by Lea Linnett
“You still think it’s strange?” she asked.
“Yeah. Of course I do. He’s… different.” The shuffle of clothing—a shrug? “But you trust him. That’s enough. He’s really half-human?”
“Definitely. Noe and Torrin—any of the soldiers—they can all tell you how different the real levekk are. He’s kinder than them, too.” Bree paused, her voice dropping to a whisper. “He pretended to be, at first, to gain my trust. I know that. But I think he was more honest with me than even he realized.”
“I’m so sorry you went through all that—”
“Dad, you didn’t even know I was missing. And look what happened to Noe when she tried to get me out.”
“She’s a brave girl.”
“She’s wild,” said a new voice. “Wilder than you—or your mother.”
Marek’s brow twitched in confusion. How was his mind coming up with all these new characters, voices he didn’t know?
“Sinead…”
“No, she’s right. Being in that place… taught me a lot about myself, I think. It taught me when to fight and when to wait for the right opportunity. It taught me perseverance.”
“Sounds like hunting.”
“Heh, yeah. Guess I should have had all that mastered already, but…” He heard Bree swallow. “As a hunter, I was always alone. In the mine, I had to rely on others. That was the hardest thing.”
“See, I knew he taught you something good.”
“Dad…”
The man laughed, but soon sobered. “And you say your mom, she…”
“I think she’s okay, Dad. I think she’s been okay all this time.” A long pause. “I’m so sorry for how I’ve been. And I want to apologize to you, too, Sinead. I was never fair to you.”
“I understand, Bree,” the woman said softly.
Marek heard a wet sniff.
The male’s voice was throaty and thick when he said, “I’m sorry, Breezy. I could see you hurting all this time, and I… I just didn’t know what to do.”
“Dad… Don’t cry.” More clothes rustled close by, and a loud sob cut across the crackling of the fire, high enough in volume to make Marek flinch.
“God, Jacob, you woke him,” the unknown woman’s voice reprimanded the male as Marek stirred, but he didn’t hear the man’s reply. Warm hands were on his skin, and when he popped his eyes open, his vision was full of dark hair and warm, brown eyes.
“Marek!”
A familiar body covered his own, a face burying itself against his neck. Bree’s lips found his pulse as if to confirm that his heart was really beating, and Marek pulled her close without hesitation, eager to feel her comfortable weight against him.
But as they embraced, his gaze was drawn to his surroundings. Everything in the room was orange and brown, the rich wood lit by orange firelight that flickered against the walls, creating strange shadows that he wasn’t used to. He was also warm, enveloped by something soft—furs, he discovered—which tickled his skin as Bree accidentally knocked them askew.
“Bree…” he said, his mouth feeling dry.
“I thought you were going to die, you asshole!” she whispered fiercely, the words rushing over his scaled neck. “You couldn’t have gotten another suit before busting us all out of there, or—”
He pulled her into a scorching kiss, only half-regretting that he cut her off mid-rant. But it was worth it for the way her lips melted against his, her fingers digging into the sides of his head as she held onto him tight. The room around them fell away, Marek’s world narrowing down to the woman in his arms.
That was, until the chair near the bed scraped across the wooden floor, the man who had been occupying it rocketing to his feet.
Marek and Bree broke apart, and the two males stared at each other. The human—who could only be her father—gripped his hat in one hand, tears still streaking his cheeks.
Bree was right; she looked nothing like her father, except maybe in the shape of her nose and upper lip, but he would have known exactly who the man was even if he hadn’t heard them talking. Jacob’s shoulders were up around his ears, his eyes wide, and he looked like he couldn’t decide whether to pull them apart or leave them in peace.
He was also staring at Marek like he was the most terrifying thing he’d ever seen, but despite his fear, he did not run.
Not all of Bree’s fierceness came from her mother, it seemed.
Still, it was the human who broke eye contact first, his pale skin turning red. “We’ll give you two some privacy. As long as… you’re okay with him?” he asked, looking back once at Bree.
Marek loosened his hold on her, giving her the freedom to pull away, but she stayed wrapped in his arms. “Yeah, Dad. We’re good,” she said with a smile. “We’ll talk more later.”
The man nodded, taking his wife’s arm as he bolted from the room, but Marek heard him whisper incredulously, “Sinead, did you see his eyes? His skin?”
“Jacob…” the woman sighed, and then the wooden door creaked shut behind them.
All the sounds here were different. The crackle of the fire replaced the buzz of fluorescent lights, the entire house groaned almost constantly, and wind whistled through a hole in the wall up near the ceiling. It couldn’t be more different than his old life. Couldn’t be more human.
It was also warm, and not just from the fire. He squeezed Bree tight again, tucking her dark hair behind her ear. “You are safe.”
“’Course I am, dummy,” she said, her face lighting up with a sunny smile. “You’re the one we were worried about.”
“We?”
“Yeah, we. Me, Dad, Sinead…” She paused, frowning. “Sinead surprised me. God, I wish she was a hag, but…”
“She seems nice,” he said simply, and Bree sighed with relief, as if she hadn’t wanted to have to say it herself.
“Yeah.” She looked up at him shyly, then. “Noe and Torrin were worried, too, I think. Feels like Torrin respects you after what you did for us.”
“Almost killing us all? Stranding us in the wilderness?”
She chuckled. “Hey, you did your best. Can’t expect an alien to get everything right.”
Alien. He bit his lip. He’d been awake enough to remember the staring as she brought him into the village. It had been the same thing in the Barracks: shock, fear, disgust. “Are you sure your people are comfortable having an alien in their midst?” he asked, and Bree’s face fell.
“We haven’t really… tested it, with you recovering. But it doesn’t matter. You’ve got my family’s support, and they’ll keep you safe—we all will.” She paused, swallowing thickly. “I don’t think I realized how lucky I was to have them until Dad helped me carry you inside.”
“Bree…” He cradled her jaw, their foreheads touching. “I look forward to meeting them properly.”
She smiled at him, rare tears shining in her eyes.
There was a soft knock at the door, and Bree’s father poked his head in again. “Uh, sorry to interrupt…” His gaze cut to Bree. “Luis is here. I think he wants to speak to both of you.”
Her fingers turned claw-like against Marek’s chest, but she nodded, withdrawing to sit in the chair by his bed. Moments later, the graying fighter stepped inside, closing the door behind him. Luis then stood with his hands folded behind his back, and if the bandaged wound on his side pained him, he didn’t show it.
“You’re looking better.”
“I can feel my toes now,” Marek said carefully, and the human exhaled sharply through his nose. Not quite a laugh, but something.
“You weren’t supposed to come here,” the human said, cutting straight to the point, and Bree grabbed Marek’s hand. “You weren’t supposed to bring your ship so close to our village.”
“If I could, I would have sent Bree and the others outside Urek’s perimeter. He made that impossible.”
Luis’ lips twisted, his hazel eyes tracking over their linked hands. “No, you wouldn’t have. Bree wouldn’t have let you.”
“What’s this about, Luis?” she asked, her voice tight. She was watching the man with a fierce expression, despite the fact that he was obviously her superior.
Luis sighed, and this time a real smile crossed his lips. “I just wanted to tell your alien that his plan worked. All of us who survived the initial attack made it back safely, although you beat us home pretty soundly. I would have liked to have been able to bring the dead with us, but…” He shook his head. “Any idea what they’ll do with them?”
“If they decide to stay in your Barracks, probably a group grave with the sub-species who fell fighting them,” Marek answered carefully.
The human nodded. “Thought as much, from how Bree explained your culture. We would have at least given you a marker if you’d died here,” he added, his gaze hardening.
“Hey.” Bree shifted in her chair, putting herself more directly between them as she glared. “Knock it off.”
To Marek’s surprise, the man’s ire subsided, and he crossed his arms. “If you were worried about your place here, don’t. Noe and Bree told me how the aliens tricked you just as they did us, and my soldiers wouldn’t have been able to return to their families without you, so…” He hesitated, before stepping forward with a pained look and offering his hand. “Welcome to Haven.”
Shocked as he was, it took Marek a moment to remember to shake the man’s hand in the human way. It was short, professional, and then Luis stepped back. “Jacob and Sinead have agreed to have you in their home for now, since you can’t seem to go outside without freezing your balls off—”
“My heatsuit did not survive the journey?” Marek cut in as he gingerly tried to sit up.
“It did,” Bree said, eyeing his shoulder with concern. “But we don’t have anything to power it.”
“Ah, but we do.” At her confused look, he smiled. “I am a scientist. With the equipment and materials I left in the cargo hold of that transport, I can fix my heatsuit, but I can also do far more. Heat sources, warning systems… I might even be able to improve on the translator technology to make it less painful to install, so that none of us can ever be caught unawares again.”
He sent Bree a significant look, and her eyes widened. “Does that mean you stole some of the firestones?” she asked incredulously, a smile pulling at her lips.
“My equipment, too. It is my life’s work after all.”
Bree laughed, but Luis’ eyes had narrowed. “You want us to use alien technology? Technology that could be feeding information about us back to your kind?”
“The firestones mask our presence,” Bree said. “And there’s more of the stuff beneath the ground. That’s why they’ve never found us.”
“That’s what they say, but what if they’re lying?” Luis said fiercely. “And if they aren’t, what’s to stop him from creating something that can help them find us? How will you prove to me that this won’t come back and fuck us all over?”
“I can’t,” Marek said, holding the human’s gaze. “I can’t prove it. All I can ask is that you trust me, and let me make up for everything that’s happened to you.” He squeezed Bree’s hand, trying to tell her that he really meant what had happened to her, and she nodded, her cheeks turning that rosy color that was so rare for her.
When he turned back to Luis, he found the man watching them both with an intense but unreadable expression. The room fell silent, and only the crackling of the fire masked the thunder of Marek’s heartbeat.
“All right. When you’re healed, you’ll go with some of my soldiers to retrieve your things. We’ll set aside a room for you.” The human’s brows furrowed. “I want a way to keep them from ever harming any of my people again. I’m going to trust that you want the same.”
“I do.”
“Good. And now, I promise I’ll leave him alone, Bree.”
“You’d better,” she said. “You know I’m not scared of you.”
Luis laughed as he moved over to the door. “I’ve known that since you were a scrawny twelve-year-old trying to prove how straight you could shoot.”
With that, he disappeared, and finally, finally, Bree and Marek were alone.
“You two are closer than I expected.”
Bree let out a short laugh, and then she was crawling into the bed with him, slipping between the furs. “I spent as much time as I could in the Barracks once they accepted me as a cadet—which probably broke my dad’s heart, in hindsight. But Luis is like a second father to me. And with my mom being alive, and Sinead…”
“You have a surplus of parents, it seems.”
“Plus, my step-siblings, and Noe and Torrin. It’s starting to feel like I have more family than I know what to do with.” She looked up at him through her eyelashes. “You can share them with me, if you want.”
Marek’s smile dimmed as he was reminded of his own half-brother. “I may need to, after what has happened.”
Bree’s face fell. “I’m sorry about Urek. I think Noe is, too. She… hasn’t talked much about it.”
“It is not her fault. He attacked you. None of us are to blame for Urek’s unhappiness.” He paused, closing his eyes. “At least I know that he is alive, like your mother.”
“Marek…”
He pushed the thoughts away, unable to deal with them just yet. Despite his bad relationship with Urek, it pained him to think that he would not see him again.
But it pained him more to think of Urek finding them, and endangering Bree yet again.
“I will use the mesilisi to protect your home, Bree,” he whispered, breathing the words over her dark hair. “To protect your family.”
“Our home. Our family, remember?”
She smiled, the warmth in her eyes easing Marek’s fears. “If they are my family, what would I be to them, now?” His lips quirked mischievously. “A son-in-law?”
“A…” Bree’s eyes widened. “Not quite. That’s for people who are married, and we’re… not… yet.”
“Yet?” Marek purred, smiling wide as Bree’s face turned scarlet.
“I—uh—”
“I have always wanted to know more about human traditions. And as we both know, reading these things in a datapad is no substitute for testing.”
“Marek—”
“Marry me, toshaan?”
“You—” Bree seemed to choke on her own tongue, but she recovered quickly. “Stop teasing! You don’t know what those words mean. Or how important they are.”
“I do know,” he said, his voice lowering. He longed to tease her more, but then Bree hid her red face against his neck, and the impulse left him. Instead, he weaved his fingers through her waves of hair, which she must have washed, for they were far silkier now than when she had been forced to use the chemical shower.
The room went silent but for the crackle of the fire and their soft breaths, and Marek relaxed. There was no Urek here, no levekk. Outside, there were no doubt humans who hated him, but in here, there was no one but Bree. His heart swelled at the sight of her, safe and warm and tucked against his side where she belonged.
“Bree…” he murmured, drawing her up to face him with a gentle nudge at her chin. Her dark eyes were half-lidded, her body relaxed.
“Yeah?”
He leaned down, whispering the words against the shell of her ear. “I love you, toshaan.” Her breath hitched, but he did not let her argue. “I promise to keep you safe, and this time I will keep that promise.”
“Marek…”
“And trust me, I know exactly what these words mean.”
She didn’t say it back, but she didn’t need to, because her lips were on his, inhaling his very breath as she climbed atop him. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and twined their legs together, not caring who walked in and saw them.
Because here, in this warm room, caught in her arms, he felt more at home than he’d ever felt on CL-6, or in the mine—or anywhere in the Constellation. With Bree, it didn’t matter what he looked like, because they belonged together,
wherever they may be.
Finally, he’d found a place he thought he might be allowed to call home.
Epilogue
Two weeks later.
Bree tried to keep a hold on the excitement bubbling inside her chest as she checked the firestones in the bathing room. They burned brightly, illuminating the room with a soft, blue light that competed with the candles in the corners. Outside, clouds obscured the sunset as yet another winter storm raged above them, and elsewhere in her father’s house, she could hear the sounds of Sinead and the kids eating their supper. They wouldn’t be disturbing her though. The bathing room had a lock on its door, and Bree was not going to allow any disturbances.
She and Marek had been busy preparing the small, unoccupied cabin on the edge of town, and tomorrow, they would finally be moving in. Sinead and her father had been very accommodating while Marek’s injuries healed, but they were running low on space, especially with Sinead’s sixth child on the way. This way, the two of them would have some privacy, and Marek would be closer to his rapidly developing laboratory of alien equipment that he’d saved.
The downside was that their new home didn’t have the space for a full, firestone-fueled bathing room. There would be many more sponge baths in Bree’s future, so she fully intended to enjoy it while she still could.
The only thing missing was…
A knock sounded at the door, and Bree opened it eagerly to find Marek hovering outside. “You’re getting better at remembering,” she said, nodding at his hand, which was still poised at knocking height.
“After surprising your father while he…” Marek shook his head, his brow pinched. “I have great incentive.”
Bree laughed, pulling the alien into the bathing room and locking the door behind him. “Come look. You said you wanted to see a bath, right?”
“I did. But first…”
She yelped as he swept her into his arms, capturing her lips in a slow and languid kiss. They had been kept apart by work for most of the day while Marek prepared his laboratory and Bree hauled supplies over to their new home, and Bree was eager to feel his body against hers again, her muscles relaxing as if she were already soaking in the bath.