by Stacy Jones
Hopefully, Akksha will see kissing as something similar to the trust thing they do. Regardless, they need this and so do I. Besides, if this is going to be my home, they need to get used to my human oddities sooner or later.
Gently pulling Arruk down to her with a hand on his wide shoulder, her eyelids slid closed as she pressed an apologetic kiss to his full lips and nuzzled her nose to his. She knew she was forgiven when he purred for her, and she felt his big body lean into her as he buried his hands in her hair.
Pulling back she turned to Tor next, relieved when he smiled softly and immediately bent forward to press his lips to hers. Gasping in surprise when he grazed her bottom lip with his sharp teeth, she melted into him when he took that opening to slip his tongue into her mouth.
She pried her eyes open when he leaned back and felt a flush heat her cheeks when he smirked down at her. She knew immediately that was his punishment for keeping something from him, saw the censure mixed with forgiveness in his pale stare.
Breathing heavily from Tor’s kiss, she faced Frrar, her eyes flicking back and forth between his, trying to get a read on what he was feeling. She was most worried about his reaction, since part of what she hadn’t thought to share was potentially dangerous.
She honestly hadn’t worried about the fish aliens taking them, hadn’t really worried about them coming back for her either, not since first arriving on the planet what now seemed like so long ago. They’d had her in a cage and let her go. Why do that if they wanted to keep her? But she knew Frrar and knew he would be upset she’d kept something like this from him when he had such a driving need to protect and an almost obsessive need to prepare for anything that could threaten them.
When the skin over his pronounced brow bone smoothed out and he leaned toward her, the tension she hadn’t noticed knotting her shoulders relaxed. Pressing her hand to his chest, over his heart so she could feel its comforting beat, she slid her lips against his, kissing him gently but deeply, his taste and touch sending a rush of arousal through her despite their audience.
She understood his silent message when he leaned back slightly and almost imperceptibly narrowed his eyes at her. He was telling her to not ever do that again, to which she readily agreed, nodding her head in response.
Glancing at Drrak last, where he was seated behind her, she went with her gut and held his gaze as she trailed her fingers over his arm, leaving it up to him whether or not he wanted to kiss her.
She was supposed to be the boss, but she also knew how he felt about being around people and didn’t want to make him uncomfortable. To her surprise, he leaned forward with no hesitation, keeping his eyes open and on her as their mouths met. His quiet groan thrilled her, made her wish they were in private, but she kept the kiss short and pulled back before either of them forgot the stares on them. He hadn’t been there at the beginning and didn’t necessarily deserve an apology kiss, but she didn’t want him to feel left out or for Akksha to see her lack of soothing Drrak as a sign that Lily was angry with him.
Akksha, Lily saw when she turned back around, was watching her, but instead of the suspicion or distrust she’d come to expect, the leader was looking at her with… approval? The woman looked a little confused as she side-eyed all their mouths, but definitely approving. The woman’s pale blue gaze flicked from Lily to her men then back to her, before she gave a subtle nod of her head as if she was pleased with how Lily had handled her mates’ upset.
A little ‘good ole boys club’ for my tastes but now is definitely not the time to school Akksha on her… whatever the female version of misogyny is. Take the win and run with it, as Grams used to say.
Hoping her approval meant she might be more open-minded to her ideas, Lily, after prompting Arruk to translate her previous statement, launched into the tale of how she’d been abducted, what she’d seen while in captivity, and how they could hopefully beat the people threatening them. She saw incredulity, suspicion, doubt and then, slowly, a glimmer of belief in the leader’s eyes .
At the end of her story, Akksha was quiet, her gaze thoughtful and distant. When she finally spoke, Lily nearly fell over with shock.
“Me kah shh tul suuk shevariak ,” the woman announced.
Lily wanted to be happy that she’d just been given permission to speak to the tribe, but there was something off in Akksha’s expression, something cunning and plotting that gave Lily a bad feeling.
Akksha stood, everyone else following her up, and made the gathering call to bring the tribe. While they waited for everyone to arrive, she stared at the tiny, strange Pasha from the corner of her eye. The small one had proven braver than her appearance suggested, and the way she handled her mates was admirable, but Akksha still felt distrustful.
How was she supposed to believe such a tale? Flying huts and countless people not shevari? How was she to know whether or not Lily was lying? Perhaps it was her people encroaching on tribe lands, committing such horrible deeds in vengeance because they thought she had been stolen.
Perhaps all that was needed to stop the threat was to return her.
Akksha felt a surprising flicker of guilt at the thought. Transferring her gaze to her son, she watched Tor gaze at Lily. His love and devotion were plain to see.
She had not been the kindest of Mothers to him, but she was happy he’d been Chosen, felt some of the coldness surrounding her heart warm at the sight of her youngest accepted into a harem. She didn’t want to take that from him, but if it turned out that the intruders were Lily’s people, she would do what was needed to protect the tribe, even if that meant breaking Tor’s heart.
She would let Lily implement her plan of defense, would even help and order the tribe to help as well, but if it didn’t work, if the little Pasha’s traps didn’t stop the intruders, Akksha would be forced to take other steps.
She hadn’t kept so many hands of shevari safe by being soft or by letting her heart rule, and she wasn’t going to change that now, not when her people needed her the most.
S canning the crowd gathered in front of her, Lily tried not to let her previously unknown fear of public speaking show on her face, wishing now that she’d let Akksha be the one to address them.
Don’t they tell you to picture everyone naked in times like this? Well, they’re naked, and it’s definitely not helping. Maybe I should picture everyone clothed?
Snorting at herself, she cleared her throat and spoke slowly and clearly before she could chicken out, hoping she didn’t mispronounce anything too terribly. Arruk had given her the words she wanted. She’d practiced while everyone trickled in, but she wished she’d spent another few minutes repeating them before Akksha had waved her to address them.
Too late now.
She needed them to follow her, needed them to overlook the fact that she was an outsider and listen. She wanted to protect them.
She realized as she stared at their wary, curious faces just how much she wanted to be accepted by them.
The guys were her family, but she wanted to be part of the tribe.
“Ua ta ce rrukt. Me pari shhk aout. ”
Tor watched Lily as she stood in front of the entire tribe. She looked so small but so sure, so steady, as she gazed upon his people. He didn’t think any but he and his harem brothers could see the nervousness in her eyes.
He was in awe of her.
How one so small, who had been taken from her home and abandoned in a new land could have such courage amazed him. He had always secretly thought she’d come to Shakti on purpose, to find mates, to find them , even though he knew Arruk and Frrar thought she’d either fallen or been brought by the Goddess.
Learning that wasn’t the case was a blow, but Tor knew he and his harem brothers held her heart, so how she got here didn’t really matter.
He hated that she’d been treated with such indifference by the beings that took her, but he couldn’t hate that they had taken her to begin with, not when it had brought her into his life.
Tor would hav
e felt bad for the selfishness of his thoughts, would have worried he was a bad mate for thinking such, if she hadn’t expressed her own happiness that she had been brought here.
What he did worry about was that these beings would realize their mistake, would understand they’d let someone so incredible go and would come back for her. Tor didn’t know how to defend against people with knowledge and abilities his own people didn’t have, but he would do whatever was necessary to keep her.
“We are in danger. I need your help,” came her sweet voice, filling The Circle and silencing the speculative, confused whispers of the tribe.
The way she said the words of his people changed them into something softer, less harsh, and more lilting like the song of a bird, but he thought everyone could hear the urgency and determination in her tone.
“Unknown beings, not shevari, come to hurt us. We must protect ourselves. I know ways to do this, but I need your help,” she urged.
Tor saw more than a few shevari look to his Mother and held his breath. Akksha had agreed to let Lily ask the tribe to help with her plans, but that had been in relative privacy. What would she say now, faced with the weight of everyone’s stares?
“The small Pasha has told me of her thoughts and shared her knowledge with me. She is an outsider, yes, and… strange,” Akksha added with a glance at his mate, “but she knows these intruders, and we can use her knowledge to protect ourselves,” she announced.
Her expression was calm and confident in the face of her peoples’ wariness, but her eyes, so like his own, were cold and secretive. She always did know how to hide her true thoughts, even from those closest to her.
Something in her wording made Tor frown, but he couldn’t put his finger on exactly what she’d said to make him feel suspicious. The strange comment made his tail flick with displeasure, but it was more than that.
Before he could work it out, Lily spoke again, taking his focus.
“We must all work to keep the tribe safe. They have taken Skaa. They have killed citris. They threaten us, but we can stop them. We must stop them,” Lily demanded, her expression fierce.
The tribe responded with scattered shouts of agreement, rising into battle cries echoing inside The Circle, growing louder as more and more voiced their support.
Tor added his own roar to the noise, joined by his harem brothers as they all showed their loyalty for their Pasha. Even Lok and Rork, who were usually more reserved in tribe meetings, roared with them, their gazes locked onto Lily with admiration shining in their eyes.
Arruk sat beside Lily in The Circle, carving a spear to add to the growing pile while she worked on… something. He couldn’t tell what it was but his Lily looked focused as she carved the wood, shaping it into what she wanted it to be.
Glancing up, he scanned the shevari seated in groups around him, all of them busy working on the tasks Lily had given them. Some were out gathering the wood, stone, and other materials she had requested, but most were here, carving the various tools she had shown them how to make. Spears of various thickness, short, straight sticks she called arrows , a digging tool she called a shovel , lengths of vine pulled straight to use as rope, and other things he had no words for.
It was quieter than he was used to, and he sensed a kind of tension in his people. Even the younglings were subdued where they played together near the inner trunk. The low noise allowed him to pick up on the whispered conversations around them, and Arruk took advantage, inconspicuously listening to what they said.
Many voiced their approval of Lily’s ideas, found her plan of setting traps to be wise, as it meant they would not have to face unknown beings in battle, putting their strongest warriors in danger… but others spoke of their misgivings.
Akksha’s wording earlier, her saying Lily knew the intruders, had caused more than a few of his tribe mates to speculate on whether it was his mate’s fault they were being attacked.
Those shevari kept stealing glances at her, their eyes narrowed and distrustful.
Arruk wished there was something he could say to disabuse them of their suspicion, but he knew, being one of her mates, that his words would not be helpful. He would only be adding weight to their thoughts. After all, why would an innocent person need defense? As his people said, markings cannot lie . If she were innocent, her actions would prove that better than anything he or anyone else could say. He would just have to be on alert and trust that his people would see Lily as she was: honest, pure, and with only their safety at heart.
Still, he planned to share his concerns with his harem brothers and watch his people very carefully. Arruk did not plan to give them, or Akksha, the chance to do anything drastic.
I t was early morning, but Lily was so tired she was almost swaying where she stood on one of the impossibly thick lower branches of a sha tree. Leaning against the trunk behind her, she tried to rub the gritty feeling out of her eyes and yawned wide enough to make her jaw pop, catching the attention of the men surrounding her. Of course, they were hovering so closely they couldn't possibly have missed it.
Frrar immediately handed her some fruit, frowning at her with the same aggravated concern he’d had for the last three days.
“Thank you,” she mumbled, giving him a tired smile as she took it.
“Mek Lily, you need—” he started, but she cut him off with a stubborn shake of her head, knowing he was going to ask her to take a break.
She could hear the concern in his voice when he muttered and sighed in disappointment, but thankfully he didn’t press the issue. This time. Reaching out with her free hand, she laced their fingers together in appreciation, bringing his lower hand to her mouth to press a kiss to the back.
She’d been working almost nonstop since addressing the tribe four days prior, and it was taking its toll. She and everyone else had been spurred into a frenzy of activity, driven to work themselves into the ground to prepare, as more evidence of the intruders showed up, always in a different location but closer and closer to the outer border of tribe territory every time.
That alone would have been enough to motivate everyone, but they had been taunting them with more dead animals, set up on display like some kind of sick warning of what they would do to them when they made their move .
Lily thought the only reason they hadn’t attacked yet was because they didn't know she and the tribe were preparing for them. If they did, she was sure they would have already invaded, wanting to prey on the weak while their chances of success were good.
She’d wanted to work on the defense line just ahead of those signs, but Lok, with an idea that felt dangerous but was actually very wise, insisted they work on the opposite side of tribe territory so their preparations remained a secret.
Eating mechanically, feeling the energy from the food clear some of the cobwebs almost as soon as it hit her stomach, she mentally went over everything they’d built for the hundredth time, worried it wasn’t going to be enough.
Even with nearly everyone working together, it had taken that entire first day to gather materials and fashion those materials into the tools and weapons they needed. It had been time consuming, but she’d shown them how to carve shovels for digging, how to braid vines into ropes and nets, and how to make more weapons than just their water spears, while tipping those with stone knives to make them more deadly.
The first thing they’d done the second day was build multiple small, camouflaged platforms in the trees circling tribe territory, inside but still in view of where she wanted to put the perimeter of traps. Each hut was stocked with food, water balloons, spears, and a large pile of stones and the hard, coconut-like fruits.
There weren’t a ton of options for coming up with ways to both effectively fend off attackers with unknown abilities while keeping the shevari people out of immediate danger in the time they had, but she knew how strong they were. Their upper body strength was beyond impressive, and she planned to use that to their advantage.
Between that strength and g
ravity working in their favor, she thought they could easily kill or at least seriously injure the invaders by throwing hard, heavy things at them, regardless of whatever natural or manufactured defenses they had. That didn't require her to spend time they didn't have making and then teaching them how to use more advanced weapons like a bow .
After setting up the lookout huts, the next line of defense was covered pits, set farther out in a wider circle around tribe territory.
It took the rest of the second day to dig all the holes and cover them with a convincing layer of debris. They lined most with spears but, not wanting to use up their supply and have to spend time making more, she left some with just water, hoping, even as it made her feel sick, that the bad guys would drown.
To put it mildly, it had been a tense day. Being on the ground made everyone nervous and on edge, but for Lily it wasn’t so much the possibility of a pantari attack as the fact that she could swear she felt eyes on her every time they went down there. Oddly enough, she didn’t feel threatened by that hidden stare, but she was too paranoid to really listen to those instincts. It got to the point that she’d reassigned some of the people working to spread out into the forest to keep watch. Of course, doing that put her guys on even higher alert until she was genuinely concerned Frrar was going to burst a blood vessel or have an anxiety attack.
Even with almost every able-bodied adult working until it was nearly night, they barely finished the pits before all the light left the forest and the distant screaming howls of hunting pantari echoed their eerie calls.
There was danger from more than just the intruders in being so far from the center of tribe territory, but she wanted to take out as many enemies as possible before they got too close. That meant they had to work nearer than she liked, than anyone liked, to areas of the forest that weren’t patrolled by the woman warriors tasked with policing the borders.
