by Ruby Dixon
I can feel my eyes bugging in my head. “Does this happen often?” I mean, I’ve seen snow since we landed here, but not twenty feet at once.
“This storm is an outlier and unusual in size and strength. Systems such as this tend to occur over water but rarely make it far inland.”
Sounds a lot like a hurricane or a typhoon to me. A snow-hurricane. Crap, crap, and double crap. “When is it going to hit us? Tell me in hours.”
“Snowfall will begin in less than twelve hours. The storm’s full impact will be felt twenty-six to thirty human hours from now.”
That did not leave a lot of time. Shit.
“Mmm, what’s twenty-six to thirty human hours from now?” Josie asks sleepily. She pads over to me and looks over my shoulder, yawning.
“Trouble,” I tell her. “We need to find the guys.”
• • •
Taushen arrives at the same time Salukh does, and I’m relieved to see them both. I quickly explain the situation, and show them the map. “We have to warn both caves,” I tell them. “Anyone that’s out on the trails is going to be cut off from the cave and vice versa. We need to warn everyone so no one is caught unprepared. You both need to leave and leave now. One of you go to the South cave, and one go to the main tribal cave.”
Taushen nods and grabs his spear, even as Salukh shakes his head. “And what about you and Jo-see,” he says. “You will be trapped here and you will starve to death.”
“We can all go back,” Josie says. “Salukh can carry you—“
“We will not go fast if I carry Tee-fah-nee,” he says. “That is not a solution.” He looks right at me with those intense eyes. “I will stay here and take care of Tee-fah-nee.”
I look over at Taushen, but he nods like this is the right thing to do. “But what about the caves? Taushen can’t run to both.”
“Hello, two perfectly good feet right here,” Josie says, waving a hand. “I’ll go.”
Both men frown at her.
“Oh, come on. Liz does this sort of thing all the time! I’m not so fragile.” She flexes an arm.
“You are female and must be protected,” Taushen says.
“Gross. Do not even try that.” Josie puts her hands on her hips. “Thing is, someone competent needs to stay behind and care for Tiff. I’m not great at hunting but I can walk like a champ, okay? So you might as well let me go to one cave, you go to the other,” she points at Taushen. “Everyone’s warned. Tiff and Salukh stay here until her leg gets better, and everyone’s fine.”
“I’m not sure.” I cross my arms over my chest, concerned. “It’s dangerous for you to go alone, especially for a full day.”
“Then I’ll go to the main cave. It’s a half a day’s walk from here, right?”
“For sa-khui feet, yes,” Taushen says. “It is an easy walk. But human feet are—“
“Yeah, yeah, I know.” She waves a hand. “Humans drool, aliens rule. I got it already. I’ll just do a lot of jogging. I’ll hustle.” She smiles brightly at me and pats my shoulder. “Don’t worry, Tiff. This is the best solution.”
“The best solution would be for Salukh to run to the other cave and you guys can just leave your rations with us and—“
“I will not leave you,” Salukh growls at me. “Do not even suggest it.”
A little quiver of pleasure shoots through me at his indignation. “But—“
“No,” Salukh says again. “I will not leave your side.”
I shouldn’t be so ridiculously pleased, but I am. I look over at Josie. “I just worry it’s too dangerous for you.”
She rolls her eyes. “Didn’t everyone say this was the easiest hike in the area? That all the sa-khui kits walk here as their training wheels? Am I less competent than a kid?”
Taushen opens his mouth.
I shoot him a look.
He closes it again. “I will go to the South cave and I will leave this evening,” he says, handing his freshly-hunted kill over to Salukh. He looks at Josie. “Do you know the way to the tribal cave?”
“Vaguely. But I was a girl scout. I can make a compass with a bit of metal and as long as I know what direction it’s in, I’ll just keep heading that way. It’ll be fine.”
I bite my lip. It doesn’t sound fine. I shoot a pleading look over to Salukh again, but he shakes his head at me. “I am not leaving your side, Tee-fah-nee.”
“Then it’s settled,” Josie says, and claps her hands. “I’ll go to the tribal cave, and Taushen will go to the south cave. Tiff and Salukh will stay here.”
• • •
SALUKH
“I hope she’s going to be okay,” my woman murmurs as we stand in the entrance to the Elders Cave. It is morning, and Jo-see’s small form is retreating in the distance, bundled in her furs and Tee-fah-nee’s heavy outer cloak. According to her and Tee-fah-nee’s information, she will be just ahead of the storm if she keeps a good pace. We are both worried for Jo-see, but she is insistent on going. Her footsteps are quick despite the snowshoes on her small feet, and her com-pahs in her hand. I didn’t understand why she rubbed a sliver of metal with fur and then floated it in water, but both she and Tee-fah-nee assure me it will point the way.
“She will be fine,” I assure my woman. “It is an easy walk to the tribal cave.”
“Yes, but she waited for daylight and already the wind is picking up.” Tee-fah-nee frowns at the skies. “The weather is going to be on her before she gets there. I feel like she should have left last night like Taushen.”
“In the daylight, she is safe. At night she is prey to many beasts that hunt. She will be fine,” I reassure her again. “Come away from the door.” She is shivering, her clothing not thick enough for the strong wind that rushes into the Elders Cave.
I help her hobble back to the seat near the fire pit. When she is comfortable, I crouch near her leg and put my hand on her knee. “Will you be safe if I leave for a few hours?”
“I will be fine,” she assures me, and it’s strangely erotic to hear her speaking in my tongue instead of the choppy, harsh human tongue. She pulls a fur blanket into her lap. “I shall keep the fire going.”
“Let it burn low,” I warn her. “We must conserve our fuel if this large snow is truly going to come.” The com-pew-turr says it and it knows many things, so it must be true. “I will go out and collect more and hunt what I can to last us.”
She bites her plump lower lip and looks worried. “Will you be safe?”
I reach up and caress her cheek. “Nothing could keep me from returning to your side.”
A smile curves her mouth then, and she puts her hand over mine. She leans into my palm and nuzzles it, and a bolt of lust shoots through my body. “Hurry back. We will have much to talk about, you and I.”
“I shall be the swiftest of hunters.”
• • •
Though I would like nothing more than to return to Tee-fah-nee’s side and bask the day away, there is much to be done. I find Jo-see’s footsteps and follow her for a time, picking up frozen dung chips and the occasional bit of wood for a fire. I do not let Jo-see know that I follow her, hanging back just enough to stay out of her sights. I just want to make sure that she can truly do as she says. The little human huffs along in the snow, shuffling at a brisk pace and singing to herself in a breathless voice. She has the bone knife I gave her out in one hand, and her strange cam-pahs in the other. Every so often, she pauses, adds water to the cup she keeps the cam-pahs in, and checks the direction. She is going the correct way, though, so I eventually break off from her trail and set to hunting.
The wind rips at my hair and clothing, and I realize that any sensible creature will already be taking shelter from the weather. I spot a bit of color at the base of a whipping tree nearby and head toward it. Jutting from the snow is one of the bones we use as a cache marker. This one is smeared with a bit of dried blood at the end of the bone and marked with three notches – Haeden’s cache, then. I mentally note the location and head bac
k to the Elders’ Cave with my satchel of dung chips and firewood. We have Taushen’s kills and we have travel rations. I will return to the cache as our supplies run low.
When I return to the cave, Tee-fah-nee is sleeping, curled up in the strange stool, her hurt leg propped up and sticking out. She looks peaceful and I do not disturb her. Instead, I set down my supplies and fill the skins with snow to melt. The meat from last night’s catch is smoking on a spit, and I consider the small pile of fire-making supplies. If this will indeed be as bad a storm as Tee-fah-nee says, it will not be enough to keep her warm. We will need more.
I peer down one of the winding, dark tunnels of the Elders’ Cave uneasily. I do not like to explore here, like the human Har-loh and her mate. To me, this place is a reminder of the dead. I prefer to think of here and now. But my Tee-fah-nee will need much to keep her safe, and it is my job to ensure that. So I explore, and with every step I take, my unease grows. The ice has been thawed from the tunnels, revealing dark panels made of a strange, smooth rock that does not feel like rock at all. Lights flash and as I walk, more lights beam along my footsteps, illuminating my path.
I do not like this. I do not like that there are many privacy screens that cover each doorway, and they are made of the same strange stone. I do not like that behind each one is a cave full of strange objects that remind me just how different my Tee-fah-nee’s world is from mine. She knows what some of these things are. I pick up a small square made of the same strange stone and sniff it. I do not know what any of this is, nor do I know if it will burn. Unnerved, I return to Tee-fah-nee’s side, unwilling to explore further.
I know my world. I know my hunting trails, I know my snow and my mountains. I know my people. I know Tee-fah-nee will be my mate.
I do not care to know of anything else. I do not care about com-pew-turrs or strange stone caves with flashing lights or people that come from the stars. Only she matters.
I return to her side and watch her sleep, my mind unsettled by strange thoughts.
When she awakens several hours later, she stretches slowly and gives me a smile. “Hey. Sorry I slept for so long.” She rubs her eyes with delicate fingers.
“Never apologize to me.” She is tired and it has been a hard journey for her fragile human flesh. “How is your leg?”
She shifts and winces. “Stiff and sore.”
“Let me look at it.” I move closer to her and kneel at her feet. Because she is seated higher than I am, when I kneel in front of her, it puts us at an equal height. I gaze into her bright eyes, my body full of need for her.
Now should be the moment I claim my mate. Here, when we are alone and can explore resonance to its fullest. Wake, my khui, and claim her!
Silence.
Biting back my sigh, I place her ankle in my lap and carefully unwrap the bindings. Under the layers of fur and leather, her tiny ankle is still swollen larger than it should be, the flesh bruised. “Can you move it?”
She gives it a small wiggle and then sucks in a breath. “It hurts.”
I smooth my fingers over her lovely brown skin. Her legs are small and dainty and I want to run my hands all over her. “I will carry you wherever you need to go.”
Her wry look eases my troubled heart, and I stroke her leg.
“Mmm, that feels good.” She closes her eyes in pleasure. “I wouldn’t mind if you did that for a while.”
She wants me to touch her? I would have no greater joy. My hands stroke her leg, smoothing over muscle and skin. I caress her foot and massage her calf, careful to avoid the sore ankle. She shifts in her seat and sighs, and my cock stirs in response. Her sounds of enjoyment are making my body respond. I cannot help it – I am attuned to her pleasure. I want to give her more. I imagine taking her small, soft foot and rubbing it against my cock. Not her hurt one, but her other foot. I imagine her dragging her toes over my erection, the hot look in her eyes when—
“Do you think Josie made it?” she asks in a soft voice.
I look up and meet her gaze, and there’s worry there. I tamp down on my aroused thoughts. “I followed her for a while when I went out earlier, to make sure she knew where she was going.”
Her expression brightens and her eyes fill with tears. “You did?”
I still, worried at my female’s reaction. “I did not do this to make you weep. I merely wanted to ensure that she would be well. That she could find it on her own. She moved swiftly and was heading in the correct direction. I am positive she will be fine.” I stroke her leg again. “Please do not cry.”
“I’m just happy.” She swipes at the tears falling from her eyes. “You’re so thoughtful. What would I do without you?”
“It does not matter, because it will not happen.”
Her smile becomes even brighter. Then she shivers and hugs her furs closer to her body. “Should we shut the doors and lock everything down? It’s getting colder by the minute.”
I get up, gently placing her foot back down on the floor. “I will do as you ask.”
She starts to get up. “I’ll help—“
“No,” I tell her, and put a firm hand on her shoulder. “You rest. I will close everything.”
“Then it’ll be just you and me,” she says, voice soft. There’s a gleam in her eyes.
And my cock gets hard again. For the first time in what feels like far too long, there will be no one but Tee-fah-nee and I.
I can hardly wait to go to sleep, my mind full of thoughts of caressing her naked body as she clings to me in the furs.
This storm might be the best thing that has ever happened to me.
Chapter Fifteen
JOSIE
Man, it is a friggin’ trek to make it to the tribal caves. I’m relieved when a familiar valley comes into sight. I’m also ready to collapse on my feet. My throat feels dry from sucking in cold lungfuls of air, and I’m sweaty from the constant jog I’ve kept up for hours. It is not easy to jog in snowshoes, but the rising wind and the snow flurries are reminders that there’s no time to spare. So jog I must.
By the time I make it to the cliffs and the yawning mouth of the main cave comes into view, I’m weaving on my feet. There’s someone digging at the base of one of the trees, no doubt for a not-potato. The person pauses at the sight of me, and then rushes forward when I trip over my own heavy feet and splat in the snow.
“Hello?” a voice calls out. “Who’s there?”
It’s Claire. She used to live with us in the South cave until she resonated to Ereven and moved back. I’d raise a hand and wave at her, but suddenly that feels like too much effort. I’m not surprised she doesn’t know it’s me – I’m so bundled up in furs that I probably look more like Chewbacca than Josie.
She runs up to my side and I sit up slowly. Her eyes widen at the sight of me. “Josie? What are you doing here?” She scans the horizon, looking for additional travelers. The wind tears at her cloak and she tugs it tighter against her body. “Where are the others?”
“It’s just me,” I pant. When she offers me a hand to get up, I take it and drag my tired body to my feet. “Big storm coming. We have to warn everyone.”
“Big storm?”
I nod. “We saw the weather on the screen at the old crashed ship. I’ll explain more inside.”
• • •
A short time later, I’m huddled near the main fire pit, swathed in warm, fresh furs. Georgie’s fussing over me, shoving a cup of hot herbal tea in my hand and getting me more sitting pillows, as if my butt can use more than one. Vektal and several of the hunters have set out to round up anyone out on the trails, and to gather some additional fire-making supplies before the blizzard sets in on us. Claire and the other human women are digging up a few more not-potatoes before they get covered by the snow, and Stacy’s watching the infants in her cave. Everyone’s busy.
“I can’t believe you’re here by yourself,” Georgie exclaims, taking my half-drank cup of tea and switching it out for a new one. Her fat, wriggling baby, Talie, is
slung over her belly, attached to her by some sort of complicated long wrap that has been folded over and over her body again. She hands me a cake of not-potato and then settles in next to me. “I mean…walking all this distance by yourself? That’s crazy!”
“To be fair, it was only from the Elders’ ship to here. That’s really just a half a day.” I’m being modest, of course. I’m exhausted but I’m pretty proud of myself. Humans are considered pretty weak given that we can’t handle the elements, and we usually don’t go anywhere without an escort. Me traveling a distance alone ahead of an oncoming storm? I’m feeling downright heroic. I hum a few bars to Christina Aguilera’s Fighter, just because I can. And then a new thought occurs to me and I giggle. “Haeden’s totally going to shit himself when he hears about this, isn’t he?”
“You guys aren’t still fighting, are you?” She gives me an exasperated look and adjusts her wrap as the baby stuck to her middle flails and waves its fists. Dang. She looks so domestic.
“Does a bear shit in the woods? Of course we’re fighting. He’s breathing, I’m breathing, therefore we’re fighting.”
“Josie, you’ve got to try harder.” The look she gives me is practically motherly, which is weird considering we’re the same age. “We’re all moving back into the main cave together and we need to have harmony with this many people around. I’m not saying be best friends with him. I’m just saying…don’t antagonize him, all right?”
“Everything I do antagonizes him,” I tell her, sipping my tea. Somewhere in the distance, a baby wails, and I feel a bolt of longing. It’s baby central here, with all the new births thanks to the chain-reaction of resonances and mated couples that have been happening ever since we landed.
Happening to everyone but me, of course. Well, Tiffany too, but I get the impression that she doesn’t want a mate. Me? I want a mate and a family more than anything. More than all the cheeseburgers and chocolate left back on earth.