Chapter Sixteen

 

Tabitha was having a delicious dream. Savich was plying her lips, her other lips, with his large tongue, and she was fast approaching orgasm. And then the dream changed, and Savich’s face turned brutish, and two more Krinar joined him, and they began to cut her with long talons where their fingers should have been, and she began screaming.

“Tabby! Tabby, wake up!” Savich’s hands were on her shoulders, and she blinked to erase the horrific images behind her eyelids.

“You, you,” she couldn’t spit the words out. “There were others. You were hurting me!”

Savich held her head to his bare chest and made shushing noises and brushed her hair with a large hand. She heard his steady strong heart beneath her ear, and her cries subsided.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I was having such a nice dream, and then it changed.”

He stiffened.

“What did I do now?” She slumped. “I’m always ruining everything.” She sniffed mucus up her noise. “Maybe you should just take me somewhere.”

“Is that what you want?” His voice sounded stilted. Off.

“No.”

He relaxed within her arms. He continued to caress her head and hair, and it sent thrills down her back when his fingers tangled in the strands at the base of her neck.

“I never want to leave you, Savich,” she said then looked up into his face. “Is that strange? We don’t even know each other.”

Savich’s eyes looked off into the distance. “Somehow, our souls know each other.”

Tabitha’s eyes filled with tears, but a huge smile spread across her face. Eventually she pulled away. “What were you doing out here in the Kwadacha, anyway?”

She watched his expression shift from calm detachment to consternation. He seemed to decide something.

“I was tasked with finding a human Resistance force and revealing their location to my superior.”

Tabitha put a hand to her lips. “Oh.” She looked around at their makeshift home. “I didn’t realize there were Resistance fighters up here in BC.”

Savich rested his huge hands on her shoulders and looked into her face. “Now that I’ve found you, I never want to give you up. But I have to finish my job.” He caressed her cheekbone with a callused finger. “Will it bother you?”

Tabitha took a breath and gathered the blankets up around her shoulders. “Will it bother me for you to turn in my fellow humans?” She bit her bottom lip. “I suppose it would if I had never met you.” She searched his face. “But you’re not here to kill them, correct?”

“Of course not.” He rubbed a hand over his whiskers. “I wouldn’t kill humans. And if I were to kill another Krinar, it would mean certain execution, because of my past.”

Her eyes grew large. She nodded. “You would never do that. You’re not the kind of person to slaughter humans or Krinar without a thought.” She shuddered, thinking of those animals back at the cabin. Men with no thought for another’s life or will. Taking without permission, hurting for their pleasure. Huge men who used their strength to intimidate and overpower. Her face pulled into a frown. They were nearly as large as Savich. They had full beards and very dark eyes, almost black. She had never seen such evil eyes before. It seemed like her spine grew cold, and then she began shivering from the inside out. Her heart rate skyrocketed, and her teeth chattered. She couldn’t feel her toes or fingers. Where were her fingers? Ah, spread out on Savich’s chest. She stared at them as if they weren’t a part of her body.

“Tabby,” Savich’s voice sounded like it was at the end of a dark tunnel. “Tabby, come back to me.”

His voice grew quieter and quieter. She stared at her index finger; it was poised over where his heart should be. She felt its thunderous quake and then all went black.

She woke in the yard by the cabin. With her heart in her throat, she frantically found her bearings. Her foot wasn’t chained to the dirt. Yet. Her head shot to the front door. They were tumbling out of the cabin, hurling cruel words at her with violent invective, but the words were unintelligible. For a second, their eyes flashed gold, and then turned deepest black.

She didn’t wait for more insults. She jumped up and ran into the woods, looking down to see she wore her hiking boots. She blew out a sigh of relief. She ran, scaling fallen trees and mossy boulders with ease. She would escape this time! She saw Savich ahead and called out to him. “Wait! Wait Savich!” Her lungs screamed. “Wait for me!”

She felt a tug on her hair, and then her neck snapped back followed by her whole body. She flailed and yelled and bit at her captors, but they were too strong and too lusty. They bit her before they stripped her, and then something changed. She needed to live for Savich. She needed to live! If she was going to survive, she would have to make it good for them. Tears streamed down her face at the realization. But then she saw Savich behind them, blood running from a long wound under his chin. “I’ll do it for you.”

“Tabitha!” Savich roared and Tabitha’s eyes snapped open. She was lying on a soft and clean mattress with a sliver of blue sky hovering above her line of sight. Her heart continued to race, but Savich held her hand with his right, and petted the crown of her head with his left. “Tabby, you’re safe.” She turned her head to see him.

Tears streamed down his face.

“Are you hurt?” She asked, her brow furrowing.

His brows almost met. He shook his head. “No.” Savich released her hand and touched her face, just under her eye. “You are.”