by T. J. Quinn
While I talked to Maya, all the anger and frustration I felt when I found out she had disobeyed me came rushing back, and I frowned. If things were to work between us, she needed to trust me and believe all I had in mind was her wellbeing.
I hoped she had learned her lesson, but I wasn’t ready to forgive her. Taking her through a forced march across the woods felt like a reasonable punishment, but soon I realized she had been lying to me. Again!
“I’ll ask this once more. Perhaps, this time, you’ll tell me the truth. What’s the matter with you?” I asked, barely containing my anger.
She fell to the ground on her knees before she answered. “The cold… made me sick… I’m not fully… recovered,” she explained while coughing.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked in a scolding tone.
“It’s not important,” she said, but the cough wouldn’t go away.
She was sweating, more than she should, considering the low temperatures in the woods, and her cheeks were flushed. She was ill.
Tightening my jaw, I stepped closer to her. “How can you say that? You can hardly breathe,” I pointed out, upset with her dismissal.
“I just need some time to rest,” she told me, taking a seat on the ground and leaning against a tree trunk.
I crouched in front of her, my back facing her. “Get on my back. I’ll carry you,” I ordered.
I needed to take her out of the cold and get her some medicines.
“No… you mustn’t… even if you feel better, the wound was far too great…” she protested.
“I’m fine!” I spurted in a tone harsher than intended, but her stubbornness was going to get us both killed. “For once, do as you’re told and up on my back,” I insisted.
With her in my back, I went back to my normal pace. She was still coughing, but not as much as before.
A while after, I felt her body go limp, and I barely had time to grab her before she passed out. More scared than I cared to admit, I put her down on the ground to check on her vitals, and my heart missed a beating when I had trouble finding her pulse.
Her breathing was so shallow it was almost imperceptible, and I felt lost, not knowing what to do. I needed to take her to a doctor, get her the proper medicines, but with so much uncertainty in our lives, looking for help might put us in more danger.
I knew what she needed, but I hesitated. If I gave her my blood, she would heal faster than with any human medicine, but since she had already given me her blood, that meant we would be taking step one of my claim on her.
Maya wasn’t ready for that. She still rejected the idea of being my soul mate. Enforcing this on her was probably the worst mistake I could make, but I was running out of options too fast for my taste.
“Maya! Can you hear me?” I tried to wake her up, but she didn’t respond.
Her mind was blank, and my heart stopped for a moment, terrified of the possibility of losing her.
Making my armor disappear, I picked her in my arms and looked for a sheltered place. She needed to be out of the cold, and I needed a comfortable place to do what I had to do.
I had no idea how she would react to my blood, and I wanted to be prepared. The house was still too far from where we were, so I had to find a cave or an abandoned house. I knew there were some scattered around these woods.
With all my senses on high alert, I started walking while searching for any sign of a shelter. An hour later, I finally found a ruinous house with a couple of rooms still standing and a roof on top. It wasn’t perfect, but it would do.
I put Maya down on the floor and made an improvised bed with my cloak. She was too still, and her breathing was still too shallow for my taste. She was ill, and I needed to do something as soon as possible, or I would lose her.
Forcing myself to stay calm and think things through, I decided to start a fire so she would be more comfortable. I had no idea how she would react to my blood, but she should accept it and make it hers since she was my true mate.
My healing abilities would fight whatever illness was affecting her.
Lighting a fire was relatively fast, and soon I was leaning next to her, trying to wake her up. Things would be a lot easier if she was conscious, but she was too weak.
Not willing to waste another second, I slashed my wrist and forced her to drink my blood as much as possible. Once I considered it was enough, I sealed the wound, licking it, and watched her closely.
A few seconds later, she sat up in the improvised bed, with a loud cry of pain, while she braced her stomach.
“God! I’m on fire,” she cried, moving back and forth as if trying to soothe the pain.
She was sweating copiously, and her body shuddered violently, and it scared me as few things had in my entire life.
I slid behind her and pulled her into my arms, cuddling her. “You’ll be fine.”
“Why am I in so much pain? What happened?” she protested.
“You’ll start to feel better in no time,” I assured her, but by now, I wasn’t sure.
I had never seen that reaction before, and the thought that I might have poisoned her crawled into my mind insidiously.
“It burns so much,” she whimpered, hiding her face on my chest and muffling her cries on my chest. “My lungs… they hurt so much,” she cried.
It was then when I realized what was happening. My blood was cleansing her, killing whatever bug was making her ill, and it was probably acting faster than her body could take it.
She was in pain, but I had faith it would be over soon.
It had too.
I comforted her in my arms until she went silent. Afraid it had been too much for her frail body to endure, I searched her pulse and sighed, relieved to find a much stronger one. Her breathing wasn’t as shallow as it had been, and she already looked better than she did a few minutes ago.
Relieved, I kissed her forehead and put her back down on the improvised bed. She needed rest, and I would give her all the time she needed.
Despite my annoyance with her disobedience and stubbornness, I knew exactly what she meant for me, the role she played in my future, and that would never change, no matter what happened.
With everything under control, I decided to get us some food. I hadn’t eaten in days, and my stomach was claiming for food. Maya would be hungry too when she woke up, so I decided to go out looking for some food before the night came.
Chapter Eighteen
Maya
My entire body ached. I felt as if I had been run over by a train. Every single muscle on my body, some that I didn’t even know existed, hurt like hell.
I groaned and squeezed my eyes shut, trying to go back to the blissful slumber I had been in, but the delicious smell of roast meat made my stomach rumble and demand attention.
“Welcome back,” Ryoko greeted me, amused.
I groaned once more and opened my eyes. He was sitting by a fire while roasting what looked like a juicy rabbit.
“How are you feeling?” he asked, smiling.
“Sore…” I admitted. “What happened? It feels as if I was hit by a truck,” I protested.
“It’s probably the side effects of the cure to your ailment,” he explained, removing the meat from the fire and tearing a piece of meat he then handed me.
It was delicious. “Cure? What do you mean?” I asked, intrigued, as I looked around.
I had no idea where we were or how long we had been there.
“Why didn’t you tell me you weren’t feeling well?” he asked, instead of answering my question.
I looked away. “We needed to get home, and I truly thought I could make it,” I said, flushing a bit, keeping to myself how much I wanted to please him, to make him forget all I had caused with my stubbornness.
“Next time, please tell me the truth,” he said in a scolding tone.
I looked away, ashamed. It seemed all I did lately was getting us in a lot of trouble. “I promise I will,” I whispered.
He sighed as if he
had little trust in my promises, and I guess I couldn’t blame him. “Are you feeling well enough to eat?” he asked, once more ignoring the elephant in the room.
I slowly sat up on the improvised bed he had made me and nodded. “I’m famished.”
He got up and handed her a big leaf with some meat in it. “I couldn’t find anything else I could use as a plate,” he apologized.
“This is perfect, thank you,” I assured him.
He went back to where he had been sitting and watched me eat. The tense silence between us almost destroyed my appetite, but I managed to eat all he had given me.
I guess my stomach didn’t care that much about my emotional ordeals.
Once I was done, I took a deep breath and felt relieved my lungs had stopped aching. In fact, I felt completely recovered, which was odd since pneumonia usually took some time to heal.
“How long have we been here?” I asked him, intrigued.
“Since this afternoon,” his words only made me more quizzical.
“How’s that possible? I was burning with fever and my lungs hurt like hell when I passed out,” I asked, with a slight frown. “No antibiotic works that fast.”
He sighed. “I didn’t give you any antibiotics. I gave you my blood,” he finally explained.
“What? Your blood? Why would you do that?” I asked, startled, not sure what to think of his words.
“My people have incredible self-healing abilities. That’s why I recovered so fast from Sylan’s attack,” he started telling me.
“But… you asked me for my blood,” I pointed out, confused.
“The wound was too big, and I had lost a lot of blood. As my mate, your blood reestablished the balance, and my body was able to heal,” he explained. “You were too ill to wait until I could get you the medicines, so I gave you my blood, hoping it would heal you.”
“Hoping? You weren’t sure it would work?” I asked him, startled.
“No. As far as I know, this is the first time the Slyths mate earthlings. I had no idea how your body would take my blood or how you would react to the mating process,” he replied.
“Mating? Explain that!” I asked him, feeling a bit shocked.
“The first stage of the mating ritual includes the exchange of blood.”
“So, when I gave you my blood, I was inadvertently taking the first step of this ritual?” I asked, frowning.
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Don’t you think you should have told me all about this before you completed the first stage?” I asked, a bit annoyed.
“There wasn’t time. You were too ill and unconscious. How was I supposed to ask you? Either way, this was inevitable. It just happened in some unfortunate circumstances,” he stated.
“Inevitable? Why was it inevitable?” I asked him, still not convinced and clearly not happy with the whole story.
“I know it’s hard for you to understand it since humans don’t have such a strong bond to their mates…”
“Exactly… I’ve told you this…” I pointed out.
“But there’s no doubt in this. You’re my mate, and it was only a matter of time for us to go through the whole ritual,” he insisted.
“You should have told me about this before. Way before we were forced by the circumstances to go through the ritual,” I said, reluctant to accept his words.
When the aliens attacked the planet, I was twelve years old. Too young to think about boys or what I wanted from life. I didn’t have that many examples of long-term relationships and my parents, though they claimed to love each other, used to fight a lot.
Growing up in the children’s quarters had been anything but normal, and the kind of relationships I witnessed there was nothing like anything I wanted for myself.
But having a man telling me I was his mate and that I had no say in the matter certainly did not feel right. I refused to accept it. Even if my feelings for Ryoko were stronger than I could possibly imagine. It still didn’t feel right.
“I understand your reluctance, and that’s why I had been waiting for things to ‘feel right’ between us before I told you about the ritual and everything it implies,” he replied, in a stern tone. “I trusted we had more time,” he added, and I knew exactly what he meant by those last words.
It was my fault things had gone south, and I knew that.
I cleared my throat. “What does the ritual imply?” I asked, choosing to ignore his remark.
“We’ll have time to discuss that in detail before we go through the second stage,” he said, jumping to his feet. “You should get some sleep. We’ll spend the night here before we go home in the morning,” he suggested, walking towards the door.
“Where are you going?” I asked, feeling suddenly tired and alone.
“I’ll go for a walk. I don’t know these woods, and I want to be sure we’re not in any scavenger group territory. I’ll be back in a while,” he assured me before he left the ruinous house, but I was sure he didn’t plan on returning that night.
Not to be with me, anyway.
I rolled in bed for some time before I finally managed to get some sleep. When I woke up the following day, the sun lighted the room, and I was still alone. There was no sign of Ryoko, but I could tell he was around.
I had no idea why I was so sure; I just knew it.
Soon after I opened my eyes, he strolled into the room, ready to go.
Good morning. Would you like something to eat, or can you wait until we get home?” he asked, in the same cold, distant tone.
He still hadn’t forgiven me. I sighed in silence, wishing I didn’t care that much.
“I’m fine; I can wait until we get home,” I assured him, jumping to my feet and picking up his cloak from the floor and shaking the dust out of it before I handed it to him.
“Keep it. It snowed last night, and it’s freezing outside,” he warned me.
I opened my mouth to protest but shut it closed when I saw his expression. I needed the cloak more than he did and we both knew it. Arguing about it would only make things harder between us.
“Thank you,” I mumbled, wrapping myself in the cloak and walking towards the door.
“We should be home by noon. Do you think you can walk for that long?” he asked me, his tone still ice cold.
“I think so. I’ll let you know if I get too tired,” I promised.
He nodded and led the way.
For more than four hours, we walked across the woods in silence. Once in a while, he would turn to look at me and make sure I was keeping up with his pace, but he wouldn’t utter a word.
There were so many things I wanted to tell him, but he was so tense, so distant, I didn’t dare. Hopefully, things would change once we got home.
The place was as I had left it a few days ago. The scavengers had been waiting for me in the woods. Clearly, they had learned my routine and knew I would go into the woods as soon as Ryoko left the house.
This way, they didn’t have to risk their lives going into an area patrolled by the dragons or at the chance of Ryoko coming back unexpectedly.
“I’ll make us something to eat,” I suggested the moment we entered the house.
“Not for me. I’ve been away for far too long. I need to go back to headquarters and find out what has been going on ever since I left,” he said from the doorway. “May I trust you won’t leave the house alone?” he asked in a harsh tone.
I looked at him, hurt showing in my eyes for a moment, before I looked away. “I won’t go anywhere.”
He nodded. “Don’t wait up for me. I might have to stay around to make sure there are no repercussions that might affect us,” he said as he turned around to walk away.
“Would you like me to prepare something for you? For when you come back?” I asked, taking a step towards him, wriggling my hands nervously, as I stared into his back.
He usually said goodbye with a kiss, but apparently, not this time.
“Don’t bother. I’ll eat at the headquarter
s,” he rejected my offer, and it felt as if he was rejecting me.
Tightening my jaw, I watched him walk away from the house without looking back. He was punishing me, and I knew I deserved it.
But his last words before he took my blood still lingered in my mind, and I couldn’t shake them off. Not completely anyway.
Was he sorry the circumstances drove him to complete the first stage of the ritual? Was he cursing fate for mating him with me? I wish I could read his mind as he claimed to read mine, but for some reason, I knew he would still find a way to shut me out.
Feeling down and a bit depressed, I picked one of the books he had brought me and went to bed. Spending the cloudy day reading in bed suddenly felt like the best idea I’d ever had.
Chapter Nineteen
Ryoko
After everything we had been through, leaving Maya alone in the house was very hard. I never wanted to leave her side again. I wanted to be there for her all the time and make sure I was there if she needed me. But life on this invaded planet was not easy, and if I wanted us to survive, I needed to play by the rules.
For now, anyway.
“Where the hell have you been?” Kayla yelled at me the moment I crossed the threshold.
The sardonic words ‘did you miss me’ almost escaped my lips, but I managed to control myself and answer her question blatantly.
“I was hurt while hunting.”
“Hurt? I thought it was impossible to hurt your people,” she replied with a suspicious frown.
“The dragons are impossible to hurt, not my people,” I explained, though I knew she was well aware of this.
She had hurt my men in the past and me trying to provoke us into losing our self-control. It was impossible to put on our armor while under the effect of the toxin. It affected our brain in a way that shut down our self-protection instincts that triggered the armor.
I had been able to summon mine for years now, and not allowing it to come up in moments of danger, had been quite the challenge.
“Why didn’t you come here to get help?” she asked, still not convinced.
