Timtur, page 2
Vattan reached out and snagged one of the long red strands of her hair with his talons, pulling her carefully controlled hair style into messy disarray. “So pretty. Like fire in the sunshine.”
Footsteps sounded outside, and she hoped for a rescue, although the encounter was bound to be embarrassing for her. She was terrified if no one interrupted him, Vattan was going to overpower her and assault her right here in the office.
A young cub burst into the room, clutching an armful of handhelds. “I’m sorry I’m late, Miss Lily.”
It was Yonn, from the canid DNA pack, chosen earlier, before classes, for the honor of being her teacher’s aide today. Delivering the devices was his final duty of the day. He skidded to a halt, eyes narrowed. “What’s going on? Do you need help?”
Moving away from her slightly, Vattan wheeled, his fangs and talons appearing, and he snarled at the boy, advancing on him. “This is none of your business, cub. Get out and keep your mouth shut.”
Yonn stood his ground, dropping the handhelds and deploying his own childish claws and small fangs. “Miss Lily smells scared, like prey. Are you scaring her?”
Terrified for the cub, she seized her opportunity to move away from the desk where Vattan had kept her cornered. She tried to circle around the soldier, but he had the lightning reflexes of his kind, and he grabbed her wrist with one hand. Yonn lunged but Vattan slapped the boy off his feet with his free hand. Lily screamed and tugged futilely at his grip on her.
Yonn crashed into the desks, arm bleeding from where Vattan’s talons had struck a glancing blow. As if dizzy, he wavered to his feet, growling.
“Please, let the boy go,” Lily said, afraid of what Vattan might do next in his aggressive state. “You and I can talk about tonight once he’s gone.” Over her shoulder she said to Yonn, “Thank you for your help, now go and have the cut on your arm treated.” And get help. Not for the first time Lily wished she had the ability to speak to the Badari mind to mind as they spoke to each other. Surely the cub would summon assistance for her? But first he needed to get out of here.
Unfortunately, Yonn wasn’t ready to abandon his self-appointed role as her protector. He placed himself between the door and the adults, in an imitation of the defensive stance a warrior would assume in combat. “I’m not leaving you alone with him.” His words were spoken in a child’s treble, but the clear menace to Vattan was that of an adult twice his age.
Lily remembered again the Badari had been created by the alien scientists to be fearsome warriors and trained mercilessly for battle from a young age. Surely Vattan wouldn’t harm a cub. Would he?
Pounding footsteps outside the door caught her attention and Ronan, the other potential future Alpha born into Generation Nine burst through the door. Taking in the situation at a glance, he deployed his claws and fangs. “Thank you for calling me,” he said to the child. “Are you all right?” He stared over Yonn’s head at Lily.
“Yes, I’m fine. A little misunderstanding. Please, can we all calm down?” She didn’t want there to be any more violence or unpleasantness. “I’m sure Vattan didn’t mean any harm—”
“He drew blood from a member of my pack, a cub,” Ronan glanced at the child’s still bleeding arm. “The insult must be answered.”
“He was treating Miss Lily like prey,” Yonn said, not backing down. “I didn’t like that. Humans aren’t prey and especially not the teacher. Badari are supposed to protect weaker beings.”
Lily was desperate to keep the situation from escalating further. Conflict, much less violence terrified her—she just wanted the incident to be over, with everyone gone about their business. “I’m sure Vattan and I can sort this out if you want to take Yonn to see the healer.” Common knowledge in sanctuary valley was how Ronan and Vattan barely tolerated each other so she regarded it as essential to keep them separate.
“Did you want to be alone with Vattan?” Ronan’s voice held disbelief, and he raised his eyebrows. “Aren’t you and the healer supposed to be a couple?”
Blushing, Lily tried again to free herself from Vattan’s grasp. “I’m not in a relationship with anyone.” Embarrassment vied with anger in her mind at being the center of such a personal discussion.
“None of this is your business,” Vattan said to Ronan. “Take the cub and get out.”
Ronan shook his head. “Yonn’s right. She is afraid of you. I’m not leaving her alone with you.”
Vattan shoved Lily away and released her so suddenly she staggered a step, tripped over a handheld on the floor and fell; banging her arm on the desk with so much force she felt an ominous, intense pain in her arm as it struck the edge. She was afraid she’d pass out from the agony running up her arm into her shoulder. Standing at his full height, the brash young Alpha roared a challenge and advanced on Ronan, displaying the deadly claws and fangs their alien scientist creators had given him. “I’m done with your interference. You want to challenge my dominance? Maybe you want this human woman for yourself? All right, now is the time to settle this once and for all.”
“Bring it.” Ronan made a beckoning gesture. “Show me you’re something more than hot air and words.”
The two men circled each other in the relatively small space, making feints and sizing each other up.
Yonn bolted out the door. Lily wondered if he’d been telepathically ordered to leave by Ronan. Holding onto the desk with her good hand for support, she got to her feet. “Not here,” she said. Realizing her voice was weak, she cleared her throat and tried again. “Don’t fight in here, please. Go outside.”
Ronan flicked a glance at her as if he was going to answer, but Vattan took advantage of the momentary distraction to pounce on his adversary and the battle was on.
Lily screamed, appalled by the violence of the attack. Already both men were bleeding and wounded as they grappled with each other. She was trapped, helpless. There were no weapons in the teaching office, even if she’d known how to shoot. The Badari were huge, built on a scale much larger than even the biggest, most fit human males, and as the two of them slashed and flailed, they crashed into the furniture and the shelves.
Lily had to take refuge under the desk. She wanted to curl into a ball and close her eyes, but she was safer to watch the fight and be poised to take a chance to escape and go for help. She realized with horror this was no hot tempered brawl. They’re trying to kill each other. Vattan got his fangs deep into Ronan’s shoulder and hung on, while the other slashed his side open and kicked his legs out from under him.
Tangled together, the two men fell through the open doorway, rolled off the porch and fell onto the lawn.
Lily forced herself to crawl out from under the desk and rise, running to the door, avoiding a patch of blood. As she burst through the portal, she was caught in a pair of strong arms and screamed.
“Easy, take it easy. Are you all right?”
It was Timtur who held her tight, asking anxious questions.
Trying not to cry, relieved he was here, she clung to him. “Make them stop.”
“This has been brewing for a long time, unfortunately,” said Aydarr, the Alpha who ruled the valley, from his position on the other side of Timtur. “We must allow the dominance challenge to be completed.”
She realized the area was surrounded by Badari now, from both the felinoid and canid packs. The soldiers were ringing the patch of grass where Ronan and Vattan still battled, watching the carnage closely. There were no humans present other than herself, not even Jill, her sister who was the Alpha’s mate. Her head swam and she was nauseous from the continuing pain in her arm. “You can’t let them kill each other.”
“You saw what happened?” Aydarr asked without taking his attention from the fight.
“Yes.” Lily nodded, biting her lip, still unable to believe how fast the encounter had descended into this horrific fight.
“You’ll have to give evidence later.” He was calm in the midst of the crisis.
“Of course.” Her heart sank. Why had she assumed this episode would be over once the fight ended?
“This isn’t the proper time or place, nor the way the issue should have been settled,” said Jamokan, the ruling Alpha of Ronan and Yonn’s canid DNA pack. She was relieved to see Yonn standing within the protective circle of the man’s arm. The child’s wound now bore a crude bandage, ripped from someone’s shirt. “Young hotheads.”
Trying to be fair, she said, “It was Vattan—”
Aydarr held up one hand, black talons like knives gleaming in the late afternoon sun. “Save your testimony for the council.”
“Thank the Great Mother the cub called for help,” Timtur said. “I think every Badari in the valley heard him.”
With a tremendous roar, Ronan flipped Vattan, getting him on the grass on his back, and in a flash he straddled him, placing his fangs on the other’s throat. “Yield or die,” he said, the words barely understandable.
Vattan made a futile effort to dislodge his opponent then lay still.
Lily held her breath.
Aydarr and Jamokan, who was his subordinate, walked into the blood spattered grassy area and stood together beside the prone fighters. Eyes radiating golden light fueled by emotion, Aydarr squatted next to Vattan and leaned over, careful not to interfere with Ronan’s physical control of the situation. “Do you yield?”
“I yield.” The words were grudging, snarled.
Ronan moved as if to release Vattan, and Aydarr stopped him. Still addressing Vattan, the Alpha said, “You acknowledge Ronan’s dominance, in front of our combined packs?”
“Yes. Now let me up.” Vattan made another convulsive attempt to throw Ronan off.
Aydarr laid a hand on Vattan’s shoulder and spoke directly to Ronan. “The matter is decided. You are the victor.”
“Today.” Vattan’s voice was derisive.
Placing one huge talon on Vattan’s throat, ready to tear out his artery, Aydarr said, “The matter is decided, soldier.”
“As you say.” Vattan closed his eyes.
With Jamokan’s assistance, Ronan rose.
“There will be a council of the pack elders at moonrise,” Aydarr said. “To determine any other open matters surrounding this unsanctioned dominance challenge. But the outcome of the fair combat will stand.”
The surrounding Badari soldiers gave their own battle cries in approval.
Lily thought she was going to faint. Timtur guided her to a seat on a nearby rock outcropping when she resisted returning inside the office. He ran his hands over her arm. “Go take care of the cub, and the boys,” she said, acutely conscious of the fact healing humans wasn’t his job. Someone in authority might reprimand him—or her—for distracting him from his own people. “I’m fine.”
“I think your arm’s broken.” He glanced at the grassy space where the combatants and the cub lingered, accompanied by their respective Alphas and the pack enforcers. “You need to see your sister, the doctor. I wish I could take you myself—”
“No, it’s all right. I understand, your duty to the pack comes first. You don’t treat humans.” She waved him away although she wanted nothing more than to curl into his embrace, weep from the stress of the last hour, and receive comfort from the man she dreamt about. Standing this close to him and being unable to ask for his support made her chest tight with stress. The fact he didn’t seem to realize how needy she was right now, or chose to ignore her state burned.
Reluctantly he went, with a backward glance, and knelt in the grass beside the cub, unwrapping the clumsy bandage and examining the slashes.
Lily bit her lip, feeling the pain in her arm and side, and unsure she could walk to the clinic. But she was reluctant to ask anyone for help. Right now she felt very much like an outsider. Do the Badari blame me for the fight?
“Lily!” It was her older sister, Jill, who burst into the clearing where the teacher’s office was located. Megan, Lily’s twin, was right behind, carrying her medical bag. Her sisters came straight to her, hugging her and helping her to her feet.
“Mateer called me,” Megan the doctor said, referencing her mate, with whom she had a telepathic bond. “He said you’re injured, and now I’m here I can see the seriousness for myself. Hold still.”
“What the seven hells happened?” Jill asked, staring at the injured cadets a few feet away.
Now that she had her own support system present, in the form of her sisters, Lily closed her eyes and gave in to the tears. She couldn’t speak through the overwhelming emotions and even breathing was a challenge.
Jill motioned to her mate, the Alpha. “I need someone to carry my sister to the clinic. She’s too upset and shaken to walk. And then you and I need to talk.”
Aydarr walked over to them. “You should have been summoned,” he said to Jill. “But it all happened so rapidly, there was no time. I’m sorry your sister was caught in the situation.”
Hands on her hips, eyes narrowed, Jill was the picture of indignation. “What exactly was the situation? Why did those idiots choose the teacher’s office to have their damn dominance challenge?”
“We’ll have a council tonight, and the matter will be examined,” Aydarr said. “I can’t leave right now, nor can I spare Mateer, but I’ll have someone else help you with Lily.”
“I can walk,” she said, sniffling as she forced herself to rise, leaning on Megan. “I—I really prefer to be with humans right now, if you don’t mind.” The idea of any Badari, even her sister’s mate, touching her was upsetting. She could tolerate Timtur carrying her, but he was still involved in healing Ronan’s wounds, as evidenced by the pale green glow emanating from the healer’s hands and bathing the young alpha’s skin in a soft light. After a strenuous healing session on Ronan, Timtur would be weakened himself and unable to give her any special attention. No matter how much she might crave it.
Swallowing hard, she took a cautious step, fighting the dizziness.
“I’ve commed Rik, my nurse,” Megan said. “He’ll meet us on the way. Jill, take her other side and let’s get going. Her arm appears to be fractured. Her legs are fine. She’s a bit shocky.”
“Watching two of my soldiers fight for dominance isn’t a sight for human eyes,” Aydarr said, his voice low and sympathetic. “The entire incident is unfortunate.”
Unfortunate is putting it way too mildly. Lily smothered her first, annoyed reaction to the trauma she’d endured. Aydarr was trying to see things from a human point of view—she’d give him credit for the effort. And of course his mate was a tough soldier herself, unlike Lily, who shrank from even verbal disagreement, much less physical violence.
He sent a soldier with them, in case Lily needed help before Rik arrived on the scene. Lily was grateful the man assigned hung back behind the trio of women as they proceeded along the shady, tree-lined path. The light hearted birdcalls from the sky above and the bright sunshine seemed incongruous with the dark turn the day had taken. She wasn’t sure she ever again wanted to work in the snug teaching office she’d been so proud of. Not now.
She kept trying her best to cope, to find her path as a survivor, but life on this savage planet was terrifying. And the threat of the alien kidnappers who’d originally abducted them all was still ever present. Any minute the Khagrish could find this peaceful valley and carry them all off to be experimented on in their monstrous labs. Lily couldn’t place much trust in MARL, the 10,000 year old Artificial Intelligence who claimed to be able to protect the entire area completely from attack. So far he’d been right in his self-assessment but what if the Khagrish figured out an approach MARL hadn’t thought of?
But even without those worries, she felt adrift. Her sisters were mated to Badari warriors, had made a place for themselves here, and she was often left to her own devices. The other humans in the valley were friendly enough, and she had acquaintances among the women, but no one to really lean on.
Teaching the cubs and especially trying to help the younger ones capture something of a normal childhood was a satisfying challenge, occupying most of her waking hours, but not much comfort at a time like this. And her daydreams about Timtur the healer were equally empty. The pack came first for him, as he constantly made clear by his actions.
“Can you tell us what happened?” Megan asked as they made their way slowly along the path toward the clinic. Fortunately at this time of day there weren’t too many valley residents out and about, being in the large dining hall or in the dorms relaxing after the official work day ended.
“Am I allowed to say anything to anyone before this council tonight?” Lily asked Jill. “Aydarr shut me up when I tried to explain earlier.”
“We’re your sisters. You can tell us anything, any time. Our family bond comes before any loyalty to the pack,” Jill said in a carefully controlled tone. A muscle in her clenched jaw twitched. “Aydarr will understand. I think we shouldn’t discuss this around any other humans, however. Not everyone is comfortable with the Badari as it is.”
Count me as one of those people today. Lily shuddered and wished again Timtur had dropped by the office, as he often did late in the afternoon. Hoping for some time with him, she’d lingered and, of course, that meant she was there for Vattan to find. With a deep sigh, she launched into the story as she walked.
CHAPTER TWO
Timtur had a hard time concentrating on his healing. Taking care of the cub’s arm was easy—the boy was mostly healed on his own anyway, thanks to the immense Badari self-repair capabilities. Ronan had more severe injuries, although he’d won the fight. Vattan lay on the grass off to the side, guarded by Mateer and Reede, the other enforcer, and sulked. Of course, there should have been a healer from this other pack to take care of their own, but for some reason no one among the generation eight canid adults had the healing gifts. One of the cubs showed signs of the power, and Timtur was already mentoring him. But, somewhere along the way, the Khagrish had managed to kill whoever in the canid DNA pack had been destined to wield the Great Mother’s gift, leaving Timtur to cover both now.
