"Why were you released?" Colt asked.
Ebony barely nodded.
As if she agreed to answer the question.
"My ma-master decided I was targeted for execution. He released me."
Why is she stuttering?
"Master? Why did you call the alien that? You said mate before." Colt stood absolutely still.
Like budging would allow her freedom to change her story.
Ebony almost shook her head.
Almost winced because I could see her face for a second or two.
She glanced at Thomas long enough to show her desperation.
So sad. I could feel her confusion and even some kind of loss. What? Had she left something behind?
"Ebony?" Colt nudged for his answer.
She winced, a sense of hopelessness carrying away the wrinkles from the pain the memory brought to her mask. "The aliens aren't what you think they are. They--" she paused to sip from the teacup.
Like the liquid would truly help settle her nerves.
She lowered the cup and dragged in another long breath before aiming a hidden gaze I couldn't define at Colt.
"For many years, I was only allowed to call him 'Master.' But he became more than that to me. He was worthy of the title 'Mate' or husband." Her gaze slid back to the floorboards. "He released me to protect me."
"From what?" Colt asked.
Actually, shooting another round of buckshot her direction. I glared at him to stop but was duly ignored.
"Why was he protecting you?" Colt insisted.
She locked her gaze back on his. "I'm a Cougar. The weakest of the females." She sniffed.
As if she was ashamed of the title weakest.
"The other cougars survive because they are so strong. Me, I'm weak. So weak my master altered my genetic code enough to enhance a latent psychic affinity I had for mindreading. From there, I could eavesdrop on alien conversations. That is what you need to know. I am here because of what I know. Because my master became my mate and entrusted the knowledge of his revolution on one weak little female he rescued off the auction block." She dropped her gaze back to her teacup and licked her lips.
In a way I do when I have to admit something distasteful.
"Ebony," Colt followed through on the information, "if you were weak, you'd be dead."
His unwavering tone indicated he either wanted to make her feel good or he thought she lied. Who could lie about being so weak you were useful? She's a woman. A person. She has the right to live as she lives not breed or spy. It was all I could do not to scowl. But I agreed to let him handle things. This time.
Ebony must have needed more help from the tea. She gulped down a few drinks and lowered the cup, holding the curved handle away from her chest with a dainty pinch. Like she had drank often at many tea parties.
Do the extraterrestrials hold tea parties?
Ebony turned that hauntingly pathetic gaze away, back to Colt. "Maybe you're right. But I've lived over a third of my life among them. And my weaknesses are what saved me from the marking fights and the rites of possession. The only reason I'm still alive is because I'm weak and none of the other aliens wanted me." She raised her plate to the teacup's dainty curved base, released the cup's handle, and exhaled quickly. "But that's behind me now." She stared off at the wall beside Thomas. "I've been freed."
Colt locked a curious gaze on me.
Almost like he thought I could do something or had an answer. I barely wagged my head.
His gaze darted back to Ebony. "You said he released you to protect you. Why?"
Okay. That's a sound question.
"They aren't psychic," she told the wall. "Only one other alien species they have aboard the ship is psychic. One of the other species tapped into my thoughts when I was gathering information for Juv'kro." She shook her head and looked back at her cup. "I mean my master."
"Can you tell me more so I understand about the psychics?" Colt asked.
She nodded, lost in what had to be a reflection flickering off the surface of the tea in her cup. "The psychics are just like a lump of clay. They don't speak. They communicate with the Queen who owns the planet. They have to because she wasn't on our ship. She occupies the spaceship hovering over another continent." She wagged her head. "And I don't know which continent. But her psychics police the minds of those who roam into their range. Essentially, my fate boils down to I made the mistake of mindreading in the wrong place."
"That's what you meant by being targeted," Colt stated. "And you think you're safe on the planet's surface?"
She finally studied his face again. "Juv'kro could have killed me years ago because I am so weak. But he is high-ranking among their scientists and is allowed certain favors for performing his duties. The Queen uses people like that. And she went out of her way to officially announce that his rite to possess me wasn't to be challenged. Or that is all the sense he and I could make of it."
Colt's knees buckled slowly, sliding his body down along the wall until he squatted before Ebony.
Watching her so thoughtfully that I started to feel just a little jealous. Really. He's mated, subconscious.
"What do you mean by rites of possession?" Colt asked carefully.
Under that scrutiny of his, what could Ebony do? She had to answer. And surely Thomas wants to know as much as I do.
Ebony's teacup began dancing on its saucer where she held it in mid air. Even the brown tea sloshed back and forth from side to side in the cup. The rattling was more than enough to send a chill down my spine.
Colt reached for the plate, one hand taking it from below, the other palm securing the cup to the saucer from above. "It's alright, Ebony. You don't have to talk about it."
She didn't look anyone in the eye, just nodded quickly.
"Raven," Thomas said, "why don't you see what you can do to make Ebony more comfortable here."
Colt's sharp gaze snapped to mine.
His brow had to be more pinched because of what he'd just witnessed than Thomas and I interrupting his interrogation.
"I can work," Ebony blurted, glancing between us. "I don't want to be a problem. And maybe tomorrow, I will know what to do next. Maybe I can leave…" Her gaze wandered off to join her fleeting words in the shadows under Thomas' bed.
"You can stay here as long as you like, " Thomas said.
****
I couldn't hold anything against anyone any longer. Not after seeing that woman sit the way she had through Colt's questions. Her confession only meant we had more at stake than losing a hand to Parkers. She changed the dynamics of life. This homestead is at high risk with her here. But Ebony's arrival actually gave Thomas something to do. I left him making certain our new guest could find everything she needed to shower and rest. That way I could take care of filling the dehydrators. I stepped out of the main house's choking shadows and into the warm sunshine.
Colt bent over a summer squash plant, his elbows jabbing backward my direction.
It was minutes before I spread spinach leaves on the corrugated metal sheeting of our makeshift dehydrator. He hadn't said anything about Ebony's revelation. And I couldn't bring myself to ask. There's so much to be done. So much we'll never get to today because I drank myself into a coma last night. Maybe I should have choked up some organs this morning? But life just seems to keep insisting I face more challenges.
Are the aliens on their way?
Do we have enough stored in Thomas' rat hole to barricade ourselves inside and wait out an attack?
My stomach gave another sick heave.
Just another to add to the endless wave of sensations telling me standing here spreading spinach leaves is most likely a waste of time.
Colt rose, his bare golden back unfolding to carry through with the few steps his thick camouflage-covered legs took him toward the tall corn plants paralleling the curved log fence.
Away from me. And how can he be so calm? Thomas almost died yesterday. I almost became a sex slave. And Ebony's bring
ing the aliens. Surely he has reason to be calm. I have to know why. I carefully shut the glass door over the spinach leaves, to pin the green vegetation down in the small dehydrating framework that would transform the greens into crisp green paper in a matter of hours. I skirted the handmade device.
He kept yanking squash loose from the parent plant.
Would I get the same reception Ebony had? Cold. Indifferent.
He rose, turning. "Something wrong?"
I guess I could have shouted but I didn't want to alarm anyone else. So, I took the last seven steps and stopped one stride from his dusty boots.
He stared down at me with Normal eyes. "You're worried, aren't you?"
Well, nobody could call Colt stupid. "Yes."
His face didn't break with one crease or wrinkle. "Go ahead. Ask."
Honesty is good. He isn't trying to protect a weak little female. "What do you expect to happen?"
His mouth flattened with thought.
Lips that had to be soft. Aren't male lips as soft as a woman's? I really really need to stop thinking about a mated Shifter.
"Well," he began, "one of four things will happen."
Okay. "I'm listening."
"The aliens will come searching for her, or they won't."
"What about the other two?"
"The Parkers will return, or they won't." His lips cracked with the most gorgeous grin. "Either way, we need to tend to the garden. So, back to work."
He's teasing me. "Fine. Don't be serious. I want my pistols back just in case. Where did you and Thomas hide them?"
He slightly snorted. "Under his bed."
That man. I couldn't help but scowl at the main house's porch.
"Tell me, Raven."
I turned back to find Colt serious again.
"Where are this homestead's deepest storage rooms? Root cellars? Storm shelters? Hidden places?" He stretched his arms up to reach behind his head.
His body popped and popped.
So much that I didn't realize I was staring at the bulging muscles in his arms until it was too late to pretend I hadn't noticed.
"I need to know, Raven."
Fine. He's the reason I'm still here. What good does it do to hide the information? "We've got a cellar under the barn. And the secret room in the house has a panel in the floor that leads down to an extremely long tunnel and our final retreat about half a mile west of here. It's all subterranean."
"More than 3 feet below the surface?"
"Yes. But why does that matter? Are you afraid they'll try to burn us out?" The Parkers were big on using that tactic.
"The aliens use termination rays. If they want to kill Ebony, they'll incinerate her."
Out here? In The Wild? I must have looked absolutely mind boggled because he patted my upper arm.
"Don't worry, Raven. Show me the cellar under the barn. I need to know where we need to retreat when it's time to reach safety. Waiting until the last minute to prepare gets you killed."
But he hadn't asked me until now. "You didn't worry about that before. You just harvested squash."
"True." His warm hand fell back to his side. "But I didn't want to upset you after Thomas got under your skin."
Well, at least he was honest. "The cellar is this way."
****
Mine, Wolf growled.
Like a hard painful burp inside my chest. I shoved the unruly knot back down with a gulp.
All the sweet curves leading me forward and the sheet of swinging black hair down her tail had to have been more torture to follow than being captured by aliens. But I have no options. I'd promised my brother she'd be here when he returned. Knowing where I could tuck away her little body in a moment of crisis is the only way I could follow through with my promise to Buck. So, Wolf is just going to have to suffer.
She led me out of the blistering sunlight into the barn's cool darkness, to the far north end. The west corner, covered in straw. She kicked away the dried beige grass piled a few inches deep, revealing a 4-inch diameter ring that she lifted toward us.
The door creaked its refusal but didn't get its way.
She shot me a glance, backing up. "Excuse me."
I moved sideways.
She propped the door up against a tall post supporting the second-floor's hayloft, then shot me a second glance. "Down the hole."
We walked down stone steps.
Stone masonry. Not concrete. The cellar must have been a later edition to the homestead after the alien invasion when only natural resources were mined locally or confiscated from places to use for construction.
She flipped a switch. A cone-shaped light flicked on.
The stairs curled down and around, out of sight, leading to another dangling light. "This is an unusual cellar."
"My other uncles built it. They were into burying everything we could accumulate and hide. Thomas said they spent about twenty-two years creating this cellar and the rat hole."
Sounds interesting. "Rat hole?"
"The escape tunnel and our bug-out sanctuary."
She said that like she was raised in Prepville. "Where'd you say you lived with your parents?"
She chuckled, reaching the bottommost step, and shot me a don't-go-there look. "They weren't Preppers, Colt. Those people are crazier than crazy!"
Well, you can't call a nest of humans who've survived the end of the world crazy. "Now, don't be so judgmental." I stepped down to her level and met her quizzical gaze. "They've beaten the odds all on their own. I think the last I heard, three Shifters worked inside their walls. But you can't call them crazy when they keep to themselves to survive. Everything is about survival these days."
She sucked in a quick breath. "They wouldn't take my parents in. We had to live with Prophets."
"They don't want to introduce disease into their population. Nor do they allow infiltrators to gain access to their community. If more Normals lived like them--"
"I can't believe you're defending Preppers. They're the worst kind of bigots in leaving my family out to fend for themselves. Colt, we had to live with Prophets."
She's getting upset again. "Then, you wouldn't have ended up here with Thomas. You wouldn't have met Buck."
Her eyebrows began to arch. "And what does Buck have to do with any of this?"
Why did she use that scolding motherly tone? "Buck and you…" I waved a palm to emphasize the rest of their relationship.
Her eyes widened beyond belief. "What?"
And her astonished tone is no better than the motherly one. "You're a couple."
"A couple?" Her hands planted upon her hips and herd dark eyebrows flattened into a malicious line. "Or are you saying we coupled already? Maybe you're using the wrong term altogether because, Colt whatever-your-last-name-is, I have never copulated with anyone, including your mouthy brother who for some reason entertains my mouthy uncle! And I'm not liking the feeling of betrayal rejuvenating inside me."
Mine, Wolf barked.
Uh-oh. "I'm sorry, Raven." To say anything else would transform me into my mouthy brother who seems to have stuck both feet into his, only to exit his ass in an attempt to shove them into my mouth. "Buck's confused."
"Confused? And only Buck?"
I swear she managed to gain two inches in height. Or it's just her snarl making her look taller.
"My uncle used to say men are all assholes. I'm starting to think he's right. But he forgot to include himself in the mix. I almost believed you had nothing to do with him and his ideas to send my back East or mate me to one of your brothers. But now I see I was wrong." She whirled, took the stairs one at a time, and left me standing there looking at the light bulb dangling not far away overhead.
What just happened?
I'd lost my mind.
Somewhere back when I raced into save her little tail.
Somehow, I'd gotten pegged a dumbass like Buck and Thomas. How? I'd shown her every respect. I even pushed her away when she kissed me. For what? A woman who swears she wants not
hing to do with my brother? Or maybe what I'd walked in on when Buck was helping her with the cart was a lover's spat. That must be what happened. Thomas would know.
Want mine! Wolf clawed and scratched to be free.
Not yet. She's still Buck's. And stop trying to rip my ribcage open.
I won't be mentioning any of this to her again any time soon. Where is that moronic brother of mine? He needs to hurry back and end this insanity. I ascended the stairs, veered out of the barn's shadows, kept my back to the garden, and hurried into the main house.
Raven brushed past me without glaring my direction.
Well, I wasn't expecting to see her here.
The door clapped shut at my heels.
"What kind of holy terror unfolded in the garden?" Thomas called out.
Ebony stood at the kitchen counter, a towel in hand drying a pot, watching me.
She doesn't need to know what happened. I'll play stupid. "What do you mean?" I faced Thomas while stepping across the squeaking floorboards.
Thomas chuckled a wheezing laugh. "Raven marched in here, dove under my bed, and took off with her pistols." He stared accusatorily.
Like he waited for me to dare to deny I told her where her firearms were hidden. "She asked where they were. She's nervous about Ebony's story and the Parkers. I don't see any reason to have her running around unarmed." Which is true. She's probably not going to allow me to hang out anywhere near her. So, it's better she has those guns in hand.
The pot thumped in the kitchen's metal sink. Ebony leaned sideways.
As if straining to see something unusual out the window.
"What's she up to, Ebony?" Thomas asked.
"Raven's pushing a large overloaded cart. That's quite a load."
Thomas sighed, rubbing the back of his head. "She's on a mission." He smacked his lips then shot Ebony a stare. "Do you mind helping Raven for a while? Just long enough to keep an eye on her until her anger fades a bit?"
"Of course." Ebony tossed the towel on the counter and left.
Quietly. Well, I'm alone now with Thomas. I can question him about Buck. I grabbed a chair, hoisted the heavy wood high with one hand, and straddled the seat two steps away from him.
"That's not a good sign, son." Thomas eyeballed me with an arched brow. "It looks like you need some buttressing to chat with me. Something tells me you know what burr has lodged beneath Raven's hide."
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