Earth Moves Read online

  An Ellora’s Cave Romantica Publication

  www.ellorascave.com

  Earth Moves

  ISBN 9781419909948

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

  Earth Moves Copyright© 2007 Lacey Thorn

  Edited by Helen Woodall.

  Photography and cover art by Les Byerley.

  Electronic book Publication June 2007

  This book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written permission from the publisher, Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc.® 1056 Home Avenue, Akron OH 44310-3502.

  This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the authors’ imagination and used fictitiously.

  Content Advisory:

  S – ENSUOUS

  E – ROTIC

  X – TREME

  Ellora’s Cave Publishing offers three levels of Romantica™ reading entertainment: S (S-ensuous), E (E-rotic), and X (X-treme).

  The following material contains graphic sexual content meant for mature readers. This story has been rated E–rotic.

  S-ensuous love scenes are explicit and leave nothing to the imagination.

  E-rotic love scenes are explicit, leave nothing to the imagination, and are high in volume per the overall word count. E-rated titles might contain material that some readers find objectionable—in other words, almost anything goes, sexually. E-rated titles are the most graphic titles we carry in terms of both sexual language and descriptiveness in these works of literature.

  X-treme titles differ from E-rated titles only in plot premise and storyline execution. Stories designated with the letter X tend to contain difficult or controversial subject matter not for the faint of heart.

  Earth Moves

  Lacey Thorn

  This book is dedicated to the following people:

  To my grandmother who taught me that the greatest adventures in life can be as easy to find as opening the cover of a book. I owe my love of reading to you and without that I would never have even thought of writing. I love you!

  As always to my best friend and often coconspirator Shelly. We club girls have to stick together!

  Prologue

  So it begins

  “You will come to regret this decision one day, my warrior prince.” The priestess threw her hands into the air as the warrior led his men into the Temple of the Goddess.

  “We will not harm you, Priestess. We seek only to know the number of the women that you harbor in your temple.”

  “’Tis the Temple of the Goddess that you desecrate with your presence. Never has a man stepped foot into this sanctuary. These women that you seek for your pleasure serve the goddess. Leave now before you unleash consequences that you will soon regret.”

  “You dare to threaten me, old hag. We will take what we came for and you will do nothing to stop us.” The warrior glanced up as the first of the women was pulled kicking and screaming into the room. They were lovely indeed. All dressed in the sheer veils that were allowed women of the temple. Two veils were tied together around each woman’s neck then pulled apart to each cup a breast before being pulled around and tied together again at her back. The skirt consisted of black veils that had been sewn together, attached to a hip-hugging band of lace; the veils then fell to the women’s ankles which were adorned with black sandals. Each woman’s top was in the color of her caste within the temple. Those who saw to the temple fires wore red, those who took care of the temple grounds wore green, those who watched over the flowing waters of the temple wore blue, those who worked with the sick and the animals wore black and then there were others that wore white. The warrior prince was unsure of what these women in white actually did. He knew that they were all beautiful in their own ways. They would serve well to aid him and his fellow warriors in ensuring the continuation of their race.

  They had searched long and hard for another island that could be inhabited by his people and had only hoped to find women that they would be able to breed with. Disease had swept through most of their planet, killing off women and girl children as well as destroying most of the food and water supply. Left with no other option they had searched for another island that could accommodate their clan of warriors. They had lucked upon this one, the Isle of Altair, an island made up of mostly women. They had easily defeated the few men and staked their ownership. With the shortest of the warriors standing at over six feet, six inches of bulging muscle it was not difficult to wrest control.

  The warriors wore brown pants that molded to the length of their muscular thighs and calves, boots and belts that held an assortment of weapons that the island natives had never seen. They had taken control of the villages and now marched on the temple as well. The villages held only old women and very young girls.

  All women were sent to the temple to pay tribute to the goddess upon their twelfth birthday. They stayed in service until they reached their fiftieth year. It was the way of their people to serve the goddess. Women were allowed to mate when they reached their twenty-first year if they wished to bear a child. Each woman was allowed only one child. This was the decree of the goddess. It was the way that they made sure that there would be abundant resources for the next generation and so on.

  Now these warriors were here in the temple demanding that all of the women be brought before them. They were planning to select all of the women who were still capable of childbearing and take them back to the villages. They were throwing out the old laws, the laws of the goddess and instilling Warrior Law. According to Warrior Law all women who had reached their twenty-first year were claimable. Any warrior who wanted to would be given a chance to claim the woman he wanted as long as his brother also wished to claim her. For warriors were always born as twins with the occasional arrival of triplets. Because of the vast number of warriors each group of warrior brothers, be they a duo or a trio, would only be allowed to mate with one woman. Once a woman was chosen she would be claimed by the placing of the husbands’ clan upon her lower right abdomen just above her skirt. The brand would only be removed if the woman were widowed by all of her husbands while she was still of a childbearing age. This was now the law.

  “These women must give service to the goddess!” The old priestess yelled above the noise of the unwilling captives. “If you do this know that a curse will be placed upon you.”

  “Cease your nonsense, hag. This is the law. These women are now claimable by Warrior Law which is now the only law of which you need concern yourself.” The warrior prince looked to his brother. “Have them taken out to be seen by the warriors. Keep back only the one that we have chosen for ourselves.”

  The women were forced from the building to be greeted by the roars of the warriors awaiting them. At last there were only the warrior prince and his brother left in the temple with the old priestess and a beautiful young woman of about twenty-four years. The young woman had shown no fear when the warriors ordered her to the chapel, instead walking with her head high. She wore a black top that held her firm young breasts high upon her chest, giving tempting glimpses of her dusky nipples as the light hit the sheer material. She had thick black hair that hug to her hips in cascading waves. Her eyes were an aqua blue that shot fire at the warrior prince now as she went to stand by the old priestess.

  “This is the woman that you have chosen as your own, Prince?” the priestess questioned.

  “Yes, this one shall serve my brother and me. We will make her a princess. She will want for nothing.”

  The old woman threw her head back in laughter at the prince’s words. “She is already a princess. She needs no help from you for that honor.” She walked to the altar at the front of the chapel before turning to th
e prince again. “I will give you one more chance to give up this madness. Leave now or know the vengeance of the goddess.”

  “Your words will scare no one, Priestess,” the warrior prince said with much contempt. “We seek only that which we need to survive. If not us then others will come.”

  “Then know this, Warrior.

  “Because you take instead of seek, because you cause the goddess to weep. In this take heed my words to hear, for a time of reckoning soon will near. In five times five the Guardians will arise, five women marked by the goddess’s eyes. Of fire, earth, water and air, four will become the Guardians of Altair. The fifth shall ply the mystic realms and draw them together in the valley of Elms. When the five are united in this mystic place, only then will the curse be lifted I place. Cursed to battle to hold what you take, this is the hand dealt you by fate. Warriors, fierce with muscles and brawn, shall pray for the day of the Guardians to dawn. For only through them will peace come at last. The Guardians united shall atone for your past. So protect and serve when once they appear, or be cursed to live forever in fear.”

  “What foolishness is this? A warrior knows no fear. Be gone, old woman.” The warrior prince walked to where his brother stood by their chosen mate.

  The priestess held up a dagger and sliced her palm so that her blood dripped upon the altar. “Marked with blood to seal the curse. You have sealed your own fate and that of all of your warriors, Prince. You will know no peace until they come. Remember my words and guard them well. For if one shall die all will be lost.” She looked to the woman they held between them and spoke with words they could not understand. At the woman’s nod the priestess turned and left the room.

  The prince grabbed the woman by the shoulders and pulled her to him. “What is your name, woman?”

  “I am called Asme.”

  “What did the old woman say to you?”

  “She told me to remember the curse and prepare the way for the Guardians.”

  The prince threw his head back and laughed. “You will disregard that old woman’s words. There will be no curse.”

  The woman just looked at him and said nothing. Grabbing her hand, he pulled her out of the Temple of the Goddess and stood her between him and his brother to address the other women who were already being held by the warriors who had claimed them. Taking in the chaos of the courtyard, Asme called out in foreign words to the women. The prince watched as her words seemed to calm the women who now had stopped fighting and stood docilely by their warrior mates.

  “What did you say to them?”

  Asme looked at the prince with fire in her eyes before answering. “That we live by Warrior Law now.”

  He didn’t believe that was what she had said but chose not to challenge her now. “Warriors! You may now mark your chosen mate.” With those words the prince turned to Asme and knelt before her. His brother moved behind her and held her back to his chest, taking her hands in his and crossing their arms over her chest. Asme stood tall and kept her eyes on the women in the courtyard, sharing her strength with them. The prince took a cylindrical weapon from his belt and placed it on her lower right abdomen. She felt a multitude of tiny stings where the laser marked her and then numbness took over. The mark was black against her pale flesh. “Women! You now bear the mark of your mates. You no longer serve the goddess. From this day forth you shall see to the needs of your warriors.”

  A cry went up from all the warriors but the women remained quiet. For Asme had spoke to them of the curse and the coming of the Guardians. She would share with them in detail the words of the old priestess, the words of her own mother. They would serve their warriors. But more importantly they would prepare the way for the Guardians. Each woman would watch for the signs and prepare the way for those chosen. That was the command of the goddess. As the last direct descendant of the goddess it was up to Asme now to make sure that all was not lost.

  Chapter One

  Erika hid in the trees and watched her fathers’ warriors fight. For as long as Erika could remember she had followed her fathers to the practice field and hidden just on the other side of the trees of the forest and watched as they practiced with their men. War was a constant for her people. Her fathers warned her of the foreign warriors who sought to take her and her mother and any women that they could from them.

  Her mother told her of when her fathers had come and taken over the Isle of Altair that they lived on. Many years ago disease had swept through their planet, killing off most of the women and female children and making most places unlivable. The goddess had protected them and their island though. It was pure luck that had brought her fathers’ people here to them. A storm had landed their ships on the shore of the island and that was how they had been discovered. Erika’s mom believed that the goddess must have her own agenda to have allowed them to stay and eventually overtake them. Erika knew all about the curse that the old priestess of her mother’s people had placed before she disappeared almost twenty-five years ago. Goddess Law had been replaced with Warrior Law and her mother and the other women of the temple had been claimed by sets of warrior siblings. With the curse in place the goddess’s protection had been removed from the island and now they were constantly under threat by other survivors. The women had been treated surprisingly well by their warrior captors and most were lucky enough to find love and happiness.

  When the prince had stormed the Temple of the Goddess and removed all of the women considered to be able to still bear children the priestess had become enraged. No man had ever stepped foot in the temple and now it seemed overrun with warriors. The priestess had warned the prince to take heed of what he was doing, but in his pride he had stuck by his actions. Thus the curse had begun. The priestess had cursed them all to war and strife until the Guardians appeared. Sadly, had the prince only asked for women to volunteer to be mates for his men everything would have been the same only different. Men were scarce on Altair, most choosing to leave the safety of an island faithful to a female and because of this, women were only allowed to mate once a year as long as they were able to conceive and once conception occurred they were no longer allowed to seek a man. Each woman could have one child and that was it. If the prince had asked the women would have been eager to comply and mate with his warriors who were all prime examples of male flesh. But they had taken instead and now everyone paid the price.

  Erika looked again at the warriors in the field. In only three more days she would reach her twenty-first birthday and become claimable by Warrior Law. That law meant that any group of warrior siblings could petition her fathers for the right to claim her. Her mother had told her just this morning that the Savari brothers had approached her fathers last night and had claimed their right as the first to woo her. If she succumbed to them in the next three days she would belong to them. There were other warrior pairs that were interested in her as well but the Savaris had been given first right.

  She looked now at where Galen and Arik fought among the other warriors. They were both huge men at six feet eight, each with bulging muscles covering their bodies. Galen had long black hair that hung to the middle of his back. Two braids hung beside his face to keep the hair out of his way while he battled. He had fierce blue eyes that had always seemed to freeze her. She had seen him kill before. She had wandered in the forest one day and almost been taken by another group of warriors. It was Galen who had come to her rescue. She had only been ten at the time and Galen, at twenty-four, had already been a warrior. He had killed both of the other warriors and carried her back home to her parents’ home. She remembered him shaking her until she felt like her neck was going to snap off. He had yelled at her about how stupid she was and told her in too much detail just how the other warriors would have violated her, forcing their great swords deep inside her. She had been afraid of him ever since. She could feel his eyes on her every time he was near. The thought of belonging to him scared her more than anything else in the world.

  His brother Arik was his opp
osite. He kept his golden brown hair clubbed back and his brown eyes were always laughing. She had always felt safe and comfortable around Arik. He seemed so much younger than his brother although they were twins and thus the same age. She had run to Arik often when she had been a child. He had often bandaged her scraped knees and elbows before sending her back home to her mother. The last time he had come upon her in the forest had been different. She had been seventeen at the time and swimming in the lake. Arik had come upon her and she had thought nothing of leaving the water to embrace her friend. But he had been different that day. He had stared at her body as she left the water. When she had went to hug him he had taken her arms and held her away from him. He had given her a blanket he kept on the back of his shebana, a brawny four-legged creature with long mane and tail that the warriors rode about the island, and wrapped her in it before putting her on his beast and taking her home.

  Galen had been there when they arrived. He had taken her from Arik’s shebana beast and set her on her feet beside him while he looked at his brother. Her fathers had been there as well. Arik had dismounted and spoke into his brother’s ear. Galen’s eyes had darkened in anger as she had watched. Before she knew it the blanket was ripped from her and she was left standing in front of them all in her wet veils. All four men had stared at her, her fathers in shock and the Savari brothers with fire in their eyes. Her mother had stepped out then and seeing her had whisked her into the house and away from the men. She had received a lecture then that she would have to curb her wild ways and realize that she was a woman. Her mother had turned her to the polished mirror and shown her how her breasts showed through the wet material clearly and how the wet veils of her skirt revealed the hidden curls of her sex. Her mother had then tried to explain what such a sight could bring about in a young and virile warrior.