"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 her. 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.
With no husband, children, or anything else concrete tying me in place at the university, I finally stepped forward and volunteered. That had been only a day before the scheduled flight, not enough time for me to put together a real lesson plan for the classes or even really narrow down what I wanted to teach. The program had given me fairly loose guidelines about how they wanted the instructing structured, leaving most of the planning and management completely up to me. Without really knowing what age group I would be teaching, what they wanted to learn, or what type of environment and resources I would have access to, I had brought with me as much teaching material as I could and spent the journey putting together my ideas. It was yet to be seen what would really happen once I arrived and got started.
Chapter Two
The ground furled away behind Ero like a ribbon as he ran through the forest, his feet pounding into the soft undergrowth with an intensity like fire. Gnarled roots rose up to trip him and branches brushed at his skin, but he was moving too fast to really notice either or for them to impede his speed or his progress. He ran like he had never run before, with a speed that far surpassed any of the other Denynso. A skill that he had learned about when he was still young, his ability to run faster and harder than anyone else was something that he rarely shared with anyone else. He used it instead as his way of escaping when his mind was filled with too much thought or emotion. Even if he didn't have anywhere to go, he would run. His feet brought him wherever they wanted to go, through the dark forest, over the rocky ledges, or through the wide fields behind the village. He ran until he had no energy left inside him, then he would collapse to the ground and let the darkness of sleep make everything go away.
He ran now to escape the confusing, overwhelming feelings he had been experiencing for the last few days. They started after he rescued Leia from the Klimnu attack. At first he thought the aggression and anger had been related to finding the mate of one of his friends terrified and in danger only a short time after she had escaped from nearly two months of imprisonment under the hands of the slimy, vicious creatures. Though he was not as large or powerful as the other warriors of the Denynso, he still had within him the ability to grow fierce and angry when something or someone that he cared about was threated, and even though he and Leia had not gotten off to a great start, she belonged to Gyyx, which meant he had loyalty toward her.
When the aggression and intensity were still there the next day, however, Ero began to wonder if that was really the source of these feelings. He was not accustomed to this level of emotion within him, especially when he couldn't identify a clear source, and he didn't like how it made him feel. He felt confused, on guard, and violent to the point that he had gotten into several scuffles with the other men after he heard them teasing him. He was accustomed to their bullying. At a foot shorter than the other warriors and nowhere near as well-built, he had been the butt of nearly endless ridicule and teasing since he was orphaned as a child and left to be raised by the community. In a way it was his form of interacting with them. Over the last few days, however, he had not reacted the same way as he usually did, laughing off the jokes and keeping the negative feelings he experienced toward the other men concealed. Instead, he had lashed out and fought.
After one particularly intense encounter with one of the other warriors, Pyra had pulled him aside to ask what was happening to him. That is when Ero broke away and started to run. He had been running for hours now and was so far from the village that he wasn't sure he would be able to get back before the families came together for dinner. Not that many of the people there would notice. Pyra and Eden, Ciyrs and Elianna, and Leia and Gyyx, the mated couples, were so wrapped up in each other that they didn't really care what happened around them most of the time. The other warriors were still filled with adrenaline and anger after the battle with the Klimnu days before that had ended with them burning the building where they had brought Elianna after capturing her and where she found Leia after they had kept her prisoner and tortured her for 57 days.
Ero turned back and started running the way he came, pushing himself harder and faster until he could barely see what was going past him. He was nearly back to the village when he heard someone call his name. He slowed and jogged back toward the voice, finding Pyra standing at the edge of the forest.
"Running again?" Pyra asked.
Ero put his hands on his hips and glared back at the tremendous warrior, feeling the anger spiking in him again as he saw the teasing flicker in his orange eyes. The orbs that used to be blue were vibrant, nearly glowing orange now that he was mated to Eden and something about them made Ero feel uncomfortable when he looked at them.
"What are you doing here?" he asked accusingly, and immediately felt bad for the tone in his voice.
He didn't understand what the hell was happening to him. He had never been like this and now suddenly he felt like he could tear anyone who got near him limb from limb just for looking at him in a strange way or saying something that he thought might have a negative meaning. Fortunately Pyra didn't seem to notice his aggressive tone, or was choosing to ignore it, because if he had been offended by it and decided to engage Ero in a fight, there was no way the smaller warrior could have overpowered him.
"I have been sent out into the forest to get some sort of fruit that Eden wants."
"You are all the way the hell out here to get some fruit?" Ero asked incredulously.
Pyra nodded and sighed.
"Yeah. Apparently she is having cravings and says that she absolutely has to have this particular fruit and she won't settle for the cooked kind that we already have. She needs it right off of the bush and she needs it right this second."
Pyra said the words in a tone of resignation that said he thought the venture was ridiculous and wasn't thrilled about having to do it, but that he loved Eden so much he would literally go to the ends of the planet for her no matter what it was she asked of him. This was especially true now that Eden was carrying his child. The pregnancy was still not common knowledge among all of the Denynso and those that knew were approaching the situation with caution. Not only was this first birth among the children of the king and queen, but Eden had been a human when she first came to Uoria. She had nearly died at the claws of the Klimnu and the tribe's healer had brought her back to life. In doing so, however, Ciyrs had somehow changed her into a Denynso. The pregnancy was completely unprecedented and no one, not even the elders, had any idea what to expect.
"That sounds like you are having so much fun with this whole experience."
Laughing softly, Pyra shrugged and nodded.
"What am I going to do? You know how women can be."
Ero shook his head, feeling the tingling in his legs and the pent up energy and e
motion in his belly that had fueled his hours of running over the last few days. If there was one thing that he definitely didn't know about, it was women. He wasn't mated and no female had ever caught his eye.
"Actually, no. I have no idea how women can be."
He saw Pyra take a step back and give him a once-over that made him feel scrutinized and uncomfortable. A strange growl rumbled in his throat and he had to hold back the compulsion to lunge at Pyra. The larger warrior, the biggest and most fearsome of the species, gave a knowing smile and rubbing his own face with one hand.
"You might not know yet, but from the looks of things I think you will be finding out pretty damn soon."
For a moment Ero didn't understand what Pyra was talking about, then he saw his eyes give a brief glance to the front of his pants. Ero rolled his eyes and reached down to the try to rearrange the raging erection he had been sporting most of the time since the day of the Klimnu attack. It was an uncomfortable reminder of the strange, unfamiliar feelings he had been experiencing and he was embarrassed to have Pyra point it out to him.
"Shut up," he said, managing to tuck his hard-on in a way that made it not look so obvious.
"Don't worry about it, buddy. You should have seen me when I was first around Eden. It was not a pretty sight. Well," he got a mischievous glint in his eyes, "I guess it was for her."
"Thanks for that image," Ero said, "It doesn't make sense, though. I haven't met any new women since Leia, and I know all this is not about her. I don't understand what the hell is going on."
Baby for the Dragon (No Such Thing as Dragons Book 5) Page 35