Barbarian King’s Mate by Ivy Sparks
Chapter Five
Daphne
I didmy best to concentrate on the forest around me as we trekked, but my attention kept wandering back to Garath. Against my best efforts to focus on the mission, I couldn’t stop thinking about last night.
I couldn’t bring myself to accept how great it felt to lie next to him and fall asleep in his arms. We didn’t even do anything. We just fell asleep.
That wasn’t strictly true, though, was it? I did kind of maybe rub against his knee and press my body against his. Okay, so I didn’t kind of maybe. I really did rub the crook between my legs against his knee, and I would never forget the feeling of deep, matchless desire that flooded me when I did.
His body dwarfed mine by a mile, but I never felt so safe as I did with him. I felt safe enough to show how much I wanted him, even if I only showed it to myself. I could let down my guard and let myself want him. Something told me he’d never betray me like I’ve been betrayed before. He wouldn’t so much as consider it.
Even now, a feeling of peace and utter safety made me more relaxed around him. I didn’t worry about the Vorlax. He defeated five of them. Whatever they threw at us, he could handle it.
What would tonight hold? Would we end up sleeping together again? Would the same thing happen or…? Maybe it would go even further. Maybe we would really do it. There was an attraction that I was pretty sure we both were suppressing—and doing a terrible job at that. And if we went all the way, then what?
He said the leaves dulled the senses. That explained why I responded the way I did. That plant must’ve contained some kind of sedative drug. I should have taken samples, but at least I knew last night wasn’t any indication of my genuine feelings. It was a fluke. I was under the influence.
Timid little old me wasn’t the type of girl to fall for an alien, right?
Even still, part of me wished it were real. I had nothing against non-humans, unlike some, but I never wanted another relationship—not ever. I didn’t care what species the guy was.
Hold it right there, Daphne. There was no relationship. There wasn’t even a casual hookup. We spent the night jammed into the same hidden chamber. That was all. So I got turned on because some mind-altering plants put me into a trance. That meant nothing.
It wasn’t the plants that turned me on, though. That was just an excuse. I wanted him. I wanted to explore his body and see just how different we were, and how much we were the same. I even wished I could get into the same situation without the plants, so I could know if he felt the same way. Then I’d know for sure.
I got so engrossed in reliving last night that I didn’t see a root curving across my path. I tripped over it and pitched into Garath from behind. I caught myself, but not before he broke my fall and straightened me up.
Garath smiled down at me, and his eyes sparkled. “Steady.”
My cheeks heated, but when we started walking again, I slipped my hand into the crook of his arm. He didn’t pull away. In fact, he broke into a brilliant smile. He squeezed my hand against his ribs.
Garath kept an eye on my feet after that and steered me around several obstacles. He slowed down to make sure I didn’t fall again. Our route wound into a steep ravine. He took my hand and supported me across the stream at the bottom.
When we reached the other side, Garath squinted as he looked up. “We have a long climb to the top of this mountain. You should stop here and rest before we go on.”
“If you think we should rest, then okay.”
“I don’t need to rest,” he replied. “I never travel this slowly.”
“You don’t?” My eyes flew open. “How do you usually travel?”
“Run. I would run up it.”
I gaped up at the mountain. I couldn’t even see the top through the trees. “You run up… that?”
“Of course. All the time. Kavians always run. It’s the most efficient way to travel.” He paused to explain, “You move your legs, but faster.”
I clamped my mouth shut. This alien had the impression that running was a new concept to me just because I had moved at such a slow pace. And okay, maybe it wasn’t something I often partook in, but I at least understood the concept, for God’s sake!
“Would you like to try it?” Garath nudged patiently.
I suppressed a laugh. But he was right to assume that it was something I was hesitant to do. Especially up a mountain. “I couldn’t run up that. It’s too steep and too high.”
“I figured. You humans aren’t very fast, are you?”
“I mean, some of us are. I just don’t get that much exercise, being a lab rat and all.” I wondered for a moment if he’d even know what a “lab rat” was, or if the translator could make him understand.
Garath frowned briefly, then waved to a large boulder by the stream. “Sit down. I’ll fetch you some water.”
Garath strode to the water’s edge, squatted down, and cupped his hands in the clear pool. He dipped out a scoop of water and carried it over to me. He held up his hands to my mouth. “Drink.”
I hesitated, but my burning thirst overcame my objections. I lowered my lips to his palms as he raised his large hands to my mouth. I had to put my mouth right against his skin to sip the water.
Garath tipped his arms to pour the water into my mouth. Without thinking, I grabbed his wrists to steady his hands to my own pace. The water cooled my throat and satisfied me beyond words. But in the middle of drinking, I realized I was touching his hands and essentially kissing his fingers. Nothing could be more sensual than that.
My eyes flew up, and I saw him looking down at me from above. Did he find anything odd or overly familiar in this intimate situation? A strange light glinted in his eyes. What was he thinking right now?
Garath’s shoulders rippled as he held his arms in front of him. The position made his muscles stand out and the tattoos shimmer across his skin. He towered over me, nearly double my size. He looked ferocious and alien, with those menacing black horns sticking out of his skull. Those hands—the same ones I was almost kissing moments before—they could shoot their spikes into me at a moment’s notice.
A tendril of adrenaline flashed through my body. He could kill me right now. He could kill me whenever he wanted to. He didn’t need spikes or horns—and forget about that knife he carried in his belt. He could break me in half with his bare hands if he really wanted to.
That lick of fire didn’t make me pull away from him, though. Instead, it twined down to my crotch and my folds swelled with a sudden burst of moisture into my panties. I had been walking around half-naked in front of him for over a day. I slept half-naked next to him last night. I had been in such a precarious position, and I hadn’t even fully considered it until now.
I flashed back to the moment, right before I had fallen asleep. I flexed my hips and rubbed my crotch against his knee. God, I had wanted him so badly! Right then, a flush of desire went through me all over again. I still felt that way. I could touch him and push myself against him right now, and I couldn’t blame that sudden rush of craving on any plant. I wasn’t under the influence now.
Too slowly, I let go of his wrists and straightened up, but his eyes hypnotized me and I couldn’t look away. He lowered his arms and shook the water off his hands. That strange look in his eyes didn’t go away. Did he feel anything for me at all? Was he anything more than a wild beast? Was that the kind of alien I was getting turned on by—a beast?
Garath turned away like he didn’t think or feel anything. “We should go. We need to get under cover.”
“Where are we going?”
He pointed to the mountaintop. “Up there. We’ll be safe there.”
I started after him. He must’ve found it to be so boring walking at my pace. “I appreciate you going through so much trouble for me.”
Garath didn’t turn around. “You’re welcome.”
Great. Now what was I supposed to say? We’d been walking in silence for hours and I didn’t want to do it anymore. “I should contact my ship—the one that dropped me off on this planet.”
Garath craned around to raise his eyebrows at me, but he didn’t stop walking. “Can you contact it? How will you do that?”
“Good question. Philippa—my mentor who died in the glade—had a communications device on her when the Vorlax attacked us, but I don’t know if she had it after they captured her. I had a navigation watch that could’ve guided me back to our equipment, but I guess the Vorlax swiped it from me after they knocked me out.”
“Regardless, going back to the glade is out of the question,” Garath snapped.
“I know. I wasn’t suggesting we go back there. I’m just saying…” What exactly was I saying? “I don’t like being a burden to you. If I contact the ship, they’ll come and get me. They’ll pick me up and then you can go back to… whatever you were doing before you rescued me from the Vorlax.”
Garath trained a harsh gaze at me again. “My people and I were preparing for the Ranxi. We’re always preparing, in case they find us again.”
“Well, you don’t want me hanging around, getting in the way, do you? If I can find a way to contact the ship, I won’t be.” I waited to see what his reaction would be.
He remained stoic. “All right. As soon as you figure out how to contact the ship, be sure to let me know.”
That ended the conversation if anything did.
How do you think you’re going to contact the Quest, Daphne?
More to the point, how do you think you’re going to contact the Quest without going back either to the glade or to the hilltop where you and Philippa left your packs?
The Vorlax would be all over the glade. Hence the reason Garath went to all this effort and trouble to get me away from that area. If the Vorlax found Philippa and me on that hilltop, they could do the same thing again.
For all I knew, they’d ransacked our packs and destroyed my communications device along with Philippa’s, in which case going back there would not only be futile but suicidal.
So much for my brilliant attempt at making polite conversation. We both fell silent for a long time. Pretty soon, the mountain became so steep and treacherous that grilling Garath on his personal circumstances became impossible, anyway.
We climbed up a steep ridge to another deep gorge, plunging into a black forest where no light penetrated. No, scratch that. I climbed up the steep ridge. Garath sauntered along at a leisurely pace so that he didn’t leave me behind. He didn’t climb. He hardly seemed to notice the incline.
Garath helped me over cracks and slippery embankments. Taking his hand, leaning on him, and letting him lift me over difficult ground became second-nature until I lost awareness of how many times I did it. I accepted his help and his nearness with relief.
Another four hours of climbing brought us halfway up the other side of the gorge. The trees grew thinner here, and more sunshine peeked through the canopy. The trail switched back and forth, winding its way to the peak that flicked in and out of sight between the branches.
We came to another corner. I turned it to navigate the next stretch of the slope, but Garath stopped. “Not that way. Over here.”
He led the way onto a barely perceptible side path. If he didn’t step onto it, I never would have noticed it. It led around the mountain in the opposite direction.
I stole a glance upward, trying to catch another glimpse of the jagged pinnacle in the distance. “You said we were going up there. You said we’d be safe there.”
“It’s this way. Come.”
He set off along the mountain’s other flank. In half a second, the path vanished. I couldn’t have found my way back there if I tried.
We must have covered another half mile, and pretty soon, what I thought was a side path vanished too. It dwindled to nothing. Garath was navigating blind, if he was navigating at all. At least, that was how it seemed to my untrained eyes.
I looked back. Dense trees and steep ravines surrounded me for hundreds of miles. I couldn’t find my way back to the glade, the hilltop, or the beach, even if I wanted to. I was completely at Garath’s mercy. Should I be worried about that?
A single woman like me shouldn’t have put her life and her future into a stranger’s hands. I realized that now, but it was too late to turn back. He was my only chance of escaping the Vorlax—not only in the glade, but everywhere on this crazy planet. If I survived long enough to get off this planet, I would have him to thank for it.
He turned into a thicket next to the path—or where a path would have been if there had been one at all. I saw nothing unusual about this bunch of foliage, except maybe that it was more closely packed than some of the surrounding shrubbery.
Without missing a beat, Garath raised his arm, clenched his fist, and the spikes on his knuckles shot out. He slashed the brambles aside to reveal the entrance into a pitch-black tunnel.
I stopped on a dime, and this time, I drew back. “We aren’t going in there!”
Garath nodded. “This is the only place you’ll be safe from the Vorlax. They don’t know about this location—and it’s a good thing too.”
He stepped into the tunnel and let the brambles fall behind him. They completely obscured the opening. No one would know the tunnel was there unless they knew where to find it.
I blinked at it. Now what was I supposed to do? Every fiber of my being revolted against this. I couldn’t go in there. The hut was bad enough. How long did Garath expect me to stay in there without light? Until the Vorlax gave up looking for me? I could be there for years.
My mind spun. Philippa and I were supposed to be here for two weeks. If we didn’t contact the Quest before then, the ship would consider us goners and reevaluate the viability of ever landing here again. After a certain time period, they might not pick me up even if I did contact them.
Just when I pondered all over again how I was going to get in contact with the Quest, Garath stuck his head out and pulled back the brambles. “Are you coming or not? We can’t wait all day. The longer you stand around out here, the more scent you’ll leave for the Vorlax to find us.”
He stood back and held the branches aside. The tunnel plunged into a sightless distance. I couldn’t see any end to it. I swallowed hard. There was no use in hesitating. I couldn’t contact the Quest if I were dead.
I stepped into the hole and he dropped the branches behind me. They cut off the last trace of light as darkness enveloped us. My heart plummeted into my shoes and I fought back mounting despair.
At that moment, Garath slipped his hand into mine. A rush of heat ran up my arm when our palms touched. “It isn’t far,” he whispered. “Stay close to me.”
He pulled me against him, and my body bumped into his. He was right there. I wrapped my other hand around his arm.
Farther down the tunnel, a pale gleam came from one side. I strained my eyes to see something, anything, but Garath seemed to head straight for it. He turned a corner and a brilliant light blinded me.
I shielded my eyes from the glow. It took me a minute to realize I wasn’t in the forest anymore. I was standing on a high ledge overlooking an absolutely massive valley.
No, it couldn’t be a valley. It had a roof. But large crevices let sunshine and sky pour in and made it almost brighter than the outside world.
Down on the cavern floor, it looked like any normal valley between mighty mountain peaks. The cavern sides rose to impossible heights. Forests covered their sides, with waterfalls crashing into pools and flowing into rivers that wound along the valley floor.
More trees, fields, rolling meadows, and verdant glades lined the river. Huts and larger buildings filled the cavern from the floor below, all the way to the roof so high above. Bridges and ramps connected them in a giant labyrinth of dwellings stretching for miles through this enclosed world.
I gasped and stared at the sight, too astounded to blink. “This is… What is this? Where… where are we?”
Garath tugged my hand. “This is Caverncall. It’s one of the new Kavian homes since we lost our homeworld. Come on. Let’s go.”
