Part Six
GEORGIE
It’s hard to stay mad at a guy who doesn’t know why you’re so upset.
No, scratch that. It’s easy to stay mad at a guy like that. It’s really, really hard to stay mad at a guy who acts like you’re the best thing since sliced bread, pampers you at every turn, and acts like the baby you’re carrying in your belly is the only thing he’s ever wanted in his life. Especially hard to stay mad as he and nine of his strongest hunters trek through thick snowdrifts in the bitter cold, carrying supplies for what they think are five more human women (and are actually eleven).
I haven’t told them that part yet. One bombshell at a time. And if we decide to take our chances with the little green men, there would be no reason to wake them up and subject them to new and scary things. Like, big blue horned guys who want to potentially mate them and give them a bun in the oven.
I feel the urge to touch my stomach, even though I’m currently piggy-back on Vektal through the snow, heading ever-up the icy mountain to where I left the others. I might not have had a choice about the baby thing, but . . . I’m not upset. Which is weird to me. It’s hard to be angry when you see so much joy on another person’s face, and bringing Vektal that joy gives me a sweet sort of satisfaction, too.
Maybe I’m more crazy about the guy than I like to admit.
“There,” Vektal says, voice nearly lost in the wind. There’s a blizzard blowing, and it’s making trekking uphill a nightmare. No matter how many furs I wear, I can’t stay warm; even Vektal is bundled against the cold. I’m covered from head to toe, gloves cover my hands, and my teeth are still chattering. It’s worrying Vektal, but when he suggested he leave me behind at the elders’ ‘cave,’ I refused. I won’t leave the others behind. I can’t. I need to see them to make sure they’re safe.
While we paused at the elders’ cave overnight, a few of the sa-khui learned English through the brain-zapping. Their version isn’t entirely right, but it’s close enough that they’ll be able to talk to the other women at least.
I didn’t miss the fact that Raahosh was the first one to step forward for the zap. He was definitely planning on scoring himself some human booty. I told Vektal too, and warned him to watch the hunter. He nodded, and we’ve been trekking close to Raahosh at the front ever since.
The black bit of ship in the distance is nearly invisible, covered entirely with snow. Worry strikes me anew, that I’ve left them all behind for so long. That was never part of the plan. I’m a shitty, shitty leader. “Oh,” I say softly. “Hurry, Vektal. Please. If anything’s happened to them . . .”
I let the words trail off into the bitter wind. I don’t even want to throw it out into the universe.
Vektal pats my arm with a gloved hand. “All will be well, sweet resonance. Do not worry. We are here.”
Strangely enough, his words are comforting. This isn’t a rescue party of one anymore. It’s a rescue party of eleven. I don’t have to do this all on my own. These crazy aliens have my back.
Which is actually pretty darn nice.
“Ahead,” Vektal calls out, and he picks up the pace, surging to the front. I cling to his neck for dear life and don’t issue a peep of protest, even though his rough jog is killing my wrist. I have to know if everyone’s okay. Have to.
Time seems to slow as we make it to the discarded cargo bay. The snow is almost to the gap in the hull, and I slide off of Vektal’s back as the others surge to our sides.
“Let us go in first,” Vektal says.
“Me first,” I declare stubbornly, stepping forward.
Vektal steps ahead of me again with a shake of his head. “Let me. In case there is something dangerous.”
I want to protest, but his hand goes to my stomach and he caresses it. Oh, shit. A baby on board totally changes the game, doesn’t it? I nod mutely and touch my stomach as he unsheathes a bone knife and descends into the hold.
Stars flick in front of my eyes, and I realize I’m holding my breath. I exhale deeply then have to concentrate on breathing. It’s so quiet in there. What if everyone’s dead. What if—
Vektal’s head pops up through the break in the hull, and he extends a hand to me, glove removed. “Come below, Georgie.”
I give a loud sigh of relief and gratefully take his hand. It feels strong and warm against mine, and again, I’m reminded how much Vektal has been here for me. I feel a surge of gratitude even as he helps me climb down into the hold again.
The stink of the interior washes over me. It smells of urine and poop and unwashed bodies, but not, thankfully, of dead things. “Guys?” I call out. The blankets are huddled in the corners of the cargo bay, unmoving. It makes my heart clench, and I stumble toward the mound of blankets. “Liz? Kira? Megan?”
I peel the blankets back to reveal Kira’s sunken face.
She gives me a wan smile. “Hey, Georgie. You’re back.”
My eyes go wide at the sight of her. She’s paler than before, her hair matted. Her eyes are hollow and dull, and she looks so weak that I doubt she has the strength to move. At her side, Tiffany sleeps on, her darker skin ashy and dry.
“Are you guys okay? Can you sit up?” I pull her against me, ignoring the protest of my hurt wrist. Somewhere in the distance, Vektal is calling for his men to bring food, water, blankets.
“I think it’s the sickness,” Kira says, voice exhausted. She seems to take forever to blink, and when she does, her eyes don’t focus. “We’re just weaker every day. Tiffany won’t wake up.”
I lean over Kira and press my fingers to Tiffany’s forehead. She’s burning up with fever. She doesn’t stir at my touch, either. “Are the others still alive?” I ask Kira.
On the far side of the room, I see Raahosh stalk toward the blankets. He lifts one corner and then, ever so gently, lifts Liz and cradles her in his arms. He holds a water skin to her slack mouth so she can drink.
Vektal pushes a water skin into my hand as more warriors drop into the hull, looking around. They don’t comment on the smell, which is good, because that would make me angry. Instead, they look curiously at the human women who are rousing. I hold the skin so Kira can drink. There’s a strange tension in the air.
A faint, familiar purr sounds.
My head snaps up. “Who’s that?” I ask. “Who’s resonating?”
The aliens are silent. The purr dies away. I narrow my eyes. Someone just resonated to one of the other humans—yet another problem we don’t need—and is hiding it.
“Georgie,” Kira says, dragging my attention back to her. “I’m so glad to see you,” she says, her voice soft and happy. “You’ve brought help. You’ve rescued us.”
I catch the faint sound of someone resonating again, and my heart sinks. I’m not sure if I’ve freed them or brought them a new set of problems. “We need to talk,” I tell her. “All of us.”
???
Two hours later, the girls are feeling a bit better after eating and drinking. They’re still weak and listless, but even Tiffany has been roused by a meal of broth delivered by a sa-khui who calls himself Salukh. Warm clothing has been provided, and the men are practically fawning over the women, who view them a lot more warily.
Eventually, I give Vektal an exasperated look when yet another male hovers over an alarmed Megan and keeps trying to offer her bites of raw meat. “Can you clear this place out? We need space to talk amongst ourselves safely.”
He looks as if he wants to protest and then bites it back. Instead, he nods, kisses my brow, and tells the men, “Come. We will hunt to feed the women. Pashov, Zennek, guard the entrance. The rest of you, come with me.”
Eventually the men organize themselves and leave, though several longing glances are cast in the direction of the human women. Then we’re finally alone again, and I grab a bowl of the hot broth and sit with the rest of the girls, huddled against one of the walls.
“So,” I tell them. “I brought rescuers. They’re both a good thing and a bad thing.”
“The way I see it, it’s a good thing,” Tiffany says in an exhausted voice. “What’s so bad about a bunch of big hunky aliens acting as babysitters?”
“There’s more to it than just that,” I hedge.
But Kira’s giving me a suspicious look. “How did you learn their language so fast?”
So I tell them about the spaceship that Vektal calls the elders’ cave. The language dump it shot into my brain. The whole ‘parasite’ thing that seems to be a requirement for Not-Hoth living. The ‘Vektal’s tribe only has four adult women, and they’re looking at us to hook up and become part of the family’ thing.
The women make no comment, except for a few horrified blanches at the thought of a symbiont. I don’t blame them.
“If we stay here,” I tell them, “we’re committing to an entirely different life. It’s not a choice that can be made lightly. We have other options. We can opt not to take in the . . . symbiont. We can fight instead.”
Tiffany shakes her head. “But we’re so weak right now. I can barely lift my arms.” Others nod. I’m rather exhausted, too, just not as bad as the others because Vektal’s been taking care of me. But in another day or so? I might be just like them.
“Not to mention, we don’t know when the ship is coming back,” Megan says. “Or if.”
“I think they’ll come back to get us,” Kira says thoughtfully. “They’re not going to want to lose such valuable cargo, and from what it sounds like, we’re extra extra valuable.”
“Goody,” Liz says with a sarcastic tone. “So they’ll be back.”
“And we can fight, or we can make it so they can’t remove us from this place,” I tell them.
“I’m more than a little freaked out at the thought of getting a sym-thing,” Megan confesses. “The cootie.”
“Khui,” I correct, then shudder. What if it does look like a cootie? “So we fight, then?”
“Girl,” Tiffany says. “I can barely lift my eyelids. I cannot fight. I vote we go with the big guys.”
“Here’s the thing,” I say, rubbing my brow. I have a headache that won’t go away. I don’t know if it’s khui-sickness or the smell of the hold, but I’m aching and frustrated. “The khui picks mates. So if it decides that you would be perfect having babies with your worst enemy, you don’t get a say in things.”
“But it beats being cattle,” Liz chimes in.
“Even if we do manage to somehow take over the ship, there’s no guarantee we’ll be able to get ourselves back home or that they’ll take us. They could lie to us about it, and we’d be no wiser.”
“What do you want to do?” Josie asks me. “You keep asking us. Tell us what you are thinking.”
My hand goes to my stomach. “I’m kind of biased in one direction because . . . I’m pregnant. With Vektal’s baby. He’s resonating for me, and apparently it means that, despite the fact that we’re not the same species, he can get me pregnant. So I want to stay.”
The moment I say it aloud, I feel cleansed. Of course I want to stay. I’m coming to care for Vektal. I might even love the big guy. And I’m carrying his child. It’s not his fault I was kidnapped by evil aliens and now I have to get a ‘cootie’ as Megan calls it. He’s done nothing but love me.
“Pregnant?” Tiffany repeats. “In a week? Seriously, girl?”
“Damn, girl, we can’t leave you alone for five minutes,” Liz says. “Dead serious this time. I feel like if you leave our sights again, you’re going to show up with a litter.”
A hot flush comes over my face. “To be fair, I thought he couldn’t make me pregnant if it was interspecies sex.”
“A Great Dane can still make a Chihuahua pregnant,” Liz points out. “Guess which one you are.”
I make a face at her. “I didn’t want to say anything to influence you guys.”
“Like, hey, someone buttered my roll while you guys were waiting for me to return, and he left a few crumbs behind?” Liz cracks.
Ouch. “I’m sorry. I—”
“Don’t be sorry,” Kira says, butting in. She touches Liz’s arm before Liz can make another comment. “It’s just been rough for us.”
“Trust me, showing up pregnant was a surprise for me, too.”
“So we’re staying?” Josie asks.
I look at the tired, exhausted faces of my fellow captives. “If you guys are decided, yes.”
“If a guy shows up with a hamburger, he can plant as many babies in me as he wants,” Liz declares.
I hear shuffling outside and low murmured conversations. I sigh and look at Liz. “Did I mention that some of them learned English from the old ship?”
“The offer stands,” Liz says with a grin. “Should we wake up our test tube ladies?”
I eye the wall and feel a bit of anxiety. “They’re really going to hate us, aren’t they?”
“Why?” Kira says. “It’s not like we kidnapped them. We’re giving them an out.”
“An out that involves cooties and mating an alien.” I point out.
“You’re not complaining,” Liz says. “If they treat us half as good as Vektal’s been treating you, it’s not a terrible thing. And it beats being cattle, doesn’t it?”
I nod then touch my stomach. “I guess we wake them up, then. Maybe we should warn Vektal and the others that there are eleven of us.”
Around me, eyes widen.
“You haven’t told them there are six more?” Josie asks.
“Oh shit, they’re totally going to think it’s Christmas around here,” Liz says and starts to laugh. “I can’t wait to see the looks on their faces.”
VEKTAL
Just when I think my mate can surprise me no more, she brings something new.
“So, Vektal,” she says, sidling up to me as I return with my men and a freshly-slain dvisti for the humans to char into inedible food. “Can we talk for a minute?”
The other men shoot me envious looks as my mate touches my arm and my khui begins to hum. One of the men resonated earlier as well, but no one is stepping forward. I don’t blame them. With the humans undecided as to if they will stay or go—a thought that is like a knife to the gut—no one is sure how to act.
But Georgie gives me an encouraging smile and pulls me aside. Her hand goes to my chest, and I hold it against my thrumming khui.
“So I have good news and bad news. Which do you want first?”
“There is bad news?” I’m staggered. The urge to grab my mate and run off with her hits me like a palpable thing. “If it is bad, you must tell me now. I cannot bear it.”
She looks a little alarmed at my response. “It’s a human tease, Vektal,” she says. “Don’t get so upset. I don’t know if it’s bad news as much as it is startling news.”
I exhale slowly. “I am ready.”
“The good news is that we’re staying,” she says, a small smile playing on her lips. “We talked and voted.”
I don’t know what voted is, but the words she’s saying fill me with utter joy. I crush her against me and press my lips to hers. She twitches, and a happy laugh escapes her. Then, she wraps her arms around my neck and kisses me back, and for a moment, nothing exists outside of my Georgie and her soft, sweet mouth. “My resonance,” I murmur between kisses. “You fill me with joy.”
She breaks the kiss, and there’s a worried look on her strange, smooth little face. “You might not like what else I have to say.”
I want to tell her that nothing else matters. Not as long as she is with me. But there’s such anxiety in her strange eyes that I bite back the words. “What is it?”
“Your men are here to rescue five women,” she says, her fingers fiddling with the laces on my vest. She won’t look me in the eye. “But there are six more of us. Hibernating.”
I study Georgie for a long moment. Her words don’t make sense. Perhaps she still has not grasped all of our language. “The word you say, it means . . . sleeping? Did you mean something else?”
“No, I mean hibernating,” she says again. Her smaller hand grips mine, and she pulls me toward the wall with the strange panels and the lights, much like that in our elders’ cave. When we get to the wall, she touches it with a pat of her hand. “They’re asleep in here, and they have no idea what is going on.”
I am astonished. “Asleep in the walls of your cave?”
“Yes,” she says, her expression sad. “We were afraid to wake them.” And she tells me an incredible story of being taken from her home while she was sleeping and finding herself in the belly of the cave-ship. “We are the extras. These in the wall are the original cargo.”
I don’t understand her words, but I understand what she is telling me. “Your numbers are twice what they seem.”
“I hope you’re not mad?” Her face is worried.
Mad? I am ecstatic. That there are five women who are young, healthy, and mate-able seems as a gift from the gods. Six more is an unthinkable bounty. I want to press Georgie against me and crush her in a hug for saving my tribe from what feels like certain destruction. Instead, I must remain calm. “Six more females . . . And they will be frightened and confused and will need to be treated carefully.”
She nods. “Your men will need to be careful around them. They haven’t been held captive like us. As far as we know, they might still think they are at home, sleeping in their beds. This is all going to be very strange and very frightening to them.” She squeezes my hand. “We didn’t want to wake them when we weren’t decided. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
I do. Georgie’s telling me that however reluctant the humans are to join our tribe, these women might be even more so. That it will take time and patience to bring them into our tribe. “I understand.”
“Some of them might reject the . . . khui,” she says, her mouth struggling to form the word. “That must also be their choice.”
It’s not something I comprehend, but as long as Georgie takes the khui, I care not what the others do. I press her palm to my mouth. “I shall leave it in your charge.”
She nods, a grim look on her face. “I’ll get the others, then.”
???
The men retreat, a little awed by the newest revelation that there are yet more human females. I see eagerness in their faces, and they want to stay behind to be the first to lay eyes on the new females—in the hopes of resonating to one. But we know the women will be hungry when they awaken, and a sa-khui male’s instinct is to feed and tend to his mate. So the men set off hunting, and Georgie and her women get to work prying open the compartments. I watch from a distance, unable to let my mate leave my sight. She and her women are weak and listless, and I am worried that the khui-sickness might be too much for them.
With Kira’s help as translator, they manage to open the strange wall, revealing six long tubes with floating, naked women. Georgie is right. Six more women, all so similar to my Georgie that it makes my heart clench uncomfortably at the thought of her being trapped inside one of those tubes.
One by one, the women are freed from the tubes. There’s confusion at first followed by sobbing. The others wrap the new female in a warm fur and take her aside to answer questions she might have, feed her, and clothe her. Some of the women stare blankly as Georgie and the others explain. One is furious. There is one with flaming orange hair and orange specks all over her strange pale skin. She sees me and chokes back a little scream, only to be comforted with small pats from Georgie and the other women.
My mate is right. It will take some time before these women are comfortable, and it’s time we don’t have. Georgie and her women cannot last much longer without a khui.
As the women share clothing and chatter together, I head out to check on the men who were exiled from the hold to give the humans time to acclimate. A few of my hunters have stayed behind to guard the hold while the others search for more food. Amongst them are Aehako and Rokan.
Aehako presses a hand to his chest. “I do not know if my heart is beating fast with excitement or if it is resonance.”
I clap him on the shoulder. “You will know when you see your female’s face. Until then, do not worry.”
“I have longed for a mate all my years,” he says. “Now I cannot stop wondering if it is one of the human females. To think of having a family after so long.” There is an ache in his voice I well understand. Before my Georgie, I felt the same. Now my life feels almost complete.
When she takes the khui and her life is no longer in jeopardy, I will know total contentment.
“When can we talk to them?” he asks.
“Soon,” I tell Aehako. “The humans are scared. This is all new, and we are strange to them. Give them a bit more time to adjust.”
“It is difficult to be patient,” Rokan says. He seems to be calmer than Aehako, but the hands that grip his spear are white-knuckled. “To know that there are mate-able females so close by . . .”
I nod, but my gaze is on the men in the distance. The hunters are returning, and there is haste in their steps. I watch them approach, and when Raahosh arrives at the head of the hunting party, he is out of breath but jubilant. “A sa-kohtsk is near. A large one.”
I nod. “Then we will bring our humans to it in the morning.” My own blood thrums with excitement. The sa-kohtsk are lone wanderers. To find one so close to the human encampment is a sign. I decide it’s time to sit back no longer. Entering the human cave, I ignore the startled looks the new humans send my way and call Georgie to my side.
She comes, all kisses and smiles. I suspect that’s for my benefit as much as the wary humans’. “Hi,” she says in a cheery voice. She looks tired, though. All of the humans do.
I take her hand in mine to kiss her palm again, and she gives me another tiny sigh of pleasure. I can smell her arousal bloom at my touch, and it’s making my khui hum in my chest. But I cannot take her tonight. She needs her rest. “Tomorrow, we leave here.”
“To go to your caves?”
“To go hunt the sa-kohtsk. We seek khui for you and the women.”
She flinches a little but nods. “If we must, we must.”
“We need more time,” the mouthy one called Liz says. She looks weaker than the rest, thin and wan. But she’s got a stubborn set to her flat mouth. “Not all of us are sold on the idea.” She puts an arm around a new human’s shoulders, and the woman trembles and leans into Liz’s caress.
“You may not have much more time,” I begin, but I’m interrupted by a high pitched whine. In the background, Kira claps a hand to her ear and collapses. Georgie claps a hand to her own arm, wincing.
“What? What is that?” I ask.
Her mouth opens in pain, and she pulls her hand away from her arm even as the whine dies down. There’s a light blinking in her arm, just under the skin, an angry, glaring red.
“The aliens are coming back,” she tells me. “We need to leave.”
GEORGIE
We’re a sad, sad little party as we set out from the cargo bay a short time later. The new girls are weeping and confused. They want more furs than we have to go around. They want better shoes. They’re hungry, cold, and tired. Maybe it’s exhaustion, but I’m frustrated with them because we’re doing the best we can and they just keep crying. I know this is new and scary for them, but I find myself wishing they’d catch up and get with the program already.
The women also want to avoid the men, who are giving them longing looks. Someone keeps purring, though no one will step up and admit things. It’s probably for the best, because I’m guessing that the girls can’t handle the thought of taking on an alien boyfriend right now. Not with everything else going on.
My upper arm throbs. It’s freshly bandaged, but it still stings like the dickens. Once the sensors went off, we set into action, readying to leave the camp. Before we did, though, we had to take care of matters. If the sensors were trackers, we had to get rid of them, and fast.
Out came the knives, and five minutes—and a lot of tears—later, the trackers had been removed. Pashov had been sent to dump them into the nearest metlak cave. Let the little green men take them if they want captives.
Now, the rest of us trudge through the snowy dusk, except for Josie, who is carried by a big male called Haeden. We’re trying to ignore the bitter cold, in search of something Vektal called a sa-kohtsk. It would have the khui we needed, and it, he told me, would save us.
I am all for being saved at this point. Exhaustion is making it difficult for me to keep up, and Liz is so weak that Raahosh decides to carry her slung over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
One of the scouts appears, waving his spear overhead. “Sa-kohtsk,” he calls into the driving wind. “In the valley. Hurry!”
Vektal puts an arm around my waist. He is now carrying Tiffany, who’s too exhausted to lift her feet. “Come, my resonance,” he tells me. “Not much further.”
“I’m good,” I tell him, plodding ahead. “I—”
The ground shakes under my feet.
“What was that?” I ask, stopping. Terror ripples through me as it happens again. Even the snow at my feet vibrates.
“That,” Vektal says, urging me forward again, “Is a sa-kohtsk.”
Oh, shit. I’m a little terrified of what we’re about to find, but we’ve come this far. Vektal and his men press ahead, so we have little choice but to keep up. “Have you hunted these a lot?” I ask him.
“Not often,” he tells me. “Only when a khui is needed. They are too fierce otherwise.”
“Great,” I say dryly.
“This will go well,” Vektal tells me and gives me a comforting pat on the arm, which only sends a flare of pain through my new wound again.
At least when I get a khui, Maylak will be able to heal me. At this rate all she’s going to have left are a bunch of Georgie-shaped pieces. I ready the knife I carry with me.
“What’s happening?” one of the new girls asks, shivering in her furs. Her name’s Nora, I think, and she’s one of the stronger newbies.
The ground thumps again, and Vektal points at a copse of pink feathery trees ahead. “Take the women there. If the creature comes for you, hide amongst the trees.”
“By climbing them?” I look at the other women. “I don’t think they can climb.”
“You won’t need to climb,” Vektal says. “He cannot get to you through them.” I wonder at his words, but there’s no time to talk. He presses a kiss to my forehead and then passes Tiffany off to me. She’s so weak that she clings to me, and I have to drag her over to the trees with Nora’s help.
It feels a bit sexist to have all the women huddling under the trees as the men go off to fight, but I look at the women around me and feel a little despair. We’re weak, exhausted, and not used to all this cold. If the little green men showed up right now, we’d be helpless to fight back against them, even if we outnumbered them.
The ground shakes again, and at my side, Kira clutches a spear while Liz moans unhappily. “What the fuck is that Jurassic Park shit?”
“I don’t know,” I tell her. But I ready the knife I carry with me.
Something gives a high-pitched roar, and the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. It seems close, really freaking close, and the ground shakes again. Megan chokes back a sob of fright, and the other women are whispering. I hiss for silence because I want to know what the hell is going on, damn it. The thought of Vektal out there with some huge monster frightens me.
What if he gets hurt? What if he . . . dies? My heart clenches at the thought. In such a short period of time, I’ve come to care for him more than I like to admit, even to myself.
I don’t want to be here if Vektal is not.
A gigantic head rises over the trees. I suck in a breath, staring in horror. There’s a thing with four glowing blue eyes, two sets stacked on top of one another. It’s got enormous tusks and is covered in long, grayish shaggy fur. It gives another high-pitched roar and lumbers forward, the ground shaking. It’s taller than all the trees, and as it moves past, I see long, twiggy legs with wide feet pushing through the snow. An alien hunter hangs off of one side, clinging to a spear sticking through the creature’s flank.
“Holy shit,” Liz says. “What the hell is that?”
“I think it’s a sa-kohtsk,” I say, feeling faint. It looks like a Macy’s Parade float with legs. And they’re going to kill that thing? Dear God. Be careful, Vektal, I send out quietly. More of the men run past, chasing after it with spears. I try to pick out Vektal in the group, but I don’t see him. He doesn’t carry a spear, only knives and a sling, and the thought fills me with dread.
“I wish I had a bow,” Liz says as we stare at the creature lumbering past.
“That’s random,” Kira comments, her tone awed. We can’t take our eyes off the sa-kohtsk.
“I was a champion archer when I was a teenager,” Liz comments. “Though I don’t know if I could shoot that thing.”
“Huh,” is all Kira says.
I stride forward through the snow as the creature lumbers away from the trees, the hunters chasing it. Where is Vektal? Where? I follow behind in the distance as the men harass it with spears.
The creature bellows again, and his head swings low, dipping toward the ground. An alien grabs one of the jutting tusks, and as the creature jerks his head back, the man goes flying onto the creature’s head, barely holding on. I suck in a breath as I recognize the graceful movements and the long, fluttering black hair. Vektal. My hand goes to my mouth, and I press my fingers against my lips so I don’t scream in fright.
Please don’t get killed for me, I think. Please.
I watch as he gracefully flips to his feet atop the monster’s head. It swings back and forth, trying to dislodge him, but Vektal’s holding on tight. He pulls something from his vest —a bone blade, I think—and raises it high into the air.
With a battle cry, he plunges it downward, and the creature screams and writhes in pain. Behind me, a few of the women choke out cries of their own. I’m breathless as Vektal raises the knife and slams it home over and over again, driving it into the creature’s eye.
With a final gurgle, the creature staggers. It takes one step forward and then collapses. The ground shudders with the force of it, and I can’t help but rush forward to Vektal. I push through the thick, knee-high snow, ignoring my exhaustion. I have to get to him, to know he’s all right.
When I do, I see he’s covered in blood and gore from the creature, wiping his face clean on one edge of his vest. He grins at me, and it’s so boyish and did-you-see-me that I choke back my sob and fling my arms around his neck. “You scared the shit out of me,” I babble in English, not caring that he’s getting my new clothing all gunked up.
“Georgie?” he asks, patting my back. “Are you well?”
“I am now,” I answer in his language. “That was scary as hell.”
“They are strong,” he admits. “But not so strong that I would not bring one down for you and the humans.”
“Just as long as this is not a regular occurrence,” I tell him.
His hand touches my belly, and there is warmth in his shining eyes. “We will need one for our kit, and I will gladly do so.”
“All right, all right,” I grumble. “So what now?”
He presses a kiss to my forehead. “Now, we get the khui. Gather the women.”
My stomach drops at the thought, but I force myself to nod. If they risked their lives to get us the symbionts, the least we can do is hold up our end of the bargain, since it’s for us anyhow.
I go to Tiffany’s side and help her walk, trying to seem more confident about this than I really am. If I freak out, so will the other humans. I need to be cool, calm, and collected about things.
I manage to remain cool, calm, and collected for all of five minutes as we gather nearby. The men are watching us avidly, hope and hunger both in their eyes. I ignore them, focusing on the gigantic fallen sa-kohtsk. The long, spindly legs are splayed, and the fat belly of the creature sticks out. I look for something that resembles a remoraplease please don’t look like a remora—but the thick, bushy coat of the creature hides anything that might be living against the skin.
“Where are the khui?” I ask, since the men seem to be waiting for the humans to say something.
“Inside,” Vektal says. He moves forward and touches my jaw. “Are you ready, my Georgie?”
Oh God. I don’t know that I am. I swallow hard. “Let’s do this.”
He nods and pulls his longest, thickest blade out of the sheath at his belt. I brace myself as he sets the tip of the blade against the creature’s belly. In a swift motion, he sinks it deep and then begins to cut. Blood gushes and dribbles out of the wound, and someone behind me makes a choking sound. There’s a sickly, coppery smell in the air, and I force myself to ignore it.
Two of the warriors move forward, and they peel back the creature’s wound, revealing a mass of bloodied organs.
“Just like skinning a deer,” Liz breathes at my side in a curiously blank voice. “No big deal. No sweat.”
Vektal moves to the ribcage of the creature and steps on one side then pushes against the other. His big arms strain, and then there’s a snap like a tree falling in the forest, and the ribs split open.
“Really, really big deer,” Liz says.
Vektal makes a few cuts, the sound wet and overloud in the quiet evening. He pulls out a giant organ that must be the heart, still pulsing. It’s glowing from within, the light dappled and shining a pale blue. With one slit, he opens it, and the light spills out.
There are dozens of thin, wriggling gossamer worms in there.
Worms.
Oh God.
One of the warriors approaches Vektal, and he hands off the heart before gently pulling one of the glowing filaments from it.
“I think I’m going to be sick,” Kira says faintly.
I think I am, too. But I force myself to remain in place as Vektal reverently frees the long, coiling strand of light and comes toward me with it cupped in his big hands. It’s wriggling and writhing against his palms. “They cannot live long out in the cold,” he tells me. “We must make an incision in your neck and give the khui a safe place to reside.”
His eyes are speaking volumes. In this, I must be a leader. In this, I must trust him.
I swallow hard, looking at that long, wormlike glowing thing. “What . . . what if it goes to my brain?”
“Like that’s any better than your heart?” Liz sputters.
“The khui is the essence of life,” Vektal tells me, even as he cups the snakelike thing in his hands. His gaze is on my face, and there is a mixture of emotions there. If I turn away now, I’m turning away everything he and his people are offering. I’m turning away a life here and love, all for the potential of a Hail Mary rescue.
“In the neck, huh?” I say, my voice faint. “Will it hurt?”
“I do not know.” Vektal approaches me, and I can hear the thing in his hands flicking and making a purring sort of sound.
“Fair enough,” I say. The thing is pressing against his hands, looking for a way to burrow into his skin. I feel faint at the thought of voluntarily letting it inside me . . . but what choice do I have?
I made my choice. I chose Vektal . . . and our child, who might even now be inside my womb.
“Do I need to make the cut?” I ask him. “Or will you?”
“I can,” he says and offers his cupped hands to me.
I take the khui with a small grimace. It feels like a sticky strand of spaghetti, impossibly warm despite the cold, wintry wind blowing around us. The light flickers faintly as it’s transferred to my hands, and I experience a moment of worry. What if khui can’t bond with humans? But Vektal has pulled out a new, clean blade, and his hand has gone to the back of my neck, cupping it.
And then there’s really no going back.
“Are you really going to do this, Georgie?” Kira asks, sounding ill.
“I really am.” I look into Vektal’s glowing eyes as he leans in. He presses a kiss to my forehead, and I’m struck again at how wonderful he is. “I love you,” I say softly.
“You are my heart, Georgie,” he murmurs. I feel the cool press of the knife against my throat for a quick moment and then a sting as he nicks me near my collar bone. Not deep, but enough that the blood crusts up and freezes against my skin.
Vektal takes the khui from my hands and lifts it, and as I see his hand with that weird, glowing filament approach my bared neck, I think No, no, wait, I changed my mind.
But it doesn’t matter.
The moment the khui touches my skin, it begins to burrow, seeking warmth. I suck in a horrified breath as I feel it push through my body. It’s like ice water moving through my veins, and I can feel the thing climbing toward my heart and oh shit.
Oh shit.
Everything’s going dark.
Vektal’s face is blurring in front of mine.
This is a mistake, isn’t it?
But then there’s warmth.
So much warmth.
And humming…
And then darkness.
???
My eyes snap open at some point later. It’s curious because I can feel the wind blowing and snow falling around me, but I’m not cold anymore. Warm fingers brush over my cheek, and I look into Vektal’s handsome face. I feel a little stiff and achy overall, but I don’t feel as weak as I was before. I lick my lips. “How’d it go?”
“Your eyes are a lovely shade of blue,” he tells me, voice warm with happiness.
“Oh?” I sit up with his help and look around. Not much time has passed, I think, since I took in the khui. There’s thunder in the distance, and the skies are black with night. I blink and look around. I feel . . . the same. There’s no weirdness. No oh-my-God-there’s-a-tapeworm-in-me feeling. Everything is quiet.
As a snowflake lands on my arm, though, I look around in surprise. “I’m warm?”
“The khui will keep you warm,” he says, his hand brushing over my skin. He’s touching me everywhere, as if he can’t quite believe I’m all right.
“Wow, okay.” I glance through the camp, and the men are helping the women to their feet. “Did they all take it? The khui?”
“Everyone,” he says, a proud note in his voice. He helps me stand, though I don’t suppose I need the help anymore. I’m just fine, oddly enough. I feel . . . good. “You were brave and led the way.”
“I have a lot to live for.” The sound of the thunder increases, and as his hand touches mine, I feel . . . strange. Aroused. It’s weird because all he’s doing is touching my arm. I look at Vektal in surprise. I fight the urge to kiss his hard mouth, to climb him like a freaking tree, and to drag him into the snow and make sweet, sweet love to him.
Good lord, what is going on with me?
The thunder rumbles louder, and I look behind me.
Vektal chuckles and presses a hand between my breasts. “You hear it?”
“What is that noise?”
“It is you,” he says. “Your khui sings for me.”
I press a hand to my chest. Sure enough, the rumble’s coming from me. I’m purring. “Oh.” Heat pools between my legs, and my pulse starts to thrum as if he’s touched me in naughty ways, just from his fingertips on my chest. “Oh man, I feel . . .”
“I know,” he says, and his eyes glow with a mixture of need and amusement. “I can smell your need, mate.”
“Oh boy,” I say faintly. “Can . . . can anyone else?” If they can, I might die of embarrassment.
“My senses are attuned to you. The others are too busy helping the humans. Look around you,” he says, pulling me against him.
God, he’s warm and big and delicious, and I want to shove my hands in his pants and take his cock in my grip. It takes me a moment to focus, and I cling to his vest as I try to get a grip on myself. Is this what resonating feels like? I mean . . . wow. But good lord. I don’t know if I can stand being this sensitized around Vektal constantly.
Then again . . . the orgasms are going to be mind-blowing.
My gaze focuses on the women in the distance. Tiffany’s on her feet, which is wonderful, and a sa-khui male dotes on her. Almost every woman seems to be escorted by a man of Vektal’s tribe, and the sound of faint purring fills the air.
“Are they all—”
“Not all,” Vektal says. “But some.” At my worried look, he adds, “They will approach things slowly. This I promise.” Then he grimaces. “Except for one.”
“One?” I look around at the sea of faces and notice that one familiar, lippy one is missing. “Where is Liz?”
“Raahosh has slunk off with her like a metlak with a kill.” Irritation clouds his features. “He will answer to the tribe when he returns.”
My entire body tenses. “Is he going to hurt her?”
“Hurt her?” The look Vektal gives me is incredulous. “He takes her to mate her. Harming her is the last thing on his mind.”
Boy, I almost feel sorry for Raahosh. He doesn’t know what he’s gotten himself into by taking Liz. She’s not about to let an alien run roughshod over her. “I’m sure Liz will have a few things to say about that.”
He gives a wry smile. “I am sure she will, too.”
I wouldn’t be surprised if Raahosh brought Liz back,I think to myself. She’s a handful. “Can we go after them?”
“Raahosh is the best of my hunters. If he does not wish to be found, he will not be found. We can simply wait for them to return.”
“Let me guess,” I say drily. “Barefoot and pregnant?”
He looks puzzled at my words. “Why would her feet be bare?”
“Never mind.” I pat his chest and then find myself utterly fascinated with the play of his muscles. “Oh, wow. Vektal, I feel very . . .”
“In tune with your resonance?” he asks. Under my hand, he begins to thrum louder, and that makes my nipples prick as my own khui responds.
I nod.
He clasps me against him, and I gasp because it feels . . . amazing. “Shall we go somewhere private then, my mate?”
“But . . . the others . . .”
“The men will take care of them for the night,” he says and traces a finger down my cheek that leaves me shuddering with need. “They will keep them warm and fed while they adjust to their khui. And in the morning, we shall all start the journey home.”
Home. After weeks of being captive, it feels so nice to think of a place as home. “Where can we go?” I ask him, lacing my fingers in his. “Lead on.”
But he hesitates. “Do you feel well, my resonance? Do you want to rest? To sleep?”
“Right now, I want to tear your clothing off and put my mouth all over you,” I tell him, and the purring in my chest increases. So does the wetness between my legs. If I had panties, they’d be soaked.
Vektal’s nostrils flare, and he stifles a groan in his throat. Before I can react, he throws me over his shoulder and begins to storm off into the darkness. “We will return at daybreak,” he calls to one of his men.
“Enjoy the resonance,” the man calls back, and there is envy in his voice.
I wiggle with excitement on Vektal’s shoulder. God, I should not be so aroused, but I am. The khui humming through my system is making me feel warm and good, and the intense arousal feels like a bonus. Why was I so against the thing? I touch my breastbone and feel it humming happily underneath. If this is all it takes to live at Vektal’s side for the rest of my life, I’ll take it.
I mean, there aren’t any toilets, but living as a barbarian? Not so bad when you’ve got a big, sexy barbarian male with you.
Vektal tromps through the snow for several minutes, and just when I’m about to shove a hand down my own pants and take care of business, he stops. “Here is far enough.”
He sets me down, and I look around with a frown. We’re in the middle of nowhere, a few scattered trees nearby. There’s a large flat rock here, about waist height, and the sight of it arouses me because I picture Vektal mounting me from behind and fucking the daylights out of me. My thighs tighten again. “Here?”
His hand goes to my neck, and he pulls me against him in a brutal, possessive kiss. “Here we are far enough away that when they hear you scream with pleasure, they will not think to come and rescue you.”
I blush at his words, but they make heat pool in my veins. “You are one sexy beast, you know that?”
“All I know is that I am yours,” he says to me. His mouth captures mine again, and I feel the scrape of his fangs a moment before his tongue swipes against mine, the bumps playing against my own tongue and sending a spike of fierce desire through me.
I moan and slide my hands into the laces of his leggings. “I want your skin against mine,” I tell him. “All of you, against me.” My khui hums an agreement. A moment later, my wandering hands brush against the head of his cock, and I feel drops of pre-cum against the crown of his cock. I lift one to my mouth and moan at the taste of him. It’s like nothing I’ve ever tasted before: sweet, musky, and delicious. He tasted good pre-khui, but now . . . I drop to my knees in front of him. “God, I really want to suck your cock.”
“It is said that the taste of a resonance mate is like no other flavor,” he murmurs, his hand brushing through my hair. “I know there is no finer thing than your dew on my tongue.”
Dew? We’d have to talk about love words in the future. I smile up at him and pull at his pants until his cock is freed from his leggings. I take him in my hand and moan my pleasure at the hot, throbbing length of him and then lick the droplets beading on the crown. Each one is delicious. My hand steals to my own thighs, sliding into the leggings that Maylak gave me so I can rub myself as I touch him. I’m absolutely wild with lust, and I need him right this moment or I’m going to lose my mind. All the while, the khui is humming and throbbing a tune in time with Vektal’s.
It feels amazing. I sink a finger into myself and moan. It’s not enough.
“On your back for me,” my mate breathes, his hands caressing me. “If you must be filled so quickly, let me be the one to do it.”
I don’t need any convincing. I’m so wet, so slippery that I know I can take him. Feeling naughty, I get up on the stone and press my belly to it, my hips in the air. “Let’s do it from behind, Vektal. Remember? That night in your cave? You said you’d never done it that way.”
He growls, and I feel his mouth press to my back. “Never . . . tails . . .”
“But I have no tail,” I say and wiggle my ass at him.
Vektal grips my hips, and his hands rip at my leggings. I’m trying to help him, too, and then my ass is exposed to the chilly air and my pants are around my knees. I feel the hard press of his cock against my hip, and I spread my thighs wider—as wide as my clothing will allow. “Yes,” I breathe. “Please.”
Then my mate pushes into me, and he’s so big that a gasp catches in my throat. I feel every ridge of his cock as he enters me, I’m so tight. But God, it’s so freaking good that I cry out. My fingers claw at the rock, desperate for something to hold onto. But there’s nothing. There’s just Vektal and his cock pushing into me.
He pushes even deeper, and then I feel something push against my bottom, feel the prod of that hard spur against the bud of my ass. That sends an entirely new set of sensations shooting through me, and I practically leap off the rock. “Again,” I cry out when he pulls back. “Oh fuck, do that again!”
Then he thrusts into me, and instead of rubbing against my clit, the spur pushes against the entrance of my ass. It feels weird and tight and oddly arousing. “We’re definitely going to have to add doggy style to our repertoire,” I tell him, panting.
“My sweet resonance,” he grits out. “You—”
Something bright flashes in the sky. I freeze under Vektal, and we watch, breathless, as a spaceship, swimming with lights, hovers in the skies over the mountain. It circles and then hangs in the sky over the spot where the old cargo bay was left behind.
Where we were left behind.
I can’t move as I watch the sky, waiting to see what happens. Over me, cock-deep inside me, Vektal is frozen as well.
The ship seems to hover for forever. Then the lights blink off, and it lifts up, winking out of the atmosphere.
I gasp with relief. “It’s gone?”
“It seems they do not want metlaks,” Vektal says, amusement in his voice. “And you, my sweet human, are now forever part of this world.”
I touch my breastbone, and then I begin to thrum anew, my purring matching Vektal’s. “I’m yours forever, aren’t I?”
“Forever,” he says, thrusting deep once more. He pumps into me over and over, until I’m crying out with my release. It’s swift and rough, just like how he’s taking me, and Vektal’s own release is but moments behind. This time, when his seed spurts into me, I don’t feel the heat of it. My body temperature’s warmer now, like his. I’m not sure how it’s possible, because a fever can damage humans, but I suspect the khui is busy inside me, rewriting all kinds of genetic things to make sure that I have a long, healthy life on this new planet.
Vektal lifts me off the rock and pulls me into his arms, and he can’t stop kissing me. I laugh and kiss him back, and then we fall into the snow together, our pants down.
I huff, exhausted but still humming from within. I stare up at the night sky, checking for more spaceships, but all is quiet.
For better or for worse, we’re here. I’m thinking it’s for better. In fact, I know it’s for better because the man next to me pulls me against him and begins to lick and nibble at my earlobes. “I’m pretty sure we’re going to have to do that again,” I tell him breathlessly. “My khui doesn’t seem to be calming down much.”
“I’m told it’s most intense during the first few days of resonance. After that, we should be able to walk normally,” he teases.
Well, thank God for that. “And then what comes next?”
“Home. Our den together.” He touches my stomach. “Our kit.” His fingers caress my flat stomach. “Hopefully the first of many human and sa-khui matings.”
That . . . sounds pretty good to me. I push him onto his back, noticing that even my busted wrist doesn’t hurt much anymore—the khui at work, maybe? I smile down at my mate. “Just as long as you don’t go resonating for anyone else.”
He shakes his head somberly. “One resonance mate. We mate for life.”
I like the sound of that, too.