swimming and playing and dried off. Then they set off again, more subdued now, on the last leg of their journey home. No one spoke. The four couples held hands and walked two abreast, through leafy glades and dappled shade. Even the forest relaxed and sighed at their homecoming.
At last, Aeifa and Taman halted at a turn of the trail. They gazed through the trees, and the others drew up around them. Beyond the trees, the sun slanted into a clearing. A puff of warm air wafted into the travelers’ noses. It brought the scent of burning wood and roasting meat. Voices rose and fell. Shadows crossed the bright expanse, and smoke billowed through the branches.
Men, women, and children walked back and forth between the houses. They sat in clusters in doorways and carried wood and water from the forest. A woman over there stirred her cooking pot and gave a spoonful of the food to her child. A man over there chopped sticks in half with his axe.
The travelers stood silent and hidden in the trees and watched the scene. No one in the village noticed them. Everything played out as if they’d never left. The only change remained inside them. Taig’s hand tightened around Lilith’s. Aeifa smiled at Taman, and Reina touched Ari’s cheek. None of them made any move to enter the village. They watched from a distance in quiet appreciation of everything they’d lost and found again. A thousand fevered dreams they’d cherished in their hearts during the long months of homeless wandering came true at that moment.
At last, a man came to his door and surveyed the village. He cast his eye over the people from the height of authority, and lines of care scored his forehead. Another, shorter man came out of the same house and stood at his side. They observed the village together, and the shorter man murmured something into his companion’s ear. The tall man nodded, but said nothing.
Taig sighed when he recognized his father and uncle. He couldn’t stand out here in the woods, looking in, forever. He would walk into the village and take his place at their side, his rightful place as the new leader of his people. Life called these ghosts back to life. He squared his shoulders. “Let’s go.”
The others fell in at his side, two by two, and they crossed the last threshold to their bright future together.
The End
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Uoria Mates Box Set
A Sci-Fi Romance
Complete Series (Books 1 – 10)
Ruth Anne Scott
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Book 1 – Captured by Sweet Alien
Chapter 1
The hairs on my neck stood. It happened every time my boss was near. He gave me the creeps and on more than one occasion I had to politely remind him to keep his filthy hands to himself. Ever since I turned down his advances he made up his mind on giving me the worst cases and projects. I lifted my tired eyes to see him standing in front of my desk with a smirk. I knew that look. It meant he had something planned—and I wasn’t going to like it.
“Ms. Baines, I have a new assignment for you.”
Leaning back in my chair I nodded giving him permission to sit in the chair and waited for him to spit it out.
“You’re going on a trip.”
“Where to?”
“Uoria.”
I gulped. Out of all the places he could have sent me and it was to the planet full of the most temperamental species humans had ever studied. “What for?”
“We need to learn more about them, what’s in their blood.”
I gasped. “You know that’s against the rules, Ryan.” Everyone knew that the King and Queen made the rules. They still allowed us to do testing, but never of their blood. And I knew what happened to those who tried getting the blood of a Denynso. They never came back that’s what.
He shrugged. “You’re sneaky enough and no one pays much attention to you. We need to know what makes them so powerful.”
His eyes lit up and I shuddered. I knew exactly why he wanted a sample of their blood. It was the same reason every other scientist wanted it, and it was exactly why they had all failed.
“Oh, and preferably the blood from their strongest warrior is what you need to get. You’ve heard of him right?”
Of course I had. Everyone in my line of work had heard of the monstrous Denynso called Pyra. He was one mean son of a bitch and no one wanted near him. Well, besides all the women that vied for a place in his bed. But there was nothing scientific about that.
“You know I won’t do that.”
He shrugged. “Then you’re job is as good as gone and so will your reputation. You’ll never work again. Not in this field!” He spun on his heel and looked over his shoulder. “Might as well practice saying, “Do you want fries with that?” because that’s the only work you’ll ever get. You know how much we need this information.”
“Wait,” I said and sighed. I couldn’t lose my job. It was all I had, my livelihood. I’d have to find a way to convince the leaders to let me have a sample and test it. Maybe fudge the results or something. I would find a way. “I’ll do it!” I prayed I live long enough to explain why I was asking for the one thing they’d refused since we learned of their species.
His smile widened as if he had won the biggest prize. He knew I wouldn’t be coming back and that was his plan all along. They’d kill me before I got close enough to the warrior, and if I managed to sneak by he’d break my neck with two fingers. I shuddered. This wasn’t going to be a fun vacation. I needed to form a plan and offer the Denynso something they couldn’t resist, but I didn’t have anything—not really. I only hoped I could get them on the off chance that they wouldn’t want me to lose my job. Maybe they’d feel sorry for me, throw me a bone or something. No matter how small it was, I’d take it.
“Good, I knew you’d see it my way. You need to be ready at four a.m.”
Then he left me stewing knowing he’d given me an impossible task. If I was going down, I was taking that piece of shit down with me. I smiled evilly. They were an angry species. It shouldn’t be too hard to piss them off and let them know it was all Ryan’s idea.
After he left me alone, I did what I was best at. I hacked the system and copied the surveillance from my office. Right there I’d be able to prove what was going on to the Denynso, if I could play it. I already knew there wasn’t electricity, but I’d charge my laptop for that purpose alone. Proof my boss was a scumbag and it was his idea to send me there to specifically break their rules. Maybe I’d have a chance to survive my stay there, but coming back home wouldn’t be so great.
Chapter 2
I was ready to go and waited for my boss well before four. I hadn’t slept at all. All night I planned how I would handle the situation my boss had put me in. I knew they would be expecting another scientist. I’d have to meet with them before I step foot on their compound. From what I had learned it was a very secure planet. Warriors scoured the land to keep watch over the humans, and be on the lookout for an attack from their enemies.
I shuddered and thought about what I’d heard about their enemies. There were several horror stories of the attacks on Uoria. The Klimnu were
disgusting beasts. Luckily they hadn’t managed to make it to Earth yet or humans would be in big trouble.
Ryan strolled up to me at four on the dot and smiled handing over my paperwork.
“Here’s all the stuff you’ll need when you get there. I have you down as routine testing for plant and animal life. You’re there for up to six months. That should be plenty of time to get what I need.” He gave me a look and I didn’t miss the tone.
I nodded, but inside I was fuming. He was trying to get me killed. I was his competition, and the one that turned his ass down. He didn’t take rejection well, and now I was paying for it. But I was smarter than him and would come up on top.
“All right, well you know how to get in contact if you need anything, but I’m sure you won’t.”
I kept my mouth shut because this was all a fucking set up. I couldn’t believe he’d stoop so low, but maybe it had something to do with the fact that I was up for the promotion he wanted. Luckily I’d learned to control my Irish temper. My mother always told me one day it would come in handy to have self-control, and now I was learning.
Without a word I picked up my bags and boarded the ship. I was nervous as hell. This was the first time I was traveling to another planet, and I wasn’t too sure about it. I wasn’t the type of person who wanted to experience new things. I’d much rather stay in the lab by myself. I felt Ryan’s eyes burning into my back and straightened without turning back. He wouldn’t get a rise out of me. As soon as the metal door clanged closed I let out the breath I’d been holding and muttered, “stupid ass mother fucker.” He would get his.
The very human pilot chuckled. Apparently I spoke a little louder than I thought. Oh well. Everyone knew how I felt about Ryan so it wouldn’t be a surprise that I’d be cursing him. They also knew I had a temper and I held a grudge like no other. I glared at the man and he shrugged before getting ready to take off.
The New Angondra Complete Series Page 35
