by Maia Starr
“Perhaps she was afraid of you,” I said darkly. How could this be happening? Of all things, my brother, taking the one single precious thing that I had wanted in all of my years. Whether I had been able to identify that desire at the moment or not, the fact remained. I had wanted the human. She had motivated me to risk my life, and now, she was, of course, snatched away by my brother. It was typical.
“Of course she is afraid,” Kerglan said with a hearty laugh. “And she is afraid of you too! Isn’t it wonderful? We are powerful warriors from the planet Yala. We are Raithers! A force to be reckoned with. Any and all species must tremble before us, even the humans!”
I shook my head in disbelief. How could he be so happy about intimidating the female that he had laid his claim on? Wasn’t the point of having a female at all to develop a closer bond: one of trust and respect and protection? He should want to spare her the wounds of life, not inflict more upon her! It was disgusting.
“I hope that you know what you are doing, brother,” was all I said. There were times when he exhausted me to the point where I simply did not know what to do with myself. And right now was one of them.
“I always know what I am doing…brother.”
Kerglan’s voice was dark and sinister, and I sighed, getting up from the ground across from him and heading to my sleeping area. Kerglan watched me before rousing himself, and my chest tightened when he moved his giant green leaf beside the human, laying down beside her as if the two of them truly were going to be fated to be together for the rest of their lives.
It felt wrong to me somehow, whether I had my own interest in the human or not. A lot of the time, a Raither’s claim on a female was indisputable. There was simply something fated about these things; it was why it was so unheard of for anybody within the confines of a committed relationship to seek comfort from outside their mate. Those who did were thought to be attempting to manipulate and control fate by going against the natural order of things. There were few crimes more serious in nature than that.
Who was I to say whether this claim my brother had made was natural or not? It was emasculating to feel jealous over something so petty. And yet I had to turn my back on my brother and his chosen one, because if I didn’t, I was afraid the anger inside of me might become more than I could bear.
It was possibly the longest night of my life, feeling unable to turn around for fear of awakening the deep well of bitterness that I tried to keep concealed. My entire life had been one attempt after another to accept my brother for who he was and to try not to let his mistreatment of me affect the way I viewed him. And yet this time, it seemed there had been a line drawn in the sand between us. If I couldn’t let this go, then it could mean the end of my relationship with my brother forever.
I tossed and turned that night, until finally, fatigue and sheer willpower ushered me into a dark, fitful sleep, haunted by images of Kerglan and the human, sharing their mating ceremony with all the people of our planet and heading off together to begin a new life.
***
“No,” I said firmly. “I do not want to go out there. You cannot do this. It isn’t proper.”
“We are not on our own planet anymore, brother. Nothing about this is going to be proper in the traditional sense of the word. But I am going to need you to understand that no matter how unorthodox it may be, this is the right way to do things. and it must be so.”
I glanced over Kerglan’s shoulder, my eyes resting on the unsuspecting human. She looked so beautiful that morning, her clear eyes bright as she nibbled on the small archa root that I had dug up for her the night before. It was like a treat to most species throughout the universe, and she had never had the pleasure of trying it before. Her eyes had been so round and excited when she had brought the root to her lips. How could I possibly let this female fall into the hands of…
“This is an order, Lazan. Go now and fetch the day’s breakfast. And do not come back until you hear my call.”
My stomach churned at the thought. I knew exactly what it was that Kerglan had planned. He was grinning at me, almost as if he knew just how much the situation pained me. Whether he knew it was because of personal reasons or not, I could not be sure. But he did know that I was unhappy and wanted things between him and the female to stay respectable.
With me out of the picture that morning, they clearly were not going to remain that way for much longer.
I could have punched Kerglan then, and had half a mind to do so. But instead, I just gritted my teeth and gave him the formal nod of obedience that he was expecting. This widened his sinister smile, and I felt as if my insides were going to burst with the power of my fury.
They didn’t, however, and soon I was walking automatically, through no real will of my own, out through the thick, dense jungle of plants and toward the small orchard we had passed the night before on the way to the location that Kerglan had chosen to make the shelter in.
I sat heavily on a large stump, putting my head in my hands. What they were doing now was going to officiate his claim. Unless Mila told my brother that she had a mate on Earth, someone who would make his claim invalid, then they were going to consummate the relationship, and her body would be violated. The worst part about it was that there was nothing I could do about it.
It seemed impossible for me to sit still, so I stood up with a growl deep in my throat and headed for the trees. It would do me some good to do some physical labor. At least that way I would have something to focus on other than my brother and the human being alone together at the shelter.
After what felt like an eternity, I finally heard my brother summon me. I went back to the shelter, repulsed by the disheveled state of the human, her eyes fixed upon me as I approached, flashing with intense emotions I couldn’t pinpoint. I couldn’t tell whether what she was experiencing was a good emotion or a bad one, and I was afraid to ask.
It would not have been my place to inquire about such a personal matter anyway. I hardly knew the human. We weren’t even close to being friends. All that had happened was that I had seen her, saved her life, and had felt drawn to her from the moment she had entered my life. And that none of those feelings mattered or made a gredding difference at all. All I truly needed to know at this point was that my brother’s claim on the human was now official.
I tore my eyes away from the human and looked at my brother, all emotions in my body completely numb.
“We should be moving on,” I said to him. “We have been here far too long already.”
“As you say, brother,” Kerglan said, his voice condescending and face infuriatingly arrogant. “Let us be off.”
***
“I really do not think that this is the way! Stop now!” Kerglan demanded.
I didn’t care what he thought. I was sick of going around in circles with a man who clearly had no idea what he was doing. We had been lost for six weeks at this point, three of which we had been accompanied by the human. She always remained silent when it came to important matters, allowing my brother and me to discuss the next course of action amongst ourselves.
Most of the time when I was alone with Kerglan, I was used to submitting to his control. And yet in front of the human, especially since his claim, my tolerance for his aggression and his command had wavered. In fact, at that point it was nonexistent. And I was sick of being led around by a Raither with his head up his yacha.
“Lazan, I said to stop this moment. We are going the wrong way!”
The human’s eyes grew wide, and I almost felt bad for provoking my brother’s incredible temper in front of her. She had been doing her best to play along with his leadership role, and every time I challenged Kerglan I could feel her eyes upon me, unwavering and perplexed. I would have given anything to find out just what it was that she was feeling during those moments, but I knew that more than anything, she was probably afraid of an inevitable confrontation.
“Kerglan, with all due respect, I would like to trust my instincts for once. We
have been following yours for over a month now, and still, we have gotten nowhere. Why is it so difficult for you to let somebody else take control?”
I was straining myself to keep my tone civil and agreeable, but I knew that if my brother lost his temper, I would no longer be the man I once was. I had never shied away from a fight, usually not even with Kerglan, but I had never fought him to win before. He had no idea what I was truly capable of, and I had always hoped to keep it that way.
“Because I am your superior, Lazan. I do not know what is so difficult for you to accept about that. If you are a dutiful soldier and obey your orders, then perhaps one day you as well will climb the ranks and impress father. You may even find someone of your own to claim.”
Kerglan and I stared at each other, my blood boiling. From the look in his eyes, I knew that he was trying to goad me on, and I sighed, feeling a little bit silly. It was of no use to fight with somebody like my brother. He was a pain in the yacha but he was still my family.
“I understand. But I still think maybe my hunch is right, and we should go this way.”
“But—”
Kerglan’s protest was cut off by the gentle voice of the human, and we both froze as Mila spoke.
“Kerglan,” she said gently, taking my brother’s hand in hers. He shot me a self-satisfied look as if he could tell just how much their relationship got under my skin. “Perhaps we could try Lazan’s way this time. I am tired. My feet are sore. If he believes this terrain looks familiar, maybe that’s because it does.”
“That’s because we have been going around in circles,” I muttered, grabbing Mila’s gaze away from my brother. Her cheeks darkened, and I felt a surge of desire so strong I nearly tore my brother’s arm away from Mila. Everything about this seemed incredibly unjust.
“Fine,” Kerglan said haltingly. “We can go Lazan’s way. But just this one time. And because it will prove ultimately who the real leader here is.”
“Thank you,” Mila said, smiling up at Kerglan.
He smirked at me as if this was somehow a way to bait me to further seek his approval. I shook my head in disgust. My brother was a half-wit, and I had been even more foolish to have followed him so blindly for all these years. But that was going to end. Starting with his claim on the human, my rebellion had begun.
“As I was saying,” I said, turning my back. I could not stomach the sight of the two of them. She had grown fond of Kerglan over the weeks; he could be charming in his own way at times. Still, there was an attitude of reservation that she held with him, and I could hardly blame her for it. I had a strong feeling that her tolerance of my brother was more in the spirit of self-preservation than it was in genuine affection. “We should go this way if you want to ever find your way back to the camp. This planet seems to have been divided based on different types of terrain, and I remember our encampment being full of grass like this.”
“There is grass everywhere on this gredding planet!” Kerglan exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air. He really never had taken to losing control very well. The human began to walk forward, ignoring my brother’s outburst, and following me into the grassy area of the foliage. Kerglan sighed angrily and followed behind her, but only for about twenty paces.
“You know what? I am not doing this. I am setting up my camp at the edge of the forest, and you two can go on ahead without me. Once you realize what a mistake that you have made, you can come back and tell me so. All right?”
I halted mid-step. “You cannot be serious, Kerglan. We are stronger together as a team. You know that.”
“Well then, be strong under my direction or be weak on your own. This is the choice that you have to make.”
I could feel Mila’s eyes boring upon me, burning within me a vicious desire to prove my brother wrong once and for all. I was not just some little man in his shadow. I was a Raither warrior too, just as much as he was, and I had never been handed ranks based upon favoritism over skill. I was the superior warrior here, and I knew exactly what I was doing. If he didn’t want to join me, then leave him to the beasts!
“My choice will be to make an informed decision about finding my crew so that I will be rescued along with the rest of our unit. You are welcome to stay here by yourself if you wish. Let us just hope that you do not end up becoming bait for another Yeshaa!”
Kerglan balked, and I turned away from him to hide my unkind sneer. My brother was a coward at heart, and he knew that I knew it. He also knew that I was not. I was a man of my word, and I would do whatever it took to succeed at any given task. My brother would rather weasel out of his workload and take credit for other people’s victories. There were two kinds of Raithers, as far as I was concerned: the kind who were honorable, and the kind who were greedy and corrupt. Apparently, we had chosen our ranks.
“Are you coming, human?” I growled, marching forward through the forest. Kerglan did not say a word, nor move a muscle. He wanted to see where our true loyalties lay, and in his mind, if we did not follow him to our doom under his ignorant and wily command, we were better off dead.
“Yes,” she said softly.
At this, Kerglan scoffed, turning his back upon us and heading in the opposite direction.
“You will be back,” he promised. “Mark my words. You will never find the crew. And you will die out there without my guidance. Good luck to you.”
But I could tell from his tone that really, he was wishing death upon us both. The human seemed to sense this too because her face was wrought with worry as we parted ways and the distance between us and my brother grew wider. Once he was out of earshot, I looked down at her, with a smile that I hoped might be comforting.
“Do not fret, human,” I said. “We will find the crew. And Kerglan will come around. Everything is going to be all right.”
It felt strange to try to comfort her about my brother’s fickle emotions, knowing fully well that she cared for him and her worry may be one pertaining to his emotions. It was like a betrayal to myself to try to console her on his behalf. And yet, it did not seem to matter in the least to me. Because I was with the human. I had won that round, and now we were alone to wander as we pleased, without the oppressive gaze of my gredding brother to boss us around.
In a way, things couldn’t have been any better.
Chapter 4
Dr. Mila Voss
It was strange to be walking side by side with Lazan. He was such a considerate creature compared to his brother. I had been quietly growing fond of him over the course of the three weeks that had passed. And now, without Kerglan’s insistence upon my attention, I was finally able to have a few thoughts to myself for the first time in weeks.
“So you are sure that this is the way to your crew? You’re not just saying that to get me to trust you, right?” I asked. And yet the question was silly. I trusted him implicitly already. Enough to try to get his brother to see reason.
Lazan was right. I had been noticing the separation of terrain myself, my scientific mind was in awe of all the biological wonder about this planet, and when I was not in fear of my life, I was taking note of the incredible biodiversity of this strange planet. It was so unlike Earth in so many ways: prehistoric and beautiful. Everything was over-sized and seemed to me just as the world would be on Earth thousands of years before human life had begun to spring up and Earth’s life was downsized.
“I know that this is the same grass, and Kerglan passed by it too many times to count. I do not want to be wandering around this planet for another six weeks and miss our only chance to get out of here,” Lazan said, his handsome face studying me.
It was so strange how humanoid he looked, and yet there was something remarkably different about him. It wasn’t just the slight change of skin color, or the way his dazzling eyes seemed to change color depending on how the light hit them. It wasn’t even the shocking muscle definition that made the Raithers look as if they had just been dropped off from a gladiator movie set. It was something else entirely. Somethin
g not entirely physical that set them apart.
The more I looked at him, the warmer my cheeks got, until I had to tear my eyes away. He was just too beautiful. It almost hurt to look.
“Do you think that he’s going to come after us?” I asked. Kerglan had been very intense. It was hard to say what could happen. A human man could become very aggressive when he didn’t get his way, especially when a woman came into the picture.
“No,” Lazan said, turning to me with a small smile playing at his lips. “He may be angry, but once he blows off some steam, everything will be all right again. He is probably just going to stay put and wait for us to come and find him again. And if we don’t, he will assume the worst and probably congratulate himself for it.”
I couldn’t help but laugh at Lazan’s laid back perception of his brother. In my eyes, Kerglan had been incredibly possessive and more than a little bit frightening. He was the kind of man I would have avoided on Earth, were he human, and absolutely the type I would never want to be around in a darkened alleyway. But Lazan seemed to feel all right about the situation, so I tried to follow his lead.
“Has Kerglan always been this…intense?” I asked, trying to picture the two of them as small boys, playing together on the planet Yala. They had made it sound so industrious and vast, but in reality, I had no idea what it might be like there.
“That may depend on your perspective,” Lazan said. “He was probably all right once. When he was a young boy. Much younger than me. But after our mother was imprisoned, everything changed. He and our father started to stick together, and the intensity grew from there, I suppose.”
“So you two don’t get along very well?” I asked.
I knew it was a little bit on the dangerous side to pry into these types of matters, but these two brothers were fascinating. Kerglan was strong and brave and fierce, while his brother seemed more reserved and quiet. Intelligent and brooding. I knew that I would never want to face him in battle either. Who knew what either one of them might be capable of?