by S. A. Ravel
"I don't know if there's such a thing as reindeer anymore, but if there is they wouldn't be this far south." Audrey’s voice was clear, if stressed, to her own ear. It wasn't a dream. "And they wouldn't hit the eggnog half as hard."
As soon as the words left Audrey's mouth, the deer's path changed. It turned toward her, like it had heard her talking shit about it and wanted to answer. Audrey took two steps back. Whether to run or to fight, she wasn't sure.
The deer sank lower in the snowy air. A gust of frigid wind kicked up, and the creature teetered. It wasn't flying anymore. It was falling. End over end it tumbled toward the bumpy surface of the lake. But something changed as the monster fell. Its massive body somehow grew longer and thicker. Its boney arms and legs thickened. Its hooves fattened to almost the size of hands and feet. Where seconds before there had been a reindeer—flying as if it was totally normal!—now there was a two-legged almost-human male. A howl escaped his lips as he plunged into the water.
Audrey’s body moved. She grabbed the fire ax from the dock and ran for the Millers’ uncovered pontoon boat. Would it even still work? She could only hope. Audrey pressed the button on the boat lift and half climbed half slipped into the boat.
“Tell me you left your keys, Old Man Miller.” Audrey popped open the glove box. Success! Bless gated communities and the false sense of security they provided.
Audrey put the pontoon boat in reverse and pulled away from the dock. Throwing the throttle into forward gear, she drove onto the lake, shifting to neutral as she got close to reindeer-man. She fished the flashlight out of the deck compartment and crouched on the stern.
The reindeer-man lay face up in the frigid water. He wore a black jumpsuit that merged with the color of the water, making him look like a disembodied head. Gray-brown fur covered his face, deepening to a deep black as it crested over his chin and trickled down his neck. The left side of his face looked peaceful. On the right, an angry scar stretched from his mangled eyelid, gnarling the surrounding skin. However he got the injury, it had long since healed.
"What the hell happened to you, man?" Worry about that after you get him out. That water's freezing.
Audrey set the flashlight down and pressed her body flat against the deck. She reached out for the reindeer-man, stretching her shoulder joint painfully.
She gritted her teeth. "Come on, Dasher, help me out here."
Reindeer-man's eye flew open and locked on Audrey's face. His furred hand shot out of the water. Cold fingers grabbed hold of her coat collar and pulled.
"No! Sto–" A wave of icy water stung Audrey's throat as she plunged into the lake. It flooded the interior of her coat and the weight of the sodden thing pulled her down. She gasped against the shock of pain, filling her mouth and nose with more water.
Audrey's lungs burned. She tried to thrash, but the waterlogged sleeves were too unwieldy to lift.
Suddenly, the lake disappeared. So did the cold. Audrey stood back in the house, beneath the archway that led into the kitchen. Tiny Aunt Ruth stood at the stove, stirring a pot.
"Just remember, baby, there's only two rules to the sit and sip." Aunt Ruth glanced at Audrey over her shoulder, her hazel eyes sparkling.
Then as fast as she appeared...she was gone.
Heavy hands pressed against Audrey's chest, forcing the water out of her lungs in a rush of foulness and foam. Warm fingers brushed her lips as if to clean them. She should thank whoever it was for that...and for saving her life.
Audrey tried to open her mouth to express her gratitude, but her numb lips wouldn’t respond. In the next second, firm hungry lips pressed against hers. The kiss of life? No, it was too greedy. A full-on, toe-curdling, life-affirming kiss. A gentle hum moved from their connected lips. It glided through Audrey's numb body, sending waves of pleasure ripping through her, coaxing her back to life.
Get a grip, woman. You're kissing the reindeer-man!
Audrey didn’t care. She couldn't feel her limbs, but her clit throbbed to life. Her body reacted hungrily to his touch, her hips bucking the air in search of him. Her pussy walls pulsed as an earth-shattering orgasm tore through her.
From one kiss.
You know what, if reindeer-man can do that, just call me Mrs. Claus.
Slowly, the shockwaves faded and Audrey floated back down to Earth. It took every ounce of energy she had left, but she fluttered her eyelids open and focused on the creature.
His plump lips still hung half open from the passionate kiss. Glowing blue light hovered near his mouth. It condensed into a marble-sized orb and floated into his mouth, pausing for a moment before spreading through the reindeer-man's body in a burst so bright Audrey had to close her eyes against it.
"W-what are you?" she whispered.
And then the blackness took her.
3
Haj’erel
The human female’s gentle whisper echoed in Haj'erel's ears. It hardly registered in the rush of blood and lust. The telltale ache in his groin still lingered. The collar of his suit tightened as his neck thickened. He felt an overwhelming urge to defend the creature beneath him from all harm. Even from himself.
All of it marked the first exchange of chir between two aijan. Haj’erel’s brain warred against the new revelation, even as his body ached to move closer to her. His lips itched to fall upon hers again. There was a bitterness to her chir that danced on the back of his tongue. He wanted more.
But her words—no, the desperation behind them–pulled him back to awareness. He hated the fear in those words. It tasted more bitter than her chir. His mate should fear nothing when in his presence. She should feel secure knowing that he would protect her from anything in the universe or die trying.
And so she might, if she had any concept they were mates or what that meant. As his aijan’s chir sped through Haj’erel’s system, nourishing his deprived brain, her words made sense to him. She could not know.
What are you? she had whispered.
Haj'erel was not on Tarandus, but half a dozen laws and traditions sprang to the front of his mind. All of them said this could not be. He had no right to claim a female. His failures were too great and achievements too few. Because she was human, Haj’erel was forbidden from revealing himself to her. His eye might look on the female, but he was forbidden to make her his.
She is human.
Shame burned his temples. He had needed that nourishment, but she had not offered it. On Tarandus, such a crime was punishable by death or banishment, which amounted to the same. Without a reliable supply of chir, good quality emotion of the kind best found in hidren, a Tarandian would starve in a moon cycle.
Leave. Take to the air again before she wakes, while you still have her chir. Haj'erel tried to follow his own command, but the muscles in his body would not obey. He could not take his eyes off the small creature beneath him. With gentle fingers, he reached down and pushed the thicket of wet soil-colored hair away from the female's face.
The chill of the water had turned her skin pale. Puffs of condensation passed between her full lips. They had been pink, but the same cold that drained the color from her skin made them turn a deep blue. But her cheeks were his favorite. Plump as crab apples and set high on her face, Haj’erel felt an urge to lean down and press his lips to them.
Stop it! She has no fur and no suit. Get her out of the cold!
Leery of a walk through the human-occupied territory in his true form, Haj’erel called forth his disguise. His fur thinned and retreated into his pores until it appeared to be hair. His snout retreated into his skull, forming a smaller bulb nose. To anyone who had not seen his transformation, he would appear as a human man. Taller and stouter, perhaps, but no different from any other.
Haj’erel pushed to his feet. The invisible tether stretched between them, pulling him back down toward the human female. Bending down, he plucked her body from the snowy ground. He paused and, indulging the mating instinct for just a moment, inhaled deeply of his mate’s scent. Despit
e the stagnant water that clung to her skin, her natural smell was fresh and fragrant. It filled Haj’erel’s senses, hardening his already growing member.
If the nectar between her thighs is half as sweet as that smell….Haj’erel groaned.
A small moan escaped his aijan’s lips. For a moment, Haj'erel feared she might wake, but she turned her face toward the warmth of his chest and quieted again.
He sniffed the air until he caught her scent and followed it toward the human dens, searching for hers. The dwellings were arranged in lines that suggested community, but the veil of silence over them told a different tale. There was no laughter from children at play. No sounds of life being lived. The only noises came from beyond the stagnant lake. There were weapons being stacked on that side of the lake. A door slammed. A vehicle hummed to life and drove away with only the moon to light its path.
Haj’erel growled and pulled his aijan closer to his chest. Roaming warriors were dangerous. A female alone would be too tempting a target if they had the worst of the humans' predatory instincts. He paused and listened to the path of the vehicle, though he could not find it through the dense trees that lined the stagnant lake. When he could no longer hear its retreating engine, he pressed on.
The dens in the area had fallen into disrepair, except the one that smelled like the human female. Everywhere, there were signs of repairs made in desperation and with little skill. Wood covered the large openings of glass the humans favored. Slabs of ice grew to sharp points across metal sheets on the roof. The pattern of the sheets suggested they covered holes.
Where was her Hidren? Why did no one help her care for her dwelling? Had she no siblings? No parents? Was there no one to secure her den when madness drove her outside? Humans valued their security more than anything else. Haj'erel had the scars to prove it. Safety and protection came easiest with great numbers. The Tarandians had learned that lesson generations ago. So had the humans Where was her herd?
Ujiwan and Lal'Jul were wrong. The goddess has no mercy for me.
The Joyful Mother had given him a mate he could not keep. One who had been abandoned by her hidren on a planet he despised. If this was the goddess’s mercy, he feared her vengeance like never before.
The interior of his aijan’s den gave Haj'erel more reason to hope than the exterior. It was worn, but clean and at least warmer than the outside. The furnishings were old, but that was a sign she had a blood hidren. They might return soon to help her.
The humans didn't use furs or grasses for their nests even in winter, so he laid the female's body down on the softest flat surface he could find. He did not release her until his forearms touched the cushion for fear he might misjudge the distance.
The goddess has no mercy for her either. No hidren to shield her. A den crumbling around her. A mate with one eye and of species she does not know. The Joyful Mother has been cruel to my aijan.
For his own sanity, he had to stop thinking of the female as his mate. The small infusion of her energy coursing through Haj'erel's veins made him feel more alive than he had since the attack. His training demanded he rest and conserve the energy. He couldn't be sure when he could feed from the female's chir again.
But the need to comfort and protect his aijan demanded Haj'erel make himself useful.
Gently, he stripped the wet clothes from her body, exposing her creamy skin to the air. Trembles wracked her curves. Perhaps she would fare best if he lay next to her. Body heat was doubtless the best way to warm his aijan. And if his hands wandered over her soft skin while he saw to her comfort…
Haj’erel pushed the thought from his mind. Spreading the thin brown blanket over her body, he backed away from the couch. He retrieved wood from the exterior living area and stacked it near the entrance. He closed the door, securing it with the heavy shelf the female used to keep totems and pictures. The wood had been polished, but it was heavy, and more useful as a barrier. He would have liked to seal off the unused parts of the dwelling to save heat and resources. Instead, he settled for crouching beneath the low ceilings of her corridors and investigating every sub-den he found.
Not everything has to be useful, Das’hel’s voice whispered to him. A den should comfort as much as it shields.
Haj’erel smiled as he moved through the rest of the den, though his heart ached at the thought of his sister.
Sniffing the air as he went, Haj’erel judged how well enclosed the space was by how heavily his mate's meadow flower scent lingered in the air. He checked the lights by the manual switch on the wall and found fewer than half worked.
In the main room, Haj’erel built a fire with the supplies he found by the hearth. The female kept a ready supply of thick wood in her exterior living space, but her hearth wasn't big enough by half to heat the interior. Without his ability to change forms, and the warm covering of hair that came with it, his aijan would have to rely on furs and blankets to warm her in winter.
Her food storage and preparation room was larger and contained a larger hearth with a roasting chamber, but to Haj'erel's frustration it was worse at providing warmth than the one in the main room. The fires burned blue and hot, but only warmed the air above the oversized hearth.
The more Haj'erel explored his mate's dwelling, the more frustrated he became. There was too much to fix here. Too much to do to make this dwelling secure and warm for a sudden winter like the one raging outside. The female had done her best to keep the place tidy, but much of the technology the humans had invented to aid them in such things lay abandoned in the exterior parts of her dwelling. Perhaps with no hidren she lacked the resources to maintain them.
No, that didn't explain the abandoned villages he flew over. The lack of human-made birds flying in the air.
Something awful had happened to the humans, and his mate clung to survival in the aftermath. Alone, without the protection of a hidren or her aijan.
He could not leave her here. Not with hearths that were too small to warm her. Not with warriors roaming unchecked in the grasses beyond the lake. Yet he must. A ball of outrage roiled in Haj'erel's chest at the thought of leaving his aijan in the ruins of the humans' folly. This place would be too dangerous for a wajirae. For a mere human female, it would mean death before too many more winters passed.
Behind him, a gentle moan pulled Haj'erel from his darker thoughts. His aijan tossed her head to the side and flung her arms in the air, releasing another moan that made Haj'erel's groin tighten again. Goddess, why does that sound call to me? He'd wanted nothing as much as he wanted to snatch her into his arms and feed from her again, but he would not shame himself before her again.
The female's eyes opened and found Haj'erel. She froze, blinking slowly as if she expected the male before her to be different the next time she looked. Awareness rushed to her face, and she scrambled away from her cushioned nest and across the room, letting out small gasps of surprise and fear as she went.
Haj'erel held up his hands, spreading his fingers to show that he held no weapons. The female ran into the room with the useless hearth. She opened a chamber in the walls and pulled out a sharp blade. Turning back to Haj'erel, she brandished her weapon with wild eyes.
She has fire! Haj’erel couldn’t keep the smile from his lips.
“Whatever the hell you are, get out!” she demanded. “Do you hear me? Get out!”
He shifted his weight, sliding to his knees slowly so the female would not lose track of his movements. He could not follow her command. Neither of them was strong enough for that.
“I have…no wish...to harm you,” Haj'erel said, struggling to find the humans' words. It had been many cycles since he had needed them.
The female's lips fell open and her eyes widened. “You...what did you do to me? Why can I understand you?”
Haj’erel furrowed his brow. “I speak English? It is not rare.”
The female rolled her eyes and shifted the point of the blade toward his throat. “Hilarious. I asked you a question. What the hell are you?�
�
So she remembered. “Exactly what I appear to be. Well, unless I appear to be a danger. That I am not.”
His aijan groaned, shaking the blade. “Don’t bullshit me in my house. You looked different in the water and we both know it! I don’t know what kind of bizarro world shit is going on here, but I don’t want any part of it.”
The female did her best to sound brave, but Haj’erel could see from the quiver in her jaw that she was afraid. Her fear was wise. Her bitter chir had not fully revitalized him, but it had invigorated his strength and speed beyond that of a human.
Perhaps she had not realized it yet, but she could not make Haj’erel leave if he did not wish to. He had no wish to leave her unprotected in a storm with rogue warriors on the roam. Claimed or not, she was still his aijan.
“Let us take, for a moment, what you say as true.” Haj’erel measured his words. “You are safe in your home now, yes? And unharmed.”
She gestured to her semi-nude form. “Like fuck I’m unharmed. I’m naked!”
Were it not for his training and his honor, Haj’erel might have given in to his urge to run his hands over her delicious curves. Human women were far smaller than Tarandian women and far softer. To his surprise, Haj’erel found his aijan’s form pleased him.
“I was careless and pulled you into the water with me.” He focused his eye on her form, using it as a balm to soothe the sting of the admission. “Had I not removed your clothing, you would have perished.”
He had known his aijan for so short a time to have failed her already. If he wanted to win her, he needed to double his efforts to please her.
But then, Haj'erel could not claim the human woman. He couldn't have even if she were not a human.
The female chewed her lip. “All right...that sounds plausible, I guess. Now what the fuck are you?”
