Whatever it was, it was drawing closer. Of that much she was certain.
It was stalking her.
Terror thrummed through her veins as she looked for anything she could possibly use to defend herself. She didn’t want to go headlong into the river, but at this point it was a more attractive option than racing into the jungle toward the jaws of death. Still, she would feel a lot better if she was armed with something. With nothing but a few fallen branches and a collection of wimpy sticks, Jenn’s heart sank as the sound came nearer.
Fuck this.
With a shriek to bolster her nerve, Jenn leaped into the roaring river below.
Chapter 2
A pained smile twisted Eyuul’s lips as he watched his brother, Vadal, coiled up with two of his hatchlings. His mate was beside him holding a shrieking female, while Vadal’s nestmate, Shaagra, rounded up little Morpheus. Four healthy—albeit loud and mischievous—hatchlings and a beautiful mate. Eyuul couldn’t help but envy his brother’s good fortune and feel the weight of sadness for the one thing he wanted more than anything in the world but could not have.
Oh, he supposed some female would have accepted him if he’d been able to adjust to the mating norms of the Vori. He was large for a male, strong, patient, and an excellent hunter. He was also aware of the fact that he was considered attractive with his unique scale coloring that Reggie had likened to an earthen metal called bronze.
No, his downfall was the one thing that the female-dominated Vori society considered unforgivable: he was too possessive to share a mate and successfully form nestmate bonds.
For many revolutions during his youth, his mother held high hopes that it was just a phase that he would eventually outgrow. When it became more apparent that it was a facet of his personality and a deep desire that couldn’t be conditioned out of him, she’d despaired over him. Eventually, Eyuul had taken a post at a trading port far from his clan territory, where he wouldn’t have to face his mother’s disappointment or look upon his clan increasing with mating and hatchlings.
It had all become too painful for him to be around.
In retrospect, he wished he’d never left his home. He would have been spared heartache and the ruin of his reputation among his clan. Foolish enough to fall in love with an offworlder, a hot-blooded Edoka female, and to dream of forming a mating bond with her, he’d given himself to her pleasure for months while she was stationed on Vora. He had been so certain they were to be mated that he hadn’t thought to be cautious or discreet about their relationship. He had, however, been surprised how quickly gossip had traveled to his mother of his illicit relationship.
When she commed him in a fury that he had gone to the port to engage in sexual relationships with offworlders, he had assured his mother that they would soon be joining as mates. He’d spoken at length of his female’s fine qualities and how blessed he was that such a female had taken interest in him. He, whom no Vori female would accept. His mother had been mollified, overjoyed even that he’d found a mate, and he was granted a reprieve upon his word that he would secure his mating soon.
He had been in high spirits until the day the female he loved simply disappeared.
Eyuul clenched his jaw as he recalled how happy he was as he went to his female’s abode, a plan in place to woo her and get her permission that night to share his mating bite. Yet when he arrived, he found all her possessions gone with only a note left for him that she was called to return to Edokora. The note gave no promise for the future but had merely thanked him for keeping her company.
The shame still burned him that she’d considered their time together as nothing more than a small pleasure that meant nothing to her when it had meant everything to him.
When he confessed his shame to his mother, the matriarch of his clan, she’d been furious and demanded his immediate return to their clan territory. With nothing left to keep him at the port, he’d returned home, where he found his tarnished reputation to have preceded him and grown far beyond his actual deed. Now he was not only the unnatural one, but he was also the corrupted one who dallied with alien females on a whim. It was only by his mother’s compassion that she allowed him to remain a hunter and retain some small measure of prestige among his kin, though he was trusted with nothing further.
It was a bitter thing for him to swallow, even more so when Vadal returned from the Intergalactic Space Station. He’d been abroad further than any of their kind ever had been before and returned to their clan with his own alien mate who not only returned his love but increased his nest with progeny.
Eyuul had been aggrieved when his brother, like everyone else, believed the rumors and had trusted him little with his mate. It had hurt more than he would have liked, and more than he would admit. Not that any of his clan would ever know. Like always, he masked his pain with humor and played the flirt that everyone believed him to be.
Reggie was the only one who seemed to see past that.
Her eyes rested on him sympathetically. “Eyuul, are you all right?”
He forced a nonchalant smile. “All is well. I was just thinking about going out a bit further and seeing if I can find any worthy prey to bring down.”
“Just not shoyla, huh?”
He laughed and shook his head. Despite being a delicacy, Reggie had a strange aversion to the giant arachnids. “They do not live at this elevation. I promise there will be no shoyla upon the tables. At least none from my hands. I can’t speak for any hunter who may have gone higher into the mountains,” he teased.
Reggie wrinkled her nose and adjusted her hold on her daughter Miree, whose brilliant blue tail flashed with ire. She attempted to wiggle out of her mother’s arms to join her brother, Morpheus, as he darted into the nixai bramble bordering the River Omlo. Shaagra cursed and dove into the bushes after him as Eyuul picked up his spear that rested against the trunk of a tree.
Vadal’s red eyes fastened upon him questioningly, but Eyuul owed his brother no explanation. With a polite incline of his head, Eyuul slithered away from the grassy clearing. The happy sounds of Vadal’s family faded away as he allowed the jungle to consume him until he was alone in fact as much as he felt in his heart.
As he followed the path of the river, he allowed his mind to return to the subject of mating. The mere idea of sharing a nest with another male was distasteful to him and made his scales shudder with revulsion. As much as he wanted a mate like his brother had, he didn’t want the rest of what came with typical Vori matings, even if his clan considered it selfish. In the end, he was resigned to the knowledge that he would remain alone, dwelling in his mother’s nest.
Gritting his teeth against a wave of frustration, Eyuul wrapped his tail around the nearest tree and stabbed his spear into the river with more force than was necessary, pulling out a small fish. With his claws, he pulled it off his blade, snapped off its head, and gutted it before swallowing it down. He frowned as a small movement in the shallows of the river up ahead drew his attention. Concerned that it may have been an injured Vori or a beast, he slid down to the bank where it was safe enough to approach. He came to an immediate halt.
There, lying in the water was a human!
A female!
His head whipped around, looking for any sign of where she came from or if anyone might be looking for her. He hadn’t heard any news of humans arriving on Vora, but he wouldn’t discount the possibility. She couldn’t have materialized from the ether. Though he strained his eyes, all he could see was the raging white foam of the water. His hearts stuttered. She could very well be dead. The mass of woven red hair fell down her face and obscured her features, and he couldn’t say with any certainty if she was still among the living.
Eyuul leaned forward and pushed the mass of wet hair away from her face, looking upon the beautiful golden-brown features of the female. A hard lump marred her brow where she must have struck her head on a rock or debris in the river. His eyes traveled down the length of her body. Her limbs were long, covered with a t
hin brilliant green cloth that had become sheer from the water. Her dark nipples pebbled noticeably through it, though he attempted to not disrespect her by staring while she was unconscious. Tentatively, he touched her chest and felt the soft intake of breath and the beat of her heart.
The Mother blessed her—she lived!
Shifting her weight into his arms, he held her close to his body, enjoying the smell and taste of her on his receptors when he flicked his tongue. He wanted her. She was delivered to him. The Mother of the Nest meant for her to be under his care. He knew she would agree to be his mate just as Reggie had welcomed her males. She would care that he had no interest to share her with other males.
Eyuul’s eyes narrowed on the commotion coming from where his brother was at rest with his family. He didn’t want any of the clan to know of her—not yet. The matriarch would seek to influence her, perhaps even try to tempt her to join with another nest. Jealousy tightened in his chest.
It would flaunt all Vori customs, but he refused to let his clan females have access to her.
He couldn’t let her go that easily.
A plan formed in his mind, one that would allow him to protect her and nurture her back to health. He would take her high into the mountains and keep her secret from them all until the day that she either chose to leave of her own volition or willingly pulled him into her mating embrace.
Until then, she’d be his secret, and Vora would keep it safe.
Tucking her against his chest, he moved with haste, leaping from one tree across the river to another before dropping back to the ground and making his way through the jungle up the side of the mountain. He kept her chest against his so that he could feel the measure of her heartbeat, and her face pressed against his neck, where her breath could gently fan his skin so that he’d know that she was well.
At a relentless pace, he climbed higher into the mountains, his tail whipping easily between the trees as he pushed himself. The female in his arms stirred a time or two, which caused him to halt his progress, but she never woke or even so much as opened her eyes. He wondered absently if she would have the blue-colored eyes of his brother’s mate or another hue.
His body swayed as his balance shifted while his coils glided over the rocks that rose in his path the higher up the mountain he went. The trees began to thin, leaving only the sparse canopy which shoyla preferred for making their webs. Despite the danger that could spring upon him at any moment, he breathed easier knowing that he was now high above his clan’s territory and far from his matriarch’s controlling reach. No doubt she would be angry, and more than a little worried, when he returned that night.
He only hoped she would understand and forgive him when all was done.
It took some time for him to find the simple hunter’s nest that he’d carved out many revolutions ago as a young hunter. In his youth, he would disappear for days in the mountains, enjoying the privacy it afforded him. The nest was in a secluded spot that not even the most relentless of his brothers had been able to find. More than once since his return to his clan’s territory, he had considered disappearing to his sanctuary and not returning. His sense of duty had prevented that and kept him returning to his mother’s nest. Now, however, the decision to remain in the mountains was an easy one.
Caring for the female was his prerogative.
Keeping an eye out for shoyla that might attempt to drop on them, Eyuul pushed himself into the crevice where he found the door barring the entrance of his private nest. The door resisted his efforts to enter, having been unused for a number of cycles, but finally it gave way with a protesting creak. Draping the female over his shoulder, he dragged his tail through the door and braced both arms against the heavy wood to swing it shut once more.
The darkness that descended was as unnerving, a stark reminder that this was no true nest with all its comforts. Instead, there was only a simple oil lamp beside the door that he lit and carried with one hand while his other wrapped around the female’s fleshy rear, holding her in place until he reached the small hearth. A small bundle of wood already sat inside waiting to be lit below a long, narrow vent that not even the smallest shoyla could get through.
Laying the human in his coils, he turned his attention to the wood. With some kindling and the flame from the lamp, he got a small fire going, illuminating the rest of the one-room hunter’s nest. Thick dust covered everything, and the pile of hide pillows sat in a brown lump in the center of the room. He scowled at the sight. It was hardly worthy of a female. For a moment, he wondered if he’d made the wrong choice. His mother’s nest would have offered more comforts, even as it would have been more restrictive for any female within.
He shook his head. No, his hunter’s nest might not have all the comforts, but it would offer more privacy as she recovered and allow her more freedom.
Thumping the pillows with his tail, he freshened them the best he could before gently laying her upon them. His tail coiled around her, to give her further support. He smiled as he looked down at her as she stirred in her sleep. Her brow furrowed as she opened her eyes, revealing dark green depths. She blinked as her eyes struggled to focus on him.
He leaned forward, eager to introduce himself, but was utterly unprepared when her eyes widened, and her lips parted to let out an ear-piercing scream.
Chapter 3
Awareness trickled in and Jenn’s brow wrinkled from a sharp ache pounding behind her eyes. Even her eyelids were pulsating. She didn’t dare open her eyes, certain that any light would intensify the agony she was currently in.
Her hand slid up to the source of her pain, coming into contact with a hard knot on the side of her head. She winced and pulled her hand back, resting her palm against the cloth of her dress on her abdomen. At least she was dry. But how did she get out of the river?
The water had been bitter cold, a shock to her system as it tugged her beneath the surface. Water had rushed around her, blinding her and rolling her haphazardly. Panic had almost overwhelmed her before she mercifully struck a rock or something hard enough to knock herself out. Not that being unconscious in the river would have done her any favors, but had she lost herself to mindless panic, it also would have hastened her demise.
She entertained the possibility that she might have washed up on the riverbank, but the silence indicated otherwise, as did the comfortable surface beneath her. She registered a soft rustling sound to her side seconds before a large, warm hand swept down the side of her head.
Everything within her stilled.
Jenn’s eyes snapped open and met an alien gaze just inches away. Blood-red eyes set into a masculine humanoid face widened and his full lips parted with surprise. His expression gave her a perfect view of sharp fangs and a forked tongue that darted out to taste the air centimeters away from her mouth as a wriggling mass of what appeared to be snakes in his hair snapped forward in the direction of her face.
She unleashed an unholy scream, pulling on every spare bit of breath from her river-ravaged lungs.
The alien jerked back in alarm, but it didn’t last. She barely had time to draw another breath before he pushed into her personal space. To her mounting horror, its hands and serpentine hair reached for her simultaneously, with clear intent to restrain her. He was speaking in low, soothing tones to her, but nothing he said penetrated the chaos of her mind.
All her instincts screamed at her to fight back.
Her fingers scrambled along the floor beneath the plush cushions on which she lay until they curled around a rough, broken stone. It was hefty and filled her palm. In her unrestrained panic, she did not think—she reacted. With a wide swing, she struck her captor on the side of the head, the crack sickeningly loud in the silence around them.
The alien’s breath burst out in a long hiss, his lips pulling back in a grimace from its fangs. Her heart stuttered, certain he would kill her and finish the task the Agraak failed to complete. To her surprise, the alien shuddered, and its eyes rolled up in his head, the repti
lian slit of his pupil disappearing as his eyelids closed and he sank to the jewel-tone cushions scattered around her with a loud thump. To her further horror, a bronze snake tail lifted from where it had been burrowed under the pillow, curling in on itself with pain before it too came crashing down around him.
Jenn rose to her feet and stood over her captor, the rock dropping from her limp fingers. A small splatter of blood painted the rock, and she winced at the small trail of blood that seeped from his temple. Despite her desire to flee, the idea of killing the male did not sit well with her. Showing such softness toward a potential enemy wasn’t wise, but she couldn’t bring herself to wish for the alien’s death nor to make certain the job was finished.
All she wanted was to get free.
Ever-so-slowly, Jenn leaned forward and set her hand in front of the alien’s mouth as she placed her other hand on his chest. A steady breath warmed her hand, and though the dual beat of his hearts startled her, they seemed to be strong as far as she could tell. Her eyes swept over him, panic still gurgling beneath every breath she took. Stifling a hysterical giggle, she knew she couldn’t elevate his monstrous tail. No doubt his head was going to hurt like a bitch when he woke up, but it seemed that there was a good chance that he was going to live.
“Sorry,” she whispered. “I won’t be anyone’s captive again. I can’t take the chance that you might not mean me any harm. I have to get out of here.”
As her eyes adjusted to the low light of the room, she examined the sparse furnishing. It was a bit shabby but seemed comfortable enough. Even better than some of the hunting hides that she used with her father in her youth. It was near luxurious compared to those. At least she didn’t have to feel guilty leaving the alien there alone.
The Vori's Secret Page 2