Bay's Mercenary [Unearthly World Book 1] (12 page)

“Damn,” he
muttered.

“What?”

“I ripped the
sheets to hell. This is why we mate outside. Are you alright?”

“I’m with you, of
course I’m alright. I love you, Zane.”

“I would die for
you.”

Bay smiled in the
dark. Zane told that to
Draven
each night before
going to bed. Explaining making love was difficult enough to Zane. His warrior
mind put things into perspective—you loved what you would die for. It was
Zane’s way of telling her he loved her, too.

* * * *

Zane was frantic;
Bay could almost feel his fear as he paced back and forth. When they had
awoken,
Draven
was gone. Bay had an awful notion he
went to search for his mother. Zane had expressed the same thought.

Blu
came running through the open
front door. “This is not good. The
Castian
wants to
see Bay now, but we have to find
Draven
.”

“I won’t let Bay
near that damned
Castian
unless she’s with me.” Zane
roared in anger.

“Go find
Draven
,” Bay pleaded.

“I don’t want to
leave you here all alone; a few
Zargonnii
females
have made it to our territory,” Zane said.

“You said nothing
could penetrate your home. I’ll be fine,” Bay insisted.

Zane gripped her
shoulders. “Nothing of my world can penetrate my home; it’s never been tested
by a
Castian
warship.
Blu
says they will battle for a single female; Earth females are that important to
the warriors.”

Bay shuddered, but
with resolve, took his hands from her shoulders.
“Find
Draven
.”

“The females won’t
hurt
Draven
; he’s a child and not near any of their
female offspring. He’s no threat whatsoever, also nowhere near his cycle,”
Blu
said. “But Zane is in his cycle; if he is out, the
females will automatically assume he is looking to mate. I’ll go look for
Draven
.”

“I can’t just sit
here,” Zane shouted. “
Blu
, stay with Bay. I need to
find my son.” Before Bay could say anything, Zane stormed out.
Blu
went after him leaving Bay standing there alone.

It took all of two
seconds before Bay decided she couldn’t just sit and wait; she loved
Draven
too. If the female
Zargonnii
wouldn’t hurt
Draven
, she doubted they would hurt
her. Bay was no physical threat, and she certainly couldn’t mate with one of
them. Zane said the females liked strong partners, and Bay was a little lacking
in that department. What Bay did know was that a
Castian
warrior wanted her, and he more than likely could find out where she was. Bay
wasn’t certain of the
Castian
ship’s ability, but
“Beam me up, Scotty” wasn’t working for her. She wasn’t going to sit and wait
for the house to be stormed.

Bay peeked out the
front door into the dark tunnel that led to the outer unearthly world. The
backyard was the only place she had been since coming here with
Blu
. After creeping a few short feet, Bay strode on
determinedly—both feet forward, do or die. Outside was still dripping with all
the torrential rain they’d had. It was overcast and the foliage dark in areas,
misty with fog in others. Creepy, it was creepy. Bay could hear loud noises
coming from behind her that hurried her step. The
Zargonnii
females made their presence known by calling to the males; they weren’t there
to fool around—get in—get out.

At a strange
noise, Bay stopped dead in her tracks; a female
Zargonnii
was staring at her. The female looked as startled as Bay felt. Bay looked way
up at the nine-foot-tall creature and sucked in her breath. She was massive.
Having grown used to the
Zargonnii
looks, Bay also
thought she looked very majestic, and though primitive, she was nevertheless
beautiful.

“Oh, you’re
stunning,” Bay whispered.
“Simply gorgeous.
No wonder
your males are drawn to you.”

The female was
hairy all over, but the fur seemed finer than the males, she was wearing no
clothing. Her teeth were larger and there was no facial hair, not even the
single eyebrow. Her long mane of white hair came alive in the breeze,
fluttering below her waist. Red eyes were glowing but not piercing with
intensity, just curiosity. Perhaps because of the rain, the
Zargonnii
female smelled as fresh as a clean wash on a line. Though the female was void
of breasts, her figure was nevertheless shapely with rounded hips and a broad almost
bulbous chest giving the illusion she was big-breasted with an hourglass
figure.

Bay was in
absolute awe. Breathtaking was such a shallow word to describe the female’s
magnificence. Both females studied one another. Finally, the female
Zargonnii
snorted out what could possibly be a laugh and
walked away. Bay breathed a sigh of relief—one question solved. No,
Zargonnii
females wouldn’t kill her, there was no reason
to.

More growls and
grunts could be heard to her left and Bay screamed in terror when a
Zargonnii
male and female came crashing through the
vegetation. The female was over eight feet tall; the male was almost the same
height. Bay jumped behind gnarled branches and roaming roots and vines,
watching as both beings fought for dominance. The pair seemed evenly matched
and if neither could win, Bay knew they would separate to find another to mate
with.

The battle was
beyond brutal. Bay had thought Zane had been a bit rough the night before—she
was sadly mistaken. Male and female growled and bit and swung at one another in
a fight that looked like life and death. No wonder Zane was so amazed with her.
The female was relentless; her arms and claws a whirlwind of action. She
knocked the male to the ground and pummeled him until the male lay still and
changed into his smaller self, losing battle mode. The female was on top of him
and both
began
grunting and groaning. Bay couldn’t
watch any longer.

The entire jungle
seemed alive and wild. Zane told her it was because the female
Zargonnii
normally kept the
cyron
away. But while they mated, the massive beasts slipped through their defenses,
as well as others the females would battle on their way back to their
domain—like the
bangore
.

Bay heard the small
cry of a frightened child and fled in that direction. She found
Draven
curled in a ball, with a beast the likes she
couldn’t imagine in her wildest nightmares standing way too close to the child.
The twelve-foot-high monster dripped green saliva like a faucet from a mouth
full of three sets of jagged teeth that were pulled back from a long, wrinkled,
dark snout. Long, black hair from its body swayed as it moved.

Bay stood in front
of
Draven
, hoping he could get away before the thing
killed her. Smoke snorted from the
cyron’s
mouth,
Zane had described the creature in great detail yet hadn’t given its ferocious
look justice. Bay could see its white eyes through all the hair, glowing like
deep corruptive tunnels with no end.
Three long horns, each
larger than the one before it, stuck out in a horizontal pattern from forehead
to snout, each point shiny and sinister.
The pointed three claws on its
feet and hands burned as though embers lit them into a fiery red blue. When the
creature touched a gnarled tree, the trunk sizzled and burned like a brand,
leaving the wood smoldering as though a victim of a heinous crime.
Draven
called to her, but Bay was concentrating on not fainting.
She was staring death in the face, trying not to be a coward, but she would
allow nothing to harm the child she considered her own.

When the
cyron
dropped to all fours, ready to attack,
Draven
howled. Bay grabbed a stick from the jungle floor;
it wiggled in her hands, and as her grip tightened, it stiffened. More fire
shot from all three horns as though small volcanoes lit the sky, a red
substance oozed across a bald snout. The creature bellowed a deep rumbling
sound that moved the ground beneath Bay’s feet. It struck. Bay swung her weapon
with all her might; she knew it would be the only shot she’d have and she aimed
for its eyes.

“
Draven
, run,” she screamed.

Her hard-flung
swing connected; the pain of the blow reverberated up her arms, rattling her
teeth. The attack was swift, and Bay fell to the ground from the breeze it
created.
Bay’s mouth widened in stunned surprise.
A
female
Zargonnii
ripped into the
cyron
with a vengeance. Bay sat plopped on her behind with her mouth hanging open.
The stick she had held was shattered; its tiny shards wiggling like a mass of
worms. The fight was brutal. The
Zargonnii
female was
over nine feet, her claws were four inches in length,
her
fanged teeth were so large she wouldn’t have been able to close her mouth over
them.

The
cyron
screamed in rage. Bay had managed to gouge out an
eye; its mouth spewed a foul smelling stream of liquid lava. The substance
bounced harmlessly off the female
Zargonnii
. She, in
return, gripped a horn, yanked it off and attacked the other two horns. All
three sprouted a yellow substance that oozed down the sides of the creature when
pulled from its head. The
cyron
sent a massive clawed
paw into the
Zargonnii’s
chest but only scooped a
fistful of hair. The female sunk her jagged teeth into the being’s snout and
bit half of it off. The
cyron
smashed her into a
tree, but she bounced back and shredded the creature. Bay had never seen such fury.

When the
cyron
lay dead in a bloody pulp of oozing flesh, the female
turned to confront Bay. Bay sat motionless, still in awe.
Draven
ran into Bay’s arms and tried to hide. The female
Zargonnii
shook herself from head to toe and slowly shrank to her normal massive size.
She sniffed the air and cocked her head to the side.

“You should be
home, my little one,” the
Zargonnii
female said to
Draven
.
“Both you and your pet.”

Bay was astounded.
She understood the deep guttural words.
Draven
hadn’t
been teaching her a drivel language; he had been teaching her his mother’s
language.

Draven
looked up at the female. “I
was looking for you.”

Again Bay was
amazed; this female was
Draven’s
mother. The species
had an uncanny sense of family awareness even though they stayed separate.

“There are times
when a male will come looking for his mother,” she replied. “But it must be to
say goodbye. You must never come out in the jungle again when it’s mating
season until you reach your cycle—which won’t be for many years, my youngest
love.”

“Then I lose you
all over again, and now I’m losing Bay.”

“What’s a Bay?”

“Um, that would be
me,” Bay said, creeping to her feet.

“Your pet speaks,”
now it was the
Zargonnii
who looked amazed.

“I’m not a pet;
I’m a human female.”

“Your human males
must be
piddly
little weaklings,” she replied summing
Bay up; her face was a cross between incredulous and pity.

Bay understood
what she meant, she must automatically assume human males were smaller than
Bay. She wasn’t going to correct her. Instead, she turned to
Draven
.

“I won’t leave
you,” Bay promised. “Your father and I were going to tell you that this
morning. You are my family,
Draven
. I love you. I’m
not going anywhere. I promise.”

“You mean it?”
Draven’s
look was skeptical.

“I won’t ever lie
to you; I didn’t from the first day we met.”

Draven
whooped in delight then
sobered. “But the
Castian
wants you.”

“And I want you,”
Bay said.

“And I want you
both to leave the jungle.” The
Zargonnii
female
sounded annoyed.

“Is my father out
here?”
Draven
asked.

“
Yes,
and your uncle.” Bay glanced about worriedly wondering
how she was going to get
Draven
home safely. “We have
to get back, quickly. It’s dangerous out here.”

“I will take you
both home and look for your father,
Draven
,” the
Zargonnii
said.

“What’s your
name?” Bay asked her.

“
Vala
.”

“
Vala
, Zane isn’t out here to mate,” Bay said uneasily.