Bears of Burden: THORN

by Candace Ayers

  “Wake up, Zarek,” she said as she shook his shoulders. She touched his face. His eyes opened. “I need your help.”

  He groaned, but began to stir. She looked down at his neck. He hadn’t been shot in the neck. The bullet had entered in his shoulder. Another had entered in his arm. She looked down. He had been shot in the leg, too.

  “We need to get you to that door,” she pointed. He nodded, pushing himself up with his healthy arm. She put his healthy arm around her shoulder, but he cried out in pain as his chest muscles tightened, tugging on the wound on his other shoulder. She cringed. “We have to hurry.”

  He nodded again, leaning against her and hobbling toward the door, gushes of blood seeping from his leg wound with every step. Finally, they got to the door. He collapsed as they exited the anteroom.

  “I’ll be right back,” she told him, running down the stairs.

  When she came back upstairs, she found that Zarek had lost consciousness again. Beads of sweat coated his body, he felt cold and clammy. He was going into shock. She did the only thing she knew to do. She began working on his wounds, wondering what was going on in the other room, hoping the man she loved would survive his own rescue.

  It would be better to lose him to freedom, she thought, than to death.

  Chapter Ten

  As Aubrey tended to Zarek’s wounds, wiping away the blood, digging for the bullets, sewing the torn flesh back together, she realized the wounds weren’t as bad as she had thought. The bullets hadn’t penetrated deeply. The skin wasn’t torn as badly as she’d first suspected. Actually, the wounds seemed to be getting better as she tended to them.

  Must be the dragon skin and scales, she guessed as she sewed up the last hole.

  Still, his body was in shock. But, they didn’t have time for shock. There was still a war raging on the other side of the door, and even if his friends won this battle, there were sure to be military reinforcements on their way. No, none of them had time for shock. What could she do?

  Aubrey took the smelling salts out of her bag, cracked one open, and held it under Zarek’s nose.

  Zarek’s nose scrunched. His eyes open. He pushed the salts away.

  “What is that?” he asked. “That is repulsive.”

  “And that is the point,” Aubrey answered, a grin spreading across her face. “It’s smelling salts. We use them to wake people up after they have lost consciousness.”

  “Lost—” Zarek suddenly sat up, flinching as he did so. “I lost consciousness? How long? Where are Jandric and Virlek?”

  Zarek reached for his now dressing-covered wounds.

  “We’ve haven’t been in here for more than fifteen minutes or so.”

  Zarek stood. He flinched a little as he stepped on his wounded leg, but he didn’t favor it much. He touched the door with his palms, resting his cheek against the metal. He closed his eyes.

  Finally, he looked back at her. “Not good. There are so many casualties, so many wounded, so much blood.”

  Zarek shook his head. “We must get out of here. The rest of my people are waiting in Virginia.”

  “Virginia? Where in Virginia?”

  Zarek shook his head again. “I don’t know the name of the place. I can sense them, though.”

  “How did you know it’s Virginia, then?”

  “My people saw a large sign. This other place does not have a large sign.”

  “Great,” Aubrey deadpanned. “A town in Virginia without a large sign.”

  “Yes,” Zarek agreed in all seriousness.

  Aubrey knew her priority should only be getting Zarek to safety, but she couldn’t keep her own feelings entirely subdued. She didn’t want to have to say goodbye to him. She didn’t want him to leave her.

  “Zarek,” she asked softly. “What if they don’t accept me? Can’t you just stay here with me? We could go somewhere where no one would find us. We could—”

  Zarek turned to face her. He put his arms around her, pulling her to him.

  “No, we could not,” Zarek said sadly. “We could never get away from these people. We would be hunted for the rest of our lives until they found us, you know that.”

  Zarek pulled back, still holding her shoulders but now looking into her eyes. “My people will accept you. Will you come with me? Please?”

  “Yes,” she answered him in less than a second. What did she have to lose, now? Not nearly as much as she had to gain. She smiled. “Yes, I will come with you.”

  “I don’t know how we’re going to get out of here, though.” Aubrey said, pulling away from him and starting to walk towards the door. Zarek held onto her arm.

  “We must wait,” Zarek told her. “Jandric and Virlek need a little more time to clear a path for us—a half of an hour maybe.”

  Aubrey sighed. She didn’t know if she could wait that long. Adrenalin was still pumping through her veins. She’d have a hard time waiting just ten minutes. Zarek took a step toward her. He winced again when he stepped down with his wounded leg. She should check his wounds again. They would have a long ride ahead of them when they got out of here.

  “Sit down,” she told him. “I want to check the wounds again.”

  “I’m fine,” he said.

  “Please,” she replied. “I’m not good at waiting. Plus, I really should check those again, just to be sure.”

  Zarek sat, but realizing she couldn’t get to the wounds with him in that position, she nudged him down all the way. She peeled back the dressing on his leg wound. It was seeping blood, but not much, it looked as though it was healing unusually fast- by human standards, anyway. So, she just changed the gauze. She repeated the routine for his arm and shoulder. The entire process took only five minutes. They still had twenty-five minutes to wait.

  She looked down at her handiwork, but found that she couldn’t keep her eyes on the gauze. Zarek was still naked, and even though a battle raged on the other side of the door, even though she knew they would have to be ready to bolt through the lab and find a way to get to Virginia, she was suddenly and acutely aware off his perfectly-sculpted, heavily-muscled naked body. She inhaled. Reached down, she tracing his pec muscles with the tips of her fingers. She did love him, even if she hadn’t said it aloud, she hoped he could sense it.

  Zarek reached up, tucking the loose strands of her hair behind her ear. He traced the ridges of that ear. Then, he traced the lobes. He caressed the hollow behind her ear. Her eyes fluttered closed as he put his hand around the back of her neck and pulled her down toward him.

  What was she doing? Seducing him while a battle was being fought, while people were dying only yards away? Yes. Yes, she was, because what if they didn’t make it out of here? What if they died? She knew exactly how she wanted to spend the last minutes of her life. She willingly pressed her lips to his.

  He pushed the lapels of her blazer back. She shrugged her blazer off as his fingers worked to unbutton her dress shirt, exposing her bra. He leaned up, but flinched as he put weight on his shoulder.

  “Let me do the work this time,” she whispered, reaching back to unhook her bra before standing and stripping off her shoes, her pants, and her underwear. As she stood above him, she looked down at his eyes. He was hungrily watching her every movement. His amber and green eyes traced over every inch of her body as his fingers and tongue had done a few nights before. Never had she felt so desired, and she reveled in it.

  Aubrey leaned back down, running her lips, her tongue and her teeth over Zarek’s lips, then his jawline, then his neck, his chest, his abdomen. She was keenly aware that their time was limited, but she wanted to savor every inch of him. What if this was their last chance to be together? She pushed that thought from her mind, trying to concentrate on the moment- on being present for every second of pleasure with this man… dragon… beast… alien creature.

  She kissed his rippled abdomen, using her tongue to trace the v that ran down to his erection. She ran her tongue up the large vein on the underside of his length. He shudd
ered. His erection responded by tightening and growing even more. She took the tip in her mouth, using her tongue and cheeks to moisten it. Then, she slowly took more and more of him into her mouth, sliding up and down on his shaft each time she took him deeper. He groaned, his hips lifting, wanting more of her.

  Aubrey rose, quickly kissing her way back up to his face. She rolled on top of him, caressed his shaft with her female juices, sliding back and forth, teasingly. As she bent to kiss him again, he grasped her hips and thrust into her warm, wet channel as far as she could take him. She moaned, her insides stretching in sudden, intense pleasure. They didn’t have time to prolong the pleasure, and she was already so close to climaxing, and from the sound of his breathing, so was he. He thrust his hips up and down in controlled, firm strokes. She sat up, matching his pace, bracing her hands on his abdomen.

  He opened his eyes, and she met his gaze. Again, she saw his pleasure, felt his pleasure. She no longer had any doubt that he wanted to be with her as much as she wanted him. She had no doubt that he wanted her to escape with him. The knowledge made her tighten even more, clutching at him, tingles shooting through her nerve endings. She slid up and down, then wiggled forward and backward. She tried to keep her eyes open. She wanted to sense his pleasure, but her own was overwhelming her. She closed her eyes, expecting the shared pleasure to disappear, but it didn’t. She could sense him without even looking at him.

  “Yes,” he said. “We can feel it without looking. You are so beautiful, my mate.”

  That was more than she could handle. The waves of pleasure turned into a bursting climax. She wanted to shout out at the intensity of it. Then, when he began to release his seed in her, she did holler, his loud groans mixing with her cries of pleasure. Even afterward, she didn’t want him to stop. He didn’t want to stop, either. He kept moving up and down.

  “We don’t have time,” she finally managed to whisper.

  “I know,” he replied, moving a few times before opening his eyes. “But we will. We will have all the time we want very soon.” His hand caressed her cheek. “I promise.”

  Chapter Eleven

  “It’s time,” Zarek said. He stood with his hands against the door. Having been reminded of Zarek’s nakedness, Aubrey had retrieved an outfit from Robert’s locker in the control room. Needless to say, the clothes did not fit Zarek well. He had barely been able to pull the pants over his bulging thigh muscles and they rose about four inches above his ankles. The shirt was entirely too tight and gaped between the buttons, occasionally sliding up to expose his bellybutton. The shoes hadn’t worked at all, so Zarek was still barefoot.

  Aubrey nodded, confirming she had heard Zarek. She scanned her ID badge in the slot near the door. When the second door slid open, it revealed a macabre scene. Bloody, torn, scorched, dead military men were slumped on the floor. Some bodies were draped over the railing. Other bodies were piled on the glass at the bottom of the opening in the center of the room.

  “Jandric and Virlek aren’t here,” Zarek said, looking around as he jogged to the other side of the lab.

  Aubrey and Zarek didn’t meet with any resistance as they made their way to the elevator. They didn’t meet with any resistance in the lobby, either. The entire building was eerily silent and empty. The security stations and reception areas were abandoned, their screens black. Jandric and Virlek had certainly cleared the way, but that wouldn’t last long.

  “We can’t take my car,” Aubrey suddenly realized. “They’ll be looking for it.”

  She stopped at the valet station, opening the cubby that held the keys. The keys hung on pegs, each peg labeled with a lot number. She chose a key to a car that was parked near the entrance of the parking garage. Fortunately, she had chosen well. The compact, silver Honda had a full tank of gas that should be adequate to get them to their rendezvous destination.

  Over four hours later, they arrived at the edge of a forest leading to the meeting spot. Aubrey parked the Honda on the side of a dirt road. She didn’t know if there were any access roads into the forest, so they would have to walk.

  Aubrey and Zarek walked as quickly as they could through the trees and undergrowth. Finally, they arrived at a clearing. Aubrey froze, staring at the enormous ship. Its triangular running lights looked as though they were made of a kind of gelatinous substance from what Aubrey could surmise. They emitted a pulsing, green glow. The ship, too, was triangular. A door was open under the bulky ship, and a ladder hung from the door to the ground. Two men stood at the bottom of the ladder. Aubrey, still frozen in wonderment, stood still as Zarek ran to Virlek and Jandric, embracing them each in turn. Zarek motioned for Aubrey to join them.

  “The others are waiting for us,” Aubrey heard Jandric say as she approached. “They know about your mate. They’re waiting to meet her, too. They are very grateful, Aubrey. We all are.”

  Aubrey smiled and was about to say something in return, but she saw movement in a corner of the clearing. Pairs of headlights, one after another until there were hundreds, were making their way into the clearing, surrounding the ship.

  The Plarizakians started toward the door of the ship, but the vehicles were too quick. A large SUV speedily approached the small group. Military men climbed out from the back seat and hatch section. A tall, rotund man stepped down from the passenger seat.

  The man was Raymond Moss, Aubrey’s father.

  “Kill them all,” he said. He looked straight into his daughter’s eyes when he repeated, “All of them.”

  Aubrey watched as her father spoke, unable to believe that even a man as cold-hearted and cruel as her father could utter such words.

  “Get behind me!” Zarek hollered to her. Aubrey turned and ran behind the transforming dragons. She watched as Zarek shifted into a green dragon with thick scales and leathery wings. His majesty, even under these circumstances, was awe-inspiring. A rush of fire shot out from somewhere in front of her. She watched as Jandric, now a thick, stocky black dragon, spewed fire on the military men. Virlek, too had transformed, and was hovering above the enemy, reigning down torrents of fire, his dark blue body darting back and forth in the air. Zarek remained on the ground, fighting in front of Aubrey, trying to protect his mate.

  The military men wasted no time firing their own rounds on the dragons, but most of the bullets simply ricocheted off the dragons’ scales and back toward the soldiers. One hit Zarek’s scales at an angle, though, and instead of flying back toward where it had come from, the bullet bounced and slid over Zarek’s scales. It made a path straight for Aubrey, lodging itself into her chest.

  Aubrey felt searing pain. A moment later, she heard a gut-wrenching dragon-scream, and within the next few seconds she slipped into blackness.

  Chapter Twelve

  Aubrey’s eyes fluttered open. She tried to open them completely, but the white light was too bright and her head hurt.

  Am I dead? she wondered.

  “Where am I?” she asked aloud, her voice emerging in a dry croak.

  “Shhhh,” she heard a female voice hush her.

  “Where am I?” Aubrey repeated, louder this time.

  “Hush,” the voice said again. “You need rest.”

  “Where is Zarek?” she asked, finally forcing herself to open her eyes. All she could see was white light. It burned her eyes and she squinted, but she kept them open. The woman didn’t answer this time.

  “Where is Zarek?” Aubrey repeated, the volume and pitch of her voice rising. “Where is he?” What if he was hurt? What if they killed him?

  Aubrey tried to sit, but a woman approached her and pushed down on her shoulder.

  “You really need to rest.” The woman wore a white coat. Aubrey guessed she was a nurse or doctor.

  “Tell me where Zarek is. I’ll rest when you tell me that.” Aubrey’s anger was rising. She tried to push against the woman’s hand, tried to sit up despite her wound. She flinched as her chest muscles tightened. Still, she kept trying to sit up.

  Aubrey
heard a door open. The door seemed to appear out of thin air.

  What kind of hospital is this? Aubrey wondered.

  The figure in the doorway was just a dark outline at first. Then, the shadow stepped in and the door closed. Aubrey tried to focus her eyes on the figure, but had a hard time making out its features. Then, the figure took a few steps forward.

  Zarek.

  Aubrey tried even harder to sit up.

  “Careful, mate,” Zarek’s deep, wonderful voice reached her from across the room. “You need rest.”

  Aubrey stopped struggling. She laid her head back on the pillow.

  “I’ll watch over her for a bit,” Zarek told the nurse. The woman nodded and exited through the door Zarek had used to enter.

  Zarek held Aubrey’s hand. He bent to kiss her. The feeling of his hand on hers, of his lips on her lips, calmed her more than anything else possibly could have.

  “Where am I?” she asked.

  “You’re on a hospital ship,” he said. “Virlek, Jandric, and I brought you here as soon as we left Earth. They say you’ll have to stay for a few weeks, so we docked my ship in a bay for now. We’ll stay with you as long as you’re here. Then, when you’re healed, we’ll head back to lead the caravan. My people have found a completely unsettled planet. We’ll colonize it. We’ll have a home.”

  Zarek paused before continuing. He looked into Aubrey’s eyes. “You’ll have what you have never had the pleasure of experiencing. We’ll start a family.”

  “I would really, really like that, Zarek,” she responded, smiling from ear to ear.

  “I know,” he said his face breaking into a grin to rival her own, “So would I.”

  He bent down to kiss her, and she was overwhelmed with a feeling of contentment.

  “I can’t wait to get started on making that family,” he grinned, pulling away. “but, you need to heal first.”

  She sighed in disappointment.