by Octavia Kore
I feel a painful tug at my heart. Poor Ettrian was probably still in the first stage of learning to cope with hearing. That would explain all the times he snuck away when Kareen cried or got too loud. I’d mistaken it for him just not wanting to deal with her or finding her annoying, but now I see that it may have been physically painful for him to be around her during those moments. “Who did this to you?”
“They called themselves Tachin. We were not familiar with their species before we were taken.” Doxal tells me.
Yssig nods. “It sounds as if one of the males here was also altered by them before being placed with you. I do not know why they left the other untouched.”
My mind is starting to feel foggy and my body is so heated that I’m tempted to start stripping off my dress despite my strange company. I take another drink, hoping the tea will help, but it only seems worse once I swallow it. I look down into the cup where the bloom has settled to the bottom and frown. What the fuck? Is it the tea? My eyes narrow slightly and I feel my whole body sway. This is not good! My mind is screaming at me that this was a stupid idea. I shouldn’t have tried the tea without Aquilain or Ettrian’s assurance that it would be fine. I shouldn’t have brought these strangers into our home. I just want my guys to come back. I need them.
I don’t even notice when the two males stand and walk over to me, I’m far too caught up in my panic until I feel a hand on my shoulder. It’s gentle and oh so cool against my burning skin and I hear myself moan hoarsely. Nope! No, no, no, no. My eyes shoot wide open and I stumble backward, but my legs are unsteady and instead of carrying me away, I feel myself crumble to the floor.
“Calm down.” One of them, I think Yssig, hisses.
Large hands pull at my arms and I start to struggle against him, but my body is a traitorous bitch and I feel need wash through me as I’m pulled up against a hard chest. “Let me go!” Another moan escapes me and I bit down hard on my bottom lip. Damn me!
“We are not trying to hurt you, Inoxia. Stop fighting and let us help you.” The voice is right next to my ear and I feel a shiver run through me. My mind flashes back to all the times Ettrian has held me like this, all the times he’s breathed softly against my skin, or the way Aquilian presses his head to mine before he places the softest kiss on my lips.
“Please.” I plead pathetically as I arch into him. I want my aliens, not these two. “I need…” My voice trails off and I hear two sets of quills rattling around me. I feel helpless, weak, needy, and I’m terrified. I’m scared they don’t understand me, that they will take advantage of this situation. Tears fall from my cheeks as a hand caresses my face and I feel my fear choke me, even as my body thrills at the contact. How did I let this happen? How could I have put not just myself, but Kareen as well, in so much danger? As I’m pulled tighter into the alien’s arms, I pray to any gods that might be listening to keep my little girl safe, to allow her to sleep through whatever is going to happen to me.
Chapter 12
Ettrian
There is an overwhelming pounding, piercing pain inside my head as I come slowly back to consciousness. Groaning I try to turn my head, but I find that I’m unable to move it. Panic shoots through me as I try to adjust my arms and legs, my eyes snap open and I glace frantically around the familiar metal room. “Ah, there you are.”
The voice makes my stomach twist anxiously and I jerk even harder against the bonds. “You lied! You told me I had more time!”
A chilling laugh fills the room. “I did indeed tell you I would give you more time, but we found you running away like a coward.”
My lips pull back over my teeth at the insult. “You expect me to do something unspeakable to the female! I could have hurt her!”
“You Dauur and your misplaced sense of chivalry,” he chides. “I gave you a chance.”
The panic is all-consuming as I realize what he will do to Kareen and I have to find a way to delay this. “Wait! You didn’t give me a fair chance!”
There is silence for a moment before he speaks again. “Not fair? I place you and your twin in an enclosure with a fertile female and this isn’t considered fair? Explain.”
“Dauur cannot reproduce like this. We …” Think damnit. “We need to communicate our desire to mate. In a way the female can understand.” I’m grasping desperately for anything that will give me more time. “The device you gave me doesn’t work properly. She does not understand us and will not permit us to mate with her.”
More silence. A moment later the door to my right slides open and the bastard himself walks in, followed closely by another of his species. “We will check the device. If it is defective, I will allow you more time. If we find no fault in it, we will bring in the kit and she will die for your lies.” He gestures for the alien behind him to come forward and he takes the device from its shaking hands.
I pray fervently to the Sun Father, begging him to intervene, to do something to protect Xia and our kit. The alien presses something on the device before he waves it over my head, brushing the holes they created the last time I was here. His large eyes narrow and he growls, slamming the tool into the chest of the creature behind him. “I give you a task and you fail!” The being stumbles back, shivering and cowering against the floor. “Fix his translator, now!”
It takes only a moment once the alien pulls himself together. There are pops and clicks inside my head, they aren’t painful, just strange. The one in charge is glaring the whole time, watching every move the other one makes. When he is finally finished, he waves the device over my head again and this time there is a small chime. By the look of sheer relief in his eyes, I assume he has succeeded. Without any warning at all, there is a loud blast and the one that had been standing in front of me jerks to the side, a massive hole appearing in his chest as he crumples lifelessly to the floor.
I stare at his corpse as black liquid gushes from the open wound.
“Thanks to his error, you will be given four days. However,” The green alien puts his weapon back on his hip. The door slides open again and three similar looking aliens walk in, two of them grabbing the corpse and dragging it from the room while the third comes to a stop at my side. “The game has changed for you and your brother.” My stomach sinks. This was never a game for Aquilian and I. “Two other males were released into the dome a moment ago. I assure you it will not take long for them to seek the female out.”
Rage surges inside of me and I fight against the bonds. “NO!” The alien’s lips curl at the sides.
“If you and your brother can keep her for yourselves, you may take the four days. If not, the other males will be given your time and I will take the kit as promised.”
Before I can even respond, the room around me spins so quickly that I feel my stomach rise. My eyes slam shut and when I open them again we are back in the forest. My feet are on the ground and I’m no longer strapped in place. The alien I assume is in charge jerks his head to the one at my side. “You will be escorted back and watched closely. Do not mistake this extension for kindness, Dauur.” He disappears in the next moment and I turn to the one who has been left with me. I don’t want him anywhere near my home or my family.
A significant amount of time has passed since I left the tree, at least a few hours. I have no idea how long it will take the other males to find Aquilian and Xia, but I need to deal with one threat at a time.
“Move, Dauur.” The alien hisses.
“This way.” I have a plan, but I’m not sure if it’s smart or completely insane.
The alien stumbles behind me for the hundredth time in the hour or so that we’ve been walking and I laugh in my mind as he curses. He grumbles again and then shoves at my back, “Where are we going? We should have been at our destination by now.”
My head jerks to our left, “We just have to make it over this hill and the tree will be visible.” He growls again, but nods and waves at me to continue.
They know we are coming. Like the Dauur, the nolfira rely on the vibra
tions around them to hunt and to be able to sense when something is drawing near. With the way the alien behind me is stomping through the underbrush, the nolfira clan has probably been on alert for some time. I slow my steps, allowing him to catch up to me. All around me I can feel the shift in the forest, the smaller animals will not come anywhere near here knowing there is a nest. It is quiet, but my ilo picks up the subtle vibrations of the large predators that stalk us through the trees. “Almost there.”
We make it to the top of the hill and I know the moment has come. As the alien comes up next to me I round on him, grabbing his arm and twisting it behind him. Unlike his leader, he has no invisible wall to protect himself from my attack. He tries to grab onto me with his other hand, but I yank hard on the delicate wings on his back, throwing him off his center and making him flail wildly as he tries to right himself. Taking advantage of this I shove as hard as I can, propelling him down the incline. There is a heavy thud when he lands at the bottom and I scramble to get to higher ground. A muffled buzz rolls up from his throat as he begins to push himself up, but a loud growl drowns him out, fear dominating his face as the massive female nolfira emerges from the nest in front of him. She is guarding pups and he is an intruder.
The alien’s eyes go wide in alarm and he lets out a piercing scream as he tries frantically to get to his feet. There was never a chance for him though. Nolfira are fierce in the very best of circumstances and with pups to protect, this female will not allow him to escape.
I turn away as she grabs him in her strong jaws and begins to tear him apart, hoping this will keep the clan busy so that I might make a dash for the tree, but I know I’ve made a major miscalculation when I come face to face with one of the clans younger males. Curse the Sun Father!
Baring my teeth I rattle my quills in a display of dominance, but this male is young and yearns to prove himself to his clan. He will not back down so easily. I curse, with no weapons on me aside from my quills and no one to aid me, the need to think quickly about how to get myself out of this is apparent. The nolfira lunges for me and I drop to the ground so that it sails over my head, snapping its jaws with a loud crack. Flipping over, I kick my leg upward, driving the sharp horn on my calf into its soft belly. It hardly makes a scratch on the beast, but it stuns him enough that I am able to jump to my feet and get some distance between us before he takes off after me. There is loud crashing behind me as the nolfira tramples bushes and downed branches. I dodge around trees and rocks, trying to evade him, but he is fast. I’m forced to a sudden stop when he cuts in front of me, his fangs bared as he pants heavily, eyes gleaming with something that looks like victory. He thinks he’s won, but I’m not giving up that easily.
Yanking two quills from the back of my head, I hold them like daggers and square off against my opponent. Again, he lunges for me and this time I am not fast enough. His front paws slam into my chest and I find myself pinned beneath him on the ground. His claws dig into my skin and his weight is slowly squeezing the breath from my lungs. Sorry, but I have no plans to die today. I swing both of my arms as hard as I can, burying my quills into the sides of his neck and yank down, opening bigger wounds. The shrill screech that erupts from it makes me wish, not for the first time, that I was not gifted with the ability to hear. I take a deep breath as he jerks backward and the weight is lifted from me, but I cannot seem to get up fast enough.
Before I know it, he has me clamped in his mouth and is flinging me across the small clearing we stumbled into. Pain shoots through my whole body as I connect with a tree and land in a heap on the ground. I have broken something, I know it. Strong jaws close around me again and I am flung against one of the large boulders along the edge of the clearing. This time I cannot even attempt to rise, my body hurts all over and a groan slips passed my lips when I open my eyes and see the nolfira watching me. It knows it has won, that I am exactly where it wants me. My eyes are heavy as they droop shut and I conjure up an image of Aquilian mending the basket, Xia next to him as she watches intently, and Kareen sitting in the corner with her rammit in her lap. The last thing I want to see before I am eaten is my family, not the nolfira as it paces toward me. I am making peace with my death when the sound of a sharp, angry screech comes from the beast and frenzied rattling surrounds me.
Someone has come to my aid by the sounds of it, but I cannot seem to force my eyes back open. The sounds of the fight barely reach me as the darkness threatens to pull me under, my body is going numb. Someone or something is moving me, shaking me. A voice is in my head, but I cannot make out who it belongs to. “Ettrian!” Is the last thing that reaches me along the bond before I am pulled under.
Chapter 13
Aquilian
“Get out.”
The look on my twin’s face as I walked away from him with our mate in my arms and our kit at my side had hurt me more than I cared to think about. I had been furious at what I had seen him doing and after he showed me exactly what those aliens who had mutilated him wanted him to do to Xia, I lost my temper. Why had he not told me the moment he had found us in the forest? Or even after he realized she was our fated.
Although I know my twin likely did not mean to hurt her, the thought of what he had looked close to doing to Xia is still unbelievable. Spending my whole day looking for him was not something I had planned to do and the nagging memories I had to endure were not helping my mood. They pushed in on me when I was alone, bringing back some of the most humiliating moments of my life. They overwhelmed me and reminded me that I did not deserve Xia. No matter how much I told myself she was meant for me, that the Sun Father himself had brought her to us, my brain refused to see it. One of the worst of these memories had taken place not too long ago and the wound it had created inside me was still fresh.
Storming out of Safia’s den, I ignore her cries for me to come back.
“Let me explain!”
It does not matter that she is the only one who has ever touched me, that she allowed me to be with her when no other female would even look at me. What she said in there is the only thing that matters at the moment. She had moaned Ettrian’s name at the moment of her pleasure, while I was still inside her, still chasing my own release. It had stopped me dead to hear it roll through her mind along the bond, to know that she was thinking of him while we were together.
“Please Aquilian, hear me out!” she begs as she follows closely on my heels.
“No, he is always the first choice. I am not desirable.” my quills rattle with irritation. “Did you mate with me out of pity?”
“It is not what you think!” I don’t need to see her face to know she is not being truthful.
“Is it not?” My emotions are overflowing as I turn to face her, sure that my eyes are blue instead of the red she expected. “What is it then?”
“I… I cannot tell you. I swore an oath,” her eyes shift down to her feet.
“I do not want any more of your lies Safia. You were with my brother before you sought me out?” There is guilt in her eyes. She nods softly and that is all I need to know.
Leaving her where she stands, I make my way deep into the forest to work through my jealousy. The fact that I should never be jealous of my bondmate crosses my mind more than once, but I cannot seem to help it. He has never been subjected to the same rejection, never had his hopes crushed in the ways that I have. It is not fair.
“Life is rarely, if ever, fair, Aquilian.” I can hear Papa Ekaz tell me as I shake the memory from my mind. He is right, but that does not mean I have to like it.
It took me some time to come to terms with the fact that Ettrian had been with Safia first, although I am not sure why I was ever surprised. He had always been popular among the females, despite the fact that he was a twin. Even so, I would have been willing to work past the jealousy if she would accept us, take us both as her mates and end my uncertainty. Surely, if she had taken us both into her bed, she would not be against the idea of taking us on as mates. A sense of relief fills me wh
en I think about how she refused to accept my offer right away. If she had not sent me out here to find the bloom, I would never have found Xia and Kareen. There would have forever been a gaping hole in my soul where the two of them were meant to be, and who knows what would have happened to them out in the wild if we had not found them.
Turning back to the tree, our mate crosses my mind as dusk approaches, but then the worst kind of vibration works its way through my ilo. I know that vibration. Any Dauur would recognize it immediately since we are taught from a young age how to differentiate them. Moving quickly through the trees, I reach out with my natural bond, trying to get a feel for all the creatures that are in the area. There. Ettrian’s presence is fading quickly in my mind and this shoots worry through me, causing me to nearly fly across the ground in my bid to get to him. As much as we disagree and fight, as much as I hate that he is so easily accepted when I am not, he is a part of me I never wish to have taken away. I cannot lose him, I will not lose him.
Pain laces my throat as I open my mouth and try to make the sound little Kareen makes when she is angry, though I fear it is not as fierce. My quills rattle hard as I swing my leg at the creature, sinking my horn into the soft skin at its nape. The loss of the young male’s life, while unfortunate, is of no concern to me. There will be others born to replace him, but no one can ever replace my twin. That thought is as freeing as it is terrifying.
The Nolfira still has fight in him I realize as he swipes at my free leg, knocking me to the ground. This does not stop me as I yank a quill from atop my head and stab it into his eye as he lunges. The beast twitches for a moment before going still, its dead weight falling over me, making it hard to breathe. I shove its body off of me, not worried about the blood that soaks my skin. My legs propel me across the space to my fallen twin. Ettrian’s wounds are seeping violet blood all over the forest floor. My ilo squirms with distress as I slowly stumble to him.
