His hunting/mating instincts were also fully aroused, however, by the time the ship had settled with a hard jolt firmly on the ground. Grabbing their swords in case they met resistance in the form of rogue males or determined female warriors, they lowered the gangplank and Drak led the charge to claim a mate.

Almost the moment he stepped into the opening, movement caught his eye. More specifically, this was the fragile pair of females fleeing past the ship and headed in a completely different direction than any of the other villagers.

Because they clearly weren’t villagers.

They did not, in point of fact, look like they belonged to any of the tribes he was familiar with. Beyond their coloring, which instantly leapt out at him, they were far too slight in stature to belong to any tribe he was familiar with.

Despite their size, however, they were certainly adults not children.

Because his gaze was immediately drawn to what was very definitely a generous pair of breasts churning frantically against the tops of their shifts twice as fast as their feet were churning up the dust.

The one that immediately snagged his attention, though, had the hair of a flaxen and pale skin unlike any tribe he had ever known.

He couldn’t see well enough to tell if she had a lovely face, but that was immaterial when he could see that she had a lovely body. And she was amazingly fleet of foot and agile! He was within inches of snagging a handful of the flapping shift she was wearing when she dove toward the ground to elude him and damned near succeeded in getting completely away since her impetus in conjunction with the incline of the hill was sufficient to send her into a swift glide! Loathe though he was to follow suit, he could see she was going to escape him if he didn’t and he finally dropped his sword—which he would never have done under any other circumstance—and launched himself at her, trying to catch her and still prevent his entire weight from landing on her.

She very nearly slipped away from him because of that maneuver, but he did manage to halt her flight.

Which was when her companion whirled and flew at him like a wild turant, pecking at his head and shoulders with her tiny fists until he had, perforce, to shove her off before she could inflict some actual damage besides giving him a pounding headache.

Then, when he got up and lifted his ‘prize’ from the dirt, the tiny woman he’d captured stunned him by calling him every foul name she could lay tongue to and launching herself at him as if she actually stood a chance of taking him down!

Apparently, she thought she was a warrior, despite the fact that she didn’t have either the stature to take on an experienced warrior like himself or the skills.

Clearly, he needed to subdue her before she could harm herself trying to pound him into the dirt and piss him off at the same time.

He thought, given the fact that she was, beyond any doubt, not a member of any tribe he had ever encountered, he was probably as surprised as she was that the mating enchantment actually worked.

Actually, it worked far better than he was accustomed to and that was nearly as stunning as her counterattack. It went well beyond merely subduing her—which was the most effect it had ever had before in his experience.

When he had caught her at the scruff of her neck and dragged her close enough to capture her lips beneath his, she went so limp he had to hold her up to keep her from sliding down his form and puddling at his feet. She was so limp as he tossed her across one shoulder, retrieved his sword, and jogged back to the ship that he was beginning to worry that something had gone horribly wrong by the time he got to his cabin on the ship.

Had he crushed something vital in her fragile little body when he had leapt upon her to capture her?

Had he snapped her tiny neck when he had grabbed her to force his will upon her with the mating kiss?

It did occur to him that she might be feigning, plotting to catch him off guard and fight her way free, but he took no chances there. He didn’t release her until he had bolted the cabin door behind him.

Her knees were as limp as putty when he set her on her feet and she wilted. Catching her before she could crumple to the floor, he settled her on the bed and, against his better judgment, leaned over her to examine her face.

She blinked owlishly several times, staring back at him, but the blinks were enough to assure him she was still alive.

And, fortunately for him, she didn’t seem to have a knife to slip between his ribs.

He leaned back, studying her thoughtfully.

It flickered through his mind that he should leave her and oversee the raid, but he was reluctant to leave his pretty prize so quickly.

And she was pretty.

Besides, he needed to make sure she wasn’t armed since she seemed to consider herself to be a warrior.

More than half expecting her to come around from a feigned half-faint the moment he grasped the hem of her shift, she surprised him and concerned him more when she merely lay limply and allowed him to remove it without any attempt to guard herself from him.

Those thoughts emptied from his mind, however, once he had disrobed her and got an unobstructed view of her nude form because his cocks instantly sprang to attention and impeded the blood flow above that point.

She was beautifully made. Her pale skin almost seemed to glow in the dim light of the cabin.

He had no idea how long he simply stood like a statue staring at her before he was finally drawn by the blood pounding in his ears to the fact that he was beginning to feel downright faint from the restricted blood flow in his body. Sucking in a sustaining breath, he dragged his gaze from her body to her face, met her gaze for a long moment and then abruptly turned and stalked out of the cabin. His hand was shaking when he had locked the door behind him.

It annoyed him.

He almost felt as if the mating kiss had bewitched him rather than the other way around!

Trying to shake the images from his mind, he crossed the main cabin of the ship and paused at the top of the gangplank, abruptly extremely reluctant to leave since it occurred to him that she might only have been pretending to be subdued and be awaiting the opportunity to escape him. It occurred to him, briefly, to wonder if he might be better off if the strange, almost magical seeming creature did manage to escape him. He was enthralled with her already and he had done nothing more than bestow the mating kiss upon her!

That thought brought with it a crushing since of loss, however, and sparked a possessive anger that seemed as alien to him as she did.

Mayhap she was one of the tiny magical people the old ones wove tales about?

He shook that thought. She was undoubtedly a rare find, but he had never been a superstitious man and he was not going to allow fanciful thoughts to fill his mind now!

She might try to weave a spell around him! But she was flesh and blood woman, not a mythical creature, and he would have her and he would not release her until he had had his fill!

He paused again at the foot of the gangplank and looked around for his men. He spied one of the younger men in the group heading back, his head bloodied and a thin stream running down the side of his face.

The woman he had flung over one shoulder was steadily trying to kick him in the groin—and had succeeded at least once if the sickly pallor of his face was any indication. “Tabor! I have locked my prize in my cabin. Take care she does not escape!”

Tabor leaned over and puked at the foot of the gangplank, but Drak didn’t take that in bad part. He’d already deduced the lad was nauseated from a groin kick.

The female he had captured didn’t take it too well when he dropped her in the middle of it, however. She screamed profanity at him and punched him several times before Drak grabbed her by the scruff of her neck. “You had better hope you did not permanently disable his little soldier, woman! Else I might be tempted to launch you from the port after we take off!” he snarled.