Claimed: The Warriors of Nur (11 page)

“What in all hell is that smell?”  Three pairs of eyes, all unfriendly, turned towards the door.

“I mean…” clearing his throat “…it smells…delicious.”  His wrinkled nose, made obvious the lie.

“Dr. Von,” she offered her hand, “I’m Captain Avi’Nyla Zesiro”

“Nice to meet you, captain, and thank you.”

“Food’s done!”

Everyone gathered around the large circular table in the center of the commons.  It was large enough to fit a tight ten, but with the smaller group, there was plenty of elbow room.

“Looks great, De’Lhila!”  Aramis proclaimed enthusiastically.

“Yeah D, this looks ah…”  TK looked down at the …food?  He knew that it’d started out as food anyway, what it ended up as was anybody’s guess.

“Just eat it.”  De’Lhila growled, and the glare that accompanied it dared any refusal.

“So doctor, what happened to your ship?”

Asa coughed, choking down a swallow of juice.

“You okay?”  Aramis pounded her back.

“Fine” she coughed “Excuse me?”

“We found your pod, Dr. Von, but the
Biological Warfare
was deemed ‘un-retrievable’.  What happened?”

Avi stared across at the one woman who could possibly shed some light on what happened to her sister.  Intimidation wasn’t her thing, but she’d use that and much more if it meant finding Leo.

“I don’t believe that’s something I’m at liberty to discuss with you, Captain Zesiro.”  Her stomach felt queasy just looking at the pile of burned…noodles maybe?... on her plate.  There was no way she was eating that.

“You’re not at liberty to discuss it?”  Avi slowly lowered her glass.

“No, Captain…I’m not.”  Asa sipped lightly at the juice.  Real apples, she thought, surprised when she caught sight of the large bowl on the side counter. And oranges too.

“Doctor,” TK firmly gripped the hand beside his as it contemplatively fingered the sharp eating knife next to his plate, “Captain Zesiro’s sister’s ship was found abandoned in this quadrant shortly before you were forced to abandon your vessel.”  Hand on her shoulder, he stopped Avi from leaping across the table.  “We know she launched a pod, but we have been unable to locate her tracking signal.  If we had an idea of what may have happened, we might be able to more accurately determine where to begin searching.”

Asa looked sympathetically at the clenched shoulders of the woman across from her.  Avi’Nyla Zesiro didn’t strike her as a woman easily affected by…anything, but in this, her pain was evident.  She thought of the six men lost on the research vessel, the pain welled up, too fresh for her to ignore.

“We were attacked.  That’s what happened.”  Pushing away from the table, she rose to leave.  “I’m sorry, Captain Zesiro…your sister’s probably dead.”

CHAPTER  NINE

Leo’Nya let the deliciously warm water massage away the last of the bruising evidence of her kidnapping.  Rest and time, had slowly erased the physical, but the emotional trauma would remain much longer.  It’d been two days since the mind blowing encounter with Rasipni, but it could have been hours, judging by the rawness of emotion tearing through her.

‘
Who is Tarzan
?’  That’s all it’d taken to open the floodgates.  She was emotional by nature, but had never really been a crier, at least not until she’d come to Nur.  Talk about a sexual buzz kill.  She’d gone from a sexually fulfilled cloud of orgasmic euphoria , to a wet, sobbing puddle of raw
un
sexiness, and all due to the guilt that sat so heavily in her heart.  Realistically, she knew that she wasn’t responsible for his death, but she just couldn’t get past the fact that he’d died trying to protect her.  And here she was being ground off, to one of the most incredible orgasms, by the son of the guy who killed him.  In her own defense, she
had
been thinking about him, and apparently, calling out his name, but it still just felt…wrong. 

After sobbing out the story in a hysterical rant, she’d felt much better.  Rasipni had held her, gently stroking her back until she’d hiccupped off into an exhauster stupor, but she’d seen very little of him since then.  He’d continued to bring her food, and was as solicitous as always, but he spent less time talking to her, and their encounters were more strained.  Not that she could blame him. How much of an ego stomping could one male take?. 

At least she was no longer chained.  It was the fifth and final day of mourning, and she’d woken to find him removing the chains not only from her wrists, but from the room.  She’d been given permission to use the bathing chamber, but was told not to leave the dwelling.  There was no concern that any other males would enter, so she had the run since everyone else would be at the Reversion Ceremony.  Aside from Rasipni and his mother, Vinda, the only other person living there was Muda, Rasipni’s older brother.  She’d only seen him once, and that was more than enough ‘getting to know you’ for her.  She’d awakened yesterday with the strangest feeling of being watched.  It wasn’t the first time, but when she’d expected to see Rasipni watching her, it’d been Muda.  It was thoroughly creepy
.
 
He’d just stood there staring at her from the doorway, the thick lust in his eyes and body attesting to the fact that he’d been there for a while.  She’d never felt so vulnerable in her life.  Chained to the floor, she was completely unable to protect herself, and for the first time in days, she recalled just how much she was at the mercy of others, particularly that male’s.

Shivering at the thought of having t
o
hhhh

endure his
stares
, let alone his fucking, Leo stepped from the now cooling water, to towel off with one of the soft cloths on one of the side ledges.  There was no way she was letting that skeevy older brother have a go at her.  He’d either have to beat her unconscious and rape her or fight her and rape her, but there was no way in hell she was playing meek and mild alien captive to his lecherous old man vibe. 

She slipped on another
libsa
, this one a creamy gold color, and untwisted the braided coil of her hair, allowing it to fall heavily down her back.  She’d learned that no shoes, or foot coverings of any kind, were worn while indoors, and she lamented the loss of the soft kid-leather of her flight boots as she tiptoed her way through the cold stone corridors back to her room.  Eventually, her feet would get used to the chill and toughen up, but what she wouldn’t give for a pair of slippers.  Diving onto the pile of furs she’d been given as a bed, Leo buried her feet, rubbing them together until they were nice and toasty, before digging into the large metal dish of food left by her bed.  It was heaped high with the delicious tangeli fruit that had fast become her favorite.  Noticing, that she left most of the meats untouched, Rasipni had started to bring her more fruit and this weird brown-blue kind of paste.  It was reminiscent of hummus, but tasted more like a soft cheese.  Whatever it was, it was good with the bread, so she ate it.  It was a good thing she didn’t have hang-ups about the color of her food, or she’d have starved at this point.  They didn’t seem to eat anything that wasn’t some varying shade of blue, green, or yellow.

“Come.”  Deep malice seasoned the command

Looking up, Leo was surprised to see Vinda standing in the doorway.  It’d been days since she’d last seen her.  In fact, their last encounter had ended with her boasting about how her sons were going to rape and torture her for the rest of her life.  Needless to say, her company had not been missed.

“I said, come!”  Grabbing her arm, Vinda jerked her from the cocooning warmth of the blanketed furs.

“Come where?”  She demanded, her frustration with her continued mistreatment evident in her tone.  “I am so tired of being dragged around by you people.”

“You will come humble yourself before my
Mati
.”  With a vicious twist, she yanked Leo through the doorway, and out into the corridor.  “My sons are weak…but I will not allow you to go unpunished for what you have caused.”

“What I have caus-” Leo stopped, her forward momentum halted by her grip on the door frame.  “Look V, I think I’ve been very understanding of your grief and all that, but your
Mati
…wouldn’t be dead if he’d kept his damned hands to himself!”

“You dare speak such things,
Aljeni
!” she screeched. “You’ve become spoiled with my son’s treatment…but that will change once they understand what you really are.”

“And what would that be?  Please…” she begged sarcastically, “tell me, you crazed bitch. …Explain what—”-“

Obviously ‘bitch’ was a universal insult; either that or she was just tired of talking.  She had barely enough time to brace herself before Vinda leapt at her with curling claws bared.  Leo was knocked back into the wall when the full 180 pounds of incensed widow came barreling into her.  It was like being mauled by a bear.  A ranting, pinching, hair pulling…bear.  What the hell was it with females and hair pulling?  She could count on one hand the number of physical fights she’d gotten into, aside from IAESC training, since her fourteenth birthday, but in all of them, her opponent always went for her hair!  It was one of the reasons her sister constantly got on her to cut it.  She never did, but she had taken to wearing it coiled on top of her head just to avoid it being used against her in a fight…kinda like it was being used right now.  The grip on her hair was keeping her stationary while blows were hammered down into her face. 

Oh well, if you can’t beat’em…

Reaching up, Leo grabbed a handful of thick black hair and yanked for all she was worth. 

“Oh, does that hurt?” she yelled into the contorted face above her.  A screeching hiss was her only answer. 

The next twenty minutes consisted of punching, pinching, biting and hair pulling.  Leo managed to land a good punishing kick to the crazy bitch’s crotch.  No matter what sex you were, that shit hurt.  But in the end, she lost.  There was just no compensating for the fifty- plus pounds that Vinda had on her.  Considering that and her only recently recovered mojo, it was anything but a fair fight.  But she took satisfaction in every wincing step Vinda took as she towed Leo, kicking and fighting, towards the entrance. 

During their tussle, she’d managed to rip the front of her dress, leaving her bare except for the material that sagged pitifully around her waist.  Realizing that she was about to be exposed to only God and all his Angels knew how many, hard-up-for-anything-female males, she took two quick steps, and letting her ‘flying boa’ flow, latched on and squeezed with everything in her, sending Vinda tumbling into the sun with arms flailing, helpless as she twisted and turned, trying to free herself.  Leo held on, tightening her arms and legs like she was riding a mechanical bull.

“Fall down, you satanic heifer!” she yelled, not noticing the attention she drew.  Her knees hit the ground as Vinda collapsed beneath her, and falling to her side, she continued to squeeze until there was no movement at all. 

Gingerly, she unwrapped herself.  While it would have definitely made her life a whole lot easier, she didn’t want to kill the woman.  Who knew what the reaction would be?

A loud roar alerted her to the fact that she had an audience, and she blinked up into a pair of enraged black eyes.

“She’s alive!” she yelled as she was forcefully jerked onto her feet.  She struggled, trying to jerk her arm free.

“How dare you attack,
Aljeni
!”  Her teeth rattled with each worded shake of her arm.  “If you were male-”

“She attacked me first,” she interrupted. “What!?  Do you think I beat the pretty out of my damned self?!”

“SILENCE!”  Muda roared.  “My mother was right.  You WILL learn your place,
Aljeni
!”

“Like hell that’s gonna happen.”

She struggled to get free, cringing as his arm rose to strike her. 
God, this is gonna hurt.  Why do I always have to have the last word?
  She tensed, closing her eyes. She knew the blow was coming.  She didn’t need to see the impact.  She could already imagine the exploding pain, and she wondered if she would be visiting unconsciousville again. 

It never landed.  Her eyes popped open to see Rasipni, his hand gripping Muda’s raised fist.

“What do you, brother?”  Rasipni growled

“Disciplining my female, brother.”  He spat the title like a curse.  “You dare to challenge me!”

“I do not challenge you, brother…” his echoed disgust obvious, “but you draw a crowd.  She has not agreed to
Mati
, and others might take issue with your…discipline.”

“I can discipline her to submission; it is my right.”

“She has submitted,” Rasipni ground out.  He fought his body’s urge to phase, in protection of his chosen female.  “She no longer struggles.  Right or not, if you strike her, others will challenge you.  Look, she isn’t covered.”

Leo slanted her free arm across her breast in an effort to cover herself, her discomfort increasing with the expanding crowd of males, all eyes focused on her.

“He’s right…Rasipni’s right!”  Leo yelled. 

She lowered her head, eyes to the ground.  It worked on
Animal Planet
, so why not!  “I submit.  Just let me go back inside.”  The crowd was getting larger by the second, and the last thing she wanted was to be the bone in this impending dogfight.

Erol growled impatiently.  It’d been two moon coverings since they’d returned home to find most of their male e
stiż
, gone.  Now they wasted even more time. 

Every moment spent was one less used to search for his female.  Each hour his frustration and rage grew, until it was a fight not to phase into his more predatory form. 

His brothers had left him to seek their kin at a ritual gathering.  He’d agreed to remain on the outskirts of the group; the last thing he needed was to phase in the midst of a Reversion Ceremony; not only would it be great disrespect, but it showed a lack of control he hadn’t experienced since his first blush of maturity. 

He’d intended to wait until after the gathering, but he found his impatience better served by searching out his kin of his own volition.