by Ruby Dixon
I stare at him, surprised. “My fingertips don’t matter if we can’t save the others—”
“They do if you are the only one left.”
Just like that, I’m stunned into silence. I didn’t think about that. What if…what if Warrek and I are the only ones left on the planet after this? The thought is terrifying and lonely…and oddly sexy. I don’t want it to be sexy, though. I want the others around. I want the tribe. The thought of being alone with Warrek can be sexy without all that other garbage.
My mind is a mess, I think. It’s stress causing me to fracture mentally. That must be it. I don’t say anything as Warrek drapes one of the furs over my shoulders and tucks it around me, even though it’s sweltering inside the fruit cave. I understand why he’s fussing over me now. In his eyes, if we’re not captured and the village is, we’re the only ones left. That’s a sick twist to things.
Warrek moves back to the prisoner, who is huddled against the vines. He squats low, his long, blue legs flexing and tail flicking as he sits near the orange-skinned alien. “Why are you here?”
The thing looks at him with black, fish-like eyes. It chokes out something that sounds rude and snaps needle-like teeth at him.
Warrek doesn’t look flustered, though. He reaches out and thumps the alien on the brow with his finger. “Why are you here? Do not pretend you do not speak the human language. It suited you to speak it earlier.”
The alien laughs at him. “Why am I here?” it asks, voice strange and words slurred together. “Why are you here?”
Warrek ignores the question. “Are you slavers? Is that why you have taken my friends?”
When the creature just continues to grin at Warrek, I take the laser gun and aim the end that looks like a barrel at the thing’s head. “Maybe we practice using this thing on him. That might make him a little chattier. I’m sure I can figure it out with enough fiddling around.”
The alien goes still, and I feel a surge of triumph. “What is it you wish to know?” he says, words mangled through his strange teeth. “We are slavers, yes.”
“What happened to the old crew?” I ask, because I can’t help but wonder. “Are they working with you?”
“The old crew?”
“Yes, where are they?”
He grins, and it looks like pure evil. “The blue ones? I imagine their bodies are floating somewhere near the asteroid belt.”
I gasp.
“You killed them?” Warrek asks, his voice calm and even. “Why?”
“Our ship was flagged by the—” He says a word I don’t understand. “We needed to escape. They were unlucky enough to cross our path.” He tries to shrug his shoulders in the ropes. “Such is life at the edge of the galaxy.”
“So you killed them and hijacked their ship?” I try to recall a kind face among the lot, but mostly I remember them being exasperated by the weepy, frightened humans. Still, they didn’t deserve to die because they were jerks. No one deserves to die like that. I swallow hard. “Why come here, then?”
“It was logged in their records as a landing, but no reason given. My captain thought they were hiding something here. It turns out they were.” The toothy grin he gives us is cold. “Humans fetch quite a bit if you know who to sell them to.”
His hatefulness makes my gut churn. “Is that why you attacked the others? Are they alive?”
The evil, toothy smile just grows wider, and it frustrates me. I move forward and push the end of the gun against the side of his head, just like I’ve seen in the movies. I want to wipe that smile off his ugly face. “Are the others alive?” I repeat again.
“Of course they are alive,” he spits out. “Slaves are no good to anyone dead.”
I breathe a sigh of relief at that. They’re alive. And if they’re keeping them as slaves, they’re going to keep them alive. All we need to do is somehow stop them from leaving this planet and we can fix this. I feel such intense relief that it staggers me. I need to sit down. I wobble over to the nearest rock and sit heavily. There’s still a chance. We’ve got this.
“Why are you still here?” Warrek asks the alien.
This time, his laughter disappears. “Why would we not be here?”
“Um, because it’s smarter to take off with the slaves you have than risk things? Or like, hover in orbit? Seems to me that parking your ship in hostile territory is the height of stupidity.”
The alien just scowls at us, but he doesn’t offer any more information.
Something about this is very weird. I give Warrek a curious look.
He gazes thoughtfully down at the orange alien. “What are you waiting for?”
But our captive is silent. There’s something he obviously doesn’t want to tell us. He shifts uneasily and avoids eye contact.
Something’s wrong, then. “Is it because you can’t leave? Is that it?” I keep thinking, my thoughts whirling faster and faster. Just because I hijack someone else’s car doesn’t mean I know all the ins and outs of driving it. If I’m used to driving an automatic and my new car’s a stick, I can’t go anywhere. I imagine it’s worse for a boat or a plane… How many times worse is it for a spaceship? “There’s something with the controls, isn’t there?” I remember that ungainly wobble it made as it landed. “You guys can’t figure out how to leave just yet.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he sneers.
I bet I do. If that’s the case, it buys us a little time.
I sigh with relief, slumping forward.
Even as I do, the alien springs into action. He plunges forward, the ties on his wrists snapping, and his arms fly out. He lunges for me, and I fall backward with a shriek, landing near the edge of the cave lip. The fruit cave is like a big hollowed-out gourd in that it has a lot of layers along the sides and not much in the middle, and one wrong step means death.
“Suh-mer!” Warrek pushes forward and grabs the alien. The creature wrestles with him, and as I watch, the alien scrambles for the gun. Warrek jabs the thing in the throat with an elbow and then kicks him hard in the chest, sending him backward—
Right over one of the vine-covered cliffs.
I squeeze my eyes shut, and then there’s a sickening thud far below. Oh god.
Hands touch me, caressing my burned face and smoothing over my hair. Warrek. “Suh-mer,” he says in that low, intense voice of his. “Are you well?”
“I’m okay,” I breathe, letting him help me to my feet. “Just shaken.” Understatement of the year. I’m trembling all over. “He…”
“Got free,” Warrek agrees, running a hand up and down my arm as if to make sure that it’s not broken. Or to comfort me. I can’t figure out which. “My fault.”
“What? No. Not your fault.” I shake my head, then lean in slightly closer, because for some reason, I want a hug. Maybe that’s weird, but when Warrek obligingly puts his arms around me, I want nothing more than to burrow against his chest and forget about the world. I can’t stop shaking. “I’ll be fine in a minute,” I tell him. “Promise. I’m just trying to get my heart to calm down. Adrenaline, you know. I’ve heard it happens a lot when you’re in a fight-or-flight situation, and I guess this qualifies, right? Though there wasn’t much fight, and the whole flight thing—”
“Hush,” he murmurs, stroking my hair back from my face. “You are safe.”
Yeah. I guess I am.
I press my face against his warm skin, eyes closed. “And is he—”
“Dead? Yes.”
Should I be sad? I’m not. It’s not like he was a good guy or that we could let him go. He was bad. A slaver. Evil. But someone just died…and I’m just shaken.
Warrek strokes my hair again, his hand moving over my hair and then down my back. “I have you.”
His voice is low and soothing. His touch—and his voice—make me feel better, and slowly I stop feeling that frantic terror. It changes to something else, and I become acutely aware of his warm, soft, suede-like skin against mine. I want to run my fingers
all over him and pet him, but I guess that’s weird. He’s so strong and yet so wonderful to touch. And he hugs me. Gosh, I have needed so many hugs lately.
It’s like Warrek understands me. Really and truly understands what I need. It feels so…good. And I’m starting to get that excited little curl in the pit of my belly again. I think about when he touched my mouth, and I look up at him.
The expression on his face is thoughtful.
I can’t stand it any longer. I grab a handful of his long, silky hair and go up on my tiptoes, pulling him down toward me. When he leans in, I press my mouth to his and kiss him. His mouth is just as I imagined it—soft and yet warm and firm underneath mine. His lips feel perfect.
He’s also not responding. His body has gone stiff against me.
Oh crap.
I jerk away, releasing his hair. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I fucked things up, didn’t I? Here we were being friends and I had to just push things too far. I always do that. Let’s just blame it on the adrenaline, okay?” I give a nervous laugh, and before he can say anything, I continue. “Pretend that never happened. I mean, it was just a kiss. Didn’t mean anything. It wasn’t even a real kiss, either. There was no tongue involved. Not that I was going to add tongue, especially if you weren’t into it. I’m just saying that in the future, if I kissed you, there’d definitely be a bonus. Not that my tongue is a bonus.” God, I just keep blurting words and he just keeps staring at me with that unreadable look. “You know what? I think I need a breath of air.” I turn and head for the entrance of the cave, desperate to get away.
God, why do I have to mess everything up? He’s being polite and friendly, and I had to grab his hair—grab his damn hair—and force him to kiss me. Ugh, if I were a dude, I’d be such a creep. I kind of hate myself right now.
My face burns with shame as Warrek eventually comes outside and stands next to me. He’s silent, but then again, he’s silent a lot. I cross my arms over my chest and do my best to ignore the chilly air. “So. What do we do now?”
He doesn’t respond right away, but gazes out on the moonlit snow. “We will have to bury the body. It will begin to stink right away. I will climb down and retrieve it.”
I wrinkle my nose at the thought. “And then?”
He looks thoughtful. “Then I suppose we dig more pit traps and try to catch the others.”
WARREK
She kissed me. Pressed her mouth to mine in the bizarre human custom that I have never understood.
Now I understand it.
And now I wish I had kissed her back.
5
WARREK
The next evening, we set up near the pit trap. Suh-mer carries the light-spear — a gun, she calls it — and I have made a few more spears of my own. No one has come out of the ship to investigate, and our traps are as yet untouched.
But the ship has not moved from its spot in the snow. They do not seem to be leaving anytime soon. That is good.
Suh-mer has returned to rambling around me, her voice high as she chatters. She is nervous.
I should have pushed my mouth against hers in return. I should have suggested she give me her tongue like she mentioned. Perhaps I am not as aggressive as I should be. Bek would have claimed Ell-ee’s mouth for his own, I think. Or Harrec. Even Vaza.
It is just…pursuing a female simply for pleasure is not something I have ever considered. I always thought that if something would happen, it would be with resonance. When there were no unmated sa-khui females, I assumed I was meant to be alone and leaned heavily on my father’s company and teaching the young kits how to hunt to fill the loneliness.
I did not ever expect the other humans to arrive. And when I did not resonate to them, I was not surprised. But I also did not expect…Suh-mer. Suh-mer with her lovely mane and golden skin and her mouth that moves constantly with her worried thoughts. Suh-mer with her clever mind and the way she holds on to me when she is scared, as if I am her protector. It makes me want to be her protector.
It makes me wonder at the pleasures of sharing furs with a female, even if it is not meant to be forever. Perhaps I will never be chosen to resonate. Does that mean I am to spend my life alone? I think of Shail and Vaza, who are happy and flirt constantly. It does not matter to them that there will never be resonance. They have been enamored of each other from the beginning.
And what if we are unable to rescue the others and it is only Suh-mer and myself left here on this planet? How will we react to each other then?
These are not questions I have answers for. I know only that I think about her all night long, and I worry over the kiss I did not give her as much as I worry over the safety of the others.
Tonight, Suh-mer is heavily bundled in furs as we sit behind the shield of rocks near the pit trap. There is no snowfall, so our tracks are not covered. The pit trap has been reset. That is good. Now all we must do is wait. I am certain they will not leave without their crewmate, and they must be wondering what has happened to him. His armband has chirped and flashed repeatedly throughout the day, so they are aware he is missing.
They will come after him. And when they do, we will be ready.
But until then, there is a lot of waiting. Suh-mer sits next to me in the snow, her gaze focused on other things. She deliberately avoids looking in my direction, and the silence between us feels…awkward. Normally, I do not mind quiet, but with Suh-mer, I long to hear her thoughts.
So I am the one that breaks the silence between us. “If this was your game, what would your next move be?”
“My game?” She looks over at me, startled. “Oh, you mean chess?” Then she gets flustered and waves a hand in the air. “Of course you mean chess. I don’t know why I even had to ask that. I guess that’s just me being silly. Or obtuse. Or both. Or—”
“Chess,” I agree, interrupting to focus her.
“Right.” She chews on her lip, the light-spear balanced in her lap. “Well, we have control of the board for the moment, and we just took one of their pawns. At least, I’m going to assume it’s nothing more than a pawn, because we don’t know how many of them there are on the ship. There could be fifty. There could be five. That could be the only guy and we’ll never know.” She frowns to herself, then shakes her head. “I do think there’s more than just one, though. Someone’s beeping his communicator. So, okay. If we’re playing chess and I just captured one of his pieces, what would I do?” She tilts her head and then nods slowly. “I’d try to keep my opponent off-guard. Plan a move he’s not thinking of. Try to go on the attack if it’s safe.”
“And if it is not?” I glance over at the ship. It is still large and intimidating. We do not dare approach it in case they are aware that their friend is gone and have set their light-spears on us. Suh-mer told me earlier she worries over such a thing. They know something is happening. They will be alert and wary.
“Then I would wait to see what they would do.” She gives me a little half-smile. “Which is what we’re doing.”
I nod. It is not the best answer, but it is a wise one. I want to keep her talking, though. I like the sound of her voice. It comforts me. Makes things seem not so difficult. “Did you have a pleasure-mate back on your home world?”
She looks startled at my question. Her mouth opens, and then she closes it again with a snap. “Pleasure-mate?” she eventually asks, the sound strangled. “I…no. I’m kind of invisible to men.”
Invisible? My knowledge of their language tells me that this word means she is unseen and ignored. How is this so? She talks all the time. “How do they not see you? Is it because you are not very tall?”
“What? I…no. That’s not it.” She nervously tucks her mane behind her ear. “I am sure they see me just like they see any other person. I just meant that they don’t look in my direction when it’s time to find a mate. I think I’m unappealing to men, or they don’t find me sexy.”
Sexy. That is a human word for mating appeal. I study her—her delicate features, her attractive m
ane, and soft-looking skin. Her slight form and the swell of her teats against the layers of her tunic. Why would they not find one such as her appealing? I would take her as my pleasure-mate without a second thought. But I do not tell her this, because I do not wish to fluster her. So I grunt acknowledgment.
“What about you?” she asks. “How come you’ve never taken a mate?”
She asks about me? I feel a burst of pleasure at the realization. It makes me feel…special in her eyes, and I decide I like that feeling quite a bit. “Many reasons.”
When I don’t elaborate, she nudges me with her boot. “I’ve got all night, buddy. Give me a few reasons.”
I chuckle. “Apologies. My habit is to not talk about myself.”
“And I have the opposite problem. But we can meet somewhere in the middle. Tell me why you never had a mate.”
I ponder this. “Well…lack of females is one reason. Growing up, the only two females in the tribe that were unmated were Asha and Maylak.” I shrug. “Neither of them struck my interest, and there was no resonance. I did not see the need to fight with others for their attention.”
“That’s fair. But what about when the humans arrived?”
“That is…different. I did not resonate, and I suppose I was waiting for that.”
She makes an exasperated sound. “But if you were interested in someone, you should have gone after them.”
Suh-mer is not wrong. Though I was not interested in any of the humans, she is wise to chide me. “I admit to being…hesitant at chasing a female. My father was broken when his mate died. I was young and do not remember my mother very well, but I remember my father’s grief. It took him many, many seasons to recover, and even then, he missed her every day for the rest of his existence.”
“That’s so sad,” she whispers. “He’s gone now, I take it? You speak of him in the past tense.”
“He died in the cave-in a few seasons ago. Our home collapsed, and as we rushed to get out, I did not realize he was not behind me until…much later.” I feel a stab of guilt and grief. Even after several seasons, I miss my father’s easygoing presence. “He was old, but he had many good seasons in him yet.”