Emily turned away, but she kept hold of his hand. “At least we’re at peace with the Lycaon right now.”
He stopped at the edge of the trees and surveyed the village. “This is the first time I’ve seen their village up close. It isn’t what I expected.”
“What did you expect?” she asked.
“We hear all kinds of things about the Lycaon living in stick huts in the forest with no hot water or power,” he replied. “It makes you think they’re nothing more than animals. I never really thought of them as people. But now that I see them up close, I see their Angondran side. I see them as the same people as Ursidreans. They just live in a different environment. They build their houses differently and wear different clothes, but they treat their children the same and care for each other the same.”
“Isn’t that always the way with enemies?” she asked. “No one could see anybody else as an enemy if they saw them up close. That would dispel the myth that the enemy is something other. That’s how long-running feuds and wars come to an end.”
He nodded. “I suppose so. It still seems a long way off for the factions to put their differences aside and come together.”
Emily looked around. “What do you want to do now? We have a few hours before we share a meal with Caleb.”
“We could take a walk,” he suggested.
Emily nodded, and they slipped hand in hand into the trees, through dappled shade to a spring down the hill, out of sight of the village. Faruk looked back. “Amazing! You would never know it was there.”
“How did the Ursidreans wind up with all the technology while factions like the Lycaon have nothing?” Emily asked. “Why don’t you share it with them?”
“They don’t want it,” he replied. “When Angondra gave up space flight, the Lycaon, the Avitras, and the Aqinas gave up technology completely. The Avitras kept metals for spear heads and other tools, but the Lycaon reverted to stone technology. That was their choice.”
“What about the Felsite?” she asked. “Aria says they live in cities, too.”
“They do,” he replied. “But they don’t use technology the way we do. They don’t use advanced weapons, and they don’t have power. They use lamps, and they eat raw meat, so they don’t use fire to cook. When Angondra turned away from space, they threw the baby out with the bath water. They think our technology will lead us back into space. They think we’ll be dealing with the Romarie again if we keep on this way, and maybe they’re right.”
“What makes you say that?” she asked.
“When Donen realized the situation with the dwindling population really was as dire as it is,” he told her, “he invited the Romarie to bring a shipment of their females here. We had a gathering on the Southern continent.”
Emily gasped. “He didn’t! He couldn’t! How could he do that when he knew what scum the Romarie are?”
Faruk held up his hand. “We weren’t going to buy the women. We were just going to look at them and decide if we really needed to procure females from the Romarie to get our population back on track.”
Emily shook her head. “I didn’t think he could stoop so low.”
“Wait until you hear the rest of the story before you jump to conclusions,” he told her. “There were four women, and the Alphas of all the factions attended the gathering to see them for themselves. Some, like Renier, only came to make sure the Romarie didn’t try anything underhanded. Caleb was there, and so were Turk and Aquilla.”
“Were you there?” she asked.
He shook his head. “Only Donen and a few members of the Supreme Council went. A fight broke out between the Alphas and the Romarie. One of the women grabbed a weapon, and the four of them fought their way out of the building.”
She stared at him. “Wow.”
He nodded. “They had help. Renier helped them, and Caleb, too. Caleb risked his life to save Marissa, who afterwards became his mate. The Romarie couldn’t stand against all those people. They fled the planet and left the four women behind.”
She listened in silence.
“So you see,” he concluded, “we don’t have to procure women from the Romarie. You’re already here, and after your ship crashed, hundreds of human women are spreading all over the planet. We probably have more human females on this planet now than we ever could have gotten from the Romarie. Donen has no reason to get in touch with them again.”
“What happens when one of these women decides she wants to leave this planet?” she asked. “I’m sure some of them would like to get back to Earth. They’ll come knocking on the Ursidreans’ door to find out what technology you have.”
He smiled at her. “Are you talking about yourself, or somebody else?”
“I have no desire to leave.” She pressed his hand. “As long as my sisters and Aimee are safe, I’m content to stay here. I have nothing on Earth to go back to.”
“There’s no way off this planet,” he told her. “The Ursidreans have some advanced technology, but we gave up space flight—and every other kind of flight—a long time ago. Some of the human women don’t believe that when they first land, but they come to accept it after a while.”
“How do you know that?” she asked.
He shrugged and looked away. “Aria told me, and she ought to know.”
“What will the Ursidreans do if a woman comes forward who won’t accept it?” she asked. “What if someone wants to use your technology to resurrect space flight so she can go home to her husband and children?”
“I suppose we’ll deal with that when the time comes,” he replied.
He sat down next to the water and pulled her down next to him. “Tell me you aren’t going to resurrect space flight.”
She gazed at the sun shimmering on the water. “I wouldn’t do it myself, but I can understand why someone would want to. I wouldn’t want to walk away from the connection we have, but some other woman might not have that connection to keep her here. She might have left too much behind back home to settle here.”
He pressed her hand in both of his. “I hate to think of you leaving.”
“I won’t leave.” She sat in silence.
“What is it?” he asked.
“How’s it going to be when I go back to Harbeiz and you go back to the border patrol?” she asked.
“I don’t suppose you would come back to the border patrol with me,” he remarked.
She smiled. “I don’t think so. I couldn’t live out in the mountains for years. I need to be settled with other people around me.”
“How do I know you won’t stay with the Avitras?” he asked. “Once we find your sisters, you could decide you can’t be separated from them. You might stay with them and I’ll come back to the border patrol.”
“That won’t happen,” she replied. “I’ve been with the Ursidreans for months, and I have you. I’ll come back.”
“How can you be sure?” he asked.
She stared straight in front of her. “I’m sure.”
Chapter 9
“Emily.”
“What?”
He laid his hand on her cheek and turned her face toward him. His eyes drilled into her soul. “It’s very pleasant to hold your hand and talk, but I need something more than promises. I don’t want to leave you, and you don’t want to leave me, but what assurance do we have that we will stay together? What commitment do we have that we’ll make sacrifices to stay together?”
“What are you asking?” she asked. “Are you asking for a long-term commitment? Are you asking me to promise you my undying loyalty? I don’t understand.”
He waved his hand. “Nothing like that. I wouldn’t presume to ask that when the future is so uncertain. I don’t know what I’m asking, but I need some sign from you that I’m not some passing whim of yours. I need something solid to hold onto.”
She studied him. “I was thinking the same thing on the way here. I barely know you, and here we are trekking all over the planet and holding hands. I want some assurance of you, too.”
/> His eyes brightened. “Then what are we going to do about that?”
She paused. Then she wrapped her arms around him and kissed him. He met her lips with a moment’s hesitation. Then he gave himself over to it with his direct determination. He enclosed her in his embrace, and they sank into the comfort of one another’s presence.
After a long moment, he drew back and smiled. “That will do.”
Emily laughed. They sat together on the grass with their hands joined. They always came back to that simple acknowledgment of togetherness. “What happens now that you’ve got your assurance?”
He shook his head. “I still don’t have any answers. I just needed to know I’m not dispensable to you.”
She huddled close in his arms. “You could never be dispensable to anyone.”
“You’d be surprised,” he replied.
“You could never be dispensable to me,” she told him.
“Nor you to me,” he replied. “That’s why I had to come with you.”
“Something’s been bothering me, though,” she told him. “I can’t get something you said out of my mind.”
“What did I say?” he asked.
“You said you wanted assurance that we would make sacrifices to stay together,” she told him. “What did you mean?”
“If we become long-term mates,” he replied, “one of us will have to sacrifice for the other. Either I’ll have to leave the mountains or you'll have to leave the city. One of us will have to give up our old life for the new one.”
“Is that something you would be willing to do?” she asked.
He gazed up at the sky. “I really don’t know.”
“I wouldn’t want to live in the mountains—not indefinitely,” she replied. “But I wouldn’t want you to give up the job you love for me, either.”
“I wouldn’t want you to live in the mountains indefinitely,” he told her. “You wouldn’t be happy, and I wouldn’t make you unhappy.”
Emily brightened up. “At least we agree neither of us should be unhappy for the sake of the other.”
“It still doesn’t get us closer to solving the problem,” he replied.
“Like you said,” she told him, “until we become mates, there is no real problem.”
He didn’t answer. The sun streamed through the trees, and they sat in silence, hand in hand, until it disappeared behind the horizon. Faruk got to his feet and raised Emily from the ground. Without saying anything, they strolled back to the village. Lycaon of all ages and color patterns moved between the houses. The women tended the last chores in preparation for night. Old men played with the children and the old women talked in doorways.
A blessed tranquility enveloped the village. Emily never experienced anything like it in Harbeiz. The hum of technology blocked it out. Here, nothing separated people from each other. No social intricacies interfered with the natural relationships between generations and sexes and families and friends. People met one another in their raw primitive form, and their relationships carried a clean, raw, direct power Emily never saw anywhere else.
Faruk’s hand weighed heavy in hers. She smiled up at him. They would have to separate now to go to their own huts. She sighed. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Have you forgotten?” he asked. “We’re going to Caleb’s for a meal.”
She brightened up and gave his hand a squeeze. They went on to Caleb’s house, where they retreated to a formal distance. They didn't come back together until hours later, when Emily stepped through Caleb’s door.
She looked up and caught her breath. A brilliant yellow aurora lit up the night sky. Bursts of starlight lined the waves of energy pouring through the atmosphere and lit up the Lycaon village as bright as day. “I’ve never seen it so bright.”
Chris emerged from the hut. “It’s like this all over the planet. Can you believe that? It’s much stronger than the aurorae on Earth, and it isn’t confined to the poles.”
Emily stared up at it. “It’s beautiful.”
Chris sighed. “I prefer the black starry sky. That’s what I grew up with, and that’s what I love.”
“And now you’ll never see it again,” Emily pointed out.
“The aurora isn’t like this every night,” Chris told her. “It only happens during certain phases of the lunar cycle. At other times, the sky is as black as Earth, and the stars are just as beautiful.” She moved away. “I’m going to bed. I’ll see you in the morning.”
She vanished into the sleeping village, and Faruk came out of Caleb’s hut. “That was the best meal I’ve had in years.” He glanced at her and followed her gaze to the sky. “What are you looking at?”
She nodded upward. “That. It’s beautiful.”
He frowned. “Don’t you have it on your planet?”
“Not like this,” she replied. “We have it near the extreme poles of the planet, and it’s not as strong as this. I’ve see it a few times, but nothing like this. I could stand here and look at it all night long.”
He waited, but she didn’t move. Then he took her hand. “You’ll freeze if you stand here and look at it all night long. Come back to your hut and get some sleep.”
She let him lead her between the silent dwellings. They stopped in front of Emily’s hut, but they didn’t let go of each other’s hands. Emily gazed up at the sky for a minute. Then she surveyed the shadowy village. At last, she turned to Faruk.
She smiled at him, but neither said a word. He didn’t smile, though. He fixed her with his intense gaze, and his palm burned her hand. What was he thinking right now? He bent down to kiss her and straightened up again.
They stared into one another’s eyes for a long time. Emily could make out every hair on his head in the aurora’s light. His ears twitched. He was waiting for something. Then, without a word, he bent down and slipped through the door into Emily’s hut. He pulled her after him by the hand, and darkness enfolded them.
Emily’s eyes adjusted to the dark, and she found her way down onto the bed. He brought his face close to hers and turned her toward him. His voice murmured low in the dark. “Emily.”
“I’m here,” she whispered.
“I don’t want to wonder anymore,” he breathed. “I want us to be mated.”
She caught her breath, but he wasn’t saying anything she didn’t already know. “I want that, too.”
His mouth closed over hers, and the heady wine of intoxicated passion swept over her mind. The uncertainty was over. She gave herself over to him and her body into his arms.
“We’ll be together,” he murmured. “Whatever happens, we’ll find a way to stay together.”
She closed her eyes and sank into his kiss. She leaned back, and they stretched out together on the blankets. From the connection between their lips, they gazed into each other’s eyes by the light coming through the hut’s stick walls. They breathed back and forth and listened to one another’s breathing.
Faruk took her in his arms, and this time, she let the full intensity of her passion flare against him. Their breathing quickened and she pressed her body against his iron bulk. He accepted her with open arms, and with every escalation of her desire, he matched her step for step.
In a flash, she rolled on top of him. His body went stiff under her, and she lay on his mountainous chest. He pulled her down onto him with his arms, and she threw all her weight into him, but she didn’t make a dent.
Then she felt his body swelling under her. She threw all caution to the wind and tore open her shirt. She let her bare breasts fall against his chest, and the next minute, her legs spread to straddle his hips. She pushed herself up and balanced there dripping wet on his thick length.
He fell back on the bed, and she stabbed herself down onto him. Wave upon wave of long-buried passion flooded her starved body. She bucked and kicked to goad him on, but he needed no encouragement. Her legs thrashed out, and she galloped far away over the mountains where no one could find her again.
In the dead of
night, Emily woke in pitch darkness. The aurora’s yellow glow no longer slipped through the openings in the hut’s walls. Her eyes struggled to adjust, but she couldn’t see anything. She lay still to keep from waking Faruk. His breathing rose and fell in a steady tide behind her, and his arm hung heavy and motionless over her ribs. She closed her eyes, but her mind whirled with memories and sensations from the last few hours. Her body flared with renewed excitement, but she had to keep perfectly still. Even the warm wet stains on her legs drove her to greater heights of desire for him.
She never moved a muscle, but the energy coursing through her must have triggered his senses. His breathing changed, and his arm stiffened. Emily held her breath and listened. He struggled to breath for a moment. Then he sighed and was fully awake.
He held himself still for a minute, too. Then he dropped his face into the crook of her neck. He stroked her neck and shoulder with his lips, and she pressed her head back against him. Her breath deepened, and the tingle of excitement rose to a fevered pitch. She couldn’t hold herself back anymore. She pressed herself into him, and his body quivered to life.
His hand flattened against her belly, and her abdomen went taut. He traced his fingertips around her navel, and she sucked her breath through her teeth to keep herself under control. She would wake the whole village with her shouts of ecstasy if she didn’t. His cock bulged against her from behind, and she pushed back against it.
His hand slipped farther down between her legs. The cocktail of sweat and desire still dampened it from their earlier encounter and lubricated the passage of his fingers down. He plowed a furrow to her secret opening, and she spread herself to receive him.
He growled into her neck, and she drove herself back into him. His other arm snaked around her ribs and pulled her against him. His hardened member drove between her legs, and his fingers guided it home. Emily gasped and writhed in convulsions of tension. She couldn’t move with him holding her so tight, and between his cock behind her and his finger in front of her, she couldn’t extricate herself one way or the other.
Faruk moved her body for her. He pulled her back to engulf his throbbing shaft and pushed her forward to slide out, ready for another thrust. She gave herself into his hands, and her body vibrated to his rhythm.
Saved by a Bear (Legends of Black Salmon Falls Book 2) Page 69