Nikhil (Kaliszian Book 1) (3 page)

Mac knew it had been hard on her grandpa, raising a girl. He was still grieving over the loss of his only son, but he did the best he could. He taught her about what he knew and loved, his mountain. She loved that mountain. Loved knowing she was walking where her dad had once walked. It made her feel close to him as if he hadn't willingly abandoned her, not like her mother had.

Her father had been a firefighter, part of a search and rescue team that specialized in swift water rescue. He'd gone into a flooded river when he saw a child being swept away. The child had lived; he hadn't.

She knew she should be proud of him, knew she should hold no animosity for the child or his parents, but she did. She didn't want her father to be a hero; she wanted him to hug her and tuck her into her little bed at night. But he never would because of those people.

It had taken her years to get over it, to finally forgive not just the strangers that had destroyed her family, but her father for putting others before her. The one person she'd never been able to forgive was her mother. Her dad hadn't chosen to leave her; her mother had. It was something Mac knew she would never do. She would never abandon someone she loved.

The mountain had become her refuge. She had found peace there and a sense of belonging that she'd never found anywhere else. It's one of the reasons she'd gone to college and studied forestry. She wanted to be able to care for the mountain her grandpa so loved, making sure the impact from her grandpa's guide business didn’t adversely affect the plants and wildlife.

Her grandpa had been a large, somewhat gruff man. At least that’s the way others saw him, some were even afraid of him. Not Mac, because she'd seen his heart. He was a kind and gentle man with those he loved and what he protected. He only ever used his size and power against those who threatened that.

His last request was to be cremated, and for his ashes to be released from the highest point on his mountain. Mac had scaled that shear rock wall alone and done as her grandpa had requested. Then she'd sat there and watched the wind carry him away so he would forever be a part of his mountain.

She watched as time seemed to fast forward and saw how she always seemed to be alone. Even when she was in a relationship, even when the people, mostly men, she was guiding surrounded her. Maybe that's why she'd stayed with the group she'd led up the mountain because there was a woman with them. A woman that didn't want to be there. She was obviously out of her element and uncomfortable being in the great outdoors, at least until she started to cook.

Mac had been camping, hiking, and living in the outdoors most of her life. She was used to making meals from nothing, from using what she could find in the forest. But she had never had one of her meals taste as amazing as the one Jen had produced that night.

Mac loved her mountain. Loved and understood every creature on it. It was her home, and she felt safe there. Until that day when a creature had appeared she'd never seen before, pointing a strange device at her, and had taken away everything.

She'd woken up in a cage like she was an animal, when the real animals were outside the cage. They were large, hair-covered creatures, like bears, but they walked on two legs, like humans. They spoke with hisses and clicks, like insects, and stunk like rotten eggs. What the fuck were they?!! And what were those things in the other cage?

They reminded her of small kangaroos, but they obviously weren't, not with the way they were chattering to one another and looking around the room. She wasn't sure what had them so worried but quickly discovered it when one of the large, smelly creatures wearing a white collar walked into the room. He'd unlocked the other creatures’ cage, and walking in swatted away any that got in his way. He grabbed one of them and dragged it out.

It was then that they all realized the other creature was female, and what was about to happen to her. It hadn't been long before her high-pitched squeals could be heard, and those left behind huddled together trying to comfort one another.

Mac had wondered how long it would be before they dragged her away, but then something unexpected happened. The men that she had led up the mountain, the ones she was supposed to be taking care of, pulled her deeper into their group placing her next to Jen.

That protection had continued even after the Ganglians had sold them to the Zaludians. They'd learned who the creatures were, and how to speak both their languages when the Ganglians had forced a device on Craig that they called an educator. They wanted them to be able to follow orders because they were now slaves, slaves to the Zaludians, and if they didn't do the work demanded of them, they would be killed.

If they became injured, they would be killed.

If they just didn't move fast enough, they would be killed.

Apparently, the Zaludians thought the Ganglians could obtain an unending supply of slave labor. Mac didn't know how long they'd been on the Ganglian ship. She normally judged time by the position of the sun. There was no sun on that ship. There was no sun in the caves, but it became readily apparent that she and Jen were not going to be able to do the work the Zaludians demanded.

Mac had inspected the cave they'd been led to, hoping to find a way out. Instead, in the deepest part of the cave she found a narrow opening, hidden behind a large rock. Working her way into it, she found it opened up into another smaller cave. Returning, she told them what she had found.

She and Jen had hidden there, remaining relatively safe, as one of the guys worked a double shift to cover for them. Mac had never felt more useless in her life as she watched the men come back shift after shift exhausted and with small injuries. She did what she could for them while Jen attempted to make the food they were given go farther.

That's how the Zaludians had discovered her. She'd been in the larger cave, treating a cut on one of the guys when a Zaludian suddenly appeared. He took one look at her and knew from the condition of her clothes that she was female. She could have made it back to the smaller cave, but that would have led the Zaludians to Jen, who had been badly injured. If they found her, the Zaludians would kill her. She'd told the guys not to fight, to let them take her. There was no reason for all of them to die for her.

She'd waited until they were away from the cave before she started to run. She wasn't going to let them rape her like the Ganglians had done to the Jerboaian females. She got away for a moment but ran straight into another Zaludian, and with one hit her world went black.

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

Nikhil stood as still and as silent as the mountain he was often compared to. His glowing, green eyes kept close watch on the deep-repair unit as it continued to work on his True Mate. How had this happened? What could he have ever done in his life for the Goddess to bless him with a True Mate? Especially such a small and fragile one.

He knew what others saw when they looked at him. A monstrously, large male that they only wanted around when there was a threat. When the threat was gone, they wanted him gone too for they worried he would demand more than his share of their food stores because of his size. It had been that way since he was a very young male.

He'd been lucky. He knew that. While his father wasn't a Warrior, he had worked for Minister Descarga on the planet Dzhalil. Minister Descarga was one of the few ministers that shared the excess food stores he and his family didn't need with his people instead of selling them for extra credits. It made him very popular with the citizens he served.

When Nikhil started growing astoundingly large, Descarga had been one of the few that hadn't believed it was because he was receiving extra rations. He sat Nikhil down and told him he was this way because it was the will of the Goddess, that she must have something very important for him to do, and she needed his size to achieve it. It was only then that Descarga made sure Nikhil received what he needed to accomplish it; education, training, and yes, extra food rations. But Descarga made Nikhil understand that he expected Nikhil to make sure extras would go to others when Nikhil was in the position to receive more than he needed.

Nikhil had vowed that he would, and he worked hard to keep that promise. He was only twenty-one when he'd achieved Elite Warrior status, and then became the youngest Warrior to ever become a Squad Leader.

Thanks to his father's continued position with Minister Descarga, Nikhil didn't have to help supplement his family's food stores, as so many other Elite Warriors did. So to keep his vow to Minister Descarga, he began distributing his extra rations to individuals wherever he was stationed. If he couldn't do that, then he would distribute credits, so the citizens were able to purchase what they needed.

That couldn't be enough to be gifted with a True Mate, could it?

Seeing his True Mate twitch slightly as if she remembered something painful, he took a step closer and cursed the closed dome of the repair unit that kept him from reaching out to comfort her. Knowing she couldn't feel it, he still put his hand on the dome as close to hers as he could.

"She knows you are near." Luol walked up to stand beside him.

"Truth?"

"Yes. I came to see why her heart rate had increased, but as soon as you moved closer and put your hand on the dome, it returned to normal."

"It did?"

"Yes."

"What am I to do, Luol?" Nikhil finally pulled his gaze from Mackenzie, and Luol saw the anguish in them.

"What do you mean?"

"How can someone as large and clumsy as me," he said, looking at his massive hands and thick fingers, "be responsible for a being as small and fragile as my Mackenzie?"

"First of all, yes, you are large, Nikhil. That is undeniable. But clumsy? I have seen you train, and you are always very precise and are always in control. You are not clumsy."

"I am around females... our females and they are so much bigger than my True Mate."

"Then you and she will have to find a way to make it work because the Goddess would never bless you with a True Mate that was not perfect for you. Have faith, Nikhil."

"I scare many females, Luol."

"For some reason, I don't think you will scare this one. Here." Luol slid a chair up to him. "Sit. Talk to her."

"Talk to her?" Nikhil gave the Healer a confused look.

"We've already established that she can hear you and that she reacts to what you are saying and feeling. She needs to know she's safe and not alone, and I believe you are the only one that makes her feel that way."

Slowly, Nikhil sat, the chair creaking from his weight and asked. "What am I supposed to talk to her about?"

"I don't know. Anything, everything. Tell her about yourself, about what matters to you, what's important to you. It will come to you." Dimming the lights slightly, Luol left them alone.

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

Nikhil looked down at the tiny figure lying so still and wondered what he was to say. He rarely spoke to females, except his mother and sisters, because they all took one look at him and hurried the other way. He'd even had males step between him and a female as if they thought he would harm her by just walking by. The few times a female had offered him her friendship there hadn't been much talking. Where to start?

"Hello, Little One. It seems I have forgotten all the manners my mother worked so hard to instill in me. I asked your name but never told you mine. I am Elite Warrior Nikhil Kozar of the Kaliszian Empire." He shook his head when he found himself pausing, waiting for her response.

"I am the Warrior who found you. In the mine. Do you remember the mine?" Nikhil could have kicked himself for saying that when she jerked and cried out softly. Of course, she remembered the mine.

"Calm, Little One. You are safe. My vow." He consciously forced his hand to relax when the dome creaked slightly from his hand pressing against it, trying to soothe her.

"I am sorry. I did not mean to upset you. I am not used to talking to females, especially one as beautiful as you." Nikhil knew if anyone heard him right then they would have thought him crazy, for the little female lying still once again was currently anything but beautiful. Her hair was a dirty tangled mess, with dried blood and who knew what else in it. And while the swelling had gone down on her face, it was still filthy and bruised. Her coverings were nearly non-existent, revealing the harsh conditions she'd survived. Layers of the dark, gritty dust the mines produced covered her body. There was only one thin trail that revealed her true skin tone, and it ran from the corner of her eye and disappeared into her hair. His heart stopped for a moment, then tried to pound out of his chest as he realized what had created that line. A tear. Her tear. He would make sure she never cried one again.

No, no one looking at her now would think she was beautiful, but she was to Nikhil. She was here, and she was his.

His True Mate.

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

Gryf walked into the medical wing, surprised to find Healer Luol treating one of his Warriors.

"What happened to you, Warrior Onp?" he demanded.

"Just a cut, Commander. Part of the ceiling gave way from a Zaludian blaster shot. The portable repair unit pretty much took care of it. Healer Luol is just making sure."

"Luol?"

"He'll be fine, Commander."

"Good." Gryf's gaze traveled around the medical unit. "Where's the female?"

"Still in the deep-repair unit," Luol told him, his gaze still on Onp.

"Still? It's been hours." Gryf didn't try to hide his shock. "We have other survivors that need the unit."

"They will have to wait. She was in terrible shape, and as I have never treated one like her before, I refuse to overwhelm her system with everything she needs at once. How she has survived this long, only the Goddess knows." Luol looked to Onp. "Rest that overnight, and by tomorrow, it will be fine." Nodding his understanding, Onp rose and left the room.

"Did she say anything?" Gryf asked once they were alone again.

"No, she's been unconscious the whole time. There is something you should know though, Commander."