by Ruby Dixon
—And am tackled into the snow.
The breath escapes my lungs and I cough, only to have one big hand cover my mouth a moment later. “Hsst,” Rukh whispers, and his big body covers mine.
What the hell? I try to drag his hand away from my mouth. He shakes his head, staring off into the distance. I follow his gaze…and gasp in surprise.
There’s an alien in the distance. One of the tribe. I can’t tell who it is from here, but the horns and swishing tail are a dead giveaway, even in silhouette. I gasp in shock. Someone’s here. Someone might have seen us.
And Rukh is freaking out. His hand tightens over my mouth, and he hunches low in the snow banks. His body covers mine, as if he’s trying to shield me from sight. I can’t see his face, but I can hear his breathing, heavy and angry.
“Rukh,” I whisper, but he tenses and makes another shushing noise. He doesn’t want them to see me. As I watch, he draws his knife out, and a new kind of worry overtakes me. This is more than concern over seeing a stranger – is he going to kill the hunter if he approaches us? I don’t want to be responsible for anyone else’s death. I put my hand on his. “Rukh, no.”
He only holds me tighter, a warning growl low in his throat.
I’m terrified of what might happen. I wait, scarcely daring to breathe, as the hunter crouches low in the distance, as if taking a break. He leans on his spear, scans the horizon, and then moves out of view again.
I exhale with relief.
Rukh jumps to his feet, knife in hand, and starts to go after him.
“No! Wait!” I lunge for Rukh, but he’s moving too fast. “Rukh, no!” I make my voice louder, because I know that will get his attention.
I’m right; he immediately comes storming back and puts a hand over my mouth. “Har-loh, shhh.” His nostrils flare; he’s visibly upset.
“Rukh, stay here with me,” I say, putting my hands on his chest.
“Harl-loh Rukh,” he growls. “Rukh!”
I know what he’s saying. I’m his, and another male is encroaching on his territory. How to explain that the man probably isn’t looking for me at all? That he wouldn’t resonate to me because only Rukh can? I hate that we don’t have enough words between us. “I know,” I say in a soothing voice. “Harlow is Rukh’s, okay? But please stay with me. Please don’t go kill someone just for me.” My voice trembles and cracks. “I need you with me.”
He cups my face with one hand, then looks off to the horizon, clearly torn. His big shoulders heave with tension, and I feel as if he’s moments away from totally snapping. I know other resonating males get possessive of their mates, but like this? Like he wants to carve the stranger’s face up simply because he got within a hundred yards of me? Is it because we haven’t fulfilled our resonance? Is it because he doesn’t trust anyone but me?
Is he worried he’s going to lose me?
“Harlow belongs to Rukh,” I say again in a soft voice, but he keeps staring off at the horizon. I don’t trust him not to gallop off and go after the hunter. I need a distraction.
Of course, the moment I think ‘distraction’, my mind goes to dirty places. I think of dropping to my knees in the snow in front of Rukh and showing him what a blow-job is. That’d be a good distraction, all right.
Then again…why not? My own breathing quickens at the thought, and imagining his reaction to my touch is enough to make my pussy damp. He definitely wouldn’t leave my side after that, would he?
Maybe it’s my cootie that’s making me so forward, but I can’t get the idea out of my head. I get on my knees and put my hands on Rukh’s hips.
His entire body twitches at my touch, and as I watch, his cock visibly elongates. This has his attention, all right. His growl is questioning, though. He isn’t entirely sure what I’m up to.
“Allow me to show you just what I have in mind,” I murmur, gazing up at him. I slide a hand up one big thigh. He’s soft like suede to the touch, and his skin is clean and a lovely blue now. Just looking at him makes my mouth water with anticipation. “Rukh belongs to Harlow.”
And I wrap one hand around his cock, and then look up to see his reaction.
He’s utterly frozen in place, my big barbarian. Not a single muscle twitches as he stares down at me.
My mouth curls into a smile at the sight of him. “Bet you never imagined this, did you?” I slide my hand over his cock, feeling his length and girth. He’s really big, but that’s not surprising. A seven foot tall alien with shoulders like a linebacker is going to have a big cock, and Rukh definitely fulfills that promise. The length – and girth – of it reminds me of my forearm, and it’s a delicious dusky blue. Veins trace over the shaft, and I slide my hand up and down the thick length in a stroking motion before leaning in and dragging my tongue over the tip.
Rukh makes a choking sound.
I glance up at him, my mouth still hovering oh-so-close to the head of his cock. “You okay?”
“Repeat,” he says in a ragged voice.
I chuckle, because my clever alien is using the few words he knows very well, isn’t he? I give him what he wants, licking the head of his cock in a leisurely fashion. The head is beaded with pre-cum, and I lap it up. My khui is resonating hard, and my thighs are clenched tight together, because touching him like this is arousing me to no end.
Funny how that works – giving him pleasure is giving me pleasure. I don’t even know if I can blame my cootie for that. I just like touching him and seeing his reaction. He looks like his mind just exploded. I lean in and give him another playful lick, enjoying myself very much.
This time, a small groan escapes him, and his hips jerk, his cock pushing against my hands.
“Ah,” I murmur. “You like that, do you?” I brush the tip of his cock over my lips, letting the head drag over my mouth. He’s big, and there won’t be any deep-throating of this man, but enthusiasm goes a long way. I decide to explore him with my mouth, nibbling down the length of his shaft and licking skin all the way to his sac. He’s warm and weighty, and I love the feel of his suede-like skin against me I have to resist the urge to rub my body up and down his, and settle for simply running my cheek and mouth all over his scaldingly-hot flesh.
His sac is heavy and tight, and I brush my fingers over it, curious to see his reaction. Is he sensitive here? Rukh jerks at my teasing touches, telling me the answer to my question. His hand goes to my hair and then pulls away again, as if not sure what to do with himself while I minister to him. I give a throaty chuckle and flick the tip of my tongue against his skin. My mouth moves over the hard ridges on top of his cock. This is a difference from humans, I note. Like his arms and his chest, he has hard plating protecting sensitive spots, and the ridged plating seems to cover the top of his cock, leaving the underside velvety soft.
I can’t help but wonder what that will feel like inside a girl. Does that make me a little pervy? Maybe.
I continue exploring him, and my fingers come upon the much-gossiped-about spur that the human women lose their shit over. It looks like nothing more than a blunted horn a few inches above his cock. I’m not really sure what the purpose of it is, but it’s there for me to play with, and so I do. I run my fingers over it, treating it like I would his cock, playing with the tip, teasing the underside, and seeing what gets a reaction from him. There’s a spot underneath, just where his spur joins with his skin, that is especially sensitive. When my finger grazes over it, his entire body jerks and his breath hisses from his throat.
“You want to learn some language?” I purr at him, my cootie throbbing mercilessly in my breast. It’s making me into a total wanton, and I don’t even care. “Here’s something for you to learn. Repeat after me. Lick.” I lean in and lick the head of his cock. “Taste.” I drag my tongue down over one thick vein. “Suck.”
I put my mouth over the end of his cock and take the head of it in my mouth, sucking lightly.
His entire body quakes, and a moment later, my mouth is filled with wet, salty heat. Rukh’s
feral growl as he comes sends an illicit thrill through my body. A moment later, before I can truly appreciate his reaction, he staggers backward, staring.
I wipe the corners of my mouth delicately. “Guess that blew your mind. Pun intended.”
He pants, a sheen of sweat on his ridged brow. And he can’t stop staring at me, as if I’m some magical dick-sucking unicorn come to life. A giggle escapes me. Well, I wanted to distract the man. I definitely got what I wanted. “Feel better?”
“Har-loh…” Poor Rukh sounds utterly breathless.
“Yes?”
He presses a hand to his chest, then gestures outward, a frown on his face. I recognize that frustration. He wants to tell me something, but doesn’t have the words. I get to my feet and take his hand in mine and squeeze it.
“I know, big guy. I know.”
RUKH
Har-loh has shattered me from the inside out yet again. Just when I think I have learned all pleasure to be had, she shows me something new. I move toward her smiling, speckled face, and press my mouth to hers in the gesture she showed me earlier.
She looks startled, and then pleased. I will have to remember more of her gestures. I want to make her happy.
She shivers and tugs her furs closer to her body, reminding me that we are not here at the water’s edge for simple pleasures. One of the bad ones was nearby. Panic flares through my body again. He could have seen Har-loh taking me in her mouth and…doing things to me.
He could have taken her from me.
My chest squeezes tight at the thought. No one will ever, ever take Har-loh from me. I will rip them open with their own tusks if they should try. My hands clench, and it takes everything I have not to drag Har-loh against me.
I’ve never had a companion. I’ve never even thought of having one, and my memories of my father are long-distant. But now that Har-loh is here? I cannot bear the thought of her leaving me. My hands clench in her furs. If the bad one that is nearby tries to take her—
“Rukh?” Her small hand pats my arm, trying to get my attention. “Cawmdownbigguyh. Aymheer.” She smiles up at me. “Sokay. Allsokay.”
At the sight of her smile, my frantic anger dissipates a little. I’ll take care of the interloper and return to my sweet female. I pull my father’s knife out.
Her expression is troubled. “No, Rukh. No kill.” She pushes the knife down.
She doesn’t want me to go after them, to defend my territory. Does she know they are bad? I stare off into the horizon, where the hunter disappeared. I can go after him and track him down and kill him…but it will leave my Har-loh here, vulnerable. I can’t take her with me, because he cannot know I have her.
And I cannot abandon my Har-loh. My chest vibrates and purrs in that strange way it has been since I found her. I look over at her troubled face, and my heart aches. I don’t want to leave her.
I can’t leave her.
I sheathe my knife and grab her hand. Instead of heading back to our old cave, I will take her somewhere new, somewhere more remote. There are places even the bad ones don’t like to go. I will take her there, and she will be safe with me.
“Rukh?” she asks as I tug her along after me. “Wayrrwegoin?” When I don’t answer her, she plants her feet on the ground. “Rukh? Ansormee!”
I look over at her. Why is she not walking? A look down at her small feet shows she is not wearing the snowshoes I made for her. I release her hand, retrieve the shoes, and bend down to strap them to her feet.
She taps my shoulder. “Rukh? Wayrwegoin?”
Har-loh lets me put the shoes on her feet, but when I gesture that she should follow me, she doesn’t. Instead, she crosses her arms and gives me a frustrated look. I scrub my face with my hand and force myself to be patient. I will carry Har-loh if I must, but I need to get her away from here. Already the bad one might have found our footprints, or discovered the cave full of Har-loh’s creations. All of my important things – my knives, my waterskin – I have with me. Everything else can be abandoned, and will be abandoned, for Har-loh’s safety.
There are more caves, and better ones. I take her hand and gesture that we will walk. Not in the direction we came from, but a new direction.
Her brows wrinkle together in the funny, flat-face way she has. “Notgobak?”
I point ahead.
She points behind me and repeats herself. “Notgobak?”
“No.” I point ahead.
“Butmytings!” She tries to pull her hand out of mine. “Mifursenmiskins. Eyeneedem.”
“No,” I say flatly. I will not go back, no matter how upset it makes her. I cannot take the chance that the bad ones will take her from me. The fear gnaws at my mind, and vague flashes of memory come to the surface: my father’s tired face. Of another man – no, a boy – at home with us. Then, gone and the sense of enormous loss.
I squeeze Har-loh’s hand tight and pull her along. She will see I am right in this, given time.
• • •
We walk until both suns have disappeared and the little moons are rising in the sky. There’s no shelter to be found, not out here. If it was just me, I would walk through the night and into the morning. I know where the next cave is, and were I alone, I would already be there.
But Har-loh has small feet and takes even smaller steps. She tires easily. She cannot keep up with me, and so I must slow down and wait for her.
She hasn’t complained, but I can tell she is exhausted. Her strangely colored face is pale and her small fingers feel like icicles in my hand. Her steps are slower than usual, and her teeth sometimes clack with the cold.
My female needs to rest. The drumming in my breast says so, and I am filled with more fierce possessiveness. I find a hollow in a cliffside, out of the wind, and take her there. “Sleep.” It is one of the words I have learned from her. “Har-loh Rukh sleep.” I point at the snowy ground.
She rubs her exhausted face. “Heer?”
I don’t know this word, but I am guessing she is asking where her cave is. I gesture at the ground. This is our place for tonight.
Her face crumples a little and she sniffs. Then she nods.
She looks so sad. I am filled with despair at the sight of it, and I touch her cheek. “Har-loh…fire?”
“Firenao? ButIdonhafdetings…” she gazes around at the snowy embankment, and another sniff escapes her.
I am filled with shame, and I press her small face to mine. I am not caring for her properly.
“Sokay,” she tells me with a small pat to my cheek. “Iyamjustired.” She takes off her snowshoes with slow movements and kicks them aside, then moves closer to the rocky wall. There’s a bit of a nip in the air, but I don’t feel the need for skins like she does. My initial thought of crouching low on the ridge above and watching for intruders disappears, and I know what I must do.
I take her cloak from her shoulders and then sit on the ground. I pull my Har-loh into my lap and pull her clothing open so her bare skin can press to mine, and then I wrap my body with her cloak. I will make her a warm cocoon of my skin, so she will not have to touch anything cold.
Her shivering stops and she gives a small sigh of pleasure and curls up against my chest. “Tankyew,behbeh.”
I feel like I’ve done something right. I hold her close to me and watch the horizon, my knife close at hand. I’ll stay up all night and guard her.
• • •
The next morning, the air has the bite of snow in it. Not just any snow, but the thick, blanketing snows that last for months and do not let up.
And again, my plans must change. There is a cave nearby, but it will not be warm enough for Har-loh in the deepest of snows. I will take her farther, more days walk to the cave by the salty waters that never completely ice over. I go there when the storms are too brutal for even me. It will be a good place to take my Har-loh, if she can withstand the journey.
I hunt small game to feed us as we walk, and by the time both suns are high in the sky, my next cave is in sig
ht. I scout it out to ensure that no metlaks have made it their home while I have been gone, then bring in my female.
Har-loh gives the cave a dubious look. “Eezsmohl,” she says. “Smohlerdanlastwun.”
I take her hands in mine and kneel before her. She looks tired, but how do I explain to her that I must ask her to keep going? I think, frustrated, and then try to string a few of my meager words together. “Har-loh, Rukh…no.” I point at the cave. “Sleep yes. Fire yes. Har-loh, Rukh no.”
She tilts her head, digesting my attempts at communication. “Westayeerendenwegoh?” She makes a walking gesture with her fingers. “Harlow Rukh go?”
Relieved, I nod.
A bright smile crosses her face. “Lookitchew, behbeh. Yewllbespeekin innotime.” She leans in and gives me a smacking of her lips against mine. “Sohprowd.”
Chapter Four
HARLOW
I’m kind of glad this cave is temporary, because it’s worse than the last one.
I mean, granted, the last one wasn’t amazing, but this one barely has enough room to turn around. We can probably build a tiny fire on one side, cram our bodies on the other, and that’s about it. But it’s out of the wind and so I’m not complaining, especially when Rukh heads out for a few minutes and returns with some dung chips for me to make a fire. He knows I’m cold and tired, and I suspect that if he was alone, he wouldn’t have stopped here.
He prepares the fire for me and I hand him my striker, since he wants to learn how to do it on his own. “So where are we going tomorrow?” I ask him. “Where Harlow Rukh walk?”
Rukh concentrates on the fire, and when he has a tiny coal, he begins to feed a bit of tinder to it and considers my words. “Wa-ter,” he says after a moment. Then he gestures at the horizon and all around us. “Water.”
“Lots of water? Like a lake?” I draw in the dirt, hoping it looks like a pond. “Small water?”
