by Ruby Dixon
“Gonna be a lot of eggs for the next fourteen months or so.” She makes a face and then leans over her bucket again. “Or not,” she adds faintly.
Oh dear. “Can I get you anything?”
She shakes her head, still leaning forward. “Just tell me what’s up. Distract me.”
“Oh. Okay. Well.” I wring my hands as she makes gagging noises and try not to sympathy-puke. “I wanted to see if there was a decision about waking up the humans or not. I guess I’m just being a bit nosy. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to. And I can totally see myself out if I need to. You don’t have to get up. I totally understand if it’s not something you want to talk about—”
She puts a hand up to stop my nervous yakking. “Summer, it’s okay. We can talk about that. I mean, everyone owes you. Warrek talked about how brave you were. He told Vektal all about how you pretty much had a plan for everything and you put yourself at risk to save the others. He was so impressed with your bravery.”
I feel a little flustered at the flattery. “I just did what anyone else would have done.”
“Maybe. Either way, the tribe can’t thank you enough.”
“So…have you guys decided?”
Georgie sighs. “Yes and no.” She lies back down on the blankets, fluffing her pillow. Her face is sweaty, and she’s pale, but she sets the bucket down next to the furs and isn’t heaving anymore. Progress. “It’s ultimately Vektal’s decision. He’s the chief. But he’s also…well, he’s innocent.” She frowns to herself. “All of these people are. If you tried to explain war to them, or murder, they don’t get it. To them, all people are a great big happy family that get along. Sure, we argue, but the worst thing you can do to someone is ignore them for a few days. And we all saw how well that went with Bek, right?” She grimaces. “But you and I know not everyone is nice. Not everyone is in this for the common good. I have to be the negative one sometimes. And that means I have to shoot down some of his ideas.”
My stomach feels like it’s tied in a fierce knot. “Oh?”
She stretches on the blankets, then pulls them over her. “It’s funny, you know. I’ve never wanted to be a leader. Never wanted to be in charge of anything. And I was pretty sure that when I was a mom, I’d be the cool mom, you know? The laid-back one who doesn’t take anything too seriously. Turns out that now I get to be a leader—or a co-leader, at least—and I’m not the cool mom at all. I’m the spaz mom who overprotects everyone and freaks out over everything. But…I have to. I feel like I’m responsible for my girls, for the others in the tribe, and especially the humans here. It’s like I’m mom to everyone.” She rubs her brow. “Sometimes it’s a little stressful and I make snap decisions that aren’t always the right ones. But I try to think of everyone and how the entire tribe is affected. So yeah. I’m not the cool mom. I’m the one who makes you eat all your carrots before you get up from the table, and then if you make too much noise, I’m going to make you sit in the corner for three hours and think about what you’ve done.”
“This is a hard job,” I say quietly, giving her support. “I don’t know that anyone would want it.”
“Mmm. Vektal loves being chief, though. I guess it’s different when you’ve been groomed for it all your life. And when you have a really innocent view of the world.” Her smile is faint.
All of Georgie’s talk makes me worry a little. “So…we’re not getting the newcomers out of their pods?” I don’t know how I feel about that. On one hand, I feel a tiny kernel of relief. On the other, I feel horribly sorry for those trapped people.
“Oh, we’re getting them out. Sorry. My mind is wandering. I was up all night talking it over with my mate.” She rubs her eyes with the back of a hand. “But I admit, a lot of me didn’t want to. Part of me still wants us to run screaming in the other direction. It’s the spaz mom in me acting up again. I want desperately to protect my family, and the tribe is my family. It’s just…” Her eyes look suspiciously glassy. “I lost everything once, you know? My planet, my life, my family. If I lost it again, it’d break me. Maybe that’s why my knee-jerk reaction is to say no.” She sighs. “But at the end of the day, they’re people, and they need our help, so we’re going to help them and hope they’re not convicts or murderers.”
I swallow hard. Jeez. Here I was just worrying that they were too sexy. Georgie’s taken worry to a whole new level. “If that’s the case, then I want to ask that Vektal tell Warrek that he can’t go.”
“Warrek cannot what?” Vektal ducks into the hut, a steaming bowl in his hands. His gaze flicks to me, and he gives me a quick nod of greeting before moving to his mate’s side. He kneels by the furs and strokes Georgie’s tangled, sweaty curls. “I brought you broth. You must drink this. You need your strength.”
She nods and sits up, giving him a grateful smile full of love. “Thank you, love.” She cups the bowl and takes a sip, then tells him, “Summer and I were talking about the newcomers. How we’re worried, but it’s still the right thing to do to save them.”
He nods firmly. “There is no other choice. We will welcome them and feed them. There is room enough for all.”
Georgie shoots me a look, and I remember what she said about the sa-khui being innocent. She’s not wrong. What if these are bad guys? I don’t blame her for wanting to protect her “family.”
“I want Warrek to stay here.” I plunge ahead bravely. “I know you guys need every strong hunter to go and help with the rescue party, but here’s my thing. He hasn’t resonated, and I think if he goes, he’s gonna resonate to a newcomer. It’ll cause all kinds of problems, and I’m sure everyone would prefer that doesn’t happen, you know? Especially me.”
Vektal gives me a patient look. “Is that so?”
“Yes.” I’m pretty sure his lips are twitching with amusement, but I continue. “I know it’s a thing with hunters dragging the woman they’ve chosen off to a cave because they want to hold her until they resonate. I’ve heard all kinds of stories about that, and apparently Raahosh did it with Liz, right? Or Maddie and Hassen? I don’t remember the details. Kate and Harrec ran off for a while, too. At any rate, I want to do the same to Warrek. I want to kidnap him.”
“You do?” Vektal looks astonished.
“I do.”
Georgie giggles into her broth. “I’m picturing oh-so-serious Warrek being kidnapped by a small human woman.”
“Well, it’s more like I’ll tie him up and keep him in our hut for a few days.” I blush, because it sounds kinkier out loud than it was in my head. “Just long enough that he can’t catch up with the rescue party. Not that I don’t think it’s a noble thing to do. I…” I swallow hard. “I think my heart would shatter if he came home with a new mate.”
“You cannot force resonance,” Vektal says, but his gaze is on Georgie as he says it, and he’s devouring her with his eyes. It’s clear he wants her as much now, all sick and sweaty, as he did the moment he met her.
“I know that. I just want him to avoid that initial mating surge. And maybe give us a few more days together. Like a honeymoon.”
“Ho-nee-moon?” Vektal echoes.
“Tell you more about it later, babe.” She pats his arm. “It’s a human tradition.”
“And you wish for Warrek to stay behind?” Vektal grins.
“I do.” I try to sound brave and determined like everyone thinks I am, but I’m about to shake with nervousness. “I want to kidnap him.”
“It is not necessary,” Vektal says. “My Georgie and I decided last night that we would only send mated hunters on the retrieval party in order to avoid such a situation as you have described. We do not need newly mated strangers adding that to our list of problems. Both Sessah and Warrek will stay behind.”
“Oh.” Well, that took all the steam out of my argument. “I see.”
“But,” Georgie says with a little smile on her face. “I think you should kidnap him anyhow. Rattle him a little. Show him what’s what. And I’d bet money that he w
ouldn’t mind being tied up by his woman for a honeymoon.”
I grin at her, and I’m already planning out my strategy. If Warrek wants to think of our relationship as chess, I’m about to put his cute, tight ass into checkmate.
22
WARREK
The hunters of the village are hard at work, bringing in last-minute kills and preparing their weapons for the chief’s rescue hunt. The village was deserted this morning, but we have flooded back in with the setting of the twin suns and will spend late into the night getting ready.
I think of Suh-mer. I want nothing more than to crawl into the furs and hold her close until the suns rise once more and I must leave her. But there is much to do this night, and I must help the tribe. So many lives depend on it. I cannot be selfish.
“Have you seen our chief?” Sessah asks, ducking into the longhouse. Normally this is a friendly gathering spot, but tonight, it is filled with hunters preparing their packs and readying weapons for the trek into the wild tomorrow. “He is not in his hut.”
“He is somewhere in the village,” I tell him, stretching a long length of thin leather to bind several spears together. “He will be here soon.”
“Warrek?” A voice calls my name and I glance up from the bundle of spears I am lashing together. It is Hemalo, wiping his hands clean of filth from an afternoon of scraping leathers. “There you are,” he says when his gaze meets mine. “Asha said that Suh-mer is looking for you. It is urgent.”
A hint of fear courses through me. Urgent? “Is she unwell?” I drop the spears I am bundling, and they clatter to the stone floor, scattering everywhere. Sessah looks up at me in surprise. Normally calm, I find I am flustered, grabbing one spear only to have another drop away. The thought of Suh-mer calling for me because something is wrong tears at my mind.
“I will finish that,” Sessah offers, giving me a curious look. He scoops up the spears scattered at my feet. “Go and see to your female.”
I nod, rubbing a hand down my face. “I thank you.” I turn to Hemalo. “Is she in our hut? Did Asha say anything more?”
“I believe she is waiting for you at the edge of the village,” he comments in a mild voice, unruffled at the sight of my clumsiness.
I nod again, then realize I am just bobbing my head over and over at this point. With that, I head out of the hut, my thoughts scattered and wild. Is Suh-mer sick? Has she hurt herself somehow? Is that why Hemalo was sent to find me? My stomach churns at the thought of leaving her to journey with the others, but it is something I must do. I cannot abandon my people, and she is safe here.
But the thought of leaving her behind? It fills me with a helpless frustration and a deep-seated, gnawing hunger that feels foreign to me, almost as foreign as the overwhelming lust I feel at the thought of her, smiling over her shoulder at me.
Or smiling at another hunter. What if, while I am gone, she decides she wants a different hunter in her furs? One as talkative as her? Sessah is closer to her age, for all his youth, and the new hunters we will pull from the pods will be looking for mates.
I nearly double over at the jealousy that rakes through me.
I never thought of myself as one to snarl at another male glancing at my mate. But never has another female consumed my thoughts like Suh-mer has. What would my father say, I wonder, as I race through the village, looking for the sleek dark mane of my human. Would he even recognize his son?
Perhaps he would. Perhaps he would encourage me to capture every moment with Suh-mer. I remember how keenly he missed my mother when she was gone. He would understand why I feel so strongly.
And he would be happy for me.
A hard knot lodges in my throat at the thought of my father, gone these last few seasons. He would have liked my Suh-mer and her endless talk. He would have admired how brave she is. How clever. And he would tell me not to let her get away. That I should spend every day making her feel cherished, like my father did my mother.
It is something I vow to do…just as soon as I find her.
I stalk past a cluster of the human females, barely noticing that they giggle as I leave. They are not Suh-mer, so they are not important. Not right now.
“Warrek?” her sweet, familiar voice calls nearby.
I whirl about. There she is, standing in the doorway of one of the storage huts at the very edge of the village. She waves me forward, one arm hidden behind the doorway.
Relief courses through me at the sight of her. She does not look injured. “What is it?” I ask, and my voice is louder than it perhaps should be. “What is wrong?”
She just waves me over again. “Come inside. We need to talk.”
Talk? She is not injured? There is an odd look on her face that concerns me, but as long as she is well, I can deal with everything else. I move to her side, ducking into the hut, and cup her cheek. “You are not hurt? Not injured? Not feeling ill? Shall I call the healer?”
Her expression goes soft. “Oh, it’s nothing like that. I’m sorry to have scared you.” She keeps her hand carefully behind her back as she tilts her head up and gazes at me. “Can I ask you to do something for me?”
“Of course.” I stroke her cheek, unable to stop touching her. She is just so beautiful it makes my heart pound in my chest as if I have been racing along the trails all afternoon. I love her flat human face with its small nose and funny brow. I love her golden skin and her slight body. I even love her tail-less bottom. I especially love the way she smiles up at me, like I am the best thing she has ever seen. It is how she smiles at me right now, and my heart pounds even harder.
“Then can you close your eyes and put your hands by your side?”
It is a strange request, but for her, I will gladly do whatever she likes. I nod and do as she has asked, my hands lowering to rest and my eyes closed.
“Boy, Georgie was right,” she murmurs to herself. “You guys are seriously innocent. Hold still, baby.” I feel her body graze against me. It feels as if she is circling around me, and when she runs a hand under my leather vest to brush her fingers over my stomach, my cock rises at the simple touch.
I am so distracted by her that I barely notice she has pulled something taut around my torso until she gives it a yank. “When can I open my eyes?” I ask, curious.
“When I’m finished tying you up.”
That…is not what I expect to hear. I open my eyes, curious, and see that she’s tied a thick leather band around my upper arms. She grabs another band and ties this one around my waist, pinning my arms at my side. There is a look of great determination on her face as she works.
“Why do you tie me up?” I am amused at her efforts, and a little confused. It would not take much to wrestle my way out of the bonds, but I am curious as to why she feels the need to put them on me.
“I’m kidnapping you,” my Suh-mer announces. “I already got the chief’s permission and everything. I’m going to kidnap you and hold you hostage in the cabin here for the next few days and have my wicked, wicked way with you.” She smiles up at me and wriggles her eyebrows.
Now I am truly confused. “You have the chief’s permission to tie down my arms?”
“Well, no, that part was my idea.” She grabs another bit of braided rope and flings herself around me, winding the cord along my waist. “See, I thought the other sa-khui guys kidnapped their women and toted them off to a cave post-resonance, right? I wanted to do that with you even though we haven’t resonated. We’re still mates, and it doesn’t matter to me if we ever resonate. But resonance wasn’t the whole reason I wanted to tote you off, you know? Not that I can tote you off, of course. You weigh, like, twice as much as I do, and it’d be a bit like a housecat trying to carry off a lion. Or a bobcat, I guess, instead of a housecat. Because if our sizes were really that big of a difference, sex would be a hell of a lot more uncomfortable. So yeah, I guess bobcat and lion. I saw both of them at a zoo once, and you don’t realize how big a lion is until you see it up close and personal. That’s how I feel about y
our dick sometimes.” She giggles. “Lion-dick. The others will think I’m crazy if I tell them that. Not that I would, given all the ribbing they threw at me with the whole G-spot thing. No regrets there, though.” She sighs happily and ties the cord into a big floppy bow. “None at all.”
“You have my heart, my mate,” I tell her gently. “But I have no idea what you are talking about.”
She chuckles again and tugs on the ties at my waist, pulling me forward a bit. “Long story short—though I guess it’s too late for that—I’m kidnapping you here, and you’re not going to leave for days.”
I slowly shake my head. “I would love to roll in the furs with you for nights on end, but the tribe—”
“Has already decided that both you and Sessah are staying behind because you’re unmated, and they don’t want anyone’s cootie going off like a firecracker on the Fourth of July. There’s enough to deal with, you know?” She slides a hand down the front of my leathers and cups the bulge of my erection. “Which means you and I get time to play.”
I am surprised to hear this. Her hand is distracting, but I force myself to stay focused, even when she traces the outline of my cock with her fingers. “Vektal…has decided we shall not go? When did you hear of this?”
She bites her lip and tilts her head. “When I went and asked them not to send you?” She winces. “I hope you’re not mad.”
I am astonished—and strangely pleased—at her boldness. “Why would I be mad?”
“Because if you really wanted to go, it’s not my decision—”
“I do not wish to go,” I tell her quickly. “I would rather be with you. But if the tribe needs me…”
“Not half as much as I need you.” She strokes my cock again, causing the breath to hiss from my throat. “And maybe I’m a horrible beast, but the thought of you resonating to someone else while I’m sitting back here makes me crazy. I’m far too possessive of you to let you get away.”
I can feel a grin spreading across my face. My heart is pounding wildly at her words, at her touch on my cock. She feels this strongly about me, as well? “Then I am not alone in being jealous at the thought of others getting your attention?”