Emma's Heart (Brides of Theron 3) (35 page)

“Do you think anyone saw you crash out here?”

She looked into his deep purple eyes as he said
, “Oh, I am positive of it.”

Emma dug
into the kit again and came up with something that looked like band aids. Opening the package carefully so that she wouldn’t drop it on the ground, she pulled the gauze away from his head and replaced it with the band aid. Several actually, because it was a very long cut that marred his handsome face. After she finished placing the bandages, she turned her attention to the man lying face down on the ground next to them.

As she worked
on Lars in silence, she could feel Zirlo’s eyes watching her every move. It was actually starting to make her a bit nervous to have this much of his attention, but she continued working on the other man. The sudden sound of his voice startled her out of her quiet thoughts.

“What did
you say the name of your planet was?”

She kept her eyes on the wounds on Lars’ face as she dabbed them with clean gauze,
“I’m from Earth.” She gave the sleeping man the same gentle treatment she had given her first patient.

“But…how did
you come to be with the Theron people?”

“I was abducted by your men
, and then a couple days later I was sold at an auction.” She tried hard to keep her voice steady as she thought back to what she experienced just a few of weeks ago. The reaction she got from Zirlo was not what she had expected.

“Abducted and sold? I understand that we were short on women for mates because of the war, but why would the warriors resort to kidnapping females from other worlds and then sell them?” Zirlo was outright disgusted by what Emma had just revealed to him. Never had he thought his people would choose to do such a thing. Taking unsuspecting females for their own needs was not how the Therons were taught to live. They were a proud and strong race and he would make it his priority to uncover every detail as to why they had to resort to such a heinous act.

“How long has it been since you were taken
from your planet and brought here to Theron?” He wanted to get as much information from of her as he could so that he could formulate all of the necessary questions that he would ask the council.

Before Emma answered, she needed to sit down and get off her leg. The throbbing had only intens
ified since she had come across the ship. But before she said anything else, she was going to get a fire started. She didn’t want a visit from any unwelcome animals, especially freakishly oversized mutant pigs to happen upon them, because it was fast becoming dark again.

She dug in the he
alth kit, but didn’t find any matches.

“I will tell you anything you want to know on one condition.” 

Zirlo eyed her suspiciously, “And what would that be?”

“Do you know how to build a fire?”

A smile spread across his
freshly bandaged face, “That, little female, is one of the skills that I am excellent at doing.” He stood and searched around the wreckage, in order to gather branches that would keep the fire burning for a long time. Living in a prison camp had taught him many things, and building a fire was one of them. If you didn’t have a fire, you would be in the dark for most of your miserable life there.

Once he had the fire roaring
, and it didn’t look like it would going out, he sat down near the edge of it and called for Emma to come sit near him.

“Emma, come let m
e look at your leg. I can see the wound is causing you a lot of pain.” He patted the ground next to him and reached for the health bag. “Did you rinse the wound or anything?” he spoke as he positioned himself better to clean her leg.

Emma sat down next to him
on the ground uneasily. She was exhausted and her whole body was aching.  She just wanted to go home, to Brylon’s home. “I didn’t have any water when I first injured it, but I did try to pick out as much dirt as I could. I think it might be getting infected.” She bit her tongue when Zirlo peeled away the fabric of her jeans that had adhered to the gash, and this caused the scab that had started to form over the wound to peel away that drew fresh blood.

“Geez that hurt
s,” she said through her clenched teeth. Spots danced before her eyes as she breathed through the stinging pain.

“I am sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt
you, but your wound doesn’t look very good.” He poured some of the water they found in the ship, and then took one of gauze pads and patted around the outside edges of the gash. “There’s not much else that I can do for it other than keep it clean. Hopefully we will be found soon and we can all get some proper medical attention.”

A low moan came from Lars as the two of them sat by the fire. The man was out cold from hitting his head
on the way out the ship. He really needed to stay out if he knew what was good for him. The leg that was broken was in awful condition. The femur of his right leg had snapped in half and was protruding from the skin. Zirlo had stopped the flow of blood with tourniquet wrapped near his groin, but there wasn’t much he was going to be able to do with the bone. He didn’t have the strength left in his arms to be able to pull the bone back into place then splint it correctly. The best thing he could do was to keep the area clean and still with a makeshift splint.

“I could kill that bas
tard. I should just let him die,” Zirlo said as he tied some strips of fabric around his leg and a straight branch that he laid against his upper thigh. Emma seemed surprised with the amount of venom that spilled forth from his mouth.

“What’
s his name?” Emma asked.

“Lars. He was in the prison with me. I thought we were allies, but
that is obviously not the case. I need the bastard to wake up so that I can find out why he wouldn’t tell the station who we were.” He stared into the fire.

When Zirlo had said the warrior’s name, Emma felt the color drain from her face. How was it possible that the one man responsible for Avery’s injuries, ended up with her in the middle of a damn forest? If they were ever rescued, Zeb was sure to kill the man whether he was injured or not. This man had been the one responsible for giving the Drylons their location, and causing the attack of the ship on their journey to Theron. He was also responsible for the deaths of several Theron warriors and Pernmocks. Zeb had to chase the traitor across the galaxy in order to rescue his mate.

“
We all thought he was dead,” Emma said as she was gawking at the man lying still on the cold damp ground.

“Who thought he was dead?”

Her eyes trailed from the
man lying prone on the ground to Zirlo, who was sitting next to her. She swallowed before she could get herself to answer the question. “If I am right, that man right there is the one who hurt the commander’s mate and kidnapped her from the mother ship. He helped the Drylons attack the ship on our way here to Theron. Brylon told me that if it hadn’t been for the Pernmocks, we probably would have all died because of him.  That is all I know about him.”

“Emma, can you tell me who’
s in command of the mother ship now?” Zirlo’s eyes seemed to light up as she said the word “commander”.  She could tell that he was listening closely to every word she said.

“
The commander’s name is Zeb. I am friends with his mate Avery.”

“Please, t
ell me everything Emma.”

After he went into the craft and found some type of dried food and a couple of canisters of water.  They sat by the fire and over the course of the next hour as they shared the food and water, Emma related to Zirlo everything she knew about Lars and what had occurred on the journey to Theron. She even told him her story about the events that led to how she came to be here in the middle of an unknown forest with a hurt leg. Not once did Zirlo interrupt her, and seemed to make it easier for her to tell him her story. Every now and then Zirlo would glance over at Lars with a murderous look that he well deserved for being such a traitor to the entire Theron race. 

“Now I am here sitting with you
, in a place that I don’t want to be. No offense, but I am glad that I have you for company.  It is so much better than being in the woods alone.” She paused for a second as a tear escaped her eye and rolled down her cheek, leaving a wet shimmering trail behind it. “I don’t even know if Brylon knows that I’m missing.”

Zirlo’s head popped up at the sound of the familiar name, “Brylon is your mate?”

“Yes, why?”

He threw his head back and let out of deep hearted laugh. “I cannot believe this! You are mated to Brylon! I thought I would never see the day that he would take a wife.
Well, wonders will never cease.” He continued to laugh until his sides ached.

But
Emma started to look offended by Zirlo as he laughed at her mate. “What is so funny about me being married…or mated to Brylon? He’s a great guy.”

“Oh…oh…” Zirlo had to catch his breath before he could continue
on, “Emma, I mean your mate no disrespect. I have known Brylon since he was in bundling clothes. Brylon and my son grew up together and used to get into so much trouble as children. When Brylon was about eight years old, he came right up to me and vowed that girls were gross and that he would never try to find a mate. He said that he had more important things to do with his life, than to spend it with some stupid girl!” His laughing had calmed down some after seeing the look on the earth woman’s face.

“You kne
w Brylon?” Her jaw dropped as she spoke.

“Know him
? He practically lived at my house, until the boys left to go to the academy. The three of them were always together, Brylon, Zane, and Zeb. Your Commander Zeb is my son.” He waited for her to respond.

The young woman
was left totally speechless. “Avery had told me that Zeb’s father had died at the very beginning of the war, and you are Commander Zeb’s father? He believes that you are dead, you know.”

Zirlo didn’t know how to respond to those words
. The weight of what she said suddenly sank into his aching bones.  Would his son accept him after all this time? Did his beloved Yaza find comfort in the arms of another warrior after she accepted that he would never be returned to her? How had their lives change without him being there for the last ten long years? “I naturally assumed that they would think that I was dead. I have been gone for nearly ten years, taken prisoner shortly after the first wave of the war. There were many times in my imprisonment that I wished for a swift death to take me from the hell that became my life. But, as I sit here with you under the pale glow of MY planet’s two moons, I am happy that I didn’t give up hope that I would one day return.” He quieted for a few moments before starting speaking again, “The last time I was with my family, Zeb was in training as a lieutenant! Now, he is a commander! What about Brylon and Zane? I know that Brylon was quite an ingenious fellow.  He was always fixing and inventing things as a child.”

She smiled at him, deep in thought.
“Brylon is the Chief Engineer and Zane is the Medical Director.”

Thinking back to when he had left the boys, still
young children in his eyes. “You, my dear, have now left me speechless.”

Brylon was going out of his mind with fear for Emma’s safety, and regret for how he had left things between them. If they didn’t find Emma soon, they might not ever find her alive, and she would never know just how much he loved her. Darkness had settled in around them again as they had taken a break. The men hadn’t eaten anything since they began the search and were exhausted from searching the woods and not finding Emma. Brylon’s hopes of finding his mate alive and well were quickly starting to diminish. There was no way a female as small as she was, would be able to survive another night out here on her own without access to food and clean water.

“Brylon, we
are going to have to set up camp for the night.  We won’t be able to help Emma if we are too exhausted to even put one foot in front of the other,” Zane called out.

Brylon looked around the
area that they had just entered. He knew Zane was right but he just had to keep going. He had to find her. “You can stay here and rest if you want, but I want to move on. If your mate’s life was in question, you would do the same.” He walked off into the forest, disappearing from sight.

Zane summoned up the last bit of energy he had left. “Come on, let’s move guys.” He knew without a doubt that he would do the exact same thing if had been Gracie lost out here. He wouldn’t stop looking for her until he found her. She was the most important person in his life now, along with the twins that she carried in her womb, and he knew that Brylon felt the same way about Emma.

“Ceran take the lead again and see if you can pick up the trail.” Zane motioned for warrior to move forward. “
And, try to keep an eye on Brylon too.”

It wasn’t long after the group had started searching again that Manko had come across
a trail of the small footprints. This time the prints lead through a very large cluster of shrubs. Zane called out for Brylon, who immediately came running over.