Taken by the Swarm King Read online

  I jogged over to them and roped my arms around their tiny bodies—feeling the magnitude of their fear with each of their terrified trembles.

  “It’s going to be okay,” I whispered soothingly in their ears. “It will all be over soon. The swarm is here to see if they have any fate-marked women. When they finish, life can go back to normal.”

  The children, my siblings, blinked up at me with innocent trust flickering in their eyes.

  “Do we have to keep searching the wells for water today after this is over?” Joshu asked.

  I hugged him close to my body. He wasn’t quivering as violently as he was a few seconds ago. I kissed the side of his dirty cheek and whispered in his ear, scuffing the top of his unruly hair.

  “No,” I promised. “No more trauma for today. We can go tomorrow.”

  Joshu gave me a look of relief and a meager smile to boot. Much like I had, he and Beccy would be forced to grow up quicker than most humans, but I wanted to keep as much of their remaining childhood years as intact as possible.

  “You better get in line.” A frightened woman with curly brown hair that was cut short to her ears informed me, poked me in the elbow. She nudged her chin in the direction of the lineup. “They’re coming whether we’re ready for them or not.”

  “I know.” I glanced solemnly at the children, wishing that I didn’t have to leave their sides and hoping that one day Beccy wouldn’t have to go through this same ordeal. “It’s going to be okay,” I recited for what seemed like the hundredth time. “Just stay back here and wait for me. I’ll be right back.”

  Joshu and Beccy nodded, staring at me with bleak expressions that sent a chill racing up and down my spine. I tenderly touched their soft cheeks one last time before rushing to the back of the lineup. Since I came in late, there was no room at the front.

  I was going to have to suck it up and suffer through the excruciating wait.

  The Swarm King and his men stood in front of us, perched on their giant, scaly lizards. They wore brooding, intimidating expressions as they prepared to inspect us.

  Everything went quiet as we waited for the Swarm King to speak. The breeze, what little breeze there was, halted. No insects trilled in the distance. There was nothing but deafening silence, a glue holding us as a village together as we stood on opposite ends from the barbarians.

  “You know why we are here,” the Swarm King bellowed, eyeing each of the village women with narrowed, lecturing eyes and a sliver of curiosity.

  The women—myself included—kept our heads down and nodded. The Swarm King had wide-spreading horns like a bull that glistened like gold under the beams of sunlight shining down on the planet.

  The Swarm King, like his men, wore only a single piece of loincloth to cover his genitals. The barbarians didn’t have garments to wear other than the loincloth.

  The Swarm King was built solid and bulky. I took a moment to study his features. He was strangely attractive—unlike most of the others in his army.

  “We shall begin,” he said with a finality that made the blood in my veins run cold.

  One by one, the barbarian men scanned the crowd of women and passed them by without a single word or reaction.

  In this game, you didn’t want to be picked. The women whose inspection was completed were thanking their lucky stars that this time, they were home free of being fate-marked. I was nauseated with envy for those women, but I knew there was nothing I could do but keep my head down, take deep breaths and wait for the agony to be over.

  I felt the mixture of stress and reassured energy from the women. None of it was any consolation to me because the Swarm King was inching closer and closer.

  I was so nervous I couldn’t breathe. My throat felt swollen, closing in on itself. I became dizzy, lightheaded with dread.

  The Swarm King became distracted. His nostrils flared. He sniffed the air and the expression on his face switched from disappointed boredom to hopeful excitement—almost instantaneously.

  His enormous chest rose and fell quickly as if he had hunted down exactly what he came for—at long last. He was over seven feet tall and if I had to guess, weighed at least three times that of a human man. His size was daunting, and I found myself involuntarily cowering the closer he bridged the gap between us.

  I knew it in my gut that he had already fate-marked me before he even got to me. He had set me apart from the rest by my scent alone and as our eyes locked, my fate was sealed with a single breath.

  Unfortunately, it didn’t take Joshu and Beccy long to realize this either. As soon as the barbarian Swarm King laid eyes on me and grinned, my brother and sister shrieked with despair. A few villagers in the crowd attempted to restrain them but they refused to be held back.

  Both children bolted to me, sobbing, wet tears staining their dirty cheeks. I tried to hug them back, but my arms were shaking so violently that I couldn’t get a strong grip on either one of them.

  My own eyes blurred with tears, but I tried to remain stoically subdued in front of them, for their own good. If I fell apart, they would be doomed for sure.

  A few burly men towered over all three of us and callously ripped the children from my desperate attempts grab them. Their eyes were empty, their faces devoid of expression.

  Joshu and Beccy squealed, kicked and tried to bite the brawny savages but their licks and lashes were no match for the barbarians who were more than triple their size.

  “Please,” I begged, choking with distress on my own words. “Leave them alone. They are just trying to protect me. They don’t know any better.”

  The Swarm King set his eyes on me. “It’s not my intention to harm them, but they mustn’t interfere,” he declared in a patient, yet firm tone that left no room for debate.

  I swallowed down my tears before they ran down my face and gave my emotions away. It was vital to keep myself composed.

  I glanced at the children, trying not to sob as I whispered my goodbyes to them. I didn’t know if I would ever see them again. “Be good—make me proud. Stay safe, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

  I attempted to reach out to them, but the Swarm Kings men swatted at my arms in domineering protest, so I instinctively reeled back.

  “Remember,” I said, my voice cracking, “I’ll be in your heart—always and forever. When you gaze up at the sky at night and see the stars, just know that I will be looking at the same ones you see. Don’t worry about me, I’ll be just fine.”

  I couldn’t tell if they were aware of my lie, but they nodded their heads in grim compliance.

  I planted on the most superficial smile in the universe but if it helped console them, then that was all that mattered.

  Abbitha, one of the matronly women of the village stood behind Joshu and Beccy and coiled her arms protectively around them.

  She stroked their backs and comforted them as I was led away. On the trek to the giant lizard mounts, the Swarm King leaned down to my eye level. His body was so enormous that it cast a massive shadow spanning several feet on the ground, including over me.

  “This is for your own good,” he said and nodded to one of his henchmen.

  “What?” I blinked in horror and my jaw dropped as I watched the barbarian take chains and bind them to my wrists.

  They were heavy and pinched at my skin, but I did my best not to flinch or show any emotion in front of them. I never looked over my shoulder at Beccy and Joshu. I wanted to—but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I wasn’t strong enough.

  If I witnessed the petrified faces of my orphaned brother and sister, I feared that it would crack my soul in half.

  4

  Varyx

  “Stop here,” I instructed my men escorting my Earthling fate-marked. I was struggling to contain my shock at finding a woman who was fate-marked as mine.

  Her shoulders trembled. Her chin quivered and her eyes flickered with terror. I wanted to make sure she relaxed, so I attempted to make some light conversation with her to ease her mind be
fore we traveled back deep into the desert.

  She blinked up at me. She had gorgeous cobalt eyes, thick full eyelashes, and golden hair with tan skin. This was a trademark of human women, and I was pleased that my personal fate-marked Earthling was attractive—dare I say—even beautiful.

  She looked a little rough and worse for wear, however, and her clothes were loose and tattered. There were a couple of small holes in her dress and it was a little dingy, but all those things were superficial and could be cleaned up with even a light bathing.

  “I’m Varyx,” I introduced myself.

  She nodded—but didn’t seem to want to make eye contact with me.

  “Can you tell me what your name is?” I coaxed encouragingly.

  She kept her head down. Her eyes were fixed to the sandy ground. She stared at her feet that were strapped with sandals and a little grittiness from the desert sand in between her toes.

  “Did you hear me?” I asked, raising my voice slightly but remained calm and collected.

  I noticed her stiffen. Her eyes shimmered and watered—pooling so much that a few tears escaped and rolled silently down her cheeks.

  Her emotions perplexed me. I wasn’t used to seeing anyone cry, although I had seen Earthlings do it before.

  Byromians never cried, not even the women—the incredibly rare women who lived to adulthood thanks to the blight. We weren’t wired to experience those types of emotions. I decided to let her take a moment to compose herself. This was going to be an enormous adjustment for her, and I didn’t want to push her to the limit less than five minutes after fate-marking her.

  We stood in front of the gwarn mount. “You will need to climb up here and ride the gwarn, but if you need help getting up there, I can carry you to the top.”

  In comparison to my size, she looked like a tiny rag-doll, slim build—which wasn’t a problem with me—but she was cowering in my presence and I was sure that her wilting posture was adding to her frail looking frame.

  She blinked, but she continued to keep her head down. I took a step toward her and she flinched as if she expected me to start beating her or something.

  “I’m not going to hurt you,” I whispered. “But I really need you to cooperate with me here.”

  She glanced up at me. Her eyes were red rimmed and burned through me with scorn and insurmountable heartbreak that inadvertently caused my own soul ache. Naturally, I had never been fate-marked with an Earthling before, so I wasn’t sure if this sensation was common or not. I didn’t know how to fix this, but I couldn’t exactly give her back to her village, either.

  I needed to find some common ground with her. Maybe if she felt like she could relate to me, she would behave more compliantly. “Look—this is hard for me too,” I admitted.

  She looked at me and held my gaze for several seconds, allowing me a chance to elaborate.

  “The last time our swarm came through this area, one of your village women killed my father. I don’t like the Earthlings any more than you like us. Actually—there isn’t a single Byromian who likes humans. Your kind brought the blight that killed off all our women—”

  “Do you have a point to this story?” She finally spoke, boldly—daring to be so curt with me. She glared at me. Her glower might as well have been daggers cutting through my heart.

  “Yes.” I sighed with frustration and took a deep breath so my temper wouldn’t bubble up. “My mother died when I was just a baby from that same battle.”

  “Sorry for your loss,” she said dryly.

  “Now we are reduced to inbreeding with Earthlings that will slowly corrode our bloodlines,” I continued—ignoring her subtle digs at me and my past traumas.

  She clamped her mouth shut and climbed the side of the gwarn mount. She took the reins and stared straight ahead as if she was stoically accepting her fate and had shut off all her emotions—putting up a barricade—a wall that would build a wedge between us.

  Maybe the long ride would prove to be more successful than our initial introductions. If I dared to dream—perhaps after a while—she would become adapted to her new life with me. We didn’t have to like each other, but I still wanted her to feel comfortable and hopefully eventually break down her barriers to reveal her true self and her background.

  “Ride behind me,” I instructed Rathum who nodded, seething that he hadn’t found a fate-marked Earthling and scowling at both of us. “Take your lackeys with you,” I added.

  Rathum whistled to two of his lieutenants, who rode up on their gwarns and formed a line behind Rathum, but Rathum rode up closer to me. “I think you’re making a mistake,” he whispered—but it came out sounding more like a hiss.

  I mounted my own gwarn and cut him a leer too. “What are you talking about? What mistake? She’s fate-marked. That reserves me the right to take her.”

  “Not her,” he said and cut a glance at the woman over his shoulder. “We need to return to the village and take some slaves with us.”

  “For what purpose?” I scoffed at the outlandish idea. “You can’t mate with them.”

  Rathum clenched his jaw persistently. “Yes, however, we could use them for other things.”

  “Like what?” I narrowed my eyes and studied him.

  “We could use them as workers and for sex,” Rathum explained. “We need workers…” He trailed off before beginning again with a face mixed with shame and desperation. “And … sex.”

  I was getting ready to argue his point. I had a fate-marked now and was going to get plenty of sex. Besides, that wasn’t what the villagers were used for. We only took the journey to the villages to find fate-marked women.

  Disturbing the peace with the Earthlings, aside from taking their fate-marked, wasn’t a goal of mine—and I was the leader. If anyone had a problem with it, they could answer to me.

  “No.” I shook my head. “I don’t want to hear you mention this again.”

  Rathum begrudgingly relented and planted a death stare at the Earthling, gawking at her so intensely that it began to make even me uncomfortable.

  “The swarm should get to take turns with her, then—if you won’t allow us to take our own slaves to suit our needs. Your men need morale—”

  “I’ll give you morale,” I said sharply and spun around to face him.

  I gripped the reins of my gwarn and faced Rathum riding on his. I squared my shoulders and straightened my posture, giving him a dominating glare.

  “Challenge me if you want to be in charge, and you can make all the rules you want,” I threatened, escalating both the tension and the intimidation because everyone was aware—Rathum included—that he couldn’t beat me in a dual if he tried.

  I loomed over him as he sulked, while I waited for him to respond.

  Rathum rotated on his gwarn, now with his back turned away from me. He didn’t accept the challenge, just as I had expected. The situation was diffused, at least for now—but I knew that Rathum would always be a problem. I would never be able to let down my guard around him for a single second.

  5

  Cherish

  My body was tense, and my muscles felt frozen solid. The sensation didn’t stem from a chill in the air—certainly not in this particular dry and unyielding desert climate. I was involuntarily quivering out of sheer terror at what was to come for me in my future.

  I was frightened of these barbarians who had mercilessly captured me and ripped me from what little remaining family I had left.

  I loathed the barbarians—all of them—and even if I knew it was impossible, it brought me a slice of comfort to plot my revenge against them in the private seclusion of my thoughts.

  The barbarians might be able to control me in my physical body, but they could never rob me of my thoughts or strip away my emotions.

  One thing I didn’t want to think about is all the horrifying things these giant, horned beasts might have in store for me. Every time I inadvertently made eye contact with one of them aside from the Swarm King, I was met with skeevy g
rins that sent a shudder running up and down my spine.

  Each of these barbarian men in the swarm had ravenous expressions on their faces as if they were dreaming of a day when they could hungrily tear me apart—clothes first, and then ravage me in a sexually deviant way from head to toe.

  There was a moment where I noticed things getting heated between two of the barbarians. One of the captains or something had been contesting his leader. Varyx had referred to him earlier by the name Rathum.

  Rathum had an aggressive scowl on his face that looked like it was probably his permanent expression. I overheard him telling Varyx to go back to my village and take some slaves for work and play purposes, but luckily Varyx had nixed the idea relatively quickly.

  We began riding in silence, but the peace and quiet didn’t last long and was quickly disrupted by this problematic man Rathum.

  I gasped as I watched Rathum ride up from behind Varyx, giving him little warning of his threatening approach. It was a cowardly move to ride up behind someone and sneak up on them, savage or not. His sword was drawn, pointing erect toward the sky, glistening intimidatingly in the sun.

  The edges of the sword looked like they had been freshly sharpened since last use and would slice off the head of anyone unfortunate enough to come in contact with it.

  The man had a wild glaze over his eyes. He bared his teeth and went in for the lunge, leaping at Varyx with the sword clutched menacingly in his tight grip.

  I was impressed by Varyx quick reflexes against Rathum. He was ready for the attack in an instant and before I could even so much as blink—both men had flown off their gwarn’s and were on the ground, tussling in the sand, rolling around like scorpions locked in deadly conflict.

  It was difficult to tell where one barbarian stopped and the other started. Their arms and legs were locked around each other and their torsos were pressed together as they kicked, flailed, and grunted to push the other away.