Alien Storm, page 2
“Don’t beasts out here know when to die?’ I snapped, irritation building. I was not annoyed to fight with this thing.
I was annoyed because it was slowing us down.
We’d been nearly finished with our meal and our rest. Nearly ready to continue on this most important journey of my entire life.
The journey to retrieve my mate.
Even now, the thought of her among other lands, other tribes, other men, filled me with a possessive rage the likes of which I’d never known.
“I will kill you twice for keeping me from her,” I barked down at the creature. Or rather, across, as it had scaled nearly to the top of the spiked peak of stone. I ducked, and Togo lurched out of the way of a wildly swinging tendril. Hissing, I dragged a blade from my back with my free hand, lopping off the end of that tendril. The creature shrieked again, its injured arm scuttling back in towards its body. But another one replaced it.
So, I cut that one off, too.
But there were so many cursed arms on the thing. I could be here all night playing this ridiculous game. And I couldn’t just flee. For one thing, even injured as it was, I had no guarantee the thing would not just hunt us and catch up with us as we slept in some other place.
And for another thing?
I did not flee.
Ever.
Besides, it had angered me too much. How dare this ugly thing think it could come for a Deep Sky Gahn and live?
It has even less sense and manners than Lerokan. And that is saying something.
“Let’s end this,” I muttered to Togo, putting my bow across my chest and holding my blade with both hands. He squawked his reply, and we arrowed forward together. We dove right towards the centre of the creature. Its tendrils unwound from its body and curled around us in a cage of flesh. Loop after loop caught at my ankles, my tail, my arms, and Togo’s wings.
But it had been weakened by my previous blows. And trying to catch us in its tendrils left its head exposed once more.
Tugging violently against a particularly nasty tendril wrapped around my bicep, I plunged my long blade deep into its head.
Immediately, all movement ceased. The many grips on us slackened as the thing slid down the stone peak it had climbed. Togo beat his wings furiously, trying to break free of the entanglement. The dead weight of the beast was pulling us down with it.
I hacked at the tendrils holding us like mountain vines until, suddenly, we careened up into the air once more. The creature rolled down the stone incline faster and faster until it landed on top of our fire. Its weight killed the flames immediately.
“These lands are foul,” I hissed to Togo. His wings, luckily uninjured, kept us above the ground easily as we both stared down at the beast we’d vanquished.
“Let us hope,” I said, sighing and cracking my neck, “that our welcome at the Cliffs of Uruzai will not be quite so abominably rude.”
In all honesty, it did not matter how I would be greeted at those cliffs. Even if I was met with a shower of arrows, I would fight my way through. I’d watched my own little brother scale the cliffs of our homeland for his mate, despite a deep wound that should have laid him low, and he hadn’t even had the Vrika’s mate bond, yet.
Anything Lerokan could do, I could do better. With twice the power. Especially with the ardent, obsessive pulse of the mate bond inside me.
I knew without the barest brush of doubt that I could take twenty arrows in my guts to get to her. And that, even on the brink of death, I’d still be shooting my own right back, still fighting to find her.
Speaking of which...
With a click of my tongues, I directed Togo downward to the corpse. We landed beside it and I dismounted. I removed two arrows that had not been broken from the thing’s head, frowning with disgust at the blood coating their shafts. I wiped them with a spare bit of hide from among my things before returning them to my quiver. I wiped at my hands, too, but did not feel sufficiently clean as I tossed the rag down.
Curse these bone-dry mountains.
Unlike the lush Deep Sky peaks, there was little water to be had out here. No sudsy moss for cleaning myself, either. I’d been using other plants – long skinny ones that did not grow in my mountains – for that. But it did not compare to the cold and hot springs of my homeland.
“I cannot wait to get out of here,” I growled, rubbing my hands viciously up and down my thighs, trying to eliminate the feeling of stickiness. Togo fixed me with his six eyes and then brayed in agreement.
I patted the feathery fluff of his neck, smiling at my loyal mount.
“Soon. Soon, I will have her. And I will bring her back to our mountains and treat her to the sort of life a Gahnala of the Deep Sky deserves. One with actual water.”
Skies above, that thought was a luscious one. Now that the beating of blood from the battle was easing, it moved downwards, settling heavily between my thighs. I’d only seen a glimpse of her face in the Vrika’s egg, but my mind ran rampant, imagining more of her. The way her brown hair would look drenched in heated water, steam billowing around her. Her smooth white skin laid bare on the brolka hides of my cave. Her thighs spread...
My cock thickened, and my stomach clenched. There were too many mysteries in that image. Too many parts of her I had no context for. I’d been with several Deep Sky women in the early days of my adulthood, but I could not use my experience of their anatomy to picture her. I’d only seen the face and the general shape of Lerokan’s mate under her odd clothing, so that did not help, either.
My tongues lashed my fangs, my throat tightening as I tried to put the puzzle of her together in my mind. What did the silken petals of her cunt look like? How tight would she be around me as I claimed her?
What would she look like, sound like, with my cock buried deep inside her?
The cock in question jerked. I raked my claws through my hair. It’s been far too long since I’ve had a woman. Yes, I had been with others, but I had ended all casual dalliances when I’d taken the title of Gahn. As Gahn, I wanted no other woman but the one who would serve at my side as my true, fated mate.
I’d been Gahn for nearly twelve ages, now. More than a thousand days of cold hides and an even colder cock. I’d ground my fangs, fisted my own shaft, and waited and hoped and begged for the Vrika to come to me. I’d begged, even though such a thing was not befitting a mighty Gahn. I’d begged for my mate, my Gahnala. Begged for the sort of love my parents had had before me. The kind of love that carved a man’s life with the glorious blade of purpose.
I’d begged for peace. Even begged for agony.
The agony of love was better than the agony of loneliness.
But no more.
There would be no more waiting. No more shameful begging. No more wondering if I’d gone half-mad with longing for something that seemed ever out of reach.
She was within my reach, now.
At least, she would be very soon.
I leaped up onto Togo once more.
My mate was waiting for me beyond this hideous rock. Somewhere out there in all that shifting sand, she now ached the way I had ached for so long.
I will not let her ache. I will not let her feel even one claw’s tip of the pain I have endured without her.
I commanded Togo into the fastest flight of his life.
For I had no more time to lose.
CHAPTER THREE
Stephanie
I stared at the swirling meteorological data on the ship’s scanners, my shoulders relaxed and a smile on my face. A smile because of the news Chapman had given us a few nights ago: Priya was fine. So was Oxriel, who’d stayed behind in the mountains. Apparently, she’d found her mate out there. I was a bit surprised by that – Priya, like me, had been on the quieter side, absorbed more with her work than social stuff. She definitely hadn’t seemed like she’d cared about the whole mates thing. But I supposed that didn’t matter much if you found the right person.
A frown took over my smile as I mulled over how I would respond to having a mate. The concept was so foreign to me. I mean, that makes sense. It’s an alien planet after all... But even so, the idea that some mystical dragon creature could just make a man fall in love? It was weird to me.
If an outside force like the Lavrika makes it happen, how do you even know it’s real?
Not like I was the one with answers to questions like that. I couldn’t even say for sure if I’d ever been in love in my 23 years. I’d dated a few guys back on Earth, but they’d always gotten fed up with how much time I spent at the ranch. I may have been a bit of a horse girl cliché, but I’d always cared more about the horses than I did about guys.
Well, human guys, at least.
Would things be different if some alien giant came up to me here and told me I was the one for him?
I sighed. Somehow, I doubted it. The idea didn’t give me any spark of excitement. It just exhausted me.
I’m exhausted and it hasn’t even happened yet!
Yet... But it had to eventually, right? The math told us there were only so many women left for the many, many single dudes on this planet.
I was saved from my circling thoughts by the squeak of boots on the metal floor behind me. I spun my chair around to see Chapman striding into the room.
“Do you have a few minutes to chat?” she asked. Like usual, her ginger hair was pulled neatly back into a classic military bun. Her smattering of freckles gave a cute, carefree edge to a face that was otherwise firm and serious.
“For sure. Everything OK?” I replied.
I gestured to a spare office chair which she grabbed and dragged closer. She spun it so the back of the chair faced me, then straddled the seat, resting her forearms and elbows on the back of the chair.
“For the moment, yes. I came to talk to you about the new settlement we’ll be starting out in the Deep Sky mountains.”
Ah. Right. They’d mentioned that at the fire when they’d come back. But I hadn’t caught all the details. After the news of Priya and her mate, our little human group had erupted into titters and gasps that had drowned out the following announcements.
“We’ll be using Valeria’s ship as a sort of home base tech hub out there. We’re going to park it in neutral territory near their Lavrika’s – the Vrika’s – mountain.”
“Vrika?”
That explained how Priya had ended up with a mountain mate, then, considering no one from way out there had come to visit our Lavrika’s caves. Just how many magic love juice gods exist on this planet?
For the briefest flicker, before Chapman’s next words dragged me back to the present, I wondered not only about this planet, but beyond it. What else was out there? I knew more human missions like ours had been flung out among the stars. What bizarre worlds had they found?
“Yes. The Vrika. It also healed Varrow when their group was first attacked, so thankfully it seems to be at least somewhat on our side. Anyway, I came here to ask if you’d be willing to join the mission as one of the humans stationed at this new settlement.”
My eyebrows rose. I hadn’t expected that.
“Shouldn’t that be, like, you? Or Valeria or something? Someone with some military or leadership experience?”
Chapman nodded.
“Oh, yes. Valeria and Grim will be heading up the operation. Taylor and Tok have also agreed to go. I plan to ask Fiona and some others, too. Along with at least one warrior from each Sea Sands tribe. I want you there to help measure and predict the storms out there. They are absolutely brutal, and the more data we collect, the better we can protect ourselves and plan.”
I leaned back in my chair, rubbing my chin thoughtfully. I didn’t love the idea of gallivanting off into unknown territory. But I did relish the idea of a more challenging workload. Being able to use my skills somewhere the weather actually did stuff on a regular basis instead of just blasting us with hot dry sun day in, day out. And it sounded like Fiona, one of my closest friends, would hopefully be along for the ride, too.
I sat up straighter, about to tell Chapman I’d do it.
But for some reason, she lifted an arm from the back of the chair and held up a hand.
“Hold on. I haven’t told you everything. I want you to be fully informed.”
My stomach dropped. Uh oh. What insanity is she going to tell me about now? Are there pits of acid that look like water out there? Even bigger zeelk? More quicksand like in the Death Plains?
“What is it?” I asked, keeping my voice steady even as dread drenched my spine with icy water.
“It’s the Gahn. One of them, at least. Priya’s mate Lerokan’s older brother. Gahn Errok.”
“Oh,” I said, relaxing somewhat. Don’t get me wrong, I knew from observing Chapman’s own mate Gahn Fallo that a Gahn could be like an armed explosive. One wrong move and he’d blow up. But after being around the territorial Gahns at this settlement for so long, and seeing how they’d bent to our human whims, I didn’t understand the note of foreboding in her voice.
“So, what is it?” I probed. Chapman had stopped speaking, her grey eyes narrowed as they scanned my face.
She sighed, then took in a large breath. “It’s very possible that you’re his mate.”
The air got thin. And the air on this planet was already fucking thin.
“What?” I asked, mind whirling. “How... How do you know?”
“I don’t. Not for sure,” Chapman said. “He got his mate vision from the Vrika. He described a white woman with brown hair and brown eyes. That could be a few different people. Fiona, for example, but he didn’t mention the tattoos. Anyway, you are one of the women who fit the description. So, I wanted to warn you, give you the full picture, before you agreed to come back to the settlement so close to his tribe’s territory.”
“He didn’t say anything else about what she looked like?” I pressed, heart hammering. “Like, no other defining characteristics?”
Chapman chuckled wearily. “Nope. He was too busy saying that his mate was above all others and we should know who she was by that fact alone. Then he demanded I drag all the brown-haired, brown-eyed humans before him so he could pick his mate out of the line-up.”
My nose wrinkled. Jesus. Sounds like a real prize.
Chapman caught my expression and continued. “You know the rules. No woman has to be with a man she doesn’t want to be with, even if he’s supposed to be her mate. Those same rules would apply at the new settlement, too. And...”
She paused again, and yet more dread tugged at my belly.
“What now?” I asked, voice low.
“It’s just that, you’ll probably find out if it’s you or not before we even leave for the mountains, anyway.”
I cocked my head in confusion. “How?”
Chapman’s eyes bored into mine. Her words punched into me even harder than her gaze.
“Because he’s on his way here right now.”
CHAPTER FOUR
Errok
Night drenched the sands the way the mate bond drenched me. Made me dark and heated. A deeper, truer version of myself than I had ever known. Harder and stronger and pulled to a taut and vicious point.
The Cliffs of Uruzai were visible ahead, just as Priya’s maps had indicated. A vast, sprawling shape of reddish stone, painted by the darkness until the stone looked like dried blood. I didn’t need to speak to Togo to command him to go faster. He felt it in the straining forward of my body. The never-shifting angle of my head.
As we got closer, I located the settlement area with ease. It was easily recognizable by the tents that littered the sand. The tents bloomed outward from a sheltered dip in the cliff wall, and became more concentrated within the cliff area.
This is how she has been living? I thought darkly. In a puny little tent? No cave walls to protect her?
That would not stand.
We got closer and closer, the air whipping my hair back from my face and making my skin thrum with tingling tension. Soon, more than tents were visible. Men, guarding the settlement. Men like the ones I’d seen in Gahn Thaleo’s mountains. Sea Sand and Bitter Sea men.
I almost wanted to dare one of them to try to stop me, to attack me, as I landed among the outer tents and dismounted to face the row of seven guards.
None did.
Instead, one of the Sea Sand men turned away, jogging into the more sheltered area of the settlement.
The other guards – four Sea Sand men and two Bitter Sea monsters – regarded me. Still but wary.
They do not even raise their tails.
I could not wait to get my mate out of these barbarian lands. Away from men who did not even have the smallest inkling of the grace and courtesy owed to a mighty Gahn.
But perhaps they did have an inkling. Because when five men approached from the settlement, the Sea Sand guards turned and raised their tails for them. Anger flared beneath my skin. Anger at being treated as less than these other Gahns. I recognized two of the men who came to a stop before me. Gahn Fallo and Gahn Taliok. The other three I had not yet met.
“You and your men do not raise your tails for your new ally and fellow Gahn?” I said smoothly, masking my irritation. I lifted my chin and regarded the men before me critically. It annoyed me to see how many features they shared with my people. With me. Apart from our colouring and slight individual differences in size and proportion, we all shared characteristics. The same shape, the same sight stars. It bothered me that I was closer to these men in appearance than I was to my own mate.
“And yet you have not raised yours,” growled the man who stood at the very centre of the five Gahns. He was nearly as tall as me, second in height only to Gahn Fallo. One long, dark braid hung behind his shoulders and a black axe glinted at his hip.
“I will raise my tail to no one here. No one but my own mate.” My voice lowered, turned dangerous. “Where is she?”
Tension and growls rippled through the Gahns at my response. I narrowed my eyes, preparing to snatch my bow from my chest and fire an arrow through each and every one of them if needed. If they try to keep me from her...
