Dream of Me (10 page)

“Remember, once the
Malrai Hin
begins, there is no going back. If you fail — you will die.”

Elena ran blindly from the smells that churned her stomach. Rushing outside, she lifted her face to the dark sky, inhaling deeply; she allowed the cool air to fill her lungs. Quickly, her rolling stomach calmed, nevertheless the fresh air did nothing to calm her hunger pains as they began anew.

Leaning against the stone doorway, she couldn’t prevent the sadness that washed over her. What would she do if she couldn’t get back home?

“Elena?” The sound of Kieran’s voice from behind her had her jumping with surprise. Moving from the shadows, his face came into view as he moved closer. His concern filled eyes locked on hers, making it impossible for her to look away. His hand reached toward her but dropped when she moved away from the wall at her back.

Enfolding her arms around herself, she turned around to face him. “Kieran, I want you to send me home. Just listen to me,” she pleaded, holding up a staying hand as he moved to argue. “I just want to go home, home to my friend and home to my job. I don’t belong here and I never will.”

“You belong with me.”

“How can you keep me here, when you know that I won’t be happy? Are you really that selfish?”

He flinched from her words as though he’d been struck. Was he being selfish wanting to keep his mate with him? No, this was the way things were done. There was no such thing as being selfish when claiming ones mate. She was meant for him just as he was meant for her. Everything about the Malrai Hin was about the happiness of his mate. She’d adjust.

And if she doesn’t?
The forbidden thought slipped through his steel resolve that held firm to everything he’d been taught. What if she came to hate him? She couldn’t have dreamed of him if she wasn’t destined to be his.

“I
will
find a way to go home, but I’m giving you the chance to help me.” Her pleading expression began to mix with a healthy dose of stubbornness as she met his grimacing face. Reaching down, his large hand engulfed hers tenderly.

“Come with me.”

Seeing that he wasn’t taking her plea serious, she attempted to jerk away from him. “Kieran listen to me!”

“No,
listen
to me now. Let me take you back to our place again. There is more I have yet to tell you.”

His innocent plea instantly weakened her resolve. She wanted to go home to everything that made sense to her and to all that gave her comfort. Instead she was stuck in a strange world with dangers she didn’t even want to understand. Her tired mind and hungry body were weighing heavily against her.

Turning her sad eyes back to Kieran’s searching ones, she realized that he must have seen something lurking within their depths. The next thing she knew she was tossed up into his arms again as his large wings emerged. Leaping into the air, his wings spread out behind him as the ground disappeared from beneath their feet. Gasping in fear, Elena tightened her arms around his neck while she squeezed her eyes tightly closed.

“Don’t you people walk anywhere?” she complained. Feeling the wind shift her hair over her shoulders, she knew Kieran was carrying them away from the stronghold and closer to their place of seclusion.

Chuckling, Kieran shook his head at how she made no effort to hide her dislike of flying. “Don’t you like flying? Open your eyes and look at the beauty that you would miss from the ground,” he said in effort to tempt her tightly closed eyes to open.

“No, thank you,” she stated firmly.

There was nothing he could do to convince her to open her eyes. She could pretend that she wasn’t flying through the air at a dangerous height if her eyes remained closed and that’s the way she was going to keep it. As if hearing her stubborn thoughts, Kieran’s arms loosened briefly around her back and beneath her knees causing her body to nearly tumble out of his loose hold.

Crying out as she felt herself nearly falling out of his arms, her eyes jerked open as she clawed at his skin for leverage. At seeing his smirk she felt the urge to claw it off of his face. Narrowing her eyes at him, she pressed her lips into a tight, angry line. “Keep smiling, because the next time you drop me or pretend to drop me, I’m going to introduce you to a bikini wax,” she threatened, her voice rising with her barely restrained fear.

“What is
bikini wax
?” he asked with interest.

“It’s a type of human torture that someone like you would never hope to survive,” she grumbled under her breath.

The smirking jerk had the balls to laugh at her so-called threat. Shaking her head, she risked looking over her shoulder at the scenery below them. They flew over a sea of trees and a wide river that reflected the silvery moon light in the calming darkness. He was right, it was beautiful up here but her fierce desire to not grow attached to anything of this new world made her dismiss it. Sighing, she turned her face back toward Kieran’s warm chest. Sorrow began to fill her at the thought of never returning home. How would she get home if he wouldn’t listen to her?

She flinched in surprise as Kieran shifted her in his embrace as the rhythmic beating of his wings slowed. Looking back over her shoulder, she released a breath of relief as she saw the ground growing closer. Once Kieran’s feet touched the ground, she instantly tried to move out of his arms.

Holding his mate close gave him a peace that he never knew existed. As she moved impatiently in his embrace he found that he was reluctant to let her go but nevertheless he released her. Her soft form slid against his as he lowered her onto her feet; ever brush of her body against his urged him to grip her tightly to him.

His desire for her had not waned since bringing her to his side, instead it had grown. He wanted nothing more than to hold her close, to feel her skin against his and claim her as his in every way possible. Images of her naked pale form entwined with his against the furs of his bed surfaced in his mind.
No.
Shaking his head he forced the images from his mind. The hunger to claim his mate was powerful, but he had to push such hungers aside. He couldn’t risk claiming her without obtaining her acceptance of the Malrai Hin or he could risk losing her forever.

Forcing himself to release her, he took a step back from temptation. He needed to tell her of the Malrai Hin before it began, to prepare her for what was to come. If Rurik truly was showing an interest in his mate, he needed to claim her quickly before he lost her.

“Kieran,” she began. “Bringing me here will not change my mind. I want to go home.”

For a moment he just stared at her, his dark eyes seemed to be memorizing her face. Then without warning, she watched as his wings unfurled from his back before he took to the sky, disappearing among the towering trees above. Scowling up at the sky her breath huffed out in anger. Did he really just fly off and leave her? Was this his way of avoiding a conversation? Planting her clenching hands on her hips she pressed her lips into a thin line.

“Why am I not surprised?!” she yelled at the sky above. Turning around she began pacing back and forth as her anger over flowed. “Fine, just fly off and leave me. I don’t need you! I’ll find my own way home!” Turning around to walk in the first direction that her feet chose, she was surprised to find him blocking her path. Standing with his arms crossed, his eyes blinked as he simply stared down at her.

“Who are you yelling at?” he asked. While watching her like she’d been talking to an invisible person.

“There you are, you big jerk!” she seethed. “I was yelling at you! Take me back! If you won’t help me get home, I swear I will find my own way. I’m tired of your games and I’m sick of you just picking me up and flying off with me. I hate HEIGHTS! Then you just fly off because you don’t like that I want to return home. Well, too damn bad!”

By the time she finished her tirade she was left panting for air. Never once did his expression ever change with her seething words. He’d simply stared at her and waited for her to finish. Uncrossing his arms, he turned around to lift something off the ground. Turning back to her, he held out a small wrapped bundle. What was he up to?

“I left to get you these,” he explained moving closer to her, holding the bundle for her to take.

Raising a brow at his
gift
, she hesitantly reached out and took it. Bringing it close to her body, she could see that the bundle was in fact a large leaf that he’d used to wrap her gift in. The bundle wasn’t heavy but it did have some weight to it. While she used one arm to hold the bundle against her stomach, her other hand worked on untying the small knot at the top. Pulling back the edge of the dark leaf, she gazed down at the contents of her gift. Reaching inside she pulled out one of many circular shaped fruits. It looked similar to a peach or nectarine, but its color was a dark blue with bright blue stripes swirling around the top.

“What is this?” she asked softly as she lifted her eyes from the strange fruit to his watchful gaze. Smilingly he moved closer to her. Gently, he reached out and lifted the bundle from her arm. Taking hold of her free hand, he guided her toward a flat space of soft grass. Placing the bundle down, he lowered himself down beside it. With his hand still gripping hers, Kieran looked up as she remained standing, looking unsure.

“Sit down,” he said gently, patting the soft earth beside him.

For a moment she seemed to be about to resist his invitation, but then she surprised him. Lowering herself down beside him, she turned her attention back to the fruit in her hand. Reaching across her, he gently took the fruit from her. Holding it up to the light of the moon, he turned to look at her watching eyes.

“This is called a
flur’si
, it means
sky flower
.” Allowing his claws to lengthen, he sliced the fruit open before pulling the two halves apart. Holding out one half, he smiled as she reached out to take it from him.

Pulling the offering closer, she studied the strange fruit. The inside of the fruit was a bright blue color with a soft appearance. Bringing it closer to her face, she inhaled its sweet scent before taking a hesitant bite. The sweet flavor of blueberries and strawberries mixed together exploded on her tongue causing her to groan in delight. Without delay, she took a bigger bite and before she knew it her half was gone. Without needing to ask for another, Kieran was already handing her the other half. Polishing off the other as well, she turned to see Kieran smiling at her.

“I didn’t think you had fruit here. All they were eating back there was that smelly meat.” Her nose curled in disgust at the mention of that meat. Her stomach grumbled for more food causing a blush to wash up her face. Smiling, Kieran reached into the leafy packaging to pull another out. Ripping the fruit in half, he handed both halves over to her eager hands.

“Many of the warriors at the stronghold eat mostly meats. It keeps us strong. Our world possesses many different kinds of vegetation used for consumption, but mostly our females eat that.”

“They don’t like meat?” she asked, taking another bite of her fruit she relaxed as her hunger pains seemed to lessen with each bite.

“They do like it, but they cannot tolerate large quantities of it like the males can. I should have anticipated that you would be the same.”

Swallowing her bite, she softly smiled back at him. “Thank you. But if you want good meat you should try cheeseburgers and steaks in my world. They are the best, if you ask me.”

He watched as instantly her smile fell at the mention of her world. The brightness that her eyes had held within their green depths just seconds earlier turned dark and downcast. Kieran’s heart squeezed tightly in his chest at the sight. What could he do to make it better? Send her home? No! He couldn’t do that. There had to be something he could do.

Moving closer to her, his hand reached out to tenderly cup the side of her face. Turning her to look at him, he whispered, “Do you remember what I told you about our bond?”

Nodding she shrugged her shoulders helplessly, “Yes, but that doesn’t change that I can’t stay here, Kieran. You’ll find someone else, I’m sure.”

Shaking his head, his fingers move from her face to sink into her soft, red hair. “For a Garmorian male, there is only one. Once we find our mates our soul is chained to theirs and never let’s go. That is how I was able to find you across the thresholds of our worlds.”

“Kieran…” Before she could tell him again that she couldn’t be his soul mate, she found his finger pressing against her lips.

“Just listen to me.” When she nodded, he let his finger slide from her soft lips. “After we find our mates and have them by our side, there is a mating rite that must be completed before we claim our mates, it is called,
Malrai Hin
. The Malrai Hin ties the male’s fate to the outcome of his worthiness to win his mate.” Kieran inwardly winced at the half truth that poured from his lips.

Though the Malrai Hin was how Garmorian’s claimed and bound their
sou’tali
to them, he hadn’t told her the whole truth of what would happen if she didn’t accept him as her
sou’tali
. She wasn’t ready for that yet, he thought grimly. She needed time to adjust to him and this new world that she would have to accept. He still had time.

“What are you saying?”

“I am saying that I will prove that I will be an honorable and worthy mate to care for you and love you as you deserve. I will win the right to become your
sou’tali
.”