Guardian [New World Book 6] (9 page)

“Someone’s bound to get suspicious when I go flying into a cave wall for say, the hundredth time. Damn, but she’s got one brutal baby shield.”

Taz chuckled before turning serious. “Is there any way to get the baby to let you close? I’m still new to this father business. We never had this trouble with Ally; then again, all were females.”

“I don’t know. Slay, my warrior mate has a daughter. I was allowed near his mate while she carried, but the babe sensed her father’s relationship to me. Our blood flows together.”

“Maybe if we took Macey out into the jungle and introduced you to the baby.”

“Trust me, your kid knows I’m around,” Roam said wryly. “He sent me flying this morning when all I tried to do was help Macey carry in some water. Damn, he’s got a good pitch. Great aim too—at least the gator thought so, I damned near ended up in its mouth. Which, by the way, isn’t so amusing when my shield isn’t up. Gators are decidedly less cuddly when exposed to flesh. It’s a good thing only Macey was around. Having part of my armor come up to shield my ass would have been a dead giveaway.”

“Let’s try and get my little warrior to trust you. Otherwise, I foresee a very long rainy season. You might want to invest in a helmet.”

It took the warriors very little time to catch a marsh deer. Roam watched as Taz dispatched it as mercifully as he could. Roam grimaced. He didn’t like to kill, but it was a necessary evil. The humans had to eat. If it were just Roam, he would have kept the pretty little creature to take to Bagron.

“I can sense you are not happy with the kill,” Taz said and frowned.

“I can scent you are.”

“I’ve been providing my family with food for a long time. They eat or they starve. In the beginning, when the storms were at their worst, it was difficult to get my shield to generate. There were times I hunted without its aid. Very primitive. Times when I needed to tap into my genetic primitive memories, from before Tonans and Castians split. My emotions were all scrambled for a while. I had to literally shrug myself out of the emotion. Poor Macey got the brunt end once.”

Roam might have been appalled but Taz was smiling. “What did you do to her?”

“
With
her is more the question.” Taz winked at him. “When you get yourself a mate you might want to explore those memories at least once. You have them, it’s in our Castian past.”

Roam could scent Taz’s emotion. They were almost at the cave. Roam had a brief image of a couple mating wildly in a shelter. The male Castian warrior was all over the female. She didn’t seem to mind, even when the warrior grabbed her hair and thrust brutally within her.

Roam leaned in close to Taz. “You did that?”

Taz grinned, Roam scented he was recalling the same memory. “That and then some.” Taz was still chuckling. “It’s been strange having you here. I mean that in a good way. Your thoughts are pure, you never lie. I sense your compassion. The way you treat Haven is delicate considering she has a crush on you. Skylar senses you have eyes for Jinx and has discreetly backed off. She loves Jinx.”

“You do too.”

“Yes, in my own way I do. You aren’t judgmental with me. It’s still somewhat of a culture shock, having a Castian around who doesn’t loathe me or look at me like I’m pure evil.”

“I have to admit it took a while to get past your distrust of me. I’m used to being around Tonans. The ones on Bagron were like you at first. Waiting for their senses to be bombarded with anger. I understand Tonans sense things like Castians. The first night in the cave with you, I needed to rinse my mouth out; I could taste your worry.”

Taz had surprised Roam more than he knew. When the Tonan were reintroduced back onto Bagron, there were other Tonans, not only one. They would group together, feel out and sense how a Castian warrior was feeling toward them. There was a lot of animosity, mostly from the Castians, but because the Tonans didn’t reek of deception they were tolerated.

Jinx and Haven came racing from the cave followed closely by Skylar. Roam smiled at all of them, they were like a pack of wolves Taz showed him. They all came running when the leaders of the pack came home to welcome them. Haven was still at that gangly teenage stage. Roam had come across a few on Bagron her age. Most were smitten with the warriors. Skylar was a real beauty. Taz would have his hands full once they arrived on Roam’s planet.

“He’s a beauty,” Haven gushed with enthusiasm over the deer. “I still think it’s amazing how you never find female animals to hunt.”

Roam knew Taz did. He chose not to hunt anything female. It was a sore point with the warrior. Taz was angry over the loss of his parents. Being raised by a hurtful male aided in Taz’s compassion toward females. Roam didn’t think he personally could hunt anything female, regardless; it wasn’t in a Castian’s nature.

“I’d like to get some roots to go with dinner. They need to be soaked in water first,” Jinx was looking at Taz.

Taz gave her a wry glance. For the last few days, Jinx was a little more subservient when it came to Taz. Roam was wondering if she was trying to impress him by not being as unruly as Taz made her out to be.

“Don’t be out long,” Taz said. “I still need Roam’s help after lunch.”

“Yes,
Dad
,” Jinx said and rolled her eyes.

Taz took a swat at her ass as she went by him. Roam trailed behind her until they entered the thicker part of the jungle. When traveling deep into the jungle, Roam was cautious. He couldn’t let his shield go up, but there were times when it was next to impossible. One of his greater fears was his shield occasionally had a mind of its own and was downright anal in its protection of him. Roam understood the reasoning behind this; if he was dead the reason for the shield would become moot.

When Roam was a child, he used to fantasize his shield was a separate entity. He imagined his shield like a shadow, walking around. Attached, but not. Many children had imaginary friends except he really couldn’t group his shield within that category. The shield was real; he just couldn’t step away from it, or hide from it. It came from within.

“So where did you grow up?” Jinx asked.

Roam would have sighed, but she was watching him closely. Jinx thought of him as a mystery she needed to solve. Or as Macey would say: he was a gift Jinx wanted to unwrap. Roam could sense her emotions. Curiosity practically oozed from her pores. All week she had been on the question attack, while he took up defensive maneuvers. It was hard to get to know someone when you tried even harder to avoid them. Getting her to trust him was tricky.

“A beautiful place.”

“Does it have a name?”

“Bagron.”

Jinx screwed her face into a mixture of curious emotion. “Never heard of it. Is it like one of those far-off places in a strange foreign area?”

“Definitely.”

“Is that where you want us all to go after the rainy season?”

“I’m hoping you will.”

“So do you have a girl there?”

Jinx had beaten around the question a few times; he wasn’t surprised she finally asked him point blank.

“No, there’s no one there for me. I guess the women don’t find me acceptable.” That was a sore point. Roam knew he was handsome, but with so many other warriors around, the females could pick and choose. Even with a new crop of females added four years ago it would be seventeen years before any of them could mate.

“I find you more than acceptable,” Jinx said. Roam could smell her shyness. The red hue creeping up her neck was cute. She was also being truthful.

“If I were to kiss you would you let me?” Roam had seen Slay and Tia lip-locked more times than he cared to. He was desperate to try. By the time he had gotten around the age where he wanted to seek out a female they were gone. A Castian male could fight by the age of five, but they didn’t mature sexually until they were four hundred years old. The females died when he reached maturity. The next must cycle had them all frantic. It hit too soon, when it wasn’t supposed to come for another four hundred years. The shields on unmated warriors went into survival mode as the warriors died. Too many male children cried for their mothers, encouraging a new must cycle. A shield only sensed a warrior’s needs, it didn’t have thought as to where they would find females to mate with. Everyone went a little crazy.

The war between the Tonans and the Castians escalated because of it. Four hundred year old men during must when there was no one to mate with made for some mighty angry warriors. Older warriors fared no better. Cobra and the few warriors left had their hands full with small boys with no parents. The small female children died first. A warrior couldn’t shield them forever. The poisoned water hit overnight. The women were already carrying their sons. It was then the horrible realization dawned. Females were selected for extinction. No one wanted to believe it, but when the male children lost their baby shields their mothers fell.

It was bitter sweet for the females carrying the male babes. For some of the females, the boys were their first children. Knowing too late the water was poison and death was imminent for their females was torture for the men. One by one, the mothers had died as the time approached. Cobra had ordered the Castian men to keep their shields up, but ultimately it was a warrior’s choice. To Roam’s knowledge all had chosen death, to be with their mate.

Jinx rose on tip toes. Her hands settled over his shoulders. Roam leaned down until they bumped noses. Jinx giggled and turned her head to the side. When her lips met his, Roam wanted to howl, but if he did, they would no longer be kissing. Inside her mouth was emotion heaven. Want, lust, satisfaction, smugness, knowing he wanted her. And the feeling of being cautious, anxious about giving herself to him from fear of loss. She wanted love, he could taste it, he could also taste her trepidation of the emotion; she had already lost so many loved ones. So many emotions at once, Roam thought for sure he would suffer mental exhaustion sorting them out.

Roam guided her senses to settle on pleasure. She groaned. His essence mixed with her, by doing so she could tell him what she wanted, needed, or rather what her body did. When her hand reached down for his to settle onto a breast her desire for sex stormed throughout his blood. This could never end, Roam’s hands were on fire; he burned for her making him uncomfortable with desire. Roam never knew uncomfortable desire could be so sweet.

A strange feeling crept up Roam’s spine invading his pleasure, if he could have sworn at his shield he would have. He didn’t want to battle his shield while battling his emotions. The urge grew stronger.

Not now damn it stay down and behave.

The feeling intensified. Roam pressed Jinx closer and peeked open an eye. A pair of black eyes gazed into his soul. The anaconda was directly behind Jinx. Roam was pissed. He also wasn’t about to give up her juicy red lips. Roam felt he would die when Jinx slipped her tongue into his mouth. The snake moved to strike.

The armor of his shield slipped through his hand. Two talons struck out to impale those soulless eyes. The snake was at arm’s length, Jinx was oblivious.

Sucks to be you, eh?

The snake whipped around behind him until Roam removed his talons and settled his hand around behind its head and squeezed. Jinx was dragged tighter to his chest as the two hundred pound-plus snake wiggled until it settled. Roam had it, it was dead, but what to do with it now? Why did this little human attract so much danger? To Roam’s left was a pond. Easily he picked Jinx up in one arm, still kissing, and backed her up until the snake dangled over the water. He dropped it.

Jinx broke the kiss. “Wow tiger, you sure can hold your breath.”

Roam grinned. Actually, he had just forgotten to breathe. His hand, now without the shield went back to her breast. Jinx let him explore for a few moments until she cast her glance down.

“We better move. I think that’s an anaconda down there. Good thing it’s asleep or we’d be in trouble,” she said.

“What do you do for fun during the rainy season?” Roam asked. He took her hand and they wandered away.

“I think I’m going to like this rainy season far more than the last ones.”

Her tone was suggestive. Roam felt like a puddle of water. Jinx dropped to her knees and pointed out some edible roots. From the corner of his eye Roam saw the lion.

Damn it; take a fucking break, wildlife.

Roam knew the rainy season’s approach would have the other animals in search of food. Roam wondered if Skylar and Haven would attract this much attention or if Jinx was just special. He needed to mate with her to save his sanity. When the lion pounced onto him he tossed it over his shoulder into the jungle. It landed with a crash. Jinx looked up.

“Did you hear something?” she asked.

“Look there’s more root.” Roam practically shoved her head into the bush. Using the back of his knee he kept her down.

“All right for heaven sakes. Don’t push; I know you like this. I’ll make sure I get enough.”

The lion leapt again, going for Roam’s throat. His shield closed over the exposed area as Roam gripped the lion by its mouth to silence it and its balls to make certain it left them alone. One good squeeze and the lion’s eyes rolled in pain, bulging. Roam grinned evilly, the bastard had a huge set—
oh well,
the more to give him pain. With a massive thrust Roam tossed it farther than last time. Once its mouth was released the lion screamed as it flew through the air. Jinx ducked under Roam’s knee and jumped up.