Terran Times 18 - Emerald Envisage (7 page)

“Open your eyes, Adam. Let me see that you are still with me. Let me know that there has been no permanent damage. Please, Adam look at me, the lights have been turned down.”

Zandria came into focus where she bent over him. Without looking around, he knew that he was no longer in her bedchamber. Somehow, he had returned to his own room, his own bed. He felt the lacertilian suit about his body.

“I am so sorry.”

Her tearful apology brought it all back to him in a violent flash. He again felt the multitude of tiny piercing points. He felt the hot stickiness of his blood as it left his body to cover hers. He also remembered the intensity of the universe’s most extraordinary orgasm. At this memory, he felt the added weight in his groin as the lacertilian cocks filled with subtle need. “Don’t cry, Zandria. I am the one who should apologize. I don’t make a habit of passing out when I make love to a beautiful woman.”

Gentle fingers interlaced with his as his eyes drifted shut again. “Is that what you remember? Perhaps that is for the best.”

* * * *

The head physician stood at her side and watched the craft diminish into the vastness of the universe before he turned to watch his queen’s profile. “I have never seen you shed a tear at the leaving of any other mate. Why do you mourn this one’s departure so deeply?”

“Because he held back and yet gave everything at the same time. Because he came to me openly and honestly. Because he touched me in a way no male ever has before. Because our hearts joined for one glorious moment in time. He didn’t just take supplies with him. He took a part of me as well. He was the last, Doctor. If it doesn’t work this time any better than it has in the past, then this is truly the end.”

He saw her determination when she turned to look at him. For longer than anyone could remember, Zandria had been mating with every specie they could get their hands on. Her valiant battle to save her kind had been waged in the bedchamber for centuries. Perhaps she had grown too weary to carry on. This could very well be the end of their time or this could be the time to choose a new, younger queen. Surely, somewhere there was a fertile female in their midst. With a heavy sigh, he turned from her. “I’ll be in the nursery, tending to the eggs. I will send word the moment it is clear whether or not they will be able to survive outside our pseudo atmosphere.”

A LIVING FOREST

Paula Calloway

Her smile pleased, Lysette inhaled the crisp autumn fragrance. A series of yelps and howls drew the ten year old to sprint in the direction of the sound until she slid to a halt and stared, her mouth open. A small gray wolf lay on the ground. Tiny, distressed whines filled the air as he struggled to stand up, but kept falling back down. She could see his foreleg was twisted and misshapen, the bone obviously broken. She inched closer trying to get a better look, but a sharp bark on her left answered a growl on her right.

She raised her hands toward the two large gray wolves, which approached on either side, their heads down, their lips drawn back
,
exposing dangerous looking teeth. “Let me help you.” She tried to coerce them to step back, but as they closed the distance, she shuddered. “Oh this isn’t good. Somebody? Anybody?”

* * * *

Arrden swept his gaze over the small redheaded waif of a child now backed against a large oak by the snarling animals. When humans entered his domain, few ever left since the forest absorbed them as a way of self-preservation. Something about her differed from the other intruders who invaded his realm.
Not much more than a sprite, little bit.
He eased from the shadows and knelt behind her. “And what will you give me if I grant your requests?”

The terrified girl stared while the wolves inched closer with every beat of her heart. Tears rolled down her cheeks. “A-anything. Please, mister, I don’t want to die.”

Her wild and woodsy scent washed over him as honeysuckle and lilac added softness, but even more so, her tears tugged at his heart. “And you won’t. Consider your offer accepted.” With a wave of his hand, the animals vanished.

She gasped. “Where are they? Where did they go? Are they all right?”

“Uninjured in safer place and as healthy as ever.” Arrden settled his hands on her shoulders and inhibited her ability to turn around. He pointed her a bit to the left and nudged her in the direction of the meadow. “Go home, little one. Your path will be clear.” He drifted back into the shadows, his presence soon camouflaged by the forest.

* * * *

The scent of earth filled her nose. Lysette tilted her head to see and expected a large hand on her shoulder, but discovered only a huge leaf. “Who are you?”

“I haunt the woods, little one. Go home where you are safe.”

She yanked away and scanned the trees until a low branch with a clump of leaves garnered her attention. Her gaze honed in on a particular spot. Two moss green eyes peered back. “You didn’t answer me.” Her tone was almost stern and the eyes disappeared.

The voice circled and drifted from all directions at once. “Didn’t your mother warn you of the dangers lurking in the forest, little one?”

Various trees shook their leaves. Lysette shivered. “S-she said there was something in it that d-didn’t belong.” A branch cracked and plummeted toward the ground safely across the small clearing from her. It landed with a thud and vibrated the ground beneath her feet. Prepared to run for the meadow, she stepped back. “Tell me who you are and I’ll leave.”

“The living forest.”

She swore the whisper caressed her cheek and shuddered. “I’ll remember you.” On her dash home, she marveled at the way the path before her seemed free of branches and roots, but any attempt to touch the sides turned into a tangled web of vine and brush.

Twenty years later.

Lysette bolted upright in her bed. Fire in her lower lungs ripped through her. Every gulp of air forced into her body created pain and teased with her life. Clutching at her chest, she prayed it would be over soon.

Her difficulty breathing city air had coincided with the loss of her parents and gifted her with this old cabin several years ago. Forest eyes haunted her nightmares and weight on her lungs intensified with each passing month
as the disease ate away at her. She knew all things were inevitable and there was nothing to help slow the slip of time trickling through her fingers.

Lysette yanked aside the covers, rose and, with the rise of the sun still almost an hour away, showered, donned a simple white cotton sundress and pulled on her slippers.

“I need a walk
,
” she said, walking through the cabin. The slam of the front door rattled the window, but it faded with her tromp across the meadow. “I never smoked or did drugs. I even avoided coffee and colas and swallowed vitamins! What did I do to deserve this?” Her turn onto the path into the forest a childhood habit, she walked with little care for where she ended up.

Startled by a rustle on her right, Lysette realized just how deep in wild territory her lack of attention allowed her to traipse. A howl on her left jerked her head around. “What a fool I am.” She backed up several steps, pivoted and tripped. Her cheek smacked a tree root, but she paused only long enough to clear her head. With her palms on the ground, she pushed up and froze. Dark brown boots the color of tree bark were mere inches from her nose.

“Didn’t your mother warn you of what lurks within the woods?”

Scared, she came to her feet while her gaze assessed the masculine figure towering over her smaller body. Deep green
,
snug pants hugged muscular thighs and a rocked thrust of narrow hips urged her continued assessment. The bare upper torso revealed a flat stomach, but veined and brawny crossed arms hindered her complete view of the broad chest. Rich brown hair fell over wide shoulders and deep tanned flesh rippled over powerful muscles while a strong squared jaw, straight nose and tempting lips marked a handsome face. Corners of the delectable mouth turned up as if the man caught something familiar.

“My beautiful little wood nymph has returned for me.”

If sex possessed a voice, it just spoke and its depth attested to the five foot eleven frame’s virility. Lysette looked up and her eyes widened as she choked on a lump that suddenly appeared in her throat. Deep, rich-colored, moss green eyes stared back. “Oh my god.”

One eyebrow raised. “Never been called that before, but I’ll be happy to oblige.”

“It’s…my nightmare—” Darkness devoured her world as an earthy scent engulfed all of her senses.

* * * *

At her slump, Arrden dove and caught her body. “Interesting response.” Red hair brushed his arm as a wild and woodsy scent washed over him, the evoked memory sweet. Honeysuckle and lilac wafted on the air. He scooped her into his arms and strode toward the glen, which served as his home, the weight in his arms insignificant. With the leaves and mosses willed into a thick bed, he knelt and lay her down. His muscles stiffened at the jolt of his erection and he recalled the absence of a willing woman for the better part of the last century while progress closed in on his domain. Certain civilization’s intrusion remained inevitable, he expected them to overwhelm him within a few hundred years.

He recollected the feminine intruders he benefitted from during his rule. He lost track of how many times he welcomed a lonely lady who traipsed through his realm and bathed at the falls or napped on a convenient moss bed. When a proffered opportunity arose, he physically pleasured the bathing and sleeping beauties. It never ceased to amaze him the number of times a woman surrendered herself to an unseen force, drenched his cock in silken cream, then fled in terror. Oddly enough, the molested women returned a time or two. Some even more.

Arrden redirected his attention to the unconscious wood nymph beneath him. The sun danced through the trees and dappled her soft pale flesh with alluring shadows. Long enough to wrap around a man’s waist, her shapely legs guided his gaze to the curvaceous hips designed for a man’s grip while the fleshy backside promised a delightful jiggle if spanked. Sexy curves beckoned him and it took all he possessed to refrain from taking her here and now. Silken red hair as dark as a red rose reached her slightly indented waist while full and supple breasts threatened to spill from the confinement of her bra.

He adored the fact she stood a mere five foot one for such made her petite enough to tangle with in any number of delightful ways. He also appreciated her delicious plumpness. A longing to taste her full lips as dark and lush as ripe raspberries stirred inside of him. He recalled the fleeting moment their gazes met and how her eyes matched the clear blue pool of water a few yards away. His forefinger trailed over her cheek and pushed a silken wisp of hair behind her small ear. “You once agreed to anything, little one, and now I set the price as you belong in the forest. You belong to me. Your heart will be mine. Sleep, my little wood nymph.”

Arrden wished to taste her essence, to sample every delightful inch of her softness and merge with her as a lover. Her scent and curves coaxed him, invited him to explore and tested his resistance. Need for her rose, but he wanted her awake, not in a dream state. His determination strong, his jaw remained clenched in resolution, but his expression gentled at the slight flutter of her eyelids.

She opened her eyes and stared as he leaned over her. “I’m not dreaming, am I?” His headshake spurred her to sit up, her movements cautious. “You’re the
something
that doesn’t belong in the woods, aren’t you?” She scooted back when his slow nod worsened the situation. Her elbow bumped a tree trunk.

Amused, he studied the delightful woman. “I could have had my way with you while you slept and enjoyed your awakening beneath me, but I didn’t. I could make the roots of a tree bind you to my whim until I have my fill of you, but I won’t. Seeing as there’s much I
could
have done, but
didn’t
, won’t you trust me a little, sweet wood nymph?”

“I’m
not
a wood nymph.”

“Hmmm, no answer and a denial.” Arrden stood, clasped his hands behind his back and walked a few paces away. “Interesting predicament.” His pivot swift, he leveled his gaze on the quivering woman. “For
both
of us.”

She shivered. “What do you mean?”

He eased closer. “Most women in my forest are either delightful wood nymphs, playful beauties I can pleasure, or trespassers who seem to disappear.” He crouched down before her and admired her quiver. “So, my sweet, which are you?”

“Maybe I am a wood nymph, but not one you can pleasure.”

“
Can
instead of
may
?” Size belied speed as Arrden took two steps, knelt, cupped her chin, raised her face and leaned forward onto one knee. His thumb stroked the silky softness of her skin while he looked deep into her eyes. “Is that a challenge?”

* * * *

The caress of his deep voice slid over her body. Fascinated by his handsomeness, Lysette met his gaze. Captivated, she stared as deep moss green eyes closed the distance until she felt his mint-fresh breath warm her face. Gentle lips brushed against hers and teased her to lean into their kiss. The subtle work of his jaw claimed her mouth as his hand cradled the back of her head. She whimpered in protest as his lips departed from hers, but then he was directing her onto her back, following her down.