Gron's Fated Read online

  Gron’s Fated

  By

  V.C. Lancaster

  Text Copyright © 2015 V.C. Lancaster

  All rights reserved.

  Table of Contents:

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 1

  Gron snatched Ruth up and held her to him, putting his mouth over hers the way she had taught him. They were home! He didn’t know how it had happened, but the trees were the same, the birdsong was the same, the ground and air were the same, everything was the same! They were home!

  He remembered being in that forest, sleeping in that cave after escaping from the cell, growing hungrier every day. He remembered mating with Ruth, a memory that heated his blood. It was still new to him, the reactions of a primed male, but Ruth had made it easy for him.

  He remembered the strange sharp trees, climbing one to examine the area, look for a place they could make their life, and being pricked in the arm by one of the branches. Had it made him sick? He knew he had felt feverish.

  Perhaps he had died and this was the life after. It was good, if that was the case. But thinking that Ruth had died too upset him. Had she died because of him, because he hadn’t been there to save her? Perhaps it was a dream, then, but it felt very real. Their time in the cell and in that other forest felt more like a dream than this.

  Gron decided not to question it. They had been saved by the spirits, brought home, with food and water in strange containers, and Ruth had been given more of that strange covering she liked, but they were home. They were safe. Gron could build them a home, find them plenty of food and water. Life would be easy now.

  Gron heard the rustling of leaves being pushed aside. He separated from Ruth and put her down, turning his head to look in the direction of the noise, and tensed. Three males of his own kind stepped out of the tree line. Leading them was his older brother, Kranu, and he recognised the other two from his tribe, Drenz and Troii. His initial reaction was to be overjoyed to see his family again, but he hesitated in greeting them. He hadn’t realised he was close to his tribe’s territory. Now he had Bonded with Ruth, he was of her tribe. They would not welcome him, and their body language was curious, but primed for a fight.

  He felt Ruth place a trembling hand against his back and he spared a glance at her. She was staring at the other males, her eyes wide and her face pale. Was she scared? Was she imagining Bonding them to her? He knew one male was not enough, but he didn’t like the idea of sharing her, particularly with his brother. He knew the males would not attack her, as she was a Queen, but they had a duty to protect their tribe. Queens poached males from other tribes. Would his own brother chase him away? Away from his home?

  “Gron,” Kranu greeted first. “So it is true. You were taken by a Queen.” His eyes flicked to Ruth, taking in her differences. “Has she returned to take more males?”

  Gron flicked his tail when he realised he did not know. In all likelihood, she had. She needed a tribe, a court. He had been raised to be wary of other Queens not from his tribe, being loyal only to his own. Ruth was his Queen now, but he knew how the other males must see her: a thief, and an opportunity. He shifted closer to her, obstructing their view of her, and hers of them.

  “Gruth did not take me. We were taken by others, but it is true I have Bonded to her. She has chosen me as her mate,” Gron answered, straightening his back with pride. Unless much had changed in his absence, Kranu had not been chosen by Grasta, the Queen, to join her court.

  Kranu’s tail flicked and his cheek gave an almost unnoticeable twitch of jealousy. He had always used his greater size and age against Gron, who now had something he did not. “Then you should not have returned,” he said.

  “I would not have, but I... I do not know how we came to be here. It was not my intention,” Gron answered, feeling his high ground slip away from him.

  Kranu’s pelt puffed up. “You got lost, and you led your Queen into danger?” he asked, his voice almost rumbling with pleasure as he sensed Gron’s weakness.

  “No,” Gron growled back. “But you declare yourself a danger to my Queen?”

  Troii stepped forward. “Calm, both of you,” he said. He was not of an age to give them orders, but they had grown up together and he was their friend. “Queen, may I greet you?” he said, looking at Ruth.

  Ruth did not reply, shielding herself further behind Gron’s back but continuing to watch.

  “Gruth does not speak our language,” Gron told Troii, “She is different from us, you may have noticed during your staring, Kranu.”

  Kranu glared at him but was unable to deny it. “Then how do you know you please her?” he threw back.

  Images of Ruth’s face when they mated, the sound of her cries and the strange way she would bare her teeth, and the delightful clasp of her breeding channel around his aching flesh flashed through Gron’s mind, causing heat to wash over his skin briefly. “We do not need to speak,” he told Kranu. “We have our eyes, and our hands.”

  Kranu visibly fought not to snarl in jealousy.

  Troii interjected again. “Kranu, stop antagonising him, he is still your brother. If what he says is true-”

  “How can it be true? Taken and Bonded to a strange-”

  Gron drowned out the rest of Kranu’s sentence with a roar. “You disrespect my Queen?”

  Kranu drew himself up, tail lashing angrily, snarling and ready to fight.

  “Stop it! Stop, both of you!” Troii shouted, placing himself between them. “Kranu, look at her! She is clearly using Gron for protection, against us! She trusts him but we are scaring her! Is that what you want? Is that the kind of male you are?”

  Hearing Troii’s words, Gron looked quickly at Ruth, appalled to think they were frightening her. She was huddled tight in on herself, one hand gripping the pelt on his back and the other on his waist as if she was trying to fold herself into his body. Her eyes were wide and scared. Seeing him look at her, she said his name questioningly, and he took a moment to soothe her, trying to ease his expression and stroking her face.

  “She speaks! You see, it is another of his stories! He probably found her in the forest and has brought her back to keep!” Kranu accused, Gron’s affectionate display only stoking his anger further.

  “She knows my name, that is all!” Gron corrected him.

  “Gron... Take her and leave here,” Troii said, sympathy in his voice.

  “No,” Kranu interrupted. “I don’t think so. I think we should take her to the Queen and let her decide.”

  “On what grounds?” Troii demanded, his calm slipping.

  Kranu shifted uncomfortably, and Gron knew whatever he said next would be nothing but an excuse. “She does not look fully-grown to me. She looks like a child.”

  “Kranu!”

  “You would dare?!” Gron snarled, lunging forward a couple of steps, causing Ruth to give a little shriek of fear. Never had his brother gone so far, been so despicable. Gron had always thought his brother was at heart a good male, but his jealousy had clearly overwhelmed him. He had never been so insulted in his life.

  “Kranu, you are being ridiculous!” Troii cried, again throwing hi
mself between the brothers to stop them fighting, but he needn’t have worried because Gron wouldn’t have left Ruth.

  “Am I? She isn’t half the size of Grasta! You can’t deny that, Troii,” Kranu replied. “And I do not smell her on him as I should if they have mated.”

  Troii looked at Ruth again, and Gron saw concern flicker in his eyes.

  “Troii, she is mature, how could I have Bonded to her if she was not? How could she have primed me for her mating needs if she was not? I’m telling you, she is an adult. Her body does not have the pelt ours do, it is difficult for her to mark me with her scent. If you take her to our tribe, Grasta will have the right to fight her for dominance! She will not survive it, Troii!”

  Troii looked torn. He turned to the last male. “Drenz, what do you think?”

  Drenz was a quiet male, preferring his own company, never displaying any interest in the rest of the tribe beyond what was expected. When they were young, they had often thought him strange for it, as he would not join in their games or adolescent wonderings at the world. As adults, Drenz had proven himself to be harmless, just a careful thinker and deep feeler. Now Gron hoped for him to see sense.

  Drenz looked at them all, seeming to consider. Finally he said in his quiet, sedate voice, “It is not for males to decide what a Queen wants.” He met Gron’s eyes. “She cannot speak. We must trust in the power that rules us, and let the Queen decide. They are in her territory after all.”

  “I am to be widowed then?” Gron asked, a vision of that future rising up in his mind’s eye. Males who had Bonded and then been abandoned or who outlived their Queen were... desolate. He might be allowed to stay with his tribe, or he might prefer to wander into the forest to live alone, hoping one day soon to die. “I will not lose her.” The truth was he would fight even Grasta to protect Ruth.

  “I believe your mother will defend you,” Drenz said solemnly. Gron’s mother was Queen before Grasta, and had stepped down peacefully, so was allowed to stay in the tribe with her aging court, since taking them with her and all her children would have left Grasta with very little. “If your Queen is young, Grasta will not hurt her.”

  “But she is not,” Gron insisted, keeping Ruth tucked protectively under his arm where she fit easily, her small size so unlike the Queens he knew.

  “I will make it known that we brought you into the tribe for Grasta’s decision only. I will tell her that you did not want to come, that your Queen does not challenge her,” Troii assured him.

  Gron thought about it. He looked at them all, Drenz’ expression blank, Troii apologetic, Kranu smug. He looked at Ruth, who was watching him in fear and confusion. She must be terrified, understanding nothing of what was troubling him, but still she wrapped herself around him as if to keep him with her, trusting him to protect her.

  “And if I refuse? You may fight me, but even you would not use force against a Queen,” Gron challenged.

  “I’ll tell our mother you’re out here keeping a young Queen against her will. Do you think she won’t find you and strip your hide?” Kranu threatened in reply.

  Gron knew his mother would listen to him and be more understanding than Kranu had been, but he also knew what her fury would be if he allowed Kranu to tell her that her son, desperate to mate, had betrayed Grasta and stolen an infant Queen to Bond to. If his mother found him before she had a chance to look at Ruth, she might very well kill him for his perceived crimes. And then if she ever found out her mistake, if she found Ruth, or Troii explained, then her grief and that of his fathers would be endless.

  He had to take Ruth to Grasta. It was getting late in the day, and they did not have time to travel away from his tribe and build a shelter, and find food and water. Ruth would be more comfortable spending the night with his tribe, as long as he insured her safety. The part of him that had thought he would never see his home, his tribe or his family again also longed to see his mother and the Prime Fathers who had raised him, his younger brother, Mruin, and the rest of his friends. He had cared about Grasta when he had been a part of the tribe, as a male should care for their Queen, and he wanted to see her, as if to make sure for the final time that she was well.

  “Very well,” Gron conceded. “We’ll come.”

  He gently led Ruth the way the other males had come, and she didn’t object. Perhaps she could sense that a decision had been made and there would not be violence, not now at least.

  Kranu let them pass him, Gron keeping himself between Ruth and his brother, so that the older male could follow them and block their retreat. As they passed, his brother leant towards Gron in order to stick in a final jibe.

  “Mother is going to be so disappointed in you,” he said.

  Gron stiffened. Let her be, he thought. Let them all think he had betrayed them. They weren’t him, they didn’t know what he and Ruth had gone through together, what she meant to him. So what if they didn’t believe him? It was true, and Ruth knew it was true. Even if they couldn’t speak to each other, they still shared that secret, that reality that existed only between them. There was a lot he didn’t know about her, but he knew she had crawled into his arms in that cold cell, and pushed his hand between her legs in that sunlit stream, and stroked his face at night, and shared her food when she was hungry.

  Gron tightened his arm around Ruth. He knew where his allegiance lay. She was his Queen. Ruth owned his body and spirit because she had earned them and he gave them gladly.

  Chapter 2

  Gron’s heart twisted as the tribal village came into view. Home – where he shouldn’t be. It was dangerous, for him and his Queen, but he’d thought he’d never see it again. It looked just as it had the day he’d been taken, nothing had changed, but he saw it all with new eyes. He tilted his head back to look up into the trees, at the vast network of platforms stretching up through the branches, the highest ones invisible from the ground. His people were up there, he thought.

  The ones who weren’t in the trees were noticing their group arrive, slowly stopping in their tasks to watch. Gron wished the three males who had found them weren’t surrounding them as if they were dangerous. There was a shout as they progressed among the tribe and Gron rumbled happily to see an older male rushing towards them. Troii obligingly stood aside as he joined the group.

  “Gron! You’re back!” Brur said, seizing Gron’s shoulders affectionately. Brur was one of his mother’s two Prime Fathers, and still wore the string of large wooden beads that denoted his position. He had helped to raise Gron, and was very important to him. Brur looked to Ruth and dropped his hands. “Oh! My apologies, Queen!”

  “She doesn’t understand you, Brur,” offered Kranu helpfully, with the intention of being anything but.

  “Oh?” Brur looked to Ruth again, then offered her a slight bow, clearly presuming it was a gesture universally understood. Ruth stretched her mouth thin and made a small noise, presumably acknowledging Brur’s deference, but she did not let go of Gron. It was clear she still did not feel safe.

  “So it is true, you left to join a Queen. I must say, your mother was quite upset when you left without saying anything to her,” Brur chastised.

  “I did not leave, Prime Father, I was taken, as was Gruth,” Gron explained, but that was as far as he got before Griss, his mother’s other Prime Father joined them, also wearing the honourable wooden beads.

  Of the two, Brur was the slighter male, with a light heart and a lot of charm. He had always made their home a happy one. Griss was larger, fiercer, and sterner. His dark fur was dappled with grey now, but he took his responsibilities no less seriously. He had always considered protecting their family to be his one priority, and he had never slackened in his execution of his duty.

  Gron did not know for sure which of the two males had fathered which of the children, only his mother knew that, but he often suspected he had been the child that earned Brur his beads, as they shared a similar pelt pattern. If Griss had fathered Kranu, that might explain his brother’s aggression a
nd humourlessness, but as far as Gron knew, Brur had been made Prime Father before Griss.

  Really, it didn’t matter. Both men had raised him and his siblings, they were both devoted to his mother, Gryla, and they were both honourable males to whom he owed a lot.

  “Gron,” Griss intoned sternly as he approached. “You should not have returned. Your place is with her now,” he said, staring at Ruth, understandably baffled by both her physical differences, and the fact that she was cowering against him. “Queen, are you ill? Have you come here for assistance?” he asked her seriously.

  “Apparently she doesn’t understand us, Griss,” Brur said as if he found the situation an intriguing and amusing puzzle, laying his hand on his partner’s arm. Griss scowled and took a step back away from Ruth, showing deference in his own way.

  “Gron, why are you here?” Griss asked.

  “Kranu insisted,” Gron answered.

  “Kranu?”

  “She doesn’t look like any Queen I’ve ever seen. I wanted to get Grasta’s opinion on the matter.”

  Griss growled. “Kranu, you have no right-!” he snarled taking a step toward his son. Kranu and Griss had fought for years. Kranu was the only male in the tribe foolish enough to test the older male, and the only male who could get away with it, as Griss would never lay a hand in anger on his children.

  “It is for the Queen’s own good! How do we know what Gron says is true, that they’ve Bonded, when she neither speaks nor understands us? He could have found her anywhere, and she is small too, she might be staying with him out of fear!”

  Griss growled again, his exceptionally deep voice usually enough to cow any uppity male, especially when combined with his authority as a Prime Father, but it never worked on Kranu. “How dare you accuse your own brother of such a thing? Have you no loyalty at all?”

  “Loyalty? He is the one who left us, betrayed our Queen for that one,” he spat, tossing his head at Ruth and making Gron show his teeth in challenge. “If he does speak the truth, then he is no longer my tribe, so how can he be my brother?”