The Diamond Heartstone (3 page)

legs.

She looked down at the GPS and veered right. Five more miles

and she should be able to see the laboring tiger. Ten million. The ATV

sped along the short distance. She stopped the machine well short of the

animal’s haven. Just sit and observe. Once the babies were born, she’d

sedate the mother and tag the babies.

The animal huffed and panted, her belly moving round and

round. Alycia lowered her binoculars and picked up her bottle water.

This should be over quick. This was the tiger's first liter. She should have

no more than two in there. Settling back in the seat, Alycia picked up the

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The Diamond Heartstone by Leila Brown

binoculars again.

She sat in the same position for over 3 hours. But when the

mother tiger stopped panting and stopped trying to deliver the cubs, she

knew she was going to lose them.

Lifting the rifle’s scope to her eye, Alycia sent the tiger a silent

apology then pulled the trigger. The tired animal growled more than

roared when the dart hit. The serum was quick acting. Mama tiger was

knocked out in minutes. Alycia turned on the engine and sped to the

sleeping animal. She needed to work quickly. The tiger would only stay

knocked out long enough to tag the two cubs.

Taking out her gloves, she quickly donned the elbow covering

latex. She set her hand along the tiger’s soft orange coat. The babies’

moves rippled against her. She plunged her right hand inside the tiger,

reaching upwards until she felt the womb. She latched onto two paws

and pulled down. The legs slipped down easily. She pulled her hand out

bringing the two legs with her. Using both hands, she wrapped them

around the tiny body and pulled. But the little guy wasn't budging.

Mama needed to be awake to use her muscles and push him out, but

Alycia couldn’t help when the tranq wore off.

Death was not an option. Alycia grabbed the twitching legs and

pushed them back inside. She twisted the cub around as much as

possible. She grabbed two legs and pulled down again. The legs slid out

easily but stopped when it came to the baby's bottom. No. Alycia pushed

the legs inside and tried again.

Time after time the legs slipped out but the rest of the cub wasn’t

coming. The little guy had stopped twitching minutes ago but he still

needed to come out if Alycia was going to be able to save the other one.

It continued to move. There was one more thing to try. She pulled the

closest cubs legs out and pushed down on the tiger’s womb, careful not

to crush the remaining cub. The tiger's breath hitched. It moved its

whiskers.

That tranq must not have been full. Or someone didn't pump the

right amount of medicine in the gun. Damn newbies. She knew she

should've shadowed his cocky ass. The tiger lifted her paw and Alycia

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turned quickly, scooped up her stuff and ran to the ATV.

Under normal circumstances, the tigers here wouldn't let anyone

close. A mother in the middle of birthing her cubs would be vicious. She

drove a short distance away into a thicket of tall grass and cut the engine.

Lifting her binoculars she prayed the tiger would go back into labor.

The tiger awoke with a start. She wasn’t panting. She wasn’t even

breathing hard. She licked her paws and stretched.
Come on, Mama, get back

into it
. But the tiger didn't seem in any rush to expel either cub. Alycia

waited another forty-five minutes for the tiger to expel the first cub. It

came out slowly and didn’t move. Mama tiger bit the umbilical cord and

licked at the tiny unmoving animal. Stillborn. Tears pooled in Alycia’s

eyes. She knew it had been coming. Knew it from the second that the tiger

had started waking up. Her hope lay in the second cub.

It took another thirty minutes for that one to come out. And it too

was still. She lowered her binoculars. She couldn’t bear to look anymore.

Tears streamed down her face. If only she’d had more drugs, maybe she

could’ve at least saved one of them.

Alycia craned her head back. Her head pounded with guilt. Maybe

it was her actions that caused this. But wild tigers rarely labored more than

one to two hours. The policy at Big Cat Heaven was to let nature take its

course, whatever it may be.

Her heart squeezed as her hands contracted with memories of the

feel of the baby tiger as it moved in her hands. She smelled the distinctive

fragrance of blood from the laboring animal. Maybe if she’d pushed down

harder on the womb. Maybe… There was no way to know. The mother

may have lost both cubs anyway. The one thing she knew for sure was

that she helped to kill those two cubs.

* * * * *

Barrick landed the small shuttle in the thicket of blue everlasting

trees. He needed to get off of his ship. Get away from anyone before the

damn burst.

The machine touched down as he felt the first tears roll down his

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The Diamond Heartstone by Leila Brown

face. He could barely deal with the sense of her hands all over his body.

This all-consuming sorrow was too much. He needed to find her now. If

nothing else, he needed to wrap his arms around her and take away some

of her drowning pain.

Once clear of the ship, Barrick let the animal loose. His jaw cracked

and popped. Bones shifted and realigned. Muscles and tissue roped

through his arms and legs. White and black hair darkened and lengthened

along his paws and arms. In seconds, he was the animal. It didn’t stop the

pain. Sitting back on his hind legs, he let loose a roar that seemed to shake

the ground. He roared again and again until his throat was too weak to let

out even the quietest whimper.

Nothing stopped the pain. It did nothing but make it more raw.

More real. It ran up his arms. Burned his chest. Burned every inch of his

heart until he couldn’t think of anything else.

He’d give his life to find her. Run. He needed to run. Running

wouldn’t help to find her but it might dull the pain. After a few minutes,

his legs burned like his heart. His entire body seemed to be one big flame.

Stop
. The fog in front of him wasn’t natural. Something was warning

him away. He stopped running and instead slowly walked around the

mists. He should not enter. He couldn’t smell another cat’s scent, so the

feeling didn’t make sense. But something warned him not to enter. Yet the

closer he got, the less his heart hurt.

If he entered the fog, it might assuage the pain. He put one foot into

the fog. A shiver raced through him and he swore his coat changed from

white to orange. But once he’d completely stepped through the white fog,

the feeling faded.

The pain in his heart was no longer all consuming. The deeper he

stepped into this new forest, the more he could feel her. She was here. In

this place. He must find her.

He ran through the forest, picked up her scent, and lost it. Then he

saw her. Sitting on a foreign form of transport. The machine roared almost

like an animal.

He sat low in the high grass, watching her. He’d traveled all around

the universe and had seen all types of beings. But nothing like the caramel

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The Diamond Heartstone by Leila Brown

brown of her skin. It was so indulgent, so rich. Her waist length black hair

was just an added jewel. She was a treasure. One he fully intended on

claiming for himself.

She stumbled over to a small pool of water and immersed her arms.

Was she bathing? He surveyed the pool. She was alone.
Take her now. Take

her now.

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The Diamond Heartstone by Leila Brown

She hadn’t been paying a lot of attention. Not until she heard the

leaves crunching. The GPS hadn’t shown any cats nearby but the hair on

the nape of her neck was standing on end. She could swear that there was

one in the tall yellowed grass to her left. She didn’t chance a look over to

make sure. If it was a male, he might take the direct eye contact as a form of

aggression.

Her bike wasn’t that far away but, counting the time it was going to

take to start the thing, she wouldn’t make it. But what was the other

alternative? Stay here and be dinner? Not freaking likely.

Alycia took a breath, hoping to slow down her thundering heart.

One
. She darted a quick look over into the grass. It shifted. There was

definitely something there.
Two
. She bent down towards the water again.

Three
. She pivoted and took off in the direction of her ATV.

She was almost there but something was right on her heels. She

yanked the key from the lanyard around her neck. Jumping on the bike,

she jammed the key into the switch and turned it on. The motor roaring to

life didn’t drown out the sound of the tiger’s roar.

With a small squeeze of the handlebars, the bike jerked forward. She

raised her head in time to see the tiger launch at her. Her hands

instinctively flew up to protect her face. It hit her squarely in the chest,

knocking her onto the ground. The air whooshed from her lungs and her

head bounced on the ground.

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The Diamond Heartstone by Leila Brown

Barrick was careful not to land on his mate. She was beautiful. Well,

once you got beyond the fact that she didn’t have any fur. Her skin was

more the color of pure Belusian Cream, the rarest delicacy on his world.

Would she be as sweet?

He needed to carry her out of this place. He could hear the roar of

several animals nearby but none sounded familiar. His body pulsed with

the need to change but it refused to obey. He sat there over her prone body

trying again and again to change but nothing happened.

It was that damned mist. It had to be. Once he got free from it, they

would be safer. He bent over her prone body and carefully clamped his

jaws on her shoulder. He didn’t want to risk marring her face.

‚Uhhh...‛ she moaned.

He had no illusions that if she woke, he would be fighting to get her

onto his ship. He dragged her through the tall grass and to the barrier of

mist. Again as he stepped through it, he felt his body shift again. Once

free, he tried to shift again. This time it worked. The fur along his arms and

legs retracted. He lowered her to the ground.

The bones in his hands cracked and popped as they shrank. Soon

his paws looked like normal hands. He looked around but the mist was

gone. The only thing surrounding them was the lush green and red forest

he’d run through his entire life.

‚What the hell is...‛ She leaned up into a sitting position. Her gaze

swung up to meet his. She stopped talking and scrambled away from him.

‚No, you don’t.‛ He stalked forward and wrapped an arm around

her. He lifted her up and threw her on his shoulder.

‚Let me go!‛ She pounded against his back. She screamed again and

again.

‚Stop screaming,‛ he said, whacking her on her ass. He wanted to

wrap his fingers around those rounded globes, but he wasn’t a total

asshole. He wouldn’t take her here on the ground. He could wait until

there was a bed.

‚Where are you taking me? Where am I?‛

‚Home. And home.‛ He whacked her on the butt again for asking

stupid questions. There was more anger than fear in her voice.

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The Diamond Heartstone by Leila Brown

‚Let me go.‛ She beat her small fists against his back. ‚I’m not going

anywhere with you.‛ She screamed several more times but there was no

one here to help her.

Another whack on the ass.

‚People will look for me. I’m very important where I come from.

When they find you, you’re going to go to jail.‛

Another whack followed by a grunt this time. He wasn’t amused.

The last person to threaten him with prison died before he could follow

through on his threat.

When they reached the ship, he dropped her. He typed in a

command to close the large window opening before she could jump out of

it. He set in the coordinates for the station and turned on the autopilot.

‚What is your name?‛ He sat in the one seat in the little ship and

swiveled the chair around to face her.

‚Why?‛ she asked, narrowing her eyes at him.

‚I need a name to call my mate. Some might find it offensive if I just

called you ‘mate’.‛

‚Your what?‛

‚My mate.‛

‚Okay, who are you? Is that you, Chuck? Did you slip something in

my drink this morning? Rufies, X, what?‛ she said, pointing her finger at

him.

‚I can guarantee you I am not this ‘Chuck’? Now, your name?‛