Strange Magics 2: Blighted Abyss- a M/M/F fantasy romance

5- Taken

MEM

The pounding in my head was like nothing I had ever felt before. Sharp but somehow deep, it was focused mostly behind my right eye, making me wish I could gouge the offending appendage from my body if only it would stop the pain. My entire body was stiff, incapable of movement, my eyelids feeling as if they were covered in a wet cloth that refused to let them open fully.

Noises that sounded like hands clapping, smacking together intermittently from a ways to my right woke me, making me want to groan at the way the sound, soft and barely-there though it was, had daggers digging into my ears.

"Stop... dammit, mate, I... reaction... no idea..." A man's voice sounded, far from soft in any definition of the word. Harsh, pitted with gravel and grit, it had my entire body tensing from pain and my eyes finally pressing to open in some bid for self-preservation. I had to know where that voice was coming from, had to protect myself from it, had to shut it up so help me gods.

"No! Fucking hell, Asa, she's your mate! How could you think I would—"

The hand clapping, shuffling noises cut the man's gravel-bitten words off, and it was then I noticed the movement sounds were accompanied by soundless breaths and small, grumbling noises, like heavy, gritty exhalations.

There were two men around me, wherever I even was, but only one was speaking. At least, only one was speaking audibly.

I tried to think back, remember where I was, who these men were, but my mind hit a wall of black and a wave of nausea hit me when I tried to remember past leaving Akar and racing towards what I had been certain would be a great adventure and the rest of my life.

But that was... Gods, was that the last thing I could remember? How long ago had that been, my leaving Amer and Geir's home, heading towards Galen's wedding? Had I made it to the capital of We'ren? Had I even made it a league from Akar before I was taken by whoever this was who had me laid out on what felt like the softest furs I had ever had covering me?

And who were they, the two men I could only hear and had yet to see or know? Had they been rescuers after I had been thrown from Termite in the midst of a storm? Were they Akarans sent by Geir to bring me back to my siblings? Back to prison and silence and a prudent, well-ordered life?

It wasn't until the area around me was so silent I could hear both men breathing deeply, their eyes so heavy on me I could physically feel their gazes, that I realized my aching eyes were open, staring up at them and brainlessly taking in deep whiffs of their scent.

Because dear gods, there was something about them. About both of them. Something that had my entire body both completely on edge, gooseflesh rippling up my spine and down my arms, and at ease. As if I was safe and warm and exactly where the gods wanted me to be in this exact moment.

Mine. A snarl nearly ripped from my lips as I stared up at the men, my chest beginning to heave as the beast inside me, many legs and claws and fangs twisting and turning in agitation, fought for freedom in a way it never had before. It whimpered, desperate for the men before us, and I flinched back against the wall at my back at the intense emotion.

"Who... who are you? Where am I?"

The taller of the two men took a step towards me, his eyes wide, his long, slender fingers trembling barely perceptibly as he held his hands up in a calming, placating gesture.

– Calm, mate, – I heard, as if a soft, masculine, sweet voice whispered directly into my ear. I even felt his godsdamn breath, as if he was leaning over me, breathing against my skin. The words brought back memories, ones that had been blocked to me just seconds before.