WOLF DAWN: Science Fiction Thriller/ Romance (Forsaken Worlds) (42 page)

The great bird made a fast turn — it had seen something, but what? Its heart rate, already astonishingly rapid, sped up. The wind poured over its wings like fresh, cool running water and Lindha felt she had never known such pleasure, such joy. The bird called out and its raucous call thrilled her; the song it gave was heady, like music to her distinctive bird hearing. The whitehawk was sweeping and diving, its winged form primed with adrenaline. Something had happened; the bird was responding to some commotion. Its dizzy maneuvers assailed her senses with a kaleidoscope of colors. The sensation of wind was lifting them, propelling them; it was slipping over feathers, brisk and bracing. It was a unique sensual impression that thrilled her.

“Oh, what is it excited about?”
Lindha wondered with breathless curiosity. It was an unshielded thought, and the whitehawk faltered. It diverted from its precision flight. Misjudging the wind, it began to fall.

“Silence,”
Ash ordered. Then, projecting to the whitehawk he thought, “
It was the wind. The wind made an unexpected shift then. It was nothing.”

The whitehawk recovered and flew on, no longer disoriented.

Ash strained to keep contact with the whitehawk, to soothe the bird, to hold on to Lindha’s mind. It had been difficult at first, but just now, after Lindha’s projected thought, it was much harder. It wasn’t just Lindha’s thought. What else had changed?

There was a flash of white — it was another whitehawk, flying near them. A thrill of excitement flowed through the body of the whitehawk Ash was within. A challenge! The biological ritual began, as it had no doubt for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years. The birds needed to discover who was the more skilled in flight. Before Ash could react, they were in a steep dive and had fallen into a downdraft, losing height, spinning and twirling … but no! Entering an elevating thermal updraft he was up again.

Oh! Ash thought, when he realized what was happening. With the awareness, his physical body lying on the blanket with Lindha jerked, as if receiving an electrical shock. The whitehawk was involved in a mating flight. He was proving to his prospective mate how clever, how cunning and adept he was in the air. He was displaying his love through the risks he was taking with his dangerous and inventive maneuvers in flight.

But the contest was over. The female whitehawk had accepted him as the most skilled of the opponents that were battling for her favors. Ash had observed two other birds nearby, but hadn’t understood the connection until now. The whitehawk that they were in mind-touch with knew that he had won.

He was worthy.

Such sensations. Such emotions: arrogance, pride, joy, lust. An overpowering instinct to mate almost overwhelmed Ash. With a frenzy of excitement the hawk flew near the female, catching a wing in hers, reaching toward her possessively and then …

Ash broke their contact and sat up. Mindful of Lindha, he had blocked her mental rapport from the full effect of the animal’s touch. His heart pounded and he was breathing fast. For a moment he found it difficult to re-orient himself, to gain control of his fevered flesh.

Lindha was also breathless, her face flushed pink against her skin. “Oh, why? Why did you stop? That was wonderful!”

Ash knew that he had been affected; he was violently aroused. As the focal point, he was more aware of the contact, having a deeper more complete physical union. Sitting up, he wiped the perspiration that had formed on his brow and then smiled down at Lindha. She was enthralled, her face alight with the joy of mind-touch with a whitehawk.

“I stopped because I wanted to, Lindha,” he explained, lying back down beside her. “The whitehawks were going to mate. Leave it to me to find one engaged in that capacity.” He shook his head ruefully. “I didn’t want to be involved in their love.” He stroked her face and neck. “We have love enough on our own, don’t you think? We don’t need to intrude on someone or something else.”

“No,” Lindha breathed. Ash bent over to give her a gentle kiss, but she moaned and fell upon him, reacting with a heated passion that dumbfounded him.

Sweet Jana.
Ash was surprised by the intensity of her arousal. He had been unable to block her after all. The urgency of the whitehawk’s mating must have caused this instant need. Ash smiled at her with approval. There was only one cure for the fever that she had, this burning illness that he knew so well. He mind-touched Lindha and felt her urgency.

With a casual strength Ash flipped Lindha over, so she was lying face down. He had pinned her arms beneath her. He covered her, his chest against her back. Lindha was unable to move. He pulled her hair away from her neck, and kissed and lightly bit her, his warm breath, lips and tongue trailing a silky line of pleasure down her throat, against her skin. He was hard against her.

Moving along her neck, he whispered into her ear, “I think you got excited by being with the animals, love.” He continued kissing and nibbling up and down her neckline, behind her ear, the side of her face, his warm breath hot against her skin. He said in a low voice, dark with erotic promise, “Maybe you want to do it like the animals do?”

Lindha moaned, “Oh, Ash, please.”

“Don’t move,” Ash ordered, quickly stripping off his clothes. A whirlwind was coming. It was up to him to direct this storm. He had made love to Lindha uncountable times, with gentleness, love, and urgency; but always with some tempering and control. This would be different.

Ash’s breath came fast now, his blood speeding, his heart thumping like a jackhammer in his chest. It was as if all their combined arousal had coalesced into this one moment. He covered her feminine form again, this time straddling her on his knees so his hands were free. He pulled up her shirt, releasing her bra, reaching his hands around to hold her breasts.

Lindha moaned and whimpered, but didn’t move. He had ordered her not to.

Ash knew she was his to command. He was glad for mind-touch. He wanted to feel her desire, and her pleasure. He inhaled deeply and held his breath, striving for the last of his control. He cupped her breasts, squeezing the fullness and running his fingers along the curve of them. He was in full mental rapport, so he knew what she felt, what he was doing to her.

Lindha was ready, consumed by raw, mindless passion. She was making little mewing sounds of need, and of pleasure.

Ash felt like a wolf with Lindha as his she-wolf. She wanted to be conquered, she wanted to be dominated. She wanted
him
.

Ash was more than happy to give her what she wanted. With untamed menace he ordered: “Up, on your hands and knees.” His command was harsh, coarse and erotic.

Breath ragged, she obeyed.

“Lindha,”
he whispered her name, both out loud and in her mind. His voice was thick and aroused. It was a sensual caress.

“Ash,”
she said, an agitated hungry whisper in his mind. She trembled beneath him, and the tiny sounds of passion she was making were getting louder. Teeth clenched, Ash smiled with tight-lipped pleasure. It was an extraordinary sort of music Lindha was making. They were pitiful, soft and endearing sounds — whimpers, really. The whitehawks mating had almost pushed her over the edge. He heard her thoughts — they were a mantra:
“Please! Please! Please!”
He knew his Lindha was at the limits of her control.

He decided to make her wait, to torment her just a bit, to discover how much control she had. He thought,
“Do you know what the animals do when they are wild in heat?”

“They screw, Ash. They screw and screw and screw!”

Ash growled playfully and showed her, in his mind, his wolf-self.

She turned her head to look at him and said out loud, her voice unsteady, “Really, my love?” It was then that she shocked him. In fact, she surprised him completely.

Lindha thought,
“That’s nothing to what I’ve got to show you.”
She showed him then, in her mind what she was imagining. Her thoughts crashed through him with a tidal wave of heat. Her blue, blue eyes were dark, wild and wanton.

And in the end it was Ash that lost all control.

It’s fascinating to watch a person experience fear. People are more alive when they are threatened than at any other time. Genuine fear gifts an individual with moments of honest life. Hope enhances fear. With heightened senses an individual will cling to unattainable expectation. Despair is when the subject knows all hope is forever extinguished. It is this that creates irretrievable breakdown.

— Admiral Neopol Jones, personal records

I
t was dark, completely dark, and the three wolves were hunting. Senses fully alert, Long Fang, Seeta and Teella remained silent and well hidden while they waited and watched.

This was not unexpected. When seeking a kill, stealth, patience and concealment were principal aspects of the hunt. What was different was that they were stalking men this night. When stalking men it was even more important to wait and watch.

The clouds were low lying, hiding the stars. It was well before dawn. There was no hurry. The wolves looked down from the thin timberland above the basin below. The darkness was complete, but the wolves saw almost as well in the black of night as in full daylight. Systematically searching, Ash’s wolf family had looked for him for months.

“The cub was here.”

“His scent is old.”

It was time. In instinctive accord the wolves moved out of the trees and down into the camp.

Long Fang stopped at the rusty speeder and lifted his leg, urinating on it. It was a display of contempt.

“The men are here.”

“Yes.”
A thick ferocious hate swelled with that one word.

The strong, unpleasant acrid smell of Ein and Del irritated the nose of each wolf: cigarette smoke, alcohol, urine and unwashed body stench. The wolves knew the scent of each man. They had learned these scents as only a wolf can learn them. This knowledge had been seared into their senses the day Ash had been taken. After Ash disappeared, they sought those unique scents and tonight they had found them.

The men were here.

The men were asleep in the makeshift hut. The wolves skirted the building and, picking up the scent of their lost family member, they went to the cave. The cave was open, its metal bars pulled back. Long Fang stayed on watch while Seeta and Teella explored inside, traversing back and forth, noses to the ground.

Seeta snarled and her ears lay back with rage as she recognized the smell of her cub’s blood. She knew he had been wounded many times in this dark, unpleasant den. Long Fang and Teella echoed her fury with low growls of their own. In silent agreement they left the cave, traversing the rest of the mine area.

The cub had not walked from this place. There was no trail to follow.

They stopped outside the open window of the hut.

“I will kill these men,”
Seeta said with cold fury as the snarling, raging demon within her swelled. She was a mother who had lost her cub. Her cub had been taken by these men! She would jump through the open window and tear open the jugular of each man. It was her right. Then she would eat them: She would eat those that would dare to harm her cub. Her muscles bunched.

Stiff-legged, his ruff in a slight bristle, Long Fang pushed in front of his mate. He stood with the dominant stance of pack leader, yet his lip did not curl, nor did he show his teeth. He said,
“It is dangerous to kill men. Other men will hunt us.”

The force of Seeta’s rage was terrible, but with Long Fang’s assertion she stilled.

“The cub lives,”
he said.

She considered this and knew it to be true.
“Yes. He lives.”

“The cub will return. We will wait at the den,”
Long Fang said.

Seeta hesitated; the need to kill was strong in her. It was a fiery rage inside of her. She was torn by conflicting impulses. She wanted to tear, to rend, to kill. Yet Long Fang was pack leader and mate. She wanted to submit to his dominance, to obey. Teeth bared, she glared at the hut, her yellow eyes glowing with malignant menace. Long moments passed while she struggled for mastery of the hate and impotent rage that burned inside.

The three wolves stood close to each other, their combined warmth radiating unseen steamy tendrils of warmth into the cold, dark night. Inside the hut, someone coughed, shifted and mumbled a swear word. The wolves tensed, instantly prepared to move.

The man settled and became silent. Muted heartbeats and breathing were all that could be heard. The wolves’ muscles loosened, tension eased.

Seeta relented.
“Yes. The cub will return to the den.”

In agreement, the wolves slipped away, like dark shadows into the night, on their journey homeward.

L
indha lay spent, languid and asleep in his arms, mental contact broken. Ash smiled, satisfied. He had exhausted her. He grinned. She had exhausted him, too. He glanced at Lindha, still surprised at the hard, impulsive bite he had given her between neck and shoulder. Well. While he had left distinctive teeth marks, at least he hadn’t drawn blood. Relaxed and replete, he gave in to his fatigue. That had been a wild ride. Who would have thought that they could contact the animals together like that? The connection was so natural. Mind-touch with the animals was one of his greatest pleasures. He was glad to have shared it with Lindha. Cuddled up against her, he slept.

Time passed unhurriedly in the afternoon sun. It wasn’t long, however, before Ash was wide awake, his mind busy, his passions cooled. No longer did he need to resist the temptation for love as Lindha was there whenever he needed her. As a result sex, while still an insistent driving need, no longer seemed so essential. He was happy just to be with her. When Ash was with her he was at peace.

When she started to wake he said, “Lindha?”

“Humm?”

“Did you like mind-touch with the animals?”

“Are you kidding? It was the best! I want to mind-touch every kind of animal on Opan. Could we?”

“Of course.”

“Good,” she said. “Oh, and I particularly want us to mind-touch them when they are mating.”

Ash laughed and hugged her. Then he looked at her suspiciously, and frowned. “You’re not serious, are you?”

She smiled, and there was mischief in her eyes. “Maybe.”

They both laughed.

He said, “Did you know that the Damithst jewel reacted when Dorian touched it?”

Lindha stretched and sat up. “What?” She slipped out of her shirt and bra as they were half off anyway. It was warm out and they were both comfortably naked.

“The Damithst. It lit up when Dorian touched it.”

“I didn’t know.”

“If he was a girl, he would have become a Sister of Jana.”

“Yes.”

They both thought about that for a while.

“Maybe my people had the ability to mind-touch due to the proximity of Damithst on Delian. Maybe mind-touch is obtainable for everyone.”

Lindha frowned, turning it over in her mind. “That could be.”

“I’ve been thinking. I want Dorian and his brother to be trained as Brothers of Jana — if they are willing, of course. I want a separate order to be established. Dorian and Anton will be the first members. The stone must react to Anton too, of course.

Lindha said, “That is a good plan, Trueborn. What other skills should they have?”

Ash shrugged. “Let Dorian decide for now. I trust his judgment. He is a natural survivor.” Dorian was innovative, determined, ruthless, resourceful and courageous. Ash remembered the force of his mind and the strength of his personality when he had touched him all those years ago.

“And another thing; over the next few months have two Temple Sisters genuinely befriend those twins. Find ones that are as young as possible, but kind and experienced, skilled in sexual mind-touch. This is a sensitive duty, Lindha. It is important to find the right women. Let them have traits and interests comparable to each boy; they must be told of the twins’ history and must want to help them. They should seduce Dorian and Anton as soon as possible.”

“But Ash, they are thirteen! You realize of course that what you propose would be quite illegal, such underage sex.”

“Yes, the boys are too young, but they already have carnal knowledge. Their mental and emotional growth will be stunted without this interference. Besides, they are almost fourteen.”

“Fourteen!”

“Lindha, they need people that they can trust and mind-touch to heal. When I say let them have sex I don’t mean right now. There will be a time that is right. They should be so lucky! I would have loved it if you had mind-touched me when I was fourteen and you were eighteen. Think of how different my life would have been.”

Lindha tilted her head, studying him. “Everything that has happened to you has made you who you are, Ash. I fell in love with the person you are now. I wouldn’t have loved you when you were a child of fourteen.”

Ash looked at her and asserted with complete confidence, “You would have loved me. I would have made you love me.” He smiled a crooked smile.

Lindha reacted instantly with a loud snort of laughter. It was an inelegant sort of snort, not at all ladylike.

Ash looked at her, momentarily startled, his eyes wide with surprise. He had never heard such a noise from her. She attacked quickly, an obvious attempt to get him to ignore the graceless sound, “You are so arrogant.”

He pointed at her and said, “You snorted. The Prefect snorted!” he shouted, as if informing the world of such an event. He laughed out loud.

“Prefects never snort,” Lindha said, her chin high with hauteur, but she began to giggle. She and Ash soon were rolling together and holding their stomachs like a couple of silly children. The entire incident was so ridiculous that when one of them started to settle from laughing, they would look at the other and something in their expression would start laughing again. This went on for some time until both had tears rolling down their faces and sore stomachs.

When they finally settled, Ash said, “Anyway, perhaps the twins will be fifteen before the time is right, perhaps older. Some people do have sex at fifteen, you know.”

“Yes,” Lindha agreed. “Young people do experiment with people of the same age. For a young man to be seduced by an older woman, especially for the first time, creates too great a power inequity. Trust me, Ash, there is something inherently wrong with the concept.”

Diverted, Ash’s mouth lifted in another crooked smile. “You’re an older woman.”

“I am four years older, and you should listen to me, as I am four years
wiser
.”

Ash pulled her down and kissed her, running his hands through her hair, stroking her face, the column of her neck, her collarbone. He loved her collarbone. He said, “I want to be seduced by an older woman.”

They both became distracted then. He began to kiss and caress her with keen interest, his movements slow.

Lindha rolled on top of Ash, taking control. She gave him a haughty look. “Watch and learn, youngster. As an older woman I’m going to teach you everything you need to know. Now pay attention.” She began to move down his body, enjoying his reaction as he responded to her touch.

T
hey returned to the subject much later, but the argument continued. They sat beside each other in the blue and violet meadow. The horses had wandered some distance, but they would come when called.

“Ash, about Dorian and Anton, I can ensure that at least one Sister will befriend each of those boys. Why does it have to be sex?”

“They need mind-touch. Who knows what irrational decisions they have hidden? They both suffer the Dark Sankomin. I was a mess and you know it, and that all began from one event. I became self-destructive, inhibiting my powers. The boys were sexual toys for months. I can’t even imagine what they did to survive, how they learned to live with themselves. This will spiral, Lindha as you well know. They are thirteen. Sexual need comes with adolescence and with that comes guilt and additional awareness of what was done to them. And, more importantly, what choices they made and what they did because of it. They will feel bad, unclean and immoral, just as I did.”

Her brows furrowed. “The boys are not Delian — they won’t be victimized by the same uncontrollable passions that your people were subjected to. It follows that they won’t suffer with the Dark Sankomin to the degree that a Delian would. Perhaps they will be able to manage it.”

“Lindha,” he said persuasively, “I know what it is like to have that sexual burden at such a young age. It will tarnish their whole world.”

“So why don’t you mind-touch them?”

Ash lay back and placed both hands behind his head, looking up into a light green sky. A few pink clouds were moving, some darker. It might rain later. “I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe. I’d have to seek their permission. They have trust issues with men. I don’t want to make things worse.” He sighed. “Let the Sisters see what can be done. If necessary I’ll try.” He reached out, took one of her hands, kissed her palm and then released it.

She pulled her hand back and clasped both in front of her. Composed and formal, she said, “So, just to be sure of your command, Trueborn: You want me to tell the sisters to become friends and then seduce them as soon as possible, mind-touching them to heal them?”