Keeping Their Human: Monrok Warriors 2

by Aubrey Cara

  Situs and the other Monrok have already lifted the sheet of earth and grass over the shuttle, making it appear as if it’s nothing more than a rolling hill, naturally part of the landscape. Situs gives me a questioning look, and I shake my head. I know he must scent my essence in the air. We will speak of our reluctant mate later, but I now carry a hope that was not there even a shift before.

  I join in helping to push the earth down around the front and sides of our shuttle, until our mound is completely seamless. All the while keeping my eye on the hatch. When it is time to hunt and collect water, Situs elects to watch the shuttle while I grudgingly go, hating that I must leave sight of where our female is.

  Kein was wise to have us mate in pairs. Until we properly claim our human, keeping her from being stolen by the unmated Monrok is going to be a constant distraction.

  Loaded with water and fresh game, I quicken my pace back to our landing site. Situs stands from his spot near the shuttle where he has been building a fire. “Baza and Aryl have stated their intentions to challenge us but will not be able to officially decree their challenge for another cycle, when Cal and Kein are due to arrive. Yhunk and his partner, Jyn also challenge are claim,” Situs says by way of greeting.

  I nod, setting down the plump little beasties I killed along with the sacks of water I collected then square my shoulders. We both know denying their challenge this early in our new existence would appear as weak. The other Monrok need to learn our mate will not be taken from us.

  “Then they will die.” If we must battle for our mate, we will win our mate.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  HANNAH

  The clearing in front of us is filled with men. More men than I even realized escaped to this planet, all dressed in the same black militia garb as Jual and Situs.

  For the past two days—or what they call cycles—I’ve been locked in the shuttle, only allowed out to relieve myself, and I greedily suck in the fresh air. The Monrok’s practice of thirty-six hour days is wearing on me, and I can only sleep so long, although I’m more tired than I’ve ever been. The men say it’s my body getting used to the air here.

  I still hate the confinement nearly as much as the inactivity and loneliness. My entire life, I’ve worked beside familiar women. First at my ’family’s colony, then at my husband’s, which had over seventy people. There were always things to do.

  Trudging behind Situs, I trip over a rut in the ground, and Jual steadies me. A shock goes through me at his touch, and heat rises up my neck and over my face. Since he has begun marking me, his touch invokes a discomforting sinful feeling to pulse awake inside me. I step away from him, and he lets me go but continues to watch me closely.

  “What exactly are we doing?” I ask. The men haven’t fully explained what is happening, and it’s caused me no end of worry. The more they tell me it’s nothing to be concerned over, the more concerned I become.

  “We must prove you are ours,” Situs says without turning.

  “Why?” I grab his arm, stopping him. “Won’t they smell Jual on me and know I’m yours?”

  Situs flinches, and I’m not sure why.

  “Don’t you want to keep me?” Even I can hear the fear in my voice.

  It’s not that I want them to want me. I’m not happy with my circumstances, but at least I know Jual and Situs won’t hurt me. They’ve been patient and kind to me in a way I’ve never experienced before. Surely, they aren’t doing this to pass me on to another?

  “The Monrok who challenged us are past reason.” Situs scowls but puts a hand on my shoulder then removes it as if burned. Even his face contorts in a pained expression. “The only way they will accept you as ours without a fight is if you are carrying our young.” He gazes down at my midriff as if picturing just that and shakes his head. “But you are not.”

  My heart drops. I was married for years without being blessed with a child. “Oh…but surely there’s another way.” I will likely never become pregnant. “Maybe if you—”

  “Hst.” Jual slices his hand down, cutting me off. “They think we are without honor. They think we somehow stole you and their chance to have you first. They do not understand. They are the ones without honor. That is why they must die.”

  “Die?” I glance between them. “You’re fighting? To the death?” My heart stops before pounding back to life. “You can’t do that!” They cannot fight or die for me. “This is wrong. There has to be a better way.”

  “This is our way,” Situs says, as if commenting the sky is blue, or grass, green. I can see by the determined set of their faces they are set on their course.

  It’s too much. I scream at the top of my lungs, all the anguish and frustration of the past few weeks bubbling out of me until the breath runs out of my body. Chest heaving, I open my eyes.

  They stare at me like they’ve never seen me before. I’ve never seen myself like this. Shaking with anger, hands fisted. I should be ashamed. I’ve never acted this way in my life, and my tantrum has changed nothing. Absolutely nothing.

  I stomp around them, heading to the clearing. Let them follow me for once.

  My ire turns to ashes and dust the second I get to the outcropping of men who are all staring. Relief rushes through me when Jual and Situs step up to flank me. Feeling eyes on me, I move my gaze across the clearing and into the faces of the men from the other day, along with two I don’t recognize. Are they the ones who challenged Jual and Situs?

  Swallowing down my rising panic, I take Jual’s hand, easing closer to him until I’m nearly behind him. My need for them not to touch me seems foolish now that they may die. I don’t know what I’m going to do if he and Situs lose.

  A formidable man, as tall and wide as Jual and Situs, claps Situs on the shoulder by way of greeting, before they bind hands like they’re arm wrestling and bump elbows. He does this strange handshake with Jual, too, before stepping back and placing his hands on his hips.

  “Are you two sure this is the course you wish to take?” he asks, his voice as dark and forbidding as he looks. “Yhunk and Jyn have dropped their challenge, but Baza and Aryl are still being foolish. You do not have to accept. The majority of our brethren feel they have no right to challenge you.”

  I want to beg Situs and Jual not to accept this challenge, but the man’s intense gaze swings to me, and I squeeze Jual’s hand tight, fighting not to step back. “What of you, Mate of Jual and Situs? Are you content with their claim on you?”

  My mouth opens and closes momentarily, thrown off by being formally addressed as Mate of Jual and Situs. I nod stupidly, not sure if I remember how to speak.

  A little blonde woman steps around him and gives him a shove that moves him not at all. “Stop intimidating her, you brute.” He growls down at her, but she only sticks her tongue out at him.

  I gasp in surprise as she wraps her arms around me in a hug that only lasts a second before she steps back. “Hi, I’m Allyson. You must be Hannah.”

  She’s an English-speaking American girl, this Allyson. Even in the dimming light of the day being cast into night, I see her lovely blue eyes. She’s beautiful and full figured, and also appears miniature next to the men around us. My head barely comes up to Jual and Situs’s shoulders, and she’s nearly a full head shorter than me.

  One of the men pulls her back against his chest, and she smiles up at him. She wears a loving, happy glow, and my shock at engaging with another woman turns to confusion. “Are you a Monrok, too?”

  Surely, she couldn’t have been stolen away like me.

  Her brow wrinkles in confusion, and shakes her head. “No, I’m from Earth, like you.”

  “But you’re…” I don’t want to offend what may be the only other female on this planet. I’m not sure what I was going to say. But you’re happy, maybe. It seems an implausible thing to me.

  Another man flanks her, and I have to do a double take. The two men are identical in every way. This new man takes her hand and kisses her fingers. The look she gifts him
is as warm and tender as the one she gave the other man, and my mind reels for a moment.

  While I have been told Situs and Jual are my mates, they’ve barely touched me. This Allyson is as good as married in the proper way, to two of these men who stole her away. They show open affection in a way that makes me uncomfortable, yet fascinated. And she seems perfectly fine with it.

  A hush falls, and one by one the men around the clearing begin thumping their closed fists on their chests in unison. Some stomp their feet in time, the sound like a pulsing drum beat rising up to surround us.

  A chill runs up my spine, the fine hair at the back of my neck standing on end at the eerie barbaric sound.

  “It’s time.” Jual untangles his fingers from mine and kisses the top of my head. “Cal and Kein will watch over you until this is over.” He rests his hand on my head as if he is a priest delivering a blessing, then turns to leave.

  Situs stares down at me as if trying to memorize my features. A chill goes down my spine. “Be well, little mate. This will all be over soon.” He makes no move to touch me but stares for another intense moment before walking away.

  His words are more like placating a child, than real reassurance.

  “Situs,” I call out, and he turns not twenty paces in front of me. Torches being lit all around what will be the battlefield cast his features in a savage glow. “Please don’t die.” I’m not sure what makes me say this.

  At my words, he stands a little taller, more focused, if possible. His gaze sears me in impossible ways, he nods and turns. The beat of fists loses its rhythm, morphing into a feral roar of wild pounding, and a cacophony of guttural cries arise all around us.

  I want to beg him not to do this, but I will not shame myself in front of all these men. Allyson has already moved in, linking her arm to mine, and I’m grateful for the support.

  “They don’t do things here like we do them on Earth, huh?” Allyson shouts over the cheering, and I think she’s attempting to comfort me.

  My eyes are swimming with tears of anxiety, my throat so tight I can’t speak, so I shake my head.

  “They don’t understand how hard this all is for us,” she continues. “For men who can sense our emotions, they can be really dense. But I can tell you care about them,” Allyson says glancing at me with worry, and a lead weight fills my stomach with guilt. My concern for their well-being is utterly selfish and unworthy of their sacrifice if they do die tonight.

  She pats my hand. “They’ll be fine.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Cal and Kein say your men are some of the most skilled hand to hand combat fighters. Most think Baza and Aryl are idiots for challenging them.” She shrugs. “Plus, they’re Monrok. They’re really hard to kill.”

  I’m not sure if I find that knowledge comforting. But then something she says nags at me. “What do you mean they can sense our emotions?”

  Allyson gives me another strange look. “Well…they’re Monrok. They’re not like human men. They’re—”

  “Aliens?” I ask with a horrified gasp.

  “Sort of.” She shrugs. “They’re half human, half Zapex creation. They’re like real life cyborgs. Do you know what those are?”

  It’s my turn to shrug and shake my head.

  “Kind of like sophisticated robots,” she says.

  I don’t understand how this could be. Are they God’s creatures or something else? “But they appear human. How can they not be?”

  At my distress, Allyson’s eyes go wide, appearing panicked. “They are…they’re also…not. They’re better. And they prefer to be called Monrok,” she rushes to say.

  I open my mouth to ask her to explain, but a hush falls, and she points out to where the men stand. “I think they’re starting.”

  Jual and Situs, as well as two who must be Baza and Aryl, stand near the center of the ring, and they’ve all stripped off their shirts and boots. Allyson’s men are between them, their faces all set him grim masks.

  “Kein told me this is how they learn to fight after they get released onto Mehcad,” Allyson tells me. “The moon planet of Mehcad is always dark and the flames would hurt their newly integrated eyes, and distort their developing senses.”

  I’m about to ask what she means by “integrated eyes,” but she continues, “They also only battled naked, with their most vulnerable bits out, but I think that’s more because they aren’t given clothes until they’re older and ready to be sent on active duty.”

  I look at the men in wonder, my mind spinning. Released like animals onto a dark strange planet, with no clothing? How old were they when this happened? My heart pinches. What a brutally harsh upbringing their childhoods must have been.

  One of Allyson’s mates holds up his hand for silence. Whether Cal or Kein, I can’t be sure, and wonder if even she can tell them apart.

  “There will be no jealousy or resentment among us here on Kadeema,” Cal or Kein says with clear authority, his voice booming out over all of us gathered here. “These are weak sentiments, not befitting of Monrok. This is the last day there will be a challenge for another Monrok’s claimed mate, without much just cause. No internal or external weapons may be used. Any who use their weapons will be terminated.”

  “Terminated?” A chill goes through me. “Do they mean killed? Just like that?”

  Allyson squeezes my hand reassuringly, but doesn’t answer. Kein and Cal split up. One of them steps to the side of the clearing as if to referee the fight, and the other comes and stands guard next to Allyson and I.

  I’m struggling to come to terms with how casually everyone is accepting what’s about to happen here. They may have been raised in to embrace violence as their only means of survival, but nothing in my upbringing has prepared me for this.

  The opponents are squared off at the center of the field like Gladiators of Roman times. Hands clench and unclench at their sides. Muscles bunch and twitch all over their bodies, as they tense in preparation for battle.

  Situs and Jual’s expressions are cut in grim lines, their focus locked on their opponents.

  “Do you know who’s who?” I ask Allyson.

  She nods. “The meat head in front of Situs is Baza.” He does have a fat had, and his muscles are so thick, he nearly doesn’t have a neck. I remember him from the other day and fight a shudder at the thought of being stuck with him. “The other is Aryl.” He’s more pleasing to the eye but his fierce scowl makes him appear cruel, although, at the moment, they all do.

  The men around Allyson and I are stone faced, but have an air of eagerness. They’re excited to witness the battle. There’s a pregnant moment while we morbidly wait to see who will throw the first punch. I stop breathing.

  In one big explosion of motion, Situs grabs Baza by his fat head and tosses him at least twenty feet, like he weighs no more than a log. The ground shakes from the force of Baza skidding, tearing up earth. Unaffected, he jumps to his feet and charges Situs.

  With a roar, they meet in a violent crash of bodies. Fist collide with faces, chests, ribs, stomachs. I cringe at the display. Already, they’re covered in blood.

  Jual and Aryl are equally bloodied. They toss each other around, grappling for supremacy. Their punches are so fierce, I can hear the cracking of bones from all the way over here.

  Savage cheers of encouragement, arise. Monrok watching the fight stomp their feet, and pound their chests, shouting for death and dismemberment.

  My stomach churns. I think I’m going to be sick. “I don’t want to watch this.”

  Allyson glances at me with concern and squeezes my hand.

  The men savagely rip at each other, and tears well in my eyes. A sickening crunch seems to echo through the clearing, and all goes still. Aryl’s lifeless body falls to the ground. Jual’s victorious roar fills the air.

  He’s holding Aryl’s head.

  The head he’s torn from the man’s body.

  Aryl’s blank, staring eyes point directly at me.

&nbs
p; My stomachs heaves as I fall to my knees, puking in the grass. I can feel eyes on me, but I don’t look up. I gag, getting sick again. Gentle hands smooth my hair out of my face, and I know it’s Allyson.

  “Shh, it’s over now,” she says rubbing circles on my back.

  I wipe my mouth with the hem of my shirt, feeling a bit broken. Without conscious thought, I turn to see what’s happening. The head and body are gone, but the grass is dark and wet where he fell. I no longer see Jual. Situs watches me with concern. He takes a step toward me and a booming blast shakes the air around us.

  He’s flung forward.

  As if in slow motion I see his body jolt through the air, landing face down with an earth-shuddering thud.

  Everyone erupts into motion. Baza, standing behind him, gets blasted back, the sounding boom shivers the air. My ears ring. Jual and Allyson’s mate rush toward Situs. Monrok move in, obscuring my line of sight, but from my knees I see Situs is still on the ground.

  Not moving.

  He’s not moving.

  “Situs!” Screaming his name, I stumble to my feet, pushing off hands that try to hold me back as I rush forward. “Situs! Jual!” Tears stream down my face.

  I distracted him.

  If only I had been stronger.

  Why can’t I ever be strong enough?

  Men part ways, making a path that opens to Jual. He has Situs’s huge form draped in his arms as if he weighs nothing. The stark look on his face softens at the sight of me.

  I cover my mouth on a sob.

  He says nothing, but nods at me to follow. Woozy, I hook my fingers into the waist of his pants and trail after him like a lost duckling. Allyson’s mates rush forward to open the hatch on our shuttle, and Jual set’s Situs facedown on a hovermat. I can now see the torn flesh of his back. There’s blood, so much blood, but something blue and glowing, too.

  Shivering from shock, I move forward to see but get pulled back. Allyson. She shakes her head, wrapping a comforting arm around my back. “Let them work. Kein was worse off than this, and Cal was able to save him.”