Stolen

by Evangeline Anderson

  “You know,” she said to V’rex. “I need to get over myself and own my curves.”

  “Your curves are gorgeous, baby,” he agreed softly.

  “And I meant what I said,” Penny went on, recklessly. “I really do love you! I wish you hadn’t Forsworn me because I want to be with you!”

  The big Hybrid’s eyes widened and then he murmured, “I love you too, sweetheart. Love you will all my heart.”

  “I wish we could be together,” Penny whispered and a tear rolled down her cheek, despite the happy feelings. “I wish I knew how we could stay together forever,” she told V’rex.

  At that moment, a chorus started humming near her head.

  “Huh?” Penny turned around, trying to see where the chorus was, but she couldn’t see anyone there. But just because no one was there, didn’t make the music stop. In fact the humming grew louder and then turned into words.

  * * *

  “When the nectar returns

  The poison is clear.

  Pleasure replaces

  The pain that you fear,” sang the voices of the invisible chorus.

  * * *

  Penny looked around uncertainly.

  “Did you hear that?” she asked V’rex.

  He frowned.

  “Hear what, sweetheart?”

  “The voices,” Penny said impatiently. “They’re right beside us, singing. Oh, wait—here they go again!”

  * * *

  “When the nectar returns

  Then ‘tis time to bond

  With the male of your dreams

  Of whom you are fond,” the invisible chorus sang.

  * * *

  “But I’m much more than fond of him—I love him,” Penny protested. Still, she guessed it wasn’t easy to find another rhyme for bond. Maybe something about how your love would fit like a glove? But no, that didn’t really work…

  “Sweetheart, what are you talking about?” V’rex asked, looking at her intently.

  “I’m talking to the chorus,” Penny said impatiently. “The people who are singing to me. I’m surprised you can’t hear them—they’re really loud.”

  At that point, the chorus sang in her ear again.

  * * *

  “When the nectar returns

  You may accept the sting

  Have no fear

  Only pleasure it brings.”

  * * *

  “Accept the sting?” Penny asked, feeling a little rush of fear run through her.

  “What?” V’rex looked at her even more intently. “What are you talking about? My sting?”

  “I…no. I…I’m not sure.” The memory of the awful fiery pain the last time the big Hybrid had stung her was still sharp in her mind. But the voices of the chorus seemed to be telling her…

  “Excuse me!” Lady Bright Coat stood up from the table suddenly. If she had been human, Penny thought, she would have looked pale. “I…I must visit the necessary chamber,” the female Fox’en said in a trembling voice.

  “Follow her!” sang the chorus in Penny’s ear.

  “Go after her now.

  “Give her the proof.

  Follow her quickly,

  And tell her the truth.”

  * * *

  “Um,” I need to use the, uh, necessary chamber too,” she said, rising a bit unsteadily to her feet. Everything still looked a little strange, like when she moved her hand in the air, it left a trail of rainbows swirls behind.

  “Whoa—are you sure you’re okay, sweetheart?” V’rex asked her.

  “Yes, fine,” Penny said distractedly. “Excuse me.”

  And she followed the female Fox’en out of the dining room.

  Chapter 103

  “Oh dear…oh dear!” Lady Bright Coat was bent over a carved marble basin that looked like a sink. Only instead of a faucet, there was a little fountain in the very middle of the basin that pumped cold, clear water upwards continuously. The fountain rose three or four inches in the air and fall back down to be swallowed by the drain just below it.

  The female Fox’en wet her long furry fingers in the water and pressed them to her face. She looked truly shaken to Penny, as though she would be crying if she was human.

  “What is it, Lady Bright Coat?” she asked gently, daring to lay a hand on the other female’s shoulder. “If you don’t mind me asking,” she added.

  The female Fox’en took a deep, shaky breath.

  “When I took the Silka spice, I asked it why I haven’t had a litter yet,” she whispered. “We’ve been trying and trying and our physician has said there’s nothing wrong with either of us. I should be able to get pregnant! I should have had five litters by now, with the amount of breedalot I’ve been eating!”

  “What’s wrong, then?” Penny asked sympathetically. “Did the Silka tell you?”

  Lady Bright Coat nodded.

  “It’s this thing.” She pointed to the Eye of Ten’gu which hung around her neck. “The Silka tells me it’s why I can’t conceive.”

  “You think it’s hindering your fertility?” Penny asked carefully.

  “So the Silka says.” Lady Bright coat made a face. “I’ve hated this damn thing from the moment Swift Tail first gave it to me, but I couldn’t refuse such an important gift from my husband who is also the Chieftain—it would have caused a terrible scandal.”

  “So he gave it to you almost as soon as your tribe first moved in here and you’ve been wearing it ever since?” Penny asked.

  Lady Bright Coat sighed and nodded her head.

  “It feels so heavy around my neck and it makes my head ache all the time! And…and I feel like it clouds my mind with dark thoughts.” She looked up at Penny. “Does that make any sense? I feel like I sound crazy.”

  “You’re not crazy,” Penny said firmly. “The artifact you’re wearing…” She paused for a moment, not sure how much to say. But then she remembered the words of the invisible chorus. Follow her now and tell her the truth, the chorus had sung to her.

  And though the strange and surreal effects of the Silka seemed to be fading, Penny still remembered the words and had a very strong feeling that she ought to do as the chorus had told her.

  “Yes?” Lady Bright Coat was looking at her eagerly.

  “The artifact you’re wearing is called the ‘Eye of Ten’gu,’” Penny told her. “It was supposedly created by an evil deity from another universe.”

  “An evil deity?” Lady Bright Coat exclaimed. “I have felt an evil presence emanating from it—I would swear it!”

  “You haven’t exposed it to direct rays of sunlight, have you?” Penny asked anxiously. “Because that would be bad—really bad.”

  “No—no!” Lady Bright Coat shook her head quickly. “It has remained inside the mountain with me because I have never taken it off. And I have never seen the sun since I put it on,” she added mournfully. “But how do you know about it?”

  Penny took a deep breath. Tell her the truth, the chorus had said. It was time to take a chance.

  “I know about the Eye of Ten’gu because I was sent here to get it by the Kindred High Council,” she said frankly. “It was buried here, under Mount Ra’gar millennia ago by the ancient Kindred in order to keep its evil hidden—in order to keep it asleep. But one of the Kindred priestesses—the Mouthpiece of the Goddess—had a prophecy that it had to be taken and destroyed before it could awaken and cause harm.”

  “What will happen if it wakes up?” Lady Bright Coat’s eyes were wide.

  Penny shook her head.

  “Honestly, I don’t know. I just know I need to get it back to the Kindred High Council without exposing it to any rays of direct sunlight and waking it up so they can destroy it.”

  “And to think I’ve been wearing it around my neck for so long!” Lady Bright Coat looked down at the necklace lying against her furry chest and shuddered with revulsion.

  “It’s bad news,” Penny told her. “I’m sorry, I should have told you that at once, but we thought i
t would be better to pose as merchants so we could barter for it. In fact…here.”

  She opened her black furry pouch and began pulling out items that V’rex had given her to barter with.

  “I can trade you any of these things—or all of them—for the Eye if you want,” she said, spreading out the barter items on the marble counter beside the sink. “I have a golden pen that writes in rainbow ink…a ruby ring that changes colors according to your mood…a—”

  But the Fox’en female was shaking her head.

  “No, no—I’m sorry, Lady Penelope,” she said sadly. “But since the necklace was a gift from my husband—who is the Chieftain—it would be a serious offense against him for me to barter it away.”

  “Really? Even though it’s affecting your fertility?” Penny raised her eyebrows.

  “Even though I would gladly trade it to you for even the smallest, meanest item in your inventory.” Lady Bright Coat shook her head sadly and looked down at the items Penny had set out for display on the marble sink. “What’s this?” she asked, picking up the small blue, cut-glass bottle that the scent merchant had given Penny earlier.

  “Oh, that?” Penny shook her head quickly. “That’s nothing—just a bottle of, uh, anal scents that a merchant gave me earlier when he heard V’rex and I were coming to meet you.”

  She felt weird saying “anal scents” but Lady Bright Coat only nodded, as though this was perfectly normal. Which, for a Fox’en, apparent it was.

  “Oh yes—I think I know who you mean. “My good friend, Lady Smooth Pelt, got some scents from him. She said it really spiced up her mating. May I?” she asked, looking at Penny.

  “Yes, please—help yourself.” Penny made a motion for her to go ahead and open the bottle.

  “Thank you.” The Fox’en female pulled out the cut-glass stopper and Penny tried not to wince as a rather strong, musky odor drifted out.

  Lady Bright Coat sniffed the perfume bottle eagerly.

  “Oh my—this is lovely!” she exclaimed. “Why, Swift Tail wouldn’t be able to keep his paws off me if I was wearing this!”

  “By all means, please—take it,” Penny told her. “It should be yours anyway—the merchant who gave it to me specifically wanted me to open it around you and your mate.”

  “That’s so kind of you!” Lady Bright Coat dabbed some of the scent at the base of both her ears and then put a generous amount under her tail as well. “You know—this gives me an idea.”

  “What?” Penny asked. She hoped the idea had something to do with leaving the necessary chamber. The anal scent perfume was pretty strong.

  “An idea about how I can give you this awful eye necklace without Swift Tail losing face.” Lady Bright Coat looked thoughtful. “Tell me, have you and your mate ever participated in a Hulu-rah?”

  “A what?” Penny frowned.

  “It’s a test of wills,” Lady Bright Coat explained. “It’s…well, before I tell you I had better ask—does your mate have good self-control”

  “Self control?” Penny asked.

  “I mean, can he keep himself from taking you sexually if he needs to?” the female Fox’en asked anxiously.

  Penny thought of her first night with V’rex, after the Unification Ceremony. The Spice had been coursing through his system making him incredibly horny and yet he’d managed not to rape her.

  “Yes,” she said firmly. “He can.”

  “Oh good.” Lady Bright Coat looked relieved. “So as I said, a Hulu-rah is a contest of wills. And this is how it works…”

  When she’d finished explaining, Penny looked at her with wide eyes.

  “Wow, that sounds kind of…kinky,” she murmured at last.

  “We are the Kin’kee tribe, but the Hulu-rah does not originate with us,” Lady Bright Coat said. “It is practiced by Fox’en tribes all over Yown Beta—it’s a known and respected contest. If you think your mate can win, perhaps we can both get what we want.”

  “I know he can,” Penny said decisively.

  The question was, would the big Hybrid be willing to enter the kinky little contest of wills Lady Bright Coat was proposing? He had, after all, Forsworn Penny, which seemed to mean they couldn’t have anything to do with each other anymore.

  Well, he’s going to have to make an exception, Penny thought to herself. Because there’s no other way to complete this mission and get the Eye of Ten’gu!

  Chapter 104

  “Are you feeling all right, my darling mate?” Chieftain Swift Tail looked up anxiously as Lady Bright Coat came back to the table.

  “I’m just fine, my husband,” she replied and gave him a flirtatious wink. Then she very deliberately turned for a moment, pretending to pick something up which put her tail right by his nose.

  Penny, who was sitting back down beside V’rex, saw the Fox’en male’s eyes widened and the nostrils of his wet black nose flare. Apparently the stinky perfume the merchant in the marketplace had given her was working just as Lady Bright Coat had predicted. She thought of how V’rex had told her that Fox’ens were turned on by scents more than anything else and suddenly realized how the scent was affecting the male Fox’en.

  It’s like she just flashed her boobs at him! she thought, trying not to grin.

  “Well, you certainly smell as though you’re all right. Better than all right, I would say,” Chieftain Swift Tail murmured to his mate.

  “I am.” Lady Bright Coat winked at him flirtatiously again. “My dear, did you know that Lady Penelope and I were talking in the necessary room and she tells me that she and her mate have never participated in a Hulu-rah before?”

  “They haven’t?” the Chieftain raised his eyebrows in apparent surprise and looked at V’rex. “But what a shame! You haven’t lived until you’ve tested your will as a male in a Hulu-rah.”

  “What’s a Hulu-rah, exactly?” V’rex asked, frowning.

  “It’s a kind of sexual contest,” Penny explained, blushing a little. She felt embarrassed to be contemplating what Lady Bright Coat had proposed, but there didn’t seem to be any other way to get the Eye.

  “A sexual contest?” The big Hybrid’s voice had dropped to a low, interested growl. “Explain.”

  “Maybe I’d better let the Chieftain or Lady Bright Coat explain.” Penny felt her cheeks getting hotter and hotter and she bit her lip.

  “Well, it’s simple, really,” Chieftain Swift Tail said to V’rex. “You enter your female and I’ll enter mine and we see which male can hold out and keep from filling his female with his seed the longest.”

  “Is that so?” V’rex growled, looking at Penny again. “And what do you say to that, sweetheart?”

  “I say it…it sounds fine to me,” Penny looked up at him uncertainly. “But, well, I wasn’t sure how you might feel about it.”

  “I’d love to be inside you, you know I would,” V’rex murmured, stroking her hot cheek gently with one finger. “But you know, sweetheart…”

  “I know what you’re going to say,” Penny said quickly. He was going to protest entering the contest on the bounds of their Foreswearing, she was sure. “But this really shouldn’t count—since it’s in the service of our, uh, mission,” she told him.

  “I suppose you could make a case for that,” V’rex nodded thoughtfully. “Well, then…if you really don’t mind…”

  “I don’t mind,” Penny said breathlessly. “I…I think it’s a good idea.”

  “I’m not sure if it’s a good idea, but if you want it, I can’t deny that I do too,” V’rex growled softly, stroking her cheek again.

  “Well, then—it sounds like we have a Hulu-rah in the works,” Chieftain Swift Tail exclaimed. “Tell me though, Merchant—what is it you wish to play for?”

  “They…they want to play for my necklace,” Lady Bright Coat said, looking at her husband apprehensively.

  “What?” The Fox’en Chieftain frowned. “But I gave you that necklace in front of the entire tribe! If I should lose it—”

  “You
won’t lose it, my dear!” Lady Bright Coat exclaimed. “When have you ever lost a Hulu-rah?”

  The Chieftain’s furry chest puffed out with pride and he nodded.

  “Well, you’re right about that, my mate. Then if you’re certain you don’t mind wagering your necklace…?”

  “I have perfect trust in you,” she assured him.

  “Then, it’s agreed.” Chieftain Swift Tail nodded decisively. He looked at V’rex. “I challenge you to a Hulu-rah. If you win, you will go home with my mate’s valuable necklace.”

  “And if we lose?” V’rex asked, raising one eyebrow.

  “Then you shall give me the entire box of Silka spice.” Chieftain Swift Tail’s blue eyes flashed greedily.

  “That’s a high price to wager.” V’rex frowned, pretending to hesitate. “But I can see that my mate really wants that necklace,” he added, casting a half-lidded glance at Penny that made her squirm.

  “I do…I really do,” she murmured.

  “Well, then—no price is too high to make my mate happy,” V’rex decided. He looked at the Fox’en Chieftain. “How do we start?”

  Chapter 105

  As it turned out, the royal Fox’ens had a whole room devoted to the Hulu-rah. Which surprised Penny until she remembered that V’rex had told her that the Fox’en people loved contests of will. She just hadn’t known they’d be participating in a contest quite like this one.

  The Hulu-rah room was a kind of sunken grotto which had been carpeted in some kind of thick, spongy dark blue moss. There were several clusters of big, puffy blue and green and turquoise cushions as well, which seemed to delineate four different areas in the large room.

  “You take one corner and we will take the opposite one,” Chieftain Swift Tail instructed V’rex. “There does need to be some privacy, at least in the beginning of the contest so that we can take our time exciting our ladies and getting them ready to be entered.”