15
Gleb
My mind nearly tore itself in half, so I had to go.
Half of me wanted to watch over that svoloch ’s campsite to keep predators from Hannah.
The other half couldn’t watch her crawl into an inferior male’s structure to rest.
I’m grateful she pushed away his advances and the last kiss on her lips was mine. But what’s happening in his structure? Does he rut his kit into her, enraged by my scent on her? That’s what I would do. My mind tortures me with pictures of her smiling eyes looking up at him. What does the hairless male have that I don’t? He’s not loyal to her. He can’t protect or provide for her in the Arctic. Instead of pulling my fur out, waiting for the sun to rise, I run to the one place I know will have the supplies Hannah needs…
Sergei’s Northern dyla weturanya ….
I lived in his massive twelve-cavern underground system until adulthood.
The order of the levers in his locking mechanism is second nature.
I jog down the entrance steps and through the main hall underground without turning on the lights.
Less to turn off on the way up. Not only must I get back to Hannah, but if I’m caught in here, Sergei has the right to challenge me. Breaking into his home wouldn’t be a crime if I weren’t shunned. I’ve done some stupid things in my life, but challenging the biggest, strongest, fiercest Chuchunya isn’t one I would walk away from intact.
At the first entrance crevice, I pause.
The lights in the main cavern are lit.
There’s no way Sergei left them on when he migrated to the southern grounds.
He’s the most responsible member of the clan, which is why everyone wishes he would take over Timor’s role as leader—instead of whatever lesser male ends up mating Tatiana or Sveta.
You aren’t my leader.
Phew…I owe Sergei an apology.
He earned his place as our leader by making intelligent decisions, planning for the future, supplying clan members with resources when they come up short, and raising wayward orphan kits…like me.
Last I heard, he gave Arty om his parent’s portion of their cavern.
The third part was Artyom’s relatives too—aunt and uncle, I think. When Artyom’s twin, Denis, died, Sergei gave the cavern to the pleasure mate he left behind. Patricika moved her human dushevnayasvyaz to birth their kit into the home.
Who would be worse to face while shunned? Sergei, who is big enough to tear me limb from limb, or Patricika, who’s tough enough to actually do it? I rest my back on the cold slabs of rock.
Should I turn back? Sydney didn’t make the trip to the bus accident with Sergei because of her pregnancy, so I doubt they are on the other side of the wall.
The responsible about-to-be-parents are gathering berries, herbs, and treats on the southern grounds.
Patricika and Adam must gather supplies for their family of three. They will be on the southern grounds too. The warm forest is better for their kit than the tundra with more play opportunities.
That leaves Artyom and Vera.
My visit isn’t to cause trouble or raid their shared supplies.
With Sydney growing round with pregnancy, she can’t fit into her human clothes.
Not even Patricika’s kit can fit into Vera’s human clothes, but Hannah could fit into Sydney’s clothes.
Borrowing Sydney’s human clothes didn’t seem the same as stealing when she can’t use them anyway…but will Vera see it the same way?
I should leave…
I push off the stone slab with my shoulder blades to propel myself toward the door.
My feet ensnare one another in a divot and my ankles lock together.
I crash into the weapons hanging on the opposite side of the narrow hallway.
Sergei probably heard their clanging and rattling on the southern grounds.
“Who’s there?”
Artyom calls with a growl.
“If it’s a bear, it won’t answer, silly,”
Vera whispers louder than most females talk.
“Go hide in our chamber, Ryluk —”
“I don’t need to hide when I’m on this side of the entrance crevice.
A bear, wolf—not even a reindeer—can fit through it.”
“It smells of Chuchunya, my sweet,”
he growls in a low voice.
The fur on the back of my neck raises in alarm.
“Identify yourself or taste my claws!”
“It’s me, Gleb.”
I make a cacophony as I untangle my limbs from the hanging weapons.
A net’s sinew weave sticks to my hair.
It must have been left behind to dry…and I’ve ruined it.
A curved blade rakes down my arm, pulling hairs out by the root. “I mean you no harm.”
“Your presence harms us—”
“Artyom,”
Vera scolds.
“He’s probably scared and lonely.”
“I didn’t come here to make trouble for you or Sergei.
Please believe that I only came here to take Sydney’s human clothes to my mate.”
I slide through the crevice and squint my eyes tightly against the light.
With a hand shading my brow, Vera and Artyom are blue blobs.
The couple is known for two things: wandering and mooching off others.
I should have known they would be here.
“See, theft,”
Artyom says, sliding Vera behind him.
“Isn’t that why you’re here? The clan should be gathering wild raspberries in the forest.
I’m shunned, which is why I’m north,”
I reply with my hands out to show I’m unarmed.
My body is a weapon, but Artyom is more experienced and slightly larger, so he doesn’t fear me.
“We’re not stealing, if that’s what you think.
We’re readying the cavern for Sydney’s birth.
What Sergei and Sydney prepare in the south, we will bring up here without stopping at the central caverns,”
Vera replies from behind Artyom.
“What about the hazelnut harvest?”
If Artyom and Sergei skip the migration to the central grounds, the clan won’t have enough hazelnut paste to last the winter.
Our clan is small, so every member must pull their weight.
Shaking the hazelnut trees requires a terrible amount of strength, so few chuchunya can harvest the unripened nuts.
The heavy bundles are hung in the central caves to ripen slowly underground before they are roasted and crushed in small batches.
“Did you worry about the clan’s hazelnuts when you betrayed us?”
“Artyom!”
“He’s right, Vera,”
I reply with my head in my hands.
“I put the needs of my dushevnayasvyaz before those of the clan.
My back turned on Sergei and the rest of the Chuchunya for the promise of a true love and family of my own.
Please don’t condemn me when I’m lost and alone.”
“Where is the girl?”
Artyom growls.
Vera fights his hands to escape his hold.
Her tiny fingers itch under his left arm and she runs around him when he flinches and laughs.
She runs to me and takes my hands.
“We get it—Artyom, Sydney, Adam, Patricika, and me. Timor’s punishment is too harsh, but you must understand our position too. How would you like it if I dragged you away from your family? You know I wouldn’t—couldn’t with my tiny stature—hurt you, but would you want a say?”
“I don’t have a family, soft-hearted Vera.
My family died in the cave-in when I was too young to remember them.
So to answer your question, I wouldn’t want a say…I’d want a family more.”
“Oh, my.”
Vera’s glassy eyes meet mine.
“Anyway, she chose to return to her pleasure mate.
They camp above ground a few kilometers from here—”
“She refused dushevnayasvyaz for a human pleasure mate!”
Artyom roars with bulging eyes and a slacked jaw.
“Poor Gleb! Then why are you here to steal Sydney’s clothes? Did something happen to…”
“Hannah,”
I supply for her.
“Hannah bleeds in her lunar cycle.
I made her a fursuit and rabbit pelts, which she bled through.
The last I saw her, she was close to bleeding through her human pants. Her pleasure mate doesn’t know the ways of the Arctic—”
“She’s in danger.
You were right to come to us—even if you didn’t know we were here,”
Artyom says, clapping his hand onto my shoulder in solidarity.
I whimper with relief.
I didn’t know how much I missed the clan’s support until I lost it.
With Vera’s human resources and Artyom’s knowledge of the tundra, I have hope.
“Sydney won’t miss a pair of jeans to save another woman from breakthrough bleeding.
Are they the same size?”
“Same size, but not the same shape.
Hannah is willowy like the flowering trees of the southern grounds.”
“Even better,”
Vera says, jumping while clapping her hands.
“Sydney will be depressed if her skinny jeans never fit again.
Hannah can save her from that postpartum issue.
Maybe Hannah will buy her a new pair of her new size after the kit’s birth. Does Hannah have money, or is she cut off from her family like Sydney?”
“Hannah has tried to give me money many times.
She doesn’t understand why I want to provide for her.”
“Will she accept the gift after she chose her pleasure mate? I don’t wish to stick a bur into your wound, but what if she refuses? Will you fight off a pack of wolves or a bear for her?”
“I already fought off wolves for her,”
I say, rubbing the back of my head in embarrassment.
“When I hunted the rabbits, I didn’t tie up my kills—”
“Gleb!”
Artyom yells, throwing his hands in the air.
He walks in a circle, chuckling to himself over my folly.
“How many times did we tell you?”
I know.”
A sense of belonging washes over me and cleans the anxiety from my heart.
This interaction is normal.
Gleb messes up and the other males chastise him for it.
“I’ll raid Sydney’s stuff,”
Vera volunteers.
She takes a few steps toward Sergei’s private chambers.
“What else can we do to help? You check the supply pantry and take any food you might need—”
“Yeah, don’t hunt anything until you have a hunting party to help you,”
Artyom interjects with a chuckle.
“We can’t approach his mate if she’s rejected him, Ryluk.”
“You can’t, but I could.
Do you think talking to another Chuchunya’s mate would help her understand, or does she truly love this guy?”
“He’s awful for her.
He has another love in his star-finder box.
I overheard his conversation.
They plan to give Hannah to her parents to collect their money.”
“Wait,”
Vera says, freezing in her tracks.
“Tell me more about her parents.
Are they in a group like Sydney’s parents? No? Are they paying for her return because they’re worried? Tell me what you know about her relationship with them.
If they are using her like Sydney’s parent’s cult, Sergei will want us to intervene and rescue her.”
“They don’t get along,”
I say slowly, sifting through all Hannah told me about her human life.
“She has her own home, so she doesn’t live with a group like Sydney did with her parents.
This male, Jack, has been her companion for years because they abandoned her.
It’s not the same.”
“Then we can’t help you win her.
If you asked for consent and she chose him, you must respect her choice—”
Vera pauses to shake her head at my protests.
“—but that doesn’t mean you leave her to be killed on the tundra.
If her boyfriend can’t protect her from the dangers of the tundra, you should be able to intervene—”
“As long as they don’t see you,”
Artyom finishes with his arms folded over her chest.
“We will turn a blind eye while you take supplies from Sergei.
We will leave you to make your mate comfortable as she leaves you.
However, we will travel south to notify Sergei of her choice. He will want to talk to you—”
“I’m ready to apologize to him.”
“Not to rule over your head like Timor.
Sergei is worried sick about you.
He will be pleased that you are alive, well, and on your way back to the clan.
I’m sure when you two reunite on the southern grounds, he will go with you to approach Timor. I know it doesn’t ease your broken heart, but having your clan surrounding you will be better than facing it alone,”
Vera says, rubbing her arms as if hugging herself.
“Thank you.
I don’t know what else to say.
Just thank you.”
“Say you will do what it takes to preserve the secrecy of the chuchunya,”
barks Artyom.
“I swear.”
“And one more promise,”
Vera says hesitantly.
She shifts her gaze to Artyom, who shrugs.
“If you cross paths with any other chuchunya, you didn’t see us here.
Sydney’s birth is likely to happen during the clan’s migration between the central and northern grounds. We are ferrying supplies up here to migrate early. Sergei needs your help to make it happen.”
“Holding his secret, and helping his growing family is the least I can do to show him how sorry I am.”
I leave off that Hannah will love helping too.
She’s prepared for babies from her care of Madison.
Ingratiating ourselves into the clan will be easier than I thought… I hope te aring her from her human male’s clutches will be just as easy.