Dropping the shell to the jungle floor where it would replenish the ecosystem, Eyuul wrapped himself snugly around the human. Above, the heavens roared with a roll of thunder, and the skies opened up, rain pouring down. Curled up in the branches of the tree, they stayed relatively dry. He plucked one leaf and tipped it to allow the water to run from it into Jenn’s mouth. He remained by her side the rest of the day, slowly filling his water skin even as he provided for his female. Once the skin was full, he took damp leaves and wiped Jenn’s body free of dirt, blood, and grime. When she woke, he didn’t want her to come to with that mess still covering her. The rain was still falling when he fell asleep.
It was a small movement that woke Eyuul shortly after dawn, the sun streaming through the leaves around them. Glancing down, he smiled with relief as he watched his female turn to her side in his coils and press her face against the scales of his tail. Her arm circled around that part of him and he could feel the strong and steady beat of her heart against his scales.
Leaning forward, he trailed a finger down her cheek making her scowl in her sleep. The dark fringe framing her eyes flickered before lifting to reveal her beautiful depths that seemed to shift in the light from a green to a bluish hue. The strange round pupil widened and then shrunk in mindless terror. Her feet dug into his tail as she attempted to crawl away from him. He wrapped his tail firmly around her and crooned low in his throat.
“It is okay. I will not hurt you. You are awake now and free of whatever nightmare plagues you. No harm will come to you.”
Awareness crept into her eyes, and the ragged breaths began to even out. She closed her eyes and shook her head before opening her eyes again and looking at him with a calm that hadn’t been there moments before. Instead, he could have sworn a look of relief passed over her features, but it was gone in a flash when she smiled.
“It’s you. Are you really here?” she croaked. Her voice was painfully hoarse, and he couldn’t help but wince in sympathy.
“I am here. You are safe.”
She sighed against his scales, her eyes momentarily flickering closed. “I was certain you would give up after that trap and being bludgeoned in the head when we met.”
His lips twitched. “I confess those were noteworthy setbacks, but I didn’t wish you to be alone, unprotected, in the mountains of Vora.”
“Why? I mean, I understand why it’s dangerous, but why do that for me?”
Her brow furrowed with genuine confusion and he felt his hearts constrict. Did she really think that no one else would find enough value in her life to extend their aid unasked? He reached out to offer comfort but paused and let his hand drop when she withdrew, her arms reflexively tightening around his tail. Eyuul understood that it wasn’t personal. He reminded himself that someone had obviously hurt her. She would be slow to trust him. That she took comfort from the part of him that was unlike other species made him thankful that he could give her that much.
“Because you were alone, afraid, and had no one else. Because I was drawn to you. Maybe in part because I am not so easy to get rid of.”
“Is that so? Persistent, are you?” Her sharp eyes narrowed slightly.
He raised his arms from his side. “In a fashion, I suppose. It began with a need to see to your safety, but then developed into admiration and a desire to be there to see your triumphs and help when you needed it. Why wouldn’t I admire a female who has such strength.”
“You see me that way? As strong?”
“I know you are. You survived whoever has hurt you, and you have survived days on Vora—no easy task, especially for an offworlder. You even managed to trap a great hunter despite fleeing from me. You, female, are indomitable.”
Her lips quirked and pride shone in her eyes. “I think so too. My name is Jenn.”
“Jenn.” The name slipped over his tongue with a certain sweetness that he savored. “I am Eyuul.”
“Eyuul,” she breathed, the word falling from her lips in a way that stirred something within him. “Thank you, Eyuul. Thank you for coming after me and saving me.” She stirred, her eyes narrowing on him again. “I won’t be kept by anyone as a breeder. I understand that there are few females, but I refuse to be used as a convenience.”
Disgust roiled through him that she would even think such a thing. What had Xenel and his nestmate been up to? He’d never heard of Vori mating for breeding. While all nests desire hatchlings eventually, that wasn’t the purpose. It was the mate-bond between the female and her males that drove a healthy, happy nest. He wanted and would settle for nothing less.
“I want a mate in the truest sense of the word, not a breeder,” he said, his lip curling as he sneered the last word.
Her fingertip traced the edge of his scales thoughtfully as she looked up at him. “Then why were you holding me captive when I woke? Did you think that if you held me hostage that eventually I would want to be your mate?”
He shifted his coils with discomfort, but he met her eyes steadily. “I will admit I’d hoped that perhaps something would develop. You smell very right to me, an ideal female for me to form a mating-bond with, but if it didn’t happen naturally, I had no intention of forcing the issue. My brother is a doctor and has an intergalactic comm system. From there, we could figure out how to get you where you need to be.”
To his relief, she allowed herself to relax against the coils of his tail, though she winced at the pull of her wound on her shoulder. Stretching one hand back, she touched it to the leaf bandaging her shoulder.
“How bad is it?”
“It was not good but not the worst I have seen. I had to cut it with one of my barbs to push the venom out. Good thing it was a young shoyla, so its fangs were small. The damage a full-grown shoyla can be fatal to even Vori due to the puncture of the fangs alone despite our resistance to the venom. I likely wouldn’t have been able to save you.”
“You saved me from the river too, didn’t you?”
He nodded. “You had washed up on the riverbed. In your weakened state, I didn’t want to subject you to the demands of my clan, especially not my mother. It seemed more prudent to take you to my private abode in the lower mountains so that you could recover in peace.”
“And where you had less competition, I assume,” she murmured, her eyes drifting closed.
“Perhaps that occurred to me.”
She cracked one eye open and gave him a hard look. “I’m going home, Eyuul. I need to comm the council and save them.”
“All will be taken care of,” he said, ignoring the pain clenching his hearts at the thought of her leaving. His brow furrowed. “Who do you need to save?”
She didn’t appear to hear him. Her eyes were shut again.
“I’m so tired,” she mumbled in a barely audible tone.
He brushed the tip of his tail—the only part of him she seemed to find acceptable—against her jaw. “Then sleep, Jenn. I will be here keeping watch.”
Chapter 9
Jenn lay in Eyuul’s warm coils. She was surprised that, despite his lower body having the appearance of a serpent, his tail wasn’t cool to the touch. The scales were pleasantly warm—and silky if she didn’t move against them the wrong way. Not only was that unpleasant for her, but his whole tail had shuddered with discomfort when her arm had abrasively rubbed against them.
She watched with interest as Eyuul tipped leaves, gathering dew into his waterskin with unerring patience. He did it nonstop for the first few hours following their waking. The lightly scaled muscles of his chest that were visible beneath the long thick leather vest that he wore were fascinating to watch, so long as they weren’t too close to her, spurring her anxiety that she hadn’t yet seemed able to conquer.
But he thought her indomitable. Her lips turned up in a soft smile.
She had no idea that he’d been watching her.
“How long were you watching me?”
He raised a scaled brow.
“You know, before I was captured.”
> He paused as if reluctant to answer, but then flashed her a small, sheepish smile.
“You had been sick and were on the verge of tears when I arrived. It near broke my heart to see.”
Jenn felt a blush rise in her cheeks that he had not only been aware of her sickness but had seen her break down. She started to turn her face away, wanting to bury it in his tail to hide her embarrassment. To her surprise, she felt the tip of his tail brush her cheek, making her glance up at him.
“You are embarrassed, but you shouldn’t be. That is the moment I saw the strength and ingenuity you possess. Although I worried over you, and wanted to come to your rescue, I knew you would survive whatever you faced. You may see it as your moment of weakness—I saw it as your moment of triumph.”
Her lips twisted. “That’s kind of how it felt to me as well.”
He nodded as if to say, ‘you see,’ and returned to his task. She licked her lips.
“I’m sorry that I smacked the holy hell out of you with that rock.”
His grin was almost playful when he replied.
“I suspect my brothers would make a cutting observation that my features may have improved with the added lump.”
Jenn snickered, but her laughter faded when he spoke again.
“Who is that you need to save?”
“Hmm?”
“Before you fell into the healing sleep, you said you needed to save them? Who do you need to save?”
“Oh, I said that? Yes, that is true. It’s why I really must contact Earth and the Intergalactic Council.” She took a deep breath, realizing that she was comfortable entrusting this information to him. “I escaped from a breeding facility on Agraadax. There were so many women left behind.”
She sank into a pensive silence, but Eyuul surprised her with his observation.
“I heard you say Agraadax before and suspected you were one of the unfortunate females. I can understand how you would feel obligated to help them if you were able to escape. How did you manage to get away?”
“You have to understand—I only escaped because I was fortunate enough to attract the attention of a sympathetic guard. She risked her life and that of her mate to help me, but I was no more deserving of freedom than any other woman in the breeding facility. I couldn’t help them then. I have to help them now.”
“So, you feel guilt for surviving and leaving them behind?”
She hesitated. Did she feel guilty for surviving? She wouldn’t have thought so. Surviving was what she did. She didn’t know how to just give up and die. Not even he had enough power to make her seek to end her own life. But how many died since she left who didn’t have the opportunity she did? She couldn’t have been the only “defective” one in the group.
“I guess, in a way. I was saved out of dumb luck. How many others died because they didn’t have the same opportunity I did? How many more will die if I can’t find help? How many more years will the women have to suffer being bred over and over? These thoughts consume me,” she admitted. “Why should I have made it instead of someone else?”
“You may think that anyone could have done this, but I am not so certain that every female would have been able to survive the jungles of Vora. Maybe it was you that luck favored, because you were the one who could do it.”
“I nearly died... twice,” she pointed out.
“But you did not. You survived. Few strangers to this planet could say the same. There is a reason that traders stick to the trading outposts, and not only because it is law on Vora. It became law because the jungles are not only too treacherous for starships, but many offworlders suffered terrible losses in our wilderness.”
She silently recognized the truth in what he said. It was the same truth she’d come to realize as she fought against the wilderness of Vora. Despite all the pain and suffering she had endured over the years on Agraadax, she’d realized that even the worst that Vora had to offer, she survived.
Eyuul fastened the water skin close and tied it to a low hanging branch just above them. He turned a gentle smile and lightly tugged on one braid with the tip of his tail, the combination wooed a smile in return from her.
“I am going to find some food for us. I won’t be long. Stay put.”
“Trust me—acrobatics aren’t my strong suit. I won’t be leaving this branch. I am not too fond of heights, so my tree climbing skills are pretty lacking.”
With a nod, Eyuul dropped at a heart-stopping speed from their perch. She leaned forward, relief flooding her when she saw a flash of bronze as his tail moved through the growth. She had the feeling that he was never going to cease surprising her.
AFTER ENJOYING A MEAL of fruit that Eyuul had foraged, Jenn spent much of the afternoon draped in the secure grip of his coils. Every now and then, the tip of his tail swayed below the branch, in time with a melody he quietly sang. Although she couldn’t quite make out the words, his deep voice sank into her, easing the knots of tension, infusing her with a peace that she hadn’t known enough of. The coils looped around and beneath her swayed, rocking her. The sensation brought a smile to her face. Craning her head back, she smiled at him.
“That’s beautiful. What is it?”
His lips turned up in response as the last notes vibrated from his chest.
“It is an ancient intonation thought to stimulate healing.”
“Does it work?”
She might have sounded a bit incredulous there, but he took no offense. His teeth flashed and his chest shook with laughter.
“Some would swear on it. I am not entirely sure, but it is tradition and didn’t seem like it would hurt to try. If nothing else, it seemed to ease you.”
Jenn turned away, sinking back down into his coils. “It did sound almost meditative. I don’t know if it’s the melody itself, or the sound of your voice, but whatever it is certainly seems effective for quieting my mind. Thank you.”
Several minutes of comfortable silence passed before he spoke again.
“Would you like me to continue?”
“Yes, please.”
Eyuul began again, the rich tones falling from his lips. When the sound shifted to a dual-tonal vibration it pulled at her as if demanding she give up any darkness within her. Gratefully she gave it up, surrendering to the healing music that surrounded her as surely as Eyuul’s own coils.
Staring out in the jungle, it was almost as if all life pulsed and merged with the music. It seemed to lift her outside of herself, and for a brief moment she felt as one with Eyuul and Vora.
THE AGRAAK STARSHIP approached the green and mauve planet of Vora. The Ashier frowned down at the densely covered planet. This had to be where he’d find his quarry. Subject AlphaBreeder29 had been scheduled for termination before she’d escaped the facility with the aid of inside help. The Ashier was not normally summoned for simple retrievals, but the planetary ruler had personally signed off on the assignment as one of high importance for maintaining the security of Agraadax.
Due to critical information that AB29 possessed as a member of the breeding program, his instructions were to track down the female and terminate her on sight. The breeding facility itself had been temporarily closed, though they could not risk moving the human stock with the Intergalactic investigative team prowling around on the planet looking for any sign. This was not the biggest concern. The human herself and her testimony as a human mate on Agraadax could potentially bring the planet to its knees. Her secrets alone could negate the mating rights clause as it applied to Agraadax, giving the Intergalactic Council full authority to remove humans from Agraak households. The upper castes would not tolerate that.
The Ashier snorted contemptuously. Of course, protecting the property of the upper castes would provoke action. The ruling caste didn’t truly care about the breeding facility. The service the facility offered lined their pockets and was profitable, but its existence catered largely to lesser classes with only a small number of females still presiding there. Most humans had long since been dis
persed as lesser mates among the noble houses and a few of the more distinguished houses of the warrior caste. A rumor stated that a few houses were considering lending out the wombs of their human females for a fixed fee once they’d bred offspring on them. In his mind, that was far more efficient way to do things than possessing a single facility, although he knew that the ruling family hoped to illegally import more human females once attention was diverted from Agraadax.
After putting in the coordinates he’d acquired from the Budo, the Ashier began to double-check his weapons, making sure that they were charged and operational. He spared only a glance for the pack of Arobi who paced in the caged area at the other end of his hunting-class flyer. The Arobi were another terrible secret of Agraadax. Found on a sister planet in their solar system, the technologically superior Agraak harnessed the might of the pack-oriented species. Possessing a telepathic link among pack members that operated like a hive-mind, they made excellent tools for hunting.
He curled his lip as he thought the Arobi rights groups that had sprung up from the first packs that had been brought in to the homeworld. Agraadax officials had been able to pass it off as rehabilitating and preserving a species close to extinction on their own planet, but when they’d been fitting synthetics and technology to the packs to make them more obedient and efficient killing machines, the protests gained strength.
The Ashier sneered at the sentimentality of the common classes. Bred into the hunting class, he wasn’t surprised to hear that the guard, a sterile female born of a humble class, had orchestrated the events. Only the ruling class, the warrior class, and the hunting class knew what it took to maintain the glory of their mother planet. The merchant class was easily swayed by their profits. But the laboring class and the serving class had bleeding hearts and romanticized the tribal days of their primitive ancestors and their outdated ballads. In a way, he considered the traitor’s sins to be far more grievous than the instinctual need of the human to escape termination.
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