Fall (Hold #3)

by Claire Kent

  When he returned to the fire for more food, Lenna pulled off a big chunk of her meat and handed it to Desh.

  “He’s not going to want you to give it to me,” Desh said, eyeing the food longingly.

  “I don’t care. How long has it been since you’ve had any meat?”

  “Ages.” Desh snatched the meat and ate it in about five bites. “Thanks.”

  Lenna was still working on her skewer when Rone returned with more. He looked at the small amount she had left suspiciously, his eyes moving between her and Desh.

  She gave him an innocent smile. “Food good.”

  His face relaxed. “Good.” He handed her a second piece of meat, this time watching as she ate it.

  She felt strange, embarrassed, almost shy—which was so weird because she just wasn’t a shy sort of woman. She’d never had any problems letting a man know she was interested before. Just because she’d ended up with these cavemen didn’t mean her nature would have changed.

  But she couldn’t seem to make the same sort of advance on Rone that she’d seen other women making, petting him, touching him intimately. It just felt too strange, too public.

  She was feeling tense and uncomfortable when Rone finally scowled and walked away.

  “Damn, Lenna,” Desh muttered. “Put the poor guy out of his misery.”

  “He’s not in misery.”

  “He’s practically turning backflips to get you to make a move on him.”

  “He is not. He just gave me some meat. He hasn’t done anything else.”

  “I’ve been here for three years. And I’ve never seen any man give a woman food if she wasn’t already his mate, his previous mate, or his daughter. I’m telling you, it’s the equivalent of backflips, and you’re going to embarrass him in front of the tribe if you don’t do something soon.”

  She suddenly felt guilty, on top of everything else. “Okay. Okay. Fine.” She got up, but a stab of discomfort kept her from approaching Rone immediately.

  She was Lenna. Completely independent, self-sufficient, reliant on no one. She wasn’t sure she wanted to be some man’s mate—so he could feed her, clothe her, take care of her.

  It just wasn’t who she was.

  Instead of walking over to Rone, she moved out of the light of the fire so she could go to the bathroom in private.

  This tribe didn’t seem to be too concerned about privacy—although they only had sex in the dark and they did move to the periphery of the camp to relieve themselves, perhaps for sanitary reasons.

  She refused to go the bathroom in front of other people, though, so she always found a convenient tree to hide behind.

  She was coming back, still in the dark, when someone grabbed her.

  She made a stifled cry of surprise as she threw out an elbow, connecting with a man’s gut.

  She could tell from the smell and sound of him that he was Ugar, groping at her again. The creep just wouldn’t give up.

  She elbowed him a second time, causing him to double over.

  Hurrying back toward the fire, she heard him exclaim angrily and come after her.

  He was stronger than her, but she’d been protecting herself from creeps all of her life, and she was confident of her ability to keep him off her. She was breathless, but more angry than afraid.

  Disgusting asshole. The Kroo were right that his coming at her like this was weak and cowardly—a sign he wasn’t really a man at all.

  Before she could kick out at him, someone else was approaching, and two strong arms were picking Ugar up and throwing him several feet, so he landed with a painful thump against a tree.

  Ugar whimpered and didn’t try to move.

  Lenna turned in astonishment to face Rone.

  The first time Ugar had groped for her, Rone had laughed, thought it was funny. He’d laughed the second time too, the night after she’d arrived. This time, he’d attacked, tossing Ugar around in a way that must have really hurt him.

  Lenna was flushed and panting and in a strange, excited daze as she stared up at Rone.

  Rone had taken her shoulders in his hands and was studying her closely from head to foot, obviously checking to make sure she was all right.

  “Good,” she gasped, wishing she had a better grasp of the language. “Good. Lenna no want Ugar.”

  “No Ugar,” Rone muttered, his eyes finally returning to her face with a strange sort of urgency.

  “Lenna no want Ugar,” she repeated, suddenly knowing exactly what she wanted to happen. She put a hand on his chest. “Lenna want Rone.”

  Rone made a throaty sound and grew still for a moment, his eyes still devouring her face.

  “Lenna want Rone,” she said again, stroking from his chest up to his shoulder. Every part of him was big and hard and masculine.

  He groaned low and long, and then he grabbed her, swinging her up into his arms and carrying her toward the cave.

  The rest of the tribe was still around the fire, eating and talking and celebrating a great kill. But Rone carried Lenna into the cave and then to his bed, laying her down on his pile of animal skins before moving above her.

  He didn’t kiss her. She hadn’t seen anyone in the tribe really kiss. Instead, he rubbed his face against hers and then kept rubbing it down her body as he took off her clothes. His beard was thick and scratchy, and it felt to her like he was trying to cover her skin with his scent.

  But it wasn’t unpleasant. At all. Her heart was racing wildly and she kept rocking and clutching at him as he moved down her body. When he’d rubbed himself against every inch of her, he pulled apart her legs, kneeling between them.

  Ridiculously, she was aroused. Her pussy throbbed achingly as he stared hotly at her completely naked body.

  She was panting loudly as he lifted his tunic and freed his cock. He was big and hard and obviously just as turned on as she was. He grabbed her by the bottom and lifted her up so she was aligned with his erection. Then he guided himself inside.

  He fucked her like that, on his knees, completely in control of her body, and she gasped and shook and couldn’t tear her gaze away from his dark eyes as he took her.

  She didn’t come, but it was better than she ever could have imagined sex with a caveman like this could have been. She couldn’t help but like how his face tightened up as he got closer, how his hips accelerated almost helplessly, how he groaned in pleasure as he came inside her, how his body relaxed afterwards and he collapsed beside her, breathing just as hard as she was.

  She still had a few months left on her yearly birth control treatment, so she wouldn’t have to worry about getting pregnant yet.

  After a minute, Rone moved over her again, rubbing his face against her cheek and neck again, this time more gently.

  She stroked his long, tangled hair, feeling irrationally pleased with him, with the whole situation.

  He might be a grouchy, uncivilized, smelly caveman, but he was her caveman.

  And she was now his mate.

  Four

  The next morning, Lenna woke up when Rone started to get out of bed.

  She’d slept much more deeply than usual—partly because she was actually warm and partly because she genuinely felt safe, tucked between Rone and the wall of the cave.

  She blinked several times, trying to clear her head, and she smiled when the first thing she saw was Rone’s hairy face and sober eyes peering down at her.

  He actually smiled back, if she read his expression correctly beneath his beard.

  He said something, but her brain was still too fuzzy to interpret it.

  At her questioning look, he repeated, “Rone… mate.”

  She sat up when she realized he was trying to confirm that she knew the significance of their having sex and sleeping together in his bed. “Yes. Rone mate.”

  He nodded and exhaled, like he was relieved. Then he reached down, took her arms, and pulled her to her feet. He scanned her body carefully, but he didn’t seem to be ogling her. She wasn’t sure what he was look
ing at exactly.

  He said something, but the only word she understood was the final one. “…winter.”

  She shrugged. “Winter,” she repeated.

  He frowned in that way he did when she wasn’t understanding what he was saying. “Cold. Winter.”

  “Yes. Cold winter.” It was already quite cool outside, even in the warmest part of the afternoon. She was scared to think of how cold this planet would get when winter came for real. At least she wouldn’t have to be sleeping on the ground without a blanket. “Bed good.”

  He frowned at her again, but evidently gave up trying to make her understand his point. He just turned around and headed out of the cave.

  When she glanced back at the rest of the cave, she saw that several of the others were peering in her direction. They were looking at her differently now—some with respect and others, mostly the young women who didn’t yet have mates, with resentment.

  Evidently getting a man suddenly meant you mattered in the world of this tribe.

  Shrugging off the stares, she leaned over to straighten up the blankets on Rone’s bed before she headed out to breakfast.

  ***

  Breakfast should have been good, since she sat next to Rone, he gave her a good meal, and some of the other women actually spoke to her. None of the women had said a word to her since she’d arrived, but having Rone as a mate evidently jumped her up high enough in the tribe’s hierarchy for her to be addressed as an equal by other women.

  It all felt strange, though—like this wasn’t really her. It felt wrong on the deepest levels for her to be so pleased that a man had actually given her the social status she’d lacked before.

  She’d never been that kind of person. She’d always been fiercely independent.

  She might be stranded on this backwards planet, but she didn’t want to turn into someone she wasn’t.

  So she was feeling rattled and uncomfortable as the quick meal ended and people started to go their separate ways—some to fish, some to gather roots, some to work on beating out animal hides, and some to other random tasks that were necessary for the tribe’s survival.

  Because she now had a mate, Lenna probably could have joined some of the other women who were mending clothes and cleaning the tools and weapons of their men. She needed to learn how to do those things, if she was going to take care of Rone the way she was expected to.

  Something inside her resisted it, though. She wasn’t used to taking care of anyone except herself. So instead of joining the women, she went to join Desh who was dealing with the bones of the wildebeest, whose carcass had been completely skinned, gutted, and carved up last night.

  “You don’t have to do this kind of stuff now,” he said, when she crouched down beside him. “This is just for the fringes to do.”

  “I just spent the night with him. It doesn’t completely change who I am.”

  “Yes, it does. He’s going to get mad if he sees you doing this. He’ll take it as an insult.”

  “He’s already left camp for the day.”

  Desh just shook his head with a wry chuckle and didn’t argue anymore. “This is an ugly job. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

  It was an ugly job. They had to pick the bones clean of the remaining meat, separate them from the cartilage, and then boil them until they were spotless. Animal bones were always kept to be used for tools or building supplies. Every part of every animal killed was used for something.

  She and Desh worked for hours, and when they were finally through, Lenna was exhausted and covered with blood and animal innards. She wasn’t a squeamish person by nature, but she felt rather sick when they finally laid the clean bones in the large pile at the back of the cave.

  Desh was looking at her in faint amusement, but Lenna hadn’t made one complaint all day. She couldn’t let Desh say, “I told you so.”

  It was the middle of the afternoon, and the sun was bright and vibrant. Deciding it was warm enough, Lenna went down river until she found a private spot. There, she got into the water to clean herself off, still wearing her tattered clothes.

  The tribe wasn’t much in the habit of bathing—except when it was hot and they needed to cool down. Lenna had grown accustomed to being dirty and smelly, but she wasn’t going to stay covered with animal guts.

  She felt better when she got out, although she was shivering in the cool air. She wrung out her wet hair and finger combed it as she stood in the sun and tried to dry off.

  When her skin was dry and her clothes were just barely damp, she started back toward the camp. It wasn’t really smart to be by herself for very long. She was too close to camp to be in danger from another tribe—she was still in Kroo territory and no other tribe would violate that—but there could be predatory animals around.

  Humans were clearly at the top of the food chain on this planet, and even the large bears and wolves wouldn’t attack a group of humans under normal circumstances. But they might see her as vulnerable, out here by herself. She didn’t want to risk it.

  She’d only walked a few feet when she was suddenly confronted with a scowling Rone. He grunted out a bad-tempered question that included the words, “Lenna” and “danger.”

  She was startled and unsettled by his sudden appearance, and she didn’t appreciate his attitude. She scowled back. “Lenna no danger. Lenna clean.”

  “Clean?” He looked around, obviously searching for something she’d been cleaning.

  “Clean Lenna.” She showed him her clean hands and clean hair.

  Instead of relaxing, now that he’d understood what she’d been doing, his frown deepened even more. He grabbed her hands with both of his and pulled them up to his face, sniffing at them.

  She let him do so, since smelling her hands was harmless enough, and he appeared genuinely upset about something. He sniffed up her arms and grabbed a handful her hair, sniffing at it too.

  She gave a pained exclamation when he yanked her hair too hard. “Rone hurt Lenna!”

  He immediately released her hair, which was a relief. He’d never seemed like a violent man or someone who would hurt her, and she was glad becoming his mate hadn’t changed that.

  He took her hands again and smelled them. “Lenna Rone mate,” he said. “Rone mate.”

  “Yes. Yes.” She was feeling bad now since he seemed so troubled. “Lenna Rone mate.”

  He rubbed his face and beard all over her hands and forearms, like he was trying to get her to smell like him again. “Rone mate. No… wildebeest. No… danger.”

  She didn’t understand all of his words, but she realized now what he was saying, what had upset him.

  He’d been worried about her when he’d returned to the camp and found out she’d wandered off alone. And then he must have smelled the wildebeest on her skin and realized what she’d been doing that morning.

  Desh had said he’d be insulted if she did demeaning tasks—when as his mate she didn’t have to. She might have rebelled against such an attitude, such a claim on her.

  But he wasn’t really insulted at all. He was upset. He was taking it as a sign that she didn’t really want to be his mate after all.

  Lenna’s chest hurt very strangely at the knowledge. “Sorry. Sorry. Lenna Rone mate.”

  He was relaxing now. She could see it in his eyes, in the set of his shoulders. He was still rubbing his rough jaw against the inside of one of her wrists. “Lenna Rone mate,” he murmured.

  Ridiculously, she felt a little touched by his earnestness. “Yes. Yes.”

  She wasn’t used to feeling guilty, and she didn’t really like it. But she was part of this world—whether she wanted to be or not—and it wasn’t right for her to defy the rules if it meant hurting Rone in the process.

  She was going to have to learn how to act like his mate.

  ***

  The next day, Rone gave her some lovely, soft animal skins to make herself a new outfit for the winter—because, as he explained, her torn clothes would be too cold. She had n
o idea how to do it, so she had to ask one of the other women for help.

  She asked Mara, Tamen’s second mate. She was a quiet, competent woman and had always looked at Lenna with interest rather than condescension or resentment, even before she was allowed to speak to her.

  The next few days, Lenna spent learning how to sew clothes with the primitive supplies they had available, and she was very pleased with her new outfit—belted top and loose trousers—when she was finally finished.

  The next afternoon, Mara came to her with a flint comb, a sharp instrument like a single-edged knife, and a clay bowl of oil. “Mate groom,” she said, very seriously. “Lenna groom Rone.”

  Lenna’s lips parted as she stared down at the grooming implements. Of course, she needed to groom Rone. That was what women did for their mates. She hadn’t even thought about it, since she was so used to seeing Rone dirty and hairy.

  But it would cast a negative light on him—on both of them—if she didn’t do her job.

  She’d watched plenty of women grooming their men in the cave. She knew how it was done. Comb and braid their hair. Shave their beard. Rub their skin with something like olive oil. Lenna was certainly capable of doing that for Rone.

  She smiled at Mara and accepted the supplies. Then she went to find Rone.

  She knew where he was. Since the tribe was still living off the meat from the wildebeest, the men hadn’t left for another hunting party yet. Rone was down by the river today, spearing fish. He always came back with a large basket of them every day, which they dried and kept for the winter.

  If she understood correctly, in the worst part of the winter, it was too cold to even leave the cave, so they had to save enough food to get them through that month.

  When she found Rone, she stood and watched him for a minute. He was focused intently on the river, standing on the bank with his spear in his hand. Like everyone else, he’d changed to wearing trousers now that the weather was cooler, so nearly every part of his body was covered with either hair or animal skins.

  Despite his appearance, she felt a little clench of ownership at the sight of him—and then felt a little embarrassed for feeling that way.