CHAPTER THIRTEEN
AMELIA SANDERS
As if the experience of being taken from the village wasn't hard enough to deal with, I also had to deal with being held at knife point by Talia. Then, I had to deal with finding out that I was pregnant. It was so much to deal with. Ravinn and I had only been together that one time in the cave, and yet it was enough to get me pregnant. I should've known. I had been so distracted by the drama of everything that was going on that I did not stop to think that I had become pregnant even though my appetite had grown immensely. I had just thought it was all of the excitement and drama that was making me so hungry, but I was wrong. I was very wrong.
But in the aftermath of everything that happened, everything was not all right. Ravinn had changed. I did not blame him. He was feeling immense guilt over what happened with Talia. Her death was very hard on him. And it hurt me to think that he had any sort of resentment towards me in being responsible for her death as well.
I knew that it would take a long time for him to heal, but a month had passed. A month had passed, and he did not touch me. He treated me very differently. Sure, he was caring toward me and very sensitive to my needs as the mother of his child. But there was no passion between us. He only placed soft kisses on my cheek or head. He was not interested in ravaging me, and that was hard for me to deal with. I was pregnant, and my hormones were raging; plus, if we were to be married, I wanted a passionate love affair, not just a marriage of convenience.
After a month of letting him heal, I was starting to feel very aggravated and annoyed by the fact that nothing had gone back to normal between us. I was out of my mind thinking about how to fix it. I sat in his vast hut with Stephanie, Brenda, and Michelle, while Ravinn was out doing his warrior responsibilities. This had become the normal everyday thing.
“You are very lucky, Michelle,” Brenda said as she served us some food around the table.
“Yes, you have an entire year. The king was very generous and giving you that time,” Stephanie said to Michelle.
“Well, to be fair, I would trade that in for not being held prisoner for so long,” Michelle said.
“Yes, good point,” Brenda said.
“Still, it was very nice of the king to give you a year to get to know this planet and the village and to find your own Draqua mate. I guarantee that you are going to find someone suitable for you,” Stephanie said.
“Yes, but even if you are assigned to a warrior, I think you would eventually love him, just like we have,” Brenda said.
“Yes, I do love Biyen so much, and I cannot wait until we are officially married and can begin our life together. I feel like I have been waiting forever,” Stephanie said.
“Yes, I agree. Jitu and I spend so much time together, and I am ready to be his wife,” Brenda said.
“I cannot believe that you two ended up with the very aliens that took us from Earth. Did you think in the time when we were in that ship from Earth to Kelon that they would be the ones to make you their wife?” I asked them.
“No, not at all. At the time, I was just scared out of my mind and did not know what the hell these dragon men were,” Stephanie laughed.
“Yes, I felt the same way,” Brenda said.
“Yet here we are, all of us happy to actually be here,” I said.
“Yes, even I am happy to be here. Even though I had a rough start to my journey, I still would not trade it in for anything. My life is so boring on Earth. I was a dental assistant; can you believe that? All I did was look into people's mouths all day then go home and eat a microwave dinner with a glass of wine and call it a night. Sure, I have the occasional social night with the girls, but it was always the same. Going to dinner, going to a bar, picking up the man that does not deserve me, casual sex, never hearing from him again, and then doing it all over again the next month. It was really pathetic. But this… this is an incredible adventure. Just a thought that I am sitting here in this comfort and luxury in this amazing treehouse with you while dragon men toil away beneath us is incredible!” Michelle shouted.
We all laughed. We all thought the same thing.
“On Earth, you have to pay tons of money to live in a beach resort like this. But here we are doing it for free, and we don't have to work. We don't have to do anything but love and be loved,” Stephanie said.
“I have an idea. After we finish here, let us go lounge on the beach in the sand and do a little bit of swimming around. It is a permanent vacation. Let us go for an afternoon swim,” Brenda said.
All us girls shouted in unison and excitement over the idea. We ate and then packed a basket of food and water and made our way down the long spiral staircase on to the village floor. Then we walked to a more secluded area of the beach and laid out our picnic and cloth to lounge on. We jumped in the crisp, cool water, swimming and frolicking like we were on vacation. I had to admit that I would never get tired of this. It was always a healing process to be in the nutrient rich waters of Kelon.
While Brenda and Stephanie played in the water, Michelle and I sat on a turquoise cloth that we’d set out on the beach with plenty of fresh food.
“Has anything changed?” she asked.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“You know what I mean. Ravinn? Has he still not touched you? You were not having sex,” she said.
“No, nothing has changed. He still politely pushes aside my advances. Whenever I begin to kiss him passionately or try to straddle him, he says that he has to go somewhere or some responsibility calls him,” I said with a sigh.
“Even in the middle of the night?” she asked.
"He pretends to be asleep,” I said to her.
She laughed.
“That is not funny,” I said in a teasing way.
“No, it is not. It is very sad. But it has been a month. I know it was hard on him to lose the woman he thought he was in love with. He saw her die right in front of him. But he also has to meet your needs. He has confessed his love for you over and over, but he is not loving you. That is wrong, and you know it,” Michelle said.
“I know. But what am I supposed to do? If I say you have more and Talia long enough then I will be an insensitive jerk,” I said to her.
"No, do not do that. Do not even bring her up. This has nothing to do with her anymore. You need to speak to him from your heart. Tell him you are feeling rejected by him. Tell him you need him to touch you. Tell him all those things that you were feeling and that you tell me, but you are not telling him. You are too scared of hurting him. Screw all of that. You need him. You need to talk to him,” Michelle said.
“Yes, you are right about that. I will think about what I'm going to say, and then I will talk to him. This has gone on long enough. I am over it. It is time that we start fresh and be happy together. It is all that I want. I want to bring this child into a happy home with parents that are in love with each other, not parents that don't touch each other,” I said to her.
“Amen!” Michelle shouted.
I laughed at her. “You are ridiculous,” I said.
Just then, there was a loud whistling sound. We both looked up into the air and saw the large wings of Ravinn spread out as he flew over us at a high rate of speed. Then he flew out over the ocean and dove straight down very, very fast.
“Wasn't that Ravinn?” Michelle said.
“Yes, it was. He does like to show off,” I said.
“Well, looking the way he does, I don't blame him,” Michelle said.
“Yes, he is very attractive. His long black hair and gray eyes drive me crazy,” I said to her.
“I don't blame you, girlfriend,” she said with an amount of lust in her voice. We both laughed at the fact that we were drooling over my mate.
We all looked out at the water, including Stephanie and Brenda who had watched Ravinn dive into the water. Then suddenly he burst from the surface and flew straight up into the air. He flew over to Michelle and I and then landed in the sand. He had a very arrogant grin on his face and a very large fish in his hands.
“Who is hungry?” he asked.
“I am!” Michelle said.
“I am always hungry,” I said to him as I stood up and he bounced over to him. I kissed him on the cheek. He gave me a smile and then went to work.
“Getting a fire going now to feed the lovely human females,” he said.
He threw the fish in the sand and then gathered some wood into a pile. Michelle and I watched because I knew what was coming next. I would never get tired of seeing the miraculous things that the phones were able to do. He stood back from the pile, and his belly began to glow warm orange. Then it glowed white. He opened his mouth and fire shot out straight onto the pile of wood. When he was done, he turned and looked at us very pleased with himself. Michelle and I laughed. We sat on the cloth again while Ravinn began to prepare the fish.
“He is very sweet to you. I can see how much he cares for you and wants to take care of you,” Michelle whispered to me.
“Yes, it is very nice. But a part of me misses the old Ravinn. We used to get into such a raging arguments, and underneath it all, it was because we had this intense chemistry. That was what drove us to mate together in the first place. I wish I could have one of those arguments with him now and he would just take me and ravage me,” I said.
“Amelia! You are a very filthy woman,” Michelle smiled at me.
“I just know what I like,” I said.
Stephanie and Brenda came out of the water, and all of us ate the fresh fish. We had a good time sitting in the sand and eating. It was a very lighthearted occasion, and Ravinn seemed to be having a good time.
Michelle elbowed me. No one else saw it, and I knew exactly what it meant. She wanted me to take this opportunity to speak with Ravinn.
“I am very full. That was a good meal,” I said.
“Good. I have to keep you well fed, both of you,” Ravinn said as he put his hand on my belly. I was not showing yet. But it was nice the way he referred to the both of us. It was very sweet, but it was not full of desire and lust like I needed.
“I think I need to take a walk. Walk off some of this heavy food,” I said as I began to stand up.
“I will come with you. Here, let me help you,” Ravinn said as he held his hands out to me. He helped me from the sand onto my feet.
We walked toward the more secluded beach down the way. Ravinn held my hand, and we made light conversation about what he had done for the day. Then we stopped as I looked out over the ocean.
“It is very beautiful here. I really do love it here. I love being here with you,” I said as I looked into his eyes. I pushed a strand of his black hair away from his face. I allowed my hand to touch his cheek and rough beard stubble.
He leaned down over me and pressed his lips against mine. I kissed him back. I let the palms of my hands rest on his hard stomach. Then I moved my hands up his chest until I was on my tiptoes to put my hands around his strong neck. I pulled him toward me harder. He moaned in my mouth. My mouth opened and his tongue slipped in and slowly made circles around my tongue. I was so hungry for him.
I let my hand move from his neck down his chest and then down his belly. I quickly and abruptly put my hand on top of his loincloth, straight on his staff. I could feel that it was hard. He groaned in my mouth. This was it. It was finally going to happen. This was further than we had gotten to sex and a very, very long time. Feeling his hard stuff under my hand was filling me with desire and lust.
“Oh, Ravinn. I want you to take me. Take me now,” I whispered between kisses as I allowed my hand to move up and down his hard staff. But, I should have kept my mouth shut. I should have just allowed the movement and sexual action to take us. Because he quickly pulled my hands off of him. He pushed me away from him slightly and stepped backward.
“We should get you back home,” he said as he turned his back on me.
“But, Ravinn. What is it? What is wrong? Do you not want me?” I said trying to get near him.
“Not now, Amelia. I am not going to discuss this with you now,” he said.
“Then when? You have been avoiding me. I'm sick of it!” I shouted at him. He growled a low growl. Then he quickly scooped me up into his arms. He flew off of the sand into the air. In a matter of seconds, we were back at the beach picnic with the women. He did not approach them. He set me down within eyesight of them. He placed me on the sand gently. I looked at him confused. Then he took off into the air and flew away.
I sat down right then and there in the sand. I could not take it anymore. Michelle ran over to me while Stephanie and Brenda were swimming. They had no idea what was going on, and I did not want them to know. But I confided in Michelle.
“Amelia? You are back so soon. What happened?” she asked as she finally reached me and sat down beside me in the sand.
I looked at her and could not speak. I was so hurt. I felt so rejected. Then I was done. I could not control it anymore with feeling hurt and the hormones of being pregnant. I began to cry. I cried uncontrollably as I put my face in my hands.
“Oh no. I guess it did not go well. You don't have to tell me. Just get it all out,” Michelle said as she put her arm around me. I cried with her on the beach for quite some time. When Stephanie and Brenda finally came over, I told them that nothing was wrong and that I was just having an emotional day from being pregnant. They took this explanation as the real reason why.
But I knew why. I knew that something had to change, and if it didn't then I would never be happy on this alien planet. I was pregnant, and the father of my child did not want to touch me or make love to me. That was not how I wanted this to go.
When I returned to the hut that Ravinn and I lived in, he was not there. He did not come home until late that evening when I was already in bed. I thought that maybe he had been watching me from a distance waiting for me to fall into bed before he returned. He definitely had the capacity to do that being able to fly and perch on a tree branch for as long as he wanted. I felt him roll into bed. I said nothing. I turned over and cried myself to sleep.