Amatista

There was no proof of the existence of such a map, and Kavi wondered if it was yet another myth created by the humans to lure the Fohers to them.

Humans wanted Amatista for money, to exploit it for riches, but not even their extravagant gadgets had been able to disclose its location.

For Kavi’s kind, covering the land on foot in search of this magical place that had once been there home would take them lifetimes they did not have.

Kavi was growing desperate.

The human woman had been an impulse, a decision stemming from rage. Lust. But now he realized it might pose a diversion. The human commander had seemed intent on protecting her, and Kavi realized she must be of value to him. He now considered the possibility of diverting the humans’ attentions to her, while he sent a dozen men on kabi-back in their continued search for the elusive purple river.

The dry, rocky river of amethysts.

The woman stirred in his arms and he slowed his pace to a walk. She squirmed now, her rump shimmying by his head in a way he couldn’t stand. He paused and tilted forward to brace her against a fat tree trunk.

She blinked up at him through clouded lilac eyes. Strands of pale yellow hair fell over her face, and he brushed them gently aside. Her sun-kissed skin was smooth under his fingers and her pupils were dilated by the drug. That did not detract from the surreal beauty of her eyes. Her face. The top of her head barely reached his chin, which stirred his protective instincts, and yet the shapely curves of her lovely body stirred another kind of urge. A primal need to take, claim, possess.

He felt the air leave his lungs, desire kicking inside him—and a need to have her as his own. “You’ve sealed your fate, little woman,” he said, straining to keep his voice level. “You’d best pray to your god I have more mercy than you did with me.”

Her eyes had drifted shut already, and he had to resist the urge to shake her awake and demand she finish what she’d started in his cell. Yet she looked almost angelic in her sleep, her oval-shaped face graced with exquisite features he’d never in his life seen before. His thumb was bigger than her nose, and though her mouth wasn’t too wide, it was plump and kissable.

He’d already experienced what that little pink mouth could do. Now all he could think of was feeling it around him again.

He wanted to drop his pants and force his cock into that mouth, pound until she drank every drop of juice from him. His shoulders, legs, his whole body shook from the need. But he was no animal. He was a Foher—and he had discipline.

He’d taken women in his mouth many times and plenty of females had pleased him in the same manner, taking his cock inside theirs. While Fohers had only one mate and a Foher man would spill his seed only inside the sex of the woman he chose to spend his life with, oral play was common among them. Ajay’s mate had numerous times, by Ajay’s request, sucked on Kavi’s cock, and Kavi in turn had pleased her with his mouth.

But this human… No one had ever left him wanting like she had.

No one had made him feel desire so fiercely it had pained more than the whipping he’d taken. Taking her with his mouth would not be play. Kavi felt the tormenting need to feel her sheath around him, to be relieved by her.

He exhaled a shaky breath, not wanting to waste more valuable minutes. Gently taking her by the waist, he draped her over his rested shoulder.

His hands shook on her. He didn’t feel like himself at all. The drug the humans had forced on him still made him feel sluggish, and yet his insides were the complete opposite—he felt angry. He felt hatred. He felt lust.

But he employed the same discipline he’d been taught as a child and kept his mind focused on the camp. On arriving. Taking a bath in the nearby river. Having a nice warm meal. After that, he would think about the woman again.

And pay her back in kind.

* * * * *

Her neck felt stiff and her arms were numb. That was the first thing Liana became aware of as she woke, her eyes blinking to focus. As she moved, every muscle in her body screamed in protest. Her head felt so heavy she had no doubt a live horse had just been sitting on top of it.

Scanning her blurry surroundings in a daze, she deduced she was in a darkened tent, lying on a cot draped in some sort of luxurious, fluffy pelt of fur. It felt as warm and silky as a kitten at her back.

Then she slowly became conscious of the fact that her nipples felt frozen and her legs trembled with cold…

She was naked.

Shocked, she started to sit, expecting to find her cousin lurking in the shadows somewhere, but her arms and legs jerked her back with a jolt. To her shock she discovered her arms and ankles were tied to each end of the cot. She tested the bindings, trying one more time to move and failing again.

Someone had made a big mistake and tied her facing the wrong way. The mark was on her back. It would make reading it impossible. How could Lyle expect the captured Foher to decipher it this way? And why had the man found it necessary to strip her completely? She was freezing!

She tried to cry out for someone, anyone—but no sound came out except a squeak that died a quick death on the cloth around her mouth.

“You’ve awakened.”

The words were spoken with a thick, surly accent.

Liana choked in panic as a figure stepped forward, a familiar face atop a massive, muscled body appearing a scant few feet away. Memories flooded her of the chaos the night before…and she knew she was no longer at the human camp.