Chris shuddered. “It sounds awful. I couldn’t stand to live that way.”
Aquilla leaned toward Penelope Ann. “We’ll fall back to the village. We’ll raise other Guards who are loyal. Then we’ll....”
Aimee whipped around. She couldn’t let him leave. Piwaka glared at Aquilla and moved forward at Aimee’s side. They would stop him together.
A microscopic movement from Deek stopped them. How could such a subtle movement mean so much? It stopped them in their tracks, and Aimee stared in amazement. Sasha glided over the ground in ghostly silence. Her white gown hovered over the grass and hid her feet from view. Frieda floated at her side, and the two women approached Aquilla.
Some queer magic rooted his feet to the ground. He and Penelope Ann stared at the two women in wonder. They ceased their shivering and gazed directly into Aquilla’s eyes. “You have nothing to fear from the Aqinas,” Sasha told him. “They are Angondran, just like you.”
Aquilla shifted from one foot to the other. “You don’t have to stay with them.” His eyes flickered to Frieda’s face. “You are human. You can come back to the Avitras. We would welcome you the way we did the first time.”
“The Aqinas always counted the Avitras their friends,” Frieda answered. “The Avitras did more to bring peace to Angondra than any other faction.”
“Your father trusted the Aqinas,” Sasha added. “Your father protected the Aqinas.”
Piwaka’s head spun around. “What did you say?”
Aquilla frowned. “That was a long time ago. That has nothing to do with this.”
Sasha shook her head. “Your father’s deeds remain alive with the Aqinas. In the water, he continues to act each and every day, as if for the first time. You could be a hero like your father.”
Everyone stared at her. Aimee swallowed hard to make her voice work. “What are you talking about?”
Sasha gazed at Aquilla. “The Ursidreans and the Avitras both lost countless people in the last war. Toward the end, the Alphas called on the Aqinas to broker a peace agreement so both factions could lay down their weapons without losing face or seeming to admit defeat. The Alphas met over there, at the top of the Eastern Divide, along with their Aqinas representatives.”
“They didn’t know it was a trap,” Frieda went on. “The Ursidrean Alpha sent word to the Felsite that this was their best chance to annihilate the Aqinas once and for all.”
All eyes turned toward Donen. He dropped his eyes to the ground. “That was in my father’s day. Many horrible things happened then.”
“The Felsite moved in on the meeting site,” Sasha told them. “They would have wiped out the Aqinas, but the Avitras Alpha, Aquilla’s father, found out about the plan beforehand. He ordered his personal Guard to lie in wait on the north side of the Divide. When the Felsite moved in to attack, the Avitras jumped out and surprised them. They forced the Felsite to retreat back to their own side of the border, and the Felsite never attempted another attack.”
Donen raised his eyes. “My father never related that story. He must have been ashamed of what he’d done, and rightly so.”
Aquilla frowned. “My father never related that story, either. It sounds like a fairy tale to to get me to fall in love with the Aqinas.”
Piwaka broke in. “It is all true.”
Aquilla’s head shot up, and Aimee gasped.
Piwaka nodded. “It’s true. Your father never told a soul what he had done, but I remember.”
“How could you remember?” Aquilla asked.
“I was there,” Piwaka murmured. “I led the assault on the Felsite.”
Sasha touched Aquilla’s hand. “Your father was a friend to us. Let us count you as our friend, too.”
He didn’t stop frowning, but he didn’t recoil from her, either. He pursed his lips together and didn’t answer. Penelope Ann moved to his side. “We value peace. That’s what we came here for. If the Aqinas want peace, they won’t have anything to worry about from the Avitras.”
Frieda smiled at her. “You were always kind to me when I lived with the Avitras. We won’t forget you, either.”
Penelope Ann passed her hand through Aquilla’s arm. “Let’s put the hateful stories of the past behind us. We can count on the Aqinas to help us establish a lasting peace between the factions. Communicating through the water will be very useful, even if that communication only goes one way.”
Sasha smiled. “The Aqinas will do everything possible to help establish peace on Angondra.”
Penelope Ann pulled Aquilla back. “Excellent.”
Aquilla held back, but his eyes slid sideways to Piwaka. An unspoken signal passed between them, and Piwaka answered for him. “The Avitras will be friends to the Aqinas, the way they always have been.”
Penelope Ann pressed Aquilla’s arm one more time, and this time, they stepped backward together toward the trees. In a moment, all the Avitras were gone—except Piwaka.
Frieda muttered under her breath to Sasha. “It’s so cold here.”
Sasha nodded, and they both retreated to the spring. Emily followed them. “Don’t leave yet, Frieda. Stay a little longer.”
Frieda shook her head. She barely looked at her sister. “I have to get back to the water or the connection will be broken.”
Emily put out her hand to her sister. “Just tell me you’re happy there. Tell me you’ve found your place there.”
Frieda didn’t hesitate. She stepped into the water and joined the other Aqinas. The anxiety and dread fell away from her, and she relaxed in relief. She didn’t look at either of her sisters or her cousin. She kept her eyes on Deek. “You don’t have to worry about me. Everyone is happy in that world. It’s the most beautiful, most peaceful world you can imagine. I only wish you could experience it for yourselves. Come with me, and I’ll show you.”
Emily shrank back. Her hand fell to her side. “I don’t think so.”
Deek turned to Aimee. “We won’t forget what you did for us today.”
Aimee blushed. “I didn’t do anything.”
Deek shook his head. “The Aqinas don’t forget.”
He and Fritz stepped into the water with the others. “Call on us when you need our help, and we will come.”
Chapter 16
Aimee stood at the door of her tent. Her friends sat around the transmogrifier with their evening meal. The men talked in low tones, and the women laughed together on the bench in front of the store chamber. Tension no longer hung over the camp, and the soldiers and warriors relaxed their watches. Word spread through the armies. The Avitras had made peace. Everyone would leave here in the morning for their own homes.
Aimee couldn’t join them, though, and she wasn’t hungry. She looked around, but nothing appealed to her. Her eyes wandered up to the mountain, and she slipped away unnoticed. She walked slowly through the woods knowing what she was looking for and what she would find, but the old compulsion no longer drove her. She found him waiting for her under the tree where they’d first talked. “I thought you’d come here.”
“I suppose you’ll be leaving in the morning with the Avitras,” she remarked.
He nodded. “There’s a lot of work to do. You’ll be going back to the Lycaon. What will you do, now that the warriors no longer have to patrol the border?”
She didn’t answer. She gazed at the sun through the trees. “I’ve never heard the woods so quiet. Even the animals seem quieter.”
“Everyone is more relaxed,” he replied. “They all know what you did here today. You’ve given them peace.”
Her eyes widened. “Me? I didn’t give them peace. If anyone did it, it was you.”
He shook his head. “You stepped between the Avitras and the Aqinas.”
“You stepped between them first,” she countered. “I only followed you.”
“Aquilla wouldn’t have stopped his attack for me,” he told her. “He only hesitated when the others moved forward, and they wouldn�
��t have done that if you hadn’t told them to.”
She blushed. “I didn’t tell them to do anything. Besides, it was Sasha and Frieda who convinced him to make peace. None of us knew about his father protecting the Aqinas.”
“I knew about it,” he pointed out.
“Why didn’t you say anything?” she asked.
“That would have sent him into a rage,” he replied. “No one could have told him except one of you human women. That’s your genius. You can say things and do things and make decisions no one else can. That’s why it’s you who’s responsible for this peace. If we had to do it ourselves, we never could put aside our hostility to talk, let alone come to any agreement.”
She sighed. “I’m just glad it’s over.”
He studied her. “Is it over?”
She smiled and nodded. Then she turned to him and placed her hands on his chest. His eyebrows went up, but he didn’t say anything. She pushed him back against the tree trunk and kissed him. His breath filled her nostrils, and her heartbeat quickened. Scorching heat ached between her legs, and she no longer held back her desire.
She pushed him down on the ground, and he lay back on the fallen leaves. Aimee stretched herself out on top of him and closed her eyes in his kiss. His breath caught in his throat. The same ache tormented him. His body tightened in desperate need, but he kept still underneath her. He waited for her to release him.
She pressed her breasts into his chest, and a shiver ran down her belly to the yawning chasm between her legs. She would take him for herself. The forgotten shade would rise out of the past and destroy the hollow shell she had become. She inhaled the pungent scent of Piwaka, of the forest, of the leaves under them, and the transformation was complete. Raw hunger took over, and she let it control her. Nothing held her back anymore.
She kissed him harder, and he opened his mouth to let her tongue enter. He clasped his arms around her chest and pulled her down on top of him, but he remained flat on the ground. He left the work to her who could best accomplish it. She flexed her hips down on the bulge between his legs and rubbed her throbbing flesh against it. He lifted his hips to meet her, but that was all.
She moaned, but it wasn’t enough. She wanted him, all of him. She pushed herself up with her hands and straddled him, but she kept her mouth locked on his. She kissed him and undulated back and forth on his growing spike. His breathing came rough and hard. He wrapped his arms around her neck and crushed her mouth against his. In a flash, she shucked off her pants and jacket and sat astride him in naked glory. He lay back on the ground with his arms at his sides. His hands rested on her knees. He squinted into the sun at her outline against the sky. She was alive, at long last—fully and finally alive.
His shaft slipped between her legs and filled her as no food ever could. The bottomless hunger of her soul cried out in joy and fulfillment. Pulses of energy exploded in her guts and spread up and out through the top of her head. They joined the aurora surrounding the planet and rocketed out into deep space.
Aimee lifted her face to the sun and let the waves of light rush through her. She gave free rein to her insatiable desire and rode him with all her might. Her voice echoed through the trees and into the clouds. She bore down on him as hard as she could. She would crush him into the ground, driving his shaft deeper into her body, and be satisfied.
A laser stream of searing fire rushed out of him into her. It lifted her off the ground. She took flight and broke the envelope of the planet to hover disembodied over the forest. She gazed down on herself looking up, with her legs gripping Piwaka by the hips. Unbridled joy radiated from her upturned face, and her body glowed from within with clear light. Sunshine warmed her bare skin.
Piwaka bared his teeth in orgasmic completion, and soft tranquility suffused his body. His hands gripped her knees. Aimee gazed down at him until his eyes opened. The radiant energy that sent her skyward filled her with gentle calm. The peace agreement couldn’t give her that, but he could. Aimee bent down and kissed him without releasing his shaft from her clutches. She rocked gently on top of him in the warm wetness above and below.
Neither spoke until they were walking down the hill again. Aimee didn’t notice how close they had come to the Ursidrean camp until she turned a corner and noticed the sun glinting off the store chamber. “What’s going to happen to us?”
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“Will we ever see each other again?” she asked.
He studied her face. “You don’t really want to go back to the Lycaon, do you?”
Her eyes snapped to his face. “I don’t think I can, not after everything we’ve been through together.”
“Then come to the Avitras,” he urged. “Come back with me.”
“How can I?” she asked. “I would never see my cousins or my friends again.”
“You could see them whenever you want,” he replied. “We’re cementing a peace agreement, remember?”
“What difference will that make?” she asked. “We’ve got decades of negotiations in front of us before Angondra is truly at peace.”
“That’s my point,” he replied. “We’ll have to communicate with the other factions on a constant basis. We’ll be communicating more than we ever communicated in the past. You could act as a messenger to the other factions. You’re a fast runner, so you’d be perfect for the job. You could go back and forth between their territories and ours, and you could see your cousins and your friends whenever you wanted.”
Her face brightened, and he smiled. “You would probably be thrust into dealings with them whether you wanted to or not. They’re the Alpha’s mates. Emily and Anna are mated with Faruk and Menlo, so you would be dealing with them all the time, and Chris is mated to Turk, who is in essence a second Alpha to the Lycaon. Deek is secondary to Fritz, so it only makes sense that you would liaise with Sasha and Frieda to finalize relations with the Aqinas....”
“You make it sound so simple,” she remarked.
“What could be simpler?” he asked. “It’s the perfect solution to so many problems. Who better for the role than someone the other factions already know and trust?”
Her eyes widened. “You’re serious.”
“I was never more serious in my life,” he replied. “This is what makes you human women so brilliant. Your relationships with each other provide the perfect conduit for the factions to negotiate with each other. You’re friends, you’re cousins and sisters. You don’t have the history of war and hatred the men do. What could be better?”
She smiled, but she didn’t answer. She started down the hill, but he pulled her back by her hand. “So....will you come with me?”
She blushed. “I better get back. I’ll see you tomorrow morning when we all meet to say good-bye.”
Chapter 17
The Ursidrean army rumbled over the plain and dwindled to a faint black line dropping over the far horizon. Their war machines and combat vehicles made a steady roar that drowned out any conversation until the army crossed back into Ursidrean territory on their way back to Harbeiz.
The Felsite column made almost no noise, but all those tramping feet kicked up the biggest dust cloud Aimee ever saw. She closed her eyes until they faded into the western plain.
Renier clasped Donen’s hand. “Don’t be a stranger. We have so much to discuss.”
Donen clapped him on the shoulder. “I’ll send a messenger to you as soon as we get back. We’ll get the border inspection out of the way as soon as possible so we can talk without that hanging over our heads.”
“As soon as the inspection is complete, I want to visit your city,” Renier told him. “I want to see this technology of yours I’ve heard so much about.”
Donen beamed down at Carmen, who held her baby daughter’s basket in her hands. “You won’t be going anywhere for a while. Your place is at home.”
Carmen took his hands. “Thank you, Donen. Thank you for being strong enough to get this p
eace process started. We all owe you our thanks.”
Donen pressed her hand. “All our thoughts and hopes go with you. You and your friends carry the future of Angondra in your hands and in your bodies. It is we who should be thanking you.”
Renier shook hands with Donen one last time. Caleb came forward with Marissa at his side. He laid both hands on Renier’s shoulders. “Don’t let us delay to establish our border, either, Renier. Don’t let any misunderstanding cause hostility between our factions.”
“We won’t,” Renier replied. “As long as we’re openly discussing the borders, no conflicts can break out. I’m grateful to Aquilla for that, at least.”
Marissa embraced Carmen. “I wish we could be together in the next few months. I could help you and you could help me.”
Carmen laid her hand on Marissa’s cheek. “I’ll have plenty of help, and so will you.”
“I wish we lived closer to each other,” Marissa exclaimed.
“Never mind,” Carmen replied. “When our children get older, we can travel more.”
Marissa turned to Chris. “Are you ready?”
Chris nodded. “Whenever you are.”
“Please tell me you’re not running all the way home in your condition,” Carmen exclaimed.
Marissa laughed. “Not on your life. I’m finished running for a while. That’s why Chris is walking back with me. We won’t get there for days, but at least we’ll be together.”
“What about your kids?” Carmen asked.
“Turk and Caleb will look out for them when they get home.” Chris threw her arms around Emily. “Why are we always saying good-bye?”
Emily pressed her to her heart. “We aren’t. We’re always saying hello again after a few months apart.”
Chris nodded and pushed her back. “You’ll be having babies next, and then you won’t be traveling out to save the world anymore.”
Emily shot a glance at Faruk where he stood with Donen. “I always wanted to stay near the city but I don’t think I’ll ever be able to keep out of these negotiations completely. I’m in the middle of them now, and that’s where I’ll stay.”
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