Prologue
At eleven o’clock on the night of April 24, 2043, astronomers at Lick Observatory in the California Coast Mountains tracked the path of a comet through the atmosphere. To their surprise, it seemed to rise through the atmosphere instead of falling to earth, but they lost sight of it over the Pacific Northwest. The mystery was never explained, but in actual fact, the object was no comet.
The astronomers didn’t know an alien ship passed through Earth’s atmosphere that night, and instead of burning up in the atmosphere, it broke orbit and jetted away into deep space with more than three hundred human captives.
The Romarie were notorious smugglers drawn to Earth by huge prices for human females at markets in distant galaxies. An interplanetary plague wiped out the female populations of numerous planets, leaving their male counterparts desperate for mates.
Only one planet resisted the temptation to buy in replacement females. Angondra had a proud history of space travel and advanced technology, but the five Angondran factions put aside their differences to forge a solemn agreement they would have nothing to do with the Romarie’s stolen females. They staked their honor as a people on rebuilding their population without tainting their planet with any such contraband, and they sacrificed their space flight capability to back up their resolution.
On its way to the distant galactic marketplace, the Romarie ship lost power, and during an attempted emergency landing, broke up in the Angondran atmosphere. The ship crashed, leaving the four Romarie pilots dead and the women stranded.
The women found themselves on a beautiful, Earth-like planet inhabited by one species divided into five distinct subspecies. All Angondrans stood erect on two legs, with two arms, two eyes, one nose and one mouth like humans, and with the aid of telekinetic implants supplied by the Romarie, the women could communicate with the Angondrans easily.
The Felsite faction dwell in cities constructed on the open plains, but besides their architecture, they retained none of Angondra’s advanced technology. The Felsite eat raw meat and use oil lamps only for light. All Angondrans stand several inches taller than the average human, and the Felsite males have manes of shaggy fur around their heads.
Members of the Lycaon faction are not as tall or husky as the Felsite, and they have rough hair covering their heads and running down their necks and backs. They have pointed ears and sharp teeth. They live and hunt in packs in the deep forest on the eastern side of the Angondran continent, and they dwell in temporary shelters constructed of sticks, leaves, and thatch that facilitate their nomadic lifestyle.
The Ursidrean faction dwell in huge caves dug out of the northern mountains. The Ursidreans keep most of the old Angondran technology alive, as well as adding new developments of their own to enhance their quality of life. The Ursidreans have the most advanced medical care of all the factions, as well as the most advanced weapons and war machines. The Ursidreans are the heaviest Angondrans, with rough fur around their heads and shoulders. They move more slowly than the fast-running Lycaon and the powerful Felsite, but they are the strongest of all Angondrans.
The Avitras stand the tallest of all Angondrans, with light, slender bodies and iridescent feathers surrounding their heads in spectacular frills. Feathers running down the outsides of their arms and lower legs enable them to fly short distances in their treetop homes in the western forests. They build light houses in the upper canopy where they cannot be seen from the ground. Though the Avitras have no advanced technology, they maintain a detailed oral record of Angondra’s history, including all the political relationships between the factions. They consider themselves the guardians of Angondra and the makers of laws.
The fifth faction, the Aqinas, remain elusive and hidden in their watery home on the coasts southwest of the Felsite plains. They live in tidal pools on the edge of the sea where they maintain constant contact with the water. Little is known about them, even among other Angondrans. They appear to move through any body of water, no matter how meager or shallow, and they communicate chemically through the medium of water. No one understands how this mechanism works, but the Aqinas somehow seem to know where other Angondrans are and what they are doing at all times. The Aqinas have negotiated peace agreements between the other factions in times of war and strife, but some Angondrans suspect them of manipulating the other factions for their own gain, including provoking wars they can then mediate for their own benefit.
This is the world into which the women on the Romarie ship crashed. The ship crashed in Lycaon territory, and within minutes, a Lycaon scouting party surrounded the crash site and took charge of the survivors. After a grueling march over rough terrain, the Lycaon brought the women to their village, where they tended their injuries and made them as comfortable as possible.
In the months that followed, messages poured in from the other factions, begging the women to join them and help rebuild the Angondran population. Many left to seek new futures in the other factions, while others remained behind.
Chapter 1
Penelope Ann King burst into her house in the treetops. Her cheeks glowed with excitement, and her long blonde hair whipped around her head. Anna Evans jumped to her feet, but she didn’t stand higher than Penelope Ann’s shoulder. “What’s going on?”
“Aquilla’s back!” Penelope Ann breathed.
Anna froze. “Did they find Frieda?”
Penelope Ann waved her question away. “Of course not. It’s hopeless.”
Anna narrowed her eyes at her hostess. “How can you be so flippant? This is my sister we’re talking about.”
Penelope Ann bustled around, putting the house in order. “Your sister disappeared. No one can explain what happened to her, but the Avitras searched the whole forest several times and didn’t find her. You can’t expect our people to do anything more.”
“Frieda disappeared under mysterious circumstances,” Anna replied. “She was standing on a balcony near an Avitras house, and the next minute, she was gone. No trace of her body was ever found. I don’t expect the Avitras to keep looking for her indefinitely, but you don’t have to be so callus about it.”
Penelope Ann stopped in her tracks, and her expression softened. “I’m sorry. You and your sister just got here, and now she’s disappeared. I’m sorry. I’m just excited about seeing my mate again after so long.”
Anna sank onto the low couch against the wall. “I appreciate how hard Aquilla worked to find Frieda. No one could ask for more. He’s a good Alpha. You’re lucky to have him as a mate.”
Penelope Ann blushed with pride. “We all got lucky when we came to Angondra. The way the Angondran people took us in after the Romarie abducted us from Earth would make anyone proud to be one of them.”
Anna gazed out the window. The setting sun streaked through the leaves of the forest canopy. “I know. I just wonder sometimes.....”
Penelope Ann studied her. “What do you wonder?”
“I wonder if Frieda and I made a mistake leaving the Lycaon to come to the Avitras,” Anna replied. “Maybe we should have been happy with what we had and stayed where we were.”
Penelope Ann ran to the couch and sat down next to her. She gazed into Anna’s face with her brilliant blue eyes. “Don’t ever think that! Do you hear me? You made the right decision to leave the Lycaon, and you’ve been happy here ever since, haven’t you?”
“Sure, but....” Anna began.
Penelope Ann waved her hand. “I’m not talking about Frieda disappearing. You’ve been happy here with the Avitras except for that, haven’t you? Of course, you have. Who could be happy with the Lycaon? They’re savages.”
Anna shrugged. “I don’t know. I know a few women who are very happy there. Marissa....”
Penelope Ann jumped up. “I’m not talking about Marissa. I’m talking about you. You could never be happy with the Lycaon. They live in huts. They sit on the ground. They eat nothing but raw meat. No sane person could be happy there.”
“They don’t eat raw meat,” Anna murmured. “They do cook it first, and they...”
Penelope Ann went back to hurrying around the room. “No, you did the right thing by coming here. The Avitras are the most advanced faction on the planet. No one could be happy with any of the other factions. You’ve been here long enough to realize that for yourself.”
Anna kept her eyes on the distant sunlight streaming through the canopy. They’d been through this same conversation a dozen times in the weeks since she moved from the Lycaon village to the Avitras territory in the treetops. “I wonder sometimes what the other factions are like. Marissa says the Felsite live in cities, and we hear reports about the Ursidreans having advanced technology in their mountain caves.”
Penelope Ann snorted, but she didn’t turn around. She kept dusting and tidying the house. “You wouldn’t want to have anything to do with the Felsite with their shaggy manes of hair and their heavy limbs. Yuck! And the Ursidreans? You might as well mate with a goat.”
Anna’s voice dropped almost to a whisper. “I’ve heard that they’re more like bears than goats.”
Penelope Ann pretended not to hear. “I thank heaven I came to the Avitras first. I couldn’t stand any other faction. The Avitras are the only faction with any advanced social structure. The others are toads.”
Before Anna could answer, a shout went up from outside. Penelope Ann ran outside and leaned over the railing. “They’re coming!”
Anna hung back. Penelope Ann looked down into the shadowy canopy. All at once, a whirlwind whipped Anna’s brown hair back from her face, and a tall man sailed through the air and landed on his feet on the balcony. His eyes flashed, but he broke into a grin when he spotted Penelope Ann.
She rushed into his arms. “You’re home!”
He planted a passionate kiss on her lips. Then he threw back his head and laughed out loud. He hooked his arm around Penelope Ann’s shoulders and headed for the house. He didn’t stop smiling when he met Anna at the door. “Hello there.”
She smiled back at him. “Hello, Aquilla. Welcome home.”
His smile dimmed. “I’m sorry we didn’t find your sister.”
Anna made room for the happy couple to come inside. “I appreciate your trying.”
Aquilla threw himself on the couch, and Penelope Ann went back to whizzing around the room. “What a week! You don’t know how good it is to be home. I have less tolerance for the frontier every time I go out there. I think I’ll promote Piwaka to manage all the Border Guards from now on. I don’t have the stomach for it.”
Penelope Ann smiled at him over her shoulder. “There must be some advantage to being Alpha. If you don’t want to troop out to the frontier every time somebody stubs their toe, why should you?”
He lunged forward. “I’m sure glad I went this time, though. Even if this was the last time I ever had to go, it paid off. You won’t believe the prize we brought back.”
Penelope Ann spun around with a wooden bowl of mixed nuts and seeds in her hand. “What did you get?”
He jumped off the couch and kissed her again. “Just wait until you see.”
He strode out of the house, but before he got to the balcony railing, an even more powerful flurry of wind shook the treetops. Half a dozen Avitras men flew over the railing and landed in front of him. Aquilla pointed at one of them. “Bring him in here.”
He led the way into the house, and the other Avitras followed him. Then Anna noticed another man with them—and this man was not Avitras. He stood almost as tall as the Avitras, but he had no feathers and his muscular heavy body made him move slower.
He was unmistakably Angondran, but unlike any Angondran Anna had ever seen. He was too big to be Lycaon, and he had rough, short, dark fur around his head instead of a flowing golden mane like the Felsite. He was a big hunk of a man, heavy brows hung low over his eyes, but they snapped around the room and took in every detail. His expression brightened when he saw Penelope Ann and Anna in the room.
Aquilla held out his arms to make room for the man, but no one came near him. The Avitras surrounded him on all sides. Aquilla threw back his shoulders. “You see! This is the prize we brought back from the frontier.”
Anna and Penelope Ann stared at the man with their mouths open. Penelope Ann swallowed. “Did you....?”
Aquilla puffed himself up even more. “What do you think? This is going to seal my place in history. I’m the first Alpha ever to bring back an Ursidrean captive.”
He crowed in triumph, but Anna’s heart sank. So this was an Ursidrean, the first she’d ever seen, but being in the same room with him shamed her. She had nothing to do with his capture, but she could barely look him in the eye. She was supposed to be Avitras now, too. She left the Lycaon to make her home with Avitras, so why couldn’t she celebrate their triumph over their enemies?
Anna’s mind whirled. Aquilla, Alpha of the Avitras faction, had captured an Ursidrean from the frontier between their territories. This could lead to war. Why did she ever leave the Lycaon?
Aquilla was too full of his own pride to notice anybody else. He waved to his men. “You can leave him here.”
The guards exchanged glances, but he spread his arms to usher them toward the door. “Don’t worry. He’s harmless. He’s not going anywhere. You made sure of that.” Aquilla laughed, and his voice grated on Anna’s nerves.
She cast another look at the prisoner. Blood darkened one of his nostrils and the fur on the side of his head. He held himself perfectly erect and stared straight back into her eyes, but she couldn’t help notice the discolored patches on the skin of his arms and neck. The Avitras did their best to subdue him before they brought him back.
Penelope Ann broke the silence. “What are you going to do with him? You can’t keep him here.”
Aquilla turned away. “I’m going to interrogate him until I find out which of their rotten breed killed my brother Erius in the war. Once I find that out, I’ll hold him for ransom until the Ursidreans turn over the murderer. Then I’ll have my revenge.”
Penelope Ann let out a shaky breath, but neither she nor Anna could take their eyes off the prisoner. “Do you have to keep him here? Isn’t there anywhere else you could keep him?” She hesitated. “I was hoping...”
Aquilla swept her up in his arms. “I know you were hoping we could spend our first night alone together. I feel the same way, but I can’t let this opportunity pass me by. I’ve been burning for revenge against my brother’s killer for years. Now the perfect means to accomplish that has fallen into my lap. I couldn’t let it slip away.”
Anna swallowed hard. For some reason, she kept her eyes locked on the Ursidrean’s face, and his gaze never wavered from her eyes. How did he know to look at her? What trick of the light told him his stare played on her heart strings in that room full of people who cared nothing about him? “He didn’t exactly fall into your lap, did he? It looks like you beat him up pretty bad. He didn’t come over to the Avitras of his own free will.”
Aquilla laughed again. “No need for your jokes now.”
“Who’s joking?” Anna barely heard her own voice.
Aquilla collapsed on the couch. “Give me that food, my love. I’m starving.”
Chapter 2
Penelope Ann set a wooden bowl in Aquilla’s hands. He leaned back on the couch and scooped nuts and seeds into his mouth while he kept his flashing eyes on his captive. The Ursidrean never moved a muscle.
Aquilla chuckled over his meal. “You’re right. He didn’t fall into our laps. We noticed a band of the lumbering brutes across the valley while we were patrolling the border. They’re so stupid, they didn’t notice us.”
“Is that when you got the idea of holding one of them for ransom?” Penelope Ann asked.
“I actually got the idea on the flight up there,” he told her. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before. I only just got the idea that, if I got my hands on one of the stinking creatures, I could force him to tell me which of his hairy comrades killed my brother. I’ve been brooding over this ever since the war ended. Not knowing who killed him drives me mad—almost more than knowing the murderer is walking free under the Angondran sky instead of rotting in a shallow grave the way he should be.”
Anna stood in the same spot. The Ursidrean held her gaze with unwavering attention. The one time she glanced at Aquilla, the sight of him eating his evening meal made her sick to her stomach. Looking at the Ursidrean calmed her in a way she couldn’t understand. He stood straight and still, with no fear for his future. His wounds didn’t touch him.
She trusted his solid form and watchful eyes. She never trusted the Lycaon or the Avitras this way. Nothing bad could happen as long as he held her gaze that way. She dreaded the moment Aquilla started questioning this prisoner, but she dreaded leaving the room and breaking that eye contact with him more.
Penelope Ann and Aquilla kept up a friendly chat about everything that happened since he left in search of Frieda. They even discussed Aquilla’s sleeping habits on the journey to the frontier. Penelope Ann’s voice drifted into Anna’s consciousness. “Did you find that Border troop you thought was lost?”
“We found them,” Aquilla replied. “They were miles away from their posts. We questioned them for three days, but we never got a straight answer out of them about what made them deviate from their patrol. I’ve got a good mind to strike the whole patrol and send them back to remedial training.”
“Is that really necessary?” Penelope Ann asked.
“I can’t trust them,” he replied. “If they can’t stay within their assigned patrol and have no reasonable explanation why they left it, I have no choice but to strike them. They left a whole stretch of border unguarded. Anything could have happened during that time. The enemy could have walked right over our border, and we would have been caught unprepared.”
The Ursidrean’s eyes brightened up, and one eyebrow twitched upwards.
The conversation paused. Then Penelope Ann murmured. “How can you eat with him staring at us like that?”
Aquilla chuckled. “I’m hungry.”
“Can’t you send him somewhere else?” she asked. “Does he have to stand here in our house?”
Aquilla set his bowl aside. “Looking at him makes me happy. You don’t know how satisfying it is to know he’s here, in our power, for a change instead of haunting our border, waiting to strike when our Guards’ backs are turned. I can do what I want with him, and he can’t do us any harm.”
“I wish you’d get rid of him,” Penelope Ann muttered.
Aquilla kissed her on the cheek. “I’ll get rid of him sooner or later, but right now I need him around. Now let’s stop talking about him. I want to relax and enjoy my first night back at home.”
Anna heard her own voice coming from somewhere outside herself. “He looks hungry.”
Aquilla snorted. “He’s not hungry. Look at him. Does he look like he’s fading away?”
She couldn’t stop herself. She walked to the counter across the room and picked up the other bowl of food. Penelope Ann prepared it for herself, but Anna held it out to the Ursidrean.
He gazed down at the mixture of nuts and seeds. Then he smiled at her and shook his head. Her cheeks burned.
“You see?” Aquilla called out. “He’s not hungry or tired or weak. He’d like you to think he is, but these Ursidreans are a tough breed.”
Anna couldn’t stand the Ursidrean gazing into her eyes and smiling at her that way. He didn’t really smile. No one could smile in his situation. But a fire burned in his eyes when he looked at her. He didn’t look at the Avitras men that way, and he didn’t look at Aquilla or Penelope Ann that way. What was he thinking when he looked at her? She tore her eyes away, but there was nowhere else she could turn.
Aquilla and Penelope Ann cuddled on the couch. If the Ursidrean hadn’t been there, she would have sat on the floor, but she couldn’t settle down. Nervous shivers racked her body. She clenched her hands together to stop them shaking.
She turned first one way and then another in a desperate search for something to do with herself. Every time she looked at the Ursidrean, she found him looking back at her. Every time she looked at Aquilla and Penelope Ann, she found them immersed in each other, which made her even more uncomfortable. How long would they linger on the couch? She was supposed to sleep there tonight.
She made a circuit of the room and stopped at the counter again. She picked up the water jar and held that out to the Ursidrean. “Are you thirsty?”
He regarded her with a distant intensity, almost as though he was seeing her for the first time. Then he took the jar out of her hands and lifted it to his mouth. He drank more than she expected. He must have been thirsty. He handed it back to her with a sigh. “Thank you.”
Aquilla watched the whole episode from the couch. “Be careful. You’ll give him ideas.”
Anna blushed and turned away, but she couldn’t stay in that house a moment longer. She strode across the room to the door, but just before she stepped out into the night, some mysterious power compelled her to glance back over her shoulder.
He still stood in the same place, immoveable, like a mountain dropped into her living room from the clear blue sky. And still he stared directly at her. He paid Aquilla, his captor, his tormentor, no attention whatsoever. Even when she hurried away into the dark, he gazed at the empty doorway where she disappeared.
She hurried through the village, going nowhere. She ran as much to get away from him as to get anywhere else. She passed a dozen lighted windows. She could ask at any one of them for a place to spend the night and expect a welcome. Her neighbors would understand Aquilla and Penelope Ann wanted the house to themselves for his first night back after weeks away.
But she didn’t want welcome at any of those houses. She wanted....What did she want? She couldn’t put her finger on it. She didn’t want to go back to Penelope Ann’s house—that was certain. The last thing she wanted to see was......him. But not him. She did want to see him, but she didn’t want to see him standing there, a captive. She didn’t want to see him standing there on display while Aquilla and Penelope Ann nuzzled on the couch. She blushed even now at the thought of it.
But him—she didn’t blush at the thought of him, alone by himself. The image of him standing in front of her with that straightforward look on his face gave her a sense of peace. If only she could erase the house around him and leave him standing that way in the middle of the forest with no one around but her. And then what?
She stopped on one of the platforms between the houses and watched the lights winking on and off again. She could name every person in the village, but those lights didn’t beckon to her tonight. They left her cold and cast out.
Then she spotted the same group of Avitras Guards who brought the Ursidrean to Penelope Ann’s house. They filed one behind the other, back along the tree branches, back toward the house. Anna’s blood ran cold. What were they doing?
She hated to return, but she couldn’t trust Aquilla or his men with that prisoner around. Whatever they did with him, she had to see it for herself. She had to bear witness to this moment. She couldn’t say exactly why.
Chapter 3
Anna hurried by a back route back to Penelope Ann’s house, but the Avitras Guards veered off and went a different direction. They didn’t return to Aquilla. Anna sighed with relief, but at that moment, voices bubbled out of the house and called her back. She couldn’t keep running away.
A deep rumbling voice answered Aquilla, and a shiver went up Anna’s spine. She hurried to the door. Aquilla stood in the middle of the room, face to face with his captive. “Who are you?
The man looked him squarely in the eye. “I am an Ursidrean.”
Aquilla’s eyes flashed. “I know that. Tell me who you are. What is your name?”
“My name is Menlo,” the man replied.
“What is your position in the Ursidrean army?” Aquilla asked.
“I am not a member of the army,” Menlo replied. “I am a geographer assigned to the border patrol.”
Aquilla’s arm shot up. Anna flinched, but he didn’t strike the Ursidrean the way she expected. He simply waved his arm. “We both know that’s nonsense. Every Ursidrean is a member of the army. You have a militaristic society. Men, women, and children get inducted into the army from an early age, so don’t give me any fairy tale about being a geographer assigned to the border patrol.”
Menlo cocked his head to one side. “Who told you that?”
Aquilla waved his hand. “Everybody knows it. I’ve seen it with my own eyes.”
“When?” Menlo asked.
Aquilla glared at him. “I’ll ask the questions here. Don’t step out of line, or you’ll wish you’d never been born. Keep your place if you know what’s good for you.”
Menlo said nothing, but he never took his eyes off Aquilla’s face.
“I saw for myself during the Ursidrean campaign how every Ursidrean participated in the battle,” Aquilla went on. “Even young children fought alongside their parents.”
“That was during the first war,” Menlo replied. “The Avitras invaded our territory and laid siege to our city. We all had to fight for our lives.”
“Your society operates as one enormous army,” Aquilla returned. “You prepare for battle from your youth. You might as well admit it now and tell me your position.”
“I already told you I’m not a member of the army,” Menlo murmured.
Aquilla’s mouth twisted into a wry smile. “Are you telling me you never fought in any war?”
“I never said that,” Menlo replied.
Aquilla jabbed his finger at him. “I knew it! You are a member of the army.”
“I fought in the last war,” Menlo admitted, “but I haven’t been in the army since.”
“You’re on the border patrol,” Aquilla shot back. “That’s the army.”
Menlo shook his head. “We’re assigned through the civil Labor Pool. I reported to the Labor Pool after being discharged from my squadron. They looked up my Academy records, and when they found out I had training in geography, they assigned me to the team mapping out the borders. I’ve been doing it ever since. I haven’t even had any combat training.”
Aquilla snorted. “You wouldn’t need any after the time you spent fighting the Avitras on our own soil. You can’t cry me a river about women and children fighting for their lives that time.”
Menlo narrowed his eyes. “I read history books. The Avitras provoked the second war the same way they provoked the first one. They breached our border, but we drove them back and fought them in their own strongholds where they couldn’t harm our defenseless civilians.”
Aquilla gritted his teeth, but Menlo cut him off. “After the war ended, we made a peace treaty with the Avitras. Our Supreme Council cut back the border patrols between our territories. That’s what left us open to invasion from our supposed allies.”
Aquilla dropped his voice to a menacing snarl. “How dare you blame the Avitras for your own brutality? How dare you come into my house and beg for sympathy—from me?”
“Who begged for sympathy?” Menlo asked.
Aquilla didn’t hear him. “Do you know why you’re here? Do you know why you’re bleeding on my floor tiles right now instead of laughing over your bubbling sanctity in your own country?”
Menlo watched him with patient reserve. “I’m sure you will tell me.”
“You killed my brother!” Aquilla burst out. “You murdered him, and now you’re going to pay the price.”
“I?” Menlo asked. “I killed your brother?”
Aquilla waved his hand. “What difference does it make? An Ursidrean killed him. That’s all that matters. I’ll never rest until I pay every single one of you back for it.”
Menlo arched his eyebrows. “What makes you think an Ursidrean killed him? You people have seen precious little of Ursidreans. You know next to nothing about us.”
“Who else could have killed him?” Aquilla shot back. “He died in the war.”
“Anybody could have killed him,” Menlo replied. “He could have been killed by friendly fire. He could have stepped in front of a cannon as it was going off.”
Aquilla fixed him with a terrible glare. “You’re a prisoner here. Don’t you understand what that means?”
“It means I’m bleeding on your floor tiles right now instead of laughing over my bubbling sanctity in my own country, whatever that means,” Menlo replied. “So your brother died in the war. What of it? My brother died in the war, too. And my mother and my little baby nephew and my great-uncle were all wiped out by the Avitras when they closed up the mouth of refugee shelter outside Harbeiz. You don’t see me taking Avitras prisoners and dragging them back to Ursidrean territory for revenge.”
Aquilla didn’t answer. Faster than thought, he flew across the room and struck Menlo in the face with both fists. Menlo buckled under the blow, and when he collapsed onto the floor, Aquilla fell on him with feet and fists flying. He pummeled the fallen man with blows even after the heavy frame lay still and bleeding at his feet.
Once, Menlo rallied under the hail blows to fight back. He grabbed Aquilla by the ankle and pulled him off his feet. The house shuddered when Aquilla hit the floor, and Menlo brought his elbow down hard across Aquilla’s neck.
Menlo struggled to get up to press his advantage, but he was too big and bulky to move fast enough. The Guards’ rough treatment and Aquilla’s blows slowed him down enough to allow Aquilla to recover from his fall. Menlo got onto his hands and knees and moved toward him, but Aquilla flipped around and locked his legs around Menlo’s waist. With one twist, he sent Menlo crashing back onto the floor, where he kept the upper hand.
Anna and Penelope Ann watched in mute horror. This couldn’t be happening right in front of them. Menlo was the first Ursidrean Anna had ever seen, and now Aquilla was attacking him in their living room. Anna always admired Aquilla for his steady determination and calm leadership. He never lost control before, and now, in front of her eyes, he’d descended into madness.
All at once, black rage erupted from the forgotten depths of her soul. She tackled Aquilla with all her might. She never raised her hand to a living soul before, but something snapped inside her, and she couldn’t stop herself. She slammed her fists into his back and grabbed at his arms. “Stop, Aquilla! Leave him alone. That’s enough.”
Aquilla outweighed her by a ton, and she couldn’t budge him. Then again, she couldn’t hit him very hard. She’d never hit anything before, but she wanted nothing more than to hurt him as much as possible. It was the only way to snap him out of this insanity. In the end, he stopped of his own volition. Menlo lay motionless at his feet. He shoved Anna away. “Leave me alone.”
Anna glared at him and panted to catch her breath. “What’s the matter with you? Can’t you see he’s unconscious?”
He rounded on her, but he kept his voice measured and calm. How he could remain calm at a time like this she could never understand. “Don’t ever interfere between me and my prisoner again.”
Anna shrank back, but she wouldn’t back down. “You already beat him up on the way here. You don’t dare face him in a fair fight, and every word he said just now was true.”
Aquilla turned away. “He’s a murderer. They all are.”
Anna crossed her arms over her chest and looked the other way. What was the point of arguing with him anymore?
Aquilla turned to Penelope Ann. “Come on. You wanted a happy night together after I got back. Let’s go have it.”
Penelope Ann stared at him. Where was her strong steady partner who went off to the frontier, and who was this maniac who took his place? But Penelope Ann didn’t have time to react. Aquilla hooked his arm around her shoulders and guided her out of the room. Just before the two disappeared through the doorway into their own bedroom, Penelope Ann cast one last glance over her shoulder toward Anna.
Their eyes met. The door closed, and silence descended over the house. Anna gazed down at the still form at her feet. Then, all at once, the door flew open again. Aquilla strode across the room and dragged Menlo to the support post holding up the log roof. He tied his wrists behind him to the post before he strode back to his darkened bedroom.