The Yarian (Women of Dor Nye Book 3)

by Poppy Rhys

  “Hiosha eggs,” Fin heard him say, “a large insect.”

  Her cheeks bubbled.

  Her stomach quivered.

  Her determination dissolved into thin air as she scrambled to the edge of the nest, leaned over, and vomited.

  Heave after heave, and she still felt like there was more slop to expel. Her muscles rattled and bunched, her eyes watering, her ribs aching as she continued to wretch.

  “You’re wasting good nutrition, human.”

  Fin babbled obscenities at her captor, even though half of them didn’t make any sense, even to her. Whatever came to mind, that’s what she said, in the meanest way she could muster while hurling over the side of a creatures abandoned home.

  Hunter tried to touch her back, but she swung an arm behind her, slapping him away before dry heaving again and babbling ‘asshead’.

  She couldn’t throw proper insults while she was focused on puking.

  When it was over, she melted into the nest, her limbs feeling like jelly. When the water pouch was placed at her lips, she weakly accepted it from the alien, gulping down large mouthfuls.

  All she could do was moan when she rolled onto her side near the center of the nest, her eyes growing heavy. She was so exhausted, she didn’t even care when she felt Hunter settle in at her back.

  In a matter of moments, she was out like a light.

  ****

  Hunter listened to the bush around him, not picking up on anything nearby enough to be a threat. The sleeping human beside him breathed deeply in her slumber, and then stirred as if she was trying to get comfortable.

  He shook his head.

  She was bothersome. Yet, he found himself enjoying her presence. Even if she did insult him every chance she got, it seemed.

  Impatience ate at him, because he was anxious to get back to his tribe, his home. Admittedly, he’d need to figure something out for the girl to put on her feet. The small cuts where she’d picked splinters and burrs from her soles didn’t escape his notice.

  Not that he cared.

  The urge to make her feel comfortable was like a thorn in his side. It was frustrating, because he prided himself on being prepared, alert, and yet his mate was hurting and he could’ve prevented it by simply letting her keep her slippers.

  To her credit, she didn’t complain. Even when she stopped multiple times upon the trail to remove yet another burr.

  A muscle in his cheek ticked.

  Again, she surprised him and he found it pleasurable.

  That alone was vexing.

  Once the morning light hit, he would find something suitable for her to eat since the hiosha eggs made her violently ill.

  He snorted, his chest heaving a breath. Maybe he should’ve withheld the fact they were insect eggs. Humans seemed to have weak stomachs.

  Hiosha eggs weren’t his first choice either, but they would fill the belly, and were nutritious.

  His fingers twisted a lock of her hair around his fingers, the silken strands brushing pleasantly against his skin.

  Her news that she was unable to give him young was infuriating. It was the entire purpose of a Shu’Lee. All of his struggles, his training, his survival, it was all to become Shu’Lee and find his Mi’ska that would help usher in a new generation.

  Maybe Leeshi really had forsaken him.

  Hunter felt a bone deep loss, confused as to what his purpose was now. Now that he would never be a father, would never have sons and daughters to teach the ways of his people.

  Why would The True One do that to him? Give him hope just to snatch it away?

  He exhaled, a deep sigh deflating his chest.

  No matter. He would join with Finley. He’d already chosen her, and there would be no other for him, even if he wanted.

  Which… he was sore to admit, he didn’t.

  That realization made him restless.

  No.

  He didn’t want her. Not logically. It was simply his body overriding his good sense.

  Logically, he couldn’t be satisfied with a mate of such an inferior species.

  But…

  Finley was his. The stirrings in his chest were perplexing.

  Admittedly, he felt things when his gaze lingered on her body. Touching her, being near her, thinking about joining with her bombarded his brain more than he cared to think about.

  Hunter shook himself, and turned his body toward his mate, careful not to disturb her slumber, before he settled in to sleep.

  ****

  Finley felt herself stretching and trying to turn over in her sleep. It was what she liked to call the mid-sleep; the time when she teetered between being unconscious, and being awake, and able to feel and hear things around herself.

  She often stepped off curbs whenever she had dreams in that state, her whole body jerking her awake.

  She felt herself mid-sleep right then. When something wrapped around her ankle, she thought she was having one of those dreams.

  When her body jerked and the feeling of being dragged became more vivid, she realized it wasn’t a dream.

  Her lids popped open as twigs dug into her hip when she began sliding again, the pressure on her ankle tightening.

  Her heart kicked up a beat, and then her gaze swiveled down to her foot.

  The moonlight was breaking through the canopy, the small, gray skinned, green clawed hand in full view.

  Her eyes quickly followed the arm it was attached to until they met two green orbs that reflected in the dark.

  Its large jaws slowly opened, green saliva coating the needles jutting up from its gums.

  Her mind went zero to one hundred in two seconds flat, and then her lungs gushed a scream that shattered the eerie silence of the wilderness around.

  Finley franticly clawed at the twigs below her, trying to pull herself away before the creature could drag her over the side of the nest.

  In the next blink, Hunter was upright, his body crouched over hers as he faced the monstrous creature and roared, baring his own dangerous teeth.

  His hand sliced through the air, the dagger from his belt within his fist.

  It connected with the hand that gripped her ankle, slicing it clean off.

  The creature howled so loudly it made Finley dizzy as she gripped Hunter’s calf and held on tightly, her legs thrashing.

  The severed hand flopped to the twigs below, the creature dropping to the ground and scurrying off into the night.

  She scrambled backward, hysterical, and climbing the alien until she clung to him like a second skin.

  Hold it together, Fin!

  He wrapped his arms around her, kicking the creatures hand from the nest.

  Her breath rushed in jittery spurts, her entire body trembling with adrenaline and fear like she’d never felt. She would face a penal colony any day, rather than wake up to something like that ever again.

  A single, incredulous sob rushed past her lips.

  No, don’t cry, don’t cry.

  Incredulity that she was on an uncivilized planet, in a colossal jungle jam packed with creature’s sprung from a drug induced horror vid, and that she was clinging to the one who kidnapped her because he was the only thing keeping her alive…

  It all felt like a truckload of sand being dumped on her head.

  She needed him, that was the sad part.

  Fin was terrified, of her future, of the planet she was stuck on, and her frenzied sobs echoed that cocktail of emotion.

  Her pride took a hit with each scared outcry that shuddered from her lungs.

  Body trembling, she tucked her face under Hunter’s chin and let it all out.

  “Shhh,” he crooned, trying to calm her down while he stroked her back, and held her.

  For a while it didn’t work at all. She continued to vent all the stress and exhaustion, trying to come to terms with reality, until her body was weak again, the adrenaline dissolving.

  “What was that?” she croaked, dragging the back of her hand under her nose.


  “Yulu,” the alien told her, his chin resting on her head. She could feel the vibration through his skin when he spoke, and she was sore to admit it helped calm her. “A less evolved species.”

  She shivered, mostly from the thought of the creature, partly from the chilled air. “Will it be back?”

  “No,” he reassured. “It’s injured, not stupid.”

  A small hiccup of laughter couldn’t be helped at his humor, and she was grateful he was attempting to make her feel anything other than fear.

  “Try to sleep,” he whispered, his voice giving her a sense of safety. “I’ll protect you.”

  His words echoed and re-echoed in her mind. How could he sound so sincere?

  Fin wasn’t sure how she was going to sleep after that, and when Hunter urged her down into the nest again, she kept herself wrapped to him.

  She would criticize her actions tomorrow, but for now, she didn’t let go.

  Eventually she was lulled asleep on her side, facing him as his arm draped over her, and continued to soothingly rub her back.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  The first tendrils of warmth crept up his skin, waking him slowly, and signaling the approaching dawn. His keen gaze floated over the female clinging to him, even in her sleep, and a niggling frustration bored into his brain.

  It felt… right.

  Ah, it maddens me!

  Was this what he was supposed to feel holding his Mi’ska? A calm, a sense of tranquility?

  How long had it been since he felt at peace? Nearly six terms…

  This feeling, it was foreign to him. How embittered had he become to question contentment?

  Half a decade at Carnal Bazaar has turned me feral.

  Here he was, free, on his home planet, with a mate that clung to him in her sleep, and still he was dissatisfied.

  Finley’s body curled against his, her hair fanning over his arm while she used his limb as a pillow.

  Despite the urgency to get the day started, and his displeasure that the puny human was making him question his actions… he found himself wanting to soak up a little more time in this sliver of existence.

  He trailed his nose along the curve of her ear, as if he couldn’t stop himself. His eyelids closed while he reveled in the feel of her skin. Skin that was soft, unmarred due to her life of ease on Dor Nye. It was still cool in spots from the chill of the evening.

  Why did he find himself enjoying that softness now? It was weakness. Her marked feet were proof.

  The night had been rough for her. The Yulu trying to drag her off into the bush left enough of an impression that he would feel her stir awake every once in a while, as if to make sure he was still there, keeping watch.

  I’m here, Mi’ska, he wanted to say each time, but he bit his tongue. He couldn’t. His body didn’t allow him to give her that.

  They would be past the dangerous part of the jungle by sundown, and she could sleep peacefully once they stopped for the night. In a few days’ time, they would be home.

  Finley twitched, her muscles jumping, her eyelids fluttering open and that moment of initial confusion shifting into understanding as she remembered where she was.

  The longer he spent in her company, the more he’d learn about her. He already knew she twisted the ring upon her finger when she was nervous, or worried. He’d seen her do it upon Vishik, and upon Yari, multiple times.

  Why she worried now, he didn’t know.

  She doubts me.

  He’d told her multiple times that her body was his. She was his. Obviously he would protect what was his, provide for what was his.

  If she was worried, it was because she didn’t trust him to do his duty as her mate.

  It irked him.

  When she pulled away from him, sitting up and looking around, he wasn’t sure if he felt annoyed at the loss of her body against his, or if he was relieved.

  The first rays of sun were sneaking through the canopy by then, waking Yari’s inhabitants.

  “Morning,” she mumbled, yawning and rubbing her eyes.

  Unbidden, his eyes roved over her naked torso.

  “Good morning,” he responded, getting to his feet before his cock got the better of him and demanded he push her back and slake his lust.

  He gulped.

  “Are you hungry?”

  “Yes,” she stifled a yawn, and then quickly corrected herself. “No more bug eggs, right?”

  His lips twitched, his chest stirring, causing his displeasure to rise.

  “So you can vomit the food I provide for you again?”

  She scowled.

  “No.”

  “Then thank the Lord,” she praised.

  Hunter tilted his head to the side, wondering what deity she honored, and made a mental note to ask her later.

  ****

  Fin rubbed the skin over her ribs, grimacing at how sore her body felt after the events of last night. She wished it was all a bad nightmare, and she’d wake up in her own bed, in her own home, back with her family.

  But every time she woke, it never happened.

  “Rise, human,” Hunter commanded in that high-handed fashion she was coming to expect from him. He moved into a crouched position.

  “How many times do I have to tell you,” she groused, getting to her knees, “my name is Finley.”

  He ‘mm’d and waited.

  She didn’t want to spend another moment in that nest, so high up in a tree, and when the alien gestured to his back, she knew exactly what to do. Without hesitation, she wrapped her limbs around him and held on.

  Instead of going down the way they’d come up, the alien reached out, grabbing a thick vine and giving it a rough tug.

  “Wait-” she began, but was cut off when he jumped.

  Fin’s stomach flipped up into her throat as she held onto the alien with a death grip while they spun down the vine toward the ground below.

  His feet hit the earth, and she melted to the jungle floor, weak-kneed and queasy. Her appreciation for the ground once again renewed.

  Deeper into the bush he led her, until they came upon a small, rushing stream. She watched as he dipped the water pouch, letting it fill up while his eyes scanned the vicinity with a honed sharpness.

  It made her nervous.

  She sunk down beside him, feeling at odds and exposed while standing.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Some predators,” he began in a low voice, as if speaking any louder would be a mistake, “lay in wait near water.”

  Fin shivered, her gaze darting around them.

  She didn’t see anything.

  “Easy food, when your prey comes to you.”

  “Can we go now?” She felt like a sitting duck after that, ready to be plucked for first meal by some unholy beast.

  Were they being stalked that very moment?

  She didn’t know, and didn’t want to find out.

  On their way back to the canoe, Hunter picked an armful of bumpy looking red globes from a thicket of thorny bushes. The produce was the size of a medium apple, and easy for her to handle.

  When they reached the canoe, Joh was laying beside it. The beast perked up when he noticed them, the alien rubbing the scruff of his neck before dumping the red globes into their dugout.

  She followed suit, climbing in as the day before and soon they were off.

  For some reason she felt safer on the water than on her feet, though she imagined there were probably eerie lurkers below the surface, as she’d witnessed yesterday.

  If she kept thinking like that, she’d make herself go mad.

  Her gaze skittered over Hunter, the events of last night creeping into her mind.

  She didn’t want to think about it. Didn’t want to acknowledge she cried and clung to him through the night. It made her feel helpless, and dependent.

  She supposed she was, now.

  It pissed her off.

  Hysteria, she tried to tell herself.

  Of course she found comfort in
it. Who wouldn’t after nearly being dragged off by a creature that belonged in the horror vids she always got roped into watching?

  She promised herself then, if she ever got back home, -which of course, she was going to- she would give up the horror vids. You know, so her mind would stop overreacting in case she ever got kidnapped again by aliens, and toted off to some planet infested with heinous creatures.

  “Why didn’t your friends just drop us off outside your tribe home?”

  The Yarian’s obviously had technology, and it would’ve been a lot easier than traipsing through the jungle.

  “It’s forbidden.”

  The confused squint to her eyes spurred him onward.

  “After The Great Rebirth, we no longer use technology within our homeland, or near it.”

  “What’s ‘The Great Rebirth’?”

  “Many, many generations ago, my people fought amongst each other. War between tribes was never-ending, and it only got worse as our technology became greater.”

  She settled in, tucking her knees to her chest as he continued with his story.

  “When a great Tishani was accidentally killed, many of our chieftains came together to make peace so their offspring, and the future generations, would know more than only battle and death.” He nodded, as if in agreement with the decision, operating the paddle rhythmically.

  “They came to an understanding. The technology that was ruining the planet, and Leeshi’s people, would be pushed away from the home, tribe life, and designated for minimal trade use, and transportation between planets only.”

  “Your people don’t use comm’s or any form of electronic communication?” Her brows rose, surprise morphing her face. She really was on a backward planet.

  “No.”

  “Modern medicine?”

  “We have healers.”

  Fin narrowed her eyes, her brain trying to wrap around that whopper.

  How did these people survive? No transports, no comms, no electricity. What about indoor plumbing, and hot water?

  I’m one step away from being a cavewoman.

  Wait, did his people live in caves?

  Oh God.

  Yari’s wilderness grew even more massive in her minds eye, and it wasn’t just the colossal size of every tree, bush, and beast upon its surface that made it feel like so.