Primal Quest Read online

  An Ellora’s Cave Romantica Publication

  www.ellorascave.com

  Primal Quest

  ISBN # 1-4199-0549-X

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

  Primal Quest Copyright© 2006 Rebecca Airies

  Edited by Nicholas Conrad

  Cover art by Syneca.

  Electronic book Publication: March 2006

  This book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written permission from the publisher, Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc.® 1056 Home Avenue, Akron OH 44310-3502.

  This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the authors’ imagination and used fictitiously.

  Warning:

  The following material contains graphic sexual content meant for mature readers. This book has been rated E–rotic by a minimum of three independent reviewers.

  Ellora’s Cave Publishing offers three levels of Romantica™ reading entertainment: S (S-ensuous), E (E-rotic), and X (X-treme).

  S-ensuous love scenes are explicit and leave nothing to the imagination.

  E-rotic love scenes are explicit, leave nothing to the imagination, and are high in volume per the overall word count. In addition, some E-rated titles might contain fantasy material that some readers find objectionable, such as bondage, submission, same sex encounters, forced seductions, and so forth. E-rated titles are the most graphic titles we carry; it is common, for instance, for an author to use words such as “fucking”, “cock”, “pussy”, and such within their work of literature.

  X-treme titles differ from E-rated titles only in plot premise and storyline execution. Unlike E-rated titles, stories designated with the letter X tend to contain controversial subject matter not for the faint of heart.

  Primal Quest

  Rebecca Airies

  Chapter One

  Planet Mijohin, 862 Neshan Calendar

  The risk is necessary, Caidi Satoan thought as she stared out of the inn’s window watching the orange sun sink below the horizon. Beyond the squat city dwellings, she could see the dark green blur of the forest and beyond that the purple shadow of a large mountain. The trouble with the trade goods is finally settled. It is time to see to the future.

  Caidi had always known that finding that one man with whom she could bond for life was improbable. There were just too many worlds. Most of the populated worlds were inhabited by humans and those humans far outnumbered shifter populations. There wasn’t much of a chance that she’d find the one Zarain meant for her.

  Her personal precautions also caused some difficulty. She avoided contact with her own kind and when she did meet them, getting close enough to scent them meant something had gone wrong. Over the course of her years as Acine, the alpha female of her pack, she had learned to avoid taking foolish risks. The protection of her pack was her sacred duty and a constant worry when she had to deal with it on her own.

  Success of tonight’s quest was as inevitable as their return home to Carait. The single difference between this and a normal hunt was the choice of prey. Tonight’s quarry waited in a tavern, not too far away.

  Their target, the males of their own kind—the Zarain—wouldn’t suspect anything. Caidi had ensured that. She had used the combined resources of her pack and the Feiral pack which also lived on Carait to make this hunt feasible and safe.

  Both entirely female packs would benefit from this hunt. The drive, the pull to mate, to be impregnated, grew with each passing day, a throbbing need that couldn’t be ignored. They needed to see to the future, to have children.

  Just as in any other hunt, they would use the habits of their prey against them. Shifter males often had sex with human females, but the hunters knew that they would have to be cautious. Although she wanted a baby, Caidi didn’t want to lose her freedom. A male Zarain or Feiral with his senses unsuppressed by a powerful drug would know at the first whiff of their scent that they weren’t human and were very fertile. The drugs had been administered to the men to counter that ability. As well, the shifter men wouldn’t knowingly impregnate a female of their kind who wasn’t their mate.

  Male shifters searched for their mates for most of their lives and they all knew how hard it was to find that one true mate. They wouldn’t have sex with a female shifter who wasn’t their mate. Also, shifter males were born with a fierce drive to protect and defend. That drive only increased when females of any species were involved. Those men wouldn’t hesitate to take any female shifter they found captive and would hold her until that woman’s mate found her.

  Their plans had been made ronas, months, ago. Bribes had been paid and instructions had been given to those who would be able to carry out the details of the plan. Now, all that remained was the wait before the hunt.

  Caidi turned away from the window and began preparing for the hunt. She combed her golden hair to a glowing shine and allowed it to hang loose, falling to the middle of her back in soft waves. Her silver eyes danced as a tingle of nervousness coursed through her. At her neck, her pulse pounded a furious rhythm. She took a deep, calming breath.

  This hunt will be a success. In her mind, she chanted the words.

  As they made their way down the street to the weathered, wooden building which housed Oshiah’s Tavern, Caidi was very nervous. So much of this had been out of her hands, out of her personal control. Most of the plan tonight had relied on the ability of others to fulfill their side of the bargain. It made Caidi uneasy to have to rely on others, non-pack members, for such necessary details, but there hadn’t been any other way to do this. The Zarain and Feiral women were strangers to this planet and couldn’t stay here long. Their purpose on Mijohin was simple—find suitable male shifters, have sex and leave.

  This wasn’t like the other times that she had had to hide her identity from a shifter or group of shifters. This time she would be in bodily contact with the shifter. She couldn’t rely on her usual means of fooling them. They had used those methods until they had left the inn, but couldn’t risk using them now. The contact was going to be much too close tonight.

  Caidi received a nod from one of the serving women when she and the other Zarain females entered the large, open main room of the first-floor tavern. Caidi breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed. It was safe. The drug had been served to everyone in the tavern.

  Caidi and the seven other members of her pack who accompanied her mingled among those in Oshiah’s Tavern. It was more of a gentleman’s club than a true tavern, with rooms upstairs available for the members’ use for a fee. Caidi saw Chey across the room and nodded at her in response to her smile and the slight lift of Chey’s mug.

  Caidi smiled. Chey looked as if she was plotting. The cunning nature of the Feiral was very much evidenced by that smile. She knew just how cunning Chey could be and the woman was formidable. Caidi was just glad that they were allies and friends. Both groups were isolated from their own kind, trying to make the most of what they had and had found that their differences were insignificant when compared to the reality they faced.

  The Feiral animal form—a narrow sharp-angled face with a long muzzle and pointed ears, a body built for speed rather than power, sleek furry body and a long tail—was much different than the Zarain form which was built for strength and endurance. The hulking Zarain form made the Feiral seem small.

  Chey’s pack lived on the plains near one of the great rivers on Carait, preferring to have the vast expanse of rolling hills around them rather than the verdant forest. Their holding was almost two weeks’ travel away from Caidi’s home. Even with that distance, the two groups managed to keep in close contact, conducting joint trade ventures and offering help when it wa
s needed.

  Caidi began to hunt in earnest for a man to father her child. As he was part of this world, he wouldn’t want a safe home or family or the responsibilities that came with those things. Caidi knew that no man she met here would try to follow or find her after she left.

  She wrinkled her nose in disgust at the heavy odor of perfume and body odor that assailed her sharp senses as she moved through the room scattered with wooden tables and chairs. Someone had tried to disguise the lack of a bath with a heavy splashing of perfume. Goddess, this was awful. How could any Zarain, male or female, stand this for long?

  The smells, the restrictions and the lack of space were already beginning to choke Caidi. Even if it were possible, she couldn’t endure the confinement of this city for more than a night. As she moved through the crowd, she kept her gaze centered on a group of black-haired shifter males at the back of the room. With any luck, those large men were Zarain.

  Caidi noticed one of the women from Chey’s pack, a woman named Asia, smile and turn away from the men. She walked over to Caidi and leaned close for a moment. “They are all yours. The one at the back would be the one for you, very alpha. Although, don’t count on him remaining here. I get the feeling that he has had more than enough of this life.”

  “Good luck,” Caidi whispered as she walked toward the men sitting around the large, round, wooden table.

  Asia’s words rang in her head. It was for that isolated possibility that they had gone to such lengths. There was always the chance that the man wouldn’t want to let the woman leave if he knew she was shifter, as well as a chance that the man would just grow tired of city life.

  The men around the table were large and very muscular, as was normal and expected in a Zarain man. Caidi ran her eyes over the men in a cursory inspection. They all had dark hair ranging from deep brown to shining blue-black and all had dark, golden-brown skin. Every single one of them had silver eyes.

  Caidi studied them for a moment, noticing their posture and attitude. She decided that Asia had been right. The man at the back was the alpha of this group and, from the way his eyes roved over her body, was interested in her.

  He had long, straight, black hair that was secured at the back of his neck and he looked harder, more experienced than she had thought that a man who lived on Mijohin would look. For a city dweller, he looked every inch the warrior. High cheekbones and a hard jawline heightened the impression that his hadn’t been an easy life. Over shoulders which were impossibly wide, he wore a white shirt which was open to the navel, revealing a chest covered in black markings that seemed to emphasize the corded muscles under the flesh. As her eyes lowered, they traced the hard rippling muscles of his flat abdomen and lean hips.

  He was sitting back from the scarred, wooden table, leaning against the light tan wood of the wall. Tight black leather pants encased strong, muscular legs. She frowned as she caught sight of his black boots. They were clean but scuffed. Well-worn, they weren’t the polished articles that she had expected to see on a man who lived his life in a city. Her gaze swung to his waist. That sword was no mere ornamentation. A tiny warning began to sound within her.

  “Sit.” The man at the back of the table gestured to a seat next to him. That deep, rumbling growl tugged at her insides, tightening her abdomen as desire stirred.

  Caidi pushed down the doubts that plagued her. There was no reason to delay this with idle chatter. She wasn’t here to talk. She had a mission to complete and stirring the Zarain within him would ensure that she completed it.

  “No.” She shot him a taunting smile. “You are not the man I am looking for.”

  She turned and walked into the crowd, looking for a safe challenger, a human. Someone he wouldn’t consider a real threat. She didn’t have a doubt that he would follow her.

  Raven Talinian felt unexpected anger rise within him as the woman walked away from him. Determination, hard and urgent, rose within him. She was his. No one else would have her. He rose to his feet and strode after the woman who had pulled him from his sorrows and the restlessness that had been plaguing him.

  The curves of her body drew his eyes. Full, proud breasts promised a handful of luscious flesh even for his large hands. The sweet curve of her hips and high, round ass called to the beast within that longed to feel those lush curves moving beneath him. He would wager that she had long, toned legs beneath that long-sleeved green dress that begged to be removed. One thing was certain, he was going to know every inch of her.

  He knew that she was young, maybe in her twenty-fifth year, but certainly not over twenty-six years old. His height and width dwarfed her, though she was of average size for a woman. The light, sun-burnished gold of her skin glimmered in the lamp light. Shining, honey-blonde hair framed her face and fell in glorious waves down her back.

  His hands tingled in anticipation of touching the soft, rounded contours of her face, to see if the skin was as soft as it looked. Wide-set, tilted silver eyes had stared at him with a curious calmness. High cheekbones, a pert nose and a sweetly lush mouth, the lower lip full and pouty, completed an enticing visage.

  He stalked after her, catching her as she was smiling at a young, dark-haired human. A low growl rumbled in his throat as he turned her to him with a hand on her shoulder. Irrational jealousy swirled within him. She should be smiling at him. He pulled her away from the other man and crowded her into a corner, letting the Zarain scent take over since she wouldn’t even sit and talk with him.

  Caidi hid her smile as he pressed her into a corner, forcing her to inhale his scent. The Zarain male musk hit her at almost the same instant that a deep, primal part of her recognized him as her mate. With each breath that she took, a fire of physical desire burned higher within her. She drew his scent into her, pressing her body closer to his.

  “Yes, my little golden one, take me into you. Come with me. We will go somewhere private and be together,” he encouraged as her arms stole around his waist. “I am Raven.”

  Caidi nodded in agreement with his plans. “My name is Cate.”

  She barely restrained an appreciative rumble as he turned, still holding her close to his side and urged her toward the staircase near the side of the room. She loved the way he smelled. Rich, masculine, a little earthy. They climbed the stairs together and he led her to a door at the end of the hall. He unlocked the door and opened it, ushering her into a spacious room.

  The bed was large, spread with blankets and gray and white furs and was exactly what Caidi wanted at this moment. A large fireplace with an ornate mantel graced the center of one wall. Two large, comfortable-looking chairs had been placed in front of the hearth. A table surrounded by chairs had been placed in front of two large slatted doors which probably led out onto a balcony.

  Caidi tried not to act too eager as she walked with Raven to the bed. All too conscious of the role she should be playing, she held back as he pulled her toward the bed. He threw back the coverings, revealing clean, crisp white sheets. He turned to her and Caidi stared up at his strong features. She wrapped her arms around him, instinctively rubbing herself against the hard ridge of his sex.

  Raven grasped her with both hands about the waist and lifted her. His lips and teeth nipped at hers until she opened her lips to his. His tongue thrust into her mouth and her tongue followed his as he withdrew back into the dark cavern of his own mouth.

  He tasted so good—delicious and addictive. He sucked at her tongue drawing her taste deep into his mouth. She couldn’t get enough of the enticing essence.

  He lowered her to her feet and ran his hands up her sides to cup the fullness of her breasts through the silky material of her dress. Bending, he brushed his lips across hers and across the soft skin of her cheeks to her ear. His teeth nipped at her earlobe and then his warm breath flowed across her ear.

  “Undress for me.” His deep, gravelly, very sexy purr rolled through Caidi as his hands left her.

  Caidi stepped back and unhooked the clasp at her neck and the subsequ
ent ones down her back. She shrugged her shoulders and the dress fell forward, sliding down her arms and chest. She let the dress fall around her feet and toed the soft new slippers from her feet. For a moment, she stood nude before him.

  She stepped forward and laced her arms around his neck, removing the leather tie from his hair, freeing it to flow around his face. She threaded her fingers through his hair. The long, silky strands fell almost to the middle of his back. Reluctantly releasing his hair, she slid her hands down to his shirt. She unbuttoned the two buttons keeping it closed and skimmed her hands up the warm, hard muscles to his chest.

  He was so much larger than she was. Much larger than she had thought that he would be when he was sitting in the chair. As much as Caidi wanted him, she knew that there was something different about him. He was Zarain as she was, but she had never seen a Zarain as large as he was in all of her travels.

  He brushed her hands away from his chest. “Lie down for me,” he urged. “Don’t rush this. It will be good.”

  Caidi smiled and climbed onto the bed, playing the part of enthralled human when she longed to rip that shirt from his body and drive him to a fierce mating. She wanted his fire, his domination, but pushing him now wouldn’t be in character with what she was supposed to be. She sighed and decided that trying to incite his dominance would have to wait until later if there was time.

  Raven unbuckled his belt, took his sword, still in its scabbard, off the belt and placed it on the small table near the bed. He sat beside her on the bed and looked over at the golden-haired woman. There was something about her that urged him to be careful, that all wasn’t as it seemed. Conscious of the need for caution, he stood and unlaced his pants, but didn’t remove them. He didn’t want to frighten her.