Chapter 1
Emily Allen tried to sit up, but a hand pushed her back. “You’ll pass out if you try that again.”
Unimaginable pain ripped through her body. Even breathing hurt. She sank onto the pillow. “Where am I?”
“You’re in the infirmary,” the voice replied.
Emily tried to blink, but her eyes wouldn’t work. She fought her way up through clouds of delirium until she knew for certain she was thinking straight, but pitch blackness still blocked her sight. She strained to see any glimmer at all. “Am I blind?”
The voice chuckled low and husky. Now Emily recognized it as female. “It’s after light’s out. You’ll see everything when the power comes back on.”
Emily’s mind whirled, and her memory came rushing back. “Are you Romarie?”
The woman didn’t laugh this time. “No, I’m human. I’m just like you.”
Emily focused her eyes and her ears on the woman’s voice. “The last thing I remember I was on the Romarie ship. They kidnapped me and my two sisters and my cousin from a family reunion in Seattle. They planned to take us to a slave market somewhere out in space.”
The stranger sighed, and her voice moved to one side. “It’s the same old story. I wish I had a nickel for every woman they’ve stolen from Earth.”
Emily cocked her head, but she didn’t dare lift it off the pillow for fear the blinding pain would come back. “How do you know about them?”
“I’m one of them. They kidnapped me, too. That’s how I got here.” She was American—whoever she was—and she sounded African American, maybe from somewhere Back East.
“Where is here?” Emily heard her own voice rising in alarm. “Where is this infirmary I’m in?”
A warm, soft hand touched her arm. “You’re on the planet Angondra. Don’t worry. You’re safe from the Romarie. You can relax in that bed until you get better. You took one doozy of a beating, but the good news is you’re in the most advanced medical facility on the planet. You have doctors and nurses tending you day and night, not that you really need them. You just need to heal from your injuries.”
“What happened to me?” Emily asked. “How did I get here?”
The strange woman moved closer. “You were in a crash. The Romarie ship you were on crashed on this planet. It broke up in the atmosphere, and you fell out. You landed here, in our territory.”
“Who’s territory?” Emily asked.
“You’re in the territory of the Ursidrean faction,” the woman told her. “There are five factions on this planet, and you happened to land here. The wreckage of the Romarie ship landed in the Lycaon territory, so your sisters and your cousin will be with them—if they’re still alive.”
Emily caught her breath and tried again to sit up. “I have to find them.”
The woman pushed her down again. “You can’t get up. You have a shattered pelvis and several broken ribs. Your brain is swollen. You’re not going anywhere for a long time. You don’t have to worry. We got word that almost all the women on that ship survived, and they’re recovering with the Lycaon. We can send word to find out if your sisters and cousin are with them.”
Emily fought against the woman’s restraining hands. “I can’t just lie here. I have to get up. I have to find out if they’re okay.”
“Even if you could get up,” the woman told her, “you can’t leave the infirmary until the power comes back on. It is pitch dark throughout the whole city, and you’ll need a guide to show you the way to get out. Stay where you are and concentrate on getting better. Then you can decide what you want to do.”
Emily fought her off. “I can’t.”
Something clicked in the dark, and an alarm rang in the distance. The woman took hold of both her arms and held her down on the bed. “You’ll make your injuries worse if you don’t lie still.”
Emily’s mind went into a maelstrom of confusion. “I have to get out of here. I can’t stay here.”
A door opened, and footsteps pattered into the room. The woman’s voice breathed next to her ear. “You’re going to go to sleep now, but we’re going to do everything to help you get better. We’ll talk again when you wake up.”
Her own struggling sent lightning bolts of pain rocketing through her body. Even before the syringe slid into her arm, a tide of pain swept her into unconsciousness. She reeled and fell back on the pillow. With her last breath, she whispered, “Who are you?”
She barely heard the woman murmur back before she succumbed to the darkness. “My name is Aria.”
Bright light woke her up. She blinked and took a deep breath, but breathing didn’t hurt now. She turned her head right and left and found herself in a clean, bright hospital room. On the other side of the room, a man knelt in front of a cabinet of rolled cloth dressings. He selected a bunch of them and stood up. He closed the cabinet and turned around.
He lifted a clipboard off the counter and jotted something down. Then he gathered his dressings and started out of the room when he noticed her watching him. His eyes widened. “You’re awake. That’s good.”
Emily stared at him. The creature she mistook for a big-shouldered man couldn’t be human. Rough brown hair hung down to his shoulders and covered his forehead and neck in a thick ruff. His shoulders dwarfed his head, and he moved with a slow, rounded gait.
He noticed her staring at him and smiled. “How are you feeling?”
She couldn’t stop staring at him. She opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Even when that strange woman’s voice came back to her, she couldn’t make sense of the evidence right in front of her eyes. This creature was an alien. She was on another planet. Not even her experience with the Romarie prepared her for the shock.
He smiled at her. The twinkle in his eyes was exactly the same as any human. Her mind started to clear. “What…..?”
He put down the clipboard. “What am I? I'm Ursidrean. I'm Angondran—not that that means anything.”
Emily raised her head, and when she felt no pain, she tried to sit up. To her relief, she found she could. She rubbed her head. “That woman…..she told me about this.”
He arched his eyebrows. “Someone from the infirmary must have explained it to you. You’re on the planet Angondra. You’re in Ursidrean territory.”
Emily nodded, but her mind still reeled from the shock. “How long have I been asleep?”
“You weren’t asleep,” he told her. “You were in a drug-induced coma. The one time they let you wake up, you couldn’t be restrained, and your injuries were dangerous enough the doctors decided to sedate you until you got better.”
She eyed his white uniform. “The doctors? Aren’t you a doctor?”
He chuckled. “Me? No, I’m not a doctor. I’m a medic with the border patrol. I’m only here for resupply, and then I’m gone. My unit found you on the border, and I’m the one who brought you in. I’m glad to see you’re better now. We weren’t sure if you would survive your fall.”
Emily took another deep breath. How good it felt to breathe! “How long have I been here?”
“Almost six months,” he told her.
She gasped. Then she pushed herself off the bed. “I have to get out of here.”
He took a step forward. “I’d settle down if I was you. You still have a lot of recovering to do before you go skipping off to parts unknown.”
Emily looked around the room. “Where’s that woman, the one that was here before?”
He cocked his head. “Which woman?”
“There was a woman here when I woke up last time,” Emily replied. “She said her name was Aria, whatever that means. She said she was kidnapped by the Romarie, too.”
He nodded. “Ah, yes. Aria. She’s not here at the moment, but I can tell the nurses you asked for her. She’s busy with four cubs, so she doesn’t work in the infirmary as much as she’d like to.”
Emily started. “Cubs?”
He eyed her. “What’s the word you use for your young?”
“Do you mean children?” Emily asked.
He pointed at her. “That’s it. Children. She has four children.”
“Did the Romarie kidnap her children from Earth, too?” Emily asked.
He moved away. “No, she had them here.”
Her conversation with Aria came back to her. “Are her cubs.....you know, are they Ursidreans?”
“Yes, they are Ursidreans,” he replied. “Aria’s mate is the Alpha of our faction, and he’s the cubs’ father, so yes, they are Ursidreans.”
“How long has she been here?” Emily asked. “She must have landed here a long time ago to have four children… I mean cubs.”
“She’s been here two years,” he replied. “She had the first set of twins her first year here and the second set last year.”
“She must be busy then,” Emily remarked. “She must have a lot of work to do. I’m surprised she gets to the infirmary at all.”
“Not so much,” he replied. “The cubs run wild most of the time. They wrestle with their friends and roam around the caves and the mountains. She has a lot more time to herself now than she used to.”
“But they’re less than a year old,” Emily pointed out. “How can they roam around by themselves?”
He shrugged and turned away. “All cubs do, I guess. In another year, they’ll be fully grown and they won’t come back to their home cave at all.”
Emily rubbed her head. It still ached. “I guess it’s different for Ursidrean cubs than for human children.”
“No doubt.” He started to leave.
“Hey, wait!” she called after him.
“What is it?” he asked.
“I didn’t get a chance to thank you for bringing me in,” she replied.
“I was just doing my job.” He strode out of the room before she could say anything else.
The door hadn’t even stopped swinging when an African-American woman with a short fuzz of brown hair cut close to her scalp breezed in. She sat down on the bed at Emily’s side. “You’re awake. How do you feel?”
“I feel fine,” Emily replied. “I mean, I feel about as good as anybody could feel who’s been lying in bed for six months.”
Aria smiled. She didn’t look all that old, but fine lines creased the corners of her eyes. She’d seen a lot for her years. “You’ll feel better once you start moving around. Can you walk?”
“I haven’t tried,” Emily replied. “I wasn’t sure if I should.”
“Try it,” Aria told her. “Your pelvis is all healed up now, and we used the rotational compensator to stop the wasting of your muscles. You’ll recover fast, so the sooner you get started, the better.”
Emily swung her legs over the side of the bed. They ached from long disuse, but they didn’t hurt when she set her feet on the floor. She hesitated to put her weight on them, though. She glanced toward the door. “Who was that man that just left? He said he was a medic with the border patrol that brought me in.”
“Do you mean Faruk?” Aria asked. “Yes, he’s the best we have. The medical board has been trying for years to get him to work here in the city, but he won’t give up the border patrol. He loves the mountains too much. You were lucky it was him that found you. He saved your life.”
Emily nodded. “I tried to thank him, but he wouldn’t hear it.”
Aria walked across the room and started organizing the shelves. “That’s just like him. He’s humble. He doesn’t think he’s got the expertise to work in the city, but he knows more than most of the doctors. He trains all the medics in the corps, and the men love him.”
“What city is this?” Emily asked.
Aria spun around and stared at her. Then she smiled. “I keep forgetting you don’t know anything. You’re in the Ursidrean capital city. It’s called Harbeiz. That’s Angondran for the number one. All the cities are named after numbers according to how far away they are from Harbeiz.”
Emily gazed toward the door. “It’s hard to believe there’s another planet outside that door.”
“There’s one more thing I better tell you before you go any further,” Aria went on. “Then I’ll take you out for a walk.”
“What’s that?” Emily asked.
“The Ursidrean cities are underground,” Aria replied. “The Ursidrean territory covers huge mountain ranges, and the Ursidreans live in caves underground—like bears.”
Emily stared at her. “Bears?”
Aria nodded, and a knowing smile crept over her face. “The Ursidreans are a lot like bears. If you remember that, it’s much easier to understand them.”
At that moment, a rowdy bunch of boys rushed into the room. They upset a rolling table with a pitcher of water on it. The water splashed all over Emily’s bedding. The boys yelled and punched and attacked each other until Aria pulled them apart. “How many times have I told you not to come into the infirmary? Don’t you have enough space to run around in the South Corridor?”
One big boy pointed to another, smaller one. “Rekti stole my catapult when I wasn’t looking and he broke it. Now I have to start all over and make a new firing mechanism.” To make his point, he pulled back his fist and slung it at the smaller boy. He would have punched him in the eye if Aria hadn’t dragged him away at the last second.
“I don’t care what Rekti did,” Aria snapped. “Don’t bring it into the infirmary. This is your last warning, Mirin. If I catch you or any other boys in here, I’ll report you to Donen, and you know what that means.”
At the mention of Donen, both boys froze and fell silent. They glared at each other, but all hostilities ceased in an instant. They had the same ruff of hair around their heads and necks and the same heavy ridge of brow over their eyes. Other than that, they were exactly like any other human boys.
“Now go back to the South Corridor,” Aria told them. “And Rekti, you keep your hands off your brother’s things. You wouldn’t like it if he stole your micro-magnifier and broke it, would you?”
Aria let them go. They stood opposite each other and glared.
“Are these....?” Emily asked. “Are these your children?”
Aria set her fist on her hip. “Yes, they are. I only wish I could get them to play with their friends instead of each other so I wouldn’t have to mop up the blood every day. They fight like cats and dogs.”
Mirin frowned at his mother. “What’s cats and dogs?”
“But he’s.....” Emily pointed to Mirin. “He’s only two years old. And this one is only....”
“Rekti and his twin brother are nine months old.” She shoved the boys toward the door. “Now off you go.” They disappeared. “Ursidrean cubs mature in five years. It’s a far cry from twenty like human children.”
Emily stared after them with wide eyes. “It’s amazing. I don’t know if it’s good or bad, but it’s amazing.”
“Where are your other two…..cubs?” Emily asked.
“Mirin’s twin Vashet doesn’t spend much time with his brothers,” Aria replied. “He spends almost all of his time with his friends. And Rekti’s twin Avi has some unique issues. He’s in the Academy.”
“I’m sorry,” Emily told her. “I shouldn’t pry into your personal life.”
“Do you have children?” Aria asked.
“I don’t have any of my own,” Emily replied. “My husband had two teenage sons, and I helped raise them. But when my husband died, they went to live with their uncle, so I guess my job is done. I was trying to conceive when my husband died.”
Aria sat down on the bed again. “I’m sorry to be the one to bring up painful memories.”
“Please don’t apologize,” Emily exclaimed. “I’m just grateful not to be on the Romarie ship anymore. Anything is better than that, and I was casting around for a new purpose in life when they abducted me and my sisters and....”
“And your cousin,” Aria added. “You told me.”
“Is there any way I can find out about them?” Emily asked.
“The person to ask is Faruk,” Aria replied. “His unit patrols the Lycaon border. If anyone can find out, he can.”