Read Tara The Great [Nuworld 2] Online

Authors: Lorie O'Claire

Tara The Great [Nuworld 2]

BOOK: Tara The Great [Nuworld 2]
2.03Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

NUWORLD:

 

TARA
THE GREAT

 

Lorie O’Clare

 

Chapter One

 

 

 

What a meeting. It was all Tara could do to keep her eyes open while she drove her

motorcycle home. Her position as future ruler of all Runner clans could be taxing to her

impressive stores of energy. She had just endured a tiring session with the clan leaders,

fulfilling one of her responsibilities to meet with them once every cycle. They usually

conferred through a Runner transmission on their landlink network, but since several of

the clans were in the area, Tara suggested they meet on the Blood Circle Clan site

outside Bryton.

 

Thus had begun a frustrating afternoon as she reviewed the same material with the

Gothman and Runners more times than she cared to think about. Neither warrior race

understood why she was willing to negotiate trade rights for oil with their adversaries,

the Neurians, even though the natural resource was needed desperately.

 

Not that Tara held a warm place in her heart for the Neurians. Not long ago their

leader had held her captive as part of a conspiracy woven by one of her own Runners.

Six cycles of her life had been stolen, as she lay drugged in a Neurian shed.

 

Tara
shook off her troubled thoughts. This was business. Runners and Gothman

needed to establish trade rights with the Neurians.

 

She’d known from the outset that Runner leaders, as well as Gothman, would be

hesitant to start negotiations with the southern race. Patha, her papa and the greatest

leader the Runners had ever known, always said starting something new took patience.

The resistance she’d encountered would test that patience to the maximum. Her

associates’ arguments danced in her head.

 

“After what they’ve done to you?”

 

“We should be declaring war.”

 

“How can you possibly believe they can be trusted?”

 

Tara
struggled to push aside the troubling thoughts as she drove her motorcycle

into the backyard of the large house she shared with her Gothman claim, Lord Darius.

He had grown up in this house, and their babies had been born in it. Although Tara’s

nomadic Runner blood would always be with her, she felt this was her home now, too.

 

“Mama! Mama!”

 

“Hi, babies!” Tara climbed off her bike, smiling at her twins.

 

“I’m not a baby. I’m a big boy.” Two-winters-old Andru frowned.

 

“That’s right. You sure are.” Tara knelt and grabbed her son.

 

“Me, Mama. Hold me, Mama!” Little Ana ran from the other side of the yard.

 

 

Tara
grabbed the little girl, and pulled her into her arms, as well. “Where’s Syra?”

She planted a kiss on each cheek and glanced around the yard. Their blond curls tickled

her face as she walked through the yard looking for her niece, who only had sixteen

winters, but usually proved to be a good nanny to the twins. At the moment, the

teenager appeared to be missing in action. “Don’t tell me you two are playing outside

by yourselves?”

 

The two children watched their mama with large gray eyes as Tara carried them

into the house.

 

“Is Syra in here?” Tara plopped the twins on the kitchen floor, then straightened as

she addressed Hilda.

 

Darius’ mama turned and straightened her long gray dress over her stout figure.

 

“She went out with the twins a short bit ago.” Hilda squatted, slipping a cookie to

each child. “I daresay she hasn’t had that much time to disappear, no.”

 

“Will you watch them for a minute?”

 

Hilda nodded, shooing the children into the living area where they would have

more room to play.

 

Tara
returned to the yard. Nothing seemed out of place as she walked across the

lawn. “Syra?” As she neared the tool shed in the corner of the yard, a noise triggered

her attention and she quickly pulled open the shed’s door.

 

“What were you doing in there?” Tara asked, as she took in Syra’s appearance.

 

Syra’s black Runner outfit looked disheveled, and the teenager pulled at her black

shirt to straighten it. Her headscarf wasn’t secured well and twisted, so the girl had to

tug it in order to see what she was doing. “Nothing.” Syra offered a sheepish gaze with

her green eyes peering through her headscarf, which still didn’t quite cover her head as

it should.

 

Tara
grabbed her niece’s shoulder and pulled her the rest of the way out of the

shed.

 

Syra groaned, but remained quiet.

 

A very uncharacteristic trait for the girl, Tara thought. She barely had her niece into

the sunshine when she noticed another figure standing in the shadows of the shed.

“What the hell?” Tara focused on the figure and realized it was Torgo, Darius’ younger

brother, who was watching her warily. When Tara noticed him, his eyes shifted to his

feet.

 

Fury raced through Tara when she realized Torgo had her niece in the shed when

the girl should have been watching the twins. She balled her hands into fists and took a

step toward the boy, who flinched and looked at her with the eyes of a trapped animal.

 

“No,” Syra pleaded, grabbing Tara’s arm.

 

“You’re supposed to be watching my children.” Tara stood in the entrance of the

shed, not budging as she glared at her niece, then at her young brother-in-law.

 

 

“I, uh, was… I mean, I just left for a second.” Syra yanked her headscarf from her

head, unable to straighten it without removing it. A guilty blush crept across the pretty

girl’s cheeks. “Don’t tell Papa, Tara, please.”

 

“Get the children and head to the nursery. I’ll be up to talk to you in a minute.”

Tara
worked to maintain her anger as she watched Syra give Torgo a pathetic glance,

then run across the yard toward the house. Tara now turned her hard glare on Torgo.

 

“Tara, we weren’t doing anything. We weren’t.” He cleared his throat. “Well, not

much anyway.”

 

“Don’t you ever take her away from my children again. Understand?”

 

The boy nodded.

 

“It will be a humiliation you won’t forget soon if word gets out you were taken

down by a woman.”

 

“That’s for sure,” Darius spoke from behind Tara.

 

She turned, not willing to show that she hadn’t heard him approach.

 

“What’s going on here?” he asked.

 

Torgo glanced at Tara. “It won’t happen again.” He pushed past both of them and

ran to the house.

 

Tara
turned and Darius stood in front of her, waiting for an explanation.

 

She pointed to the shed. “Your brother and my niece were in there.”

 

Darius smiled and his gray eyes showed their amusement.

 

“She was supposed to be watching the children.”

 

“Are the children all right?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Bryton men are simply irresistible.” Darius pushed Tara into the shed.

 

Tara
pushed back. “They’re too young.”

 

“And how old were you?”

 

She pushed harder and walked past him.

 

The tall, well-built leader of Gothman kept pace alongside her on their way to the

house. “I’ll talk to him, I will.”

 

“I can only imagine what that conversation would be like.”

 

Darius grabbed Tara from behind and slipped his hand under her shirt to fondle a

breast.

 

Tara
wrapped her fingers around his hand, but his grip on her simply tightened.

Tara
fought her body’s immediate reaction. She looked up into dark gray eyes that

appeared to focus on her mouth. “Darius, Syra and Torgo need to learn responsibility,”

she said, then failed to stifle a groan when he bit her neck.

 

Darius chuckled. “Fine, my lady. Go beat the crap out of your niece.”

 

Tara
didn’t escape the yard before Darius slapped her on the rear.

 

 

Syra sat cross-legged on the living room floor, stacking blocks with the twins. She

appeared appropriately chastised as Tara worked to remain calm and explain that a

responsibility as simple as watching children would help train Syra to be a better

warrior.

 

“And I doubt you want the future of a Gothman claim if that boy gets you

pregnant,” Tara added. That caught the girl’s attention, who looked up at her with

beautiful green eyes.

 

“It won’t happen,” Syra whispered.

 

Tara
prayed the teenager had enough sense to see that it wouldn’t. She entered her

bedroom to find Darius sitting at their landlink.

 

He glanced over as she sat next to him, on the corner of the desk. “How was your

Runner meeting this afternoon?”

 

“Fine.” Tara smiled as she studied her claim’s face. “The Blood Circle Clan is

returning. They should be arriving tomorrow.”

 

Tara
’s clan had been gone for the last six cycles. Patha, her papa, had left at the

beginning of the new winter, with snow still on the ground, and she hadn’t heard from

him or any of her other family members in the clan since. Tara knew they had traveled

toward the mountain range, which lay to the east of them. No clan had climbed the

mountains before, and Tara had worried about them, so she had been elated when

Patha had contacted her announcing the return of her people. Her family was coming

home.

 

* * * * *

 

Darius noticed the excitement and anticipation in Tara’s eyes. He knew Tara would

BOOK: Tara The Great [Nuworld 2]
2.03Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

Man Of Few Words by Whistler, Ursula
Mark of Betrayal by A. M. Hudson
The Confession by Sierra Kincade
The Dinner by Herman Koch
In Love with a Gentleman by Ellen, Elisa
Pleasantly Dead by Alguire, Judith
Ghost of a Chance by Franklin W. Dixon
Ergan: Winter Valley Wolves #5 by Vaughn, V., Season Collection, Mating