She felt like she was back in her home state of Florida, running through the Everglades at night. Only it wasn’t gators and snakes she had to watch out for now—it was the male she’d been sent to defend.
The one who would track her down and breed her if she couldn’t get away.
No, I can’t let him! I can’t! Imani told herself wildly. It wasn’t that she didn’t want J’are—she found him devastatingly attractive and part of her yearned to give in and give him what they both needed so badly.
But if I do, that means giving up my future! Giving up my family and career—going to a distant planet where I don’t know anyone!
She didn’t want that. She loved Earth and she loved her parents—it would devastate them to lose another child. She didn’t want to be stuck light years away from them—didn’t want to live out the rest of her days on a planet which had been quarantined because of the savagery of its inhabitants!
One of which was chasing her now.
Imani knew he was, because she could hear him crashing through the underbrush, not even trying to be quiet. It was as though he was so confident of catching her, he didn’t even feel he had to make an effort to be silent.
There was a stitch beginning in her side and her breath was turning into ragged, panting gasps. Imani wondered wildly how long she’d been running. How big was this room anyway? How come she hadn’t reached a wall yet? Maybe a wall with a door? A way out? Was she just going in circles?
She had no answers to her questions and it seemed like everything in the jungle room was against her. The branches whipped at her cheeks and the creepers tangled around her ankles and tried to trip her up and bring her down. It was as though the entire simulated jungle—which felt all too real—wanted her to give up and submit to her fate.
No! Imani thought again. No, I won’t—I can’t!
Doggedly, she ran on.
Thirty-Four
After she disappeared into the jungle, J’are stood still and held back the change for as long as he could.
I can’t do this to her—I won’t! he thought, his fists balled at his sides as he struggled to hold the door of the cage he’d locked his feral side into closed. He gritted his teeth, his nails digging into the meat of his palms until they cut the skin and blood pattered down to the jungle floor. His breathing became heavy and labored as he struggled to resist the wild impulses inside. It hurt to hold back his feral side—hurt like all the Seven Hells.
Despite the pain, J’are held fast. I love her! I won’t betray her—won’t take what she doesn’t want to give! he told himself desperately. I won’t—I won’t!
But the moons were converging—the Blood Brother was covering the Water Twins. He felt the pull in his blood—the relentless, endless tide which dragged his thinking mind back to the savage, to the animalistic and wild side. The side which had only two functions—to kill and to breed. In the hole it had protected him, but now it would betray him—and betray the female he loved. He couldn’t let that happen!
But he was fighting a losing battle.
To J’are, it seemed as though he was buried up to his neck in sand and the tide was rushing in. Soon he—or his thinking mind anyway, would be buried—would be drowned in the wild waters. There was no holding back the tide—no matter how he struggled against it, it was going to come in and sweep away all rational thought. Already it was eroding his thinking mind, little by little, like waves sweeping over a structure made of sand.
Please, he thought as he felt the bars of the mental cage he had built bending, felt his feral side beginning to slide free. Please, I can’t—I can’t!
And then the cage broke and the tide rushed in.
All thought was gone and only instinct remained.
J’are’s eyes glowed a brighter green and the last vestige of rational thought left him. Lifting his nose to the night sky, he inhaled deeply and smelled her sweet scent. Her—the female—his female. The one he was supposed to bond to him—the one he was supposed to breed.
His k’dra markings glowing under the light of the three converging moons, he set off into the jungle, intent on hunting her down and making her his forever.
Thirty-Five
Imani didn’t know when she’d been this frightened. The breath was sobbing in her throat and she was panting with terror. She thought she must be running in circles because no matter how far she went, she couldn’t find the exit—or even a wall. And the crashing sounds in the underbrush behind her kept getting closer.
At last she gave up on finding the way out. She wasn’t going to be able to escape from the simulated jungle of J’are’s home planet. So the next best thing was to hide.
Panting, she came to a halt in front of a tree that looked like it might be climbable. It had low, sweeping branches that were thick and sturdy enough to support her weight. And best of all, it had lots of leaves—big, broad ones, as large as her head—which would hopefully hide her from sight.
She hadn’t done much tree climbing since she was little and her brother had led her on wild adventures through the woods in the park near their house. But Imani found you didn’t forget the basic skills—find a low branch, grip the rough bark, pull yourself up, find another branch, repeat.
She went up as high as she could, until the ground was far below her, and settled herself on a branch which was sheltered by a large overhanging bunch of the wide, flat leaves. Putting her eye to an opening between
