by Octavia Kore
She felt him jostle her and heard the grumbling of his alien tongue in her mind. He jerked his head toward something off to their left when she opened her eyes, and she flinched at the sight of the strange creature fluttering––well, hovering––nearby. When she and the others in their scavenging group had stepped into the forest, there’d hardly been any signs of life, no birds or insects anywhere. This butterfly-sized insect was like nothing she’d ever seen. Its face was similar to one of those little guppy fish they stocked in pet stores with two long, dangling back legs that swayed beneath it and a strange-looking frill arching over its head that spun like the blades of a helicopter.
The little insect bobbed for a moment longer before darting away, and Clara turned back to the male with a smile, not missing the way he tried to hide his grin as he began to move again. Clara felt herself relax when they reached the ground, but he didn’t set her down. They made their way through smaller trees and overgrown bushes covered in oddly shaped flowers. When her alien stepped into the underbrush, more of the guppy-faced insects propelled themselves into the air; their frills spinning as they scattered before them.
Not far from where she’d been staying stood another massive tree. She stared up into the branches and mentally shook herself. She hadn’t even thought about how she was going to find Layla after escaping her own tree, but she’d been able to communicate with her friend and that told her she couldn’t be very far. Clara had never officially tested her range, but there’d been times in the lab before her escape when she tried to speak to others and found it difficult if she was taken long distances. Adrenaline-fueled Clara also hadn’t taken into consideration how she was going to get back up and down a tree with someone else in tow without her rope. Okay, so her plan hadn’t been well thought out at all. She wasn’t the first or the last person in history to have a horrible idea.
Clara held on tight as the male began to climb, trying not to think about just how high they were. The sensation of falling, followed by the jolt as they landed on the narrow strip outside the treehouse, might have made her sick if she’d had anything in her stomach. As they passed through the barrier into the room, Clara’s eyes went straight to the pile of blankets and pillows. A head of dark hair was visible beneath one of the larger blankets, and Clara struggled in her alien’s arms until he finally set her on her feet. She rushed past the alien female who sat a few feet away with her legs stretched out before her and her arms crossed over her chest as she frowned at the male.
“Layla!” Clara spoke aloud, taking her friend by the arm and shaking her gently. “Hey, wake up!”
The other woman’s eyes flew open, and she stared up into Clara’s face, clearly surprised to find her within the treehouse. “How the hell did you get in here?”
Clara gestured behind her, where her alien and the female stood. “I got a lift.”
“How the hell did you manage to get him to bring you?” Layla asked, sitting up on her blanket pallet.
“I couldn’t reach you when I woke up, so I told him I’d just keep trying to escape again and again until he let me see you were safe with my own eyes.”
“Escape… again?” When Clara told her about her near accident on the rope, Layla’s eyes widened. “Are you crazy? God, Clara, you could have died, and I would have been the one losing my mind trying to figure out if you were alive.” Her friend took her hands and frowned down at the bindings. “Still?”
“I’m pretty sure it’s because I scared the hell out of him when I almost fell.” Clara squeezed Layla’s hands. “Are you sure you’re all right? You really did have me worried.”
“I’m fine. I was just kept up all night by Ms. Chatterbox over there. Con of her sudden desire to speak to me: I am exhausted. Pro of her sudden desire to speak to me: I’m fairly certain I’ve finally mastered their language. Ready for it?” Layla asked.
With her bound hands cradled in Layla’s palms, Clara took a deep breath and nodded. She knew from experience that the transfer of language could be overwhelming. During their time in the lab, Clara and Layla had been forced to do this on more than one occasion, and it always left her feeling a little out of sorts for a few moments afterward. “Let's have it.”
Heat encompassed her hands, racing up her arms before moving up the base of her skull. It was an unnerving sensation, like skeletal fingers raking over her scalp just before a chaotic burst of words filled her mind. Too much information! Clara’s vision went fuzzy a moment before she felt herself list to one side. Someone was touching her hair, their fingers moving over her face and neck as she struggled to regain control. She could feel the warmth of their breath on her skin as they spoke, and as her vision began to clear, Clara could make out her alien’s face suspended directly above her.
“Annih, are you all right?”
The deep voice in her mind sent a shiver down her spine. Being able to understand him, to know what he was saying to her, made that thick, syrupy voice all the more appealing. It slithered through her, coiling itself around her chest and constricting her lungs until they burned for oxygen. If he was the hunter, then she was definitely the prey, and Clara couldn’t say she minded that at all. She was snared, caught up in whatever web he was weaving. The male lifted her into his arms and she smiled as she brushed her fingertips over his lips.
“I can understand you.” He went so still that even with her body pressed against his chest, she could barely feel him breathing. “You all right, Mr. Big-Bad-and-Shifty?”
His brows drew down at her use of the nickname she’d given him. “What did you call me?” The corners of his mouth twitched.
“You never told me your name,” Clara shrugged. “And my name is Clara, not Annih.” The male’s smile grew. “Are you going to tell me your name, or should I keep calling you Mr. Big-Bad-and-Shifty?”
“Zaheer.”
“I knew it,” the female stepped forward, her eyes narrowed on Layla. “I knew she was beginning to understand me. How did you learn so quickly, female?”
“You’ve been speaking to her?” Zaheer asked. “Were my orders not clear?”
“Are you really going to reprimand me for speaking to the outsiders when I found you trying to mate this one?” The female gestured toward Clara whose cheeks immediately began to burn.
“Ivnalth,” Zaheer warned. “Enough.”
“Hold on, he tried to mate with you?” Layla asked, glaring at Zaheer. Her friend had often been mistaken for a meek little mouse, but Clara knew she could be a fierce little thing when necessary.
“It wasn’t what you’re thinking, Layla. We… it was consensual.” When Layla arched her brow, Clara smirked. “A girl has needs.”
“Look, I’m not judging, but…” She looked pointedly at Zaheer. “An alien?”
“Finally, someone other than me is making sense.” Ivnalth grinned as she crossed all four of her arms over her chest. “I might actually like this one.”
“Why don’t you go out and gather some fruit for the females?” Zaheer turned toward Ivnalth, his eyes narrowed as his jaw clenched. The female merely inclined her head before turning her back on them and disappearing through the barrier.
Layla pursed her lips. “Fruit? Are we skipping the orb broth today? It’s number one on my alien food list.”
Clara felt her stomach twist at the mention of the orbs, but when Zaheer gripped her chin, forcing her to look at him, she was grateful for the distraction. “Are you okay? You were falling before I even realized something was wrong.” One of his other hands came up to touch the flyaway strands of hair that framed her face.
The fur on his chest rippled, revealing glimpses of black skin beneath it, and Clara wondered if he was struggling to stay in control. As fascinating as she found his ability to shift, she really wasn’t up for another struggle snuggle with the hellhound just yet.
“I’m fine. I just got a little overwhelmed.” Zaheer helped her sit up when she wriggled in his arms, but he didn’t release her. “Is Ivnalth your sis
ter?”
“Ivnalth is my cousin. How is it you were both able to learn our tongue so quickly?”
Clara hesitated, not sure how much she should say. He’d answered her questions so far, and she couldn’t see the harm in telling him. She glanced at her friend, who nodded. “Layla has the ability to learn languages incredibly fast. Once she’s picked one up, she can transfer what she’s learned to others.”
“This is what she did with you? This transfer of language is what caused you to faint?” Zaheer asked.
Layla’s cheeks reddened, and she fidgeted with the edge of her blanket. “I can’t always control how fast the information is transferred to another person. I’m still learning to master the ability.”
“How did you understand our language?” Clara asked. She’d been curious about that since discovering that Maylu knew what she was saying.
“A guardian is able to understand any sentient being who comes into contact with their webs.”
Layla frowned. “I don’t remember walking into any webs while we were searching for food.”
Zaheer shook his head. “They would not have been visible. As guardians, we are capable of injecting our webs into the soil where they can spread throughout our tribe’s territory, converging in the center where my pack and I can monitor any movement along the threads. Any sentient being who walks, crawls, or slithers over the ground unknowingly gifts us with their language. It also allows us to locate prey and trespassers.” He grinned at Clara.
Spiders back on Earth could feel vibrations along their webs, so it didn’t surprise her that these aliens, who seemed to rely on them for so much, would be able to do the same. The rest of what he’d said, however, went way beyond a tiny Earth spider’s abilities. If what Zaheer told them was true, then the entire forest floor was blanketed in a giant web that gave these guardians what seemed to be psychic abilities.
“That’s how you found us that day?” The male nodded. “So you knew our language, knew that you could communicate with at least one of us, and you pretended not to know anything? You chose to ignore me when I reached out to you… All three of you let me believe that I had no way of communicating! Do you understand how frustrating and terrifying that is?” Clara felt her face heat as her anger rose to the surface.
The tips of Zaheer’s long, pointed ears twitched, and he had the decency to look somewhat remorseful. “I’m sure that it was not easy, and I apologize for upsetting you, but it is my responsibility as a guardian and as Alpha of my pack to ensure the safety of all those who call the Oparian tribe their home. I needed to know neither of you was a threat to them.”
The anger bubbling within Clara cooled some. Being responsible for the safety of so many must have been difficult, but that didn’t change how his actions made her feel. There’d been so many times over the years when people had tuned her out. People were often dismissive when you couldn’t communicate in a way that was easy for them. When it was clear that Zaheer, Ivnalth, and Maylu were purposefully ignoring her attempts to connect with them, it had reminded her of the days before she’d gotten her implant and of those afterward when her battery would die.
Their words still echoed in her mind.
We’ll just tell you later. Oh, never mind. It’s not important.
She’d learned sign language as a small child, but there weren’t many people in her life at that point—or at any point really—who could be bothered to do the same. Clara had felt like a burden, like she wasn’t important enough for anyone to go through the hassle of learning a new way to understand her. Zaheer may have had good intentions, but that didn’t change the fact that it hurt.
“Are the others who were with us that day okay?”
“Yes.”
“Are they also being held here?”
“No, we only brought the two of you back with us.”
“Do you still think Layla and I could be a threat?” Zaheer’s finger glided over her freckled cheek, and he shook his head. Clara raised her bound wrists. “Great, so do you think you could release me?” She might be able to speak with her mind now, but it still felt as if someone was holding their hand over her mouth when she couldn’t gesture freely. It was one more avenue of communication that had been taken away, however unintentionally.
Zaheer slipped his finger beneath the threads, and with nothing more than a quick flick of his wrist, the threads fell away. Clara rubbed at her tender wrists and frowned when she noticed the strange pattern the webbing seemed to have left on her skin. The cuffs of her suit were damaged, and it looked as if the threads had somehow eaten their way through the black material. Ivnalth’s webs had never burned her or damaged her seemingly indestructible suit, but the markings were unmistakable. Had that been the cause of the pain she’d felt moments after he’d bound her last night?
“These were not there before,” he said. “I don’t understand…” The feather soft brush of his fingers over the lines sent goosebumps racing over her body.
“Are those burn marks?” Layla asked.
“I hope the two of you appreciate the trouble I just went through to find these,” Ivnalth said as she stepped through the barrier. “The nesting skalldina wasn’t thrilled with me getting so close to her––” The female’s words came to a halt when her gaze found the markings. “What have you done?” she asked through the link before speaking to her cousin aloud.
Clara watched her lips move and didn’t miss the way Zaheer stiffened as his head jerked toward her. With her brows pinched together in annoyance, Clara tapped Layla on the leg to get her attention before signing, asking her to interpret the conversation she was missing out on. Layla nodded as her hands and fingers began to move. They were arguing, that much had been clear without her friend’s assistance, but Layla’s hands couldn’t keep up. Ivnalth was calling Zaheer selfish and saying he’d put his own feelings over the wellbeing of the pack and that people could die because of him. None of that made sense, and from the look on her friend’s face, Clara gathered that she wasn’t the only one confused.
“Hey!” Layla shouted. “You know damn well she can’t hear you. If you’re going to talk about my friend, at least have the decency to say it to her face.”
Ivnalth glared down at Layla, but when she spoke again, Clara could hear the despair in her voice. “How could you do this, Zaheer?”
“Ivnalth, I don’t know how…” Zaheer began, but his cousin obviously wasn’t in the mood to listen to whatever he had to say. With her lip curled and her eyes narrowed and glassy, Ivnalth dropped the fruit to the floor and ran from the small room.
The barrier wobbled for a moment with the force of her departure, and Clara met Layla’s confused gaze. Was the female upset that he’d hurt her, or was there something else going on?
“Zaheer?” Clara pressed her hand to his chest, feeling the frantic beat of his heart beneath her palm. “What’s going on?”
Without responding, Zaheer lifted her from his lap, placing her on the blankets next to Layla as he moved to retrieve the fallen fruit. She waited quietly, not sure if she should press him for an answer or give him some time to think. Deciding on the latter, she and Layla watched as he broke open the bumpy-skinned fruit.
“Eat only the white flesh within it.”
They took what he offered, enthusiastically digging into their meal. The fruit was deliciously sweet like an orange, with a texture like stringy, nearly solid custard. It was strange, but not nearly bad enough to keep either of them from devouring their share.
“Are you satisfied your friend is safe now?” Zaheer asked, standing above her.
Seeing Layla had put a lot of her fears to rest, but there were still so many things she wasn’t sure about. “Well, I don’t think either of us is in immediate danger—”
“Good.” Clara gasped as Zaheer swooped down and lifted her into his lower arms. “We will leave now.”
“Hey!” Her protests were ignored, and before she could even say goodbye to Layla, Zaheer was through the
barrier. She had little choice but to hold on as he hopped into the branches and began his swift descent.
Chapter 12
Zaheer
Zaheer rushed through the thinning underbrush, any concern about stealth forgotten as he headed for the river with his female clutched to his chest.
Our tsa, his guardian corrected.
The beast was pleased beyond reason at the brands on Clara’s wrists, but Zaheer’s stomach was twisted into knots over the fact that he had done this. Mating marks among the Krunkeeli were unique to each pair. He’d known for nearly his entire life that he would never take a mate and would never experience seeing his mark appear on her, but as with everything else in his life recently, Clara had changed that.
Zaheer hadn’t meant for them to form, and if he were being honest, he had no idea why they’d formed in the first place. There was no reason for the guardians to be taught about mating marks or anything related to them when they were forbidden from taking a mate. Perhaps it was something mothers and fathers taught their pups, but he’d left his family at such a young age that he couldn’t recall ever hearing about it from them.
Ivnalth was the first to bind Clara and Layla’s wrists, yet neither one of the alien females had reacted this way. What was it that he’d done differently?
Emotions warred within Zaheer as he approached the river with his silent female in his arms. Krunkeeli mated for life, which meant this was something he couldn’t simply undo or take back. His gaze strayed down to the slender fingers she trailed over the skin on her wrists, and something entirely barbaric moved through him as his guardian purred. Something this forbidden shouldn’t feel so… right.
Something this right shouldn’t be forbidden, his guardian countered.
How would she react when he finally explained that he’d taken her choice away? It didn’t matter that he hadn’t done this on purpose; he was her mate now, whether either of them liked it or not.