Chapter 2
Fatima
CW: animal attack, descriptions of fatal injuries, blood
The next morning I sat at the entrance of the cave letting the light of the rising sun caress my face as Drelic slept. I was pleasantly sore between my legs and the idea that my future child might be growing from one cell to two and beyond brought an immense amount of warmth to my soul.
I wanted a little one so badly. I wanted this.
Well...maybe not this exactly. Drelic had needed much more instruction than I had anticipated.
Everything from where to place his hands to how much pressure to apply.
Everyone’s first time is a bit awkward, but I really thought he’d take more initiative and explore my body on his own, but no.
He kind of just sat there and waited for my direction.
Eventually we got to a good place and things started to feel pretty good, but it took far too long to get there.
“Next time will be better,” I assured myself. I showed Drelicthe ropes so from now on he can take the lead. This was fine. Everything was fine.
“Good morning,” my new mate stood behind me with a sleepy smile on his face. Mate. That title felt...too official. He was more like my fiance. That felt more accurate. My new fiance.
“Good morning,” I smiled up at him. “Did you sleep well?”
“I did,” he replied. “Did you?”
“I did.” I said in turn.
Then we just stared at each other like two strangers after a night of hooking up. It would feel more natural to bid him goodbye and make my way back home, but this wasn’t just some random hook up, this was my new fiance.
“Well, we should probably head home to the village. I will show you, our house, and I will make any changes to it that you’d like.”
His words made a lump form in my throat and ice fill my veins.
“I actually thought, we’d live in the mountain home of the other dekes,” I cut in. When Drelic through me over his shoulder and ran into the forest, our two dekes’ were fighting. I hoped that Tarak was able to get the women out of the valley and back home.
I would not live apart from my friends, and I would certainly never agree to live under the rule of the Savrix that had me kidnapped.
“With those savages?” Drelic huffed. “No. We will live in the valley where it is safe. My mate and children deserve the best this world has to offer, and that’s the village we’ve built within the valley.”
“Children?” I squeaked.
“Of course,” Drelic looked at me with a confused expression on his face. “We will have many children, and our house will be filled with little ones for many years.”
“But what if I just want one?” I asked as my world began to spiral out of control.
“You’ll change your mind after you have the first one. My mother claimed to only want one as well, but she had three more children after I was born.”
“I see, and is your mother one of the survivors of the stiffness? Is she living in the village?” I would love to know what her thoughts were on children now.
Did she really want more children after Drelic, or did her husband pressure her to have more?
If the latter were true, I might beg her to tell Drelic the truth so he wouldn’t try to pressure me to do the same.
This whole thing was turning into a nightmare.
I just wanted someone to love me, to take the reins every once in a while.
Not this. Sure Drelic might come to love me in time, but he also came with amountain of expectations that didn’t match my own.
We’d only just begun this new life as a mated couple, and already I was planning a way to convince his mother to help me defend my decisions.
This wasn’t what I wanted. This wasn’t freedom, it was a cage.
“No, she passed away in the stiffness along with many others,” Drelic lamented.
“I wish you could have met her. I know she would have liked to have met you.” His eyes were filled with a pain that matched my own.
I missed my own family quite a bit. Taylor had become like a sister to me, but even she could not replace the loss of both my parents and all my siblings in one fell swoop.
I opened my mouth to say that I missed my mother too, but Drelic had already turned around and was heading back into the cave. A moment later he came he walked out with our stuff packed in his bag.
He held out his hand, “You ready to go?”
No.
“Yeah,” I sighed.
I did not want to go to the village. I wanted to go back to my mountain home.
I wanted to hug Taylor and for her to tell me everything was going to be okay.
I wanted to greet my Savrix, Tarak, and feel the comfort of his smile knowing that he was my leader and not Dameron.
I wanted so many things right now, but I felt powerless to fight for any of them.
Tears burned behind my eyes. I hadn’t felt this helpless since I was a child. I’d always been confident and head strong, but with Drelic I was falling into old patterns of deference as if I were a child again.
A howl sounded in the near distance.
“Jagwas,” Drelic whispered as he looked to the right where the sound had come from.
“That was pretty close. Should we head back to the cave?”
I wanted that. I wanted more time to think and convince Drelic that we should go to the mountain and not the village.
“No,” he shook his head. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep you safe,” he puffed out his chest and smirked. I hoped he was right.
As we kept walking, the howls of the jagwas got closer and closer. Drelic started to look visibly nervous as we continued to walk.
“It’s not far from here,” he commented with a tight smile, but the howls only got closer.
“Are you sure we’re going to make it?”
“We’ll make it,” he assured me, but I wasn’t convinced. The last time I’d been attacked by jagwas I was with the entire dekes. We had the shifters to protect us and even then we barely made it out.
My worst fears came to life as a pack of three jagwas emerged from the underbrush. They circled us, and Drelic quickly moved me behind him.
My fiance pulled out a spear and faced off the sharp-clawed beasts with red eyes and tendrils of fur that looked like vines.
The first jagwa lunged at us and Drelic expertly wielded his spear. Then he shoved it into the animal’s chest. The beast fell to the ground, but not before it swung its paw toward Drelic and made contact with his arm, leaving him with a deep gash.
Drelic gritted his teeth against the pain, and faced the next jagwa with his spear held high.
This jagwa lunged at him too, but they were more successful than their slain friend. Thick claws sunk into Drelic’s side and he screamed out in pain. The color was quickly draining from his face, but he held his post as my guard against the wild beast before us.
He thrust his spear toward the jagwa but only succeed in scratching its side. The beast howled but was otherwise unaffected.
Drelic stumbled on his feet as the gash in his side continued to bleed. He was fading fast and he knew it.
“Run,”he growled.
“What?” I could hardly breathe. Everything was happening so fast.
“I said run! I will hold off this last jagwa.”
I looked at his pale blue face, now almost completely devoid of color, as he yelled “Run!”
This time I listened. I took off in a sprint down the path we’d been following. Seconds later a loud shriek and a pained howl echoed through the forest. I looked over my shoulder to find Drelic on the ground and a wounded jagwa looming over him.
I should have kept running, but instead I stood there staring at my would-be mate looking for any signs of life.
I kept waiting and watching, but his chest did not rise, his arms did not move, even his fingers did not twitch.
As if in response to my desperate attempt to find any signs of life within the male I’d slept with last night, the jagwa drug its claws across Drelic’s neck.
Blood spilled out like a waterfall, and I knew whatever chance my fiance had at living was gone.
Then the beast turned its eyes on me. I needed to get out of here. Drelic had wounded the jagwa, but I doubted that would be enough. My legs were short and I had no weapons on me.
I took off in another sprint. Unfortunately, the jagwa took off after me. The distance between us seemed to disappear within seconds. I’d trusted Drelic to keep me safe, and now he was dead. Soon, I’d be dead too.
“Fool,” I chastised myself, as if any criticism of my choices would help me now. There was no amount of regret or reflection that would save me from my fate.
The jagwa lunged and narrowly missed me as I darted to the side. I let out a high-pitched scream, hoping to scare it off, but it didn’t work. The beast just kept coming.
My legs were burning with the effort to keep up this punishing pace, and despite my best efforts my muscles were slowly giving out. I gritted my teeth and demanded my body keep going, but despite everything my pace began to slow.
The jagwa leapt into the air beside me and landed on my shoulders, using its full weight to bring me to the ground.
To avoid the jagwa’s fangs, I lay on my back with my hands pressed against its shoulders.
The jagwa snapped its jaws in frustration as it tried and failed to bite me.
Fear welled up in my chest as my arms began to burn.
This animal was strong, and it wouldn’t take long for my arms to give out just as my legs had done.
I’d fought at good fight, but this was most definitely the end.
Then a glowing yellow flame appeared behind the jagwa, and a tall male stood within the fire like an angel of death ready to take me home.
“I don’t want to die,” I cried,but the flames of death only drew closer. The warmth of the fire was pleasant against the cold winter air.
I always thought the chill of death would feel like a swift frostbite that would cover me from head to toe, but this was a pleasant feeling. The warmth of the fire brought me comfort and I decided that if this was what death felt like, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.
“I don’t want you to die either,” the angel whispered as his flaming hands pulled the jagwa off me in one quick movement. The beast yelped in pain and the smell of burnt flesh filled the air.
There was a wet cracking sound and I looked up to find the angel pulling the beast’s head to the side at an odd angle. Its legs went limp and it stopped breathing. The jagwa was dead. The angel of death had saved me.
I squinted my eyes as I tried to look past the flames that consumed him. He looked so familiar.
My savior dropped the animal to the ground then took a deep calming breath. His flames rescinded back into his flesh and his skin cooled into a deep blue.
“Zander?”
I’d seen him shift for the first time when Dameron’s men tried to lead us away from our mountain home. He’d joined the other’s in my dekes to fight against our kidnappers. He’d even protected me from the male who was trying to forcibly get me to walk.
I’d seen Zander again when fighting broke out against the two dekes’. I’d hoped he was safe and I was glad to see him now.
“If there is air in my lungs and a beat in my heart, I will keep you safe,” Zander vowed as he scooped me up from the ground into his arms. His skin still felt pleasantly warm and I gladly settled myself against him.
“Are you hurt? Did Drelic harm you?” He asked as he checked me over.
Drelic. A sudden wave of guilt flooded me as I realized that I wasn’t at all sad that he was dead. Then I felt doubly guilty that I didn’t feel anything but relief for the male who’d given his life to save mine.
He wouldn’t have had to save you if he’d just stayed his ass in the cave when you suggested it. A voice whispered inside me. I knew it was true. If we’d just stayed in the cave when we heard the jagwas, then he’d be alive right now.
“I’m fine. He didn’t harm me. He...he and I luminesed.”
Zander froze and every muscle in his body went rigid.
“I understand,” he tried to hide it, but I could hear the heavy sadness in his tone.
“Did he force himself on you?” he asked.
“No. We both welcomed luminescence.”I replied, and Zander let out a sigh of relief.
“Where is he?” he asked as he looked around trying to spot my failure of a mate.
“He’s dead,” I admitted in a whisper, hardly able to believe that Drelic was really gone.
Zander’s shoulders sagged momentarily, and relief flooded his face. But realizing that he probably looked more pleased than he should upon hearing about my mate’s death, he forced his shoulders to scrunch up again pretending to be filledwith tense grief.
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
Lair.
“He saved me from the jagwa’s,” I added.
“He was a good male then. He died for a worthy cause.”
I was a worthy cause to die for? I wasn’t so sure about that. Drelic had glowed for me. He was biologically bound with a need to protect me. His actions made sense, but I doubted anyone else would feel the same.
“I’ll take you home,” Zander assured me. Then continued to hold me as he walked down the path.
“You don’t have to carry me. I know it’s a long journey back the the mountain.”
“We’re not going to the mountain. Dameron was slain and his hunters were kicked out of the village,” Zander informed me.
Hope swelled in my heart. Dameron was dead.
“That doesn’t explain why we aren’t going back home,” I pointed out.
Zander looked down at me with a smile filled with pride. “Tarak has been named the new Savrix. We are one dekes. Everyone will enjoy the bounty and safety of the village now.”
“Everyone except the hunters I hope.” I didn’t want to live in the valley with the same males who had drug me out of my home.
“Everyone except the hunters,” Zander smiled. “Oh and Kahina. Holey was named the new priestess and Kahina was banished to the mountain.”
“It seems I missed quite a bit while I was gone.”
“A lot can happen in just one night,” Zander replied.
His words carried with them more meaning than he could have ever realized. I’d glowed for Drelic. I’d accepted him as my mate. If the jagwa had not killed him, I’d be walking to the village right now with Drelic by my side still wondering if I’d made a mistake.
I’s gotten exactly what I’d wished for, and I’d regretted it more than I thought possible. I’d never been more relieved to have my dreams dashed so thoroughly.