by Stacy Jones
Glancing around, she realized he was right. Night was fast approaching and already the forest was filling with shadows. She’d been examining the camp for longer than she thought.
Frowning, she scanned the small clearing again but she didn't see Drrak and the cub anywhere. Before she could ask about them, they walked out of the bushes and her shoulders relaxed. Drrak caught her eyes and smiled grimly in what she thought was supposed to be reassurance, but was entirely too somber to be effective.
He was still looking at her when he spoke to Frrar, telling him that the cub had tracked the intruders heading a little away from tribe territory in the direction of the mountains. That would have made her feel better if he hadn't followed that up by saying he thought they were circling around.
Frrar, when he guided her face back to him, was watching her with a concerned expression. The corners of his dark, midnight eyes were tight and he was searching her face, as if how she was feeling was more important than what the bad guys were up to.
His worry and concern were enough to bring back the horror surrounding them and the suffocating lump in her throat, but Lily swallowed hard, trying not to break down again. She’d done enough crying in front of strangers and shook her head no , telling him without words not to comfort her now.
Frrar understood her well enough to catch the true motivation behind her hesitance to be comforted. He nodded slightly in understanding and bent to kiss her tenderly before moving to the side to make room for Tor, who was nudging him insistently out of the way.
“Mine Lily,” Tor murmured, his pale blue eyes dull with shock and sadness.
The look on his face shifted her focus from her own feelings to his. They reached for each other at the same time, and Lily clung to him after he picked her up. Frrar would have been comforting her, and his focus on her emotions would have made her focus on them as well, but with Tor she could pretend she clung to him so tightly to comfort him.
Tor had a way of carrying her that was different from either Frrar or Arruk. He held her in a way that felt both tight and achingly delicate, like she was precious and treasured, and he would carry her forever if she’d let him. That feeling was exactly what she needed just then.
This time his hold was even more delicate than usual, as if he could sense how fragile she was feeling or perhaps because he was feeling the exact same way.
He used humor as a shield sometimes, but Lily knew he felt things deeply. She could sense how torn up he was over what they’d seen and knew he needed her comfort just as much as she needed his.
Lily stared at the branches and vines around them with new eyes from over Tor’s shoulder as they made their way back to their hut, seeing deadly potential in the shadowed foliage where before she’d only seen beauty. They could make trigger lines with spikes that impaled whomever tripped them, covered pits in the ground for intruders to fall into and drown, and snares to catch people.
Interrogation might prove difficult if they managed to capture someone alive, but she’d communicated with the guys with charades and hand movements when she’d met them so had hope they might be able to find out just how many beings they were dealing with and what their intentions might be.
Finding out she had a bloodthirsty, vengeful side to herself wasn’t the most comfortable realization, but she wasn’t fighting it, not after seeing what those horrible people had done to so many harmless, innocent animals.
If they could do that to animals, what were they capable of doing to people? She didn’t want to give them the chance to show her.
What if they were indeed the ones who had taken Skaa? Lily didn't even want to think of what the poor woman might have suffered, or worse, might still be suffering.
Seeing the citris slaughtered, in particular, had turned her anger and horror into a need for revenge. She couldn’t help but imagine Seti in their place, had a nightmarish scene that she couldn’t erase from her mind of her gentle pet being tortured and killed.
They’re going to pay for that.
She would need the help of the entire tribe if they were going to make a defense line around the territory before those monsters got too close… if they weren’t already.
They would need to set traps on not just the ground but in the trees as well—they couldn’t afford to assume the bad guys were restricted to the forest floor—which meant everyone needed to know where they were placed and to stay away from them.
She wanted to hurt the people threatening them but not at the cost of accidentally killing innocents.
Aside from that she wanted to set up hidden blinds in the trees, just inside the line of traps, for lookouts so they’d have some warning when the intruders made their move.
Night had completely fallen. Lily was almost blind in the dark, the tiny moon not giving off enough light for her to see more than a few feet in any direction.
She heard Frrar speak and assumed he was talking to Lok and Rork when he asked them to let Akksha know they would speak with her the next day. They grunted in acknowledgement before she heard them break away from their group, the quiet creak of limbs moving farther and farther away.
She felt Tor land not two minutes later and heard the rustle of fronds as someone parted the curtain making up their door. It was even darker inside their hut with the walls blocking the weak light present outside. She couldn't see her hand in front of her face, but she could feel the movement as they entered one by one behind her and Tor, and could hear the cub sniffing around as he checked out the new space.
She knew Drrak was there and had a flash of nerves before it was buried under physical and emotional exhaustion. She wanted to make him feel welcome and had a glimmer of worry over where he would sleep, but she was so damn tired and the worry was gone before it could fully form.
She let Tor set her down and lifted her legs one at a time to help when he moved to pull off her boots, but other than that she just stood there and let them move around to get everything ready for bed, staring at the darkness in front of her. She knew better than to try to help when she couldn't see. Last time she'd stepped on Frrar’s tail and spent the following ten minutes apologizing and trying to feel for injuries in the darkness while Tor snickered.
No one was laughing now.
She followed Arruk’s prompting, knowing even in the darkness it was him, when he guided her to lay down.
She found Frrar waiting for her, ready to act as her bed, and climbed on top of him, gratefully, ready for the quiet steadiness and unfailing strength in his embrace now that she didn’t have to put on a front for Rork and Lok.
He was so strong, inside and out. It both awed and terrified her that he was always ready and willing to act as a shield for those he loved. She knew with absolute certainty that Frrar would always be there to stand between them and danger. He reminded her of a knight in shining armor: brave, honorable, and endlessly protective.
Turning her face into his strong chest, she let the tears she’d been holding back go, let them soak into his silky fur while he murmured soft words of reassurance and held her tightly. There was no wavering or doubt in his voice when he told her he would keep her safe. Lily believed him with every fiber of her being even as she worried who would keep him safe.
Reaching out she blindly pulled bodies to her. She needed to feel them around her, needed the closeness, warmth and love they gave her to combat the gruesome images seared into her memory.
Within moments they were all settled, and everything went quiet with the exception of their soft, rhythmic breaths. She wasn't sure how they’d managed it, but she could feel all their hands on some part of her, even Drrak’s.
Expecting to fall asleep right away, she instead found her mind racing; plotting, planning, and spinning in circles, trying to think of how to protect herself, her guys, and their people from anything the intruders might throw at them.
It wasn’t until they began a soft, steady purr around her that she finally relaxed into sleep, but even then her dreams were fu
ll of shadowy figures chasing her and a pervading sense of doom that made her rest anything but restful.
T he next morning, Lily woke feeling tired but steadier than she had the day before. She knew what she had to do and she had a plan.
Lily, her guys, and Drrak ate a quick breakfast before taking off for the massive tree where the majority of the tribe lived and the hollow part inside it where they held their meetings.
They left Trrak, much to his very vocal displeasure, at the hut. Drrak and Arruk very quickly put together a few small platforms so he could get to the ground and back up while they were gone, and they left a large pile of food in case he got hungry. She hated leaving him alone, but she wasn't willing to test the tolerance of the tribe with having a pantari around their children. She and the guys knew he was harmless, but she didn't want to chance him getting hurt if the rest of the shevari didn't believe that.
It wasn’t long before the noise of the tribe began to reach her, growing from indistinct whispers to the clear sound of dozens of people going about their daily lives, most of them unaware of the threat that loomed above them like a dark, deadly cloud.
As they swung closer to the center of the alien village, she was surprised when Rork and Lok joined them as if they’d been waiting, but she was thankful for their presence. She might need the additional backing from unbiased people to support her claims of what they’d seen when she spoke to Akksha.
Lily knew the leader didn’t trust her, despite being the one to order Frrar to take her out there to investigate in the first place.
Persuading Akksha to support her plans and spend what little time they might have before they were attacked setting traps, instead of whatever the woman had in mind, might be an uphill battle. Lily didn't know if she could convince the tribe leader to trust an outsider with the safety of her people and that wasn’t taking into account explaining how she wasn’t surprised the intruders were different species.
She regretted not sharing her suspicions at that first meeting but, aside from being reluctant to burden them with the knowledge that the fish aliens could potentially beam them into captivity whenever they pleased, she’d been afraid her knowledge might prompt the leader to see her as an enemy and cast her, and maybe even the guys, out.
There was still a very good chance of that happening now, because she’d kept it to herself.
Despite the risk to herself and the guys, Lily didn’t see a way around it. She would have to tell them how she’d come to be on their planet, what she’d seen while caged on the spaceship, and the full extent of the danger they faced—not just from the bad guys but from the fish aliens as well.
Even if she successfully managed to communicate all that, something she wasn’t overly confident of, there was still a good chance Akksha might not believe her or, if she did, would want to do something infinitely more dangerous like going out to attack the intruders instead of setting traps so that they essentially killed themselves without putting any tribe members in immediate danger.
Lily could feel the stares of dozens on her as Tor landed on the platform surrounding the hollow tree and set her on her feet.
When her guys moved to surround her, she subtly stopped them, knowing she needed to appear as strong as possible, which would’ve been impossible huddled in the center of her men like a scared rabbit.
Lifting her chin and straightening her spine, she walked into the entrance of the tree with the guys, Drrak, Lok, and Rork following closely on her heels. She made a beeline for Akksha where she was standing with a group of shevari women—the same group that had been with her the night Lily had stopped her from killing Trrak.
Lily was instantly glad she’d left the cub at their hut, regardless of how guilty she felt leaving to the sound of his plaintive howls.
Coming to a stop at what she hoped was a respectable distance, Lily cleared her throat, more out of nervousness than any need to get their attention since they were all staring directly at her.
“Ua suuk ,” she announced, holding Akksha’s gaze with her own as she told her they needed to talk.
The leader’s expression turned wary and her pale blue eyes narrowed before she gave a short nod and motioned Lily to a spot near the inner trunk with a sweep of her upper arm, dismissing the other women with a look at the same time.
Lily sat, followed by her guys, Drrak, and the brothers, settling themselves in a semicircle beside and behind her. Akksha, still standing, gave a short, wordless bark directed at the entrance, startling the hell out of Lily, then sat cross legged in front of her.
Sure she looked as confused as she felt, Lily blinked at the tribe leader, having absolutely no idea why the hell she’d just barked, then glanced at Tor for an explanation. He rolled his eyes, his expression showing distaste but no surprise, doing nothing to help her understand what had just happened. It wasn’t until a group of male shevari filed in one of the entrances and sat behind the tribe leader that she finally understood.
Did she just call her mates to her like puppies? What. The. Hell?
Feeling her eyebrows lift to nearly her hairline, she tried, unsuccessfully, to hide her disapproval.
Shaking her head and taking a deep breath, she refocused on what she needed to say and how she was going to say it.
Deciding it would be best to have one of her guys ready to translate for her, she turned and motioned Arruk to her side since he understood her language best.
“We need to be ready to fight,” she began, “but I have an idea to keep us protected without having to attack them first.”
After what felt like an hour but was probably only twenty minutes of painfully slow and difficult conversation where she described what they’d seen and Arruk translated, Lily was finally to the part where she tried to convince the leader that setting a defense line was smarter than gathering her warriors and going on the offense.
Lok had been moving subtly closer as she spoke, until he’d positioned himself between their two groups and had a clear line of sight to her. She could feel his focused stare and had the unmistakable impression he was absorbing everything she said, listening carefully to both her words as well as Arruk’s translation of them.
Lily wasn’t exactly excited about him learning her language, but there wasn’t much she could do to stop him just then. She just hoped whatever he learned wasn’t later used against her if it turned out he really was a spy for Akksha.
Dismissing his attention as best she could, she pulled a handful of twigs from the floor of the meeting place and a loose piece of thread from her cardigan. It took awhile, but she did what she could to make miniatures of the traps and lookout blinds she had in mind, showing Akksha how they could defend their territory while simultaneously explaining where they could be placed .
“Kur shh kavarr frrn ?” Akksha questioned, waving her lower hand at the little contraptions Lily had made, her tone suspicious as she asked how Lily knew how to do that.
Here goes nothing…
“I come from a different… Shakti , far, far away,” she began, using the name for their world instead of planet since she didn’t think they had a word for unnamed celestial bodies.
“I was taken from my home and held captive for a long time until the ones that took me found me in their… flying hut, and left me here,” she finished, holding back an amused snort at her description of a spaceship.
When Arruk didn’t translate what she’d said, she glanced at him, only to find he was staring at her with wide, disbelieving eyes. Cocking her head in confusion, she gave him a questioning look and tipped her head toward Akksha to prompt him to speak, but he seemed frozen with shock.
Peeking over at Frrar, then behind her to Tor, she saw that they too appeared stunned. She’d expected Akksha to be surprised, not her guys .
It took a second before it clicked. Lily realized, with no small amount of shock, that she’d never told them exactly how she came to be on their planet.
That can’t be right. Can it? Surely
I’ve told them how I got here…
But no matter how hard she tried to remember, there was nothing. She really hadn’t ever told them.
How the hell has that never come up?
She remembered trying to explain where she came from when they’d first met, but after they took it to mean she came from their little moon, she hadn’t tried again, not even after the language barrier was all but gone.
Frowning, she tried to figure out why she’d never felt compelled to share that with them.
They’d been focused for a long time on survival and getting to safety, sure, but that wasn’t really a legitimate excuse for why it hadn’t ever occurred to her, not when they’d spent so much time safe at the cave, learning more about one another.
It’s because it didn’t matter before now.
She’d known almost immediately after arriving that, unless she was captured again, the chances of her getting off the planet were slim to none. And, after she’d fallen in love with the guys, she hadn’t wanted to leave, even if she could.
They’re my home. It doesn’t matter to me how I got here. It wasn’t important because I don’t miss Earth, so telling them how I came to be here, focusing on the past, wasn’t worthwhile.
By their expressions, she realized the guys thought she’d been intentionally hiding it, which couldn’t be further from the truth.
Lily was aware of Akksha, Lok, and Rork staring at them. She was sure they were wondering what it was she’d said to shock the guys so much. Keeping her voice low, even though she knew only her guys would understand her words, she hurried to explain, wanting to erase the hurt expressions on their faces.
Facing first Arruk, then Frrar and Tor, she stroked her hands over them, making pointed eye contact with each before saying softly, “This is my home now, you are my home, so how I got here didn’t matter. I love you, and I don’t want to be anywhere else. ”
Lily could see the hurt and bewilderment begin to fade from each of their gazes as her words sunk in, and sighed in relief, but she needed to show them she was sorry and needed to feel their forgiveness.