Chapter 9
I stalked ahead of my guards, my jaw set tight to keep my prize contained behind my teeth. My training session had been long overdue, and my whole body was surging with whatever enhancement they’d given me. I’d relished the chance to kill some sytos and I’d enjoyed every minute.
Usually I was put up against turochs or plugged into a simulation to test me against more difficult opponents. My training partners rarely survived and this time they’d sent nine lab altered sytos against me.
In the last few years, I vaguely recalled fighting a handful of altered sytos but none as impressive as these.
They’d been big, twice as strong as my guards and trained just as dirty as me.
Not that it had saved them in the end. The violent fight had given me the perfect cover for my theft and when I’d killed the last male, I bit off his ear, translator and all.
The hunk of flesh was still in my mouth, I didn’t dare spit it out while I was being watched but my pulse pounded with excitement when I thought of being able to talk to Naomi.
I’d need to find my words again, the growled warning to stay put this morning had barely been intelligible, but with a translator she could understand whatever I managed to say.
After last night, I knew I couldn’t keep silent any longer.
We needed words to come to an understanding.
It had been so long since anyone bothered to talk to me, I’d been basking in Naomi’s aimless chatter, but the thought of being able to ask her questions filled me with excitement.
I wanted to know her. I yearned to ask her about her life, her thoughts. Her ramblings were charming but I needed more of her than just her passing thoughts.
I stopped in front of my door, tail flicking impatiently while I waited for the guard to punch in the code.
At least the itching rage was gone, I felt like myself again and I was eager to see Naomi.
As soon as the door shut behind me, I strode to the vent I’d shut behind her and peered into the darkness.
Spitting the tattered blue ear into my hand, I quickly ripped the translator free and tossed the bit of flesh into the waste hole.
I couldn’t see my female but I hoped she’d lingered nearby. Now that speaking to her was possible, I didn’t want to wait for her to find her way back.
“Naomi?” my voice was rough and halting as I spoke her name for the first time, the unfamiliar shape awkward in my mouth. There was a soft scuffle from above me and then a few strands of golden brown hair fell through the slats and a pale face appeared.
“Are you going to let me back in? Or are you kicking me out?” Her tone was light but my stomach clenched as I realized she wasn’t sure if I was barring her from my cell. Setting the translator on my cot, I quickly pulled the vent free and caught Naomi when she dropped onto me.
Her skin was chilled everywhere she touched me and she let out a shuddering moan when I wrapped my arms around her.
“I’ve been freezing my tits off for the last hour,” she muttered, nuzzling her face into my shoulder and tucking cold hands against my belly. My skin twitched at the clamminess and I quickly settled on the cot and rubbed my hands over her body.
“I’m sorry,” I said, knowing she couldn’t understand me, but hoping to practice my words a little before she had the translator. To my own ears, I sounded choked and slurred, I worried even the translator wouldn’t be able to parse out my meaning.
Her pink skin chafed red under my rubbing but she didn’t seem to mind, so I kept scrubbing warmth into her until she was limp and draped over me like some sort of creeping vine.
“This is like the world’s most aggressive massage, but I kind of love it,” she moaned against my neck. Her breath skated over my throat and I couldn’t stop my cock from twitching under her. Naomi laughed huskily and wiggled her hips over my lap.
“Why did I think your boner would go away once you came?”
I didn’t understand exactly what she meant, but I assumed she was talking about last night.
The proof of our activities still staining the cot beside me.
My tail flicked as I looked down at the mark.
This was no place for a female to live, let alone a place to seduce one.
It was small, cold, and dirty with years of suffering and captivity.
Naomi deserved a spacious tent, filled with softly tanned hides and dyed furs, and a hoard.
A soft, clean bed to sleep in and the freedom to walk into the wilderness whenever she wanted.
Instead she was trapped in a cold, small cell.
I had nothing to offer her, I didn’t even have a loincloth to offer her in place of her own fraying garments.
I sighed, weariness overshadowing my happiness to be holding her.
“Hey.” Sensing my mood shift, she peeled herself off my chest and tipped my chin until I was forced to meet her wide hazel eyes. “What’s wrong, big guy? I kind of thought we were having a moment.”
Wishing there was a way to warn her, I lifted up the translator and pointed at the one piercing my own ear. She picked it off my palm and inspected it suspiciously.
“You brought me an earring... with blood on it.”
I swallowed hard, wishing I didn’t have to hurt her to give her the ability to understand the world around her. But even if she wanted nothing to do with me after I did this, at least she’d be able to understand the sytos she was trying to avoid.
Taking the tiny bar of metal back, I gently grasped her jaw and tilted her head until I was staring at her ear.
It was moments like these that I realized how small and fragile she really was.
Naomi didn’t act delicate or soft, but holding her head with one hand, I could feel how easily she’d break against someone like me and the knowledge was sickening.
I wanted to stand between her and the world forever, shield her with myself to make sure she never lost that bold confidence I loved so much.
A glance down her body reminded me of how much she’d already survived.
Her missing leg was obvious enough, but I’d discovered other scars, smaller and faded, scattered across her body.
This female was a survivor, I knew that as surely as I knew my own name.
She didn’t fight me, but I felt her entire body tense as I grasped her soft lobe and lined the translator up parallel with her head, the tip pressed to the thin cartilage that would hold it.
“Carn, is this going to hur-” the rest of her words ended in a surprised squeal as I shoved the metal into place as quickly as I could. I released her head as soon as it was in place and she jerked away from me, her hand flying to her reddening ear.
“Ow!” She cringed as she felt around the wound. “That fucking hurt.”
“I am sorry,” I choked out, my throat tightening on the words. “I could not warn you.”
My jaw ached as I spoke and I could feel the flex of long unused muscles.
Her eyes widened and she cupped her hand over her ear.
“It's a translator?” she whispered, still staring at me.
I forced a smile and hesitantly stroked a knuckle over her arm, needing to touch her.
“From syto,” I rasped, trying to remember what it felt like when words came easily.
Suspicion filled her eyes.
“One of the blue guys?”
I nodded.
“They just gave you a translator?” Doubt was thick in her voice and I smiled despite my nerves.
“Dead,” I croaked. “Took it.”
She cringed and shuddered.
“Super gross, but I’m glad we can talk.”
I was, too, but I worried I didn’t have many words she’d want to hear.