Eldan first thought that Arder was striking out at him and he cradled his head, but then he realized that what he was feeling was an echo of someone else gutting another man.
A mind, a female mind a thousand times stronger than what he had seen from Arder was punishing Ibrael. He could hear the screams of the brutal man, who was in complete agony under the merciless hammer of power that this strange female was projecting at him.
Arder had jumped onto his feet and was saying something, but Eldan was so taken with this new mind that he didn't hear him. Arder ran through the door, leaving Eldan alone in the suddenly very cool room.
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The oppressive heat was being offset by the air conditioning. Bren thought, 'At least now I know what air conditioning is,' as he took up his tools for digging in the hard rock. He noticed that Merck was working with an absent-minded expression in his eyes, and he knew that he was thinking about their mate.
'Is she alive?'
This question had been gnawing at him since they were captured. His mind was plagued by many scenarios where she is wounded or wandering alone in the forest.
He forced his mind from the distressing thoughts as he began to dig once again, turning to consider his and Merk's current circumstances. That, at least, he might have some small affect or control on, so was more productive.
They had been here for about a week, from what he could tell. Except for the Second in Command, Ibrael, who was really enjoying messing with them, and for Lord Arder, who fortunately hadn't reappeared for their collective sake, the other captors weren't so terrible.
'Darians, that's what they are called...' He didn't remember that name from what Isabel had shared with him. She had spoken about Europeans and Americans, and he had some segmented images of strange looking, short people that she had thought about as Chinese, but nothing came even close to what Darians were.
Galadriel, the Third in Command, had treated them much better. He had immediately ordered food and water to be given to them and had checked their health, and even left some of the women and elderly to rest. He had been a Healer on a place far away from here, from what Bren had understood, and had been sent here as a punishment. Galadriel had explained that to Eckme when he had prevented her spontaneous miscarriage from Arder's rough treatment. The reason why he had been punished was eluding Bren. It was connected to some healer's potions he had sold to people who were not sick, and he was baffled why this is a crime.
Galadriel didn't like to cause pain and was controlling the wolves well. He had put most of the women into positions at the sorting line so they didn't do heavy labor. Others, he had organized into taking care of the children. He had also stood up to Ibrael when he had visited the mine and demanded something weird that Bren didn't understand but was related to the children.
So far, everything had been quite calm, though they were working silently. Galadriel had given medicine to the people in shock and now they were starting to feel better, so Bren wasn't surrounded by such desperately depressed men and women.
They were working in the upper shafts of the mine, "to adjust" as Galadriel had told them, and were exploring a new vein of a gold ore that was heavy in iron and silver tints.
Both Darians and werewolves avoided this place, and Bren had come to suspect that they didn't like these metals.
Galadriel had given them the knowledge of different metals so they could identify the gold ore and sort it out into the wagons. Bren was mesmerized by the importance the Darians placed on the gold. He had seen gold before; it occurred from time to time in the mountain rivers. The Healer's Necklace that Isabel wore was made of a piece of such gold, but he hadn't even imagined that someone would insert value in the metal itself. Yes, it didn't wear easily, but it couldn't be eaten, so no Neanderthal was interested in it beyond the ability to make ritual objects or simple ornaments from it.
Bren loaded the pieces of ore he had been digging for the last hour in the cart and pushed it to the tunnel entrance where a machine was transporting the ore to the sorting line. He was going to unload it and then get a cup of water.
When he got there, he noticed that the werewolves that normally guarded the entrance were nowhere in sight. He heard a shuffle and turned.
The brutal man, Ibrael, was placing a device that Bren had seen used by one of the Darians who was creating tunnels in the mines. Galadriel had explained how it worked, and Bren and the others had learnt the meaning of words like explosives, detonation, and bombs.
'But why is he putting an explosive here? There are plenty of shafts around...'
In that moment Ibrael spotted him, and a look that Bren had seen in the eyes of a serpent appeared on the man's face. Bren felt immensely disturbed and automatically stepped back.
'I have to run to Galadriel...'
"Galadriel won't save you, you little savage..." purred Ibrael, and before Bren could think another thought, something powerful pushed on him and his knees hit the ground.
Strong hands grabbed his hair and Bren was trapped in the poisonous stare of the Darian. "A little dirty, but nevertheless charming. You are all born pretty cocksuckers..." sang Ibrael and lowered his zipper.
Bren felt terribly afraid, looking at the male flesh that was heading towards him. He tried to scream but his mind was trapped in the mental net that the Darian had forced upon him.
Suddenly, he felt another presence that strongly resembled Arder touching his mind, and he prayed that the Darian leader would come and stop Ibrael.
Ibrael also felt it and froze in place, looking uncertainly around, but there was nobody to be seen. He seemed very afraid, "What the fuck was that?"
The presence faded, and he focused again on Bren, who was still kneeling on the floor. Something like a sadness passed on his face. "Too bad, my savage. Someone just scanned us and I don't have time for a blowjob!"
Before Bren could even blink, Ibrael pulled a knife from somewhere and stabbed him in the chest. Terrible pain and something wet flooded his lungs. Bren hit the dirty floor and coughed up the wetness, realizing that it was his own blood. Through blurred vision, he saw Ibrael wiping the crimson blood off the blade when something absolutely amazing happened.
Isabel entered the cave with furious eyes. Bren had never seen her so enraged.
'Is this an illusion?' he wondered, watching the light of his life freezing Ibrael in place with the knife still clutched in his hand.
A storm exploded around him, and for a moment Bren thought that the explosive Ibrael had placed had detonated. Then he realized what was happening. He was feeling the mind attack of his lovely and so lovable Isabel over Ibrael.
He was watched helplessly, trying not to cry from the residual waves of what Isabel was doing to the Darian. It was like what he had witnessed Arder doing to the Shaman, but thousands of times stronger.
Ibrael shrieked and, to Bren's surprise, tears of blood erupted from his eyes and nose. The mighty Darian, who had forced him on his knees with a single thought, collapsed on the dusty floor just three feet from him.
Bren had the chance to look straight at the blood shot eyes of the Darian still filled with pain and surprise, as it came to him, 'She crushed him in less time than I could inhale twice!'
Gentle hands turned him, and he looked at the tear streaked face of his mate. Her beautiful eyes were checking him over worriedly and her palm was pressing against his open wound.
"Bren, my love! Don't die!" she sobbed, and tried to find something to staunch the bleeding.
Two other people came into his view. One was the out of breath craftsman Hasdiel, and the other one was a man, a Darian, with golden hair who stared at him in a very odd way.
All of them, including Isabel, were dressed in the black uniforms he had seen the Darians wearing when they had captured him. At the sight of the others, Bren realized that it was not an illusion and Isabel was very much here at his side.
He blinked at her grief stricken face, "Isabel..." was all he managed to say before another wet thing clogged his throat. He almost wept at the thought he couldn't even tell her of his love when the Sky was about to take him.
Isabel erupted into more sobs, "We have to do something!"
The golden haired Darian threw him a look of hatred and then looked at his Isabel with much softer eyes. "There is an Emergency Medical Bay. I can fix the wound there..." he said reluctantly.
Isabel immediately jumped at the offer, and Bren was carried by the blond man and Hasidel to the airlift. Isabel was still pressing his wound and was staring at him with drying eyes, in which there was hope.
"Don't worry, my love, you will heal!" she whispered, and wiped the blood from his chin. Bren was unable to answer but he felt when their minds merged together, and the soothing feeling of her devotion flooded his brain replacing the pain.
Her mind had always been extraordinary but now was beyond anything he had seen. Bren was worried what had happened with her in this week when they had been separated.
The airlift chimed and the doors opened, revealing the brightly lit space of the Emergency Bay. The men carried him to a metal bed and he was put on it gently. The golden haired man inserted a needle in his arm, and something was muzzled on his face and down his throat. Blessed warmness spread in him.
"I'll sedate him for the intervention..." a voice said as sleep flushed over him.
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Isabel was hovering around Bren while Lugnar wiped his hands with a sterile cloth and began to heal her mate's wounds with a device that looked like hand mixer to her. It produced a green light that focused into a single beam, and before her frightened eyes, Lugnar opened the wound and began fixing the lung first.
Bren was breathing steadily and Isabel could tell his mind was asleep. She touched his hand and said a prayer to God that he will get better.
Lugnar was working quickly, and Isabel was completely focused on her mate, tracking any signs of recovery when Hasdiel gasped. Lugnar lifted his eyes from the bloody cut on Bren's chest.
Isabel turned and froze in place when she met the face she so well remembered from her fearful night run.
Except this time the man wasn't smiling, but instead was staring with a frown on his striking face. He was pointing a gun at her, and was surrounded by armed Darians and werewolves that looked like hardened warriors.
Their eyes met and Isabel released Bren's hand, stepping ahead ready to fight with the whole world to protect what was hers.
She clenched her fists, ready to strike at him and the now well-known feeling of something hot emerged in her head. She had come to recognize when her newly found mental abilities were unleashing under her shield.
Arder froze in place and she hesitated, trying to figure out what had happened. She hadn't moved against him yet.
The look in the icy blue eyes changed from anger to something that Isabel couldn't recognize. The color of his mind, initially so blue and in control, was now a vortex of different colors that were hard to read.
A soft chuckle interrupted the heated silence. She glanced over at Lugnar, still wanting to keep Arder in view.
Lugnar didn't seem at all disturbed by the war about to erupt in the closed space of the medical bay. Throwing her a seductive wink, he closed the wound on Bren's chest, then flashed his patented smile at his former boss.
"Hey Arder, are you happy to see me? Missed me?" he asked, like was inquiring about the weather forecast.
Arder, who was still fixing her with a peculiar stare, now turned his eyes to his former scientist, still speechless.
"No?" mocked Lugnar with a theatrical raise of his hand over his heart.
Just then, Isabel realized what that look was on Arder's face. 'He is stunned!'
Lugnar cleaned his hands with a cloth and again produced the smile that Isabel had come to think of as his own invention. "We both remember the last time we have seen mental power like this lovely girl is displaying, don't we, Arder?"
Arder again didn't say anything, but returned his amazed eyes to her. Isabel was braced for a sudden mind attack when something else emerged in his eyes; they turned into something dreamy and exalted.
Arder lowered his gun, putting it back in its holster. The other Darians were peering at her like she had just bewitched them as they also put down their weapons.
Isabel was feeling the hot sensation again. She was getting so many different emotions behind their shielded minds that, for a moment, it was starting to sound like a giant crowd cheering at a stadium.
"My fellow Darians..." began Lugnar, and after a short pause he continued, "and werewolves and a Neanderthal..." All eyes fastened upon him with confused expressions until he threw a glance at the still sedated man on the medical bed to illustrate the last word before going on with his speech.
"We all are here to witness a historical moment for our Empire! A rightful heir of the blood line of the Emperors is among us. She just proved her abilities by crushing that little shit, Ibrael, into a pile of mindless meat, as I am sure you have already discovered. All hail Lady Isabel!" Lugnar announced.
Isabel was greeted by the exalted shouts of the cheering crowd. More and more people were gathering around the medical bay to have a look at her.
Isabel, in that moment, wanted nothing more than to pull Lugnar into a corner and ask him what insanity he was spewing. This bluff wasn't going to hold for long.
'Who said I'm bluffing, my tight peach?' Lugnar playfully touched her mind, guessing what was tormenting her.
She wanted to retort to his constant sexual remarks, but decided right now was not the best moment to do so.
She looked again at Arder, who continued to stare at her with something not quite sane lurking in his mind. He took a step ahead and bowed at her, then again fixed her with that slightly mad look. "Until you choose a husband you have the right to rule..." were the first words he finally uttered.
Isabel was about to tell him that she had a husband, actually two, when Lugnar interrupted, "And she will be a great ruler, Arder!"
Arder just nodded, "I'm sure she will, but now we have to secure her safety. I just received a message from the Fleet..." he grimaced as though tasting something really disgusting.
Lugnar knitted his brows and then paled.
"What do you mean?" asked Isabel, too nervous with all these people around who actually believed Lugnar's crafted lie.
"We lost Arlian sector yesterday," Arder said simply, like this was supposed to mean something to her. Isabel had no idea where this place was, but what she understood was that the Vorlakians had kicked the Darian's asses again.
Lugnar's demeanor was completely clouded up, all of his shiny playfulness vanished, and she saw the glimpses of the tired man he was. Arder also looked grim. Hasdiel looked like someone had smashed him with a big hammer.
"And?" Isabel wanted to know. "This isn't the first sector you've lost, right?"
Arder gave her a perplexed stare and Isabel stood her ground. "What? I am not stupid; I just don't know where this Arlian place is!"
Hasdiel was the first to answer her, "It's the sector where this base is situated."
That stunned her, and Isabel immediately realized what Arder had meant."No!" she shouted and looked at Bren, who was still sleeping. "We can't abandon this planet!"
"We must Isabel," whispered Lugnar, looking seriously at her. "Once they reach the next quadrant, which is close to this base, the Vorlakians will be able to access the major routes. And I bet they will attack the Homeworld to win the final victory and trigger the Empire's falling apart."
She was completely blown away at the news. 'How am I going to change it?'
Someone moaned behind her and she quickly turned, noticing Bren had come back to his senses. She rushed to him, "Bren! Oh, Bren you are well!" She was so happy with the first good thing to happen that she almost suffocated him with a deep kiss and then covered his face with kisses. "My love, I was so worried about you and Merk!"
Bren hugged her back. He put a hand on her belly and they both shared a moment with the spark of life of their child.
He sat up on the bed and touched his chest, inspecting the pink, new skin that was covering the slash. Then he remembered what had happened. "Isabel, this Darian man was putting out explosives. We must get out of here!"
She blinked and threw a questioning look at Lugnar and Arder, who were watching the scene with raised brows along with the other people gathered in the room.
The image of Ibrael and the detonator flew from Bren's mind, and Arder cursed and hurried to the elevator. Isabel and Bren followed him, accompanied by Lugnar and Hasdiel.
"We must free my people!" demanded Isabel, looking at the Darians around her. "I want a cargo ship and all of the Neanderthals released from the mine!" she ordered, and Lugnar nodded.
Orders were issued and the Darians hurried in all directions to follow the commands they had been given.
They took the airlift up to the level of the airport, and Isabel felt immense joy to see the Neanderthals emerging from the mine shaft. They looked surprisingly healthy, though they were blinking at the strong light of the afternoon sun.
"Eckme!" cried Hasdiel, and ran to the blinking, green-eyed female and hugged her. She was happy and excited to see him, and after ensuring that she was well, he greeted his fellow co-mates.
Isabel saw her father-in-law and then spotted Merk. She quickly ran to him, embracing him with tears of joy emerging in her eyes.
Their lips touched and Isabel sucked his tongue, feeling the long forgotten sensation of her nerve endings enflamed with coming desire. His hand gently traced the slight curve of her belly as they parted to take air.
Bren had come with her and she launched another kiss with him, still embraced by Merk. The long awaited time when she could kiss them both had come, and Isabel felt the need to kneel before her mates and taste them as she had longed to for days.
She began kissing down his neck, no longer caring if even the whole Darian Fleet was watching her. She plunged her hand down, grasping the hardened flesh she loved to suck, when somebody cleared his throat loudly. Bren petted her hair, "My lovely honey pot, you have to focus on the situation now..."
She blindly continued with licking his fond spot she knew he enjoyed, but Merk gently lifted her head off Bren, "Isabel, please..."
Isabel had to come back to the brutal reality of Arder and Lugnar looking at her with cold stares. Hasdiel had a big smooch mark from a kiss on his neck, however even he was impatiently shifting from one foot to another.
She unlocked her combined embrace of Bren and Merk, and with a sigh, stood on the ground,
"Yes?" she said, trying not to sound like a wimp.
"The ship is ready. All of the Neanderthals are on it!" Hasdiel announced.
Isabel nodded with a heavy heart, then she turned to her mates. "You have to go with him. The enemy of the Darians is coming and, if they are not stopped, our planet will be wiped out..." She wanted to say something encouraging but nothing came in mind.
"We are staying with you, Isabel. You are our female and where you go, we go too," Bren told her, and Merk nodded in agreement.
Isabel felt overwhelmed with their loyalty, 'My family!'
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