Loved by a Bear (Legends of Black Salmon Falls Book 1)

by Lauren Lively

  ********

  "Fifty-five days."

  Death had not come as I had prayed. My captor had toyed with me, leaving me just at the edge of life so that he could return as my body healed and torture me more. I couldn't remember the last time I had eaten when another of the creatures stepped up to my cell and slid a plate of food toward me. It took all of my strength to eat what had been given to me and the creature seemed to take pleasure in watching my struggle. Suddenly I heard a scream reverberating off of the walls on the corridor in front of my cell. It was muffled as if it was coming from a different area of the building, but it was undeniably a woman screaming for her life.

  My eyes darted around me and the Klimnu laughed.

  "You hear our new guest," he said and my ears pricked up, "She is different than you. She is special."

  "What do you mean?" I struggled to ask.

  "The Denynso will come for her. She belongs to one of them and he will ensure they find her, which means he will bring the warriors right to us."

  As soon as he said that, I knew this was my only opportunity. I was already so tiny and on top of that became grotesquely thin. The next day I pushed myself through the bars of my cell as soon as my captor left and made my way through the halls. I moved as fast and I could and went until I couldn't go any further. When I fell, I was sure that was it. I knew the Klimnu would realize I was gone and come to find me. But then I saw a woman coming down the hall toward me and I used the very last of my strength to ask for help.

  Chapter 7

  "The next thing I remember is hearing voices around me but not being able to respond to them or wake up. I thought I was dead, but then I felt Gyyx near me and I knew I was alive and going to be safe."

  When I was finally finished sharing my memories with Criea, I felt drained but relieved. I sat back and reached out to grab Gyyx's hand. I needed to feel him close to me.

  "Burning the prison didn't stop them," my mate said, growling deep in his throat as he processed what he had just heard about my experience with the Klimnu, "They will be back, especially if they can replenish from Ynn."

  I watched as the control in the room around me disintegrated. The warriors jumped to their feet and the room filled with the sound of shouts. I squeezed Gyyx's hand, telling him with the pressure that I needed to get out of the room. Criea stood and pounded his hand on the table in front of him, demanding attention and quieting the room around him.

  "The Klimnu will return. They are after me and they will not rest until they achieve their goal."

  "Unless we wipe them out of existence," Pyra said and I saw Eden reach up to stroke his arm calmingly.

  "There is nothing we can do tonight," Criea said, "Gyyx, bring your mate home. Let her rest. She has been through even more than I could have imagined. Take care of her and we will move forward tomorrow."

  Without replying, Gyyx stood and scooped me into his arms. Usually I didn't want him to carry me, but at that moment I needed the feeling of his heart against me and the sound of his breath surrounding me. I felt tiny cradled in his arms and the strength of his body made me feel safe. As he carried me home I felt my body aching for him, needing his touch to soothe and comfort me. It was his touch that brought me out of the deep, consuming sleep that I had not been able to free myself from, and his love that was helping me overcome the darkness of the days behind me. I needed that touch now.

  When we got back home Gyyx carried me directly to the bedroom and laid me down on the bed. Before I could pull him down with me, however, he straightened and began to pace around the room, stalking like a caged animal.

  "What's wrong?" I asked.

  He shot a withering glare at me and I felt my breath catch in my throat.

  "Are you kidding me?" he asked, nearly shouting, "After what I just found out about what those disgusting creatures did to you, you can seriously ask me what's wrong?"

  "I'm alright now," I told him, reaching out for him.

  He came to the side of the bed and let me run my hand down his chest. I could feel his heart pounding beneath my fingers and the orange of his eyes flashed with anger despite the desire lingering there.

  "I hate to think about them touching you," he said softly, "The thought of one of them licking you…" he trailed off and I could see his body shudder.

  "Fix it," I whispered, "Replace those memories."

  I eased closer to him on the bed and turned his face toward mine so I could rest my lips against his. He kissed me back gently at first, then with greater intensity until I could feel my need reflected in him. I climbed onto my knees and swung one leg over his hips so that I straddled his lap facing him. Not taking my eyes away from his, I pulled my dress off over my head and dropped it to the floor behind me. His only reaction was a soft moan, so I went a step further, releasing the clasp on the back of my bra and peeling it away so that I exposed my bare breasts to him. That was enough to trigger him into action.

  Gyyx flattened his hands on my back, the size of them nearly covering the entire expanse, and applied pressure until I arched back, thrusting my breasts up toward him. He dipped his head and ran his tongue around one of my nipples, causing it to harden and the ache between my thighs to increase. Moving with incredible patience, he switched to the other nipple and repeated the motion, nurturing that one to a taut peak as well. His tongue roved across my breasts and then up to my neck before he brought a kiss back to my lips and stood, cradling me against him so that he could turn me and lay me back down on the bed.

  I complied with him as I always did, letting him conform my movements to his wishes as he pulled my panties from my hips and dropped them to the floor. He didn’t remove any of his clothing and the juxtaposition between him being fully clothed and me being completely naked sent a shiver through my body and directly into my core. Gyyx returned his mouth to my skin, tracing the curves and planes of my body with his tongue as if trying to cover every inch that the Klimnu may have touched or licked. I could feel the disgust of the creature's touch disappearing as my mate nurtured me.

  Suddenly the torturously slow, tender movements of Gyyx's mouth stopped and he pushed my legs apart, scooping his hands beneath me to hold my pelvis up. His mouth opened and engulfed my core, sucking lightly as his tongue explored the intricacies of my folds and dipped within me. I cried out loudly, burying my fingers into his long white hair. He moved his mouth up, concentrating his attention so that just the tip of his tongue swirled around the tender, hypersensitive pearl of flesh at my peak and for a moment I thought I was going to dissolve under the intense, glorious sensations he was creating within me.

  In the next moment his finger slid into my body and everything crashed around me. My body clenched around his hand, squeezing it tightly as I screamed his name and dug my nails deeply into his back.

  "I love you," I gasped as I collapsed back down onto the bed.

  His face lifted and he looked down at me with wide, vibrantly orange eyes.

  "What?" he asked.

  It was the first time I had said it and perhaps I had not chosen the most opportune moment, but it had spilled out of me with the same purely natural energy of the blistering orgasm he had just given me and there was no reason to pretend it hadn't.

  "I love you," I repeated, holding his face between my hands.

  "You're not just saying that because I made you come so hard I think the warriors probably heard you?"

  "You've done that before," I pointed out to him.

  Gyyx rose up over me and lowered down so that his body engulfed mine and captured my mouth in a deep, seeking kiss.

  "I love you," he whispered when our kiss broke.

  Gyyx spent the rest of the night kissing every inch of me, soothing the scars on my back and making up for every moment of pain and abuse I had ever endured. The next morning I was thoroughly fulfilled and more at peace than I had ever been in my life. I told him I was going to visit Eliana and Eden and left him lying in bed, d
rained and with a satiated smile on his lips.

  I had only gone a few yards from the house when I heard a voice near me.

  "You are mine," it hissed.

  I looked around, frightened by the sound, but didn't see anyone.

  "You are mine," the voice repeated and I recognized it as the slimy sound of the Klimnu that had captured me.

  I spun around, trying to see him, but around me the land was quiet and empty.

  "I own you. You belong to me," the Klimnu said and I suddenly felt his presence behind me.

  I remembered what Gyyx had told me about the Klimnu being able to use illusion to manipulate people, so when I turned and saw Ero close behind me, I didn't hesitate. The anger that had built up inside me for two months in that prison boiled over, fueled by my love and loyalty for Gyyx. Being mated to my powerful Denynso warrior had me feeling stronger both mentally and physically than I had ever felt before. My hand lashed out before the disguised Klimnu had the chance to react. It hit him so hard he stumbled back and I swept my leg forward, taking his out from under him so that he hit the ground. Not giving him the opportunity to recover, I jumped and landed with my elbow in the middle of his throat. There was a satisfying crack and the creature gurgled beneath me, the attack causing his illusion to fade so that I looked at his disgusting face again.

  "You do not own me," I told him, enunciating each word carefully to ensure he heard them, "I belong to my mate, and my mate only. You will never touch me again."

  I shoved the heel of my hand into his face, crushing his nose. Before I could hit him again, I felt hands pulling me back and spun around to see the real Ero tugging me away from the bleeding and struggling Klimnu.

  "Leia!" he shouted, trying to get my attention, shocked he said, "Calm the hell down. Are you okay? We’ll take it from here."

  "He used an illusion to look like you. He said that I belonged to him. He was trying to take me back."

  "Don't worry," he said as two more warriors ran up to us, "He won't be bothering you anymore."

  Ero turned me by my shoulders and started guiding me back toward the house.

  "We finally heard from the university," he said in a cheerful tone that belied the sounds of screaming behind us, "They are sending a professor for the exchange program."

  "Do they know what happened?" I asked.

  He shrugged.

  "We handled it."

  A furious Gyyx stepped out of the house and pulled me into his arms, possessively removing me from Ero's touch.

  "When will she be here?" I asked, wrapping my arms around Gyyx.

  "A few days."

  As he said it, I could swear I saw a flicker of orange in his eyes.

  (To be Continued in Part VII… )

  Book 7 – Desired by Alien Warrior

  Chapter One

  There wasn't really anything to look at through the window of the ship, but it was better to stare out into the dark expanse than it was to look ahead of me at the bright, almost iridescent white interior of the pod chamber I had been looking at for the last four days, so I continued to gaze out. I sat in my pod, tucked down so I was reclining in the thick padding that filled the rounded egg-like pod with a notebook open in her lap. The top of the pod was as wide open as I could get it and I hadn't closed it since the moment the pilot announced we were out of Earth's atmosphere and I was able to open the pod and move freely around the chamber. I hate being confined in any way. It makes me feel out of control, which was something that I never handled well.

  "How are you doing in here?" a flight attendant asked, leaning against the side of my pod and looking down onto the notebook in my lap.

  I sighed and smiled up at the frail, rather plain-looking but pleasant girl who had been rotating shifts with a young man during the voyage. The trip from Earth to Uoria was long, but I had been unwilling to undergo the sedating process that would have allowed me to sleep throughout the entire five day sailing. It might be tedious to stay within the same area for such a long time, but giving up five days of my life was not something I was going to do, especially not when I still felt like I had so much to do to prepare for my teaching position on the new planet.

  "I'm doing alright. I'm definitely ready to get out of this ship, though."

  The flight attendant gave a short laugh and nodded.

  "I can totally understand that. These voyages can get stressful. At least you decided to stay awake though. Sitting around here during voyages that are more than a day with passengers that go to sleep can really wear on the nerves."

  "I'm sure. I bet there is only so much you have to talk about with your coworker over there."

  We both glanced across the chamber at the other flight attendant. He was sitting in one of the long chairs beside the tall windows opposite of my pod, plugged into a game that he held in his lap with the same level of interest and consideration that I held my work. We laughed and the flight attendant shook her head.

  "Yeah. He's an exhilarating conversationalist."

  "Do you always travel with him when you're working?"

  As a teacher, I am naturally curious and constantly found myself feeling like I was doing little research projects throughout my days, trying to find out more about any situation or person that I encountered. I didn't know much about space travel, considering this was my first excursion away from Earth, and it fascinated me to find out about the intricacies of the travel companies and their staff. The curiosity sometimes got me in trouble, but I figured that there wasn't much that could happen just by asking about how they planned their shifts.

  "Yes. The university charters teams and we essentially stay together throughout our careers."

  "I guess they want to foster closer bonds and trust between the members of the teams so that you can cooperate on a higher level and manage crises more effectively."

  The flight attendant stared down at me with a slightly blank look in her eyes.

  "That sounded like it came directly out of the training manual."

  I laughed. That was not the first time that I had had someone accuse me of sounding like a textbook.

  "I guess it's like my grandmother always said, 'You can take the professor out of academia, but you can't take academia out of the professor.'"

  The flight attendant giggled.

  "I love old-fashioned sayings like that. I haven't heard that one since I was a little girl." She gave a sigh and peered over her shoulder briefly, "It looks like it's just about lunchtime. Can I get you something?"

  I nodded.

  "Yes. I'm starving. Thank you."

  I had packed snacks in the luggage I kept with me at my pod, but I hadn't anticipated the somewhat small portions they served me on the ship and had already eaten almost all of them so I was rationing them carefully so that they lasted throughout the rest of the voyage. When the flight attendant walked away, the pod chamber fell still and quiet again. Even the other attendant had turned off his game and was somewhere else in the ship helping prepare the meal. I let my mind wander to Uoria again and what could be waiting for me there.

  I thought about Leia and what the university had told me about the first student who had made the journey to the new planet. It had been two months since the brilliant but troubled young art student had made the courageous decision to the be the very first Earth student to join in the exchange program with the Denynso and make the trip to Uoria to study the culture and the land. Since she left, the university hadn't heard anything about her, and while many of the other professors and even the organizers of the program felt that there was nothing to be concerned about considering how intensive the level of study would be suddenly arriving on another planet where there had been no previously established school or connection, I had felt a twinge of nervousness every time I thought about her.

  I didn't know Leia extremely well. Our relationship had not gone far beyond the level of educator and student, but I had always felt a personal interest in h
er. Though Leia didn't talk about it, I could tell that this was a young woman who was constantly struggling with her own set of demons from her past and was constantly running. She ran by choosing to go to the university. She ran in the type of art that she created. And she ran by being eager to be the first student to sign up for the exchange program even though it was completely uncharted territory and no one had any idea how the engagement with the Denynso was going to go. It seemed strange, even, to call the program an "exchange" program considering no students from the other planet had made the decision to go to Earth to study. Instead, they had requested a professor be sent to the planet in order to instruct them about the history, culture, and environment of Earth.

  The lack of news from Leia and the seemingly evasive response of the Denynso when they asked questions about what they wanted to know about Earth and why they didn't want to send their own students or representatives to Earth to learn instead had made it more difficult for the university to find a professor willing to take on the challenge. Even those who didn't think it was strange at all for a young girl on a study abroad program to not check in with the university or send any type of update were reluctant to involve themselves in a program that didn't seem thoroughly planned, especially considering it was designed to foster cooperation and involvement between Earth and a culture known for being fearsome and ruthless warriors.

  Though scientists and journalists had had successful excursions to Uoria over the years and had brought back a tremendous amount of information that helped to illuminate the culture and facilitated in laying the foundation of greater cooperation and involvement between the two species, they also brought back stories of aggressive, violent men who towered over seven feet tall, a vicious other species that roamed the planet and engaged in bloody warfare with the Denynso, and laws that governed that visiting humans under the threat of severe punishment. This veil of mystery had made the other professors too afraid to leave their positions on Earth and embark on the journey. Despite my own nervousness, however, I had been intrigued by the stories and eager to find out more. After the Denynso representatives had finally gotten back to the university to tell them that Leia had been on a personal retreat during her time on Uoria gaining inspiration for her art but had recently emerged and had gained special permission from the king and queen to extend her original six month stay into the indefinite future, I decided that if the young, embattled girl could dive into the experience so completely and so quickly, and gain such incredible meaning from it that she decided to leave her home planet and live on Uoria, maybe I should be courageous as well.