by Marla Monroe
“What are we going to do if there’s nothing we can eat here? Are we going to starve?” someone asked.
“If we’re careful, we have enough food to eat for at least six months. We have everything we need on the ship to make a garden and grow our own foods. But it will take time to scout out the best location and clear the land and ready the ground. We have a lot of hard work ahead of us, but we will survive,” John said as he looked around the group.
* * * *
Della had tossed and turned as she tried to get comfortable on the sleeping pallet they’d rigged up the night before. She wasn’t used to sleeping on a hard surface or shoulder-to-shoulder with other people that close. The women all slept inside a big circle made up of the men, forming a protective barrier to the outside. Unfortunately, the women outnumbered the men by nearly ten so they were fairly close together while the men were several feet apart surrounding them.
The few times she’d managed to doze off, Della had awakened with a jerk, dreaming about the crash all over again. She was sure by the sounds around her that others had similar nightmares. It was no wonder when so many had been killed and others were still missing.
It meant that everyone was irritable the next morning when John banged on a pipe to wake them up. She was all for slamming the damn thing over his head while others thought of more creative ways to use the pipe. She just shook her head and grumbled as she rolled up the pallet and stacked it with the others out of the way.
“We need to get started. I don’t have any idea how long the sunlight lasts here. We haven’t ventured outside to explore yet, but right now it’s bright enough we won’t need the flashlights except in the inner hallways and rooms,” he said.
She pitched in to help set up a breakfast of sorts so the men going back through the craft wouldn’t have long to wait before they could get started. Once they had eaten and gotten their orders on directions and such, the four groups of three men each set out to finish searching for survivors. It left thirty some odd women and three men in the holding bay to continue going through the supplies stored there.
Della found herself next to Caro and another woman who looked just as exhausted as she was feeling going through a large crate of cooking utensils. They were to separate everything into equal piles then pack them up again so that when groups got ready to set up housekeeping, they could just grab a pack of every type of supply. Hopefully there would be enough so that everyone could have extra.
Even as they worked on the crate, she began to wonder how it would work when there were only fifteen men and around thirty-four women. When they had planned the trips to the three different planets originally, they paired one woman up with two men to give them all a better chance of survival. The woman was considered the breeder and caregiver, while the two men would be protectors and laborers. Two men were seen to be able to keep the woman and any children safe, with one working while the other guarded. That wasn’t feasible now. There were over two women for every one man.
She’d always wondered how two men would be able to manage to share one woman without becoming jealous or possessive, but asking two women to share one man was even crazier in her eyes. The thought of another woman in the same bed and touching one she considered to be hers had her blood boiling just at the thought even now.
“How are you holding up?” Caro asked her as she picked up two more boilers.
“Tired, but I’m good. I think we all need more sleep, though. I don’t know about you, but I didn’t sleep much at all last night,” Della told the other woman.
“That makes two of us. I kept dreaming about falling all night. I guess because we fell out of the sky and onto this planet.” Caro wiped the back of her hand over her forehead and sighed. “Modeling is hard work, but I haven’t done this much bending and standing since I was a kid playing in the sand at the beach.”
“I’ve never been to a beach before,” Della said, remembering the mountains where she’d grown up in the Smokey Mountains.
“Really? I lived on the beach as a kid and a teenager. We used to spend entire weekends there, build bonfires and have clam bakes.” She closed her eyes as if reliving some of that.
“I guess I never realized that they had clam bakes in California. I thought they were only done in the New England states,” Della mused.
Caro chuckled lightly. “We had our share of them over the years. Mostly it was just fun to have the bonfire to sit around and talk.”
“Okay, that looks like all of the supplies in this crate. How are we going to wrap them up into packages?” the other woman asked after placing the last skillet in a pile.
“Probably the best thing to do is use the sheets and blankets that we aren’t using to sleep with. That way they end up with an extra sheet or blanket when they unwrap the pack,” Caro suggested.
“Sounds like a good idea to me. Let’s get to work, ladies. We’re supposed to be finished with this one by lunch time. My belly is growling so it must be close to that time,” she said with a smile.
They worked in relative silence for nearly an hour bundling up the cooking supplies. Della watched the other groups as they did the same thing with their piles of items. It looked like there would be a lot of bundles for each group to gather and cart to their chosen location. Maybe they should all plan to stay on the ship and use it as a massive commune. Surely it would be safer than venturing out onto an unknown planet with no past expeditions to go by.
Just as she stood up to stretch her aching back, a small section at one end of the ship where no one was working exploded inward with a deafening roar. The force of the blast knocked everyone off their feet, including Della. Rolling smoke filled the room but soon cleared as she struggled to get to her hands and knees. When it cleared and the cause of the massive explosion could be seen, she wished it hadn’t.
Chapter Three
The sight that presented itself to Veran and the others astounded him. Females. Lots of females and only three males of their kind. Though they’d been monitoring them so they could integrate their language into their interpreter chips, they hadn’t known there would be females. His chest tightened at the possibility these aliens would be compatible with their race. There on Levasso, their race had been slowly dying out, with nearly all of their females dying during the Eros scourge that had taken half their planet’s population. Most of them had been the females and young.
For many years they had searched The Carrdine Galaxy to find another race they could mate with and produce young. Alas, there had been none. Now, as if the great Lord had answered their prayers, a vessel had fallen from the sky with an abundance of females who looked compatible for mating purposes.
As Gressen, their leader, advanced forward, he and the others followed suit, remaining close to him in case of attack. He nearly scoffed at that thought. A bunch of females wouldn’t attack them, they were obviously far superior to them in not only height but strength as well. It would be suicide to attack one such as he.
Suddenly the three males who’d been on the other side of the large area rushed forward and began herding the females behind them, urging them in a corner. They held no weapons other than large metal sticks and were far smaller than they were.
“Calm!” Gressen called out, holding one hand up. “We mean you no harm.”
The group in front of them shuffled back and forth, murmuring among themselves. The soft lilt of feminine voices tugged at his groin. It had been so long, so very, very long since they’d had such in their city and homes.
After the loss of half of their people, the council had everyone move into one city where they would be safe and could take care of each other. Many of the larger homes were still deserted since the males preferred to live in large congregations instead.
“Who are you and why are you attacking us, then?” one of the males called out.
“We are Levassians, of the planet you have crashed on, Levasso. We aren’t attacking you. We arrived as soon as we could once we knew of
the crash to help you. Since none of you were leaving the vessel, we assumed you needed help getting out.” Gressen cocked his head to one side, studying them intently.
“We didn’t know anything about the planet, so we decided to stay inside until we’d located all of our people. Many of us are searching for survivors now in the rest of the ship,” the male said.
“Then we will assist you. Once you have found all of your survivors, we will take you to our city and tend to your injured,” Gressen told them.
“We can talk about that once everyone is together again. I’m not in any position to make decisions for us,” the male said.
“Then we should begin,” Gressen said, bowing his head in acknowledgment.
“Wait. If you all go stomping through the ship alone, the others will think you are there to hurt them. Some of us need to go with you,” the male said, holding up one hand.
“We can’t leave the women here alone with these things running around out there,” one of the males whispered to the male who’d been talking.
Veran and Gressen exchanged glances. It was obvious they didn’t realize they had very good hearing.
“I know, but if we send them off alone, we don’t have any idea what they might do and how our guys will take their showing up out of the blue like this. Someone has to go with them. Someone who knows where all they’ve already been.”
Veran watched as they looked around then focused on one of their females. They beckoned her forward. She walked toward them and it took all of Veran’s control not to immediately swoop in and grab her as his own. She was amazing and breathtaking. Her long brown hair held highlights despite being pulled back at the nape of her neck. It was thick and looked soft to the touch. His own hair wasn’t nearly that soft looking. She had delicious curves and wasn’t nearly as short in statue as most of the other females of her race.
“Veran?” Gressen asked in a curious tone. “What is it?”
“Mine,” he growled despite who he was talking to.
The other male chuckled softly. “Ah, the female with the long brown hair they are talking to. She is very appealing. You are drawn to her?”
“Mine,” he snarled again. “I will make her my mate.”
Even though they were friends, Gressen was his leader. He should have been much less aggressive in his declaration. What if Gressen wanted her, too? It wasn’t unheard of for the Levassian males to share mates with their current lack of breedable females, but it would bother him. He swallowed some of the hostile feelings that bubbled in his gut that there were other males viewing what he believed to be his already.
“I apologize. I don’t know why, but just the sight of her has me seeing red that anyone else might touch her.”
Gressen smiled knowingly. “I understand. It has been a long time since our mating urges have come out. It has been over fifty cycles since there have been enough females to instigate those urges to surface. It is good that they are still there and haven’t left us entirely.”
“I suppose I was too young to remember them so clearly,” Verran said. “We are only five cycles apart. How do you remember them and I don’t?”
“I watched my brothers when they found their mates. They were wild and aggressive in nature around them. Even I, who was too young to be a competitor for her affections, felt their wrath when I got too close to their chosen.” Gressen smiled. “I remember how much I enjoyed making them crazy by sneaking a touch or even a kiss on the female’s cheek.”
“What do I do?”
“Control yourself for now. We will listen to their proposal and decide from there.”
The male took a few steps forward again and cleared his voice. “We are going to send two of our females with you who know where all they have already searched, and Derrick is going as well.”
“That is acceptable. We will allow them to lead us and speak for us when we locate your missing people,” Gressen told them with a smile.
The male nodded and looked at the two females and male. The three of them slowly walked closer to them. It was obvious that they were afraid, but to his surprise, the two females looked much braver than the male who was just as afraid as they were. Maybe it was because they were females and should never have been sent off with strangers no matter the reason, or maybe it was just that he saw them as rare crystals to be coddled and cared for, always protected and never placed in danger.
When the three aliens were within five feet of them, they stopped, looking up at Veran and his leader. Nothing was said for several long seconds when finally, one of the females—his female, spoke up.
“Um, we are humans from Earth. My name is Della Ferrell. This is Cara James.” She pointed to the female with long odd white looking hair. “This is Derrick. I don’t know your last name, Derrick.”
“Derrick Hinds,” the male said, nodding at them.
“I am Gressen and this is Veran, my second in command,” Gressen said, placing his hand on Veran’s shoulder.
The three humans, as they called themselves, nodded in understanding. He let Della’s name roll around in his mind. He liked the sound of it and could easily picture shouting it as he filled her with his life’s essence.
“Are there other aliens on this Earth who are not humans?” Gressen asked with an arched brow. “How many different species are on your Earth?”
“Oh, we’ve never called ourselves Earthlings before, but there are no other different species. On Earth, there are only humans and plants and animals,” she said with a wavering smile.
Gressen cocked his head to the side again. “We should began searching now. Show us where to look.”
Veran immediately positioned himself between the one called Della and the other males of his species. He noticed Gressen did the same with the oddly colored female as well. Did his leader and friend feel attraction for her? Her hair was unique, but she looked so delicate. He much preferred his strong-appearing female to her.
The female at his side didn’t try to move away from him, instead she looked straight ahead and led them deeper into the vessel. He wished he was privy to the thoughts in her mind. He was sure they would be far more interesting than anything he was thinking right that moment. Well, maybe interesting wasn’t the correct word to use. His thoughts were interesting, but probably only to him at the moment. He had thoughts only of her and needed to turn his mind to their duty at present, rescuing the other aliens, um, humans before he ended up embarrassing himself in front of his future mate and all of the other Levassians.
* * * *
Della struggled to remain calm and on course. The giant of a man striding next to her had her entire body on alert. She wondered if calling him a man was appropriate. He sure as hell looked male to her, entirely too male if you asked her.
I can’t believe I’m getting all hot and bothered over an alien! What is wrong with me? It’s like I’ve got men on the brain or something.
At first she’d been aggravated that she’d been singled out with Caro to lead the big giants while they searched for survivors and their other groups, believing it was because she was so tall and athletic that she’d been chosen. Now, however, Dee was glad, since it put her closer to the bronze-skinned male with the amazing bright green eyes. She wanted to study them, because she was positive they had a gold-colored ring around the pupils, but she couldn’t do that. It would be rude. Instead, she surreptitiously stole glances at him, amazed at how big he was. He had to be nearly seven feet tall and was built like, well, like The Hulk.
She was so intent on trying to see more of the male next to her that she stepped wrong on a piece of fallen wall and nearly fell. The huge man moved so fast she gasped as his warm, almost hot hands carefully grabbed her upper arms and pulled her against his rock hard body before she could fall. His heat seeped into her, filling empty spots she hadn’t known were there before. There was no missing the massive erection rubbing along her spine, just above her ass. The bronzed god was hung like a freaking horse!
&nb
sp; “Careful, little one,” Gressen told her as he slowly, almost reluctantly, it seemed, let her go.
“Sorry. I didn’t see it in time,” she said.
“It is not safe for you or the one called Caro to be here with all of the damage.”
“Someone had to lead you to where we haven’t looked yet,” she said with a shrug, trying not to take offense by his obvious belief she wasn’t able to take care of herself.
Of course her little tripping episode didn’t help how she appeared to him. More than likely he thought her a klutz now. She sighed and wondered why it bothered her what he thought about her. She wasn’t interested in an alien. Was she?
The big male continued to walk beside her. She could feel his eyes on her at times as they made their way through the bowls of the shuttle. Finally they made it to where she didn’t think anyone had looked yet.
“Caro, that hall was the last one they mentioned, wasn’t it?” She pointed at the one where a huge chunk of wall had been ripped away when part of the floor above them had collapsed. There was only a small slice of space to use as a way into the hall beyond. Some of the men had talked about how hard it had been to get the injured through the narrow opening.
“Yes. I would think they took the next hall over, then,” the other woman said.
“We should start in the last hall,” Della told them.
Derrick shook his head. “I think we need to look for them. Let them divide up with these guys,” he indicated their new friends. “Then we can go back.”
“No. That will waste time and defeat the purpose of having help. Come on,” she said, stepping around the man.
When Derrick reached out and grabbed her arm, jerking her to a stop, a low feral growl erupted from behind them. Just as suddenly as he’d grabbed her, Derrick released her and took a step back.