A Barbarian Bonding (The Instinct Book 2) Page 8

  Whereas Lisa’s psychic talents lay in an ability to get along with just about anyone, Skye’s talents were more militant. She could feel the energy in another and adapt to his or her movements, making her an amazingly skilled fighter. Like Lisa, she wore the barbarian style of female dress, yet she also had a pair of short leggings Mandy had seen her wear when training with the men.

  From what Mandy gathered, the village females didn’t engage in warrior pursuits. With the exception of Skye, most of the women did everything else but go to war.

  Mandy ignored the gifts Zehn and Lore continued to give her each day. She could see her avoidance amusing her friends. “You know, when you first went missing, Lisa, I was worried for you. Then when Skye came to find you, I thought everything would be okay. When she decided to stay with not one, but two barbarians, I thought for sure the Vyctore had some kind of mind control.”

  Skye flushed. “Well, they do get you hooked on the sex.”

  Lisa laughed. “Told you so. Sucker.”

  They both looked from Mandy’s presents to Mandy.

  “Yeah, yeah. They’re sexy and they know what they’re doing in bed.”

  “Or on a pallet of leaves, or against a tree, in a pool, over a rock…” Skye teased.

  Mandy blushed. “Stop. What I was saying, before I was so rudely teased, is that the barbarians have a good thing going here. Just the term barbarian makes you think of primitive fighters. But they barter and farm. The village is amazing, comfortable, and the people are so nice.”

  Skye frowned. “Not all nice. Some of the warriors can be real dickheads.”

  Lisa sighed. “And not all the women are peaches and cream. A few don’t like us here. But most of them accept us.”

  “Because if they don’t, Talzec and Xav will kill them.” Skye looked a little too happy about that fact. “Well, not really. I don’t think.” She frowned. “But the clan functions because we’re a unit. You don’t have to agree with everything, but you do have to put the needs of the clan ahead of petty problems.”

  “Makes sense.” Mandy liked that about the village. There didn’t seem to be much subterfuge. Brawls happened in the commons, and once the fight was done the argument was considered over. Talzec and Xav, the clan’s alpha and beta, respectively, listened to everyone. They weren’t above anyone else or treated like kings. They trained with the men, were courteous to the women, and had earned the right to lead. In the barbarian culture, strength was a respected and prized commodity.

  “So the women.” She had to know. “The men seem to treat the women with respect.”

  Skye nodded. “Yes. It’s against their laws to harm a female, since there are so few of us around here. Talzec is pretty open about his men mating each other, with other clans, offworlders too.” She stared at Mandy.

  “What?”

  Another glance at the pile of gifts. “Come on, Mandy. It’s obvious the guys are gaga over you. Lore and Zehn are tight, and you seem to fit them.”

  So why hadn’t the pair made any overtures to be with her again? Oh, they visited and eased her way into clan culture. When not with her, they made sure Skye or Lisa would help. But they hadn’t initiated sex with her again, and she missed it, darn it.

  “I like them a lot,” she confessed. “But like I told you before, it’s only a matter of time before those Francisco idiots come for me.” She’d explained to her friends the danger of having her in the village. But like Zehn and Lore, they didn’t seem to care. Neither did their alpha and beta. “If the Franciscos get me off the planet and take me back to Earth, I’m done for. I’ll never escape again, and my contract is legal there.”

  “Bullshit. You can’t own people.” Skye scowled. “I know, I know, you can, legally, in some places in the galaxies. But it still revolts me that our own people do it to ourselves. No way they’re getting to you here, though. Mandy, if you stay, you’ll always be protected.”

  “You can’t guarantee that. You have no idea the pull those people have. They can get to anyone, because everyone has a price.” Mandy sighed. “I’m only really safe when no one knows who I am.”

  “I still don’t understand.” Lisa frowned. “You have little power, right? I mean, you can start small fires. What’s the big deal with them wanting you?”

  She shrugged, hating to lie but not wanting her friends scared of her, or worse, thinking to use her to further their own agendas. “I’m not that strong, no. But I think it’s more that Red Francisco got obsessed with me. I’m not super beautiful either.” Though her barbarian lovers acted like they’d never seen a prettier woman. The thought warmed her. “But no one says no to Red. I’m a challenge he can’t let go.”

  “That makes sense,” Skye said. “But like I told you, you’re safe here.”

  “I can leave anytime I want, right?”

  Skye rolled her eyes. “Mandy, you ask that maybe ten times a day.”

  “No, more like five lately.” Lisa’s blue eyes sparkled. “I think she’s falling in love with her mates.”

  “They’re not my mates.” Mandy felt the blush heating her cheeks. “I mean, they have each other.”

  Skye and Lisa shook their heads.

  Skye tugged playfully at Mandy’s hair. “Say what you want, but I can see the ties binding you guys. Just like Lisa is connected to Maht, and I’m bound to Talzec and Xaveht, you, Zehn and Lore are a family. Your energies align.” Skye huffed. “Deny it all you want, but eventually you’ll settle here. Hey, I didn’t think I’d like it either. All I wanted was my dream job at the resort. But life is good in the village.” Skye sounded surprised to hear herself say that. “It’s real. And it’s honest. You should give it a shot.”

  “Yes, but you made the choice to stay. I’ve never had a choice to be where or what I wanted to be.” And that still bothered her. “I want a chance to make my own decisions, at least for a while. Then if I like it I can come back, right?”

  “Maybe. I don’t know.” Skye didn’t look certain. “So let’s talk about something else, something you do have control over. Like what you’re doing to do with your treasures.” Lisa laughed. “If you’re not going to keep the stuff, can I have that bone knife? It would go great with my daggers.”

  ***

  Lore sat with his bond-mate and did his best to pay attention to their alpha. Talzec instructed his inner circle, a dozen of his best warriors, of which Lore and Zehn were a part, in the Nasuhl clan’s latest patterns of movement. Lore heard little.

  It was all he could do to keep his distance from Mandy.

  He and Zehn had done their best to give her space. After Talzec had stopped punishing them with extra duty rotations for taking an offworlder from the resort—without permission—he’d examined Mandy’s energy, seeing it through Lore’s hold.

  Intrigued at Mandy’s bountiful power, he’d agreed that only the Maker could have accepted her, since she’d gotten with child so quickly. Though the warriors could scent Zehn and Lore’s markers upon their female, very few had the ability to sense the delicate life stirring in her womb so soon after conception. And those few had been sworn to silence.

  “You must woo her,” Xav, their beta, had told them. “It’s not so easy when your human wants to leave. Encourage your female to stay. But you cannot force this on her.”

  Lore knew that. But he also knew Mandy would be in danger without them. Too bad the stubborn female wouldn’t give in and demand their attention. Zehn had thought that refraining from more joining with the female would cause her to come to them. It would also show her they respected her right to choose.

  But so far, Mandy remained distant. Lore hated it. Hated being apart. Needed—

  “Yes, Lore?”

  All eyes turned his way.

  Zehn sighed, no doubt feeling the instinct tugging him to their mate as well. He’s asking if the Nasuhl seem ready for war, in your opinion. Tell them what you sensed from their fighters.

  Xav’s eyebrow rose, his smirk telling. “Well, Lore?�
�

  Lore quickly describe their fight again, for all those present to hear. “They are chaotic and scrambling to connect, yet there is power in their fighters. They still left their weak behind, so I do not think they have changed much under Morlo’s leadership. But they will not be so easy to beat. Not if what Kahl says is true.”

  Kahl’s lips firmed. “At last count, they a have doubled their numbers. Rogue warriors banding with them to raid our prosperous village, no doubt. And with the Cloud Games coming up, we have movement in the jungle we haven’t had in a while.”

  Arghet agreed. “It’s difficult to tell numbers with so many passing nearby. I can’t tell if they’re Nasuhl additions or individual tribesmen gathering for the celebration.”

  Talzec frowned. “We need more patrols.”

  “Already taken care of.” Xav nodded.

  “Good.” Talzec focused once more on Lore and Zehn. “Your female. How goes your progress on that end?”

  Lore groaned. “Slowly.”

  The others laughed, and Talzec grinned. Though the fiercest of them all, their leader had a huge capacity to care for his people. He’d avenged the death of his first female and finally allowed himself to mate Skye and Xav. He was a well-balanced male and dangerous warrior, what Lore strove to be.

  “Take heart, Lore. She follows you with her eyes. And she’s well tied to the village. I can feel her bonds with Ussed.” Talzec thumped his chest. “Now it’s up to you and Zehn to give in to your instinct and bring us new life.”

  Which would come in another ten months, should all go well with her pregnancy. Zehn sighed. “Could we be excused, Talzec? We had best be making plans to handle our mate.”

  Xav laughed. “Good luck. That’s what you’ll need dealing with a human female.”

  “Better you than me,” Arghet said. “I’m never mating. Females are too much trouble.”

  “So are males,” Xav muttered under his breath, but Talzec heard him.

  “Something you had to add, beta?”

  Arghet shook his head. “Exactly my point.”

  Kahl snorted. “We’re too smart for that.”

  As the others made fun of the mated in their group, Lore and Zehn stepped outside the meeting ground. “I think we need a new plan.”

  Zehn studied him for a moment. “Perhaps we have been too distant. We must share more with the female. Our secrets, Lore. Mandy still has not confided in Skye or Lisa about her power. And she’s yet to unfold it to us. She’s scared.”

  And with child. We need to tell her.

  I know. But not yet. First we must win her love, so that she trusts us. Then we shall inform her about the babe.

  Do we go to her together?

  Zehn shook his head. “No. You see her first. Do what you need to to convince her to open her heart to you.”

  “You’re better with words.” Nervous at the thought of screwing up, Lore almost wished Zehn would deal with her first. As much as he missed being a part of Mandy, he feared failing his bond-mate and Mandy by saying or doing the wrong thing.

  “But you’re tied to her in a way I cannot be.” Zehn drew him in for a kiss. “You are special, and you share that bond that I think worries our female. Set her mind at ease. Get her to trust us, as a mate should. Our tonan needs more from us. And soon.” He closed his eyes, his chest patterns darkening and moving, then calming. When he opened his eyes, the golden orbs flared with energy. “I need you both.”

  Lore rested his forehead against Zehn’s, feeling lost as he hadn’t been in a long time. “I don’t want to ruin us.”

  “You won’t.” Zehn pulled back to smile at him. “You make us what we are. Invincible together. Now bring us our tonan. I would join with you both this evening.”

  Their tonan—the mate “of their heart.” Said from a master to his submissive. Though Mandy hadn’t seemed submissive to Lore, and he and Zehn had shared an equal partnership, with the addition of a third, the dynamic took an interesting shift. He was excited to show Mandy all they could be. If she’d just release her fire into his keeping, he’d show her exactly how much power they had to grow into something altogether new. He could sense the potential inside him. He wished she’d trust him enough to feel it too.

  ***

  Mandy was still in her dwelling staring at her prizes, minus one bone knife, when Lore stood at her doorway.

  “May I enter?” he asked.

  He and Zehn had been so careful with her lately. She hated it. She didn’t want gentlemen. She wanted barbarians to fill her up, share her energy, and talk about how much they wanted her. Gah. I’m such a moron. I want a choice? Then why do I want them to take it from me and screw me six ways to Sunday?

  She forced a smile, aware Lore was frowning at her silence. “I’d rather take a walk with you, if that’s okay.”

  “Yes.” He seemed pleased. He stood back to allow her to pass, and the scent of him settled that uneasiness inside her. For large men who sweated in the heat and didn’t wear deodorizing mist, Mandy would have assumed the barbarians would stink. Yet their scent glands functioned differently than a human’s. In order to be proficient hunters, their bodies shut down all but their basic senses, enhancing those.

  They didn’t give off a scent she could detect, though Zehn had said their kind could sense another through smell. They walked with astonishing quietness for such large men. And they had keen eyesight and hearing. Which made her wonder, could they hear her shifting at night, hungry for the men she’d had too little a taste of?

  Lore took her hand and put it over his forearm as they walked. Even here, in the village, he wore his arm-bracers. Men patrolled on the outskirts of the village, carrying axes, spears, and swords.

  Seeing her gaze on one such warrior moving through the center of the commons, Lore put a hand over hers and squeezed. “Fear not, Mandy. We’ll protect you. Always. We just find it better to prepare for a raid than to sit idly and be surprised”

  “I understand.” She missed his hand when he let her go.

  They walked by a group of children wrestling, while nearby warriors encouraged their form and females made sure no one came to harm.

  “Do you miss your world?” he asked, out of the blue.

  She had to think about it. “Earth? Not really, no.” Surprising but true. “I grew up with a family that didn’t really care about me. They just wanted to use me to get the better things in life.”

  “Use you?”

  In a lower voice, she told him, “You know. The fire.” She warmed the hand upon his arm, not enough to hurt, but to show him what she meant. “It was just me, my mom, dad, and sister. Bella is older, but she was married off to a warlord when she was just sixteen.” Mandy shrugged. “Where I come from, people try to get ahead by any means necessary. I just… I could never understand it.” Some of her friends’ families had just made do. They weren’t rich, weren’t living in the largest accommodations or able to afford real meat and vegetables, but the artificial foods had plenty of nutrients. And their families had been happy.

  “I do not understand it either.” He lead her through the village, past the bartering area where villagers traded for food and goods. Past the groupings of huts where the elders and orphaned resided, surrounded by warrior housing. Dwellings consisted of wood and vine, some thatching, and very little stone. The scent of sweet kryllax gave the housing area the smell of honeysuckle and rose, and Mandy let herself feel at ease, giving in to Lore’s raw strength.

  She knew he felt it, because he leaned down to kiss the top of her head.

  “I told you my parents sold me. But they sold me to a very bad man.” She whispered, “Red Francisco,” then raised her voice back to normal. “His people are basically a clan of powerful men and women who do bad things. A crime family.”

  “Like the Nasuhl.”

  “Yes.” They followed a path into the trees, away from the community, toward a group of interconnected pools that led out into the lake which bordered the village on one s
ide. Women and children frolicked in the water while a group of warriors continued to patrol nearby.

  Lore sat her on a bench of flat rock, far enough away to guarantee them privacy, yet close enough that they could watch the villagers swimming. Ondi birds flew overhead, a swath of color against the bright indigo sky. The clouds were wisps of white and pink framing the dual suns.

  It truly was magnificent.

  “These Franciscos.” He stumbled over the name. “They think they own you?”

  “They do own me.” She sighed. “Unfortunately, in some parts of my world, slavery is legal. They call it indentured servitude, but those of us who are ‘property’ know the truth. We have no rights.”

  He turned to face her, so she did likewise to better view him, not sure what this powerful, handsome warrior really saw in her. He and Zehn had liked her before they knew of the fire. And that gladdened her.

  “Some clans in the tribes also own slaves.” Lore frowned. “When my parents left our clan, we settled in the Cloud Tribe because most of the leaders in Cloud care for their people. I am like my father. My eyes carry the taint of offworlder blood. And my ability to see into another’s mind makes many uncomfortable.”

  This time she reached out to hold his hand. So much larger than her, yet he held her carefully, the honesty in his vulnerability a rare gift. “Lore, what I can do with my fire… You know it’s deep, powerful.”

  He nodded.

  “I don’t tell people, because everyone wants to use it. But it’s a bad thing. I hurt people.” She’d scarred her mother as a baby, and had forever been reminded that she owed her family for not turning her in as a child. She supposed they were right…to an extent. They could have turned her into the militant alliance, who normally handled violent kinetics. But instead, her family had bargained for wealth with criminals.