Her lips remained clamped shut.
“I will stand here and miss my quota,” he warned. “They will tie me to a post and lash me.”
She suckled, hands on hips, glaring.
Seeing her presence began to attract unwanted attention, he sent her back to the recess.
He hissed a warning at the grisly Strophig with broken tusks that drooled with rapacious absorption at her departing backside, the same brute that leered at her earlier.
The time passed, and Venomous grew amused at how solicitously his Rä’Na delivered his refreshment, always having to be forced by him to drink.
She insisted he needed it more, and refused to hear him when he explained his body retained water in a far more efficient manner than her own.
If desperate circumstance called for it, he could go moontides without water.
He would be weakened, his warrior skills lacking, but he would survive.
Fifteen-span passed, and Lumen began to look fatigued.
The next time she delivered water, she lingered. “Babe, shift no over?”
“Another rotation and five-span. Then we go above.”
“No understand. Working two rotations no stop?”
“Yesss.”
“No stop?”
“It is tiring, but we manage. Remember there is a rest rotation.”
“V-Venom!” Her voice wobbled. “Me no stay awake. Need sleep. Five-span each rotation.”
Pausing mid swing to stare at her, his lower hand caressed her hip in concern. “So much?”
“Mind break no sleep.”
“It is not safe for you to sleep here, my Lumen.” He set the axe down and turned to her. “I must work. You must stay awake to call to me if someone manages to get close enough to touch you.”
Rubbing her eyes, she hugged his middle and lay her head on his chest. “Me try.”
Aware she again attracted attention, he briefly rubbed a knuckle across her cheekbone then escorted her back to her nook.
He had worried she might find it too trying, but there had been no other option but to bring her.
He couldn’t risk leaving her alone in their lair.
The boulder was heavy enough it would take three of the stronger males to move it, but with the motivation of a female for mounting many would offer themselves for the task, waiting until his shift began and he was unable to reach her.
It would be two rotations before he got her back, and by then who knew if she would be sane.
Another five-span passed, the clunk and chink of metal hitting rock tedious.
He heaved jewel–encrusted rocks, hauled the cart, dumped his cache then returned to his axe to begin again.
A Zozon fell to its death from the dangerous upper levels after its frayed harness gave.
A screeching wail silenced upon its body thudding the ground in a gritty cloud of dust.
The pulverised corpse was dragged away without ceremony.
Venomous knew what would be served in the cooked food next rotation.
A kind of mercy, he supposed.
The Zozon were less warriors and more meat for the gladiators to ruthlessly tear through during contest.
When his mate didn’t react to this commonplace horror, he realised she had not brought him water in the last span.
Venomous spun, the pickaxe dropping unnoticed as his hearts leapt into his throat.
A slimy Opda had its tentacle wrapped around his Lumen’s waist and tugged her across the floor.
She was fast asleep or unconscious.
The canister rolled off her lap, her arms stretched out behind her as she was dragged through the dirt towards the pitch-blackness.
Anger and protectiveness exploded from him in a roar.
Venomous reached the body snatcher in three bounds then lashed out with his claws, severing the thick tentacle.
Gloopy yellow blood splattered the wall.
The Opda squealed, scurrying into the darkness as fast as its squidgy lower limbs could carry its rotund body.
Venomous let it go; he had priorities.
Scooping his Rä’Na from the rocky ground, he rushed back to the crevice and dropped onto his behind.
Frantic, he rubbed her cheek with his. “Waken. Waken.”
Opda secreted poison through their suckers that paralysed their victims.
Is she asleep or did the Opda sting her?
He ripped the severed tentacle from around her waist and saw the needle thin stingers were extended.
Chilled, he pushed her grubby tunic up and ran a palm over her skin, but couldn’t tell if she’d been punctured.
Surely I’d see the sting marks?
Pressure crushed his chest as he realised he needed help.
She needed healing he could not provide.
Hoping against hope, he looked towards the slaver, Snorg, who oversaw his sector.
The L’Odo’s spiky crest lifted then flattened as it pointedly turned its humped back.
Cradling his Lumen to him, Venomous again pressed his cheek to hers.
Great Serpent, spare her.
He rubbed her chest feeling the slow, slight beats of her human heart.
He felt familiar vibrations of a scuttling tread travel through the ground into his body, so the voice that spoke above him did not incite surprise.
“Heard you got yourself a female.” A hard clicking noise followed a heavy footfall. “Break her already did you?”
“She is unconscious from an Opda sting, I think.” Anxious then suspicious, Venomous raised his head to glare at Yofk, a Krael, the sole other creature aside from the Yoni Venomous called friend in this place. “What do you do here? Your shift is over.”
“I have not seen you all cycle. Heard the rumours you defeated the alpha Verak for a female and wanted to see if it was true.” He buzzed a laugh. “I would have spewed to see that arrogant fool bested. Vain beast-coverer.”
Too distraught to pay attention, Venomous brushed Lumen’s hair from her cheek.
At a loss, his tongue flickered, and he tasted nothing amiss.
What if humans do not produce odours that indicate sickness?
Yofk sidled closer. His antennae twitched in curiosity. “Is she dying? Shall I spew in her mouth? My enzymes might help.”
“No,” Venomous barked thinking he’d only subject her to that when all other hope was lost. “She is having a bad reaction or is sleeping off the tranquillizing effect.” He rubbed her chest lumps harder, hoping that would help. “She will waken.”
The Krael knelt, awkwardly folding his lower body segments.
The claspers on the ends of his fingers unfurled and quivered. “May I?
It turned his stomach over to let another male touch his fragile Rä’Na, but Venomous hissed his agreement.
Respectful, Yofk passed the fine appendages over her soft abdomen. “Well, my friend, these are very sensitive.” The claspers curled in to rest on the backs of his fingers. “She got stung, I feel punctures. She is still breathing, and if she were going to die it would have happened by now. She will sleep then wake.”
Venomous slumped in relief. “Thank Zython.” The most pressing emergency solved, he looked at her slack face in dismay. “I must work.” But he wanted to hold her until her membranes fluttered open revealing her gems.
Yofk rubbed his plated chin. “Do not leave the female asleep down here. She will be snatched before you can blink.” He buzzed, knowing the Rä didn’t blink. He inhaled. Trilled a sound of yearning low in his throat. “She smells compatible. I will take her.”
Venomous stilled.
A dark, primal part of him demanded he strike at this new threat.
He stifled the savage impulse. “No.”
“Not a permanent trade. Come for her when your shift ends.” The Krael bravely patted Venomous’ shoulder, its bristled forearm scraping his scales. “My mound is safe. I will feed her.”
Venomous gnashed his fangs, too enraged to speak.
The
Krael snorted. “You would kill her then?”
Vibrations in the earth warned another drew near.
Venomous hugged Lumen closer.
The heavy stomp of a slaver rounding the corner of the recess had them jerking onto their feet.
The L’Odo Snorg looked at the severed tentacle, the trail of blood, at Venomous, at Yofk, and then at the unconscious female draped in the Rä’s arms. “I do not know what happened here nor do I care. Get back to work.”
“My mate was stung by an Opda.” Venomous’ glands swelled with enough poison to take the aggressive male down. The preparation of his body was instinctive. The slaver stank of menace. “She is sick.”
“So what?”
“I must take her back to my lair. I will return.”
“No.” There was not an ounce of compassion in Snorg’s gravelly voice. It oozed contempt. “No special treatment. You are lucky you have a female to rut. It is your own fault you did not protect her well.”
Venomous repressed the fury braying for the tinny heat of the male’s blood.
One dead L’Odo would not help his Rä’Na when he was trapped in isolation for tearing one of them apart.
I must use my intelligence, not my strength, to keep her from danger.
He grated, “Surely you can see it is not safe for her here.”
“Dump her on the ground. She will recover or die.” Heartless, cloudy eyes narrowed. “You look fine and that is what matters.”
Snorg cracked his whip.
The metal tip Venomous had seen slice muscle from bone lashed near his mate’s tender flesh.
It made his hearts stutter.
“Get back to your zone.” The L’Odo directed its ire at Yofk. “What are you doing here? I do not know you.”
The Krael’s antennae flattened. “My shift is over.”
“Leave.” Snorg shot a vicious look at Venomous. “Do not make me come over here again.”
The slaver lumbered off to break up a scuffle over a sweet water canister the next section over.
Whistling, Yofk said, “My offer stands.”
Infuriated by his lack of options, Venomous hissed.
“Fortune keep you, friend.”
Venomous grabbed Yofk’s lower arm segment.
Mottled blue chitin was hard and textured, and patches were loose as the Krael prepared to moult for the new season.
Venomous’ gut churned.
He stared agonizingly at Lumen’s face as he struggled to consider her what her eccentric human perspective might have him do.
He swore to always consider her opinion, but what was he to do when she would not wake?
Yofk did not offer to protect her out of the goodness of his chest valves.
The male was an ally but had needs.
Krael were a species that revered their egg layers, hundreds of males seeing to the wellbeing of a dominant female.
Yofk missed the feeling of unity that came with belonging to a hive.
His had been destroyed in a raid for the rare and much coveted nectar his kind regurgitated to feed their larvae.
It was nourishing to many species, a small bottle replenishing the strength and vigour of a male as large as Venomous for an entire solar, fighting infection and curing internal ails.
As an accidental survivor, Yofk had been taken as slave labour rather than put down with the rest of his hive, his spew harvested by the L’Odo once a cycle.
No, the Krael would not harm Lumen, but Venomous did not like him touching her.
The horrid thought of Yofk coaxing her into accepting his penile cluster into her body....
Venomous shuddered inside.
She was his, yet his options were limited.
He could leave her in the crevice until she woke, but the chance of her being molested as he took the cart to the drop off zone was high, and he had to meet their digging quota.
Failure meant the bladed lash, and she would not survive the brutal flogging.
Now aware of her, the L’Odo Snorg would not let her stay without working, especially if her presence continued to cause a disturbance.
The mental image of his delicate human waking in a strange environment with a lusty male set his fangs dripping.
His hearts pumped to prepare him for battle, but the struggle was internal.
The hands not caressing his mate clenched and unclenched in impotent rage.
Yofk was not the enemy, merely an opportunist, as most became when surviving.
Keeping her was a deadly risk.
Giving her away was temporary, and ensured her safety with the only other male strong enough to protect her in his absence.
Perhaps this was the Great Serpent’s way to provide a male to protect his widow should his life force depart this world.
It sickened him, this was not how a lesser mating was done, but nothing came without cost.
I should not be emotional over a Rä’Na after two rotations.
It should not be hard to share her body when the act of clutch is a small part of the life bond, but I cannot help what I feel.
Words tore from him in a pained rasp. “You will not hurt her.”
“I vow it. I will take no more than she gives.” It was a concession most would not offer. Yofk held out his thorny fingers. “Give her to me.”
Venomous’ jaw clenched as his back teeth ground together. “Kilboh traded with me to cut you.”
The Krael laughed. “After. I need my strength to protect her.” His segmented arms came closer. “Give.”
Venomous hugged Lumen to his chest and rubbed his brow to hers.
She smelt of him, spiced, but that would change.
Yofk would scent mark her.
Venomous’ guts pitched and he repressed a snarl.
She would be distraught and annoyed with him.
Lumen disliked not having her views heard.
She was so proud.
“You will forgive me,” he murmured. “I think you will know what is in my hearts.”
He imitated her intimate act as best he could and pressed his mouth to hers.
It made him feel so close to her.
Another male would not give her up.
He would fight and let her die if needs be to maintain his honour, but I cannot do that.
Hearts sinking, he passed her over and watched as the Krael took his mate to protect when he’d failed to.
CHAPTER EIGHT
“Who the holy fuck are you, and where is Venom?” I held a hairy branch like a rounder’s bat to keep the alien at bay.
I’d woken in a hovel I didn’t recognise with the insect thing looming over me.
Bulging eyes, wet pincers at its mouth, swampy scent, and its sodden breath blowing over me.
I didn’t want to be a discriminatory bitch, or anything, but what the fuck was he?
Although I felt as if I’d gotten a grip on the whacked out shit I’d encountered since my abduction, I wasn’t handling the shock of the unidentified creature to my system well at all.
Tears pricked my eyes as they showed too much white and rolled seeking escape from the strange den.
Venomous had been right; I’d fallen asleep then gotten snatched.
Did he search for me even now?
Could he?
Would they let him leave the pit to find me?
A worse, near impossible thought occurred.
Did this fiend kill my alien?
Sonofabitch.
“I am Yofk. Venomous One toils. He will retrieve you at the end of this rotation when his shift ends.”
That sounded like welcome news yet I remained wary.
I lowered my weapon a fraction.
Our translators seemed to communicate well with our respective languages.
He didn’t sound as stilted as Venomous, and there were no annoying blank spaces where words or phrases should be.
“He knows where I am?” I asked still suspicious, and justifiably in my opinion.
“We tr
aded for your protection. You are safe with me in my mound.”
“Oh. Thank goodness.” The air left me in a giggly rush. “I worried there for a second.”
“Be comfortable.” He pointed to a pile of decomposing leaves. “Touch me before you present. The Rä warrior is protective of you, and it would not do to harm you. Touch helps prepare females for males.”
Able to stop channelling my inner badass and take stock of my body, my arms and legs felt tingly.
My stomach ached, and my mind was foggy as if I’d taken drugs.
As I watched Yofk lower to his leafy, moss speckled pallet these symptoms faded into the background.
Something uglier took their place and sick crawled up my throat.
Seeing how he studied me, his expectant gaze lingering at my breasts and groin, I experienced a hideous foreboding.
“What,” pained swallow, “did Venom trade for my protection?”
Yofk’s antennae lifted straight up into rigid points. “You will copulate with me. The Rä do not have hundreds of hive males like my species.” He made it sound as if that was foolish. “They have one lesser mate to watch their females. There are no other Rä here, so I offered.”
Reeling, I tried to think through the insinuation, no, declaration, that Venomous, the alien I’d begun to think of as my man traded me out for sex.
Something he said he’d never do.
He never said never.
My gut clenched and my heart pounded.
I’m an utter fool.
I’d trusted him, accepted belonging to him wasn’t as bad as I’d feared it’d be, and he’d turned around and betrayed me.
“I–I thought mating meant something different.” I grasped for an excuse. Maybe I’d misunderstood what a mate meant? “I thought it meant I’m for Venom alone.”
“You are.” Yofk sounded confused. “You are his mate. He told me so. You made him male.”
Muddled and frightened, I shook my head, my fingers hurting.
Why did my fingers hurt?
I looked down and felt surprise at seeing them digging into the branch.
I brandished my makeshift weapon again, shaking it like I knew how to use it. “You’re not making any sense.”
Yofk muttered, “No wonder he worried about giving you over.” He peered at me with curiosity. “Venomous One gave you to me so he could finish his shift. You were stung by an Opda that tried to steal you away.”
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