Van, Becca - Help Me Fly Again (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Read online

  Sandi had been alternating between walking and jogging all night. Her feet were aching and sore from such a long, arduous trek. Her body needed water. She was so thirsty and so damned tired she just wanted to lie down and sleep. She could read the signs of her body. She was suffering dehydration and knew if she didn’t get fluid soon she would be in real trouble. The sun was beginning to come up, and the cool humidity of the night began to dissipate. The sun had just risen to the horizon in the distance, but the heat was already sapping what little strength she had left. She was dragging her feet and was less alert to danger than she should have been. Her limbs felt so heavy, and she was struggling to hold her head up. Her eyesight was hazy, and she began to see spots dancing before her eyes.

  Sandi headed to the tree line and shade once more. She needed to rest for a while. Hopefully she would have more energy to go on after she slept. She sat down in the shade, her back up against a large tree trunk, and she pulled the tree limb across her lap. She pulled the rock from the waistband of her pants and placed it on the ground beside her. She was asleep moments later.

  * * * *

  Sandi could hear growling close by but couldn’t open her eyes. It felt as if they had been glued shut. Her body was so tired and heavy, but she felt the air around her was fraught with tension and danger. She forced her lids open to slits and saw two sets of moccasin-booted legs not far from her. She turned her head and saw the creature from the night crouched next to her, protecting her. She moved her eyes back to the two men and let them travel up along the length of their body until she was looking them in the face.

  “Sandi, you need to call off the animal so we can help you,” Dreab said in a calm, quiet voice.

  “Shh, it’s all right, momma. They’re not going to hurt me. They want to help me,” Sandi crooned to the creature. She forced one of her heavy arms to move to the creature and held it still for it to scent her. The growling slowed down and finally stopped. Sandi thought the creature may have scented Dreab and Erup on her clothes and body. Sandi tried to stand but stumbled as exhaustion and dehydration made her weak. The animal beside her placed its large body beneath her arm so she could use it as leverage. Sandi tried again and was grateful for the extra help from her new friend. She was finally on her feet, leaning against the trunk of the tree, her legs shaking as she tried to stay upright.

  She saw Dreab take a tentative step toward her, and when the creature didn’t protest, he moved closer. He walked with such a fluid and slow grace, Sandi couldn’t take her eyes off of him. She noticed he didn’t take his eyes off the animal, but when he was close enough to her, he wrapped a large, muscular arm around her waist and pulled her into his hard chest. Dreab stared at the creature as it watched him hold her, and she knew he could see the creature’s younglings in its yellow glowing eyes.

  In its eyes, Sandi saw herself yelling in rage as she whacked it on the head. She also saw herself lift the branch to kill the animal but stop as she realized it was just trying to feed its young.

  Sandi knew Dreab could see everything she could as the animal portrayed its memories back to them. Dreab bowed his head to the animal and picked her up into his arms. He took off running as he flapped his large, strong wings and leaped up into the air, Erup following close behind. Sandi was barely conscious, and they needed to get her back to their home as quickly as possible. She was in danger of losing her life. She needed fluids, treatment for her sunburn, and rest as quickly as possible. Then it would be time to face the music.

  Chapter Six

  Sandi tried to gulp at the water being trickled into her mouth. Just when she thought she was to get her fill of the precious liquid, it was taken away. She screamed at her tormentors, letting them know her displeasure at their treatment of her. She could hear deep voices talking but couldn’t understand what they were saying. She was so cold, she could feel and hear her teeth chattering in her own mouth. Her tormentors only seemed to delight in what they were doing to her. They plunged her into a bath of cold goo and held her down in it as she thrashed about, trying to gain her freedom. They were way too strong for her to fight, and she only ended up exhausting herself.

  “Dreab and Erup are going to find you and kill you. They wouldn’t let you treat me like this,” Sandi screamed out, then drifted away again.

  Sandi tried to open her eyes, but one of her captors had rudely bound them with a wet blindfold. She moved her hand up to her eyes, ripped the blindfold away, and threw it with all her strength as she screamed with fury.

  “I’m going to kill you, Retep. See if I don’t. Only this time I’m going to bring my animal friend. She will rip you to shreds and feed you to her younglings, from the inside out,” Sandi yelled before the darkness took her again.

  * * * *

  Sandi raged with fever for days. She had been so dehydrated her eyes looked sunken into her head. Her face and neck had been so badly burnt from the planet’s lethal sun that her pale skin was covered in blisters. Dreab was as worried as hell.

  Dreab told Erup to cancel all the clan meetings, and now he and his brother slept in shifts to care for their woman. He had discovered something else while he and his brother had been caring for her over the last two days. Sandi was carrying their youngling. He wanted to shout to the stars, but his heart was too heavy. His emotions ran a gamut between joyous and sad at the condition of their mate. He and his brother were happy and excited but didn’t let it show. Their woman was fighting for her life, and if she died, so did their offspring. Sandi had been fighting her delirium as her body fought the fever racking her. He’d had to plunge her into the healing-gel bath often over the last two days. Holding his woman down as she thrashed and fought him, trying to get away from the cold as her body raged with fever, was one of the hardest things for him to do. He was scared of how sick she was and also how she was going to react to having their youngling growing in her belly, especially after she had told them she couldn’t conceive because of her hormone implant. He had no idea her implant would not be effective against his and his brother’s seed, but there was nothing he could do about it now. He pushed that thought to the back of his mind. He needed to concentrate on getting his mate well.

  He and Erup worked in shifts and together. He had to hold her back from drinking too much water and making herself sick. He bathed her face and neck often with the healing gel and often coated soft cloths with the soothing gel and left it over her face. Numerous times, Sandi had yelled in fury at him for being treated so poorly. If he wasn’t so scared for his mate’s life, he would have laughed at her. Their little woman had a ferocious temper. Dreab and Erup had only seen her in a slight temper, but as the fever raged, so did her fury. She was definitely going to keep them on their toes.

  Dreab was just sitting down to eat a rare peaceful meal, as their woman seemed to be resting quietly for a change. He should have known it was too good to be true. The scream this time was so high pitched and blood curdling, Dreab knew he wouldn’t be able to ignore it. He shoved his plate of food away, stood, and hurried to see if his brother needed some help. What he found had him laughing hysterically.

  Erup was on his ass on the floor holding onto his bleeding nose as Sandi raged at him. Her fist was waving about in the air, and her face was so bright red he was scared she would pop a vein.

  “Erup, go and get the healer. We need to see if he can give her something to take her fever away. Who was she fighting this time? The animal or Retep?”

  “Neither, she was mad at us because we wouldn’t take her to assess her ship,” Erup stated nasally.

  “Well, at least she got the right family to curse this time. She is usually railing against Retep, not us,” Dreab said with a smile. He picked up the still-raging woman, making sure to keep her flailing fists in one of his large hands as he wrapped his other arm around her waist. He walked into the bathroom, over to the healing-gel bath, and plunged their mate into it. She fought him, of course, but she was no match for his strength. He held her down b
y placing a large palm over the top of her chest and his other palm on her lower abdomen. Of course, this left her limbs free to flail and inflict as much damage as she wanted.

  Sandi yelled at Dreab for not taking her to assess her ship, and Dreab knew she was dreaming once more. He didn’t bother to respond, knowing he would not get a coherent word out of her. She used her nails on his lower arm as he held her down, but he made sure to stay away from her lethal feet. He had learned that lesson the hard way.

  Sandi’s fever had begun not long after they had brought her to their real home for the first time. They had poured as much water as they dared down into her mouth but didn’t want her overloading her stomach with fluid and regurgitating the precious, life-saving liquid. She had objected to not being able to drink her fill rather loudly and violently. Dreab had ended up on the floor, holding his testicles, nausea roiling in his stomach from the pain inflicted by their delirious mate. Her feet were absolutely lethal. Dreab had ended up needing the healing gel on his balls.

  Erup was back in the room, with the healer following. The healer took one look at the raging woman and began to back away. Dreab lost his patience.

  “You will assess my woman, Healer, and you will give her something for the fever. She doesn’t even know what she is saying, let alone who we are. The fever has taken her mind. Erup and I will hold her down so you can do your job,” Dreab commanded.

  Dreab lifted Sandi from the cold healing-gel bath and carried her to their large bed. He didn’t bother with a towel this time, knowing it was useless anyway. Sandi screamed in rage again as he and Erup held her down. Dreab took her legs and held them down firmly but was careful not to hurt their woman. Erup moved to the side of the bed, close to her body, pulled her arms up above her head, and held them down to the mattress. The healer assessed Sandi as quickly as possible, but she made it hard for the man as she bucked her body about, screaming profanities.

  The healer took some medicine out of a bag and looked to Dreab for assistance. Dreab sighed again but didn’t say a word. He crawled up over Sandi’s body, being careful of her feet, then used his body weight to hold her bucking torso still. She opened her eyelids to slits, and Dreab could see the glassiness of her eyes as she raged at him. He didn’t take any notice of her. He looked at the healer expectantly.

  “Well, get on with it,” Dreab demanded.

  “Yes, Dreab,” the healer replied.

  Dreab knew their woman scared the shit out of the Healer. He watched as the Healer placed the small tube of medicated fluid to his mate’s mouth and squirted the liquid in then stepped back quickly. Dreab held his mate’s lips closed and pinched her nose between his thumb and finger. Their woman would have to swallow or choke. He watched as the muscles in her throat moved as she swallowed, and then Dreab released his hold on Sandi’s mouth and nose.

  “Thank you, Healer. You may go,” Erup said from the top of the large bed. Dreab held in his laughter as the healer literally ran from the room without a backward glance.

  Dreab was thankful their technology was so much more advanced than Sandi’s planet. Sandi’s eyes closed as she stopped her fighting and raging and slipped into a peaceful slumber for the first time in two days. He moved off of her, kissed her on the forehead, and went to make himself something else to eat. His previous meal hadn’t even been touched and was no doubt cold and unappealing.

  “Come and eat while you can, Erup. She’s resting peacefully now,” Dreab threw over his shoulder as he left the bedroom. He was so tired. All he wanted to do was eat, crawl into bed beside their mate, and sleep.

  Dreab looked up as Erup joined him at the table with a plate of food and a drink of Liquid Fire. He took his own cup of the fermented drink and sighed as it warmed his stomach and eased the tension he had been living with for the past two days. By the time he and Erup had finished their meal and the drink, they were both ready to collapse. Dreab took their dishes to the kitchen and placed them in the dish dispenser then headed to bed. He and Erup crawled in beside Sandi and were asleep seconds later.

  Chapter Seven

  Sandi yawned and stretched her sore, aching body. She felt as if she had been hit by a truck. She also felt sick to her stomach, and her throat was sore. She opened her eyes and stared at the white ceiling overhead. She had a very weird dream and couldn’t get the memory of it out of her mind. She remembered crash-landing her ship and being rescued by angel-looking men. Then she had been abducted by another angel man who had dropped her from the sky, making her think she was going to die. She had escaped that loony, only to end up fighting a wild animal that had staked her as dinner for its cubs. God, what an imagination!

  Sandi felt movement beside her and turned her head. She looked into the aquamarine eyes of Dreab as he leaned on his hand staring down at her. Sandi screamed and flung herself over the top of him to land on a cold marble floor. She screamed again as she realized she was totally naked and as weak as a newborn baby.

  “What the hell?”

  “My sentiments exactly,” Erup replied as he sat up on the other side of the bed.

  “Oh my God. I thought it was just a dream. It was, wasn’t it? You don’t really have wings, do you? Oh, my throat is so sore. I must be getting sick.”

  Dreab and Erup threw back their heads and laughed. They laughed until they had tears leaking out of the corner of their eyes.

  “You have a sore throat? That is the funniest thing I’ve ever heard. Did you hear that, Dreab? Sandi has a sore throat,” Erup stated through his laughter.

  “I don’t see what’s so funny. I think I’m getting sick. I actually feel sick to my stomach,” Sandi explained.

  Her statement set the two men off again into peals of laughter. She tried to stand up but couldn’t seem to manage it. “You can explain your hilarity later, but if someone doesn’t help me to a bathroom now, there is going to be a mess to clean up,” Sandi said through clenched teeth.

  “Bathroom. Now,” Sandi yelled over the laughter as her stomach churned and knew she was going to be ill.

  Sandi had never seen two men move so quickly. One minute they were rolling around on the bed, the next one of them had picked her up and carried her to the bathroom. She didn’t even care that she had an audience. She was feeling just too lousy to care. Once Sandi was done, she was feeling so much better, except for the fact she was so lethargic. She had never felt this way before and didn’t like it one little bit. She knew she was a terrible grouch when she didn’t feel up to par, but to actually be physically sick made her feel like a wrung-out dishrag.

  Sandi lifted her head to see Dreab and Erup staring at her with concern. Now that she was feeling a little better, the lack of privacy bothered her.

  “Do you mind?” she asked with a raised brow.

  “I’m not leaving,” Dreab stated from his lounging position against the doorjamb.

  “What the hell gives you the right—” Sandi started then stopped as she glanced around at her surroundings.

  The bathroom she was in was as opulent as any mansion back on Earth. The cold floor beneath her feet was a light, white marble color with streaks of gold and gray. She raised her head and glared at Erup and Dreab.

  “Where the hell are we?”

  “You are in our home, my mate,” Dreab stated, keeping his face blank.

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “You are in our home, Sandi,” Erup reiterated.

  “Get out of here, right now,” Sandi said in a voice so low and quiet, her mates had to strain to hear her.

  Sandi was furious. She was so angry she was shaking. She wanted them to leave her so she could clean up and get a hold of her temper. If she lost control, she knew she would end up saying something she would regret. She watched as they left the room, closing the door behind them quietly. She got into the glassed-in shower cubicle, letting the warm water run over her tired, aching muscles. Once done, she got out and dried herself off with a big, fluffy towel. She had no idea why Dreab and Erup hadn
’t brought her to their real home before, but she intended to find out. She hadn’t done anything to make them feel threatened and wondered if they didn’t trust her.

  Sandi walked back into the large bedroom and found a long, wide piece of colored cloth on the end of the bed. She picked it up and wrapped it around her like a toga, tying the ends together above her breasts. She walked along the cool marble floor, following the sounds of her mates’ voices. She stopped in the entrance to a gourmet chef’s dream kitchen with her mouth hanging open. She snapped her mouth closed, her teeth clicking together, and walked over to sit at the kitchen bench.

  “Why the hell didn’t you bring me here right away? Why did you let me think you hadn’t evolved from the dark ages yet?”

  “We wanted you to like us for who we were, Sandi, not for what we have. Plus, we didn’t know you very well. We weren’t sure whether you were going to be a danger to our clan. I’m sorry we didn’t trust you, but you would have done the same thing to us if we had crashed onto your planet.”

  Sandi thought over what he had said. In a way he was right, but they were more courteous than humans were back on Earth. They would have been locked up in a secure facility and treated like bugs under a microscope. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to get control of her anger.

  “You’re right. I’m sorry. I’m not feeling very well, and I tend to be a real bitch when I feel ill, but that’s still no excuse. I can’t believe you didn’t trust me.”

  “Would you not have been cautious about a strange being arriving on your planet and taking them into your home?” Dreab asked.

  “You’re right. I know the people on Earth wouldn’t have been as hospitable as you have been to me.”

  “What’s wrong, Sandi? Do you want me to call our healer to take a look at you?” Erup asked as he moved around the kitchen counter and sat on a stool next to her, taking one of her hands in his.