Teril's Fire: A Mate Index Alien Romance (The Mate Index Book 12)

by S. J. Sanders

A sound rumbled from his chest as he contemplated the idea. “That has some very distinct possibilities for pleasure,” he said in a low voice as he nuzzled the sensitive skin at her neck.

  “Ah, you have picked the finest male of my herd,” a Mintigi male said happily as he came over to their side. His short frame was wider than most of his species, but his eyes gleamed appreciatively as if accessing just how much he might be able to get from them. “He has sired a number of quality gorthals. If you are looking for a breeding male, there is none better.”

  Grish hummed to himself as he inspected the animal. “Aggression? I would need three mounts and do not wish to lose animals due to the bad temperament of one.”

  The animal lowered a large, wooly head, his thick, tapered muzzle brushing across Grish’s chest as the gorthal scented him before lowering its head further to inspect Crystal. His female snorted out a happy laugh as the gorthal repeated the same action, curiously mouthing at her hair and loose clothing as he inspected her.

  “He is a good, stable animal,” the breeder assured, smiling at the enthusiastic way Crystal patted the animal. “I would not recommend penning him with other males if you wish to breed him. He prefers to have his females to himself. But if you are just planning to keep him as a mount, he isn’t aggressive with other members of his herd.”

  “Why do they have large horns growing out of their heads? They’d look like giant wooly unicorns if it didn’t sweep back like that over the top of their heads.”

  The Mintigi made a sound of pleasure at the question, pride puffing out his chest. “The horns are not normally that long. That’s an example of very fine breeding. Both males and females have them. It makes them sensitive to changes in the energy of their environment. They have been able to detect and move their herds, and subsequently our people, away from appearances of awepi before they emerge from the mountains, as well as warning us of approaching storms. It’s also an important part of their ability to move around obstacles. Their eyesight is poor, so they rely on echolocation. The males, who develop larger horns, also use them in dominance displays and to fend off predators from the herds. As do the hard spurs jutting out from their jaws and the corners of their mouths.”

  “Amazing,” she whispered, her eyes wide as they skimmed over the animals. They landed on the male once more in appreciation. “I’ll be sure to remember that. Oh, one more question.”

  “Yes?”

  “If I sent out a signal in electric pulses, coded to a specific pattern and rhythm, can they be trained to respond to them?”

  “How clever! Yes, I imagine they would. My people sometimes use vibrational mechanisms to bring in our herds, so I imagine it would work the same way.”

  The male smiled as she input the information on her datapad.

  “We will take him, and two others of our choice. Will you be able to arrange delivery?” Grish asked.

  “Absolutely! You have picked a magnificent male. Please take your time picking out two others. I will give you a very good price for the three of them. Might I make a suggestion, however, for your little female?”

  Grish and Borth exchanged a look. To that extent, normally exchanges with Mintigi were made with a mind on credits. Borth nodded, and Grish gestured for the male to continue. The Mintigi disappeared into a cluster of animals, bringing out a smaller golden animal with a large horn.

  “This is an umprenal gorthal. Smaller than the standard breed, as you can see, and also of milder temperament. These are the animals that our clans use as mounts. We rarely sell them to offworlders… but I like your female’s curiosity and her appreciation of my animals, so I’m willing to offer him. Your human is small, and I would be saddened to learn that she became injured falling from a larger animal. I also have a feeling that she will need further protection. The umprenal gorthal can be a fierce protector of their riders. I do not like the way that Calystii is looking at her.”

  Alarm shot through Grish as he turned in the direction that the Mintigi indicated. He was certain he saw the sleek shining scales of a Calystii male slipping back into the crowd, but he couldn’t be certain.

  Grunting, Grish waited on edge as Borth made his selection. Once the credits were exchanged, he did not hesitate to rush his family away from the market. The situation with the Calystii appeared to be more serious than he thought.

  Just what had their female stumbled into?

  Chapter 16

  “And then Robby disappeared, leaving a clear trail to my home and every Calystii on the Imperial ship apparently certain that I had done it,” Crystal said with a long, weary sigh. After so many years of running, it felt good to speak of it, to share her burden with someone else.

  Not just someone else, but the Teril males protecting her.

  “Why did you not report it?” Borth asked, his brow drawn down with concern.

  Crystal sighed and rubbed her face with her hands, only moderately comforted by Matida’s head pressing into her lap. There were times when she asked herself the same question, and it always came down the same problem: she had nothing that would encourage the government to support her against a Calystii Imperial Army. In the larger scheme of things, she was a very tiny fish in a huge intergalactic ocean.

  “And tell them what? That I sometimes walk on the wrong side of the law and my boyfriend decided to be incredibly stupid against my advice? Would I beg my government to hide me and protect me when the Calystii are determined to get what they want and believe that I have it? They probably would have tossed me right to them, begging forgiveness because some idiot on Earth stole from an Imperial ship.”

  Grish grimaced but nodded in agreement. “She is right,” he grumbled to his brother. “The Calystii make a game of threatening newer planets in the Union if they cross them to establish their dominance. Theft would give them the perfect reason to retaliate if the government chose to protect her. They obviously want whatever this male—Robby—has very much to pursue her this long. No doubt they have her likeness spread among them, waiting for the alert.”

  “One they now have because of that male, Dayna,” Borth said bitterly. “The entire Calystii Imperial Army is likely on their way, heading for our door. They could demolish our entire farm with almost no effort.”

  Crystal winced. Why hadn’t she considered that?

  “That is why you signed up for the Mate Index, is it not?” Borth challenged, his eyes hot with anger.

  “Well,” she hedged, “I didn’t so much as sign up as hack my way in and process my paperwork myself for an immediate departure from Earth.”

  “So it was all a scam. You are not looking for a mate, but for someone to protect you,” he shot back.

  She gaped at him. That’s completely unfair!

  “No! I mean, yeah, I wanted to hide, but I wasn’t trying to trick anyone. I wanted somewhere I could settle and live peacefully with a mate.”

  “It was selfish! And unfortunately, we were the only ones who have yet to be able to get rid of you fast enough to avoid being targeted by the Calystii Imperial Family!” Borth shouted. “Do you realize you could ruin everything we have here? Eight cycles to destroy revolutions of work.”

  Grish sighed and shook his head. “There were no required eight cycles. It was never in the contract, brother. She spoke a falsehood that day, and I went along with it because I was desperate to find happiness for us. I never imagined it would come to this.”

  “I will not tolerate a deceptive mate. There is no knowing what all she lied about. She could even be lying about the Calystii. She admits to doing illegal work, so it’s possible. Regardless, we cannot trust her. She leaves first thing in the morning!” Borth growled as he spun away, limping heavily on his bad leg.

  Crystal’s mouth dropped open, the dig quite obvious. She snapped it closed again, eyes narrowing angrily on him as he left the room. She swallowed back angry tears and dropped her head.

  What use was there to cry about it? She was getting rejected again—only this time she a
ctually cared enough for it to truly hurt. She felt Grish’s hand come down on her arm comfortingly, and she jerked away from it.

  He was going to throw her out. She didn’t want comfort from either of the Ugaar brothers.

  He froze, and his hand dropped away. His voice was heavy with sorrow as he spoke, but she ignored it.

  “I am sorry, katna. I could not continue the lie with all this coming to light. Perhaps Borth will change his mind after he has had a chance to think it over. If not, at least you can go home and make a new life until I can talk him around to putting aside his anger. No one will know where you have gone. We will just say that you left for a vacation offworld, if anyone asks.”

  “Sure,” she muttered, pulling away from him. “I think I’ll go get some sleep. I imagine we’ll be leaving early in the morning.”

  “Yes, probably,” he agreed sadly.

  Her arms wrapped around her chest, she lifted her head and glared. “I hate you for this.” She felt a stirring of guilt at the way he winced in pain but pushed on. “You made me care and want to be here and have a life with you, and now you’re ripping it all away. You could have left well enough alone. I could have enjoyed peace for eight months while I got my shit in order and then I would have been out of here. You made me want and imagine more than that.”

  “Katna…” He stepped forward, his hand reaching out for her, but she neatly evaded his touch.

  “No, you don’t get to call me that. I’m not your dearest, or your anything. Not anymore. You don’t get to call me that before you throw me away.”

  “I am not throwing you away,” he growled in frustration. “I just need time to get this figured out. I still want you. We still want you. Borth is angry. We will figure it out, I promise.”

  She nodded once, refusing to meet his gaze.

  It didn’t matter anyway. If she returned to Earth, she would be in jail. Once that happened, it wouldn’t be like they could just stroll to the jail and be all, “Oopsie, we changed our mind. Our bad.” She couldn’t depend on Borth to be able to figure out what he wanted and needed, not when he still held deep doubts about them.

  It was time to face facts. Her time was running out. She needed to get out of there and lie low somewhere until she figured out her next steps.

  Crystal stalked to her room. She went immediately to the storage panel on the wall and fetched her backpack. It had served her well over the years. No reason to break with tradition now. Carrying it over to the bed, she began to pack her things.

  She glanced casually at the bags still sitting on her bed from where she had set them after returning from the market. Her stomach soured at the sight. Several loose tunics and pants were stretched out besides the bags, but she didn’t reach for them. Instead, she dug into the bags for the snacks she had picked out. She didn’t want to take anything from the house with her, but she wasn’t so foolish as to leave food behind, not when they would put something in her belly while she was traveling. Hopefully the guys would be able to get their money back for everything else. Or maybe give her new things to Talimia.

  The datapad sitting on the bedside table tempted her, but she paused only long enough to fish out the ear transponders and set them beside it. It pained her to leave the gifts, the things that Grish provided for her to be able to maintain contact with the rest of the world. Still… it could serve one last purpose to suit her needs.

  Picking it up, she transferred schematics of the surrounding land and property lines to her comm and overrode the security systems, providing herself with a forty-five-minute window to get off the property. They would never know that she left until she was long gone. They would have no information to give to the Calystii if they came looking, whether it was days or months down the road.

  It could only buy her more time.

  Initializing the override, Crystal crept from the room into the darkened house. As part of the override, the lights did not activate as she made her way to the front door. Everything was quiet, as it should be. Keying the manual override, she shrugged her pack more comfortably in place and waited as the door slid open.

  She was tempted to take one last look, but shook off the impulse as she stepped out the door into the night.

  Although she had no real plan, she had an idea of at least where she might seek some help for a day. Talimia also had an intergalactic comm system. If she could talk her friend into letting her use it, just maybe she could arrange passage off the planet. She didn’t really have much of value, and her credits were dangerously low, but she could probably make a series of illegal transfers to give her enough credits to get off the planet. Perhaps she could see about enlisting her services to a patron somewhere. Someone had to have some use for her skills.

  Once she was far enough from the house that she was certain that the light from her comm wouldn’t be seen, she pulled up Talimia’s contact information and opened the comm line between them on a secure frequency. It didn’t take long for the Wanit to answer. Her friend’s confused expression cleared immediately when she saw her.

  “Crystal, where are you? Is everything all right?”

  “Well enough. I’ll explain later. I am coming through the southeastern edge of your property line. Would it be okay if I stopped there and used your comm system?”

  “Of course, but I thought we were meeting later for your cooking lesson.”

  Crystal closed her eyes, unhappy to disappoint or hurt her new friend. Dredging up a smile, she shrugged.

  “We will have to reschedule, if that’s okay? There are a few things I need to take care of, and I’m not entirely sure when I’ll be able to do it.”

  “I understand. We will arrange to do it later when you are settled again. In the meantime, of course you are welcome to come by and use my comm system. It was one of the few luxuries I insisted on when we left Wanmira, so it is decent.”

  “Thank you. I really appreciate it,” she said quietly.

  “Have you eaten?”

  Crystal shook her head. “Not since this afternoon.”

  “Okay, I will warm the evening meal and have it ready when you arrive.”

  “Thank you, Talimia. You’re such a good friend.”

  “You will tell me what is happening when you arrive—right?”

  “Yeah, I’ll tell you,” Crystal said wearily.

  The Wanit nodded and signed off, leaving Crystal to her thoughts as she made her way through the shadows of the orchard. It was eerie, especially with the flickering lights of the butterfly-like entigs fluttering around the trees.

  Since arriving, she had never walked more than a few yards away from the house, other than her trip to town with Borth and Grish. Being out so far from the house on an alien world was new and frightening. Thankfully, it wasn’t a long walk, and within the hour, she was being pulled into Talimia’s warm house with Nargis watching groggily.

  “Now remember, not a word that she’s here,” the female hissed to her mate. “You know the rules. Besides, if she wanted them to know where she was, she would have told them.”

  Nargis agreed reluctantly before shuffling off to bed, leaving them alone in the kitchen with only one last unhappy look in their direction before he disappeared down the hall.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt your routine. I know it’s late,” Crystal said quietly as she sat at the table.

  Talimia waved her apology off. “It is not that. Do not worry. Nargis hates to keep secrets from his friends, but if you are here without them that means that they have done something stupid. The hunt has very specific rules in our culture. If they have offended and wish to make amends, then they must endure the trials of the hunt as well to prove themselves worthy once again.” Talimia leaned forward soberly, placing a bowl in front of her. “Did they offend you?”

  “They’re assholes. I’m better off without them,” Crystal said around a bite of the hot, filling food.

  Talimia grinned. “Yes, of course they are.”

  Crystal r
eturned her smile and settled more comfortably at the table. “I appreciate you doing this for me—and this food. It’s very good.”

  “We are friends. Of course I would help you. More than one Wanit of my line has helped another bury a body a time or two.”

  Choking back a laugh, Crystal looked fondly upon the female. “You’re a good friend, but I hope it won’t come to that.”

  “Of course not. Burying bodies is a messy, foul-smelling, and overall, quite unpleasant task.” Talimia laughed. “I do admit that I hope your males are successful in their hunt. I do not wish to lose another friend.”

  “You will never lose me. I’ll comm as often as possible regardless of where I am.”

  “You will?” Talimia asked softly, a vulnerable expression descending over her features. There was a shade of doubt there that pained Crystal. The female had been hurt a lot by friends and family. She would not add to that.

  “Yes, I will,” she whispered.

  The Wanit smiled shakily, blinking back her tears. “I am glad. Now hurry and eat so I can show you to the comm system. It is quite splendid,” she said as she dashed a hand over her eyes. “I also have a little gift for you that should help you during the hunt.”

  “Thank you,” Crystal said softly.

  In less than an hour, she was linked, her mind cast about virtual space, sinking once more in the familiarity. She should have been elated to be back. It shouldn’t have felt lonely drifting through cyberspace. There were countless people out there, moving in and out of the intergalactic system, who she could easily reach and touch at the drop of a hat.

  Yet for once that thought didn’t comfort her.

  No one else was them.

  She shook away the morose feeling. They had pushed her away. She had to be fine with that. She had no one but herself once she left Talimia’s house. She knew that her friend would ask her to stay, but she wouldn’t. Lingering only increased the risk that someone would find out that she had been there and alert the Calystii Imperial Fleet to that fact.

  She needed to get to work.