Free Knollig: A Terraneu Novel ( Book 2) by Stormy McKnight Page A

a walk around the square with a new male. Then spent some
time later that day with Fortem.
    The next day he escaped to the oasis when the males let it be known that
Mairi was wandering toward New Haven. The water and earth smells made this one
of his favorite places…when Amber and Kniam weren’t there of course. Today he
couldn’t enjoy it like he usually did. All he could think about was Mairi
spread out on the bank with her glorious auburn hair and green eyes shining up
at him. Her sweet mouth begging for his kisses. In frustration he decided he
would go out for a long ride on the Sorrem instead.
    On the fourth day Mairi called on her communicator that she had an
emergency. There was a bit of a panic and all the Council members scrambled to
help her. They had overridden her door lock and rushed into her living quarters.
When she wasn’t found right away, they all ran into the bathroom. Upon seeing
the Council members hurrying into her bathroom, she had jumped up yelling about
a misunderstanding, she was fine. They needed to get out! He burned at the
memory of Mairi in the shower. Her auburn hair was lying wet against her ivory
skin. The shock on her face was almost laughable if all the other males in the
room weren’t getting a view of her perfect body. Her creamy thighs and full
breasts with rosy nipples had made his mouth water! He had noticed a patch of
fiery red hair at the vee of her legs, and he had run out of the room to the
equipment dome. There were some males willing to train with him, and he spent
all day working unsuccessfully to get the sight of the fiery redhead out of his
mind.
    On the fifth day she had taken a Sorrem out for a long ride, then when
everyone went looking for her. She mistook Kniam for him and jumped out of the
bushes naked. Kniam had almost had a heart attack at her sudden appearance.
Then he had nearly fallen off the Sorrem at the realization that Mairi was
standing naked in the pathway. He had recovered and hurried to help her
back into her dress.
    On the sixth day Mairi went to the wrestling matches and they had to be
cancelled after a few rounds. No one could concentrate with Mairi jumping
around in her mis-tied dress. He had insisted that they make up an excuse for
canceling the matches. He didn’t want Mairi embarrassed. In the end it was
agreed upon to say the men needed to complete some overdue training exercises.
    Fortem was a constant at her side, and Knollig was sure that they were
going to announce they were dating any day. The whole week he worked and
trained harder, he passed out every night from exhaustion. When he wasn’t
working or training, he was snapping and snarling at every person he passed.
    On the seventh day he was summoned into an emergency Council meeting. He
was surprised to see that Amber was in attendance. Kniam called the meeting to
order and everyone took their seats.
    “We are here for what my little female calls an ‘intervention’.” He gave
Amber a huge smile and then he turned to frown at Knollig.
    Knollig was getting a bad feeling about this and went to stand up. All of
the occupants in the room yelled “Sit down!” at the same time. He flinched and
sat back down.
    Amber started, “Knollig we all care about you.” There was as snort from
Knaleg, which had Amber glaring his way, then turned a loving smile on him, “We
want you to be happy, and this past week has been a trial for everyone.”
    “That is an understatement!” Knaleg ground out, “Knollig snap out of it!
You are being irrational!”
    “Be nice Knaleg, this process is supposed to be supportive and
understanding! Not accusatory!” Amber broke into Knaleg’s rant.
    “Have you done many interventions then?” Ailech asked from across the
room, curiosity in his question.
    “Well no. I just know that the people who intervene are doing it from
love, not trying to make the other person feel worse.”
    “How is that possible for any of us to feel worse?” Thian, always