“Thanks.” She looked at the two women, her eyes narrowed. “Now, which one of you is going to start telling me some truth?”
“Don’t you take that tone with us!” Mary rebuked; her eyes narrowed. “I’m still your mother.”
“Fine.” Fat lot of good that did. She’d tried though. “Keep your secrets. I’m going to head home, I think. My head is not getting any better, and you two are driving me nuts with your secrets.”
“Oh, Ann, they’re not secrets, baby. It’s just, well, there are some things we need to work out first, figure out completely. Then we’ll talk to you about them, I promise.”
“You’d better. I’m the Supreme Overlord’s wife and stuff.” The words came out weakly, more rueful than anything. “Not that it does me any good.”
Amanda and Mary both laughed and stood up to hug Ann. The transporter was outside and she headed to that, her booted feet a loud clomp against the ground. She’d dressed for scavenging in black combat pants, heavy, steel-toed leather boots, and a black t-shirt. She probably shouldn’t be seen out scavenging, but she liked doing it.
Every layer of dust and dirt that she removed to reveal diamond rings or teething rings for babies, revealed a layer of history. This was who they used to be, who they wanted to be again. Ann hid any jewelry or valuables she found in an old camera shop close to her home. Nobody would be looking there for a while, she thought, and she didn’t want women like the ones at the party last night to have the silly things either.
They were very pretty rocks, but still rocks. Women like the ones that had suggested the uniforms, and those that had quickly agreed with her, would covet those rocks, would cause trouble for things like that. It was better to just keep them out of the way. They could find their own if they wanted them that desperately.
Ann headed towards a section of town she hadn’t explored before, there was a spice store there at one point and she wanted to explore it. Most of the spices would probably have gone stale by now, but there might be some seeds, like celery seeds or dill seeds, that she could plant. The seeds might produce plants, or might not, it was worth a shot. Both would be good plants for pickling vegetables, once they’d produced some proper vinegar.
She’d scoured a library until she found a book on how to make vinegar, pickles, and quite a few other ways to preserve food. She wanted to make sure there was enough, even if the winters did prove to be milder. If they turned out to be colder, that preserved food might prove useful.
That, and she really missed pickles.
She landed the transporter and hopped out, her headache already forgotten. With swift feet, she moved into the building through the empty doorway and made her way inside. The sun was still up so she could see just fine as she walked through the shop. There were six rows, and each one had different spices from around the world. Some of the cheaper items were in plastic bags and long discolored. They were too dry to do anything more than give off the memory of a smell, she found when she opened one.
There were some smaller metal cylinders and Ann’s eyes went wide when she saw them. She opened one to test it, and the smell of curry powder was prominent and so fresh that Ann’s eyes went round with pleasure. Oh, these might just be worth taking.
She loaded up the backpack she’d carried in with her, curry powder, chili powder, and a variety of others, all went into her bag. When that was full, she went to the front of the store. There were some reusable canvas bags there and she filled two more of those with spices, and then thought about it. She filled three more bags, to take to her mother, and started to load them all into her transporter.
She’d found cylinders of the seeds she wanted and hoped they would all prove to be just as well preserved as the powders. It took one more trip before she had all of the things she wanted for now loaded and she settled back into her driver’s seat. A quick stop at her mother’s house to drop the spices off and then she’d head home.
Something caught her eye as she started the transporter. A beam of sunlight that reflected off something as the sun started to go down. She put her hand over her eyes to shield them and squinted at the wall. A wolf’s head covered the side of the small building, with glowing yellow eyes that gave off waves of menace. The artist had done a good job of painting a rather fierce-looking wolf, but what did it mean? Was it a threat? A territory tag maybe? Like the gangs used to have?
She wanted to tell Rager about it, but she didn’t want to cause trouble for the wolves. She stared at the painting, lost in the sensation of being trapped between two worlds. Amanda, Stephan, and Rex had been a part of her life for as long as she could remember. They’d become family during their time in the bunker. But she was the supreme leader’s mate. Shouldn’t she tell him?
This all came down to loyalty, and just then, she felt as if she’d been ripped in two, one side with her old world and the other with the new world. She turned the transporter off and sat there, too overcome with emotion to move. Which side was she on?
Her body said it was all about Rager, it didn’t care what she thought. She wanted him, no matter what. Even now, torn in two, she wanted to go to him, to curl up into his arms, to feel his touch make the world disappear for her. Her mind told her body to shut the fuck up, and at this moment, it won.
Her head said she had to use her status to protect her family, all of them, and her body could dig out a vibrator from any of the shops she’d already raided. A vibrator didn’t have a heartbeat, though, or a voice that rumbled over her skin like a touch in its own right. A vibrator couldn’t touch her in all the right spots with wet kisses or fingers that knew just the right pressure to make her breath catch in her throat as endorphins flooded into her veins. It couldn’t make her feel like the most important, most beautiful woman in the world. Or the most cherished either.
Because it wasn’t just sex with Rager, there was more to the whole thing, it was that modalla thing that Agnar, the man that had made them mates, had spoken about. Their spirits were joined in a way she hadn’t quite wanted to face yet. She didn’t feel him as a touch along her spinal cord now, not like she had during their mating ritual, but she was always aware of him. And that was the worst thing of all, right now. She knew, no matter how much one part of her wanted to, she could never betray her mate. Not even for her family, she’d tear out her own soul if she did.
4
Ann stretched in bed the next morning and was surprised when she found Rager was still beside her. She turned to look at him, concerned that he might be ill. They’d been mated for almost a month now and the only day he’d taken off was their mating day. And that had only been a half-day.
She looked at him, still asleep, and relaxed. His jaw was lined with bristles of dark hair, and his face looked… somehow soft. As if sleep took away some of his gruffness. It wasn’t that he was less attractive, far from it, he just looked far more approachable. She tentatively put her hand on his jaw, to check for a fever.
He was always warm when he was asleep, so she wasn’t sure how she would tell, but he didn’t feel any different than he normally did. The moment she touched him, those odd, bright orange eyes of his opened.
He said something, something she couldn’t understand, and her brow furrowed. “Pardon?”
“Sorry, it’s my language. Good morning, Ann.” His smile was lazy, relaxed, pleased even. He pulled her to him, tight and close. “I love waking up to you.”
“I think I like it too. But, why are you here?” She tilted her head into the pillow and he closed his eyes as he ran a hand down her body.
“I am leaving my second in command in charge for two days. We’re going exploring, my love.”
“Are we now?” A happy question. Exploring sounded nice. Like it was time away from the weirdness here, and adventurous.
“We are, yes. Now, if you’ll please get off of me, I might be able to drag myself into the shower before I ravish you.”
“Oh, ravish me? Now, that’s a term I’ve never actually heard anyo
ne use.” She slid from the bed but didn’t push her nightgown down over her hips. She sent him a look over her shoulder, a sultry one she hoped. “But if you’d like to do that, I’ll get back in bed?”
She paused and waited for his answer. He just turned over and groaned, as if frustrated beyond words.
“Nooooooooooooo. We need to do this. And I’d like you to come with me. I don’t want to leave you here for two days. I’d hate every minute of it.” He got out of the bed and headed to his bathroom without another word.
“Well then…” she laughed and went to her own bathroom. Thirty minutes later they were dressed, fed, and ready to go.
“Where are we going?” she asked him as the transporter started. It was his transporter and much faster than hers, with sleek lines on the black metal. She’d thought it was black paint, but it wasn’t.
“Up north, maybe up to Canada, I’m not sure yet. It depends on what we find on our way up.”
“What’s to the east of us?” She asked as the vehicle began to move and rose into the air.
“There’s a deep break in the land, you’re lucky California didn’t just disappear into the sea. Then, there are places where people survived, we’re picking them up as fast as we can and bringing them to us. Others are going to a town we’re building up in Ontario.”
“Oh, you’re building another town?” She hadn’t known about that.
“Yes, we don’t want to keep all our eggs in one basket, I believe is your saying?”
“Yes, it is. Good idea. Maybe we can visit there one day? I never got to travel much, Mom and Dad were always working when I was a kid, and then that happened.” She waved her hand at the landscape. “I didn’t really get to see much of the world.”
“You are young, aren’t you? I sometimes forget. You seem so… mature for a young Earth woman.”
“I had to grow up quickly, didn’t I?”
“I suppose so. How old are you, Ann?”
“You mean you don’t know, Rager?” She looked at him, surprised.
“No, I don’t. I know your people age more quickly than mine do, but I really don’t know. All I wanted to know was that you were of a legal Earth age to marry, or mate as we call it, and that was all really.”
“Oh, I see. I’m 20.”
“That young?” He saw her appalled look and quickly spoke again. “Not that I think you look older, it’s just you seem so… calm, I guess is the right word. Like an older woman would be.”
“That young,” she said, her lips tight against her teeth as she glared at him. “How old are you then, if your people age slower?”
She’d thought he was around 30, and while they’d never actually spoken about it, and she’d just given him grief about not knowing how old she was, she was guilty of the same.
“I’m 48, Ann. Old enough to be your father!” He howled with laughter, but she just gaped at him.
“Seriously?” Her eyes scanned for the signs of age, gray hair or lines around his eyes and mouth, but there were none, just smooth, youthful skin, healthy and clean. “Fuck.”
“I’m an old man in your world. In mine, I’m no older than you really. Well, a little older, but not by much.”
“Fuck.” She could only stare at him. “You’re really 48?”
“I am, Ann. Does it bother you?”
“No, I just can’t believe you’re that old.”
“Oh, now who’s doing the insulting?” He smiled at her to let her know it was said in jest and looked out. “You might want to start looking around now. There might be people trying to get out our attention, or run from it.”
“Why do you capture people that don’t want to come with you?” It was something that had bothered her from the first contact she’d had with the aliens.
“Because, sometimes, people fear the unknown, and obviously we are unknown. As you know yourself, we’re not here to harm any of you. Just repopulate the planet and bring it back to life.”
“I see,” she said softly, her eyes on his face. He didn’t look like he was rehearsing a speech, or speaking from rote, just an honest statement that made it easier for her to sit there with him. “That’s why we tried to hide from you. That and we’d heard you were killing the wolves.”
“Only the bad ones.” He spoke softly, his eyes on what was around them too. Most of the landscape was empty, but here and there were dots of houses or buildings. Some were in good shape, but most were just shells of what had once been. It was sad, to see it all from up here. Down on the ground, the scale of it all was immense, but up here, where you could see how much had really been destroyed, it made her speechless.
“It’s so sad.” Ann finally broke the silence. “There used to be so much in the world, but now? It’s just so sad.”
“Not for the planet, or the other lives here. The ocean life, the wildlife on land. Even the plants and rocks are better off without man crowding the planet.”
“You’re right. Just before the cataclysm, I read an article online that said most countries were using up a year’s worth of supplies in less than five months. Some barely lasted two. It was unsustainable. Even if the cataclysm hadn’t happened, something would have broken sooner or later, and we’d have all been at war for goods or dying of diseases.”
“That’s truer than you know, Ann. We came here before, as I’ve said, a very long time ago. We left a few of our species here. We thought they’d interact with the local populations and maybe make their own colonies. We had no idea they’d breed with the people you call Neanderthals and populate the entire planet.”
“Bred like wild rabbits, did they?” She knew they had, but she’d wanted to lighten the mood more than anything.
“Yes, as you well know. There were 8.5 billion people on your planet when the cataclysm happened. That’s, well, it’s outrageous, really.”
“How so? Isn’t your planet overcrowded?” Her look of confusion was hard to hide. Hadn’t he said that at some point before?
“Not really, we only have 1 billion people on a planet of the same size. The last time your planet had only that many people was before the 20th century. In the 1800s. We’re also far more technologically advanced and we did all of that without the troubles and wars that your planet has faced.”
“How? You don’t have enough people…” her words trailed off as he shook his head.
“We use our resources more wisely, don’t engage in warfare like your people do, and value science above all other things. We missed a lot of what your planet had.” He was being delicate, she could tell, and she let him sidestep the issue he was avoiding. There was one major difference here, his people didn’t have a religion. Her planet had hundreds, if not more.
“I know what you’re saying.” She could understand it much better now. His people had been focused on science, and a way of life that made life better, not on subjugation and suppressing science.
“There’s a lake over there, and a little cove of trees. Shall we stop there? I had some food and clothes packed for us. We’ll be gone a couple of days, there’s bedding too if we have to stay in the transporter for shelter. And a tent.”
“Did you bring the kitchen sink too?” She asked with a laugh as he set the transporter down.
“No, but I thought about it.” He grinned and turned the machine off. “Let’s see what’s down there, shall we?”
“I’d like that.” She got out and walked around with him to a spot where the grass was short and not too far from the water’s edge. There was a nice little beach that would make it perfect. “It’s a lovely spot.”
“Not as lovely as you, Ann.” He said it as he spread a blanket down on the ground and sat down on it. There was a basket with food that had been tucked away in a cabinet, and a bottle of wine as well as one of water.
They ate homemade pimento cheese sandwiches, some fresh vegetables, and had a glass of wine as the sun rose higher in the sky. The day warmed up, and even the shorts and t-shirt that Ann had on were almost too mu
ch clothing. “I think I might go for a paddle around the lake.”
“You aren’t going to wait for the allotted hour?” he asked, his smirk in place.
“Just how much television did you watch before you came here?” She was amused at the amount of knowledge he had about her world, but it was hard to picture him sitting still long enough to watch that much television.
“Hours. Weeks. Years maybe? I don’t know, sometimes it felt like an eternity.” He said it ironically, his eyes full of amusement. “It was interesting, what can I say?”
“I can’t see why. We basically committed mass suicide. Even before the cataclysm.”
“True, but the way you got to it was fascinating. All of that horror and for what? Nothing, really.”
“I’m not sure everyone would see it that way, Rager, but some would. And how come you’re a soldier if your planet is so serene?” The question had occurred to her earlier, but she’d waited to ask it.
“There are other planets around us, filled with other species, and some the same as ours. Not all of them developed as we did. Some went a similar path to yours and want to invade the other planets nearby. That’s part of the reason we’re here, so far from our own world. If we can settle here, we might just leave them to their wars and come over here for the peace we wanted.”
“You might find it hard to take it all.” She knew it was a silly statement, but it was as close as she could come to a warning without betraying what she knew.
“Oh, there is dissent, and will be more I assume. ?They will either come to heel, or they’ll find life won’t be so pleasant for them. We won’t have war in our new world.”
His voice was harder when he spoke, with a note of warning to it. She knew it was dangerous ground they were on, but she had to tread it. “I would tend to agree with you, Rager. I don’t see the point in going on as we had been. It will only lead to the same thing again, won’t it?”
“It will. But you and your family are safe, don’t doubt that.” His eyes bored into hers, and she knew he was telling her far more than that. She wasn’t sure he knew about Rex, but she suspected he might.
His to Mate Page 3