23. Downpour
TWENTY-THREE
DOWNPOUR
Elena
Days go by before I talk to him again. I see him, sometimes in passing, as he traverses through the meadow. But it’s only out of the corner of my eye. He’s never around long or near enough for me to call out to him.
It’s not like I’m lingering in the front of my ship waiting for him, spending endless hours gazing at the landscape, hoping to get a glimpse of him. I’m still listening to broadcasts, I’m still hoping mine will be answered.
Yet… sometimes I do watch him—like when he brings fresh wood for the firepit that Levy and Greg have begun lighting every evening—or when he comes to fill my bucket of water.
Thankfully, every time I open the hatch to receive it, he’s not there waiting to ambush me.
Instead, a full bucket and a basket of fruit will be there.
I’ll take them inside and nibble on the tart offerings, thankful to be eating something that’s not pasta.
Then I’ll spend the next thirty minutes ruminating about what I’m doing and getting the water down the maintenance hatch so its purified.
I have learned that if I put my bucket back outside, it will be filled again. Multiple times a day.
He’s diligent. It’s not helping my attraction to him. I’m beginning to see what he means by… providing for me.
He also smells good. Really, really good. And he says he likes the way I smell too… I don’t know why I’ve focused on that, but I have. Maybe it was the dramatic way he said it.
He’s poetic… And surprisingly eloquent.
Shelby said they’re an alien-human hybrid, but what kind of alien?
A new one? He’s got a tail like a serpent, and the only aliens I’m aware of that have tails are Lurkers.
If he were part Lurker, he would have inhumanly strong senses.
Can he know his mate by scent? I wish I paid more attention in my human history classes.
I also wish I hadn’t missed so many of Shelby’s broadcasts. I would probably know the answer if I caught them all.
I run my fingers through my hair and look up at the sky, frowning at the dreary gray sheen across it. A bleak, endless veil of heavy murk. I search for the sun but it’s nowhere to be found.
“I command the AI to pause the broadcasts.” I stand up from my dad’s seat and set down my book with a frown.
In the corner of my eye Lukys appears from the trees and enters the meadow.
I rush to the window and wave my hands. “Hey!” I shout. “Come here!”
He tilts his chin and faces me. Our eyes catch as he moves toward me, stopping in front of the glass. “Elena,” he says loudly, deeply. “What issss it?”
I forget about the sky as I’m suddenly caught in a web of emotions—unsettling, uneasy, emotions. I grit my teeth to stop from looking at his bulge.
I blink and shake myself, glancing up at the sky. “What’s happening with the sky? Where’s the sun?”
He looks up then back down, arching a brow. “Clouds have flown in to cover it.”
“Clouds?” I frown. “Why?”
“I suppose because they are filled with water. Rain. Rain is coming.”
Water from the sky. Like a massive shower. My stomach tightens uncomfortably. Seeing a large body of water like the river is one thing, but water falling from the sky? I press my lips together. I hope it doesn’t damage my ship.
His eyes move over me sharply like he’s trying to read me. I stiffen under his perusal.
“You do not have to fear it. It is rare, but when it happens, the storms can last for days. As long as you are not near the river and are inside your nest, you should be fine.”
“Will the land flood with water? Will I be submerged?” How much water actually falls?
“It will get wet and the ground may puddle but no, you will not be surrounded by water—not like that.”
“Oh thank God.” Hearing a strange sound, my gaze drops to Lukys, who’s… chuckling. I squint at him. “Don’t laugh at me.”
“You are afraid of the rain, but you are not afraid of leaving your ship. It issss funny.”
“It’s not. And I was afraid to leave my ship. It was nerve-racking. It still makes me nervous opening the hatch. You make me nervous. It took me weeks to do more than step outside.”
“I know,” he says, his laughter dying.
A tense silence forms between us as we stare at each other.
His head tilts as his eyes drop down my body.
I stiffen further as he checks me out, but it gives me the courage to do the same, appreciating his darkly colored form and the way his patterns hug his biceps.
I have a good, open view of his body, more so than usual despite it always being on display.
He’s never worn a scrap of clothing, not once.
His bulge is as thick, if not thicker than it has been in the past. I take a moment to ponder it—the redness amongst the black—and as I flick my eyes back to his, our gazes clash once more.
I jerk. “Sorry! I didn’t mean—”
My words fade as his lips twitch and he straightens, flexing out his pelvic area to push his bulge toward me like he’s… teasing me to look at it again. I look.
Except then he abruptly turns away and retreats to the back of my ship like that’s not what he was doing at all. I peer back at the sky with another sigh and curse.
He’s a stalker, Elena.
But he’s not. He’s just… he’s just… protective? Of his land, of me? Of Levy and Greg too? Maybe. Either way, he’s trying to be helpful.
He’s just got stalking tendencies… Rubbing my arms, I then lift my hand to wipe off the sweat on my forehead. It’s been days and I’m still as hot as ever. I risked smelling him when I followed him to the water. Thankfully, I didn’t.
Still, I shouldn’t have gone with him.
Now all I want is a reason to do it again.
Pressing my hands to my head, I groan. I’m not battling Lukys’s pheromones as hard as I should be.
I leave the window and return to my book.
The next morning I wake to an unusual pounding that seems to come from far away and outside the ship. Except the pounding is also coming from every direction at once. I crawl out of bed and duck out and into the hallway.
The dome is covered in water.
As I near it, the hollow thrumming grows louder. I realize the sound is the water hitting the ship, the glass.
The light of dawn somehow bleeds through the dark clouds above, letting me know that despite the thick gloom, it’s daytime.
The water thrashes and slams the glass in sheets across the surface. Countless droplets collect into streams to travel down the rounded sides. The forest—everything—is obscured beyond it.
I take in the forceful majesty of the rain, curiosity and awe filling me, only slightly less unnerved than before. I’m surrounded… but not like I thought I’d be.
Hearing a loud thunderous noise break through the thrum, I freeze. Shortly afterward, there are several flashes of light and an extremely loud boom. I jolt, trying to see in the sky what could have caused such a sound when it happens all over again.
A figure appears at the window to my right and I nearly scream.
I squint despite immediately recognizing Lukys.
His face and body are blurry, the details of his form lost. His hair is plastered to the sides of his head, and his gaze is as dark as ever. Another rumbling sound fills my ears and a streak of light flashes behind him, brightening his contour along the ebony tones of his body.
He shouts something I can’t hear.
I shake my head. “Go to the hatch!” I shout back, pointing down the ship several times for emphasis.
What in the hell is he doing outside right now? He should be in his cave and by his firepit.
I picture it—his cave with the fire ablaze and the chill all but eradicated, me curled up on soft hides smelling of him. He’d throw fresh meat on the flames like he did the other evening and I would eat it with my fingers when it’s done.
I huff with annoyance and walk to the back of my ship.
At the hatch, I suddenly war with the idea of… opening it. Do I want to chance smelling his pheromones again? The water should dilute his smell.
The storm won’t hurt me if it doesn’t hurt him.
But how badly do I want to hear what he has to say? If he’s willing to appear in this weather to say it? I don’t know, but I’m going to find out. Backing up until I’m midway down the hallway, I stop and command the AI to open the hatch.
The door’s groan and woosh is quickly taken over by the storm. The deluge appears with Lukys at the center of it, posed at the opening.
He shouts something that I barely hear.
“What?”
“Ar… u… ay…?”
I wave him inside. “I can’t hear you! Come closer.”
He hesitates and it makes me do the same.
But I lose my chance to balk, shut the door, and flee when he presses forward through the waterfall that has formed at the opening.
Slipping his upper half inside, he eyes me sharply as he runs his hands over his head.
Water trickles off him, catching around his sleek, black and gray scales.
“You can bring the rest of you inside too,” I tell him, taking a half-step back despite there being distance between us.
He coils his tail into the ship as his hands slide over his muscled shoulders.
“Oh, here! Wait!” I duck into the bathroom, barely waiting for the mirror to move out of my way.
I grab a towel and walk back out into the hallway, tossing it toward him.
He catches it easily as lightning flashes behind him. “Thankssss.” He swipes his face with it, then abruptly freezes, inhaling deeply. My cheeks warm and I look away.
“What were you saying before?” I ask, licking my lips, looking back.
He lowers the towel and his freshly scrubbed face appears. “Are you okay?”
Is that it?
“Am I…” I glimpse the rain behind him. “I think so. I just woke up. Did you leave your cave to go out in… that”—I shiver—“to ask me that?”
The weather is wild, potentially dangerous. And very wet.
“I have been outside watching your ship. Your nest seems to be holding up well against the rain so far.”
“You’ve been outside watching my ship? In that?” I frown, shuddering when I hear more booms. “For how long?”
“Since the rain started.”
That could have been hours ago for all I know. I gawk at him. “You didn’t have to do that.”
“You seemed… worried about the clouds yesterday. If something were to happen to you or your ship because of the water, I intended to be nearby.”
“So you were just going to remain outside my ship the whole storm?”
His curious expression twitches like he’s beginning to realize that his behavior might be… odd. “If you are okay, I will leave.”
I cross my arms warily. “I can’t tell if you’re a stalker or just very… protective.”
He hands the towel to his tailtip, which begins running it over his arms and chest. As he wipes the rain from his pecs and abs, I swallow thickly. “That is eassssy. I am both.”
My eyes snap to his face. “So you are a stalker?”
“Yessss. I must be to hunt my prey. They would not come near me if they knew I was there.”
My mouth opens and closes. “You stalk your prey?”
“Or I wait to ambush them. Yessss, I often stalk my prey.”
“Well, I’m okay. You can go—” I shake my head. “Wait. So you go out in the woods to hunt and stalk your prey, but I’ve never seen you carry any weapons. Do you punch them to death?”
He makes a fist. “No.” He then loosens his fingers and shows me his claws. “I use these, and these.” He points to his fangs. “The strength of my arms and tail can subdue a buck, but it takes more finesse to kill something bigger than that. I sometimes use weapons, spears.”
“More finesse?”
“My venom is exceptionally deadly. If I can help it, I choose to kill my prey that way. It is safer and I am less likely to ruin the animal’s coat in the process. I am unlike other nagas in this way.”
“You are?”
“Most other nagas will kill their food on the spot but I am patient enough to wait.”
“But you’re stalking me…” I whisper.
His tailtip pauses drying his hip with the towel. “I am also very protective,” he reminds me.
“Why? Help me understand.”
“Females—you—are extraordinarily rare.” He briefly points at me. “You are precious. Even if I did not want more from you, I would have been protective of you for being what you are. It issss not every day a female shows up outside my nest…”
“Women are not rare where I come—came—from. We’re literally everywhere.”
“Yet I have only seen you.”
“And your few female friends.”
“Yessss. Them too, but I met them after they were mated.”
I lick my lower lip. “Ah. So I’m just the first available female to you then.” That’s why he wants me. I get it now. I knew it.
“Perhaps. Perhapssss not.” His nostrils flare as he inhales deeply, clenching his hands. “Like I told you before, I knew when I first smelled you.”
Lightning flashes and the sky rumbles.
Watching his hands fist at his sides, I know I should send him away. I should tell him to go. This is the time to do it, if I’m going to do it at all. He knows I’m okay and will leave. But Jenna suddenly pops into my head.
Jenna would’ve never let him inside the ship in the first place.
Jenna and I have always been opposites. Always.
She hated her stalkers… yet I’m endeared.
Realizing I don’t want Lukys to leave, I take a step back and then another.
His tail moves around him as his eyes sharpen curiously.
I’m about to invite him inside, to ask him to wait out the storm with me, when my courage fails. I freeze where I’m standing as my face falls into a frown. What am I doing?
“I’m fine,” I whisper. “I think the ship will be fine too. You should go back to your cave.” My voice comes out a little more defeated than I’d like it to be.
“If you are sure—”
“I’m sure.”
He eyes me then nods, slipping his tail farther inside to hand me the now-soaked towel. But when I reach out to take it, I freeze once more as his scent hits me.
Subtle and sparse with the watery dampness wafting from outside, the small whiff is enough to send me reeling. My toes curl and my sex constricts, reminding me I might be sick with him—and this is just going to make me sicker.
“Goodbye, Elena.”
He turns and leaves, disappearing into the downpour, and the moment his tailtip slips away, regret twists my stomach.
Commanding the AI to close the hatch, I stomp to my room and shut myself in.
I drop onto my bed and shove my hand into my pants to feel how wet I am, discovering I’ve dampened my clothes.
Tingles of pleasure streak through me as my fingers brush my clit.
I want Lukys.
I want him and my body is ready, according to Shelby. I grab the hide off the floor and bury my face into it, inhaling and shuddering all over.
Fuck.