Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 130081 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 650(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130081 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 650(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)
Nate couldn’t help feeling like the flowers were a metaphor for himself. Before Lan’ara had come for him, his life had consisted of running and hiding and fighting—he’d been reduced to little more than an animal, clawing for its very existence. But the beautiful Kindred woman had brought sanity and peace and happiness back into his life.
More and more, he was beginning to see himself with her long term. They hadn’t known each other for long, but Nate couldn’t help feeling like their relationship was deeper and richer than it had any right to be. Maybe it had to do with the dreams she claimed they’d shared—dreams that he still couldn’t quite remember, though he wished he could. Dreams or no dreams, though, he was beginning to feel like he wanted Lan’ara in his life forever—and thinking that she felt the same way.
But all that was before the incident in the caverns…
THIRTY
LAN’ARA
The walk back to their hut in the Healing Grotto was extremely pleasant. Lan’ara was glad she had moved up their Claiming Period to the Touching Time the night before. The Forest Dweller had been right—she and Nate needed to be closer so that she could draw nourishment from his positive emotions, which would help to bolster her when she had to deal with his dark and tortured past.
Right now, she felt nothing but positive thoughts and feelings coming from him. He enjoyed their walk—stretching his muscles and the warm sun on his bare back. Nothing in the environment of her home world was triggering him or making him remember his past and nothing was upsetting him. In fact, he was feeling extremely peaceful and pleasantly horny as he kept casting sidelong-looks at her breasts, which were swaying as they walked.
Lan’ara gave a little shrug with one shoulder and let the top of her dress slip down, giving him a good view of her bare breasts. This was a little game they had been playing—one she greatly enjoyed since every time Nate caught a glimpse of her breasts, his pleasure surged, which gave her pleasure as well.
Her mentor, Tante Na’lla, had once told her to think of her positive emotional reserves as a kind of reservoir.
“You need to store up as many good feelings and memories as you can, child,” she’d told Lan’ara. “That way when you come to a time in your life where good feelings are hard to come by, the ones you’ve stored can carry you through the drought.”
Lan’ara had found this to be excellent advice, though she was well aware that she had never been so vulnerable to an emotional drought before.
Until an Empath Kindred found her mate, she was able to sustain herself with her own positive experiences and memories. But once she started the Claiming Period with her fated mate, she became more open to him and more reliant on and affected by his emotions and memories. The closer they got to Bonding, the more she needed his positive feelings to fill her reservoir—but he could easily empty it as well with negative emotions.
Lan’ara knew there was a deep, dark well of turmoil and horror buried in Nate’s psyche and that if he became triggered, all that negative energy would impact her intensely and drain her reservoir of good feelings quickly. But she couldn’t help herself—she was already in love with the big human. And she still felt that if only she was given the time, she could heal him.
Slowly, she could replace the bad feelings with good ones and help him work through and move past the horrible memories of his personal hell—fighting against the Scourge and being fed on by the AllFather. It would take love and a lot of patience but it could be done—he could be healed—and she wanted desperately to be the one to heal him.
And I will be, she swore to herself. I’ll be there for him every step of the way—we’ll get through the darkness together, as the Goddess is my witness!
They finally reached the hut they were staying in and had a delicious Midday meal of fresh seafood with herbed brio butter and ting’gy fruit for dessert. After a short nap in the darkened hut, they decided to go for a swim in the caverns where the waters flowed out to feed the Outermost Lake.
Lan’ara loved the caverns. With their rocky ceilings covered in glow blossom vines which cast a soft golden light on the milky blue waters, they seemed full of mystery and peace at the same time. She showed Nate her favorite areas—especially the short waterfall where the turbulent water churned the pale blue water into bubbles below.
“If you stand under it, it massages your shoulders for you,” she explained, going to show him. “The pounding of the water feels amazing on tired muscles!”