Guarding the Goddess

by Evangeline Anderson

  “But, Your Holiness, you swore that once the dust took effect she’d be begging for it,” Fundreg protested. He was still standing outside Ellina’s cell with the torch raised and an uncertain look on his face. “You didn’t say anything about taking her against her will. She’s the Potentate.”

  “Yes, and soon she’ll be my Potentate—to do with as I wish.” Kikbax’s eyes gleamed greedily in the torchlight, making Ellina feel sick. “Just stay where you are and hold the torch so I can see what I’m doing,” he told Fundreg.

  “Stay away from her, Kikbax.” Ty’s voice from the other side of the bars was a low growl. “Touch her and you’re dead, I swear it!”

  “You can rant and rave all you want,” the High Priest told him with a sneer. “It won’t do you any good. You, my dear Kindred, are going to be spending the rest of your life in the dungeons to be certain your sweet little Ellina stays in line and does exactly what I tell her. But first, you’re going to watch me give her the very first breeding of her life—and the only one that really counts. Once I take her, she’ll be mine forever and there’s nothing anyone can do about it!”

  “You bastard!” Ty threw himself against the bars, his eyes gleaming red with Rage in the flickering torch light. “Don’t touch her!”

  “Oh, I’m going to do considerably more than touch her,” Kikbax purred. “And lucky for you, you get to watch me do it.”

  Ellina felt sick as he came towards her.

  “Stay away from me—stay away!” she gasped as the High Priest stepped into her cell and came towards her. “Fundreg!” she shouted at the old captain of her guard, who was still standing outside the cell, holding the torch with an uncertain look on his face. “You were once sworn to protect me. How can you stand by and watch me attacked?”

  But the other man just looked away, as though he couldn’t bear to see what was about to happen, but he didn’t intend to stop it either.

  “Ellina! I’ll kill you, Kikbax! I’ll fucking kill you!” Ty swore, throwing himself against the bars again until they rattled. His voice echoed harshly in the stone-lined dungeon.

  The High Priest ignored him and made a snatch at Ellina, who jumped back. She looked for a way to get away from him but he was in the narrow cell with her, his bulk blocking any possible exit. Gods and goddesses—she was trapped! What was she going to do?

  He made another grab and this time he got her by the wrist. Ellina twisted in his grasp and tried to kick between his legs, where males were most vulnerable. But the High Priest seemed to have been expecting such a move because he deflected it easily and suddenly he was on top of her, pressing her against the bars so hard Ellina couldn’t breathe as the cold plasti-steel cut into her back.

  “No! No! Goddess, no!” she heard Ty shouting as he reached through the bars as far as he could. But though his seeking fingers were almost able to reach Kikbax, he couldn’t quite catch him. “You son of a bitch, leave her alone!” he roared.

  Ellina tried to fight—she kicked and twisted in the High Priest’s grasp.

  “How dare you? Get off me—get away from me!” she shouted. Lor jumped bravely from the top of her head and tried to scratch him, but was immediately engaged by the High Priest’s chewchie instead—a creature who was bigger and older than he was. The two chewchies fell to the floor, biting and scratching as Kikbax continued his assault.

  “Now, now, my dear,” he purred, his eyes greedy with lust. “Just relax, why don’t you? It’ll be so much easier that way…”

  “Relax and let you rape me? I don’t think so!” Ellina shouted, still struggling with all her might. “Let…me…go!”

  “Come on now—it doesn’t have to be rape if you’ll just give in.” The High Priest leaned closer, as though trying to kiss her.

  Ellina spit in his face. It was an instinctive reaction—her gut was churning, her heart pounding. She was angry and frightened and disgusted all at once. She would have done anything to get away from him—anything at all. But Kikbax didn’t loosen his grip on her, though he drew back with a frown and wiped his pudgy face.

  “Now, Ellina—is that any way to treat your new consort?” he demanded. “Play nicely or I’m afraid your Kindred in the next cell there is going to get a blaster shot in the guts.” He looked over his shoulder. “Fundreg—fire a warning shot to let the Potentate know I mean business. Maybe just take off an arm or shoot him in the leg.”

  Ellina felt cold inside. Ty—he was going to hurt Ty. She couldn’t let that happen—couldn’t stand by and let the man she loved be hurt or maimed! But she also couldn’t let Kikbax rape her without a fight—she didn’t have that in her.

  Oh, please! she prayed, not even knowing who she was praying to. Oh please, I need some help here! Please stop him—please!

  But there was no answer to her prayer and Ellina didn’t know what to do.

  Ty knew exactly what he was going to do, if only he could get out of this damned cell! Rage rose in him like a fire setting his soul alight with pure fury. He was going to kill that bastard, Kikbax the minute he got a chance. He was going to wrap his hands around the High Priest’s throat the same way he had them wrapped now around the bars to his cell door and squeeze and squeeze and squeeze…

  “Well, what are you waiting for?” a little voice said in his head. “If you want to save Ellina, you’d better go now.”

  “What?” Ty was so overcome with Rage he could barely form the question. But then he looked down and saw that Tisa was sitting on one of the crosspieces of the bars. Her long blue tail was curled around herself and she had a worried look on her little pointed face.

  “Go on,” she told him. “I picked the lock for you while everyone else was busy shouting. Hurry, Ty—I think Ellina is really in trouble!”

  He didn’t waste any more time on questions. Taking a firmer grasp on the bars of his cell door, he pushed with all his might.

  Fundreg had been standing there pointing a blaster at him uncertainly, but mostly watching what was happening in the other cell. So he was taken by surprise when the heavy metal door swung open and slammed him right in the face.

  With a cry, he dropped his blaster and fell backwards, both hands grasping for his streaming nose and injured third eye which had both been caught by one of the heavy bars.

  Ty didn’t bother with him other than to step over his supine body. The Rage was like a red curtain over his vision now—obscuring everything but his target. He swooped into Ellina’s cell like an avenging angel and curled his fingers around the High Priest’s thick throat.

  Dead—he was going to choke the bastard until he was fucking dead for daring to come anywhere near his female!

  Slowly, he began to squeeze.

  Ellina gasped as Kikbax got a knee between her legs and started to lift her skirts. Was this really how her first breeding would happen—as a rape? Would she really be tied to the repugnant Lord Kikbax for life? Gods and goddesses, she would rather die.

  But then Ty was there, looming over the High Priest’s shoulder and his big hands were encircling Kikbax’s throat.

  The High Priest’s eyes widened in surprise—all three of them—and then he began to choke. He gasped and let Ellina go, reaching instead to scrabble at the strong fingers squeezing his windpipe closed, but there was nothing he could do. All three eyes bulged from their sockets and his face began to turn purple.

  As Ellina watched, her heart pounding, he sank to his knees with Ty still choking him. The big Kindred’s pale eyes had gone a fiery red and the fury in his face was frightening to behold. He squeezed mercilessly, ignoring the High Priest’s garbled pleas and wild thrashing. Clearly nothing was going to distract him from his goal of seeing Kikbax dead.

  Ellina wanted nothing more than for him to kill the bastard who had almost raped her, but the practical, Potentate part of her mind woke up and started thinking.

  “Stop!” she cried to Ty, trying to distract the big Kindred from his murderous rage. “Stop, Ty—I need him alive. We need t
o hold a public trial and replace him. If you just kill him, the head of the priesthood automatically goes to his next in command and we don’t know if that priest is in on the plot too. We need to get to the bottom of this. So don’t kill him!”

  At last her words seemed to be getting through to him, because she saw Ty’s grip on the High Priest’s neck loosen. Kikbax gasped and fell to the floor, unconscious but not dead, Ellina hoped. They really did need to get to the bottom of this whole plot—she had to purge her kingdom of treachery once and for all.

  “Oh, Ty…” she gasped and went to him, stepping over the fallen form of the High Priest to do it.

  “Ellina—my Potentate. My Goddess.” The Rage cleared from the big Kindred’s eyes and he swept her into his arms, holding her so close Ellina could barely breathe.

  She didn’t care though—she only wanted to be near him. To breathe in his warm, spicy scent and know that he would never leave her again.

  But as she pressed her face to his broad chest and inhaled deeply, a new voice interrupted them.

  “Well,” it said. “I was told to come here on a rescue mission but it appears that you’ve already rescued yourselves.”

  Forty-Eight

  The voice behind them made Ty turn, Ellina still in his arms, and they both saw Commander Asher of the Kindred Elite Espionage Corps standing there, a rueful smile on his face.

  Ty stared at his old friend, feeling the last of the Rage drain from him completely.

  “Asher?” he said blankly. “What are you doing here?”

  Asher nodded at him.

  “As I said, rescuing you. Sorry I’m late,” he added. “We had to fight our way through a force of Chorkay soldiers who I think are the ones that were dismissed from the Royal Guard for not stopping the assassination attempt at the coronation.”

  “Yes, they’re all with the High Priest.” Ellina nodded down at the fallen figure on the floor of the cell. “Did you take care of them? And how did you happen to come just when we were in such dire need?”

  “Well…” Commander Asher got a bemused look on his face. “That’s kind of a strange story…”

  “I called them,” Tisa said and Ty knew Ellina could hear her. Their link was restored, so her words were being relayed to Ellina’s mind by Lor, who had won his battle with the High Priest’s chewchie and was sitting beside his mate, licking his wounds.

  “You did?” Ty looked at the little creature in wonder. “You called them, Tisa?”

  “She certainly did,” Asher said, grinning. “And she’s got a loud voice for such a little creature…woke Lisa and me from a sound sleep in the middle of the night from sixty light years away.” He shook his head. “I thought the end of the universe was coming at first until I understood what was happening.”

  He explained how Tisa had talked through both his own chewchie, Gruff—who was currently sitting on top of his head—and his mate Lisa’s chewchie, Isabel at the same time.

  “She demanded I come help you,” he said. “And I got here as fast as I could—only the High Priest’s guards were in the way.”

  “Which is why I had to help again by opening the lock,” Tisa said primly. She cocked her head at Ty. “And you said I was too small to be of any use.”

  Ty gave her a reluctant grin.

  “I was wrong about that, little girl,” he admitted. “When the Goddess said she was going to send help, I thought she was talking about Asher or some other Kindred warriors. But I guess she knew what she was doing, sending you first.”

  “A Sacred Blue chewchie is always the first choice for any kind of assistance,” Tisa informed him, grooming her tail fastidiously with her long pink tongue. “In fact—”

  But her speech was interrupted by a low groan from Ellina.

  Ty looked at her in concern. He had set her back on her feet when he saw Asher and realized the danger was over, but now she was doubled over, and when she looked up, there was an expression of agony on her lovely face.

  “Ty,” she whispered, reaching for him. “It…it hurts.”

  And then she crumpled to the ground.

  Forty-Nine

  “Ellina? Gods, Ellina! What’s wrong? What happened?” Ty gathered her into his arms as Lor and Tisa scrambled up to sit on his shoulders. Both of the chewchies were making low, worried sounds of unease and through their link, Ty could sense a terrible pain flowing through the woman he loved.

  “Ellina?” he said again. “Please, little one—talk to me!”

  Ellina’s eyelids fluttered open and he saw agony in her Sacred Blue gaze.

  “Breeding…pains,” she panted and her hands went to the spot between her legs and curled into fists. “Lust…dust…bringing on my…Heat Cycle, I think.”

  “What kind of dust? What is she talking about?” Ty demanded, speaking to Tisa.

  “Lor says that Kikbax blew a kind of dust in Ellina’s face,” his chewchie responded quickly. “The same stuff he used to try and drug her wine before—only you neutralized it with your fangs.”

  “Tisa’s right,” Ellina whispered, her face pale with pain. “I thought—hoped—that I’d ingested enough…enough of your essence to make me immune. But I guess…guess I didn’t,” she finished with another wince of pain. “Oh gods and goddesses, Ty—it hurts!”

  “What can I do?” Ty asked her desperately. “Tell me, Ellina—is there a doctor or healer I can take you to?”

  She shook her head.

  “No…no doctor can help me now. Only…only you.”

  As though to explain her words, Lor transmitted a picture of Ty and Ellina together doing…well, doing things that would have made his shaft rock-hard if he hadn’t been out of his mind with worry for Ellina.

  “I can’t do that now!” he protested, stroking her hair back from her face. “You’re hurting too much, little one!”

  “It’s…it’s the only way,” Ellina moaned. “Please, Ty!”

  “What is it? How can I help?” Asher asked over his shoulder. “Should I call Commander Sylvan? He’s a physician.”

  “No, Sylvan can’t help her now—only I can,” Ty said grimly. He looked at his old friend. “Secure the prisoners here and make sure nobody gets away. I have to take Ellina back to the royal apartments.”

  He rose with her in his arms. Cradling her close to his chest, he walked as quickly as he could towards the dungeon steps, leaving Asher to clean up the messy situation. For now he knew—the only help he could give was to breed her and bond her to him.

  It was the only way to ease her pain—the only way to save her life.

  Fifty

  Ellina writhed in pain the moment he lay her down on the bed. The need inside her was huge—overwhelming. It was a desire so intense it caused her entire body to contract. Her womb was twisting within her, almost like her stomach did when she was extremely hungry. But she knew that no mere food could possibly satisfy this craving.

  Seed—I need male seed, she thought. But I need it deep inside me—within my secret chamber.

  She couldn’t help remembering all she had learned about breeding—that the door to that chamber, which lay deep within her sacred mouth—would have to be battered open—and that the pain would be intense.

  “No, no, sweetheart,” Ty said earnestly, as he stripped off his clothing and helped her off with hers. “No, it’s not going to have to hurt. Remember when I touched you? Remember how the entrance to your secret mouth opened when I stroked it? You opened to me then easily, with pleasure—not pain.”

  Ellina realized he was getting her thoughts and fears from the two chewchies, who sat at the foot of the bed watching them anxiously.

  She shook her head.

  “I wasn’t…wasn’t in my Heat Cycle when you…when you touched me before,” she told him. “Don’t think I…I’ll be able to open so easily this time.”

  Indeed, her insides felt like a clenched fist—a knot that no amount of stroking could untie.

  “Well, I’m not just going to ram myse
lf inside you!” Ty sounded angry and upset at the very idea. “You’re a virgin, little one—I won’t make your first time about force and pain.”

  “Ty, please…it’s the only way!” She moaned again, as a new spasm of need struck her. Gods, her grandmother had been right. The pain was so bad she was willing to endure anything to get rid of it—even a more intense agony—if it would only end.

  But Ty seemed determined not to do what was so clearly necessary.

  “Let me try something else first,” he told her, climbing onto the bed with her. “Let me just try something, Ellina.”

  Ellina wanted to moan that nothing but him ramming between her legs and opening her to fill her with his seed would help, but then his big, warm hands were caressing her body.

  She lay trembling at first, naked and afraid, but slowly…very slowly…she felt her body beginning to calm. It was as though the big Kindred’s touch had an almost hypnotic effect and the awful shivering began to ease. The pain was still there, but she didn’t feel quite so knotted up by it.

  “There now…slowly,” Ty murmured as his big hands stroked over her bare breasts and down her sides and hips. “Take it slowly, little one.”

  “I…I don’t know if I can,” she said in a high, unsteady voice.

  “Just try,” he urged her. “Your body craves to be bred, but doesn’t it crave pleasure also?”

  “I’m not sure,” Ellina admitted. “I don’t…don’t know much about breeding at all except…except it has to hurt.”

  “I don’t believe that.” He circled the tight points of her nipples gently with his fingers, sending a surprising shiver of pleasure through her. “I believe that you can be opened with pleasure, not pain. Will you let me try that, little one? Just try?”