Page 30 of Romancing Rem'eb

“I think he gave her the leaf that the old ones say enhances a khui. One that encourages resonance. But it just makes her sleep.”

So my father has drugged Tia so when I returned, she would be craving my touch like a gorger in heat? I grit my teeth, furious. I should believe my father’s stories, but…I believe Cas’zor. He is the most honorable of males. “Father told me the rebels learned of her location.”

Cas’zor sounds tired. “Lies. He is trying to turn you against me. She is not safe here, Rem’eb. I have not left her side because I did not trust your father not to tamper with her food. He might want her as your mate, but he does not care what she wants, Rem’eb.”

Holding her close, I can feel her soft breath against the scruff on my neck. It reminds me that she is here, she is alive, and she is in my arms.

But I cannot keep her safe if she stays here in the village of my people. I know my father. He might give me Tia now, but the moment we resonate and she is full of my child, he will shove her behind the wall like the other females and say it is for her safety. The thought makes me fiercely angry.

My father is not the only threat, either. If the rebels find out she exists, no one will be safe. Not my father, who betrays his people. Not Tia, who has only two small arms and a fragile frame. Not her people above, whose females will be stolen if the rebels find out they can simply attack and claim the strangers from above. The rebels will riot and destroy everything in their wake.

This cannot go on. “I am taking Tia out of the village and back to her own people,” I tell Cas’zor the Loyal. “And I must go with her. You cannot stop me.”

“I do not plan on stopping you,” he says. “I will help you. In fact, I have an idea…”

Chapter

Fifteen

TIA

Waking up is a struggle. I drift back and forth between vague consciousness and sinking back into sleep. I want to stretch and turn over, but my bladder feels full and urges me awake. Or it tries to, anyhow. Opening my eyes is difficult, and when I finally manage it, a headache stabs right between my eyes.

I groan, squeezing them shut again.

“Shhh,” says a familiar voice in my ear. “I have you.”

Rem’eb. A shiver of delight runs through my body, my senses awakening.

I’m dimly aware that I’m cradled in someone’s arms, my head resting against a warm, broad chest. Other than my bladder, I’m not at all uncomfortable, and I could drift back to sleep again. In fact, I just might…

“She is going under again, Rem’eb. Use the leaf.” A different voice.

Something wafts under my nose and then an acrid stink makes me recoil. I cough, only to have the headache stab harder.

“Wake up, Tia,” Rem’eb cajoles. “We must go soon.”

Go?

It’s that word that bounces around in my mind, echoing and enabling me to shake the last of the sleepiness off. I force my eyes open, pushing against Rem’eb’s gentle grasp. The lighting is dim in the room, but it still hurts my eyes. I’m dimly aware that there’s a blanket over me, but as my eyes focus, I realize this isn’t my cell.

I’ve been moved.

“Easy,” Rem’eb says, his hand skimming down my arm.

I push out of his grasp, panic replacing the sweet, burgeoning feeling of anticipation I get when Rem’eb touches me. “Where the fuck am I?”

“Move slowly, Tia the Stranger,” Rem’eb says in that easy voice. He hands what looks like a burned mushroom cap to someone else. “She is fully awake now.”

I look over to see another alien—another one of the four-armed ground-dwellers—watching me. He looks older than Rem’eb, his expression more resigned than anything. He’s dressed the same, but his body fur seems to be a deep gray instead of Rem’eb’s reddish one. He wears a couple of the beads fitted at the base of his horns, and one pulling his bushy hair back from his face. The look he gives me is more fatigue than anything else.

Even so, I scoot a little closer to Rem’eb, because I don’t know who this is.

“Easy,” Rem’eb tells me in a soothing voice. “Cas’zor the Loyal is helping us. It is risky, but I do not think you will resonate to him.”

Resonate? I’m more worried this guy is going to rape or kill me than resonate to me…but now I have a new fear. Great. I glance between the two of them, and wet my lips with my tongue. “I have to pee.”

Luckily Rem’eb recognizes that word. He glances up at the stranger—Cas’zor—and nods. “We must leave her alone for a moment.”

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