“L’zabet was traveling to our cabin in Montana.”
“But that is in the area of the storm.” After the conversation yesterday, he had inspected a weather map. All of the northern states were under a blizzard advisory, but he had not realized why it would be of concern to T’chok. He had foolishly overlooked the cabin. “How could you have let her go?”
“At the time, I did not realize that the weather might present an issue.” T’chok scowled, his horns drawing together. “She called the first night, but we have not had any further communication. At first it did not concern me because, as much as I hate to admit it, she is an adult. But we have been trying to reach her since yesterday and there is no response. She knows how to handle these conditions and I hope that the transmission is simply blocked by the storm, but I admit that I am concerned.”
“I will go after her,” he said immediately. Since they were not meeting with the Icluthians today, his remaining duties were easily redistributed.
“I suspected you would.” T’chok tapped his claws together. “I am still not sure that it is an advisable course, especially since she left in order to avoid your presence.”
“She wished to avoid me?” Guilt washed over him. He had never meant to cause her pain.
“Your fears—your concern, if you prefer—have hurt her. She thinks you do not wish to claim her. If you go after her, are you prepared to be honest with her?”
“I am prepared for more than that,” he said grimly. Conviction filled him as he pushed aside the past. “Restlessness is one thing, but I will not permit her to put herself in danger. I believe it is time to claim my reckless little mate.”
His hearts lifted with the words and his doubts melted away. He would do whatever it took to keep her happy, but he would not wait any longer. It was time.
T’chok nodded. “Very well. But if you hurt her again, be prepared to meet me in the challenge arena.”
It was not an idle threat—T’chok’s prowess in horn-to-horn combat was well known.
“I will not hurt her,” he vowed. “Will you provide me with directions to the cabin?”
“Yes.” T’chok hesitated, and the worried look returned. “There is another location I wish you to check as well. The truck has a tracker. I checked it last night and it stopped transmitting along the route. This was around the same time the storm occurred, so it is quite possible that this is also due to interference.”
“I will check that location first,” he promised.
Ten minutes later he had gathered his supplies and was on his way. According to the weather forecast, there was a brief break in the storm, although it would return in full force later in the day. He was determined to find his mate before it did.
When he came to the coordinates T’chok had given him, nothing disturbed the blanket of white covering the road, the expanse of prairie to one side, and the rocky hills to the other. He swept back and forth over the area for several minutes before he picked up the faintest trace from the tracker. His hearts pounding, he brought the flyer in for a landing on the snow-covered road. The signal seemed to be coming from the area next to it. He headed in that direction and immediately plunged into a deep ditch filled with snow. His shoulder struck something hard and metallic and he dug at it with frantic hands. A bumper emerged and his hearts sank as he recognized the sarcastic bumper sticker. Gritting his teeth, he set his blast tube to a low flame and forced himself to maintain a slow pace as he began carefully melting away the surrounding snow. As soon as the window was clear, he peered inside, his stomach churning with apprehension at what he would find.
The cab was empty. His immense relief was rapidly tempered by concern. Where had she gone? Surely, she would have stayed close to the truck. As he climbed back out of the ditch and looked around at the vast white emptiness, all he could think to do was call her name. He strode up and down the road calling her name until he was hoarse, his voice muffled by the snow and the clouds gathering on the horizon. It wasn’t until the first snowflake hit his face that he had another thought.
Before she left for college, he had given her a necklace. The stone was a rare dargan from Jakuta Prime, renowned for its delicate beauty; however, it also emitted a low-level resonance. With any luck he could track that frequency. He knew she loved the necklace—he had never seen her without it. If she still wore it… If she hadn’t been hurt and angry enough to discard it…
His hands fumbled as he adjusted his scanner, made clumsy by more than cold. There! The signal was a considerable distance away and very weak, but he was sure he had found her.
The flyer took him part of the way, but the signal came from deeper amongst the rocks where he couldn’t land. He would have to make the remaining journey on foot. Shouldering his supplies, he began to climb.
“Eight fathers?” Lizabet asked Hisst the next morning. They were curled up on the makeshift bed they had made from covering the pile of leaves with the remnants of the parachute, and Hisst was telling her about his childhood. Despite playing numerous card games, both human and Icluthian, she hadn’t succeeded in establishing any distance between them. Truthfully, she found she didn’t want to push him away emotionally or physically. He liked touching her—a hand on her foot when they were playing a game, his arm around her shoulders when they were just talking. Even though she had always hated people getting too close to her, she found herself relaxing into his touch and even initiating touches of her own.
The storm hadn’t abated, and when it came time to sleep, they’d had an extended discussion of sleeping arrangements before she sighed and insisted that they share the primitive bed. Once again, she had awoken wrapped in his arms, her nipples hard and her pussy aching. By the bulge in his suit, he was equally affected but they both pretended to ignore the underlying tension. Instead, they snuggled together and talked.
“Eight?” she said again and shook her head. “I only had one and he was a worthless piece of shit. Still, I suppose it made me appreciate T’chok even more.”
“T’chok?” He frowned. “That sounds like a Yehrin name.”
“It is. I guess you could say he adopted me after the Yehrin invaded.”
“Adopted?” He tilted his head to the side the way he did when he was considering. “Ah. You mean he took you into his zimene.”
“If you say so.”
“Zimene means a family unit. A queen, her brace, and their offspring.”
“Her brace?” She remembered that he had used that term before, but she wasn’t sure what it meant.
“A queen’s chosen males. She always begins with two, then adds to it when she finds desirable males. My dam was negotiating for a ninth just before this trip,” he said, sounding gloomy.
“Nine? Why would she need nine males?”
“The latest male, Lessoran, belongs to a very important zimene. It would be a prestigious match.”
“Does she love him?”
“He arouses her.”
“That’s not exactly what I asked. But nine males…” She shook her head. “I can’t imagine.”
“I’m afraid it is not uncommon.” His body went oddly still. “Do you really not have a brace, Lissie? Not a single male?”
“Not even half a one.” She laughed and hoped it didn’t sound bitter. “No one wants me.”
“That is inconceivable,” he said, and his obvious disbelief was like balm to her heartache. She snuggled into his side. He pulled her closer and they laid together in contented silence until she realized that it was silent both within the cave and without.
“Listen,” she said around a yawn. Despite her pleasant languor, she needed to remember that they were still in danger. “The wind has died down.”
“Yes, my queen,” he said absently. He was stroking her arm, but the tips of his fingers were brushing her breasts and she could feel her arousal beginning to build again. His scent grew stronger.
“If the storm has died down, I can probably make it out to the road. I could leave a
marker in case anyone is looking—Oh, God, that feels good.”
“I don’t want you to leave,” he whispered, as his hand slid round to fully cover her breast.
“Stop that and listen to me,” she said, and he reluctantly obeyed. “We can’t remain here forever. We need more food and you need to get away from the cold. Someone is going to come looking for one of us and they need to be able to find us.”
“I don’t like the thought of you going alone. It is my honor to protect you.”
The word honor reminded her of T’kol, and her eyes filled with unexpected tears. She was here with an alien who seemed to adore her after knowing her for two days. Why couldn’t she forget the one who hadn’t returned her affections after seven years?
“Is something wrong, my queen?”
“No. Just memories.” She dashed an impatient hand across her face. “But, seriously, the wind has died down and the storm must have abated. There is more light behind the door flap.”
They both turned to look at the thin red cloth just in time to see it darken. At first, she thought the clouds had returned and then she realized that there was someone, or something, outside the door. Before she could react, Hisst grabbed the blast tube, rolled over to get between her and the door, and fired. A loud crash sounded from outside, followed by a horrible slithering noise. Whatever was out there had just gone sliding down the mountain.
“What was that?” she whispered.
“I do not know.” Still crouched protectively between her and the entrance, Hisst looked completely different from the sweet, curious alien who had been cuddling with her. Instead, he looked every inch a warrior and her pussy gave an excited little pulse before she forced herself to concentrate. This was not the time. She started searching for her coat and gloves.
“What are you doing?” he asked, his eyes still on the door flap.
“I’m going to find out what that was. And if it’s still alive.”
“I only stunned it,” he said a little defensively.
“But it went sliding down the mountain. If it’s an animal and it’s injured, I may have to put it out of its misery.” She didn’t like the idea, but she liked the idea of leaving it to suffer even less. “It’s also possible that it’s edible.”
Hisst started to pull on the pieces of her clothing again.
“You don’t need to come with me,” she protested. “It’s much too cold.”
“I’m coming.”
“Fine. While you’re getting dressed, I’m just going to take a quick peek.”
“Lissie, wait,” he called, but she was already through the flap.
The first thing she saw was black Yehrin-issue duffel. Oh no. Who had come after her? T’chok? T’kol? Her heart started racing as she saw the path through the snow where someone large and heavy had slid down the steep hillside. Her only thought to find the person at the end, she raced down the cleared trail, barely keeping her balance. She came around a final boulder and found T’kol, sprawled against a rock, his lower leg at an awkward angle, obviously broken.
“No, no, please, no.” She went to her knees next to him, tears streaming down her face as she felt for his pulse. Oh, thank God. It maintained a steady beat beneath her fingers. She lowered her face to his and felt his warm breath. Still crying, she kissed his face over and over.
“Lissie, I told you to wait for me.” Hisst came skidding around the boulder and stopped abruptly. “Who is that?”
“It’s T’kol. He must have come looking for me and we shot him and now I think his leg is broken,” she wailed.
“He is your warrior?” His voice held an odd note, but she was too upset to worry about it.
“Yes, of course, he is. What are we going to do?”
“I can carry him,” he said. “But it will have to be quickly, before I lose my body heat.”
He had her clothing wrapped around him again, but it was very little protection against the frigid air.
“What about his leg?”
“We will attend to it once we are back in the cave.”
Without hesitating, he bent forward and picked up T’kol’s massive body and threw it over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry. If she hadn’t been consumed with worry, she would have been awed by his strength.
The trip back up the rocky hillside was agonizing. Hisst never faltered but his steps grew increasingly slow. He barely made the last few steps up to the cave, but he placed T’kol carefully on the ground just outside.
“Go inside, right now,” she said. “I’ll see if I can drag him the rest of the way, but if I can’t you can help me as soon as you get warm.”
“Go,” she repeated when he hesitated, and he finally ducked his head and entered.
She tried to move T’kol and immediately realized she was going to need Hisst’s help again. And what were they going to do about his leg? Her knowledge of medicine was almost non-existent, but she was pretty sure you put a splint on a broken leg. A few scraggly bushes comprised the only vegetation in the immediate area, but they would have to do.
“I have recovered,” Hisst said a few minutes later, but from the slow drag to his voice, she wasn’t sure she believed him.
“Can you pull him inside? And hand me your knife? I’m going to see if I can find something to use as a splint.” She hated to leave T’kol, but she was the only one who could handle the cold.
“Don’t go far,” he ordered, as he handed her the knife.
“I won’t.” She started to pick up the duffle, but it weighed a ton. “Can you get this too? There may be something inside that will help.”
He nodded and she dropped a quick kiss on T’kol’s head between his horns. “I’ll be right back.”
When she returned a few minutes later with the straightest branches she’d been able to find, T’kol was inside the cave, her pack under his head, and his leg straightened. It looked much better, but she regarded it uncertainly.
“Should you have done that?” she asked.
“I have basic medical training,” Hisst said, his voice cool. “It appears to be a clean break and the Yehrin heal quickly. It needed to be aligned as soon as possible.” He took two of the branches she had cut, and, with the help of some of the parachute cord, tied them in place around T’kol’s leg. “That is the most we can do for right now. Once he awakens, we can ask him if there is anything further that should be done.”
He turned to her, his face rigid and somehow more alien than he had appeared since they first met. “Now, Lissie. Who is this warrior of yours?”
Chapter Nine
Lissie only stared at him and Hisst had a hard time biting back a growl.
“You should remove his weapons,” he said, trying to keep his voice even despite his frustration. His Lissie had said she had no brace, and yet she had claimed this warrior on sight. He should have known when he saw the valuable dargan stone that she was being courted. So much for the hope he had begun to entertain that she would be willing to form a brace with him. He had even started considering the other unattached males on the mission to see if any of them might be worthy candidates. How foolish he had been.
“Remove his weapons?” she repeated. “Why?”
“Because he is a warrior. When he regains consciousness, his first instinct will be to attack.” During his combat mission, he had seen the Yehrin fight. They were fast, aggressive, and deadly. His queen—Lissie—did not need to be in an enclosed space with an enraged warrior. The already small cave seemed to have shrunk with the addition of the third occupant. Without the horns, he and Hisst would have been of a similar height, but the other male was built along more powerful lines.
“He would never hurt me,” she said. He let his silence respond, and she flushed. Unfortunately, he recognized that this time, the enticing color was not the result of desire, even though his kradx automatically responded. “And I would never let him hurt you, either.”
“You will not get between us,” he ordered. If it did come to blows, he di
dn’t want her to make any foolish attempts to interfere.
“Why would I need to? He has a fucking broken leg.”
“He is a warrior.”
She stared at him for a minute, then threw up her hands. “Fine. Whatever.” She bent over and removed the blast tube, nano sword, and knife from the warrior’s belt, then hesitated. “Where should I put them?”
“Anywhere as long as they are out of reach.”
“I still think this is foolish,” she said, but she took the weapons and hid them behind the bed of leaves before returning to kneel at the warrior’s side. “T’kol is a very reasonable male. He’s a master at not letting himself be swayed by emotion.”
The bitterness in her voice struck a familiar note.
“Is he the one? The one you said did not want you?”
Despite his lingering hurt and frustration, he could have bitten his tongue when she paled, and tears appeared in her eyes.
“Yes, he is, all right? I’m surprised he even came looking for me. T’chok must have put him up to it.”
“But you care for him?”
“The first time I saw him, I felt the connection between us.” Her eyes softened for a second before her furred brows drew together. “I thought he felt it too, even though he never made me any promises because he always said I was too young. Now I think it was just a fucking excuse.”
“I was concerned about your age as well,” he felt obligated to mention.
“Yeah, but once you realized I wasn’t underage, you didn’t hesitate.” She gave him a sideways look and he was sure that this time her color was caused by desire, even if only by the memory of their shared encounters.
“I wanted you too much,” he said honestly.
“Why?” she asked bluntly. “Because you’ve never been with a female before? Never, um, extruded?”
“No. I have been around queens, many queens.” Did she frown at that? “But none of them caused my kradx to stir. You said you felt a sense of connection with that warrior. That is how I felt with you—that we should be together. I had hoped you felt the same.”
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