by Linda Mooney
He shook his head. “No, thank you. You go ahead.” He glanced over his shoulder to where MaGrath was sitting by his campfire, taking inventory of his medicinal pouch. “It was a generous gesture last night, when we needed it the most. But it still felt like I was spending the night in my mother’s bedroom,” he admitted.
“Not to mention what you were doing in your mother’s bedroom,” she teased him, smiling, and was delighted to see him blush.
“You’re cruel,” he chuckled softly.
“I’m realistic. Very well, then. In that case, I think I shall entertain a certain gentleman friend in there tonight, if you don’t mind.”
“Oh?” He lifted an eyebrow at her. “Now who’s insinuating love play in the bedroom?”
She laughed lightly. “Will you be all right tonight?”
He nodded. “I think I’ll stay up a while longer.”
“And wait for her,” Madigan stated. She knew he would wait up the entire night if he needed to.
Grabbing her hand, he kissed her knuckles. “I promise to get some rest, however short. I’ll have the guard on duty awaken me the moment she appears...that is, if he happens to see her. Don’t worry about me, Mother. We’re going to be okay.”
She kissed his cheek again, wished him a good night, then strolled over to sit beside MaGrath. Yulen knew eventually she would propose to him, and the physician would follow her into the tent, but it was no longer any of his concern.
Sighing, he ran a hand through his hair and wandered over to where his horse was being wiped down by one of the soldiers. “Are my things laid out?” he asked.
The soldier gave him a puzzled look. “I thought you had taken them, sir.”
“What do you mean?”
“Your bedroll, Sir. And your saddlebags. They weren’t on your saddle when I stripped the horse.”
Yulen hesitated a moment before giving the soldier a quick smile. “Forgive me. It’s been a long and trying day. Thanks again for taking care of my things.”
The soldier nodded, and Yulen turned to head back toward MaGrath’s campfire. As he passed a strand of birch that marked the edge of the encampment, a low trilling sound came from the other side of the grove. Yulen paused to listen. The trilling came again, low but audible.
He glanced behind him to see if anyone else had noticed, but the soldiers showed no sign of hearing it. Cautiously, Yulen stepped through the underbrush.
It was a trail, very faint but distinct, even in the moonlight. Possibly made by some of the wild animals, Yulen surmised as he stepped through a patch of wild blueberries. He hadn’t heard the trilling sound again since he’d begun to advance further into the forest, but he knew that if he somehow managed to get off the path, she’d guide him back to it.
A little more than two hundred yards deep into the forest he began to see a faint light in the distance, leading him into a tiny clearing. Pausing on the outskirts of the wooded area, he studied the fire cheerfully dancing amid a ring of rocks. A rabbit was cooking on a spit. Beyond the fire lay two bedrolls, placed side by side. He recognized his immediately, and knew the other to be hers. He let out a huge sigh of relief. “I’ve been worried about you,” he spoke aloud.
She emerged from his right and walked directly into his waiting arms where he crushed her to his chest. Burying his face in her neck, he could feel his fear and trepidation slowly drain out of him, and her warmth filled the emptiness left behind.
“Atrilan...”
“No, Yul. Make love to me first, then we can talk.”
“Are you certain? I mean, you’re not too sore—”
“I need you!”
Sweeping her up into his arms, he first kissed her as he pressed her tightly to him, reassuring himself she really had returned, really had come back safely. Then he carried her over to the bedrolls where he knelt down and laid her in front of him.
“Where were you?” he whispered and kissed her again. His hands grasped the hem of her tunic and drew it over her head, seeking her mouth over and over once he tossed the shirt to one side.
“Nowhere. Everywhere. Hold me, Yul. Touch me. Love me.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her breasts against his chest. Yulen moaned softly when her tight little nipples, like beads, rode roughly over his own.
She broke away from his loving long enough to unbuckle his weapons belt, dropping it beside the fire. Then she helped him to pull his tunic over his head, remembering how she’d watched him dress in it that morning. However, she had a little difficulty managing the buttons on the front of his pants. “Good heavens, they’re tight,” she exclaimed softly, frowning.
Yulen laughed softly and leaned her back onto the bedroll. “They’re tight because a certain part of my body is aggressively responding to your request,” he chuckled. He managed to undo and shed them, and Atty discovered what he meant. As the only female hunter among a caste of males, she had seen, quite by accident, their penises when they thought they were relieving themselves privately in the woods. Some had been flaccid. A few somewhat odd-looking. Many turgid. At first she had been embarrassed, then intrigued. But looking at her husband, she was hard pressed to remember if any man had filled out to the same proportions as he did. She blushed a pretty pink while he helped her to undo her pants and slide them over her hips. Quickly he pulled the covering over them as they slipped into his larger bedroll.
It was as if their loving of that morning had only occurred an hour before. Resuming where they had left off was as easy as breathing. His worry for her had fueled his need to have her back. And now that he had her back, he had to have her in her entirety—her kisses and her heart, as much as her body.
Their pulses quickened until their blood began to rush like raging rivers of heat through their veins. Lying on their sides, Yulen pulled her legs around his waist, and Atty realized she had as much control as he did. In this position, they found they had free access to each other, without the worry of having him crush her with his weight.
She guided him inside her, squeezing him with her thighs until he filled her completely. Even then she still couldn’t take him all. “I’m sorry,” she managed to whisper as the first arrows of soul-wrenching heat fired through her body. She felt as if she were being impaled on a satin-coated pike.
“Don’t. Don’t be sorry, my love. You’re tight. God...so tight. It will take a while. But we have a lifetime together to have you learn to accept all of me.”
She sucked in a breath between her teeth. Yulen eased her backwards, away from him, until he could caress her body, her breasts, and her belly with his fingertips. He found her nub within the folds of her woman’s flesh, and mercilessly attacked it until she keened like a wild, untamed animal. Writhing under his touch, she closed her eyes and grabbed his hips so she could begin to slide herself back and forth over him.
He whispered her name and shivered. They were caught up in their frenetic need to fling their sanity to the wind. Tossing aside the covers, the coolness of the evening was welcome on their sweaty skin. Yulen pulled her back against his chest, rolled on top of her, and captured her lips, diving his tongue into her mouth as deeply as he dove his erection into her body. She screamed once, lost in the pounding and pressure of his assault, unable to take any more as much as she knew she never wanted him to stop.
Headlong they crashed into their overpowering climax. Atty’s cry caught in her throat as every muscle contracted and each nerve ending flared white hot. As her body lifted off the ground, Yulen found his release, locked himself inside her heady depths, and followed her into sweet, temporary oblivion.
It was some time later when Atty lifted her head from Yulen’s chest and glanced around the clearing. “What?” He reluctantly opened his eyes, feeling her move.
“I’m starving. Can we eat now?”
Laughter rumbled in his chest. Her appetite for sex was quickly becoming as insatiable as her appetite for food. Almost, but not yet. “You’re incredible, you know that?” He sat up to watc
h her slip her tunic over her head before checking on the rabbit she had roasting on the spit. His expression then turned serious as she began to tear apart the meat and handed him a piece speared on the tip of her dagger. “Don’t ever do that to me again,” he told her.
She paused, and listened to what his heart was telling hers.
He told her. Not asked her. Don’t ever to that to me again. Not “don’t do that again”, but “don’t make me have to go through that again”. The torture of worry and fear.
Atty gave him a smile that showed she was sorry. “I had to think, Yul. I had to go somewhere where I could...” She sighed loudly. “I miss getting to go out in the forest. I miss the quiet where I can think.” She glanced up at him tearfully. “I miss my home. I miss my family. I miss not being able t—”. Her breath caught in her throat, and she lifted her arms toward him. Yulen pulled her against him, allowing her to have her say without interruption.
“My mother and little sister went out to gather firewood the day before you came. They never came home,” Atty told him in a tiny voice. “I thought...at first I thought you and your men had found them and captured or killed them.”
“What about your father?” he murmured into her hair.
“Cleaners captured and killed him six years ago.”
“So you were grieving over the loss of your mother and sister the day we arrived?”
He felt her nod. It all made sense to him now.
“You’re wishing your mother was alive to see your wedding,” he told her.
“I wish this whole damn craziness between your people and my people didn’t exist,” Atty replied heatedly. She leaned back to stare at him. Smiling, Yulen poked a piece of meat into her mouth and watched as she ate it.
“Maybe we can make that our lifelong ambition,” he told her.
“What do you mean?” She took back the piece of meat she’d given him and began to nibble on it.
“If you and I can live and love together, perhaps we can convince others that, basically, we’re not so different from each other. God knows your kind didn’t ask to be singled out to be changed after the Great Concussion, and neither did my kind ask to be left alone when all that craziness was going on.”
“You’re nuts,” Atty told him, “but I love you for thinking it.” Pulling away from him, she went back to fetch the rest of the rabbit and brought it back to the bedroll where they pulled pieces of meat from the carcass and ate as they talked.
“So, what else did you think about when you went on your little jaunt today?” he asked her.
Atty shrugged and crossed her legs, giving Yulen a pretty view of what was under her tunic. “The wedding.”
“And?”
“I can wear a white dress?”
“Mm-hmm. Madigan will have a tailor measure you and make one just the way you want it.”
“Will you wear white, too?”
“I could, although I would prefer to wear this formal tunic I own that I really like.”
“Why?”
He smiled. “Because it’s blue. The same color as your hair.” He lifted a lock that had fallen over her shoulder and brushed it back. She continued to gaze trustingly at him with eyes now more blue than gray. “Morning glory hair. I’ll never be able to look at a morning glory again without thinking of you.”
“A sheared morning glory,” she complained. Atty reached behind at the nape of her neck to feel where Collaunt’s man had cut her locks. “When we get back, I need to find someone who can even this up.”
“Ask Mother,” Yulen suggested. “She used to cut my hair when I was younger.” A look of surprise suddenly passed over his face, and he got a twinkle in his eye. “I think I just figured out what to give you for a wedding present,” he told her.
Atty rolled her eyes. “Oh, good gracious, something else for my feeble mind to wrap around. I have to get you a present as well, then!”
“You’re not required to.”
“Oh, but if you get me one, then I’m gonna feel obligated to get you one, too. Tit for tat.” She reached for her water bag sitting on the ground nearby. Drinking thirstily, she offered him some. Yulen declined. “Maybe for the better,” she said, re-plugging the bag. “I must have gotten some sediment in it. It tastes brackish. Blech. Anyway, back to what we were talking about, don’t try to dissuade me. I’m getting you a gift, even if I have to go out and kill one.”
Yulen chuckled again. “Very well. Talk to Mother if you’re wanting to get ideas. She’ll also enjoy telling you all the embarrassing stories about me and my childhood and growing up that you’ll ever want to hear.” A yawn suddenly caught him by surprise. He stretched and gestured for her to join him. “What arrangements did you make for guarding us tonight?” he asked her. He wasn’t surprised when she made a face and bit her lower lip. Laughing softly, he accused her, “My lusty wench had other things on her mind other than making sure a pack of wild boar don’t interrupt us during our lovemaking?”
“I’ll wake up if I hear anything unusual,” she defended herself.
“Sure, if circumstances were normal,” he agreed, “but we’re both exhausted. Because of that, chances are good that any passing animal or unsavory human creature could kill us both in our bed before we’re aware of anything.”
He saw an idea spark in her eyes, and watched as she got to her feet and disappeared into the underbrush. Moments later she reemerged, pulling the bay mare behind her. The horse was tethered to a tree on the other side of the fire.
Yulen smiled as she doffed the tunic and cuddled into the bedroll with him. As she settled her head in the hollow of his shoulder, he kissed her forehead. She lifted her face for another on her lips.
“Can you reach your sword from here in case the mare warns us?” she asked.
Reaching out with his other hand, he felt the familiar hilt a comfortable distance away. “Yes. Now go to sleep. And I promise you, when we get back to Alta Novis, right after our wedding, I’m locking the door to our bedroom for a week.”
He felt her smile against his arm as he slowly drifted into unconsciousness.
Chapter Forty-Two
Responsibility
“Mastin!”
MaGrath strode over to the second who was busy getting the men ready to leave. The soldier turned to give him a questioning look. “Sir?”
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“In what respect?” Mastin inquired politely.
MaGrath pointed out into the direction of the encampment, which had finally been broken down and packed. It was a matter of minutes before the Second would signal for them to continue moving onward toward Alta Novis.
“D’Jacques isn’t here! In fact, I was told he disappeared last night and hasn’t been seen since. Aren’t you going to put out a search party for him?”
Mastin narrowed his eyes at the physician. This was one area where the man had no power to change the original orders he’d received from the Battle Lord. “Sir, I was given specific instructions to get the company back on the road at first light. I’m following those orders, sir.”
“Then you know where he is?” MaGrath accused.
“No, sir. But if you look at his horse, you’ll notice his saddlebags and bedroll are missing from his saddle. Perhaps he chose to spend the night in the forest.”
“Of course!” MaGrath said sarcastically. “Very well, lead on.” He spun around to head for his own horse when the soldier’s next comment made him pause.
“If the Battle Lady returned last night, it’s a very real possibility.”
Battle Lady. Despite his irritation, MaGrath couldn’t help the small smile that creased his face at the term. It wasn’t the first time he’d heard the name bandied about, but it was the first time he’d heard it spoken to directly address her, making him wonder if the rest of the men were using the name as a point of fact.
Madigan watched him join her where she waited on her mount. “Well?” she asked.
“Mastin belie
ves Atty came back last night, and they spent the night together in the forest.”
Her eyes got wide. “Isn’t that too dangerous?”
He agreed. “But we’re talking about Atty here. That woman has the forest in her blood. Come on, Maddy. Let’s find our place in line.”
She followed him as he rode out to join the caravan already in motion, taking her place not far from the head. Mastin calmly took point. Directly behind him, his sub-lieutenant by the name of Socher led Yulen’s horse by the reins. Madigan noticed the saddle was missing its side bags and her son’s bedroll.
They kept up the pace originally set by the Battle Lord as the sun rose over the tops of the trees. Talk was little. The only sounds to be heard coming from the surrounding forest were the birds nesting in the trees, and the occasional ground rodent scurrying through the brush to escape being trampled on the road.
It was the men’s murmuring that alerted Mastin and the others that something was amiss. As the sound of galloping hooves steadily grew louder, the Second signaled for a halt as they all turned to look back down the road. Flying around the bend came a single horse with two riders. MaGrath let out a huge sigh. “Well, it’s about damn time.”
They waited as Yulen brought the mare up to the front of the line. Without waiting for the horse to come to a full stop, he smoothly slid from the saddle where he’d been seated in front of Atty, barely hitting the ground before swinging onto the stallion. Sorcher tossed him the reins, and the Battle Lord motioned for them to continue onward. Mastin took his place behind his leader.
MaGrath glanced at the two of them, aware of the air of nonchalance they were trying to impart. “Don’t you think you owe us an apology?” he finally spoke up.
“For what?” Yulen eyed him.
“For scaring us like that! For not letting us know where you were! I almost had Mastin send out a search party!”
Yulen cast an eye at where his Second rode silently behind them, trying unsuccessfully to look as though he couldn’t hear their conversation. “I seriously doubt that, Liam. Mastin was following my orders to a T.”