Mind scrambled from her ordeal, pushed to her limit, she began to relax. Tension deflating her. He was here, he would protect her. She could rest, now.
"Don't you dare, Annabell Roe!"Mama warned. She sounded just like when Annabell tried to snatch a sweet bun.
"We're saved now. We are safe now. I'm saved. He came for me," she explained to the invisible woman. Aired, the words seized her mind and body, infusing her spirit. She was safe.
Her eyes closed. A string pulled too tight, Annabell collapsed inward, let the relief enfold her. Held between the war beast's paws, 'cleaning her' like its kit, Annabell slipped into an exhausted sleep. Predisposed to sleep heavily, she drifted with the vague awareness of the Orki rider arriving and taking her into his arms.
Her eyes blinked, opened, then closed. She knew him. It was him. He had come.
Chapter 7
Woe Is Me
Startled awake by growls and grunting, Annabell found herself in a new position and in a strange place. Inexplicably moving under the dark blue night sky and the silvery-white light of the Mother and Father. Oddly slung between two thick bands supporting her shoulders and legs, she was cradled in a sweet cocoon of warmth that made no sense at all. Cataloging through the list of odd sensations, she attempted to move, scramble, stand.
She was not in her bed or her village.
What had happened?
Mama said, unhelpfully,"Lazy of mind, lazy of body."
Taking a breath to calm herself, Annabell answered out loud, "Tired to death, more like. Where am I?"
Animalistic chuffing answered her question. An Orki war beast. A giant bruise, Annabell hurt but her mind and heart hurt more. The raw wound of guilt and loss leaving no energy left to panic at out-of-place sounds. Shaking her head for clarity rattled her brain. It hurt. An attempt at rubbing her crusty, dry-feeling eyes felt like touching fresh, sensitive bruises. Blinking, she struggled to make sense of things. What was happening? Where was she?
An Orki warrior held her in his arms andthey were traveling over the landscape on the back of a war beast. She'd been on horseback before, long-legged, grazing animals born from antique genetic material imported to Dorsus. She knew a horse's run was smooth, but its trot, like a child's skip, was bumpy. In comparison, the war beast, with shorter legs, claws, and toes moved smoothly over an indiscernible path.
They couldn't have traveled too far while she was out, yet everything looked different. All the lands around the Peace River were green and cultivated. The scattered trees she could see were taller, older, gray under the light of the moons. Rocks, tinted by moon shadows, rose up out of the ground as sentinels. The fresh she breathed carried unfamiliar scents from unrecognized plants. While sleeping, they had traveled to a different world.
Body heat, the scent of a musky wild spice and her warrior. They rode on top of his war beast, moving along a path away from Righteous Way and into the Peace Lands–the Orki-ruled territories. Wrapped in a woolen blanket and spotted pelt, her skin was kissed the softness of fur. Annabell’s clothing was missing. The stiff leather and heavy heels of her good walking shoes covered her feet, and her proper woolen socks went up over her knees. But everything else was gone.
Her breasts bounced, exposed beneath the blanket while her nude bottom curved into the cradle of the lap of a male she had met only once before. The materials of his waist covering rubbed against her sensitive places.
"Where are my clothes?" Tipping her head back, she glared at his hard jaw. In the night, the white skin of his head and shoulders had a ghost-like, eerie glow—Her White Orki.
He made a deep sound, acknowledging having heard her. That was all she got.
Annabell twitched her shoulders and tried to kick her legs, uncomfortable. This male made her aware of her vulnerable nudity and her femininity in new ways. Glad he and the others arrived in Righteous Way, she hadn't expected this invasion ofpersonal space. She wanted to push him away and and takea moment to adjust to the abrupt change. Not asking what she wanted, he scooped her up without a please and thank you.
She'd always been a heavy sleeper, but her recent newfound ability to collapse and fall asleep where she stood was not a habit she wanted, not if it led to waking up in strange places. Undressed. The Orki had undressed her. The knowledge sunk in along with a vague idea that he'd also dipped her in ice water.
The white Orki had washed her in the Peace River. Put his hands on her, cleaned, dried her helpless body, took care of her. By the moons, the male washed her like a helpless little baby in the cold river while her eyes rolled in her empty, senseless head.
Seen her. Touched her.
Outraged, she tried to sit up away from him, but he pulled her against him, so that she took in his delicious scent while making a noise that infected her brain with an accepting lassitude. Instead of letting him know what she thought, she found herself cuddling into him.
"What are you doing, Annabelle Roe?"Mama asked.
"I don't know. I can't stop," she said into the soft skin of his chest.
As skilled hunters, the native Originals were said to be sensitive to things like smells, sounds, and air vibrations. They had abilities unique to their kind, many natural enhancements and few natural weaknesses. No one knew for sure, not exactly, all the capabilities and secrets of the Orki. Those who did know were dead. Papa had taught her. This sound he made. It incapacitated her completely. It could be a weird defense mechanism. Something. But it was powerful. She lifted her hand to bat at him-push his arm away-but found herself stroking his skin.
It was her father's stories come true. The Orki had taken her as a war bride.
Three years after her mother's death, living under the negligent care of her elder brothers, Annabell had been approached by this Orki.
He was her forbidden dream, come true. Just like the stories her father told her.
