Savage Seed by Ivy Sparks
27
Leslie
I awoke without warning,the darkness of night still thick around me. My mouth was dry from sleep and the desert. The heat from the fire beside me only made it worse, so I rolled off the bedroll and grabbed the canteen of water Kade had laid out for me. I took a drink, careful to stay mindful of our rations and the journey still ahead of us.
Moving around showed me just how sore my body was. I rubbed my hips where Kade’s hands had pressed so tightly into me, where his own hips had thrust against me. I was sure that I’d bruise, but other than the inconvenience, I didn’t care. It’d been worth it to connect to him so deeply.
The thought surprised me a little bit. It all did. But the truth was that I was finally moving beyond so much of my discomfort. With Kade’s people and their customs. The tribe had changed me in many ways… and I kinda liked it.
My mind helplessly wandered back to Kade. To his insistence as he thrust into me, both with his tongue and his cock. A shiver ran down my spine, and my nipples hardened. It was unlike anything I’d ever experienced; the pure possessiveness in his eyes made my most sensitive parts throb at just the memory.
I looked around camp for him, happy to finally spot him in the distance talking something over with either Novak or Llanos. It was hard to tell who it was in the darkness.
He was turned to me, giving my eyes full access to his toned back and ass. I wasn’t sure I’d ever get used to just how perfect of a body he had.
And the fact that he was mine.
It still felt like a dream.
I took a deep breath and tried to steady my already-racing heart. He was working. I shouldn’t ogle him like he was a piece of meat.
A very fine piece of meat.
Myvery fine piece of meat.
Giggling a little at my silliness, I sighed and rolled back onto the bedroll, pulling the blanket up around me. I buried my nose in it, deeply inhaling Kade’s scent.
I wasn’t sure which happened first, or if they both happened at the same time… but an instant later I suddenly felt the cold, sharp steel of a blade against my throat, and a voice in my ear.
“Don’t fucking move, you bitch,” it whispered, and by the smell alone I could tell it was Trag behind me.
The blanket fell out of my hands, but otherwise I stayed stone still.
“You think this is over?” Trag continued. “Just because he fucks you in front of me… just because he’s the son of the king—a weak and feeble king, by the way—you both think this is somehow over?”
I opened my mouth, thinking that maybe I could reason with him. But before I could utter more than a squeak, Trag’s blade dug deeper into my throat and his free arm wrapped harshly around my waist.
“Quiet, bitch!” he whispered directly into my ear, his breath hot and disgusting against my skin. Such a harsh contrast to Kade’s, only a few hours ago.
“When I saw you, I knew you were going to be mine,” he went on. I tried to look around camp, see if help was anywhere near… but Trag held the blade too close to my throat. I dared not even swivel my head an inch. “Just because the Omos came walking in with you doesn’t automatically make you his property.” His use of the word “Omos” was dripping with sarcasm and bile.
“But I see now I won’t be able to take you from him,” he said. “At least, not in a way that would make you mine. So instead, I’ll have to take you away in a different sense. By cutting your fucking throat and ending your miserable—”
Trag and my interaction had lasted less than a minute before he and his knife suddenly disappeared, an enormous cacophony of sound accompanying his departure. I rolled away, completely confused and flabbergasted by the sound and movement around me, trying to get my bearings and see what had happened.
I squinted in the firelight as I saw movement around the edges of the camp as the rest of Kade’s warriors came toward the fight. I could see Trag, tucked into a defensive roll, snarling and grasping desperately at his new foe.
I’d expected that foe to be Kade, coming heroically to my rescue. Instead what I saw was the sand tiger, her sleek green fur shifting in the firelight as she rolled away from Trag. Her golden eyes were trained on him, and she snarled as he lunged toward her, his blade extended.
In one fluid motion, she rolled back onto all fours, roaring and rearing up on her hind legs. I couldn’t register what happened next; my eyes weren’t trained enough to follow this kind of action. But the results were clear. Trag, on his knees in front of the sand tiger, held what was left of his bloody right arm with his left hand.
He moaned pathetically, looking up at the sand tiger and waiting for the death blow. But instead of attacking further, the sand tiger backed away. What was she doing? She had Trag completely at her mercy.
She turned, then, and looked directly at me. And if I had any doubt about her after our earlier encounter next to the livestock pen, I had none now.
The sand tiger had saved my life.
I stared at her in shock, a sense of gratitude coming over me that nearly matched how I’d felt when Kade had first saved me from the sand beast. And just as suddenly as everything else seemed to be happening, the sand tiger was knocked to the ground by a massive body flying through the air.
“Kade!” I yelled, watching as he finished his initial tackle and rolled away from the sand tiger. She was stunned this time. I could see her shake her head while slowly regaining her feet. That was all the time Kade was going to need, though. He effortlessly lifted the spear that had never left his hand and prepared to fire it at the tiger.
“No!” I yelled, running toward the sand tiger. I stopped directly in front of her, putting myself in front of Kade’s spear, my feet sliding in the sand.
“Leslie,” he roared, his eyes wide and wild. “What are you doing? Get out of the way!”
I could feel the sand tiger’s breath billowing across my back as I held my arms out to protect her. “She’s not here to harm us,” I said forcefully. “This is the second time she’s saved me, Kade.”
“Saved you?” he bellowed. “Look at what she did to Trag! You think she wasn’t about to do the same to you?”
Realization hit me: Kade hadn’t seen Trag attack me. “Kade, Trag was—”
“No, Leslie,” he said to me, his fiery intensity startling. “It’s time to end this hunt, once and for all.”
I stared back at him. It was clear he was too worked up to listen. But it was just as clear, to me at least, that there was no way I was going to let him hurt this creature.
“Step. Aside,” he intoned.
“No.”
The moment hung in the air for what felt like an eternity. Could I have imagined a scenario like this just a couple of weeks ago? Plain, little me, staring down a huge striped alien—an alien I think I might actually kinda love—protecting a vicious sand tiger from his spear.
But still… here we were.
For the sand tiger’s part, she remained behind me, unmoving. Whatever was about to happen, it seemed she was going to let it.
Kade stayed in position, his arm ready to launch his spear, but I noticed the tension leave his body slightly. His eyes, just a moment ago filled with fire, now looked at me as if pleading.
Now it seemed I could speak and be heard. “Trag had a knife,” I said, glaring over at my attacker. He was on his back now, still clinging to the remains of his arm and rocking back and forth slowly. “He sneaked up on me, put it to my throat, and said he was going to kill me. And the sand tiger saved me.”
Kade looked at Trag, indecision on his face. “Would he really go that far?” he asked softly, more to himself than any of the others.
“Yes, Omos,” a voice spoke up from the small crowd around us. “I saw it.”
We all turned, and I was shocked to see Dina, her head bowed.
The tiger, still behind me, sat down on her butt and licked her paw, running it over her head. For her, it seemed, the danger had passed.
“Speak, Dina,” Kade said, lowering his spear, but keeping a firm grip should he still need it.
“I was awake,” Dina said. “I couldn’t sleep, and I watched as Trag approached her. I saw him pull his blade out, watched as he put it to her throat—”
“And you did nothing?” Kade growled. He somehow seemed to grow several inches in that moment, towering over a slumped Dina.
“I… I am sorry, Omos,” she said. “I have not… thought too fondly of Leslie, I admit. And I hesitated.” She turned and looked at me. “I’m sorry, Leslie. I did finally rise from my bedroll, and had grabbed my spear. I was about to come to your aid when the sand tiger attacked Trag. But my decision to help would have come too late. If the tiger had not saved you…” She lowered her head shamefully.
Despite Kade’s anger, Dina walked directly over to him and took a knee in front of him. I could see his simmering rage, and his indecision on where to put it.
“Kade,” I whispered, just loud enough for him to hear me. “It’s okay. Let it go.”
I’d never seen him look so torn apart, and at that moment, I wasn’t sure what would happen.
* * *
Kade
Madness.Madness had descended upon my camp and my people. And my life.
I had grown up with Trag. I had no illusions about the kind of man he was, or what he was capable of. And yet I had somehow let myself believe he would fall in line once I had shown him, and everyone, my commitment to Leslie.
And Dina. Bah. A foolish girl with a foolish crush on me, a girl who I and Ria both had hoped would snap out of it and become her own person. It was why Ria suggested she be paired with Leslie in her training. Was that a mistake? Had I overestimated Dina? Or was the submission she was showing now, taking a knee and bowing before me while owning up to her mistake, enough to show she is on a better path?
I put my hand on Dina’s head. “Fall back in line,” I said brusquely, and she did, rising quickly and taking a position between Llanos and Novak. I would decide if there was to be any further discipline for her later.
The sand tiger. I looked over at her, sitting serenely behind Leslie, looking more like a domesticated pet than a fierce desert predator. It made no sense to me. Everything I have learned since I was a young boy told me not to trust the image before me.
I knew this was not the sand tiger that had killed my mother and so many of my people. She was too young. But that hadn’t stopped me, or even slowed me down. I had wanted revenge for what that long gone creature had taken from me. And I was prepared to kill each and every one of her kind to get it.
I looked at Ria, perhaps my most trusted warrior and friend, for some small guidance. She looked back at me and shrugged dramatically, an exaggerated gesture that lowered the tension of the moment, and for a second, I could almost smile.
Finally, I decided. With caution and a firm grip still on my spear, I approached the sand tiger.
I could feel Leslie’s eyes on me as I passed her, my own locked on this creature I was still not convinced I could trust. But my mate stepped aside, showing me a level of trust I found touching.
The sand tiger stood back on all fours as I approached, but made no other sudden moves. Her dark emerald eyes looked deeply into mine in a way that felt almost… intelligent. Thoughtful.
And there was something else. Something I never would have noticed from a hunting distance. Something I wouldn’t have noticed if I had found myself standing over her corpse.
She looked into my eyes, and I felt not a wild tiger staring back at me, but my own mother somehow brought back to life.
Was such a thing possible? I squinted and blinked, leaning so close to her snout that she could have bitten my face off before I could have so much as lifted my spear.
She returned my gaze, and I felt it then. A connection. It was murky and alien… but it was a connection just the same.
The desert was a strange place. I had heard stories of mysticism and magic my entire life, but had spent so much of it hunting and fighting that those stories had little impact on me. But I asked the question for a second time. Was such a thing possible? Could the spirit of my mother actually occupy this sand tiger’s body?
I thought back on our first warnings of a new sand tiger in the area. I remembered spotting her for the first time, and how she seemed to enjoy keeping within my sight, but still well out of range of any reasonable attack.
I had thought she was just another creature, luring me and my people toward her for an easier ambush. Had I been wrong even then?
I had chased her for days in the desert, eventually separating from my hunting party to keep pace with her. My father had given us a brief window to hunt and kill the sand tiger, and when we hadn’t killed her by then, I knew I had to send the rest back. But I’d been obsessed. Hungry for revenge. And so I had followed her, alone.
And she had led me directly to Leslie.
There was no doubt now that the roar that had alerted me to Leslie’s fight with the sand beast had come from this beast. Had that been her purpose all along? To lead me to Leslie?
And once that task had been finished, she had become Leslie’s protector. No doubt she had taken and killed our livestock more than once. But she had never harmed any of my people. On the night she found Leslie bathing alone, she had made an agreement with her directly.
Even then, Leslie had seen what I could not. That the sand tiger meant no harm.
I continued to stare into the beast’s eyes, still wondering if this was all in my imagination. But her eyes never left mine. Never changed. There was kindness, gentleness, and compassion in them.
My mother had been many things. A warrior. A teacher. A queen. But above all those things, she had been a mother. My mother.
Whether this beast contained her spirit or not, the two shared too many qualities to ignore.
Tears welled up in my eyes. I hadn’t shed a single tear since I was a child, not even when my mother had died. I wouldn’t start now.
I grunted, shifting in place, and the sand tiger gently bumped her nose against mine. It was a sweet gesture that suddenly brought back a forgotten memory, one of my mother and me, when I was still but a boy, and her performing a similar motion.
Had she done it more than once? I wondered. It was hard to remember my childhood, and painful to remember my mother. Had I suppressed even the happiest of moments in order to not face that loss?
I didn’t know, and at that moment, I didn’t care. Not anymore. And I didn’t know if this was truly my mother, or just a friendly beast who forced me to finally face my loss. What I did know now, with absolute surety, was that Leslie had been right. This beast not only meant us no harm, but seemed to be something of a guardian. How could I do anything other than thank her?
I dropped my spear, preparing to pat the beast on the head and show everyone, especially Leslie, that the hunt was over. It had not occurred to me that Trag had been waiting for just the right moment to strike. I didn’t see him charging at me with his blade in his good hand until it was too late.
