“How dare you!”
Finally, he believed!
Back and forth we went, trying to make each other do increasingly disgusting things, until we all felt confident in our new talent.
“Do you have any idea what this means?” Solan asked, his eyes alight with the possibilities.
I slid a sly look over toward Amma. “Oh, I’m pretty sure I do.”
16
ARLYNN
“Arlynn! Do you really have to do that in front of us?”
Sienna’s stern tone snapped me out of my reverie. “What?”
“Stop picking your nose! Gross!”
I’d been so deep in thought as I tidied up from breakfast, I guess I didn’t realize I had a booger. Red-faced at my indiscretion, I plunged my hand in the bucket of dirty dishwater, grateful I’d already washed the last bowl, and also grateful our new tribemates hadn’t witnessed what I’d done.
“Sorry, I didn’t realize.”
Sienna laughed. “That’s okay. I have the strangest urge to belch as loud as I can.”
“What about you, Nat?” I said, trying to draw her out of her stupor for the umpteenth time. “Feel the inexplicable need to fart?”
And for the umpteenth time, she didn’t hear a word I said.
“Anyway, to answer your question before my basic bodily functions decided to take over, I hate my fighting lessons with Thrane.”
“Really?” Sienna appeared doubtful at my words as she dried a bowl. “You’re so much better than you were before.”
I grabbed the last bowl to dry and shrugged my indifference, even though I did feel rather proud of my progress and that someone had noticed.
“Practice anything long enough, and you’ll get better at it. But I really hate it. It’s just not in my nature to fight. You know that.”
Sienna wrapped an arm around my shoulders and gave me one of her patented motherly side-hugs. “You’re a lover, not a fighter.”
I nearly dropped my bowl and had to turn away, for fear she’d see the truth in my eyes. I really was a lover, and last night had proved it. Clearing my throat, I did my best to regain some composure.
“Right. I just want everyone to get along.”
“Honey, how realistic is that? We three know better than anyone here what our tribe is up against. I didn’t want to make Nell feel any more guilty than she already does, but she wasn’t wrong when she said guards would come looking for them.”
“I don’t see why. We’re all considered ‘undesirable’, so why worry about a few more escaped fatties? Didn’t they learn their lesson last time?”
Sienna shook her head and sat down at the table next to our preoccupied sister. “Do you really think the powers that be will allow mutants like us to get the better of them? Not only will they want to punish the three escapees, they’ll want to kill us all, even more than they already do.”
Horrifying memories of the battle in the meadow flashed in my head, before I shook them away. As much as I hated to admit it, Sienna had a point. Sometimes force was necessary, for self-defense at the very least. I still couldn’t abide aggression, but if the Terrans came looking for our friends, I’d die — and kill — trying to protect them.
“I know you’re right. I only wish someone else was training me. Thrane is such a brute!”
“Really?” she asked again, this time with a glint in her eye I didn’t much care for. “Because he certainly seems gentle when he’s training you.”
I snorted, but before I could argue, Natalie ripped one of the loudest farts I’d ever heard. Sienna and I gasped in shock, but we didn’t look half as surprised as Nat.
“What the…?” she muttered, looking utterly bewildered by her own gas.
Finally! It might have taken a disgusting bodily function to do it, but she’d finally been pried out of her own thoughts.
“Glad you decided to join the rest of the world, dear sister,” Sienna said after she’d stopped laughing her ass off. “You won’t mind if I don’t come over and hug you.”
“I don’t know why I just did that,” Nat said.
“You’ve been so lost in thought all morning, you probably just forgot we were here.” I placed the bowls on a shelf and sat next to her, despite the putrid smell, which was only now dissipating. “Mind telling us what’s going on in that genius head of yours?”
She looked between Sienna and me, her eyes clouding over and filling with tears. “I’m not supposed to,” she whispered.
Oh, man. This was no joke. Natalie never cried. Something seriously bad was going on. Sienna sat on Nat’s other side and we each grabbed one of her hands.
“Tell us, Nat,” Sienna said. “You can’t keep carrying this load alone.”
“I’m not. The alphas, the shamans, and Jorek know too.”
I shot Sienna a questioning look, but she shook her head, letting me know Solan hadn’t mentioned a thing.
“What is it? We’re going to find out anyway, so let us help you.”
Nat chewed her lip for a moment, then took a deep, shuddering breath. For the next ten minutes, we listened in horror as she explained how Wargs were two generations away from becoming extinct, regardless of whether Terrans attacked us or not.
“And there’s nothing—” I started to ask, but she cut me off.
“No.”
“But what about the new girls? I’m certain they’ll take the bite and find mates. Won’t that help?”
“Jorek and I did the math after their arrival, even though I already knew what the results would be. We’d need at least twenty more women for us to have even the slimmest chance of survival.”
“Twenty?” I breathed, fear clutching at my heart.
Since joining the Wargs, we spoke often about breaking into the Training Center, and bringing back as many orphans who wanted to join us as we could, but it was just a silly pipe dream. Heavily armed guards constantly patrolled the colony — not to mention the giant wall encircling it — and then the Center had even more guards. Attempting such a mission would be suicide.
“Maybe more will escape,” I suggested.
The look Nat gave me chilled my blood, but her next words turned it to ice. “You know as well as I do, the rest of the orphans will be the ones to suffer because those three made it out. They’ll tighten up security, and probably lock them all in their rooms, until they wipe us out of existence.”
Heavy silence wrapped around us like thick, dark fog. If all that was true — and if Nat was saying it, I had no reason to doubt it was anything but — then we had no future. Even those who had found their mates and were pregnant were doomed. Like my sisters.
My heart broke for them. I couldn’t imagine bringing a child into the world, knowing they would be the last generation of healthy Wargs.
As much as I ached for them though, my thoughts veered back to my own future…or lack thereof. Not that I believed I could find a mate and have whelps of my own, but if there had been even the slightest chance before, it was pointless now. Nothing we could do from this point forward mattered in the slightest. No wonder Thrane had been in a fouler mood than usual.
A strange thought popped into my head: What would you do if you knew you were going to die at any moment?
Before I could even process the question, my brain answered: Fuck the living daylights out of Thrane.
Whoa! Where did that come from? Nothing about trying to figure out how to get more women. Not the slightest pining to paint a masterpiece. I understood how my body could betray me where Thrane was concerned — simply thinking about him set my heart to pounding — but how could my subconscious do that to me?
The door bursting open tore me from my dangerous thoughts. Solan stood in the doorway, panting and smiling so wide, all his teeth showed. “Found you!”
He pulled Sienna into his arms and kissed her hard. I wasn’t sure whether to watch, or give them a little privacy, but he finally came up for air and looked at Nat and me.
“You won’t believe
it. Ouma made Thrane pick his nose!”
Sienna laughed and extracted herself from her mate’s embrace. “What are you talking about?”
“We’re calling an emergency meeting in the commons in ten minutes to explain everything, but the short version is, using only her mind, Ouma forced Thrane to pick his nose in front of all of us.”
“Wait,” Sienna said, looking puzzled. “Did she force you to burp?”
“No. Thrane did.”
It was Nat’s turn. “And who made Markon fart?”
“I did,” he huffed, clearly frustrated at the inane questions. “Didn’t you hear me? It may only be small things, but we can make others do what we want. Do you have any idea what that means?”
Sienna and Nat’s gazes slid my way. Sienna smirked and said, “Oh, I’m pretty sure I do.”
17
THRANE
I paced in front of the makeshift platform Solan and Markon stood on. That flimsy contraption couldn’t hold all three of us, and I had too much nervous energy to work off to stand still while we waited for the entire fucking tribe to meander into the commons.
“Hurry up,” I growled under my breath as stragglers made their way into the crush of bodies.
Relax, a voice in my head cooed. It wasn’t my voice.
Glancing around, I caught sight of Arlynn standing on the other side of the fire pit, watching me. Instantly, a sense of calm soothed my nerves. I gave her a smile and I swear my heart nearly exploded when she returned it.
I still couldn’t get over the fact I’d found my mate, or how I could feel so helpless and powerful in the same moment. I wondered if she felt the same. Probably, but I was certain she had no idea why. As drawn to me as she was, Arlynn also hated me. I wouldn’t have given two shits about anyone else hating me, but Arlynn…that stung.
Still, I knew she’d come around eventually. It was only a matter of time before she’d no longer be able to deny it. I just had to be patient. New for me, but I’d changed since these Terran females had crash landed in the forest…and I hoped it was for the better.
“Thank you all for heeding our call so quickly,” Solan shouted. “Before we get into the meat of the matter, we need to know if any of you have been hearing strange things since the tribes merged.”
Murmurs rumbled through the crowd as everyone looked at each other, no doubt wondering if their alphas had lost their minds. No one stepped forward. Dammit!
“Like what?” Chorn asked, appearing as puzzled as everyone else, plus slightly annoyed he hadn’t been let in on the secret.
“Voices,” I answered. “Maybe a feeling as if you’re inside someone else’s body and hearing them speak?”
More mumbles and murmurs. When it finally died down, three hands were in the air.
“Excellent,” Markon said, smiling at the three and waving them to the front. “Anyone else?”
A few Wargs dropped their red faces, no doubt worried what it all meant and too embarrassed to step forward.
“They need more information before they admit they’re hearing voices,” I told Solan.
His explanation took more time than it should have, thanks to all the questions and doubts, but in the end, he proved it all by making Strabo — the loudest of the skeptics, as usual — prance around the fire pit, pretending to throw flower petals in the air. The crowd roared with laughter…all except Strabo, who scowled at Solan and moved to the back of the gathering.
“Now, I’m going to ask again,” Solan said, “and trust me when I tell you, this is more important than you can imagine. Have any of you heard voices, or felt like you were experiencing a conversation firsthand, even though you weren’t?”
Several more men and a couple of women stepped forward. Scanning the crowd for any more hesitant ‘seers’, as we came to call ourselves, I spotted Arlynn fidgeting and looking nervous. I tried to see inside her, but I only caught a couple of diffuse images, which meant nothing to me. She was blocking her thoughts even from herself!
“Arlynn?” I shouted across to her.
She shot me a glare for calling her out like that, but stepped forward bravely. That’s my girl!
“I don’t know if it’s really a vision…or whatever, but the day before Nell, Lysandra and Teah actually arrived, I dreamed we were enjoying a meal together. But it was just a dream.”
“Maybe not,” I said, waving her toward me. “Have you had other dreams that have left you disturbed or upset?”
The gods knew I had.
“I-I,” she stammered in her hesitation to admit the truth. “I think so. Nightmares. Bloody battles and dead bodies.”
Her entire frame began shaking at that moment, and I struggled to restrain myself from pulling her into my arms. Instead, I tried her trick — the one she didn’t even know she had — and sent a calming thought filled with love toward her. She stilled instantly, then a smile lit up her face.
We ended up with fifteen seers in all — or at least, fifteen who admitted it — and after dismissing the rest of the village, we moved to the meeting hall where we could work in relative privacy. For an hour, we helped the new seers practice their unexpected talent. Some were stronger than others, but all had some level of skill. Besides the three alphas and the shamans, Arlynn stood out as the strongest of the bunch.
“How am I even doing this? And why aren’t Natalie and Sienna here?”
Markon seemed slightly pained at the question. “Because they haven’t developed the sense yet. I’m sure they will; I’m sure everyone will, eventually. For now, let’s leave the how and why questions alone, and focus on just doing, okay?”
One by one, we each focused on trying to connect with the general. Now that we knew what was going on, the alphas and shamans had no trouble seeing the Hill village swarming with Terran troops, readying themselves for battle. Only half of the new seers managed the trick, with Arlynn once again proving her strength.
“Oh God!” she cried shortly after her face went slack, a sure sign of being connected.
“What did you see?” A sudden panic gripped me. I never wanted Arlynn to see death or violence again, if it could be helped. I crouched next to her and held her shoulders for support.
“He was peeing!”
Laughter broke what was left of the tension in the room. I took the opportunity to sit next to her, just to feel her nearness. The world seemed so much lighter when she was close.
“There’s something I don’t understand,” Arlynn said once we’d all settled down again. “If we can’t really read his mind or see the future, then why do my dreams show Terrans and Wargs fighting in the Valley village?”
We all turned to Bandrin and Binkor, who looked just as perplexed as everyone else. “No clue,” Bandrin said, puffing on his pipe. “Guess we should have brought Amma.”
“Ouma,” Binkor corrected offhandedly.
“I’ve had similar dreams,” I said, looking around the group. “Anyone else? Don’t be shy.”
Everyone else shook their heads. Only Arlynn and I shared this particular talent — if that’s what it even was — and I suspected it was because we were mates. Naturally, I couldn’t just blurt that out in a group setting, even though every cell in my body yearned to scream it from the top of the Hill. Instead, I did something totally out of character for me: I played it cool.
“That’s odd,” I said, capturing her gaze like I would a wounded animal. “I wonder what it means.”
She fought me — I sensed her struggling against her own feelings — but our connection was far too strong. In the end, she sighed and relaxed into it, though she didn’t lose that sass I love so much.
“Does it have to mean anything?”
“No, Thrane’s right,” Solan said, the excitement in his voice contagious. “It means something. Now we just need to find out what.”
I turned to him with the most innocent expression I could muster. “And how do you propose we do that?”
If I’d suggested what I knew must be done, A
rlynn would have shot me down immediately. But if the other alphas brought it up…
“I think you two should try to reach the general together, at the same time.”
Yes! I had to give Solan credit for being smarter than I ever thought. Almost as smart as me.
“I dunno,” I hedged, acting as if this wasn’t the thing I wanted most in this very moment. Merging with Arlynn in our minds would reveal the truth to her in a way she wouldn’t be able to deny. I felt that in my bones.
“If you think that’s what we should do, Solan…”
Arlynn appeared wary, but her willingness to attempt it elated me, at the same time, pain stabbed me in the heart because she’d agreed with Solan without question — something she never would have done if I’d been the one to suggest it.
“May I?” I turned to her, extended both hands palm up, and smiled.
She hesitated, then gave me a worried look, before placing her hands in mine. “On the count of three?”
I couldn’t stop my smile from spreading. She was about to discover, the only reason she’d been ruined for others, was because she was my fated and no one else’s.
“Onetwothree,” I spit out quickly as I allowed my psyche to fall into that space between reality and dreams. It felt strangely similar to the ‘right brain’ Arlynn had taught me to tap into while painting.
For a moment, only blackness surrounded me, no light of any kind. Then a faint purple shimmer started to filter through, until Arlynn stood before — naked and glowing and divine.
“What is this place?” she asked, her voice full of wonder, and fear as well. Her words echoed into oblivion.
“This is where we become one, my love.” I stepped closer, and even in dream form, the power pouring from her nearly knocked me down.
“W-what do you mean?” But understanding began to flicker behind the fear in her eyes.
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