“Besides,” I crooned, gazing deep into her stunned eyes, “if the tribes don’t unite soon, the cure won’t matter because the aliens will kill us all.”
7
Natalie
I couldn’t stop staring at the muscles rippling along Markon’s back with every step he took through the forest. If I dropped my gaze just a little I could watch his…
No! You’re on a mission, remember?
This was no time to get distracted by yet another nearly naked Warg-man. The Valley village swarmed with them, and most had vied for my attention at some point or another since my sisters and I arrived.
I couldn’t deny that I enjoyed their attentions, especially after a lifetime of being told I was undesirable. But once I started working on the cure to the drought, all else fell by the wayside.
Until I laid eyes on Markon. If only Sienna had warned me about how gorgeous he was, particularly with those electrifying, almost unnatural green eyes that set him apart from all the Wargs I’d encountered. He stood a couple inches taller than Solan, and towered over me. Terrans considered me a giant but next to him, I felt like a tiny, little woman.
I wonder how it would feel to be under him…STOP!
I slapped myself around mentally and averted my gaze, focusing on the plants. Most of them were the same as on the other side of the river, but every few hundred yards, a new one would pop up.
“What’s this one?” I asked, scurrying just off the path to pluck a pretty, lavender-colored tuft of leaves. When I took a sniff, the acrid scent made me sneeze.
“Just a weed,” Rikor grumbled behind me. Even though he was clearly older than Markon, he was as brawny as any Warg I’d met. His dark eyes hidden behind a straight sheet of equally dark hair gave him a brooding appearance that matched his personality.
“I believe it’s called sneeze weed,” Markon said.
“Really?” Amazing that the name so perfectly suited the plant. When I looked up, he grinned.
“No, I have no idea. If Rikor doesn’t know, I’m sure Bandrin, our shaman, will.”
I laid it in my fast-filling basket and looked everywhere but at Markon as we walked on, the incline becoming steeper but not difficult. Aside from the distractingly attractive Warg in front of me, I was actually excited about this little adventure. Learning new things always tripped my trigger, especially when it came to nature.
At the Center, the focus of scientific inquiry had been on complicated chemicals or insanely complex equipment. I’d always been drawn to more natural studies, but my instructors discouraged me. The moment I met Jorek, though, I realized that the potential for folk remedies was vast, especially with all the strange and fascinating vegetation in the forest.
“Look, there’s an ubuntec weaving its silk.”
Markon pointed at a low-lying bush where a four-legged insect the size of my fist sat. I might have mistaken it for a rodent or some other kind of warm-blooded creature, if it hadn’t been for its shiny, black, iridescent exoskeleton and set of three red, compound eyes.
“Ooh, the infamous quadrapede! I haven’t seen one yet, only the silk.”
I edged closer, but kept my distance in case it was some weird jumping bug. It sat on its hind end, its two front legs frantically manipulating a strand of silk coming out of its abdomen. In just the few moments I watched, it weaved a three-inch square of shimmery silk.
“Let’s go,” Rikor groused, and I reluctantly moved on.
“Is that an orange widow spider web?” I asked, pointing to a thick, white web high in the canopy overhead.
“It is,” Markon said, barely glancing up.
“Why is it so big? If it was low to the ground, it could easily entangle a shifted Warg beast.”
Markon glanced over his shoulder at me. The connection between us heated my skin until I could barely think straight. I imagined us tangled up in each other.
“We aren’t the widow’s primary prey. They prefer forest rats. They’re…juicier”
“Ooh, what are they?” Something new to learn about. When we left the Center, I’d fancied myself an expert on Thracos flora and fauna. I knew nothing!
“You don’t know what rats are?” Rikor sneered. “Some scientist you turned out to be.”
I gritted my teeth and did my best to keep my tone even.
“Of course, I know what rats are, but that seems like a pretty big web for one measly rat.”
He snorted behind me.
“One? Forest rats only travel in packs.”
I glanced up at the web as we passed under it. It probably could have draped all the way over our old shuttle and still touched the ground on either side. A pair of beady yellow eyes sparkled from behind a particularly large clump of leaves, chilling my skin.
“H-how many in a pack?”
A deep, pulse of dread flared in my chest. Terrans told their children stories of monsters in the wild outside the colony’s walls, but I suddenly suspected those tales paled in comparison to the truth.
“Fifty. At least.” Rikor clearly relished my unease. “I once saw a fully shifted Warg get stripped to the bone by a rat pack in less than five minutes. Thank the Elders it was just a Valley Warg.”
“Rikor,” Markon hissed.
Rikor muttered something but I ignored him. He had a stick the size of the Grandmother Tree up his ass, but I had to try to charm him.
“Rikor,” I said in my brightest tone, harnessing my inner Arlynn, “I have to thank you for teaching me about your side of the forest. I’m simply amazed at the wealth of information you’ve been.”
Silence. But at least he wasn’t grumbling. I glanced over my shoulder and smiled.
“Markon was smart to pick you as his advisor. I think you’ll be brilliant in the position.”
His perma-scowl eased a little, and he grunted something that sounded vaguely like, “Thanks.”
“Maybe you could tell me your tribe’s version of your shared origin story. Solan said twin brothers fought over a woman, fracturing the Great Tribe in two.”
“He left out the part about how the Valley scum took the fertile lands for themselves, leaving us to scratch out an existence where we can’t even grow a staple like reet.”
The man carried a lot of bitterness, fed and nurtured over generations. Markon had been right when he said that merging the tribes would be a tough sell to his people.
He’d also been right to fear the Terran military. A shudder sprouted bubblyflesh all over my arms and neck at the thought of what we might have been forced to do had we not escaped.
“It’s not as dire as Rikor makes it out to be,” Markon said. “Yes, the Valley is more fertile, but our position on the Hill is much more easily defended. We can see a raiding party coming from miles away.”
None of us mentioned that the Valley Wargs had successfully taken the Hill tribe by surprise not too long ago, rescuing Arlynn and me. The memory of my short captivity at the hands of the Hill tribe clenched my throat tight, but I needed to know something.
“What would you have done with us?” It came out just above a whisper, but I could tell Markon heard me by the way the muscles in his broad shoulders tensed.
“Thrane wanted to transform you both and integrate you into the tribe as…”
His silence lay as thick as the air in the forest. Rikor finished the sentence for him.
“As breeding stock.”
I was so stunned, I couldn’t even gasp. They were no better than the assholes who were going to sell us as sex slaves. And I was willingly returning to their compound!
In my surprise, I stumbled on a particularly lumpy tree root winding across the almost non-existent path. I cried out as I went down, but strong arms caught me before I hit the ground. They shifted my body until they cradled me, and Markon’s gaze caressed my face. It sent ripples of desire to my very core.
“Are you hurt?”
“No,” I sighed. In fact, I’d never felt safer in my life. Strange, considering what I’d just
been thinking.
Rikor’s pointed throat clearing pulled us from our…whatever it was. Markon helped me stand, and I tried a weak smile.
“Thanks,” I said, brushing the leaves and purple-brown dirt from the drab Training Center jumpsuit. I much preferred the soft quadrapede silk wrappings the Wargs wore, but the jumpsuit offered more protection, as much as I hated the ill-fitting monstrosity.
Markon didn’t move. Didn’t resume our plodding hike up the Hill. Instead, he stood in front of me, waiting for me to look up at him again. Conflicting emotions tumbled around so fast they made me dizzy.
My brain kept reminding me that his brother had kidnapped Arlynn and me, while other parts of my body ached for him to touch me again. And there was no denying the sense of comfort that wrapped around me like a warm blanket on a rainy night when he held me in his arms.
Still, he didn’t move. The longer I put off meeting his eyes, the longer we’d stand here. Finally, I gave up and found myself drawn into the concern pouring from his electric green eyes. I could barely breathe from how fast my heart raced.
“I’m sorry, Natalie,” he said with perfect sincerity. “I’m sorry we did that, and I’m sorry we frightened you. Things were different then.”
I drew on every ounce of strength I had to break eye contact but I couldn’t. Now his mouthwatering scent had caught me in its grip. I stood helpless in his orbit.
Then it hit me like a lightning bolt. There was no logical reason for it, but there it was, staring me in the face. I trusted him. No matter what I asked him, I knew he would tell me the truth. I’d only known him a matter of hours, but nothing could sway me from this belief. If he told me only one moon orbited Thracos, I’d know that one had fallen from the sky.
“And now?” I squeaked out.
Markon pulled himself up to his full height, his lip twitching in a snarl and his eyes sparkling with a ferocity that took me off guard. When he spoke, his voice was deeper than I remembered, coarser. Almost a growl. Shivers shimmied up my spine, and I swear to God, my nipples hardened.
“You’re safe now.”
8
Markon
The mere thought of anyone — any thing — ever harming Natalie woke my beast. Heat and fury boiled in my veins, and there wasn’t even an immediate threat against her. I prayed to the Elders of the Warg that she would see the truth in my promise and continue on with us.
“I…” she started, swallowing hard. “I believe you.”
The tension in her shoulders melted away. Her eyes dropped to my lips and I could swear her body leaned toward me. If Rikor hadn’t been standing five feet away, I would have taken her in my arms and tested my theory that, in that moment, she wanted me. But he was standing there, and his narrowed eyes and questioning gaze kept me grounded enough to turn around and continue our hike.
“How does an alien know so much about what grows and lives in our forest?” Rikor asked. That change of subject alone validated my instinct to trust him.
“Curiosity. It’s one of the reasons my parents turned me over to the Training Center. I probably asked them a hundred questions a day, until I realized they didn’t know most of the answers.”
“Solan spoke of your past,” I said, hoping what he’d told me wasn’t true. “I can’t believe they would treat their females so poorly.”
“You and me both,” she sighed. “Anyway, since we got here, Jorek and I have collected samples of every plant we could find on the Valley side.”
“Jorek?”
“He’s my, um, research partner, I guess you’d say. I tried to go alone a few times, but everyone shouted something about snaggle-toothed monsters who would rip me limb from limb and skin me alive. So Jorek escorted me.”
“I can’t believe those Valley scum let you wander around in the forest at all,” Rikor huffed.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means, that the Hill tribe values their females more, that’s what. They never leave the koshu without at least three guards for each of them.”
“Koshu? I don’t know that word.”
“It’s where the females live,” Rikor explained. “That’s where you’ll stay as well.”
Natalie trudged along in silence behind me for a moment. My eyes constantly scanned the forest but I knew this section to be relatively free of threats.
“Are you telling me that you keep your women locked up?”
“Of course, otherwise the Valley scum could just grab them like we grabbed you.”
I cringed at Rikor’s words. Perhaps I’d been wrong. Either he’d have to learn tact and diplomacy, or I’d have to find another second.
“Hey, where are you going?” Rikor shouted.
I spun around to see Natalie stomping off the way we’d come.
“Shit!”
She only made it a few yards before I caught up with her, falling in step behind her as she walked. As much as I wanted to scoop her up in my arms and carry her the rest of the way to my village, I suspected I wouldn’t emerge from that struggle with all my body parts intact.
“What’s wrong?”
She spun around and jabbed a finger in my chest. Under any other circumstance, I would have relished her touch. But now I felt guilty, and I had no idea why.
“Your women, the ones you all proclaim to revere so much, are fucking prisoners! I’d rather be devoured by a thousand forest rats than become a captive again.”
She turned to storm off but this time I held her arm gently. The fire burning in her eyes stoked the flames inside me. This one had spirit, that couldn’t be denied.
“Natalie, will you please listen for a moment?”
Yanking her arm away, she crossed them with a huff and glared up at me. “One minute, and then I’m out of here.”
Scrubbing the back of my neck, I tried to find the right words to explain, to make her understand.
“Females are our most precious resource. Every male in our tribe would give his life three times over to save a single female, whether she was his mate or not. The Valley is relatively safe compared to Hill territory. Most of the really dangerous creatures prowl the Hill.”
The creature standing before me included. But at least she was listening. I pressed on.
“After three females were gutted and skinned by a pack of grumpuses while out hunting for wild prongtubers, Thrane ordered all females into the koshu.”
Natalie opened her mouth to argue but I cut her off.
“They all went willingly, you can ask them. We provide very well for them — much better than the males get.”
I laid my hand on her shoulder and electricity tingled all the way up my arm. Natalie blinked and some of the blazing indignation faded from her gaze.
“Don’t forget raids from the Valley scum,” Rikor snarled, “and now this threat of alien invasion.”
I gave Rikor a warning glance and turned back to her. “Natalie, we’re all, every one of us, desperate to keep our tribe and our species alive. We’ve all sacrificed to make that happen. Rikor only gets to see his mate and son an hour a day. Don’t you think he wants his family together?”
“Oh.” Natalie looked past me to Rikor, who kept his gaze fixed on the ground. “I’m sorry, Rikor. I didn’t know. I hope you’re reunited with your family soon.”
He shrugged like he didn’t care, but I knew her words touched him. She looked up at me again, but this time all anger had faded from her lovely face, replaced by concern.
“The Valley tribe isn’t a threat anymore.”
“No, but the aliens—“
“As you told me, Markon,” she interrupted, a shrewd look flashing in her clever eyes, “if the aliens kill us all, there’s no need to find a cure to the drought. So if they kill all the males, what good is a prison full of women? Just imagine what the Terran military would do to them.”
Cold fear pulsed through my veins and raised my hackles. I didn’t need to look at Rikor to know he felt the same.
�
�You don’t need to protect them from the aliens. You need to train them to fight the aliens. Women are a lot stronger than you think. I bet that if you gave them a chance, your females could kick some serious Terran ass.”
I stared at her, dumbfounded by her simple logic. The more Wargs capable of fighting our shared enemy, the better our odds of winning. It made sense, but I’d have to convince the council.
“I’ll see to easing the restrictions as soon as we return,” I promised, basking in the smile she gave me. The mated males would certainly like the idea of having their mates in their beds again, and that would do wonders for morale. “But I can’t promise anything about training them.”
Rikor gawked at me. “You’re actually considering this idiotic idea?”
“I—“
A rustle of leaves ahead of us startled us all. A tiny old woman stood in the path holding a gnarled walking stick in her equally gnarled hands and grinning a nearly toothless grin.
“Ouma,” Natalie gasped.
“You mean ‘Amma’,” I corrected.
“No, that’s Ouma. She’s a member of the Valley tribe.”
“You’re mistaken. That’s Amma. She’s been a member of the Hill tribe since before remembered time.”
Natalie stared at Amma, shaking her head in wonder.
“I never got really close to Ouma but they could be sisters.”
Amma stood there mute, listening but correcting neither of us. Thrane had always called her a crazy old crone, never giving her prophecies any credence. But I always wondered if she knew things we could only guess at. Warg memory is long, yet no one living could ever remember Amma being any younger than she was this day.
“Happy day to you, Amma,” I shouted, just in case her hearing had finally gone. “This is Natalie. She’s a Terran.”
Amma giggled and waved at Natalie to approach her. She lifted the silk covering on Natalie’s basket and poked around the herbs and plants Natalie had collected so far. Shaking her head and clucking, Amma lifted her rheumy eyes to meet Natalie’s.
Markon's Claim: A SciFi Shifter Romance (The Last Alphas of Thracos Book 2) Page 4