Because he had never had anyone that he dreaded leaving, that he feared he might not come back to.
He shook the thoughts. They had arranged to have some of their best warriors stay and guard the women. They could trust the Sheloni to come after the women if they realized the men had abandoned them, or thought they had, to make war.
They had some hope that the Sheloni would not be able to discover the place, despite their technology, because of the shelter of the trees, but they had not dared count upon it.
Those warriors would keep watch and move the women to a place to safely hide them if necessary to protect them while they beat the Sheloni off.
Of course that could result in the women being left entirely to fend for themselves if the battle went terribly wrong, but it was all that they could come up with to insure the protection of the women and the unborn children.
The women were soft and had clearly led pampered lives, but they were also brave and smart and strong. He thought they would survive for the sake of their babies.
In any case, it was the best that they could do.
He nodded in response to Aidan’s urging. “I will pass the word. We will gather at the entrance to the valley at dusk.”
* * * *
It flickered through Lori’s mind as she left and heard them speaking in the Hirachi language that the two men might come to blows, but she wasn’t currently in any state to worry about that. She was in such a lather in point of fact, that she didn’t have any idea of where she was headed until she’d nearly reached the village green-gathering place where she’d left everyone not so very long ago.
She braked abruptly as that occurred to her.
A few moments was all it took to convince her she wasn’t up to the challenge of diverting anyone if they noticed her state and questioned it. She decided instead to head to the cabin where she thought she could be guaranteed privacy to gather her wits.
Alas! That was not to be!
Fayn had just settled his ass, with obvious care, on the thing taking up the space where she generally slept.
She met his startled look with one of her own for a long moment before she turned her attention to the platform he had just sat upon, staring at it for many moments before it hit her what it was.
“Oh my god! Oh my god! It’s a …. Is that a bed?” She was so breathless with excitement at the thought that she felt downright dizzy.
Fayn sent her a crooked smile and straightened away from the frame.
Lori could see then that he had just finished attaching what looked to be a net woven together from narrow strips of leather. Almost in a dream state, she moved closer to examine it.
The frame itself was crudely constructed of what appeared to be tree limbs or roots like that that supported the tree that formed their hut/cabin. Something had been used to chip away at the wood and form joints that had the added security of more leather straps.
Fayn placed his hand on the ‘net’ that she thought must be something he’d thought of to take the place of springs—if he was even familiar with those at all—demonstrating the give.
The spaces between looked nearly as wide as his palm, though, and she felt a little doubtful about the comfort considering that.
She nodded and smiled at Fayn anyway, realizing it was damned sure going to be more comfortable than the leaves and moss and grasses she’d been layering on the uneven ground.
He pointed to a stone ‘seat’ across from his creation. “Sit.”
A little disconcerted, she moved to the seat and settled.
He crossed to his own nook and came back with a large skin. He threw that over the woven lattice and secured the edges so that the skin was taut across the net. Crossing the cabin again, he retrieved what looked like a very big, very poorly stuffed pillow and then threw that across the bed and smoothed it until whatever filled it was fairly evenly distributed.
Lori gasped with pleasure as he left again and she studied the ‘mattress’.
It was likely to be next door to miserable—but! A mattress! Something to hold the stuffing so that she didn’t have to keep gathering it up!
He topped the bed with several more skins in the next trip and then turned to assess her reaction.
She bounded up from her seat and launched herself at him. “A bed! That’s the most fantastic thing I’ve seen in … just forever! It’s for me?”
He chuckled. “Yes. I make for you.”
He looked a little uncomfortable. “And Fayn also, hope.”
Warmth flowed through Lori. “Let’s try it now?”
He frowned. “Me firs. If fall, I no pop.”
Lori narrowed her eyes at him at the reference to her balloon belly.
He uttered a snorting laugh when he saw her expression. Dragging her close, he captured her face between his palms and leaned down to kiss her. “My beautiful Lori,” he murmured and then slipped one hand downward to caress her belly as he settled his mouth on hers. “Make beautiful baby wid me.”
Chapter Nineteen
Uh oh, Lori thought, when she could still think at all. Within moments she was focused on what he made her feel, the indescribable sense of excitement, belonging, oneness she felt when she was wrapped in his embrace and experienced the intoxication of his kisses.
He pulled away after only a moment, tossed the ‘covers’ back, and climbed onto the bed he’d built for her.
Them.
She followed him without hesitation when he held his arms out to help her climb in.
The bed creaked when they settled together.
Both of them froze momentarily and then chuckled and snuggled when the construction held, staring into one another’s eyes until the laughter faded and want took its place.
He was in no hurry.
Lori found that mildly annoying.
Until he had anointed her with kisses and stroking caresses from her lips, neck, and throat to her belly and everything in between.
Then she was impatient for another reason entirely—warmed and thoroughly stimulated to dizzying heat.
He moved over her when she became restless to the point of pulling at him and making little sounds of distress. Pushing her thighs apart, he matched his body to hers and held her tightly while he pressed into her until they were thoroughly melded.
He set a rhythm then that completely fulfilled the need he’d built inside her, carrying her up and then over the final hurtle to reach paradise in shattering release.
Comfortable, warm, thoroughly satisfied and completely devoid of stress, Lori drifted lazily for a few minutes and then passed from knowing. She roused toward consciousness a few times—the first when Fayn left her in sole possession of the new bed; then when he brought her food; for a trip to the latrine; and then when Boruc came to see if she was dead or alive.
She finally woke, thoroughly rested, late on day two.
She was very satisfied with life in general … until she discovered that she’d slept through the departure of the warriors as they set off to make war on the aliens, primarily the grays, but in fact any of them that got in the way.
She wanted to weep then, realizing that that was the emotion she’d felt in Jarek that she just didn’t understand—that he’d been trying to tell her goodbye.
And she’d blithely left him and gone to Fayn as if she didn’t have a care in the world!
Because she hadn’t realized it might be the last time she ever saw Jarek.
Another full day passed, however, before it occurred to her to ask why there were so few men around and she learned that horrifying news. She’d assumed the men had gone out on a hunt, but they’d never stayed so long without coming back to the village.
She’d also noticed that Fayn was acting … well, strangely standoffish considering the fact that they’d thoroughly broken in the bed he’d built her. She would’ve thought that would earn appreciation points even if he knew or suspected that she’d had sex with Jarek down by the creak just before that.
&nb
sp; It was unfortunate that she’d been so surprised and thrilled about the gift that she hadn’t thought about Fayn realizing she’d had sex just a little before that, but it had been way too late to practice discretion by the time that had occurred to her.
And it wouldn’t have occurred to her then except for Jarek’s comment about knowing the baby was his by his scent.
Of course, she wasn’t totally convinced he could tell—particularly when he and Fayn both seemed to be laboring under the impression that the baby was theirs.
But they clearly thought they had a superior sense of smell capable of detecting such things.
And neither of them would have to be that superior to detect the scents on her skin.
She could still smell Jarek on her skin.
Stupid!
She should have bathed afterward.
But she’d been too busy fighting with Aidan to think about it.
Because all she could think about was that she’d blown any chance of ever getting with Aidan even if things didn’t work out between her and Jarek.
Not that that was her fault, regardless of his nasty comments about her screwing in public!
It had been stupid, granted, but she’d allowed herself to be convinced that it was private even if it wasn’t inside or hidden, that they would certainly hear anyone if they came up and have time to behave accordingly.
So much for that stupid belief!
She struggled to dismiss it. It couldn’t be undone—in either case.
Very likely she was going to end up alienating all three men and end up by herself.
Well, except for the baby.
She thought she would be ok, regardless, because they had all settled together in the village they’d built and the men hunted for everyone. She thought she’d still be able to get what she needed for herself and the baby.
And, if push came to shove, she could damn well learn how to hunt!
She might not ever be able to do all the things the guys did even half as well as they could, but she could do it well enough to get by.
But she wanted a companion.
She wasn’t going to be totally happy, regardless of how things turned out, because she was crazy about all three of them, but she still thought she’d be happier with a companion than no companion because it made her think less about all of the people she was never going to see again.
* * * *
“I don’t suppose you know where the men all went to hunt?” Lori asked when she finally managed to corral Fayn long enough to get his attention. “They’ve been gone a long time …?”
She’d had to hunt him down at that, and had finally managed to do so when he went to the creak to fish.
Except he wasn’t actually fishing. He was standing on the bank staring at the water as if trying to will the fish (alien water creatures) to leap out and into his hands.
Fayn’s lips tightened with anger, which annoyed her. She’d done her best not point out that it was actually Jarek she was worried about.
“We have meat,” he said with an edge to his voice.
Lori frowned, feeling her uneasiness increase. If they had meat, why would the guys go to hunt in the first place? It wasn’t as if they had much in the way of preservation. They pretty much had to use what they got and then do without until they could get more.
Which was why she had been trying to convince everyone that they needed to domesticate something for a food source.
It wasn’t just impractical to always have to hunt and gather. It was dangerous to have such uncertainty about food. They needed to have more control over their food sources or they weren’t just going to be hungry occasionally. They could actually be looking at starvation.
She wasn’t thrilled with the idea of tending to their food and then butchering and eating it.
But it also wasn’t as if there was an acceptable alternative.
It wasn’t like they could go down to the grocery store and buy neat little packages of unidentifiable meat chunks—or relatively unidentifiable.
“What does that mean?” she asked finally. “They aren’t out hunting?”
He stared at her for a long moment and she knew he was trying to decide whether to lie or not. And that was when it leapt into her mind what had happened. They’d talked about making war on the grays—the Sheloni.
She’d thought it was just talk, though!
From her experience, men had a way of doing that quite often and most of the time it was just talk.
Which was why she hadn’t taken it seriously like she should have.
“They went to pick a fight with aliens, didn’t they?”
“Make war,” Fayn growled.
Her heart leapt into her throat and threatened to choke her.
There was something almost … accusing in Fayn’s tone. It seemed so to her, at any rate. “That can’t be true. You’d be with them.”
His lips thinned angrily. “Aidan guards his back.”
Lori felt the blood leave her face at that, felt shock rattle through her and take all body heat with it. “Aidan?” she echoed faintly. Both of them?
“I guard village,” he said tightly and whirled on his heel and left.
“Asshole,” she muttered when she recovered enough to feel that as an accusation.
That was why he’d been … well, downright cold. He was pissed off that he’d had to stay behind to guard the women.
Or maybe because Aidan had taken his place by Jarek?
“Take off if you want to, damn it! I don’t need you!”
He stopped in his tracks at that and whipped a startled look at her, but she was too pissed off herself to consider an apology. She turned and stalked off in the other direction.
* * * *
“Larus is … confused. He’s certain this is his baby. He just doesn’t understand how it could be.”
Everybody stared at her. “Uh … I’m confused about why he’s confused,” Sally stammered. “Didn’t he … uh … participate?”
Jill reddened. “I guess that means you haven’t gotten their reproduction explained to you,” she said a little testily.
Everyone glanced at one another uncomfortably, making it abundantly clear to Lori that she wasn’t the only one that didn’t have a clue. “Well, I don’t know why because I know they’re aliens, but … I just figured it—they were like us. I mean … the uh … equipment damned sure looks the same.”
Jill shrugged. “Well, it is and it isn’t. They spawn.”
Lori wasn’t unfamiliar with the word, but, used in that context, it sounded really alien. “Meaning?”
“Meaning they aren’t fertile all the time. They have a spawning season and they reproduce. The rest of the time, they don’t. Not saying they don’t have sex. They just don’t reproduce at any other time.”
“Well!”
“That’s convenient!”
“Really strange.”
Lori frowned thoughtfully, feeling a dizzying wave of emotions she had a hard time identifying. “But … they must have been in spawning … uh … mode. I’m pregnant! We’re all pregnant.”
“And that’s why they’re all confused,” Jill said unhappily. “Because Larus said he had known he was getting close to spawning.” She sighed. “The thing is, it’s been a really long time since they just went with their natural instincts. Long ago, they would follow them. The males would reach their spawning time and they felt this compulsion to reproduce. The women would chose which male they would allow to spawn on them and they would fight off any male that tried that wasn’t the one they wanted. Once the male had spawned, they were mated to that female through that ‘season’. They would remain with her until the next spawning. At that time the female could choose to keep them by allowing another spawning or choose another. They would usually choose another to make sure they had the optimum genetic diversity.
“This pretty fell by the wayside after the Sheloni began to prey upon them—because they would break up entire familie
s and steal the children and the adults. So they began to fight the spawning and went to great lengths not to reproduce at all—because it was the only way to protect their children from slavery—not to have them.”
“Soooo … you’re saying they only have sex every so many years?” Marie asked.
“They take lovers … if they want to. They just can’t reproduce … except during the season.”
“It sounds like a fabulous birth control—all natural—but what if it’s just the females that can only reproduce during the ‘season’? Maybe it isn’t the males controlling the reproduction at all?”
Jill shrugged. “Who knows? Just saying we seem to be similar enough to be compatible, but we still aren’t the same and ….” She looked unhappy. “So we don’t know how this will affect the guys.”
“This what?” Sally asked blankly.
Jill rolled her eyes.
Lori felt like crying when that finally sank in. “The guys weren’t in spawning season when we got pregnant—the Sheloni must have manipulated that somehow. So we don’t know whether they’ll feel compelled to stay with us or not.”
Chapter Twenty
The trek from the village they had established to the marketplace of the pirates and slavers was long enough Jarek had plenty of time to think about a lot of things that did nothing, spiritually or emotionally, to prepare him for what lay ahead.
Lori plagued his thoughts far more than he would ever have believed it possible for any female to claim. Certainly none had before her, but he supposed it was different because she was.
She was not a warrior as all of the women he had known before her were—or at least those he had taken as lovers.
It was not that he had had no concern for the women of his village. He had simply not had more concern for them than the elders and the children. More were warriors than were not and as capable of fending for themselves as he was.
He did not feel like Lori was just as capable.
She had spirit and determination, but she was not nearly as big and strong as he was … or Fayn or any of the warriors. Even the least skilled and weakest of the lot was more capable of defending himself.
And that was why they had felt better to leave a fair portion of their warriors to guard the village even though there were no elders or children to be protected.
Alien Enslaved IV: Spoils of War Page 16
