by Ruby Dixon
I’m about to come so, so hard.
It doesn’t take long. I rock my hips, pushing against his fingers as he caresses my clit and clinging to him like a monkey as my body ratchets up into an orgasm. When I explode, it’s almost impossible to do it in silence, and I end up making a loud, choking gasp as I cream and more wetness coats his hand. He inhales sharply and then his hand goes to his mouth again.
He can’t get enough of me, that sexy beast.
Josie snorts in her sleep and then rolls over. I freeze, holding on to Salukh, but she doesn’t wake up. Eventually I relax, and he tucks the blankets around my body and pulls me close against him.
“You have given me a gift this night, Tee-fah-nee,” he whispers, barely audible. “I shall never forget.”
Me either. Tonight seems to be imprinted into my brain, and I welcome it. I’d love for Salukh to crowd out all of the bad memories left behind until there’s nothing but gorgeous blue alien in my brain.
This time, when I fall asleep, there are no shadows. No bad dreams. Just blue skin and warm bodies.
Chapter Ten
SALUKH
Now, I tell my khui. Claim her now. Resonate. We will take her as ours and put my kit inside her.
But my cursed khui is utterly silent, the traitor. Surely it wants the same thing I do? I feel the need to take Tee-fah-nee as my own like I need the air to breathe, or water to drink. She is mine, and I want the world to know it. I want to see her rounded with my kit. I want her in my furs every night for the rest of our lives, putting her small, cold human feet against my legs like she is right now.
This is all I have ever wanted. Yet my khui denies me. For a brief, shining moment, I hate it. I hate that it will not recognize her as mine and resonate. My arms tighten around her and I force myself to breathe deep. I must be calm. Tee-fah-nee will be mine in time. If not now, then soon. I merely have to wait for her khui to sing to mine, or mine to hers. It will happen.
Reluctantly, I rise from her furs. The morning is coming, and I must slip out of her cave and back into my own before anyone sees. She does not want questions, and I do not wish trouble upon her. There will come a day when I can announce proudly to the tribe that she is mine, and if it clenches in my gut that I must sneak away, I will swallow it down for her sake.
I tie the laces of my leggings again, my cock hardening as I think about last night, and the way Tee-fah-nee moved all over me, her mouth on my skin. Being with her has exceeded all of my expectations. I know what is done in the furs – I have watched others claim their mates. Privacy is impossible with such crowded caves. But the humans seem to have different ideas, and it explains several of the wide grins of the mated men. I look forward to exploring more things with Tee-fah-nee.
I’m still caught up in thoughts of her when I push aside the privacy screen covering their cave and enter the main cavern. Maybe that’s why I don’t realize that Hassen is by the central fire pit until he throws down the spear he’s sharpening and lunges for me.
“Betrayer!” he snarls and knocks me to the ground. “She belongs to me!”
A rush of emotions sweeps through me at his words. I briefly understand his anger. To him, I am going behind his back and stealing the female he is pursuing. But my own possessive need sweeps through me, overpowering all other thoughts.
Tee-fah-nee is mine. No one else will touch her but me. No one else will drink the sweet juice from her cunt but me. All of her belongs to me. She is my mate.
Hassen’s body slams into mine and he reaches for one of my horns, to twist it and make me yield. Never. I am stronger than he is, and I thrust him aside with a straight arm and then roll to my feet. “You have no claim on her.”
He snarls at me and lowers his head, pointing his horns in my direction. It’s a sign of aggression. “She will be mine and you are trying to steal her from under my nose!”
“She is not yours.” I shout the words and fling myself forward, my horns crashing into his. We buck against each other, feet scuffing on the rock floor. Our arms lock together and we grapple, trying to get the upper hand. I will never give up, though. Tee-fah-nee is mine, and losing to him is not an option.
His foot kicks mine out from under me, and I drop to a knee. A moment later he pounces on me again, and then we roll once more, until I have the upper hand. I sit on his chest, my hand gripping a handful of his hair as he snarls up at me.
“Stop!”
I dimly hear Aehako’s voice over the blood rushing through my ears. The cave seems to be full of sound now, despite the early hour. There are cries and angry shouts and loud gasps that filter in over the pounding of my heart.
An angry hand grabs one of my horns and wrenches me back. Aehako glares down at me. “Cease this!”
I fling his hand off and slowly get to my feet. The cavern is full of people, most of them newly risen from sleep. Tee-fah-nee is one, and she’s looking at me with horror and confusion as I loom over Hassen. Nearby, Taushen and Vaza talk in low voices, anger on their faces. Bek looks as if he’s ready to lunge into the fight and join Hassen to bring me down.
This is…not right. I did not start it, but I should not continue it.
“What is going on with you?” Aehako shouts, glaring at both myself and Hassen. “You brawl like two ill-behaved kits!”
I look over at Tee-fah-nee. She’s now flanked by Aehako’s mate, Kira, and Josie. All three women look shocked at the display, and I’m not surprised. It’s not often that the males of the tribe fight. I refuse to feel ashamed, though. I will fight for my mate.
Hassen gets to his feet slowly, glaring hate at me. He wipes a bit of blood from the corner of his mouth, and I am shocked to see it. I did not even realize I had struck him. “I started the fight.”
“Why?” Aehako steps between us, as if we will claw at each other again.
“Because I found him emerging from Tef-i-nee’s furs!” Hassen’s nostrils flare with anger and his fists clench. “He thinks to steal her while we work on our courting competition!”
Bek growls low in his throat nearby.
Aehako points at him and shakes his head. “Do not even consider it.” He looks at me, and there is reproach in his normally laughing eyes. “Is this true?”
I straighten. “She is my mate.”
More angry growls.
Aehako’s brows rise. “Did you resonate?”
“Not yet.”
He gives me an exasperated look. “Then you have both chosen to be heart mates and the contest should end?”
I say nothing. I have not declared my thoughts to Tee-fah-nee, and I’m ashamed I did so just now.
“Well?” Aehako looks past me over to the humans. “Do you claim this one as your heart-mate until one of you resonates to another?”
My body tenses, and I want to hear the words spill forth from her mouth. I want her to claim me as her own. I want to show the others that she cares for me as I do for her. That the bond between us is real.
But Tee-fah-nee is frozen in place. Her entire body is trembling, and she clutches the furs to her shoulders. Her normally dusky face is bleached pale, and her nervous gaze flicks back and forth between all of the angry men.
She doesn’t look at me and my heart sinks. She will not claim me this day, then.
Aehako claps me on my shoulder. “That is your answer, my friend. Any claim to her is in your mind. If you want her favor, it is only fair that you join the competition with the others, or we call the entire thing off.”
My jaw clenches, but I force myself to nod. “Then I will join the competition.”
“Bah,” Hassen says. He throws his hands in the air and stalks away to his furs. “This is madness! All of this competition and not an end to be had.”
“He speaks truth,” Aehako says, and casts a stern glance over at the humans. “We are not familiar with your ways, but surely there must be an end to the game at some point?”
“O-one more round,” Josie stammers. “One big round and then the w
inner will be chosen.”
“Then that solves it.” Aehako nods at me. “No more fighting. Understand?”
I understand. I will need all of my strength and skill to best the others, because they will all now be coming after me.
TIFFANY
I hide in my cave all day.
I’m not ashamed of what I did with Salukh. I feel good about it. But I’m ashamed that we got caught. That the others stared at me with such anger and reproach, and I can’t blame them. I’ve been making them run through hoops – courtesy of Josie’s competition – to get my ‘favor’ and then I take another guy to bed? Of course they freak out. The sa-khui aren’t judgy people, and I suspect if I’d have let Hassen or another into my furs, they wouldn’t have batted an eye. It’s that Salukh wasn’t even competing for me that made the other men upset.
Not that Salukh is safe anymore, either.
I didn’t speak up to claim him. How can I, when resonance effectively negates any sort of relationship? And there’s no reason why I haven’t resonated yet, which means it’s just a matter of time. How can I claim him and then abandon him?
There’s a more cowardly reason behind my silence, though. I looked at the faces of my suitors – Hassen, Bek, Vaza, and Taushen, and saw anger in their faces. It frightened me. I spiraled right back to that awful mental state of fear, and couldn’t act. All I could think about was the fight between Hassen and Salukh, and how the spurned males would act toward me after making them do the competition. They’d hate me…or worse. And while I haven’t seen violence against women so far? I’ve seen enough ‘firsts’ with the human-sa-khui inbreeding that I don’t want to be the first case of a woman taken against her will. These men are hard up as it is. To come this close to ‘getting’ a girl and then someone else swoops in? It could break even a stable mind.
So I hide like a coward and hate myself for doing so. I want to be brave. I want to more than anything. But every time I think about leaving my cave and speaking up, my body freezes in terror and I can’t breathe.
In the end, I say nothing.
Josie doesn’t offer any sort of recrimination, though. She’s a good friend. She goes out to the central fire and gets me breakfast when I’m too afraid to go and get my own. She heads off with Aehako in the afternoon to go over the rest of the ‘competition’ because he wants to see it done – and me selecting a winner – to keep the tribe harmony.
I nap in my furs, but even that makes me sad because they still smell faintly of Salukh’s warm, spicy skin and I wonder if I’ve ruined everything. He says he’ll fight for me with the others, but will he be upset if he loses? Will the others freak out if he wins? What am I going to do if he doesn’t win? The others have more of the seeds that Josie’s been handing out as prizes. The gnawing knot in the pit of my stomach only grows worse.
“Knock knock,” calls Kira, interrupting my self-flagellating thoughts. “Can I come in?”
I sit up in my furs and adjust my clothing. “Sure. Come on in.”
She ducks into the cave a moment later, baby in her arms. “I see Farli’s watching over Chompy.”
“Again. Yup.” Just another thing I feel guilty about, though I do feel less guilt over that aspect because Farli gets such pleasure from taking care of the small dvisti.
“I hadn’t seen you all day and thought I’d stop by and see how you were doing.” Her smile is faint.
“I’m doing terrible, thanks for asking.” I get up and pull out an overstuffed pillow for her to sit on, and place it across from the fire pit. “How about you?”
“Oh, I’m fine. A little sleep deprived, but good overall.” She sits down in one fluid motion and crosses her legs on the pillow, all without disturbing the baby cradled in her arms. “But I didn’t come here to talk about me.”
“Yeah, I figured.” I give her a half-smile and sit back down in my blankets again. “Aehako mad?”
“Not at you. He’s furious the men started a fight, though. He likes to keep the peace.” She pulls the furs back from Kae’s round little face and glances over at me. “A lot of it has to do with the competition.”
I nod glumly. I hate that I’m the problem. I like to fly under the radar, to skate by attention. Lately it seems I can’t do that at all. I don’t blame Aehako for stepping in and laying down the law, though. He’s not the chief – that’s Vektal, Georgie’s mate – but while we live in the South caves, he’s our leader. And it’s hard to piss off easygoing, smiling Aehako, which means that things are worse than I think. Greaaat. “In retrospect, the competition was probably a stupid idea. We just didn’t know what to do to get them off my back.”
“Well, sleeping with someone else probably wasn’t the way to do it.”
Ouch. “Thanks.”
“Sorry.” She sighs. “I’m not judging, I’m really not, Tiff. But I don’t understand. Why make everyone compete for your attention if you don’t want any of them?”
I pull my blankets over my shoulders and stare at the small fire in our cave. Probably needs another dung chip added to it but I can’t bring myself to get up. I shrug my shoulders. I never told Kira that I was raped by the aliens – the basketball heads. I told everyone that they’d just examined me on a medical table. No more. Backtracking now seems like a lot of work and talking about things I don’t ever want to think about again. “I didn’t know how to say no to them.”
The words sound lame even as they leave my mouth.
“So say no now!” Kira exclaims. “Tell them you’ve picked Salukh and call everything off.”
I can’t, though. I can’t call everything off because I’m terrified of their anger. What if I declare that I want Salukh and then two days later, I resonate to someone like Bek? He won’t be kind and understanding, and I’ll be stuck with him, having his babies. It’d be a nightmare scenario.
However bad things are, I’m safer at the moment by taking no action.
Kira sighs again. She reaches out and touches my knee. “You can talk to me.”
“It’s hard to explain.” My head’s a mess and I’m living in terror. I want to be like Josie where she only looks ahead, never behind.
“Then you won’t call it off?”
I’m silent.
“Then you have to live with the consequences, Tiff.”
Like I don’t already know that?
Chapter Eleven
TIFFANY
I sleep in my furs alone that evening, and the nightmares return. Nightmares of being grabbed and held down, nightmares of men pushing me to do things against my will. This time, instead of the aliens, they have familiar faces – Vaza and Taushen. I wake up in a cold sweat, shuddering, and spend the rest of the night staring at the embers of the fire and wishing I wasn’t such a coward.
Josie wakes me up the next morning. “You sleeping in?”
“I’m not now.” I rub the sleep out of my eyes and I feel as if I’ve been stomped on. Ugh. “What’s up?”
“We’re about to start the final round and Aehako wants you there.”
Ugh. I’ll have to face my actions after all. “All right.”
“Dress warm, we’re going outside.”
I nod and get dressed in my warm layers. Time to face the firing squad. Josie remains at my side, and I’m grateful for her presence. As we pass through the main cavern, I notice it’s rather empty, and I get a funny feeling in the pit of my stomach. The funny feeling continues when we trek out into the snow and I notice it’s churned up from many booted feet heading out before us.
I’m not surprised when we follow the cliff wall and I see everyone’s waiting for us out in the snow. Kira, Farli, the elders, even grumpy Haeden. The five men are off to one side, Salukh standing proudly at the end of the line. He gives me another devouring gaze and I feel like a jerk for letting him down. I should speak up, call the whole thing off.
Then I look over at the other four men. They’re casting me angry, betrayed looks, and my bravado fails. Any protest I want to make dies in
my throat. I want to race back to the safety of my cave, but Josie puts an arm around my waist and leads me to stand next to Aehako off to one side.
“This is the final round of the competition,” Josie declares. “Let’s have a quick seed count update before we start, shall we? Hassen, how many?”
Hassen steps forward and shoots me a burning look. “Three.”
Taushen is next. His smile is wide and proud. “Four.”
Vaza moves up next. “One.”
Then Bek. “One.”
I’m not surprised that Hassen is doing well, but I am a little surprised that wiry, excitable Taushen is in the lead. I smile to try and ward off the unhappy looks being cast in my direction, like I’m pleased with the results.
Salukh steps forward. “None.”
There’s an awkward silence. I glance away, because I can’t look over and see the unspoken demand in his eyes. I know what he wants me to do. I’m just so afraid.
Josie speaks again. “Today’s contest is split into four parts, and that means there will be four seeds up for grabs. Whoever ends up with the most seeds at the end of the day will be the winner. If there is a tie, we’ll hold one final competition between the two as a tiebreaker.”
Clever Josie. She’s giving Salukh a chance to catch up. I could hug her right about now.
“And then after this,” Aehako interrupts, stepping forward to the center of the group. He casts a stern look at the men. “No more fighting over her attention.”
“I just want to clarify that this contest is just to escort Tiffany to the Elders’ Cave,” Josie protests. “Not her hand in marriage.”
Off to one side, I hear an irritated snort that sounds as if it’s coming from Haeden. He intensely dislikes Josie, and I have no idea why.