by Kama Spice
“Do you remember what my father was like?” he finally whispered.
Sehra jerked her eyes back to his face. It was contorted with a kind of pain that could only come from childhood.
He moved forward and took her hand, urging her to use her gift of the Onyx lineage. “Do you remember…any of it?”
Sehra snatched her hand away. “Some pain is not meant to be shared,” she whispered.
He grabbed her hand again. “You were there,” he said. His eyes flashed. “This was a pain you witnessed.” Then he added softly, “I know you remember it.”
She looked into his eyes, knowing exactly what he was referring to. She gripped his hand in both of hers, slowly opening her mind. Together, they tumbled back to those memories in the dark, cobwebbed spaces of their minds. Days Sehra rarely went back to. The only memories she kept of those days were the ones with Rawa in them—the ones with laughter and joy. The rest—she had done her best to forget. But now Rawa was asking her use her Onyx ability to go back and relive some of those moments.
It was a birthday celebration. Sehra and Rawa were scampering around the grounds as usual when their mothers called them in for the sweet-sharing. The Lith’hah had stewed a sweet, and one of the elders was doling out small portions for the young ones as they gathered together from their various areas of play.
Once all but a few had their bowls of the sweet, the singing began, softly at first, to honor the little Lith’han whose birthday it was.
Sehra was next to Rawa, and her brothers were on his other side.
He looked down at her, mouthing the words to the birthday song of the Lith’hah. As a pre-Awakened male, he was taller than the others his age and much stronger and faster. His was the Copper lineage. The gift of the Coppers was the ability to heal and physically regenerate at twice the speed of other lineages. It was considered an inferior gift because it was physical—the internal gifts were more valued.
She elbowed him and mumbled, “Sing.”
He elbowed her back, shaking his head and mouthing, “Never.”
Sehra gave him a stern look but dissolved into a fit of giggles when he contorted his face into one of his silly looks.
“Oh Ancients,” the elder who was doling out the sweet cursed. “This ladle handle just broke in half.”
“Rawa,” his father boomed from the other side of the gathering, “get the elder another ladle.”
Several of the Lith’hah turned to look at Rawa, but everyone continued singing.
“Do I have to?” Rawa asked.
Sehra could see his father’s fist from where she stood and prayed Rawa would have the sense to do as his father commanded. But she knew Rawa.
“What did I say, cub?” his father roared.
Many of the Lith’hah had stopped singing now and were nervously watching the exchange.
“It’s all right,” the elder said. “I will fetch it. Leave the young one, Rimal. He’s only being a cub.”
“No,” Rawa’s father bellowed. “Fetch the ladle, you useless filth!”
Sehra felt Rawa tense at her side. “Fetch it yourself,” he spat out.
Sehra’s stomach clenched as she saw the rage burn in Rawa’s father’s eyes. Shut up! she wanted to scream. He’ll kill you!
Within seconds, his father was dragging Rawa away by the hair, hurling obscenities at him as they left.
Sehra gulped for breath as her eyes fluttered open. “Enough,” she gasped. Her eyes stung and she wanted only to hold him. To rock that humiliation away.
But Rawa stared at her, unflinching. “Keep going.”
She shook her head, but he tightened his grip on her hand, not letting her leave his memories.
Sehra pulled back the branches and saw Rawa’s hunched figure, squatting by the river, splashing water onto his face. She had searched everywhere for him and finally sensed him far from the pride, heading toward the rushing waters.
“Here you are!” she said, bounding over to where he sat.
He didn’t turn to look at her. “Go away, Sehra.”
She jutted out her bottom lip. “You said you wanted to play Mikra today! I told everyone I was going to beat you and you’re not going to chicken out—”
Then he turned to her. “I said go away!”
Sehra gasped, stepping back. His face looked like someone had smashed a boulder into it repeatedly. Her eyes stung as she reached out to touch him. “What…who—?”
He swatted her hand away and turned back to the river. “Who do you think?”
She pulled her hand back but squatted next to him. “Your father?”
Rawa was silent.
She looked out at the river. “I hate him. I want to kill him for what he does to you,” she said quietly after several moments. “What was it this time?”
He didn’t answer right away. “I got between him and my sister,” he said finally.
“No!” She couldn’t keep the shock from her voice.
Rawa stood. Already his wounds were beginning to heal, looking nothing like the pulpy mix of blood and bruises she saw when she first came upon him.
“Look, you could never understand, okay? Why don’t you go back to your safe little den into your daddy’s arms?”
Sehra stood too, her eyes wide with hurt. “Why are you mad at me?”
He shook his head and walked away. “Just go. I have to make sure my sister’s okay.”
Sehra’s eyes snapped open as she sank to the ground, trembling.
Rawa crouched before her. “That is why I left, Sehra. Not because of you.”
“But…your sister…”
“I knew she was planning to leave,” he said, “as soon as I knew the Copper she was leaving for was a decent sort, I knew I was free to go as well.”
“And you left me. Without so much as a goodbye or an explanation.”
“Sehra. You were a pre-Awakened female. I was a recently Awakened male. I couldn’t take you with me.”
“And you couldn’t wait,” she said softly.
“It was more than I could bear, Sehra. The only reason I stayed as long as I did was because of you and my sister. With her gone and you not even showing signs of Awakening, I would have gone mad. I was a newly Awakened male with lust and rage pumping through my veins.” He paused, managing a lopsided smile. “Not only is that against The Laws, but it is not a good combination for a pre-Awakened female.”
Sehra looked at him as if seeing him for the first time. A wave of copper hair hung over one eye and the Rawa she’d known as a girl merged with the Rawa crouching before her now—a man who knew himself. A man who had made sacrifices, had fought to become who he was.
“Besides,” he continued, “I knew you’d be fine. You were cherished, protected. You were your father’s key to advancement and higher status…still are.”
She looked away. “Father means well,” she said. Why did she feel the need to defend him?
Rawa nodded. “I’m sure he does. But you are your own, Sehra.” He grazed his knuckles down from her collar bone to between her breasts, letting them linger there. “What will you do with your life now?”
Heat spread from the point where his hand made contact with her breasts to all extremities in her body. Sehra reached up and brought his head down, kissing him long and deep. She leaned back, pulling him on top of her, needing to feel the full weight of his body on her, and wrapped her legs around him. She tangled her hands in his hair, undulating and grinding her body beneath his, emotions and images flooding through her.
Through the heat and desire of their lovemaking, she fused her thoughts with his. Without even knowing it, her emotions ran alongside his like currents in the river that had washed his bruises that day.
Rawa inhaled her scent, reaching for one of her large, puckered nipples and taking it into his mouth.
She moaned, pressing herself against him even tighter.
He shook his head to clear it, trying to regain some of his balance, some perspective. But she had a
hold on him that was so complete, so sweet he never wanted to be released from it. He knew she was melding with him as Onyxes were known to. He had heard about it, dreamed of it, yearned for it. And now that he was in its grip—in her grip—he knew no other female would ever be enough.
He slipped a finger inside her wetness and grew dizzy with the contact. He moved to the other nipple, tugging it gently with his lips, pulling on it and teasing it into a tight peak before sliding up to position himself at her entrance.
“Sehra,” he said, his voice heavy with all that couldn’t be formed into words.
“I know, my love.” She took his face in her hands and brought her mouth hungrily to his. I know, my love, she repeated, this time, her voice was in his head and it was surrounded with her emotions and his, swirling together as he slid inside her warm, wet wima.
They built their rhythm together, bonding and merging so completely there wasn’t a crack left between them. He could feel her inside him internally as he was inside her physically. He had the clear sense that she didn’t know the extent of her power over him. He felt her reach into him almost instinctively, placing tiny, light kisses everywhere there was pain. Into all the dark places his physically regenerative powers couldn’t reach. He felt her hunger. A hunger she had stored up for years. He saw too that he wasn’t her first. But he knew from the thoughts she delivered to him that he was her first like this.
When the first ripple of her orgasm flowed through her body, he held her tight, watching her face as she rode the waves. His own orgasm tore through him only seconds later, shattering all thoughts but one—Sehra was an angel of the Onyx lineage and he planned to spend the rest of his life with her.
* * * * *
The first wisps of pink were feathering the sky when sticks crunched beneath large Lith’hah paws. Rawa was instantly alert, his senses prickling. He wrapped the blanket tighter around Sehra, covering her form as fully as he could.
“Wake up,” he whispered. “We are not alone.”
Sehra’s eyes snapped open and she scrambled up just as three large Lith’hah males stepped into view from behind the boulder. They were in their cat forms, shifting back into human when they saw Rawa and then Sehra behind him.
Rawa heard Sehra’s sharp intake of breath behind him.
“Ancients,” he cursed when he realized two of the Lith’hah were Sehra’s brothers.
“Well, what do we have here?” said the larger of her brothers.
“It’s none of your business, Bylon,” she hissed.
The younger of the two stepped forward. “It’s every bit our business,” he snarled. “Your actions will mar the reputation of our entire den! Everything Father has worked hard to build for us will be ruined if others find out about this.” He cast a look of disdain at Rawa.
Rawa growled. “You haven’t changed a bit, Cylar. Still looking to acquire the largest den in the Territories?”
“And you haven’t changed either, I see,” he shot back. “Still an aimless Copper with no goals in life.”
Rawa’s eyes hardened. “Careful.” A lazy smile slid across his face. “I’m your sister’s mate.”
“Like hell you are,” Bylon said. “We may have all been playmates as cubs, but we’re adults now, Copper. Go run with your kind.”
“The name is Rawa,” he said, sensing that Sehra’s brothers were about to shift. His blood boiled at the thought that they considered him so far beneath them. He wanted to laugh when he remembered how sorely they both lost in competitions to him. How they had relied heavily on deception and trickery to win when they did. “And who is your hired thug?”
The Onyx Lith’han moved forward. “I am Ashwin. Sehra’s cousin. Uncle has asked me to help her brothers keep an eye on her until she has taken her vow.”
“I’m not taking the vow,” Sehra spat out.
“You’ll take the vow,” Bylon growled.
“You’ve already agreed to it,” Cylar added.
“I am not taking the vow,” Sehra repeated, dropping on all fours. “No one can make me,” she managed before shifting fully.
Rawa followed suit as did the others.
They faced off, three against two. Rawa could hear his blood pounding in his ears. He was ready to tear these Lith’hah to bits if it meant keeping Sehra with him—and away from Kelum, the one she was being forced to take the vow for.
Twigs crunched behind them and before he could turn, a net was thrown over his body. Rawa tore at the rope, but it only entangled him further.
He heard Sehra yelp in her human form and searched wildly for her. Where was she? And where had the three other Lith’hah come from? Five Lith’hah males surrounded him, blocking him from seeing Sehra.
“Get off me, you piece of shit!” she cried from somewhere on the other side of their circle.
Rawa roared, shifted into his human form but couldn’t untangle himself.
Bylon laughed. “You never were good at catching the unexpected.”
“And you were never good at fighting with honor,” Rawa said. His jaw was tight. He knew this round would go to Sehra’s brothers and their friends. Lith’hah like them never did anything on their own. They always traveled in packs, unable to stand on their own feet. Rawa strained to sense Sehra, but she was moving farther and farther away.
“You will never get near my sister again,” Cylar said, wrapping a length of rope around the bottom of the net. “She is covered in a net just like this one and will be dropped at the feet of our father. He will decide what to do with her.”
“As for you,” Bylon said, finishing with the rope that bound Rawa’s hands, “Father has very specific plans for you, old friend.”
Rawa knew it was best to keep quiet for now and not struggle. He would need to conserve his energy. Something told him he was about to engage in the most important battle of his life.
Chapter Three
Sehra lay still as the net she’d been ensnared in was cut carefully from her body. She clutched at the blanket Rawa had wrapped around her, knowing the smell of their bonding was still strong within its warmth.
Father watched from the tall-backed wooden chair he always sat on. His eyes were shot through with fury as he listened to Ashwin. Mother sat next to him, quiet and solemn as ever—the only hint of her emotions was in the slow interplay of her fingers as she dug the fingernail of one finger into the cuticle of another.
Sehra shivered, knowing that Father would no doubt unleash the full extent of his wrath upon her this time. She had always been an obedient cub, loving her parents but fearing Father a little as well. He rarely punished her as a little one, but every so often she had felt the sting of an open hand across her face. Just once, just enough to let her know the taste of fear.
Father was a large, powerful Lith’han of the Onyx lineage—a lieutenant in the king’s forces, and he was very proud. He had made it clear that he expected his cubs to keep their power within the lineage. He believed it grew stronger with each generation if it was not “diluted”, and he certainly believed it grew more potent if mixed with higher lineages. He made it quite clear how much he detested the thought that any blood of his might be polluted by lower lineages—like Yellows or Reds…or Coppers.
Sehra set her jaw. She was not a cub anymore. She was not even a pre-Awakened female, for Ancients’ sake! The only reason Father held so much control over her at this late stage of her life was because he had so many of the king’s generals under his thumb. They kept a tight watch over his only female cub—his “key to advancement” as Rawa had put it.
Her heart flipped. Had Rawa been right? She knew Father appealed to the greed and lust of many male Lith’hah—paying them well with the gold coins of the humans. They shifted into human form and used the coins to sample feasts of the human sort, reserved only for males in the human territories, south of the northern border. Sehra had heard human males had a tacit entitlement to females that Lith’hah laws strictly forbade. She had heard stories that human elders
did not protect their females adequately, that there were violations and transgressions, often even before a female was Awakened.
She shuddered. She didn’t know whether any of the stories were true, and she hoped never to find out. But Sehra did know what Father was up to was strictly forbidden by the Council, and most Leader Kings kept a keen eye out for the exchange of the human coins. She had asked only once about a coin she’d found while playing in the den. The crack from her father’s hand and the imprint of his fingers on her small face for weeks were enough to keep her from ever asking again.
When Ashwin was finished, Father nodded and sent him away. Ashwin avoided her glare as he walked out. Coward, she thought. When she was free to roam again, she would teach him a thing or two.
“Sehra,” her father said, turning to her. “You have deliberately disobeyed me.”
She quelled the panic within by not looking directly at him. Instead, she appealed to her mother. “It’s Rawa, Mother,” she said, her eyes pleading. “We played together almost daily when we were young ones! You know his family, you know his character…”
“Nonsense!” Father boomed. He placed his elbow on the armrest of his chair and perched his chin on the knuckles of his hand.
Sehra’s head snapped toward his voice. As always, his fury held great command over the den. She knew his relaxed posture only meant that he was more furious than she’d ever seen him. He was a man aware of his power.
“A Copper.” Father spit the lineage out like a rotting berry. “You are Sehra of the Onyx lineage and you have agreed to make the vow to Kelum. If you have mated with the Copper, it is no matter. You will never give him the vow. Your blood shall never mingle with his. I will do everything in my power to see to that, my young one.”
Sehra looked at her mother. “Mother…”
“Your father has spoken, Sehra,” her mother said. She chewed on her bottom lip a moment before continuing. “He only wants what is best for you, my sweet. You are young. You do not understand the ways of the world yet. We are doing our duty and protecting you—please try to understand.”