She tilted her head and regarded him curiously. “What are you thinking?”
He smiled down at his mate.
“My only thoughts worth having are about you, agishi. Everything good that I do stems from them. I am thinking that when you came to this planet you came to liberate your sister, but in truth it is my heart that you liberated—and conquered.”
She dropped the cookie she was holding and stared at him with shining eyes.
“Oh, Kaede,” she whispered as she wrapped her arms around him and drew him down for a kiss.
He lived for the touch of her lips and the sound of her laugh. He knew nothing of having a heart before he met his agishi—his one.
Bonus
Alisha and Gorul
ALISHA WAS COLD AND wet, the sensation slowly driving ice deep into her with each breath she drew in with a rattling gasp.
She was dying. She knew that much.
The male who had ripped into her had done so with such brutality that she’d felt each deep puncture of his claws. When the medical team had looked over her wounds and shook their heads, she knew. When they dumped her in the swamp, she definitely knew. Night was coming soon, and everyone knew that even if she survived her wounds, the predators that called the swamp their home would get her.
They’d laughed about it as they dropped her in the shallow mud, her wounds only partially healed before they’d discovered that there wasn’t anything that they could do to save the shredded remnants of her uterus. They’d yanked her out of the med pod only half-healed and left her, weak and helpless, in the filth.
Alisha laughed. Even if she escaped the predators by some miracle, she’d probably die anyway from infections. Who knew what microorganisms she’d been exposed to? She wasn’t ever going to get off Agraadax now. She’d never see her family again... or Frankie.
A fresh stream of tears streaked down the sides of her face.
Her eyes twitched to the side at a low rustling noise. The brush quaked as if something large were moving through it. Her heart lurched painfully into a staccato beat with each thumping, sloshing sound that grew louder every second.
A low pained whimper broke from her raw throat as her hands fisted the dank mud. This was it.
The bushes parted before her eyes, revealing glowing amber eyes with a red slit pupil within their shadows. Alisha opened her mouth to croak an objection when the large Agraak slid out, a massive bow in his hands. Over a head taller than any Agraak she’d seen—save one—he was an imposing sight. Steel gray threads stood starkly in the dark, lank braids falling down his shoulders that framed a dark green face grooved with deep lines around his mouth and brow. Even the spine dropping from the center of his chin was longer and thicker than she was accustomed to seeing. She shivered helplessly as he leaned in over her, his brow puckering in confusion.
It was as if he’d never seen a human before.
His voice rumbled out of him, a honeyed growling that was oddly pleasing to her ears.
“What manner of creature is this?” he muttered as he tapped her with the curved end of his bow.
Alisha recoiled and whimpered, her partially healed wounds pulling sharply at the movement.
“Please, help me,” she whispered brokenly. If he was going to kill her, she only hoped that he would be quick and merciful.
He drew back, his brows flying up as he put a hand on one of several knives strung along the dark bands pulled tight around his massive barrel chest. When it became obvious that she wasn’t going to make a threatening move toward him, he crept forward again. She stared back at him mutely, terror trembling through her. His reaction both scared and perplexed her. If he was going to kill her, then what was he waiting for? A horrible thought occurred to her that he didn’t understand her words. Other than act surprised, he didn’t seem like he’d understood anything she said.
“What have the people of the bright hives done?” he grumbled.
His fiery gaze roamed over her face and then down her body, seeming to take in wounds letting her life’s blood leach away from where they hadn’t had the opportunity to finish healing. There his eyes stilled and he gaped. His hands trailed over her, inches above her skin as if fearful of touching her. His eyes met hers once again, sympathy shining from them.
“Poor creature,” he crooned sadly. “Did the males in the small bright hive do this to you?”
Hating the splash of dirty water creeping up further around her skin, she nodded, tears springing fresh to her eyes at the jarring that sent new waves of pain through her wrecked body. The gesture was small, but something flared in his eyes when he saw it. The male dropped closer, his expression full of wonder.
“Do you understand my words?”
“Yes,” she whispered, nodding her head again.
He seemingly got the idea, and sat back on his haunches, his bow tapping on his thigh in a rapid, nervous tempo.
“Gods of the twilight preserve,” he muttered, his spines vibrating before flaring out around his head. He leaned in closer and sniffed at her.
Alisha knew she probably smelled wretched, between her own blood and the putrid scents of the water she was left to lie in. A low rumble of interest rattled out from his chest as he leaned closer. That was when she caught the delicious scent wafting from him: nutmeg, ginger, and cinnamon. He smelled of her grandmother’s kitchen around the holidays and her special spice cookies. Longing filled her, replaced by an unending pain when she attempted to lurch forward to pull him down to her.
His fiery gaze bore into her for a long moment before he let out a long growl. Alisha wasn’t prepared when he gently scooped her up into his arms. She cried out miserably as every wound sent pain hurtling through her system. He made a soothing sound in his throat in accompaniment to the soft buzz of his spines.
“Poor female, all will be well. I am Gorul. You will be safe with me.”
With a weak hand, she tapped lightly on her chest.
“Alisha.”
“Alisha... is that your name?”
“Yessss,” she hissed and nodded again for his benefit.
A small, pleased smile flitted over his face, making his eyes crinkle.
“I know you hurt, little one. I am going to take you to a spring where I can tend to your wounds and bind them, and then I will take you somewhere safe. Rest,” he murmured.
With a quick movement of his hand, he placed something soft beneath her tongue that had a peculiar too-sweet taste to it. It wasn’t until the wooziness hit her that she realized she’d been drugged.
ALISHA HAD NO AWARENESS of the time slipping past her. She woke once to the hot lick of pain and splash of cold water as the Agraak holding her mercilessly cleaned out her wounds. She’d barely been aware of him smearing a foul-smelling paste on them and the firm wrap of some spongy material around her torso before the shock to her system dragged her back into unconsciousness.
After that, she woke periodically and briefly at odd times. Sometimes it was as she was being carried through the swamp, held high against a warm, deliciously perfumed chest that confused her muddled brain. At other times, she woke in the dead of night with creatures calling through the wood with their wails that never failed to inspire terror in her. It seemed that the swamp was her unending nightmare that she couldn’t escape from even in the depths of her mind. She was consumed by the sounds and wet earthy tang of its scents. Despite the horrors of it, it became a sort of strange familiarity so that when she woke in a hut lit mellowly with the low light of several small lanterns, fear stabbed deep as if lancing a festering wound.
Crying out, Alisha twisted, trying to throw herself off the strange bed she found herself on. The need to escape was a primal urge scraping at her insides brutally, setting off the frenzy mounting in her confused mind. At her terrified cry, the curtain over the entrance swung open and two males rushed in. One seemed familiar, but she lashed out instinctively at them, hoping that her flailing body would discourage them from getting too close. They ste
pped aside and waited patiently, crooning softly at her until she stilled and watched them closely, her chest heaving with the rapid pants of breath that laboriously pushed through her lungs.
Her eyes fastened on the larger male, her mind working desperately to place where she recognized him from. Was it the lab or the facility? Her memories were jumbled in her head. A low soothing murmur from the other male drew her attention away from the larger familiar one to him. He was slightly smaller with an attentive scowl on his face as he hovered over her. She watched him warily, but he did nothing threatening, circling her and muttering to himself in a calming fashion, and Alisha felt her fight drain out of her.
She stiffened when the familiar male pressed closer to her, his nostrils expanding as if scenting the air around her. When the smell of sweet spices hit her nose, she started and let out a low moan of pleasure as nerves lit up with pleasure and tingled with awareness.
She wasn’t well. Why was she reacting like this?
“Noswal, please, step away,” the other male ordered calmly. “She is in no state for such things. We must see to getting her mended first.”
“Yes, of course,” the other male sighed. He gave her a small, hopeful smile. “Do you remember me, agishi? I am Gorul. I found you in the swamp.”
“Gorul...” she whispered as the haze in her mind slowly cleared.
She remembered dying in the fetid water and the bright eyes of a male standing over her. She remembered his comforting arms, and the feel of his body near hers. A hot flush swept over her cheeks and she nodded, turning her eyes away. She felt so inundated with confusion that she refused to look up again until the scent of him was gone from the room.
The other male, a doctor she presumed, approached with a bowl in his hands.
“Alisha, I am the tribe’s healer. I am going to give you some medication to make you more comfortable and then I will check your bandages from there. Is this agreeable to you?”
She paused, her eyes searching his face. She didn’t recall an Agraak doctor ever speaking so kindly to her. Hesitantly she nodded and a pleasant smile curved his lips. Although he had the same sharp teeth of the species, there was genuine warmth to his smile that set her at ease. He moved in beside her and showed her the murky, herbal-smelling contents of the bowl he held. A warmth came up off of it as he braced her with one arm and pressed the bowl against her lips. She sipped at the contents, her mind returning to Gorul, a warmth settling in her belly as her mind lingered upon him.
GORUL RETURNED TO HER and her heart began to beat with a certain clarity despite her inability to move much. He sat beside her on the platform bed, his long tail, a feature that was certainly a new one for her, curling beside him. She watched it with open curiosity, a shade too close to rude staring but she couldn’t help it. With its bright red end terminating in a gleaming bony tip, it was fascinating. Under her perusal it curled tighter, and he laughed.
“You find interest in my tail, agishi?”
She smiled up at him and nodded.
“I’ve never seen anything like it.”
A pleased sigh rattled out of him.
“I never tire of hearing your beautiful voice. Even if I am unable to understand the words you speak, I pray that you always continue to favor me with it.”
She half expected him to get up and leave to go back to whatever things he had to do. Instead, he brought out a wooden comb and with gentle fingers tended to the task of untangling her matted hair. His voice dropped into a lilting song about lovers hidden in the dark among eternal mists who bore the beginning of all things.
Even when she drifted off to sleep, he was still there when she woke until evening descended. That became their routine over the first few days. It was only in subsequent days that he reluctantly left her side to attend to other duties for hours at a time. She looked forward to their time more and more, missing him whenever he left. It was in that fashion that the first few weeks passed as she slowly recovered. He came every morning with some fruit or a small gift for her, but it was his company that touched her and that she began to thirst for. He made her feel safe and his presence felt so much like home that she yearned for it constantly.
Then, one morning, Gorul didn’t appear.
Alisha waved to catch the healer’s attention.
“Yes, Alisha? Are you well?”
She nodded her head and blew a frustrated breath. It was best to keep her question simple.
“Gorul?”
The healer patted her arm lightly.
“He is away on an important hunt with his warriors. Do not fret. He will return soon. Until then, I am told that you are to rest. Are you hungry?”
She nodded reluctantly and frowned as he went to fetch her some fruit and sweetened flatbread. She shouldn’t care that he was gone. What did it matter? Still, it was hard to deny that she missed the soft, gentle way he spoke to her even though he couldn’t understand her replies. She missed the light touch of his hand where she hadn’t known the kindness of any touch for a long time. He made her feel whole again. It was frustrating to feel so much for a male she could never share her thoughts with, but as the days passed a melancholy settled over her.
She missed the big bastard.
THE DOCTOR HAD JUST begun to allow Alisha short periods of walking around the room the day Gorul returned. She’d come to understand that the hut was in the center of the village and so she was not surprised to often hear of things going on around the village. Many of the villagers often stopped to greet her even so that she didn’t feel too lonely. Although she couldn’t speak their language, she did her best to make her appreciation understood.
It was for that reason that she couldn’t miss the rush of bodies and happy shouts of greeting to their noswal—their village leader, she’d surmised. She flushed with pleasure at the idea of seeing him again. One of the female’s who’d visited her and told her in a hushed voice that she was very fortunate that the noswal had taken an interest in her. He hadn’t given his favor to any since his mate and young offspring died in a hunting accident many revolutions ago when he’d been a young male.
The idea that he felt something for her had slowly taken root.
From the door, Alisha could see the massive central platform where the village seemed to gather for the evening meal and where a great many gatherings of importance occurred. She smiled as she spotted Gorul among the crowd, his right arm held up to gain their attention. She pulled the curtain back to wave to him so that he would see her welcoming him back. That was when the bodies shifted, and she saw that he was not alone. A woman with long, dark curls clung to his arm, a wide smile on her face. Alisha’s heart dropped at the sight, an empty pain stabbing at her chest.
Stepping back, Alisha let the curtain fall and made her way back into her bed.
After some time, she heard the fabric of the curtain shift and a warm familiar smell spread into the room, wrapping itself around her seductively. Alisha breathed through her mouth and willed herself to ignore it. She refused to look at him, even when the bedding shifted as he sat on the platform beside her.
“Alisha, you do not look at me?” His words sounded surprised and more than a little wounded.
Nursing her bruised heart, Alisha turned her head and looked at him.
“What do you want?” she asked numbly. Even though he didn’t understand her words, she hoped her tone would fully convey her disinterest in speaking to him.
As expected, a frown pulled at his lips. He opened his mouth but the sound of the curtain fluttering interrupted
“My apologies, noswal. The human female Mareesa is shouting down the village for you,” came the voice of a harried-sounding warrior.
Gorul sighed. “I will be out presently.”
The weight on the bed shifted and she felt him lean closer, his hand lightly stroking her arm as his scent flooded even more intensely around her.
“I had hoped that you would welcome me, agishi.”
What the hell was wit
h the “agishi” business?
“I’m sorry. Perhaps you should try Marissa. She seems far more accommodating,” she hissed.
“Marissa?”
The male cocked his head, obviously latching onto the one word that he understood. His eyes widened and a low chuckle rumbled around her as he resumed his gentle stroking.
“You think I want Marissa? No, that female has clung to me since we stole the females away from the terrible bright hive near where I found you. My heart is full of sympathy for the females, because they are afraid, but you are my agishi.”
“Agishi?” she said, her eyes narrowing on him in scrutiny.
“My one of my heart. My mate. We have ormar between us, little one. Why would I choose another female when I have the sweetest gift already? One who not only stirs my blood with ormar but is a female that I have come to know and adore over our time together. My heart ached to be apart. It has been a long time since I have known this joy. My heart has only been touched by sorrow since my family was taken into the next world. I have wanted no other until you were given to me by the gods. You are the joy of my heart. No other can take that place.”
Alisha looked at him, his eyes shining at her with sincerity. With a smile she sat up and edged closer to him, wishing he could know the words in her heart. Instead, she set her hand on his face, a face filled with so much strength and kindness, and stroked his cheek, delighted when he leaned into it. His own hand drew up and stroked her hair for a moment before he leaned forward and captured her lips with his own.
Startled, for never had an Agraak kissed her—not once among the multiple times she’d been bred—she froze but then eagerly leaned into him. The taste of him invading her as much as his scent. She scrambled closer, pressing against him, arousal spiking in her blood, rushing through her with an intoxicating warmth like she’d drunk a large glass of wine.
A soft cough brought them abruptly back to themselves and Gorul pulled away, regret clear in his eyes. The healer stood at the entrance, trying to look stern despite the smile twitching his lips.
Heart of the Agraak Page 26