Chapter 4 #2
I clutched the furs to my chest and took stock of the rest of the tent.
It was much bigger than I would have expected, arching in several segments off a hexagonal central space.
Curtains hung half-closed around the sleeping nook I was in, but the rest of the tent was a wide-open space.
I saw an area with a desk and a bank of high-tech computers.
Another area directly next to it seemed to be a workshop, with a long wooden table and rows of shelves filled with parts and tools.
Crates full of supplies were stacked in another nook, but the center of the tent seemed to be for relaxing, with an unlit hearth and many pillows to lounge on.
As far as homes on an icecap went, this one was cozy.
I kind of liked it. There was something very nomadic about it all, but at the same time, it felt like an established home.
Now, if only I could figure out where the home’s owner had gone…
My eyes searched the tent, but I saw no sign of him.
No, that wasn’t true… On a stand by the tent’s exit—flaps that were tightly sealed together in some invisible manner—furs hung to dry.
Not just the tunic, hood, and scarf Levant had given me to wear, but those strange segments he’d slid over his tail were there too.
Unless he had another set of those, that meant he was probably in here somewhere.
I searched again, and then abruptly noticed the twitch of something dark and sleek lying against the edge of a crate in one of the darker corners of the tent.
Was that the tip of his tail? It twitched again, coiling, curling, wagging back and forth.
A muffled noise sounded, suspiciously like someone swearing but trying to do so quietly.
“Levant?” I called out, and that tail twitched once, then went completely still.
There was no answer, but the one part of him I could see vanished behind the crate.
A moment later, his head popped out from behind a different, very tall stack of metal boxes.
Oh yeah, I’d forgotten how alien he was, even while his upper body resembled a human so much at the same time.
This was also the first time I got to see him without his fur tunic and hood.
His hair was much longer than I expected, and not just shiny black, but streaked with pale green highlights.
He had black horns rising from the top of his head that gave him an almost mystical, fey look.
Then there was the glowing green of his eyes and the ivory point that jutted from his chin.
Sharp cheekbones defined the angles of his face, while ridges and nubs shaped his brow.
There was a bit of gold dusting his scales over the bridge of his nose, and it looked elegant, refined.
The wide grin that split his face when he saw me was all cheeky fey again.
It felt like I hadn’t just crashed my way into an alien world, but found a little bit of magic too.
He was so happy to see me awake; the relief in his eyes was easy to read.
It was, a little bit, like a dog happy to see their owner, but that felt too unkind a comparison.
He did have a tail, though, and he was wagging it through the air in excitement. How weird was that?
Then he moved farther out from behind that stack of crates, and farther, and farther.
Damn it, how wide were his freaking shoulders, and how was he even wearing anything?
A necklace with white fangs and ivory beads hung around his neck, but his chest and arms were completely bare.
Just endless black scales freckled with gold and green, draped over one hell of a six-pack and to-die-for pectorals.
I hadn’t given it much thought, but somehow I was not surprised to discover my alien new best friend was ripped.
“Oh, fuck…” I moaned when he came fully out from behind the stack and began crossing the tent toward me.
He really wasn’t wearing anything worth mentioning.
Although the way the leather straps, beads, and metal decorations draped around his narrow hips was utterly mouthwatering.
I’d never before dug a guy wearing jewelry as much as I did now, but damn it, Levant was freaking hot.
He rocked this look, but perhaps that was also because he was very, very naked except for those flimsy leather scraps.
Unfortunately, there was no cock to see, and now a very large part of me was incredibly disappointed.
What if he didn’t have one? What if our species weren’t compatible?
This was so not what I should be thinking about, but all that naked, sexy male hurrying my way made it hard to think about anything else.
So what if he had a long tail instead of legs?
He moved with sinuous grace and sexy confidence. I was completely hot for him.
The tip of his tail curled whip-fast around him at the last moment and burrowed under the furs at my feet.
I yelped like a freaking ninny because it was such a surprise.
I felt warmth, dry scales, a whisper of touch.
Then light flared all across the front of his body, slashes and curls, wisps like smoke.
It was a glow that hung somewhere between silver and gold, as if it couldn’t quite decide what color it should be, and it was pretty anyway.
“You’re awake, Felicia,” Levant said, his voice a hiss and a growl in one, yet distinct and easy to understand.
I was beginning to wonder how that was possible, but it was very hard to hold onto questions and thoughts when his tail stroked the side of my ankle, curling lazily around my bare skin.
Harder still when he came to the side of my bed, kneeling (did he even have knees?), and offered me a fragrant bowl of food.
“I made you a nutritious meal to replenish your strength.”
Why was it so incredibly hard to keep a straight face with this guy?
His entire comment made me want to giggle like a schoolgirl.
“Nutritious meal” had no right to sound cute and tasty at the same time; it should sound like that nasty food paste that served as rations when space was at a premium.
They’d packed a few boxes of that onto the Future, and I was very relieved I hadn’t been required to eat it yet.
“Thank you,” I said, but I wasn’t quite sure how to accept the bowl and eat without dropping the furs and exposing the hard tips of my nipples as they pressed against my tank top.
I really didn’t want to flash him my eager boobs through the thin cotton fabric.
Or did I? Some part of my brain whispered that I should, and see how he responded.
Would he be interested? I was almost beginning to drop the furs and reach for the bowl, but Levant froze at the last moment, as if he’d sensed an issue too.
“Wait, this needs more salt,” he said, and his tongue flicked out from between the lush, dark lips of his mouth.
That tongue made my belly clench, and pleasure lanced hard and fast through my core.
It was freaking split, and far too long to be considered polite.
Split, you know, like the tongue of a snake.
I shouldn’t have been surprised, but it still caught me completely off guard.
He used it for scents, too, because he hummed as he withdrew his tongue back into his mouth.
“Yes, definitely needs a bit more salt.”
He turned to a shelf to do exactly that, but when he returned, he set the bowl down on the ground and stirred it with a wooden spoon.
Solving my dilemma of exposing myself somewhat, he then lifted a fur around my shoulders and pinned it in place at my throat.
The clasp was metal, but it looked similar to one I might wear in my hair.
“We must focus on priorities first, beautiful mate. Our mating must come after we’ve ensured your health. ”
What… wait? Mating? I was suddenly beginning to have an inkling of what he meant when he called me “beautiful mate.” Much more embarrassing, I was certain he was responding to my scent.
He knew I was turned on, damn it! This was a brave new world, dealing with an alien, and I wasn’t sure I liked this part.
This came a bit too close to invading my privacy when he knew what I was feeling just by flicking out his tongue.
Then again, didn’t his words mean that mating was an option?
Hadn’t I been disappointed not that long ago to discover he had no visible cock?
My eyes dropped from his face, down his sexy chest, to follow the sleek coils of his tail.
He had them curled into circles beneath himself, sitting on his own tail, if you will.
Was his cock in a place I didn’t expect, or folded into a pouch, perhaps?
Damn it—why was my mind fixating on this?
I had other problems that were much more important, like how long my ship had been under that ice and how I was going to get back home.
Thank God Levant couldn’t actually read my mind, just the scent my body was apparently giving off.
“Here, eat first,” he said, and finally the bowl was placed in my lap.
I didn’t realize how hungry for food I was until that fragrant stew was right under my nose.
My belly rumbled embarrassingly loudly, but my strange alien companion said nothing about it.
He just pushed the spoon into my hand. I was relieved he thought I was up to the task of eating by myself, because I had a feeling he’d just as happily feed me each spoonful if I’d let him.
The food was good, though; it went down easily, and so fast that I didn’t have a chance to consider how that was.
Only after I’d swallowed the last bite and scraped out the bottom of the bowl with the smooth wooden spoon did it cross my mind.
“Oh, I should have checked if it’s safe for me to eat this.
” I had a kit for that somewhere in the survival kit that had been packed onto my ship.
In the survival kit that was back on the ship, because it hadn’t crossed my mind either when we left earlier.
Wow, my head really wasn’t in the game. Me, who always stuck to the game plan and remembered her training down to the letter, completely out of it now.
I’d lost my head over a pretty smile and kind eyes, and the very reality of a living, breathing alien.
“I did. Do not worry, Felicia,” Levant said, and that damned tail of his curled a little higher around my leg beneath the furs.
The tip was almost at the sensitive skin at the back of my knee, and my belly clenched, wondering what it would feel like if he touched me there.
He acted like he wasn’t seriously impinging on my personal space.
Taking the empty bowl, he shifted casually away to wash it with a few handfuls of snow he retrieved from outside.
His damn tail was long enough that he could do that without letting go of me.
When he was done with the simple task, he brought his hand-scanner device thing, the one he’d used to heal me.
He also brought something that looked very much like a tablet, except it was thinner and sleeker than the ones I was used to.
“Do you have a translator implant, beautiful mate? May I check for one?” he asked, catching me by surprise.
A translator implant? I instinctively reached up to touch my ear, but I was already shaking my head in denial.
“No, such devices are still in the experimental phase. You have one?” I asked, my eyes dropping to the furs where his tail was still steadily advancing up my leg.
He was hovering at my side, but something in his stance made me think he was a little restless, a hint of unease he was trying to hide.
I didn’t really know how I knew that, because his expression was friendly and calm as always.
Perhaps it was in the slight tilt of his head and the tension in his shoulders, the angle at which his strange dark horns jutted from his hair.
“I implanted translator devices once we learned of humans, yes,” he agreed readily.
“This is why I can understand you even if we are not touching.” Touching, right, he had implied that touch was key to us understanding one another.
Now it seemed this was only for me, a way to piggyback on his implants somehow. How curious…
“When did you learn about humans?” I asked.
See, I knew he knew far more about me than I did about him.
Was his kind spacefaring? Could he bring me home anyway if I couldn’t dig out my ship and repair it?
I hoped so, because recalling the way I’d said goodbye to my father pulled at my chest. It made me ache to think I’d never see him again and learn whether he was proud of me or not.
“I will tell you all about this shortly,” Levant said, his hand slashing through the air.
“If you do not have implants I can upload the Naga language to, you must promise to stay in my nest for now. There is a Revenant on the loose inside my tent; I must find it before it harms you.” I knew it!
He was worried about something. A revenant?
That sounded dangerous, like he was talking about a ghost, something undead.
Considering his advanced technology and knowledge, I doubted that was what he meant, but I wasn’t going to take any chances anyway.
“Okay, I promise,” I agreed. I shifted in the furs to pull them more tightly around me and peered around.
What did it look like? I was about to ask, but Levant had already darted away with a nod, his scanner held high over his head and his tablet held casually at his side.
His tail released from around my leg and whipped away, which meant I now had no way to understand him.
Welp, this was great… Something rustled next to me—I was sure of it—but I saw nothing but furs.
Now he’d gotten in my head with this ghostly name.
I was a tough chick; this was no big deal.
Hey, did that piece of fur have eyes?