Boss Me Hard

by R. R. Banks

  Lynx couldn't think about that now. He was lost in the moments of Rain's life just before the Covra crawled out from under her bed and locked her in her sleeping state. They knew now that the Covra had done this because they were weakened and knew that they would be unable to defeat the Light Ones, the inhabitants of this settlement. Instead of continuing to fight or surrendering, they chose to lock the Light Ones in place just as they were in the moment they were attacked. What Lynx didn't understand was why the Covra had chosen just to lock them in place and not to kill them. Once frozen, they were completely vulnerable to anything that the Covra wanted to do to them. No matter how weak the creatures were, they could have found a way to destroy humans that were unable to move in any way. There had to be a reason that they had kept the Light Ones alive other than just the fact that they held a tremendous grudge and enjoyed coming back to explore the settlement and cast their gleaming, vulnerable eyes on the people that they were holding in indefinite suspension.

  When the vision of Rain's final moment was over, he settled down beside her and stared into her pale, peaceful face until his eyes couldn't stay open any longer and he fell into a deep sleep where he hoped he would meet her and be able to hold and touch her as he had wanted to since the moment he first saw her.

  What felt like only moments later, Lynx heard the door to the bedroom open and he sat up sharply, ready to throw himself back into battle, but it was only Pyra standing at the entrance to the door staring at him.

  "The men are awake," he said, then glanced toward Lynx's lap, "It looks like you are, too."

  Lynx looked down and saw the blanket tented up, balanced on the raging erection he had been sporting nearly continuously since the first time he laid eyes on Rain. He took a pillow from behind him and slammed it onto his lap.

  "It's her," he said, tilting his head toward Rain, "I can't help it."

  "I know," Pyra said, the hint of a smile coming through his stern exterior, "Trust me. I remember what it was like when I first got around Eden. That was miserable. I was hard all the time, no matter what I did, and I was so pissed off at everything that I felt like I could have killed whatever got in my way. She was not the biggest fan of me when she first met me, either, which didn't make the whole situation any easier. At least she can't yell at you."

  He said it playfully, but as soon as the words came out of Pyra's mouth, Lynx felt anger roll over him. Pyra's expression dropped as he obviously saw the change come over Lynx, and he held up a hand as if to show that he meant no harm by the comment.

  "You're right," Lynx said, "She can't."

  "I'm sorry," Pyra said, "I didn't mean…"

  "Let me get dressed and I'll meet you downstairs."

  Pyra closed his mouth and nodded before turning and leaving the room, closing the door behind him. Lynx was smaller and less experienced than Pyra, but the younger warrior could tell that his leader was not willing to put him to the test. A Denynso warrior who had found his mate but had not yet completed the bond was an unpredictable and volatile creature, and adding the tension of being away from their compound, the battle, and the seemingly hopeless locked state of the Light Ones was only working to push Lynx toward an edge that could have disastrous results.

  Once Pyra left, Lynx looked down at Rain. She was the most beautiful thing that he had ever seen, with coppery hair that shimmered in the sunlight and lashes so long they curled on her pale cheeks. Her full lips held the tiniest hint of a smile, that touch of expression that made someone looking at it wonder if he was actually seeing a smile or if he was just imagining it because the rest of her face was so peaceful and lovely. It was a smile that Lynx had seen on sleeping faces before, but hers was so entrancing he couldn't seem to take his eyes away from it. He wished that he could see what she had been dreaming in that second that the Covra locked her; that he could know what had given her such a sense of peace and contentment in those last moments.

  Lynx suddenly heard voices drifting up the stairs from the floor below and realized that all of the warriors must have come to meet at the house after Ty and Vax woke from their healing. He knew he couldn’t stay in bed and continue to stare at Rain, as much as that was exactly what he wanted to do. He had to go downstairs and be a part of the confusion, the questions, and the chaos that had ensued since the first Covra had arrived. Usually the Denynso were incredibly organized, strategic warriors, but this had thrown them completely out of control. Not only were they far away from the compound that was the only home that any of them had ever known, but they were up against an enemy that they didn't understand and fighting to save a people who they didn't even know if they could save. They had managed to come together to lure the Covra and force them into the spiked wall that Bannack created with Loralia's help, but now they were at a loss. They didn't know where they were supposed to go from there, and they would need every single one of them to figure it out.

  Moving carefully to prevent jostling Rain, Lynx climbed out of bed and dressed. He longed for a hot bath, but he knew that was going to have to wait. For now he would have to settle for running Rain's brush through his tangled white hair and hoping that Ty had gotten enough of his strength back to make sure that there was breakfast for them to eat while they were talking.

  Before he left, Lynx took another glance at the photograph that was sitting on the table beside Rain's bed. He still hadn't told any of the other warriors what he had discovered on the back of that picture, and he was still unsure if he should. Releasing the picture from the frame again, he slipped it into his bag and started downstairs to the waiting men.

  Chapter Two

  The warriors were gathered around the living room, making the space look small with their massive size only magnified by the fact that that there were so many of them there together. Lynx stepped into the room and all of their eyes turned to him, burrowing into him with the intensity that said they all expected him to do something, but he wasn't sure what that was. He paused at the door and looked back at them, for the first time distinctly aware of the pairs of orange orbs that stood out against the contrasting blue, green, and grey ones that stared back at him. He had caught sight of his own eyes in the mirror above the vanity in Rain's room while he was brushing his hair and noticed that they were still their usual shade. He wondered if they flickered orange when he was near her like he had seen happen to some of the other men in the early days of them finding their future mates but before their bonding was complete.

  This thought brought painful tightness to his throat and a rock to his belly. Would he ever be able to complete his bond with Rain? Would they ever be able to look into each other's eyes and truly be together, or would he be left to long for her for the rest of his life knowing that she was there, but frozen in place for eternity?

  An even worse thought hit him then. He suddenly wondered if when they destroyed the Covra they also destroyed the link that kept the Light Ones alive.

  "We have to figure out how to unlock them," he said without waiting for any of them to say anything to him first.

  "That's exactly what we were just talking about," Bannack told him from his spot near the fireplace where the other men had seemed to be watching him before Lynx came into the room.

  "How long have you all been here?" Lynx asked.

  "Only about an hour," Pyra told him, "Ty and Vax were still sleeping after their healing and we thought that after everything that you went through last night you could probably use a little bit of extra rest."

  Lynx nodded.

  "Thank you," he said, knowing that they were probably right. The night before had been rough on him and his body still felt like he could use more sleep, "What were you saying about unlocking the Light Ones?"

  He was still cautious about the way that he spoke about the people of the settlement, keeping with the name for them that they all already knew from the information they found in the abandoned, burned prison rather than revealing that he knew anything else about them that the others did not.


  "You were there when Loralia told us that the Covra aren't gone. There are more to come and she is pretty positive that they are going to be strong enough that the Light Ones aren't going to be able to survive when they come."

  "So what do we do?" Lynx asked.

  Bannack let out a deep sigh and looked at Pyra.

  "We don't know," Pyra said, "We were hoping that there was something more you could tell us about them, something else that you noticed when you were watching their last few moments. Anything."

  Lynx shook his head.

  "I told you everything. I can't think of anything else that I saw that would have any meaning. I only saw them locking them, not waking them up."

  "And they locked them by stabbing them with their legs just like they did when they were fighting us?"

  Lynx shuddered as he remembered watching the Covra's sharp, gleaming leg puncturing Rain's belly and her body going completely still. He nodded.

  "Can you show us?" Ciyrs asked.

  Intense protectiveness flooded through Lynx and he felt the anger and aggression surge within him. He didn't like the thought of any of the other men, not even Ciyrs, looking at Rain, especially if they wanted to expose her belly so that they could see the injury that was inflicted by the Covra. He knew, though, that they had to have as much information as they possibly could if they were going to have any chance of figuring out how to wake the locked residents of the settlement, and that meant having to trust the other men of the tribe, particularly their healer, with his mate.

  "Not all of you are going to fit in the room with her," he said.

  He wanted to find a way to limit the number of the men who were going to be close to her and looking at her in such a prone and vulnerable state, but he also was trying to control his anger and not hurt any of their feelings by obviously trying to exclude them from the situation.

  "Just Ciyrs, Bannack, and me," Pyra said carefully as if he were coaxing permission to get near Rain out of Lynx and being cautious not to upset him for fear that he would rescind the permission and the hopes that they would be able to help these people would be completely futile.

  "Why Bannack?" Lynx asked with a touch more aggression and suspicion than he intended to put in his voice.

  "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Bannack asked.

  Bannack himself was still only a few days into his mating relationship with Loralia and it seemed that much of the aggression and temper were still lingering in him as the defensiveness in the question caused his body to tense visibly.

  "Calm down," Pyra said, holding one arm out in front of Bannack as if to block the other warrior from advancing on Lynx, "This is his future mate you are talking about. Think about how you would have felt if it was Loralia lying up there in that bed completely helpless and you had never even been able to speak to her much less be with her, but all of us wanted to go in and look at her and touch her."

  "Touch her?"

  Lynx appreciated that Pyra was trying to explain the situation to Bannack in a way that the young and volatile warrior would understand, but mentioning that they were going to touch Rain had Lynx feeling like he was pushing the very edge of his control.

  "Ciyrs might have to," Pyra said to him evenly, "We have to figure out what exactly happened to them that locked them if we are going to be able to figure out how to reverse it, if that is even possible, and that means that we are going to have to examine her as thoroughly as Ciyrs thinks is necessary."

  Lynx could feel his fists clenching and releasing beside him and the urge to lash out at the men was building again. He worried for a moment that the effect of the Covra attack was still lingering inside him and that he was going back into his completely involuntary rage that nearly had him killing his fellow warriors with his bare hands. Pyra didn't seem concerned about his behavior, however, and Lynx realized that he was just feeling what all Denynso men did when they were getting close to their mates. He wanted to hope that the fact that the feeling was intensifying meant that he was, in fact, getting closer to Rain being awake and in his arms.

  "Listen to me, Lynx," Ty said, stepping forward, "If any of us understand what you are going through right now and what you want to do to us, it is the three of us who have found our mates in the last few months. We know exactly what it's like to be angry and frustrated and distrustful of everyone who we thought might be trying to get near our mates. Pyra and Gyyx have even watched Ciyrs heal their mates. Because we understand it, though, is exactly why you need to trust us."

  Lynx looked at the bandages wrapped around Ty's chest just as they had been around his own when he first awoke after the attack. This man was not a warrior by birth but rather a nurturer who devoted himself to making sure that the warriors and the rest of the tribe had what they needed and were kept comfortable and happy, particularly after battles. The arrival of his mate, Samira, however, had brought things out in him that none of the Denynso had ever imagined would exist in his huge but gentle presence. He had not only become as angry and forceful as Lynx was feeling now, but he had stepped forward and agreed to use the power that he had inherited from his father but had never used to battle against the Klimnu. If Ty's mate had transformed him that much; had given him that much power, strength, and courage, Lynx knew that he couldn't just let Rain lie there for a single second longer than she absolutely had to. He couldn't risk not having something so incredible in his life in the full and complete way that she should.

  Chapter Three

  Lynx nodded his agreement and started toward the door of the living room before he could give himself the opportunity to change his mind. He trusted these men and he had to keep reminding himself of that. He was not going to be able to save Rain or any of the other people in the settlement on his own. It was going to take the skills, the insight, and the abilities of all of them together to release the Light Ones from their binds.

  As he climbed the stairs toward the bedroom he could hear Ciyrs close behind him with Pyra coming second and Bannack bringing up the end of their line. He didn't hear any of the other men following behind and he was relieved, happy that they were showing enough respect for him to stay in the living room while the four of them went up to Rain.

  Pyra had never gotten around to explaining to him why he insisted that Bannack go along with them, but as he stepped into the bedroom with Rain and turned to allow the other men to come inside, he could see Bannack's hand mindlessly touching the large silver compact around his neck. He realized then that it was not so much that Pyra wanted Bannack up there with them as he wanted to be able to contact Loralia, and therefore the other women, if he needed to. That compact was their only true connection with the compound with the exception of the men being able to communicate with their mates through their minds, but Lynx knew that they had been so tense throughout the journey that none of them had been able to be open enough to connect with their partners.

  The door closed behind Bannack and the three men looked at Lynx for a few tense seconds. It was as though none of them wanted to be the first one to say anything, or the first one to take a step toward Rain. Lynx finally stepped up to the edge of the bed and smoothed the blanket beside her. For the first time he noticed the clean cut through the blanket over her stomach and the slightest tinge of red around the edge of the torn fabric. He wanted to touch her, but this was not the moment for him to get swept away into one of his visions. In that moment he hoped that there would come a time when he would be able to touch her without that happening. He hadn't even known that he had that ability, and he certainly didn't know how to control it. Of course, if they figure out how to release the people from their locked state he would no longer have any need for the ability. Perhaps it would simply go away when it was no longer necessary.

  "Can you show us, Lynx?" Ciyrs said quietly, breaking through Lynx's musings and bring him back into the reality of the moment.

  "Please be gentle with her," Lynx said, "I know that she is locked, but we don’t really k
now what that means. She may still have some awareness or be able to feel."

  "I won't hurt her," Ciyrs assured him, stepping up closer to the bed.

  Being careful not to let his hands brush her body, Lynx took hold of the top fold of her blanket and gently peeled it down away from her. It stuck in place briefly before releasing and coming away to reveal the airy nightgown he saw her wearing in his vision and a puncture wound in her stomach. He had noticed the wounds on the other people throughout the settlement, but they hadn't bothered him. This, however, made his body twitch and his face feel hot and tingle with fury.

  "I don't understand," Pyra said, stepping up beside Ciyrs and looking down at Rain, "What was the difference? Why did Lynx, Ty, and Vax become violent and angry when they were cut by the Covra, but the rest of these people were just locked?"

  "Loralia said that her grandfather spoke of them using their enemies to fight themselves by infecting them. That is their primary method of battle."

  "That must mean that they can control when they are infecting a person to turn them into a weapon and when they are locking them. It is a conscious decision, not just a biological effect."

  "You saw that prison, Pyra. You can't think that creatures that were capable of building something like that would just be mindless animals. They are obviously more intelligent and more skilled than we are giving them credit for."

  "Or they know how to manipulate another species into doing the work for them. I can't imagine how those sharp, pointy little legs would be able to build a prison like that. I can, however, see hands like that doing it."