Clan Beginnings: Clan and Crave - Chaper Two, Scene One

 

Releasing May 31. Pre-order now: Amazon, Amazon UK, Nook, Apple, Kobo, Smashwords, print

 

When Conyod met Sletran

* * * *

Conyod, age 15 

“Nowhere to go, thief. What do you have to say for yourself before we beat your ass?”

Conyod peered through the dirty strands of his hair at the jeering Nobek. His tormentor stood at the center of a group of teen Nobeks. They’d surrounded him at the edge of the berlub field they’d chased him from. They numbered five, slightly older than him, he judged. They must have come from the nearby training camp he’d skulked past a few miles back.

It was just his luck for them to be on leave when he’d given in to hunger and plundered the berlub bushes of a farm. He was a thief, no two ways about it, but after two weeks on the run, five days after he’d finished the food he’d taken from home, he was starving. There’d been no one in sight when he’d slunk into the field to fill his snarling stomach with the bright yellow berries that hadn’t yet been harvested.

Anger and shame…and a hefty dose of fear not entirely due to the young muscled Nobeks who’d chased him from the field…brought the sting of tears to his eyes. Cornered, the evidence of his desperate wrongdoing clutched in his fists so the juice dripped from them, he snarled, “Assault is a bigger crime than stealing. Touch me and you’ll be sorry.”

“I doubt it. You don’t look as if you have the sort of parents who possess the rank to protest a well-deserved thrashing.” His chief accuser smirked at the rest.

Conyod glanced down at his clothes. They were torn from hiding in thorny bushes from those he’d feared might be searching for him. He was filthy from crouching in muddy gullies thanks to a couple of days of downpours. His carry sack wasn’t in any better shape, one strap knotted together after it had caught on a branch and torn.

A slap to his cheek sent him reeling. The teen he staggered toward shoved him in the middle again, and he stumbled to catch his footing as his face flamed hot pain.

“Let’s teach him a lesson,” his chief antagonist said and grabbed Conyod by his hair. “Don’t hold back. I want to see blood. Make him cry like the baby he is.”

“Hold on, Gotas,” one of the boys gasped. “He’s a skinny kid. I bet he’s an Imdiko. We can’t—”

“I say we do.” The teen identified as Gotas bared fangs at Conyod’s would-be advocate. “If you’re scared, you can run to camp. But you better hide well, where I can’t find you.”

There was a flash of anger, but when no one else spoke up, the boy subsided.

“Better. To show you I don’t hold a grudge, I’ll let you have first punch, Hetnur. Step on up and—”

Conyod, who’d been alternating between trying to pull loose from Gotas’ grip and hopping on his toes to relieve the agonizing tug on his hair, had come to a decision. He was about to get hurt, no doubt where that was concerned, but maybe he could do a little damage himself. Taking advantage of Gotas’ divided attention, he swung his leg at his harasser’s crotch.

He was a good deal shorter than Gotas, and he’d never been in a fight. He had to kick higher than was comfortable. It was a weak blow, by all accounts. However, his aim was true. His shin landed a bullseye on the Nobek teen’s sensitive spot.

Conyod’s shock he’d actually attacked someone else, and someone so much bigger, was matched only by the shock on Gotas’ expression. The teen’s eyes and mouth formed perfect o’s an instant before agony suffused his features. His breath left him in a curiously high-pitched whistle. He released Conyod to clutch his assaulted privates as his knees bent and his torso curled. A line of drool ran from his lower lip.

Conyod stood frozen, watching as the bully offered a thin scream as high-pitched as the whistling breath had been. A dim part of his brain told him he should be running like hell, but he was too gobsmacked to have turned the tables on his tormentor to do so.

“You know, kid, once you put your opponent at such a disadvantage, you shouldn’t just stand there. A good move when the enemy’s bent in pain would be to grab the back of his head and yank it down while you smash your knee in his face.”

A massive man waded between the startled boys. Conyod turned his stunned gaze toward the muscled behemoth in the black armored uniform of a ground troop soldier. Where had he come from?

A couple of the teens yelped. “Stay put!” the muscled Nobek shouted. Poised to run, they froze on the spot. Except for Gotas, who was still trying to learn how to breathe again.

The soldier stared at the terrified-looking youths, his initial nonchalance disappearing behind a rictus of fury. “What a company of cowards and assholes,” he snarled. “Names. Now. You first.”

He appeared so bestial, none of the teens dared to refuse. As his burning gaze lit on each of the younger Nobeks, they stuttered their names. Conyod heard none of them, his senses overwhelmed by what had happened in a matter of minutes.

The presence of his rescuer held him astonished. He wasn’t the handsomest man the young Imdiko had ever encountered, but he was perhaps the most riveting. Nearly waist-length black curls framed a body carved from granite. The armored formsuit had no hope of hiding the strength of his thighs or the broadness of his shoulders. He looked like the strongest man alive to the boy.

Having gained the names of Conyod’s attackers, the soldier stripped off a thick strap circling his thigh, in which a knife had been sheathed. He tucked the knife and its pocket beneath the utility belt at his waist.

“Pay attention, shitheads. As it seems your instructors have been lax in teaching you proper behavior, class is now in session,” he announced. “A Nobek’s first duty is to protect the empire. His second duty is to protect his clan. And his third duty, which sometimes takes precedence over the first two, is to protect those weaker than himself.

“Am I appalled to see the opposite occurring here? To see five Nobeks of the Kalquorian Empire attacking a smaller youth, an Imdiko, no less? You’re damned right I’m appalled. More than appalled. I’m fucking livid!”

His fangs showed as he roared at them. All five, including Gotas, who was beginning to become aware of matters beyond his abused groin, moaned in terror.

“There is no excuse. None.”

“He was stealing—” one of the boys dared.

The soldier was a blur of motion. He grabbed the teen who’d spoken by the back of the neck and yanked him to the middle of the gathered. The strap flailed faster than Conyod’s eyes could follow, though there was no mistaking the thuds of contact.

The youth squalled and fell to his hands and knees. He dug his booted toes and fingers in the ground, trying to escape the beating, but the soldier held him fast and without obvious effort. The black strap flashed in the sunlight. Conyod and the rest cringed, but they couldn’t tear themselves from the sight. Nor did the teens show any inclination to rescue their fellow.

I don’t blame them. This guy could tear us limb from limb without trying.

His thought was as much worshipful as terrified. He’d thought his father Vel was the be-all and end-all of the Nobek breed until this magnificent warrior.

The soldier paused and shook the howling youth. “Now beg the Imdiko’s pardon or get a second round of the same.”

“I…I’m sorry, Imdiko. Forgive me.”

The elder Nobek released the teen, who stumbled a few feet, then collapsed in a shuddering heap. The soldier glared at the remaining four.

“Look at this boy.” He gestured at Conyod. “It’s obvious to anyone who possesses half a brain he’s starving. Why else would he be thieving berries from a field? Yet it occurred to none of you supposed protectors to help him. You chose to bully him instead. You’re lower than thieves. You’re nothing.” He spat.

The teens hunched. They looked at Conyod in shame. The sole exception was Gotas. His gaze betrayed black hatred, though he was obviously too afraid of the soldier to voice it.

“The rest of you will receive punishment from me, after which you’ll also beg the Imdiko for pardon. If you try to escape, you’ll get double. If any of you somehow manage to escape, I have your names. I’ll report all of you to the training camp, not just the coward who runs off. Having graduated from a camp myself, I know exactly what you’re in for if your superiors learn what you’ve done here today.”

The boys were shaking, but they didn’t move an inch. Would punishment at the camp be worse than a strapping from the Nobek? Conyod couldn’t imagine it.

It must have been true, because one by one, they submitted to his harsh discipline. Their cries rang out over the field, and they begged Conyod’s forgiveness long before the punishment ended.

The fourth youth, he who was named Hetnur and had tried to reason with Gotas, tried to negotiate a lesser penalty when he stepped forward. “Nobek, I tried to tell them, I really did, I said it wasn’t fair for us to jump him—”

“You spoke, but you did nothing. A true Nobek isn’t wary of the numbers against him if an injustice is being committed. A Nobek would rather his breath stop than allow harm to someone who doesn’t deserve it. Except for this piece of dung with the bashed cocks who led you, you’re the worst of the group for your failure to stand up for what you knew was right. You’ll be strapped harder than those who came before you.”

The soldier was true to his word. Hetnur’s punishment was the severest thus far. Conyod couldn’t help but feel sorry for him.

Then the soldier turned to Gotas. “Do you think I’ll spare you because you’ve already suffered the greatest damage? I see plainly you feel no remorse for what you’ve done. You’re the leader of these worms. You’ve set yourself up as their superior only to terrorize the weak. Who else have you convinced them to gang up on? How many innocents have been hurt because you decided power was better than defending those who’d look to you for help?”

The soldier’s furious glare raked the others. “This is who you’ve chosen to fear…a spineless weakling who uses you to intimidate those he hasn’t the strength to overcome alone. He couldn’t even defeat an underfed Imdiko. Are you truly so pathetic as to follow this pretend Nobek?”

Gotas said nothing, but he’d gone pale. He went paler as his howls were added to those of his fellows.

When the soldier had finished, he waved them off as if shooing flies. “Get out of my sight before I decide you deserve more than I’ve given you.”

They clumsily slunk to the dirt road leading to the training camp. Gotas was still hunched, and he moved slower than the rest. They left him behind, and Conyod had a feeling the bully would find himself friendless for a long time.

He pulled his sight from the retreating youths to discover the soldier stared at him. “Now for you,” the man said.

Conyod’s heart skipped a beat as his gaze skittered to the thick strap the man held. He grew dizzy, and not just from hunger and exhaustion.

“Ancestors, I won’t beat you, kid. You look as if you’ve been through enough.” The soldier stepped close. His tone was shockingly soft for such a terrifying person. His expression too. “I’m Nobek Sletran. I want to help you. What’s your name and where do you live?”

Conyod hunched, hating the idea he might invite the young man’s ire as the bullies had. He didn’t dare answer his rescuer, however. He simply stared at the booted feet in front of him and shook his head. Then he waited for the blows.

* * * *

He needed a hero and found two. Can love rescue him again?

Nobek Sletran never took Imdiko Conyod’s infatuation seriously when he rescued him years before. When Conyod shows up in his life again as a strong and successful man instead of a traumatized victim, Sletran has to reconsider the one he once rejected and now can’t imagine life without.

Conyod has never given up on the man he considers his hero. Sletran is all he’s ever wanted for a clanmate, and he’s determined to win him at last. But the past refuses to be laid to rest. When Conyod convinces Sletran to see him for who he’s become, will who he was resurface and destroy the love they’re building?

Sletran’s commanding officer Dramok Erybet is instantly fascinated by Conyod when the soldier brings his love on base for a visit. However, Sletran isn’t the Nobek Erybet feels is right for him. When he rejects the Nobek, he risks losing Conyod too.

Against the backdrop of heartbreaking childhood tragedy, a ghost who haunts Conyod and his grief-stricken family, and military brass determined to oust Erybet from the rank he’s worked so hard to reach, three men must come to terms with who they are. When tragedy strikes, the nightmares of the past must be faced and buried once and for all. Conyod, Sletran, and Erybet must dare everything to find redemption and hold on to each other.

Releasing May 31.  Pre-order now: Amazon, Amazon UK, Nook, Apple, Kobo, Smashwords, print