Hard Sands: Warlords of Atera Read online

  Kalinda paced the room, arms wrapped around her middle, mind whirling faster and faster with every step. She couldn’t believe these lizard-like aliens with their bizarre ideas about mating. The situation seemed more archaic than a 1950s marriage, when the women took care of house and home while the husband worked. Except in this case, they didn’t even give her a choice about marrying—mating—Nakan. They spoke as if it was a done deal.

  The heavy weight of Nakan’s stare remained on her as she moved about the room, his attention not straying an inch. He still clutched the jar of strange sands in one hand, holding it like he merely waited for the opportunity to rub it on her. Every time she went past him, he looked even more confused… and disappointed. That shouldn’t have bothered her as much as it did.

  Kalinda sighed and held out her hand. “Give me the jar.”

  He slowly held it out to her, and she grasped the container, taking a peek inside. These “Healing Sands” looked like greenish mud and had a sickly-sweet scent, like berries left out to rot.

  “Ugh.” She wrinkled her nose.

  “The Healing Sands will mend your wound.” He gestured to her side. “Please.”

  She sighed and frowned at the jar, debating whether to trust the alien. After everything he’d done to protect her, he wouldn’t try to poison her. Right? She was already helpless. There was no reason for him to betray her and make her even more vulnerable. Yet she was hesitant to use an alien medicine on herself. Would the sands have the same effect on humans as they did on Aterans? It could be toxic, and no one would know until it was too late. She also didn’t know the associated side effects or what they were meant to accomplish.

  Kalinda dabbed her fingers into the sands, testing the texture—smooth and wet like a thick, creamy lotion. She didn’t notice an immediate reaction to the material. Nothing more than a slightly soothing sensation. Had to be a good sign, right?

  She padded into the washroom and sensed Nakan on her heels. At least until she shot him a glare over her shoulder. “I can do this without an audience, thanks.”

  “But, I can—”

  “Just wait here.” She took the last couple of steps into the bathroom and pushed the door closed with a heavy thud.

  Ignoring the alien waiting for her mere feet away, she went to the edge of the broad, stone tub and sat. With no mirror in the room, she wouldn’t be able to get a good look at her injury, and she mentally grumbled another complaint about the alien species. Who didn’t have mirrors?

  Aterans, that’s who. Just because they didn’t have any hair to style didn’t mean others wouldn’t have appreciated a mirror to check themselves. But nooo…

  Kalinda tugged her shirt over her head, grinding her teeth together while she handled the pain from the move. The stretch pulled at her injury and she couldn’t wait to simply sit—pain free—and relax. She twisted to search out the injury, catching sight of it from the corner of her eye. It wasn’t bad, but if she’d been back on Earth, they probably would have demanded stiches. Unfortunately, the only healing option she’d been given was the jar of “Healing Sands.” What she wouldn’t give for a trusty needle and thread. She’d have to test the Healing Sands to see if they did well enough.

  She dipped her fingers into the jar once more, gathering some of the wet goop, and then dabbed the sands on her wound with a gentle touch. She managed to smear the sands across her skin but didn’t do a good job of ensuring the sands ended up in the right place. The angle was too awkward to reach her injury properly and she wished for a mirror. Again.

  It didn’t take her long to recognize that she was doing it all wrong. The pain had dulled beneath the numbing effects of the Healing Sands, but that was all. She wasn’t sure what else she could do to find a better angle to approach her wound.

  She sighed, defeat wrapping around her like a cloak. She tugged her shirt in front of her to cover her breasts and then called out for the alien. “Nakan?”

  “Yes, my kode.”

  “Stop calling me that,” she snapped and then swallowed her next curse. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and shook her head. “Can you come here, please?”

  Nakan gradually opened the door, his head soon appearing inside.

  There was no point dithering or hemming and hawing. “I need help.”

  He crossed the room and knelt at her side. He leaned close, his attention on the wound. “You should have let me to care for you. We must get the sands inside the wound for maximum effectiveness.”

  She kept her gaze away from his. “Can you do it?”

  “Of course.

  Nakan dipped his fingers into the clay jar, gathering a generous dollop before smearing the sands over her wound. She sucked in a harsh breath when he rubbed the strange substance into the gash. Despite his large size and gruff nature, he was gentle as he touched her. There was no agonizing pain like she’d expected. She kept her eyes closed and lips pressed together, unsure how to feel about the alien who tended her so intently. She gave herself a moment to enjoy the feel of his strong fingers touching her skin. Her thoughts wandered and, just for a moment, she imagined what it’d be like if he touched her someplace else. Someplace more… intimate.

  She pushed those thoughts aside and stared at Nakan. Jar set aside, he now held a pair of glowing stones near her wound. “What are those things?”

  “What are what?” His distracted tone brought a smile to her lips.

  “The stones.” She nodded toward them. “I saw them in the tunnels. Do they use electricity?”

  He held the stone toward her. It appeared almost like a diamond except the light shone from inside. “They are called deahmid and are only found here within the Hard Sands. They provide light and generate a small amount of power. The larger stones can power our trains and other large mechanics.”

  “Hmm…” Kalinda studied the stone. It was quite beautiful. “So, you make these deahmid?”

  “We mine the gems.” Nakan lowered his gaze. “We trade them to other territories for food, technology, and resources. We do not make anything of our own as those from the Red Sands do.” He placed the lid back on the clay jar.

  “So, they’re valuable?”

  “They are among the most valuable in the Hard Sands. There are many other types of stones, but none are so rare and precious as the deahmid.”

  “Oh,” Kalinda frowned, gaze on the Healing Sands that now covered her wound. “If they’re so valuable, the Healing Sands must be valuable too.”

  “The Healing Sands are among the greatest treasures of the Living Sands located to the south. We also trade for food, but the Healing Sands are their most valuable export.”

  Kalinda shook her head. “Then you shouldn’t have wasted them on me.” Nakan remained quiet as he wrapped her injury with cloth, so she tried again. “The bandage would have been enough. There have to be others in greater need for something like this instead of me.”

  “Nonsense.” Nakan spoke low. “There is no one whose needs are more important than yours.

  He finished covering her wound and Kalinda pulled her shirt back on, covering the bandage and her nudity in an instant.

  “I’m serious. I’m no one special and the wound wasn’t that bad.”

  “It is my fault that you were hurt.” Nakan touched the bandage with the tips of his fingers. “It is my honor and duty as your mate to see to your needs.”

  Kalinda softly pinched her lower lip between her thumb and forefinger, unsure about how to react to Nakan’s words. She was both irritated with his constant assertions that she was his mate and touched at the same time. He wanted to care for her. Hell, he considered it an honor. As if he was a chivalrous knight and she was a damsel in distress. She’d always considered herself to be a strong, independent woman but—though she’d never admit it aloud—she enjoyed the idea of being rescued. When she was younger, she’d fantasized about being carried away by a handsome knight on his valiant steed. Of course, those were foolish dreams she’d never shared with
anyone else, but she couldn’t help remembering them with a wave of fondness as she stared at this alien warrior who strived to care for and protect her.

  She let a small smile touch her lips and reached for him, gently ghosting her hand across his bald, scaly head.

  Nakan shuddered, his eyes gradually closing. She pulled away for a moment, waiting for him to chide her for touching him, but when he remained motionless, she risked caressing him again. She stroked the scales on his bald head, the dry heat of his silken flesh so at odds with the harsh fierceness he projected. Nakan shivered and pressed his lips together, as if he struggled to hold back a sound of pleasure.

  Kalinda smirked. She hadn’t realized an Ateran’s head was so sensitive. She let herself revel in the feel of him once more, fingers brushing the curve of his skull. It was just his head and yet based on the way he reacted, the touch was far more intimate than she initially expected.

  He responded by leaning forward and nuzzling her side. His flattened features rubbed her cloth-covered waist. Her top rode up, exposing some of her skin, and his forked tongue flicked out to tickle her flesh.

  She gasped and sat up straighter, a shiver making its way down her spine. It had been the barest of contact, but the touch of Nakan’s tongue to her body had sent a bolt of desire-tinged electricity through her.

  She stroked his head once more, watching Nakan’s features and softly smiling as she catalogued his reactions. There was no doubt that he savored her touch, finding pleasure in the connection. She forced herself to pull away with one last caress, unwilling to tease the alien further. Things between them were already too strained without her making it worse by leading him on. She wasn’t even sure what had come over her. She’d never been forward in the past. Especially not with some random stranger.

  An alien stranger.

  Nakan tore his attention from her, a pained expression dancing across his face. He rolled to his feet and placed the jar of Healing Sands on the counter. “Your wound will be healed within a few hours, my kode.”

  “All right.” Kalinda gained her feet as well and hesitated for a moment before asking the question that spun through her mind. “So, tell me the truth. What is a codey? It means wife, right? Or mate?”

  She had figured that much out using clues that had been sprinkled throughout the conversation, but there was no doubt she was still missing quite a few important details.

  “To be my kode means that we are meant for each other. You have stirred my blood as no other ever could—or ever will.”

  Kalinda rolled his words around her mind, picking them apart until she was slapped in the face by what he meant. Her face heated with embarrassment, but she shoved her next words past her lips. “Wait… You mean…” She gestured at his groin. “Your…?”

  He nodded, his own gaze focusing elsewhere. “To stir a warrior’s blood is to make him your own. It can be done by no other.”

  Kalinda shook her head and blinked, shock stealing her voice for a moment. “Wait… no other? Like, you can’t… ahem… get ‘stirred’ by any other woman? Ever?”

  He nodded, still not meeting her gaze. For such a strong and brave warrior, he seemed hesitant to talk about intimate details. “A warrior may choose a ka’kode if he has lost his mate or finds loneliness unbearable, but the bonding is in name only. It is not a bonding of the flesh. It is a way for elderly warriors to find a companion to share their remaining years. Only a warrior’s true kode can bond with him bodily.”

  “Wow.” Yeah, that was all she had. Wow. She stared at the wall, thoughts swirling as she struggled to absorb everything Nakan said. If she understood him correctly, he’d begun calling her his kode because she’d turned him on. He’d gotten a hard-on and then blammo. And somehow—through the magic of alien biology that she didn’t understand—no other woman would ever be able to arouse him? If that was true… If nothing else, it ensured that no Ateran would ever cheat on a woman.

  “So Chaze,” she spoke the words slowly, drawing them out as her mind processed everything. “Didn’t want to take me to his bed.”

  “No,” Nakan shook his head. “At least, not in the true way of bonding.”

  “Ahhh.” She looked away, regret tightening in her gut. She supposed there were things Chaze could do that didn’t involve “stirring his blood,” so to speak. Things she didn’t even want to think about. Things that had morbid images filling her thoughts.

  “And what happens if a woman doesn’t want to be kode?”

  Nakan lowered his head, gray eyes disappearing as he lowered his lids. “Her warrior will be forever alone. No other will stir him or give him joy as she could.”

  “Oh.” A surge of guilt assaulted her.

  A lot of Nakan’s strange behavior over the last few hours made a lot more sense now. She had been rejecting him all this time. From her point of view, she simply turned down his advances—no harm, no foul. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t blown guys off back on Earth. Usually if she was out and a guy flirted with her, she’d send him on his way with a few polite words. There were never any repercussions or confrontation as long as the guy didn’t get pushy.

  To Nakan, she realized, it must have been as if she sentenced him to a life of emptiness. If she rejected being his kode, he would have no other. She tried to imagine how she would feel—to meet the one and only person she was destined to be with—and then have them reject her.

  She couldn’t imagine anything lonelier.

  God, it made the situation complicated. Complicated and confusing. She wasn’t sure how to feel about everything. She certainly wasn’t about to crawl into bed with him regardless of what he said about Ateran biology. But it did make her thing twice about how she’d treated him since the whole mess began.

  Another thought moved to the forefront—one that went beyond mating and biological urges.

  “Since you’re the leader here,” she licked her lips, nerves making themselves known. “What does that make me? Exactly.”

  “Lady of the Hard Sands,” Nakan’s lips tightened into what she recognized as an Ateran smile. “As my kode you are my equal. It is a position of great honor.”

  “Uh-huh.” Kalinda raised her eyebrows and slowly nodded. She wasn’t sure if it was an honor, but the idea of being the closest thing this planet had to a queen sounded nice. Not that she would agree to be his mate for the sake of wealth and power. Her concern was about how she could help the other human women from a position of strength. So far they’d been treated well enough—given food and shelter while also kept safe—Chaze’s earlier attack notwithstanding. But if she was considered some kind of noble, she could use that to convince him to do more for the women.

  She lowered herself to the sofa and leaned forward, elbows on her knees and head cradled in her hands. She didn’t know what to do. She was confused, exhausted, and more than anything, she wanted a nap.

  She sighed and closed her eyes for a moment. “What now?”

  “You should rest. This evening we shall dine in the main hall together.”

  “The main what? With the who?” She ran her fingers through her hair and lifted her attention to him.

  “The main dining hall. I shall introduce you to my people. That assumes you do not wish to reject me as your kode.” He lowered his eyes, hiding his emotions from her.

  She sighed, still unsure how to respond to him. She didn’t like being forced into this “marriage,” if she could even call it a marriage. But she’d seen the sweet, caring side of Nakan. Seen that he was more than a brash warrior and held a kindness in his heart. She couldn’t outright reject the chance to become Lady of the Hard Sands. Even if she wasn’t keen on being mated to Nakan, the opportunities the position of power afforded to her were too great to pass up. She would have to speak with the other women soon and find out what she could do for them.

  “Let’s not decide anything right now.” She gave him a small smile, softening her near-rejection. “I’d rather not make any major decisions right away. Th
ere’s too much going on right now and… That doesn’t mean I’m rejecting you. Not necessarily. But I don’t want to announce that we’re married either.”

  “Very well.” Nakan bowed his head. “It shall be as you wish.”

  He left her alone then, giving her space to clean up and then rest in private. She spent the rest of the afternoon sorting through her swirling thoughts. They tumbled through her repeatedly and, as dinner approached, she was still plagued with uncertainty. She wasn’t sure how to proceed. She’d never expected her life to take this odd turn.

  A week ago, she’d been aboard a spaceship bound for Nyx Station to meet her future husband—an arranged marriage of convenience. A marriage, she could now admit, that hadn’t excited her in the least. Now she was stranded on a strange alien world in a mountain fortress of an Ateran warlord. For all intents and purposes, she was in another type of arranged betrothal. This time, she couldn’t get her head around the strange customs and traditions that now enveloped her.

  She only hoped to find her place in her new circumstances. And she hoped she could do so without things becoming any more strained. Because what would happen to her then?

  Chapter Eight

  Nakan entered the dining hall that evening, gaze sweeping the gathered Aterans. This was the first formal meal he had held since his return from the Heart Sands with the gifts from Eana. Usually it was a time of celebration, the warriors introducing their kodes to the others in their territory and announcing the future of their families and young they soon hoped to bear. Nakan watched some of his warriors move around the room, kodes on their arm as they introduced their females to their comrades. Most of his warriors were bonded to Ateran females, as the way of their world since the beginning of time.

  Whereas Nakan found himself in a unique situation.

  He stared across the room at his kode—at Kalinda. She sat with the other human females at a table placed near the head of the room, near Nakan’s own place. The humans drew most of the attention, Aterans whispering and wondering about the strange creatures from beyond the stars. Many of his people were seeing humans for the first time and he did not doubt they wondered if the females had been sent by the goddess. Rumors had flown through the mountain since he and his warriors had returned from the Heart Sands. He could only imagine his people’s thoughts.