“They won’t hurt you, and no, this isn’t like that.”
She paused. “Khy, how serious is this?”
He let out a breath. “These chiefs… they were already in power on Teiss. They do things differently.”
“What are you saying? Just tell me honestly. What are the risks here?”
He ran his hand over his crest. “It might come to a fight, but that would be all.”
“Then… no offence, but what’s the big deal? You guys fight all the time.”
“No, those fights are practice for fights like these.”
She looked a little pale, clearly picking up on his mood. “So what should I do? How can I help?”
He forced a smile and ducked in to kiss her. “Don’t do anything, just stay where you’re safe.”
“What? No way! You can’t be serious. I’m not going to just do nothing.”
“You’re always saying chief business is my business and you don’t want to get involved.”
“Chief business is different from my fucking husband being ambushed by a couple of bloodthirsty tyrants! If you’re going to get hurt, this concerns me!” She tried to wrestle some space between them so she could be angry at him, but he put his arms around her and denied her the room she needed to pull back and slap at his chest.
“Ssh, it’ll be fine. I’m strong, I can handle it. I just don’t want to be distracted.”
“Distracted?! You brought me here!”
“Anna, just be good, please,” he snapped. Honestly, he didn’t expect the other chiefs to kill him, but a fight like that… She didn’t need to see that. He saw her eyes flash with outrage, but then something shifted into fear and she pursed her lips and nodded, dropping his gaze. “Alright?”
“Fine,” she said, and he couldn’t quite tell if it was the kind of ‘fine’ where she was going to defy him anyway.
“Thank you,” he said, hoping she’d listen and behave. He kissed the top of her head. “Nothing should happen today, anyway. There’s no need for it.”
“Tomorrow’s New Year’s Eve,” Anna pouted, as if that was reason enough why this should not be happening, and he did feel a spike of guilt. If he hadn’t brought her, if he wasn’t chief, she would be having a happy, normal celebration in the city.
“I’m sorry. It’ll be fine, you’ll see. It might come to nothing.”
Anna just sighed, and laid her head on his shoulder.
“I need to go and talk to the others,” he said, pulling away after a moment.
“Oh, sure,” Anna nodded a bit too easily, her eyes a little too innocent.
He hesitated, suspicious, but the rest of the tribe knew to watch her. There wasn’t much she could do.
And if she joined him for dinner from the opposite direction from their tent, he didn’t think too hard about it.
That night, he set a watch, asking his tribe to guard their camp. He lay awake while Anna slept, thinking of the danger he had put them all in.
Pretending everything was normal the following day was difficult. He helped his tribe set up a bonfire and gathered food for a feast, but everyone was watchful and quiet. Word had travelled quickly. He made no invitations to others to join their tribe, and they received none.
The challenge came as the sun was setting, with no attempt at subtlety. Cri and Mant led their tribes over the grass towards them, clearly visible from the outset. It wasn’t an army. Only the chiefs would fight, the others were just there to watch.
Khy turned to the nearest Volon. “Chax, find Anna and keep her in our tent until this is done.” He didn’t want her to see him hurt, or hear the things Mant was liable to say about her.
As Chax left, Khy turned to face Mant, walking out past their tents circled around the fire to stop him before he entered their temporary territory. He chose his arena and stopped, waiting with his arms folded, his own tribe gathering behind him. He didn’t know if it was genuine support or just curiosity, but he’d take it.
“Mant, what are you doing?” he called. Cri was leading her tribe beside him. They were a formidable number, and the different groups flowed past their leaders to form a loose circle that would become the combat ring. Normally a challenge was more formal, there would be shamans and dancers and musicians, they would paint their bodies and decide on weapons, or if they would fight only with their claws. This was different, perhaps because those structures had broken down in the years since Teiss. Neither tribe had shamans anymore, they didn’t have the ingredients for the paint, and the gods were not watching.
Mant let his crest unfurl, red-tinged. “You shouldn’t be a chief, Khy.”
“And why not?”
“You are tied to the humans. How can you claim to put your tribe first, your people first, with her in your bed? You cannot claim to be trying to revive Volon customs speaking her language and living in her city.”
“My mate is not your concern. Judge me by my actions if you will, but Anna is mine, and I honour her as she honours me.”
Mant shook his head. “You have forgotten who you are, what you are.”
Khy snatched his dagger from his belt, his own crest snapping up. “Enough! I will not discuss her! You have come here to fight, haven’t you?”
Mant scowled, his own hand dropping to a short, curved, and elaborately carved sword.
“Wait!”
Khy grit his jaw, recognising Anna’s voice instantly. He didn’t take his eyes off Mant as she fought her way through the crowd into the cleared space.
“You don’t have to do this!”
As Anna came to stand by his side, pulling on his arm, he cut a glare to Chax who stumbled in after her.
“Sorry, she got away from me.”
How-? No time for that now. He’d think of a punishment for him later. “Anna…”
“See? Now she’s here to stay your hand. She controls you.”
They had been speaking in Volon, and Mant didn’t change into English for Anna to understand.
Khy glowered at him, then took Anna’s arm. “Anna, what are you doing here? I told you to stay away from this.”
She scowled at him and snatched her arm back. “I came because I’ve fixed this whole thing behind your back, so don’t take that tone.”
“What do you mean, you’ve fixed it? This is between me and Mant.”
“No, it’s not. This is about everyone. Do you think your tribe wants a new chief? They don’t. They like what you’re doing for them. And it’s about me because I want this to happen about as much as I want you to walk in front of a car.”
Khy couldn’t help a small smile in the face of her defiance. “You’ve often threatened to push me in front of a car.”
She sniffed. “Well, that was obviously… Anyway, do you want to hear my solution or not?”
He invited her to speak with a wave of his hand. Honestly, he didn’t expect her solution to work. How could she understand this? These contests between chiefs had been going on for hundreds, if not thousands of years. Fighting was the quickest way to determine dominance, and one-on-one battles prevented whole tribes from going to war. He expected her to say something that might work for humans, and then he would have Chax drag her away so he could finish it.
Anna turned to Mant, pushing her shoulders back and her chin up. “Why are you fighting Khy? You think he can’t handle it, right? Well, what you can’t see is you can’t handle it. You think Khy is too human, because of me.” She swallowed, and Khy’s claws twitched with guilt, but Anna powered on. “This retreat is about finding land for the Volon, so they can live by their old ways, but this is still Earth, not Teiss. Khy, and me, are what the Volon need right now. Your problem is you can’t adapt, but because of us, you don’t have to. We do it for you. We speak on your behalf.”
Mant walked forward, and Khy tensed, ready to push Anna out of the way, but the chief just scoffed. “Pretty words, but you have no idea what you’re talking about, human,” he said in English, his voice deep and rolling.
Before Khy could answer, Anna said “Don’t I? Let’s ask your people. Like I said, this challenge isn’t just about you. They’re letting you fight because they don’t want to, but who do they want to lead them? Let’s ask. There are five tribes here, right?”
Anna turned to face the San Diego tribe behind them. “Guys? Do you want Khy to be your chief?”
Khy didn’t turn to look, keeping his eyes on Mant, but his skin prickled, embarrassed. This was not the way things were done, and what would happen if they said no?
There were a few yesses, and Anna said “Nods aren’t going to cut it, you need to be louder.”
This time there were a few shouts and a lot of murmurs.
“Okay,” Anna said. “Chax and Kona, can you come up here?”
To look away or get distracted would be to show weakness, so Khy just listened to the couple step up behind him.
To his surprise, Anna spoke next to the young chief and his gaggle of adolescents. “Yol? We’ve already spoken. We can give you what you want. Chax was learning to do the ttsus…”
“Ttsustanda,” Chax offered with a smile.
“That. He was learning to do that before he evacuated. He says he could do it for you if you gave him time to prepare.”
Khy had no idea what was happening. What did ttsustanda have to do with anything? It was the maturation ritual the Volon went through that had given him the markings on his right arm where his scales had been pulled off. The more pain you endured, the more respect you earned, and Khy had held the record in his tribe. He hadn’t known Chax knew how to do it, and he was surprised Anna did. But how was it relevant to his fight with Mant?
The other tribe looked at each other, seeming to communicate without words. Then the leader shrugged, apparently accepting it.
Anna smiled. “If that’s okay with you, would you mind just standing over here with us? Just to make a point.”
They silently closed the gap, standing at the edge of Khy’s tribe, and this time he did turn to look. There were barely a dozen of them, but added to the support he already had… With a flash of shock, and amazement, he realised what Anna was doing. She had negotiated allies for him. She had gone behind his back… and rallied strength to his side.
So Yol’s tribe wanted the ttsustanda ritual? He supposed that made sense. A tribe of orphaned youths… It would be the best way to be taken seriously, and link themselves into their people’s culture when others might try to push them out.
Khy would never have thought of that.
Anna pulled Kona forward. “She’s pregnant. How many of you have pregnant women in your tribes? How many of you want families of your own? Has Mant got that for you, made that happen? I already know he hasn’t.” She looked directly at the female chief, Ean, who looked forlorn for just an instant before she covered it. “Anyone who wants babies, just to show numbers, why don’t you come stand over on our side? You’re not changing tribes, just… letting your chiefs know what you want.”
There was a pause. Nobody wanted to move first. Eyes were on Kona’s belly all around the circle while she stood proudly for the inspection, and eventually people began to shift. Ean slumped and led her tribe to stand on Khy’s other side, and males and females both deserted Mant and Cri’s side of the circle. When everyone who was going to move had, Mant and Cri did not stand alone. They had more than enough people still with them to do plenty of damage if they wanted to. Khy couldn’t relax just yet, even if the people behind him outnumbered them.
Mant was furious though. “Bribery! Lies and trickery, this is not the Volon way!”
“This is a bloodless way!” Khy answered, putting his hand on Anna’s shoulder. Mant had switched back to Volon, so he had to speak for Anna. “I will fight you if you want, but what are you fighting for? To rescue these people from me, when you have just watched them choose me?”
Mant’s eyes flickered over the group.
“It is a new world. It requires new leaders, new leadership. Or do you want to do all the talking with the humans?” he threw in, taking a gamble.
It seemed to pay off. Mant scoffed. His eyes settled on Anna, narrowing as he looked her up and down. When his crest deflated, Khy relaxed. “Wicked woman,” Mant cursed her in English. “I am still right. You have tamed this male to your ways.”
Anna reached up to cover Khy’s hand on her shoulder with her own and squeezed. “You wouldn’t say that if you knew him. And don’t underestimate my ways. Look what they’ve done here.”
Mant nodded, and there was a glimmer of respect in his eyes. Then, with a harsh jerk of his head at Cri, and a barked command to his tribe, he retreated to his own fires. Cri lingered to roll her eyes, waiting just long enough to make it clear that she was not at Mant’s beck and call. She looked between Anna and Khy, weighing what she saw, but she turned away as well and left without saying a word.
“That one is disappointed she didn’t get to see any male blood tonight,” Khy mused aloud. Then he turned to the crowd behind him, letting out a yell of victory even if it was only half-earned, but the others took it up. “Show our new friends to our fires!”
With another yell, his tribe headed back to camp.
“Chax, Kona, thank you,” he said.
“Thank you, Khy, and Anna,” Kona replied, her hand going to the bump of her stomach while Chax slipped his arm behind her back, and then they too walked away.
Anna moved to follow them, but Khy grabbed her, toppling her against him. “You are in so - much - trouble!” he hissed.
She snatched her arm out of his hold. “Me?! You’re the one who almost entered into a freaking death match, you idiot!”
Khy decided to ignore that part. “I told you to stay behind!” he yelled. She’d scared him, running between him and Mant like that. He couldn’t lose her, couldn’t bear it if she got hurt.
“When have I ever done that, Khy?!” she howled back, her fingers curling in frustration, her eyes flashing with rage.
True enough. “It was dangerous!”
“Yes, it was!” she shrieked, pushing him. “For you!”
“I can handle it, it’s my job as chief-”
“You’re more than a chief, you’re my mate!”
Khy’s mouth dangled open and empty, the words snatched out, until he snapped it shut and put his hands on his hips. “I know what I am,” he told her, a weak response.
“Do you?! Stupid, fucking idiot!” With that, Anna kicked the grass once then spun to stomp away.
Khy followed, well-aware when they passed through the camp that everyone was watching and listening.
The tent flap hadn’t fallen all the way closed when he grabbed it and ducked inside, with no idea what he would say. “Anna-”
She whirled on him, finger pointed. “You underestimated me. What the fuck was that ‘stay at camp’ bullshit? When have we ever been like that? When have I ever been your little wife at home? Just because I’m not Volon, I’m the only one who isn’t invited to your final moments? You chose me! You don’t get to do that to me!”
He hadn’t seen her like this since their big fight at the DETI building when she’d told him he shouldn’t have left her. She wasn’t just angry, she was hurt. He’d hurt her. He grabbed her hand and tried to pull her into him. “Anna, Anna, shh, I was just trying to keep you safe.”
“I don’t need you to keep me safe,” she snapped, struggling as he gently overpowered her anyway. “I need you to not do stupid shit.”
“I couldn’t have done it if I was worried about you. I needed you to be safe, I couldn’t bear it if you were hurt.”
“Fuck you.”
“Yes, yes.”
“That’s bullshit and you know it.”
“No, it’s not. I must protect my mate, and I always will.”
“Eat shit.”
His lips crooked as he tucked her head under his chin and hugged her close. She didn’t hesitate to hug him back.
“Don’t do that again.”
He
didn’t say anything.
“You think I’m helpless but I’m not. I’m the one who saved you. You think I’m just a weak human but you have no idea what I’m capable of.”
She was right, of course. He had thought her defenceless. He had thought she couldn’t help him. But she was right. He was a better chief because of her. He leant back and cupped her cheek, guiding her to look at him. “Woman, you terrify me,” he confessed.
“Hmph.”
He smiled. He could see she’d already forgiven him, but she would pretend she hadn’t for a while longer. “No more death matches, though I am not in control of who challenges me. That said, I think you have just strengthened my position more than I ever could.”
“Yeah, it’s called democracy, look it up,” she grumbled.
He traced her cheek with his thumb. “Am I forgiven?”
She didn’t say anything, but she showed him the face she made when she wanted to be kissed, so he did. He breathed deep. He had been braced for a fight, and now he was full of energy and determination that had nowhere to go.
“Let’s go and celebrate. It’s a new year, after all.”
“Yeah, merry fucking new year.”
She was still grumpy, but he stroked the backs of his claws over her soft cheek. “You understand why I did it, don’t you?”
“Yes,” she allowed begrudgingly. “And you understand why I didn’t listen?”
“Yes.” He rested his face against her hair, breathing her in. “Annoyingly.” They stood like that for a moment, and he eased his hand down her waist. “I love you, my mate.” Sometimes it needed to be said. He’d found it was the best way to end a fight.
“I love you too,” she mumbled.
He smiled, petting her for a few moments more. Then he said “So do you want to party out there or party in here?”
She twisted her knuckles into his ribs, making him buckle and laugh.
Thank you for reading my Christmas stories! If you enjoyed them, you can visit my website for updates and previews here: https://vclancasterblog.wordpress.com/
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An Office Alien Christmas Collection (Office Aliens Book 5) Page 24