by Ivy McAdams
That’s what I truly can’t wait for. The moment our bodies join and our energies merge. It will be my complete undoing.
Except she vanished.
My shoulders sag as I stare at the glowing square of firelight that leaks in around the edge of the tent flap.
What went wrong?
I am no savage to take a woman without her wanting, even if I am most sure she did, but I am also not going to let Gemma wander off and get hurt. It’s her first night awake in the village. The last thing she needs is to go outside the boundaries or go into the levadon pit before they’ve been fed.
I stride outside, tossing the flap over my shoulder.
Gemma is gone.
As I expected.
The central square is awake with villagers. Probably still eating. Many hunters would still be out collecting the plaxa.
The rest of the village is empty. It won’t be difficult to spot her if I keep my eyes open.
Or so I think.
But as I make my way around the outer border of the village for the second time, I’m feeling rather defeated.
What happened back there and where the hell did she go?
I rake my hand up through my mane, dodging the quills expertly.
I don’t know where else to look. I’ve walked down the rows of huts, peeked in the Shaman’s tents, wandered through the central square. My stomach bunched in an anxious knot both times I searched along the boundary. But I haven’t seen her.
Or felt her.
As I trudge along my last lap on the outskirts, a horrible feeling settles over me.
Not only was I in charge of her―the Shaman is going to be very angry that I somehow scared her off―but I’ve grown oddly attached to her. It’s barely been a few days, in two different bodies, but I feel so connected to her. No one’s energy has ever hit me so strongly. Or made me feel so whole.
Which makes the thought of losing her all the harsher.
A waft of something musky and electric hits my nose and I slow my gait.
It’s not unusual for some of the big dinosaurs to roam just outside, waiting for someone to stray too far. They don’t come inside―except for that one time a massive Thunder Jaw came crashing through and breaking huts, which is why we aren’t allowed to bring eggs into the village anymore―but we know better than to leave the perimeter after dark.
Gemma doesn’t.
I scratch at the back of my neck and rub my hand over my face with a groan.
She should be back in my bed right now, drunk and limp from our energies twisting into a frenzy with one another. Her body worshipped and taken in the most delicious ways. My seed planted firmly within her belly.
Yet, she is not. And I’ve spent the last hour trying to round her up.
Feeling at a loss, I trudge back through the line of huts toward the central square. Some of the crowd has dispersed. Tomorrow will be the night for celebrating and dancing into the night.
That is if we have our new woman present to celebrate.
The Kutarians that are left wave in greeting as I approach.
Drek is one. “Kovak, you have returned,” he calls out.
I lift a hand to him, unable to muster my normal appreciation for my warrior as I take a seat beside him.
Drek is too busy grinning to notice. “You left the hunt rather early. I thought you must be hungry, but when I arrived, you were no longer here! Or so I thought. When I asked around, no one else ever saw you arrive.” The warrior’s eyebrows cocked mischievously. “You never came to eat at all. At least not dinner here at the fire.”
My mouth waters even at his suggestion. Taking Gemma back to my hut was a far better meal than anything they had at the fire.
Although I must admit, my stomach aches now.
I give my friend the best smile I can muster. “You’re right. I did not make it to dinner earlier. I was a little preoccupied.”
Drek hands over a spit of meat from his bone platter. “That woman sounds like a wildfire. I hope you tamed her well.”
I take the charred food from him with a soft snort, doing my best to keep the flare of anger at his words from flashing in my eyes. “A wildfire such as that does not need to be tamed. It goes where it will, but we can still appreciate its beauty.”
Drek gives me a dead stare as he chews a mouthful of food. A silence draws out, but I do not intend to break it with any sort of heroic banter. I’ve bragged on taking women with my warriors before. We all have. But Gemma is different than other Kutarian women. Her spirit is strong and her heart as beautiful and pure as the first snow. It speaks to me.
I want it.
“Appreciating beauty does not bring new Kutarian warriors,” Drek says with a half shrug.
I stand up and point my spit of meat at him and glower. “The strongest warriors can be made without breaking their mother.”
When he doesn’t move to take the spit, I drop it to the ground and turn to stride back out of the square. Drek calls out after me, but I can’t face him right now.
Gemma doesn’t need to be a quiet and compliant Kutarian woman. She’s beautiful the way she is. She may be stubborn and hard to talk to at times, but her fire is perfect. She’s a survivor.
The thought drives a new hope into me.
Gemma is smart enough to know better than to wander out into the dangerous world alone. She’ll come back around when she’s feeling better.
Or at least I hope she will.
I stomp toward the levadon pit. I’ll check that they’ve been properly fed to give my mind somewhere else to focus.
I’ve just rounded a corner when Xjhun nearly collides with me.
“Oh, Captain. My apologies. You running somewhere important?”
Great. More talking.
“Just to check the levadon.”
“You wear your lady out for the night?”
Irritation tickles my throat. Then my attention snaps elsewhere. I haven’t seen Xjhun at all during my search.
“She’s out for a walk,” I murmur. “Have you seen her?”
“Not since you two stole off from the hunt. Did you lose her?”
“She’s gathering air. I’m not sure. A short walk before we eat dinner.”
“I see. She probably just needed a nap,” Xjhun says with a dark chuckle.
I tilt my head. “Pardon?”
“It’s been a long day, don’t you think? She’s still new to her borrowed body and there’s been a lot of excitement going on. I think she’d be exhausted.”
Of course, she would. And I took her back to my bed and exacerbated the whole thing.
“You’re right, Xjhun. Thank you.”
He gives me a small smile and a nod before continuing to the central square.
I change my direction and half-run back to the residential huts.
Gemma may be mad at me for whatever reason, but she's a stranger here. I wish she felt at home, but I know comfort will take time. Until then, she only has one small sanctuary.
My hut.
As I jog down the path through the tents, I rip one of the torch stakes from the dirt and swing into the entryway of my hut. The flap parts and I step silently inside.
Everything looks normal, just as it does every day, except for the beautiful woman curled up asleep in my bed.
Gemma
An odd screeching sound pulls me out of my sleepy stupor and my eyes pop open.
I’m nestled in Kovak’s soft bed, covered with a fur up to my chin. I’m so comfortable I’m afraid to breathe too hard. I don’t want to move.
Another screech blasts in the distance outside the hut, and I frown.
Do they have damn dino-roosters or something?
How’s a girl supposed to get any sleep around here?
Lying there awake, the events from the last couple days flood back. Waking up in an alien body, attending the hunt with Kovak, and the intimate festivities after. Those memories try to bombard me like mad, to fire up my blood and get me moving, but I p
ush them aside for an even more important matter.
One of my hands snakes free of the furs and I touch my face, running fingers over my cheeks and head. I don’t find soft human skin and features. Still scaly temples and strange pointed ears.
Dammit.
Still an alien.
With an irritated sigh, I adjust myself, hoping to get back to sleep, when I realize how warm the furs are. And the weight on the bed next to me.
I stretch an arm back and my hand brushes over a naked torso. The energy next to me flickers to life, enveloping me, caressing me.
Kovak.
My jaw clamps shut. I’m not sure if it’d be better to run out of the hut or to lie perfectly still and wait for him to go away.
I expected him to find me last night. I know he searched for a long while. But he was too stubborn to break his shaman's rules and come into the tent with the human bodies. I stretched out along the peace-pulsing tiles behind the rows of cots. The length of my body was almost two of my peers. So weird.
Kovak peeked in through the flap twice, called my name, but never came inside. When there was no risk of being seen, I sat and stared at all the sleeping women. Including myself.
It was like some sort of crazy funhouse trick, gazing into a mirror that doesn't return your correct reflection. I knew it was me, but it wasn't. How could I be there, and not here?
I totally tripped myself out a few times and had to look away.
Spending time with my colleagues, however, reminded me that I need to find us a way out of this mess. We are prisoners. Breeding fodder. No purpose but to bring forth the next generation of alien babies.
No thanks!
The lush atmosphere and amazing animals must have made me a little forgetful, so much so that I let Kovak seduce me.
But I have to be strong.
I am a human. Not an alien. Not a warrior’s woman, dinosaur rider―even if that would be hella awesome.
I have a life back home. No matter if it’s wrapped up in studies and I only have one close friend―and hell, she’s here right now. But I am human.
I belong on Earth.
And so do these other women.
They’ll be counting on me to find the voodoo doctor’s special herb so we can anti-alien ourselves and get the hell back home.
I’m sure the university would understand if we take a big fat incomplete for this semester.
I take a long breath, testing how awake Kovak is. He doesn’t stir.
If I'm going to find this super-secret hard-to-find plant, I better get to asking around.
With a little tuck and roll, I slide from the furs and off the bed. I'm relieved to find my clothes intact. I didn't wake last night when Kovak slipped into the bed, but I want to believe him touching me would have woken me up. It was a very long day though, so I'm relieved to find that even if I had been sawing some serious logs, it didn't seem as if he'd gotten fresh.
Or fresher.
I wince at the thought as I tiptoe to the hut’s entrance.
It’s not like he hasn’t touched me. Brought me around to the most amazing freaking orgasm I’ve ever had. With nothing more than his stupid tongue.
I’m so torn by the rush of feelings inside me I could scream. There’s no denying my body wants more of that, ASAP. The traitorous bitch.
But I refuse to be a pawn in their game. I’m not Kovak’s toy.
And yet, if he brought me back to his hut for the sole purpose to impregnate me, why did he even bother putting his head down there? I was so revved up last night that he could have thrown me on the bed and probably fertilized me twice before my senses came back.
None of it made any sense.
Unless he was just as caught up in our situation as I was. There was something beautiful and fun getting to be Kovak’s woman at the hunt. The mate of the warrior captain. Plus the way he looked at me. And that grin after I painted him…
I blow out a ragged breath as I pause beneath the flap to look back.
My eyes move over him silently. His smooth silver skin covered up to his ribs by furs. One of his long, muscled arms tucked beneath his head. It's amazing how soft and caring his face looks in his sleep. Nothing like the captain's hard, stoic expression during the day.
A smile inches over my lips before ducking outside.
He doesn’t seem like a bad guy overall. It doesn’t taste good to admit it, but it’s true. The shaman may have thrown him in on the secret miracle project, but he’s at least been a gentleman about it. It doesn’t seem to be in Kovak’s nature to take without return, or else I’d be pregnant already, with or without my say.
Perhaps after I find some answers, I can bring him breakfast. It’s the least I can do after making him miss dinner last night.
Chapter 13
Kovak
My tail snaps back and forth as I march down the path between the huts. I can’t believe she’s gone again. How had I slept so late and let her slip away?
I’m always up with the sun. My warriors and I hunt and train early in the morning, but today it was as if I were in another life. My duties have been replaced with this new man I’ve become. Where I return to my hut late at night, relieved after a long search to find Gemma in my bed, and I curl up next to her and apparently sleep like the dead.
My hands clench at my sides as I stalk down to the central square. There are other Kutarians there, some eating and others gathered to talk. My eyes jump about as fast as a field rodent.
When they land on Gemma, my body sags as if I’ve dropped a bolder to the ground and can finally relax my aching muscles.
She’s sitting with the two women who accompanied us on the sacred hunt. Kaami and the quiet Waella. The three females talk and laugh with one another. Even Waella is animated, which is unusual. She’s not mute or unresponsive, of course, but it’s strange to see her react so positively.
Her mate Enud is a big silent fellow as well, so I suppose they match just fine.
The women are so engaged that they don’t see me approaching, and I watch Gemma with an appreciative smile as she speaks.
The midmorning sun glitters in her bright eyes and the gray freckles dotting her forehead. There’s so much life in her. Beauty. Strength.
Kaami’s gaze finds me first. Then the others’.
I half-expect Gemma’s eyes to fade when they land on me, but if anything, I think her smile stretches a little more.
“Good morning, sleepyhead,” Kaami calls.
After Gemma’s refusal of me last night and her constant slipping away, I more expected the women to attack me.
We may have been living with only three females for the last year, but we had plenty before that, and I know how women talk. I thought they’d be buzzing like beerangs about what happened, but it’s not the case at all.
Whatever bothered Gemma, she hasn’t shared it.
“Good morning, ladies,” I say with a gruff voice. I clear the sleep from it as I take a seat―close enough to join them but not to overcrowd them. “I hope you’re all doing well this morning.”
Kaami swats lightly at Gemma’s arm as they grin, and I realize how close the women are huddled to each other. Like they’ve been old friends for years.
It tilts me off balance. I’m awash with different emotions.
I'm delighted to find Gemma fitting in. It helps with convincing her the Kutarians need her and that she'll enjoy living among us. Though at the same time, I'm jealous. I'm the one she should be sitting with for breakfast, enjoying my company and laughing in that way that lights up her eyes.
“It’s been a lovely morning,” Gemma says. “Kaami has been telling me all about Kutarian feasts. The food, the dancing, the presentation. It sounds like a big party.” Her grin perks. “Oh, and I got this for you. I wasn’t sure how long you were going to sleep.”
She lifts a bone plate of meat and bread that’s been sitting beside her. I assumed it was her untouched breakfast, but I’m mistaken.
“That’s for
me?”
“Sure. I thought you might be hungry.” She continues smiling, though I can see it falter. And I can feel it in her energy. That tinge of embarrassment.
Well, there's no need for that. I'm quite delighted, just surprised.
I grin at her, though it feels awkward on my face, and move to sit alongside her. “Thank you, Gemma. I’m starving actually.”
Her smile reaches her eyes again and my body melts with relief. I want to do whatever I can to make sure that smile stays. It’s perfect.
“Have you eaten?” I ask as I lift a chunk of cooked meat to sniff it. My mouth waters instantly.
She nods. “Kaami and I met up here this morning and had a bite. Then she took me to the levadon pit to feed them.”
My eyes pop over to the other female as my back muscles tighten. She took Gemma to the dinosaur pit? How irresponsible! Gemma is brand new in our village. We can’t go dropping her down in front of hungry flesh-eaters.
Gemma’s eyes dance, however.
“Getting to see them all in there, in their own little habitat, was amazing,” she gushes. “I mean, I know it’s a little simulated, but they’re certainly living in groups. They display loyalty, not only to their warriors but to one another. They have friends and favorite sleeping spots.”
Gemma excitedly lists out all the attributes she learned in the short hour she was watching them. It is intense but also adorable on her.
I tear off a chunk of my breakfast meat with my four short fangs, nodding and listening as I eat.
"Once we were done with the dinos, we came back here and met up with Waella. She showed me how to light a blue fire."
Gemma’s eyes are positively glowing now. I’m not sure what’s so interesting about the blue fire. It’s not as warm as the orange and not as bright as the green. Surely her people have fire. If not, she’ll see plenty tonight at the ceremony.
“Then the ladies offered to help me get ready for the celebration tonight. Isn’t that sweet of them?”
The woman looks radiant when she’s smiling her thanks. It warms me from head to toe.
“We should start preparing for that now,” Kaami says.