“What are you thinking?” he asked her softly. She opened her eyes and he was still right there, right in front of her.
“I’m trying to remember this moment in perfect clarity.”
A smile touched his lips, his eyes looking deep into hers. She was surprised to find a darker ring of green around his iris. She’d never been close enough to see it before.
“I need to tell you something.”
Her stomach dropped slightly, assuming that he was going to say something she didn’t want to hear. But she took solace in the fact that he hadn’t released her. Regret hadn’t clouded the intimate moment they’d shared.
“What is it?” she prompted.
He closed his eyes for a brief moment and took a deep breath. His expression turned into one of concern, and she braced herself. Something was about to happen… she just didn’t know if it would change her world for the better, or bring it crashing down upon her.
CHAPTER 5
“I don’t want you to leave.”
That wasn’t what she’d expected Saric to say. For a second Adi wasn’t sure that she’d heard him correctly, but he looked at her with such an earnest expression that she believed his words.
“I don’t want to leave either,” she whispered back.
Immediately she felt lighter for having said the words aloud. She didn’t want to go! But it was more than that: she hated the thought of leaving so much that she’d stupidly been ignoring making preparations. She had an empty hovercrate under her bed, and a pile of messages from her Arathian host family that she hadn’t replied to. She felt like an ostrich with her head in the sand, ignoring her impending departure.
“Then don’t,” Saric suggested adamantly, as if the solution were so simple. He kissed her again, just one kiss before pulling back, but his hands stayed anchored to her body.
“Adrianna, I have feelings for you. Stay here while we figure out a way for the three of us to be together.”
He wanted to be with her! He has feelings for me!
She closed her eyes. His intensity was overwhelming, and if she looked too long, he’d talk her into doing something foolish. The last thing she wanted to do was leave Aeonas—and Saric and Duran—and it’d be too easy for her to agree to stay. She pulled back a few inches to look at him clearly.
“Duran doesn’t want me.” This was the crux of their problem.
“Duran doesn’t know you,” Saric insisted. “Certainly not like I do. He’s also a bit afraid of you.”
“What?” she asked in surprise. She’d never thought of Duran being afraid of anything, let alone someone like her. She wasn’t frightening in the least. Also, he was a full twenty inches taller than her, and outweighed her by a hundred pounds. What threat could she pose?
Saric nodded his insistence. “It’s true. He’s afraid that the things you want in life aren’t compatible with what he wants.”
“I don’t understand what you mean,” she told him, shaking her head.
He moved them to sit side by side on a nearby log that had been cut into a bench, before beginning to explain.
“Duran had a difficult childhood. He had a disease that he fought for over a decade before he completely recovered. During those years, he was in and out of the hospital, and wasn’t strong enough to attend school. His parents taught him at home, and unfortunately, he didn’t have any friends.”
“Is that why he prefers to be alone most of the time?” Adi asked. Saric nodded.
“Social situations make him uncomfortable. If he hadn’t been recruited into the Arathian Defense once he was older, I’m not sure if he ever would have left his hometown.”
Her heart went out to the male. She’d always thought him anti-social, but could now see that he was just awkward. He covered it up by being curt, but it was probably a self-defense mechanism. She began to see him in a new light.
“I’m very sorry that he went through that,” she told Saric sincerely. “But I don’t understand what that has to do with me. I’ve never done anything to make him afraid of me… we’ve barely interacted.”
“It’s not just you… He doesn’t want to get involved with any females. The disease he had—it’s hereditary.”
She cocked her head to the side slightly in question before understanding dawned.
“He doesn’t want children.”
Saric nodded. “Exactly.”
“So… he’s afraid that I’ll get pregnant, and the child may have the disease?” she asked, trying to understand.
“Yes.”
“I’m sure that I don’t know the whole story, but that seems like a silly reason to me.” Her comment had his brows knitting together in question.
“Why’s that?”
“There are a lot of ways to prevent unwanted pregnancy, for both females as well as males, especially with Arathian medicine. He could take measures to make sure any children weren’t genetically his.”
Saric opened his mouth to say something, but she wasn’t done.
“Also, I thought that in Arathian matings, families never know who a child’s biological father is; they’re all equally fathers to the children, no matter what.” Saric nodded.
“You’re right, in most cases we don’t care, and never have the need to know which male fathered a baby.”
“Then why can’t Duran take male birth control, and let you be the biological father?”
His eyes went wide in surprise, and she quickly corrected herself.
“I’m not saying that I want to start making babies with you! Or that I want them at all!” she back-pedaled. “But that seems like a simple solution to me.”
A wide smile broke over his face. “I think that’s a completely logical solution, and one that I’ve been contemplating for the past several weeks.”
Several weeks. She hated any reminder of their horrible conversation. She pulled back slightly as memories of having her heart broken surfaced. He noticed her change of demeanor right away, and reached to take her hands in his own.
“You know that hurting you was the last thing in the universe I wanted to do, right? I care about you… deeply.”
Once again, he looked so earnest that she believed him. She remembered his fleeting look of awe when she’d told him that she loved him. For a brief moment, her declaration had made him happy… And then he’d remembered that his mate was adamant about not including females in their relationship.
She didn’t blame Duran… she couldn’t imagine what his childhood had been like. It was natural that he wouldn’t want to take the risk of his babies succumbing to the same fate—or worse. It sounded like a miracle that he’d survived at all.
“I know that you didn’t want to hurt me,” Adi reassured him. “But I’m sure you can understand why I’m nervous to jump into something with you two. I mean, does Duran even like me as a person?”
“Yes, he does. In fact, he called you beautiful and kind just the other day.”
“Really?” That surprised her… a lot. He’d barely spoken to her these past three years!
“Yes. That’s high praise coming from him.”
She agreed, but still didn’t know what to do. So far, their conversation hadn’t solved anything.
“I’m not sure where we go from here,” she confessed. “Even if Duran was willing to try to make things work between us, I’m not sure how to act around him. I understand that your culture does things differently than we do, but I feel like a homewrecker inserting myself like a wedge into your relationship.”
“You’re not, please don’t think that,” he emphatically told her with a shake of his head. “I love Duran, and it’s true that I’m the one who developed feelings for you first. But that doesn’t mean that you and he won’t build a strong connection. You just don’t know each other yet… give it a chance. Please.”
It was exactly what she’d hoped to hear. He has feelings for me! She couldn’t help but repeat that in her mind. He was asking her to get to know Duran, which was what
she’d offered Saric weeks ago when she’d made her proclamation.
“I admit that I don’t know him very well, but give me time. I’m definitely willing to try.”
Was that still true? Was she still willing to give them a chance?
As if that were even a question! Of course she was. The man she loved was right in front of her, holding her hands, looking into her eyes, and pleading with her. It may lead to her heart being shattered this time instead of just broken, but to Adi, it was worth the risk.
She’d never wanted anything more than the male in front of her.
“I’ll try,” she promised.
His face lit up in a smile, and he brought her close for an embrace. “Thank you,” he confessed against her hair.
She soaked up his embrace, and wondered if Duran would be receptive or not.
*****
Adrianna hummed happily to herself as she picked mushrooms. Kneeling on the ground while fat rain droplets cascaded down onto her wide-brimmed hat, she was completely in her element. She loved the sound of rain, the smell of wet dirt, and the feel of it between her fingers. She dug slowly, gently, at the base of a tree, to harvest the delicacies without harming the surrounding plants. It took care and patience to harvest them.
Thoughts of her and Saric’s earlier conversation flitted through her mind.
“Adrianna, I have feelings for you… I don’t want you to leave… stay here while we figure out a way for the three of us to be together.”
He seemed confident that the three of them stood a chance, and for the first time in weeks, she had hope. Maybe she could stay on Aeonas, make a life with the two males, and be happy?
Adi was lost in thought, her ears hearing nothing but the thud of raindrops, as two men quietly approached her from opposite sides. She didn’t feel their presence until they were right atop her, grabbing her upper arms, and hauling her to her feet. A filthy hand slapped over her mouth to muffle her startled scream, as her back was brought up against a smelly body.
Her instinct was to fight. She thrashed her arms and legs, and tried to bite the hand on her mouth. The man holding her changed his grip, arms bracketed around her, pinning her arms to her sides. Still she fought. She stamped back on his foot with all her strength, and heard the satisfying sound of him crying out in pain.
The other man moved right in front of her, and her movements stilled when she saw the gleaming knife he held in his hand. Her breath came in heaving pants as she tried to get enough oxygen into her lungs around the hand still on her mouth.
“That’s right,” the man in front drawled, swirling his knife back and forth. “You see this? It means I’m in charge. If you want to keep all your blood inside your body, I suggest you stop fighting and do as we say.”
Adrianna ceased her movements, eyes going from the metal to the man holding it. He was unfamiliar to her, which was shocking. She knew everyone on the colony… all four-hundred and twenty-eight people. How could she not know him? Where had he come from?
If she had to guess, the Earther was in his early fifties, with long, unwashed hair, and a beard that was more gray than any other color. His clothes were dirty, ratty, and hung loosely from his thin frame. His feet were bare. He looked homeless, or like he lived on a deserted island; and he smelled, even from a distance.
“What are we going to do with her?” the man holding her asked excitedly. He sounded younger than the man in front of her, and she could tell from his arms banded around her midsection that he was stronger.
“I’m not sure. Let’s take her back to camp and let the boss decide.”
They gagged her with a filthy cloth, then wrenched her arms behind her back and secured them with rope.
“What’s this?” the younger man asked as he unhooked her comm unit from her wrist. He held it out to the older man.
“I don’t know,” the other replied, turning the piece of technology over in his hand and looking at it from all angles. “But they can probably use it to track her. Best to destroy it.”
Adi’s heart sank as the younger man took her comm unit and smashed it between two rocks. Her eyes pricked with tears, knowing that it would be much harder for anyone to find her without it.
The men began walking her east through the jungle, away from the colony. She had no choice but to keep with them since her wrists were also tied to a rope that the younger men held in his hand. Instead of fighting, she followed obediently, hoping that they’d grow lax and she’d get an opportunity to escape.
Neither man said much as they walked through the ever-increasing rain. Soon, the terrain tilted uphill, which slowed their progress. They entered lush underbrush, and Adi realized that they were out of the monthly high tides’ reach. There were plants with leaves nearly as tall as she that made their trek slow, but onward they went.
The men looked back at her every couple of minutes and yanked on the rope, but their inattentiveness gave her a chance to discreetly wriggle her hands to loosen the knots. Finally, after walking several miles, one hand came free, and she focused on the other. Even after freeing the other hand, she followed obediently behind them a few steps more to plan her escape.
Adi knew this jungle better than anyone, but even she hadn’t been this far east. Running west downhill towards the colony was the obvious choice, but once she got down to the flat portion of the jungle, she knew it’d be a challenge to keep her bearings.
The other choice was to climb a tree to get away, but admittedly, she wasn’t the best climber. Her skills were nothing compared to Kaitie. If either man had any dexterity whatsoever, they’d catch her. That left her with running: a fine option. It was too bad she avoided cardio, and didn’t think she could outrun either of them.
I have to try.
The older man looked back to check on her, and when he faced forward again, she bolted, running at full speed in the opposite direction. They yelled at each other, and at her, then she heard nothing but their pounding footsteps through the rain.
She may not be the fastest runner, but she was smaller than either of them. She used that advantage to duck under logs and large leaves, while running downhill as fast as she dared. The ground was sodden, and more than once she nearly lost her footing. While she slid down an embankment, Adi glanced back to see that she only had a few second lead on the younger man. He looked mean, determined, and she knew that she couldn’t outrun him.
Still, she pushed her body to its limits, until she saw a thicket ahead that was tight with young trees. She collided with the first rows of saplings, and was beginning to squeeze her body through the opening when a cold hand wrapped around her wrist like a shackle.
“Got you!” he exclaimed in victory.
“No! Let me go!” she demanded to no avail.
He wrenched her arm to pull her back, but she wrapped a hand around a sapling and held on for dear life, the saturated muddy ground not helping her at all. The tug-of-war only lasted a few seconds before her wet hand began to slip. All at once she lost her hold on the young tree, and tumbled out of the grove, colliding into him. Their combined momentum sent them to the ground.
Adi scrambled out of his reach to find a rock, a stick, any type of weapon. Her hand closed on a branch, and she swung it, embedding the pointed tip into the man’s thigh. He yelled in pain and yanked the wood out of his leg, blood seeping from the wound.
She was shocked by her own action, by the sight of his blood (she’d never hurt anyone before), but knew that he was still dangerous. She scrambled backwards away from him, and came up to her hands and knees, ready to run, when she saw the older man standing in front of her, his chest heaving from exertion. His arm swung, and something hard connected with the side of her head.
There was no time for thought before she slid into unconsciousness.
CHAPTER 6
Saric was busy all afternoon operating the replicator. He’d returned to the Community Center to replicate a part he needed to finish repairing the solar panel atop the gatherers�
� shack, only to find a line of colonists waiting for him.
The builders needed a new safety harness, the water engineers needed oil for the water pump, hydroponics needed hoses… the demands kept him busy the entire afternoon. By the end of the workday, Saric was very glad to see Duran enter the Community Center. He ducked into the building, and stopped to shake rain off his jacket and hat.
“Evening,” he called to Saric.
“Hi there.”
Duran came over, and leaned his forearms on the counter in a casual pose. Saric tipped the brim of his hat back and planted a kiss on his mate’s lips. His were cold to the touch from the storm that had descended on the colony, but Saric inhaled his clean scent from a recent shower.
“Have a good day?” Duran asked when they pulled back, and he readjusted his hat back into place.
“Very good. You?”
Duran shrugged. “Good as we could, seeing as though we were out in the rain all afternoon.”
Saric looked towards the nearby windows and grimaced. “Looks like it’s really coming down now.” Duran nodded in agreement.
“It’s going to be a big storm. They’re moving the dinner fires under the platforms to help shield them.”
“Makes sense.”
Saric shut down the replicator for the night, and came around the counter to encircle Duran’s neck with his arms.
“How much time do we have?” he asked. The corner of Duran’s mouth quirked up.
“Not long—especially since I’m going to help prepare dinner.”
Saric’s brows knit together. “You are?”
Duran nodded.
“It’s the only opportunity I have to talk to Adrianna. I told you I’d make an effort to get to know her.”
A bright smile lit Saric’s face.
“Yeah, I know…” Duran said with a sigh. “I’m the best. You don’t have to keep repeating it.”
Saric kissed him, and was just angling his head for a deeper kiss when someone interrupted them.
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