Bhyr

by Penelope Fletcher

  Back in his quarters, he released her and tossed a thicker fur on the floor next to his sleeping mat. ‘Here.’ He pointed to the rumpled animal hide. ‘This is its place. It sits here until I call it. Sleeps here until I bid it wake.’

  She leaned toward him with her teeth bared in a pathetic attempt at menace. ‘Stop calling me it.’

  ‘Understand?’

  Huffing, she bent on wooden legs to do as told.

  He eyed the stiff folding of her limbs and waited for her to protest about something else. When she said nothing, he bobbed his chin, satisfied.

  Bhyr went to recover the last piece of the Keeping. The female was not yet gentled to his hand. Her reeducation would have to wait until he ensconced them in his nest, for he had no time to waste on such an endeavour until he brought the older Horde warriors back under control. He also needed to discover what changed Bihter during his absence from his people, then fix whatever had overcome his good sense. The male would be Second if he set aside his radical rhetoric.

  Acquiring the item from his chest, Bhyr returned to his breeder. A proper female would have turned on her knees to face him and waited, head bent and awaiting instruction.

  ‘Stand.’

  ‘You told me to sit.’

  ‘I did not give permission for it to speak.’

  She hissed and jerked onto her feet. When she deigned to look at him, her nostrils flared. ‘You cannot be serious?’ Her gaze met his. ‘A leash?’

  He frowned at her affronted expression and hooked the chain to her Keeping. He let the heavy links fall. Satisfaction at the new sign of possession thundered through him. ‘I chained it before.’

  ‘That’s different.’

  ‘How?’ Not that he cared.

  Words escaped his mouth when she was near.

  ‘I was a prisoner and shackled to the floor. You expect restraints as a prisoner. This is different. Somehow.’ She grabbed the metal and let it lie in her palm. ‘It wasn’t enough to kidnap me. It wasn’t enough to strip me of my clothes. To clamp this thing,’ she slapped her Keeping, ‘around me as if I’m some mindless commodity. Now you have the audacity to leash me like a dog?’

  He stared into the crystal circles in her eyes. Their darkness was rich and somehow clear. He felt movement deep within himself, a stirring.

  He knew the emotion for what it was.

  Weakness.

  His gaze hardened until hers fell. He inhaled, finally able to breathe. ‘Tomorrow we reach Vøtkyr. There I will claim you before Destruction.’

  ‘What does that mean?’

  ‘No more questions.’

  ‘Why?’

  Bhyr expelled a breath to keep himself from speaking.

  He owed a breeder no answers. To allow her to think otherwise was madness.

  Giving his female a blank stare, he forced himself to ignore her until she slumped.

  With a flick of his wrist, Bhyr brought up his holosphere. He reviewed reports from his chiefs, each male elevated to represent his respective generation of warriors. The cascade of glyphs scrolled from right to left on a diagonal slant as he skimmed the summaries.

  They had selected enough humans on Earth to begin a new breeding farm. But as he went over the data–twice–he rocked back on the pads of his feet and stared into the middle distance. Warriors had already claimed all the females. Unusual. There were several males he knew joined the hunt to have stock waiting. That they furthered their bloodlines with such haste made him pause. He debated whether the change had come about because of the luxury of availability or the humans’ innate attractiveness. He dismissed his concerns. Odd behaviour seemed to be a common symptom around these strange creatures. His own inability to treat his breeder with the proper detachment aside, it was nothing to worry over.

  He gave his head a slight turn to take in the figure huddled across from him.

  A long mane tumbled from her head in a dark wave. It spilled across her sloped shoulders and the sinuous line of her back. The inky colour and golden lustre entranced him. She differed from the humans he had seen. Taller. Not as dusky as Zython’s Avatar’s mate, and not as milky as the Great Alpha’s Queen. The vivid shade of her skin drew his eyes to its warmth, and a memory of its smoothness made his fingers twitch.

  She stared with unabashed awe at the convex curve of the holosphere projected in front of him. She could not read Galactic Standard let alone the ancient script of his people, yet her eyes tracked the glyphs, trying to make sense of them. Dainty hands pressed to the floor, and she leaned onto them. The rounded mounds on her chest plumped, and her belly stretched from her hips to create a dip at her waist. She twisted her middle to better see, legs stretching for balance, buttocks tensing.

  Lust turned his blood thick at the resemblance it bore to the movement of her body while he slaked the fires of her chastisement. The rounded points of her teeth nibbled on her bottom lip, and her nose wrinkled in bafflement.

  Education in a female was dangerous at best and pointless at worst. Her lot in life was to create offspring.

  Teaching her how to communicate in his tongue would offer nothing but trouble for him.

  ‘It will sleep now.’

  ‘I’m not tired.’ Her eyes remained on the holosphere.

  Bhyr ground his teeth. ‘If it does not heed commands, it will not survive the Testing.’

  She stilled, then swung her face in his direction.

  ‘What’s that?’ she asked.

  ‘A claiming.’

  Her eyes remained averted, settling over his shoulder. ‘I don’t understand.’

  Bhyr hesitated. He had ordered her sleep and should leave her to do so. The expression on her face urged him to stay close and offer comfort. ‘To survive the Testing, it will follow instruction. This will keep it safe for I will let nothing harm it.’ Seeing the rigid slash of her brows soften, he relaxed. She was a contrary little thing. It did no harm to indulge her need to prattle within his personal domain. ‘I will care for it.’ Until he no longer needed her.

  ‘I can take care of myself.’

  ‘Perhaps in its old world.’ Bhyr dismissed the holosphere and sat on the edge of his sleeping mat. He gazed upon his breeder with heretofore unknown sympathy. He had taken her because the males of her world were weak. ‘It will adjust to its new life. I am patient.’

  Her head turned as if to allow her to look at him, but jarred to a stop. Eyes squinting and face losing colour, she winced in obvious pain.

  ‘It is hurting.’ He frowned.

  Pain led to stress hormones which lessened fertility.

  ‘I’m fine.’ She prodded the bruised area with a scratched arm. ‘It’ll be better in the morning. Colourful, but fine.’

  ‘To put it under the healing pod so soon after its last session would do more harm than good to its health.’

  ‘I said, I’m fine.’

  He grunted.

  He would watch her during the sleep cycle. ‘It will not expect this as custom.’

  ‘Sure.’ She fiddled with her Keeping to remove it. She gave up and glanced over her shoulder. ‘I shouldn’t expect what as custom?’

  For me to stare, to linger, to talk as if you are here for always.

  ‘My undivided attention and leniency.’

  ‘This is you attentive and lenient?’ She lay down, head pillowed on her arms. ‘I’d hate to see you strict.’

  Reluctant to tear his gaze away, Bhyr dropped onto his back. He imagined her nestled in his arms. He dreamed.

  9

  Indira

  Still alive. I shifted to let my arm move from its deadened position under my torso. A throb rolled over my face. I lay stunned by its intensity, waiting for the ache to recede into the background.

  Breathing through my teeth, I relaxed each knotted muscle. The pain was a reminder of the previous day’s fight to survive. I’d fought for the survival of a stranger, and I felt good about that, but it didn’t make the pain easier to bear. It was worse. I’d chosen to p
ut myself in the line of fire and gotten hurt for nothing.

  It was infuriating.

  I needed to be more selective in what battles I fought. The bones in my face couldn’t take another hit.

  Engines hummed beneath me. The vibration tickled my bones when I placed my palm on the rubberised floor. The intensity and rhythm had changed.

  Are we landing?

  I rolled onto my front and peered around.

  The First stood with his back to the cocoon of fur I’d made for myself. Slabs of muscle in his shoulders flexed as he smoothed a rough lump of stone over his scalp. He continued the circular buffing motions down his plated body.

  Patches of skin on his limbs brightened. Golds and silvers became luminous over underlying shades of blue.

  ‘What are you doing?’ I clicked my teeth shut.

  I wished I’d observed unseen for a while longer.

  He twisted his head, the ridges on his skull deepening to its normal indigo hue. I knew then he’d known of me the moment I’d woken. His crown only changed colour with such obviousness when he dealt with me. Unlike the other aliens I’d seen, he had a great deal of control over the emotional tick.

  I’m under his skin.

  ‘Is it hungry?’ he asked.

  Chaotic flashes of memory flickered behind my eyelids. I cringed. ‘No.’

  My gut gurgled.

  He stared, stone poised for another stroke, waiting.

  I swallowed. ‘Yes.’

  He continued the grinding strokes.

  I lifted onto my elbows.

  My bare breasts jiggled, and his gaze lowered to the movement. I froze. I lay exposed in front of a male who’d stripped me from the trappings of human civilisation. He’d done it with ease. It still had the power to terrify me speechless. His all-white eyes had unsettled me anew, and now, I stared at his hungry expression. Numbed. Waiting for the fear. A hollow ache started low in my belly and quickened my pulse.

  When a clicking growl resonated in his throat, my insides tumbled, and the moisture in my mouth dried.

  He didn’t look at me with lust in the manner of a human man. It would be easy to dismiss the attention as an animal instinct if he did. He stared as if he wanted to tear holes in me and then fuck them. My nipples hardened from his attention, and I flushed, shivering all over.

  Giving into a nihilistic urge, like when you pressed a bleeding cut to feel the sting, I thrust my chest forward. ‘See something you like?’

  His gaze snapped to mine, terrible with hunger. ‘Speak when spoken to.’

  I rubbed the heel of my palm across my eyes to hide what he’d find gazing back at him. ‘You know what I don’t understand? If you believe I’m inferior, that humanity is inferior, why bother kidnapping one of us? Me?’

  ‘It is a breeder.’

  ‘You’ve said that. It’s not something a woman forgets. You have explained nothing beyond that. Why me?’

  ‘Stop talking.’

  ‘No.’

  He gave me a flat stare. ‘It needs no explanation. Its purpose is to bear young.’

  ‘How is that possible when we’re so different?’

  Ignoring me, he finished his ablutions. He bent to riffle through a carved chest pushed against the wall. ‘Vøtkyr is cold.’ He grabbed some items, discarded others. ‘It needs coverings until I complete the Testing and have it safe inside my nest. It will be naked there.’

  Potbellied and barefoot, too? ‘This is an easy fix. Give me back my clothes.’ A skintight skirt and silk blouse wasn’t appropriate winter wear, but this beggar was a chooser. I’d make it work. Somehow. The power of my convictions would warm me. Right?

  Clenched in his fist was a rumple of pigment-rich pink frosted with silver tips. The other fist held strips of woven cloth braided into slender cords.

  ‘Stand.’

  Composing my sour expression into something less antagonistic, I stood.

  I opened my arms like an obedient slave when he signalled his intentions to drop the material over my head. He secured it with the shortest belt. The improvised sheathe stopped at the middle of my thighs and covered my breasts. My arms and lower legs were bare, but it covered most of me. I wriggled, sighing in relief. I didn’t even complain when coarse hairs scraped under my chin and armpits. He wrapped my arms from mid palm to tricep, leaving a thin band of upper arm exposed for movement. Satisfied, the First tightened the belt around my waist. He hunkered to wrap my leg in a smaller rectangle of hide in a darker colour. The fur was on the inside, leaving a waxy outer layer. He wound the second to last braid in crosses around my ankle, knee and upper thigh, tying it off. He smoothed his hands close to the join between my legs.

  Tension entered his frame.

  His gaze darted across my body, lingering on my breasts.

  I swallowed, tasted spiced oranges, and looked away.

  He lusted.

  I just didn’t need to see it.

  ‘Can’t I wear my own clothes?’ I didn’t bother hide my exasperation.

  ‘No.’

  ‘It’ll be simpler than this.’ I jiggled my thickly wrapped foot. He worked on the other.

  ‘I jettisoned its possessions into a dying star as we passed the third arm of this galaxy’s largest star cluster.’

  My lips thinned. ‘Rude.’

  He straightened and looked me over. ‘Its hair–’

  ‘Is fine as it is.’ Something important bothered me. ‘This was a short journey. Your planet is close to Earth, then?’

  ‘It was in stasis for a standard galactic moontide. We woke it from the deep sleep as we approached the homeworld. It needed to finish its acclimatisation to our gravity, magnetic fields and atmospheric gasses.’

  My jaw hung slack.

  The diminished physical condition of my body, missing mehndi, and the lack of respiratory issues I experienced now made sense. I’d been in suspended animation, or whatever actual equivalent he’d used. Stasis. That must have been when he’d implanted the translation device, removed my contraceptive coil, and corrected my eyesight. I wasn’t sure how long a moontide was.

  It seemed longer than a fortnight.

  A month?

  My lips thinned.

  Babi had been dead for weeks, and I’d just begun to truly feel and grieve his loss.

  Waiting for me to drop my hostile gaze, the second I did, the First nodded. He stalked back over to the chest and slammed it shut. ‘Come.’

  I unclenched my jaw enough to speak. ‘Not going to throw me over your shoulder?’

  ‘Walk at my side.’

  I exploded. ‘I don’t want to be anywhere near you!’

  ‘It would rather I drag it?’

  I pressed my lips together and followed. I kept as much distance between us as the passage allowed.

  We left the ship.

  Stepping from the moist elevator, I rocked back on my heels, staggered, and groping at the space beside me for support.

  The first gasp was the hardest. I coughed low in my chest, hawking up a lung, then something seemed to give way and my next inhalation came easier. A brisk gale ruffled my hair, redolent with astringent plant-life. My nostrils flared. In so short a time, I’d become used to the recycled air and controlled atmosphere on the spaceship. The planet was too alive, too vivid to process. Overwhelming. I swayed, eyes wide and blinking at the brilliance of the land. The brightness wasn’t a matter of light, but of feeling. Something I could sense, but couldn’t grasp with my physical senses.

  Growing accustomed to the electric charge in the air, I got my first look at an alien world. Part of me expected a bustling metropolis, but there was nothing. Miles of untamed land and pristine sky. It was quiet enough to be peaceful, or maybe it was just the lack of ambient city noise.

  Thin skin around my eyeballs tightened as I peered across a fjord of rust tinted water frozen into a rumpled sheet. It hugged the base of a squat mountain range.

  Red icecaps frosted peaks of black rock, its icy chasms rivers of bloo
d. The makers of the cosmos had strewn bright pinpricks across a vast firmament washed in a greenish twilight, and I thought it was dusk, but I could see a sun high above the distant horizon.

  It moved fast enough I tracked its arc of descent with my naked eye.

  The cold was an assault.

  It leached the warmth from my bones. I’d shatter if I moved. Puckering my lips, I exhaled a plume of frozen crystals. I shivered as another gust of wind mugged me.

  ‘Cold?’ I bitched under my breath. ‘Try arctic.’

  The First stilled where he tapped his holographic screen. ‘The planet rotates at speed and at a significant distance from the suns. Their rays do not have a sufficient warming effect to melt the ice. Only enough to douse the flora with sustaining amounts of radiation.’ His eyes were hot on me. ‘Vøtkyr is not Earth. It is not a planet that suffers the weak to live.’

  I found an interesting patch of ice near my swaddled feet to study with laser focus.

  The First gripped my chin and tipped my face towards his.

  I went up on my toes.

  He leaned over until his brutal face blotted the world.

  ‘It will walk.’ He lifted a muscled arm, pointing towards the mountain. ‘It will not run. It will do nothing but walk,’ he stressed, ‘until it hears my command to submit. Does it understand?’

  My brows drew together, gaze drifting towards the unending nothingness. ‘Why?’

  His fingers bit into my jaw.

  ‘Understand?’ His gaze latched onto mine, an urgency flaring within them.

  ‘Yes.’ I fought not to shove him. Defiance would earn me nothing but punishment, and I needed my wits about me.

  Grunting, he let go.

  I staggered back a step, then another, fighting tears.

  The Testing was another unknown. I felt queasy. The First was dangerous, but a danger I had experience with.

  Over his shoulder, past the spaceship, sat a single-storey building. Movement caught my eye. Bipedal shapes herded larger, slower moving mounds.

  ‘What’s over there?’ I asked, stalling. ‘Behind you.’

  ‘Walk.’

  I turned around. Red ice stretched for miles.

  Is it safe? I wondered.