by Milana Jacks
I frown. I thought she wanted to mate again. “What are you doing?” I ask.
“Drying my hair.”
We shake off water droplets, so I wasn’t sure what the rubbing was for. Hmm. Maybe she’s content. Maybe I am the insatiable one, and any glimpse of her body tells me she wants me to mate her more.
Lust. I lust after her.
Stephanie proceeds to the sack I brought her yesterday, digs inside, pulls out a piece of blue cloth, and slides her arms through it. It covers her body, reaching just above her knee. A dress. She slips her feet into the strange shoes, if you can call them that.
“There’s another woman out there, isn’t there?” she asks.
“There is.”
“Where?”
“In another tribe’s village.”
“But her pod is here.” Stephanie points at the docking tower.
I nod.
“What’s going to happen to her?”
I have a plan for her, but I say, “I don’t know.”
Stephanie sits on the bed, reminding me that I should replace the mattress I shredded during the body repairs. “We could go looking for her today.”
I’m planning on that. “Will see.”
The emergency portal lights up. I ignore it.
Stephanie eyes me, head tilted. She reminds me of a pup sometimes. Cute, small, harmless, curious.
I sit next to her to kiss her cheek. I linger, purring because I know that makes her aroused.
“When do the games start today?” she asks.
Here we go. “No.”
A palm on my chest, she pushes, and I lean back. Squaring my jaw, I open the command portal and initiate a line with Mas, but only one way so he can hear inside my chambers but I can’t hear him.
“What happened, Hart?” Stephanie asks.
“You happened. In my effort to win the games, I lost sight of what’s important.”
“What do you mean?”
“You have more fat reserves than I do, than most of my people do. At least twenty percent more, and I presumed that meant you could endure long periods of hunger. This is not the case. Half your body is made of fluid. Again, I presumed this meant you could withstand long periods of thirst. This is not the case either. I presumed a lot, asked little, and I was preoccupied with winning. When you collapsed, I realized I’d lost sight of you, my most important prize.”
Stephanie’s cheeks color, and she opens her mouth, then closes it, sighs, and fixes her hair. “Sometimes your bluntness leaves me speechless. I don’t…” She shrugs. “I don’t know what to say. Nobody has ever said stuff like that to me.”
“I couldn’t go out there this morning and leave you here unwell.”
“What are you saying, Hart?”
“I lost the games.”
Stephanie gasps, and the scent of her fear grates on my instincts. “Oh shit.”
“That’s not all.”
Stephanie climbs up on the bed and sits with her legs folded and crossed. It would never occur to me to sit in such a way. By the time I untangled my legs, my opponent would have severed my head five times over. Strange, strange humans.
“Go on, Hart. What else?”
“After you marked my hunter, I released my hook inside you, effectively marking you as mine.”
“Is the hook the thing at the top of your penis?”
“Yes.”
“I wondered where it went. And, um, where inside me is it?”
“It’s attached to your womb.”
Stephanie scrubs her face. “What’s it doing there?”
“Marking you as mine. No other male can breed you now.”
“You lost the games because you’d rather take care of me than leave. Then, when you knew you were in the losing position, you marked me so whoever wins can’t breed me. Is that right?”
“Yes.”
“That…that disqualifies me as the prize, no?”
“Yes.”
She smiles. “Why didn’t you do it sooner?”
It’s my turn to stare. “I didn’t expect you to ask that.”
She chuckles. “I think it’s pretty obvious I wanted you to win from day one.”
“Is it?” I grab her, bring her closer, and sniff her hair. Fuck, she even smells divine.
The emergency portal blinks a few times, signaling a forced entry. Mas really wants to talk to me. Groaning, I set Stephanie back down, regretting I didn’t get a chance to tell her everything, including that marking is forbidden.
I open the portal to my males standing in the hall. They go quiet when they see me. Some, I notice, carry handmade crafts. Rur over there hand stitched a miniskirt over night. I had no idea my males could be crafty. It hits me then.
It’s over. It’s really over. I lost the games.
The Sha-male pushes through the males. Long gray hair drapes over the male’s body covered with a black robe. He and I are often at odds, namely because I’d lost faith in the goddesses before Stephanie came, and now I have to ask him for a favor, one only he can help me with. Meanwhile, he came to the hall to declare and bless the winner.
When he realizes I have no intention of showing up in the hall, he walks into my chambers, compensating for his lame left leg with a spear he uses as a staff. He believes the staff holds powers. I never believed it, but I also can’t discount that the night before Stephanie’s pod crashed on my land, I had called on Amti to come and pissed on the blessed fire Sha set up for the goddesses, effectively marking one for myself.
“Good morning.” Stephanie stands and weaves her fingers through mine. “Or is it afternoon?”
The older male’s eyes lock on our intertwined fingers, and he stops dead in his tracks. Turning up his nose, he sniffs, snorting at the back of his throat. Instead of greeting me or maybe slapping me like a parent would, he walks to my right, warily eyeing Stephanie. From the pocket of his robe, he pulls out some branches and throws them on the floor. He strikes them with the staff, igniting a small fire. Smoke rises instantly, and he mumbles a prayer, warding off evil spirits.
Usually, I’d put the fire out, but I indulge him and myself, because what if Stephanie really is a goddess in the flesh, or at least a blessing from the goddess Amti? I step back so the smoke doesn’t hit me directly in the face.
“This is the Ka tribe Sha-male,” I say. “Sha, this is…” I pause because I can’t pronounce her name, and the only other name I can say for her is Amti. I don’t say it.
“I don’t know what Sha-male is,” she says. “Is Sha his name or a title?”
“He’s a male who has dedicated his life in service of the goddesses. He remains nameless.”
“Oh, kind of like a priest. Hi, I’m Stephanie.”
“Amti,” the Sha-male says and lights up a feather, then leans the spear against the wall. “Amti, Amti, Amti.”
Relieved, I sigh. “I believe so, yes.”
“She has twenty digits,” he says. “Ten on her hands and ten on her feet. We only have sixteen. The goddesses have two seduction holes. Does she?”
“Yes.” I need to make sure that the other pleasure hole gets penetrated too.
The Sha-male starts chanting, moving his hands back and forth in front of my face, then in front of Stephanie. He moves away, hitting the chamber walls with the staff, blessing them, calling upon Bera so she may give Amti young. Little does he know I marked the goddess already.
There’s never a good time for this conversation, so I’ll say what I have to say. “She marked my hunter,” I begin and tilt my neck so he can see her teeth marks. He turns to glance and nods as if that’s perfectly normal, which it might be. I don’t fucking know.
“You have been chosen to serve the goddess,” he says.
Going great so far. “Naturally, I returned the marking.”
The Sha-male spins so quickly, you’d think he was a fledging on his first hunt. He’s at me in seconds, and our chests collide. His hunter glares behind the white of his eyes. Not liking his
aggression, I pull back my lip and growl a warning. “Stand back.”
He doesn’t. “How have you returned the marking?” He’s shorter than I am, so he rises on his toes.
“I released my hook.”
The Sha-male’s jaw starts expanding, and his teeth sprout. He snarls at me and stabs his staff at the floor. “How dare you mark the goddess!” he roars.
At the sign of his hunter, I continue growling, my jaw flexing, readying to expand so I can lodge my teeth in his jugular and tear it out. I struggle with control, gripping Stephanie’s hand tighter.
“Marking is forbidden. Marking a goddess is…is doom.” He grips his staff, eyes now completely those of his hunter. But he struggles. He doesn’t want to attack me. I’ll kill him.
“According to whom?” Stephanie asks calmly.
We both snap our heads to her.
She swallows, and I smell her fear, but she continues, “Marking is forbidden according to whom and marking a Goddess is doom according to whom?”
The Sha-male doesn’t look at her for long. He drops his gaze and steps back, tamping down some of his aggression. “According to our laws.”
“Written by you, the mere servants?”
He glances up. “Yes, Amti.”
“Your laws don’t apply to me. I am the goddess, after all. And if I’m gonna be a goddess, let it be of madness and lust.”
The Sha-male shakes his head. “No, no, let it not be madness and lust. Take whatever servant you want. A payment for all our mistreatment. I heard you were hungry and thirsty.”
“I was.”
The Sha-male glares at me. “How could you let her go hungry and thirsty, boy? Hm? Do you not fear madness?”
“Not really,” I say. “Not as much as I fear that I’ll have to kill my entire tribe when they try to execute a death sentence for the marking.”
The Sha-male inhales smoke. “Your males haven’t lost faith in the goddesses or in you, Hart. Only you have lost faith in both.” The Sha-male walks away, but then turns. “There’s another white pod on the tower. Perhaps you can secure another goddess. Perhaps this is the beginning of something better for us.”
“Perhaps it is.”
“Then do your duty and take your people with you.”
I nod. “There’s still a winner who has the right to claim the prize. Do we know who won?”
The portal opens, and Ark stands there, dressed in the Ra tribe’s formal wear, the clothing he’d wear to his claiming ceremony. He smiles, and as the Sha-male exits, I close the portal.
“Shit,” Stephanie says.
“You are clever. Do you believe you carry Amti in your flesh?”
“I’m not sure. We believe in one god.”
“It’s a male?”
“That’s debatable, but I think so.”
Strange. What would it be if not a male or a female? But I don’t ask because she turns to me and continues, “I mean, what girl wouldn’t want to believe she has a little goddess inside her?”
I nod. “Indeed.”
Chapter Sixteen
Stephanie
Hart paces the room, thinking out loud, including me in the decision-making process. I don’t think he understands how much I appreciate being included in the conversation that would effectively decide my fate on this planet. Because I am staying with him till the end of our time, as he’d said, and I want to know what’s going on and how to behave once we do go up top and face his tribe.
The Ra and Ka tribes are neighbors, their hunters similar to each other in shape and form. There are other tribes on this planet too, but he doesn’t mention where or how far or if they’re a threat because he seems focused on the Ra and particularly the Ra tribal Alpha, Ark, the male who won the games when Hart didn’t show up on day three.
Hart tells me of a female that landed inside Gur’s territory. This Gur wants war. Ark and Hart don’t, so they have that in common. Hart wants to come to an agreement with Ark, but he’s not sure if Ark would want to fight him for me. While he’s unafraid of Ark, he’s also apprehensive about what Ark’s death at Hart’s claws would mean. The Ra tribe would seek revenge.
Winning in the games was one thing. Issuing a challenge to the winning male another. Not to mention, Hart marked me, goddess notwithstanding. This is a problem because, as it turns out, females breed and deliver young, then leave the young to be raised by the males so they can be bred by another male and so on and so forth. Females here have more freedom than males, it appears, and that makes sense seeing that their belief system is female-centric.
The markings on the walls and the art is all feminine, and yet, the males, from what Hart describes, are larger and stronger. It’s a twisted power exchange that makes sense to him. Whichever male has a female or young and can also best all the other tribal members maintains power and is considered the top of the food chain and the leader of the tribe. Right now, Hart has what Ark needs to hold more power over his tribal members. If Ark secures a female and produces young, he’s the Rai.
The Ra haven’t announced their Rai yet, and even though Ark is presumed to be the Alpha of the tribe, until they announce the Rai, his status remains unofficial.
“Do you want to meet with him?” I ask Hart.
He grunts and walks over to the other end of the huge space that contains his chambers. With a swipe of his hand, he reveals another space, with plush fur for carpet and wooden stools arranged around a pit of some sort. I think it’s a living room.
He sits on a stool and taps the one next to his. “Come,” he says.
I join him.
A portal opens and reveals the hall once more. It’s full of males, but only Ark steps inside our living room. He swipes a hand to close the portal and goes straight for me. My heart beats a mile a minute when he bends as if to whisper in my ear. Next to me, Hart’s growl reverberates in my spine, and I lace my fingers with his while Ark pecks my cheek.
“For you,” he whispers and drops a sack into my lap.
Hart snatches it, unlaces the ties that close the sack, and pulls out a red dress even more beautiful than the blue one. Claws extended, Hart rips it down the middle. Inwardly, I cringe. What can I say? It was a beautiful dress.
Hart’s not done. He’s slashing the dress with claws and tearing into it with teeth, fabric flying everywhere. Once done, he remains sitting, glaring at Ark as if nothing happened. I pick off a piece stuck in his hair. He snatches it from my hand and eats it. Okay, then. I think we’ve established that Hart is unhappy Ark brought a gift.
“Thank you, Ark,” I say politely, not wanting to offend, mainly because I know Ark and Hart need to find common ground.
Ark takes a seat across from us. His gray-white hair is secured tightly behind his head, and he carries no weapons. “I won,” he says flatly.
“I’m sure I’ll be hearing it for the rest of my life,” Hart replies.
“A short life if you decide to fight me.”
“I doubt that very much, Ark. We’ve crossed paths before. We both know I’ll tear you to pieces.”
Ark laughs. “You’re delusional.”
Hart shakes his head, and Ark quiets, then wiggles his nose. “There’s talk of goddesses walking among us.”
“Just Amti,” I say. “For now.”
Ark’s smirk drops instantly. He blinks and looks from me to Hart.
“Don’t be scared,” Hart says. “She only bites me.” Hart tilts his head to show my teeth marks. I guess I bit him hard, because the subtle dent on his skin still shows. “I returned the marking, of course.”
Ark knocks his knuckles on his head. “Of course.” He snorts. “You selfish prick. If you’d showed up today for the games, we could’ve made a deal, and I’d have walked away. But now, you’ve placed us both in a fucked-up situation.”
“I know,” Hart says and leans his elbows on his knees.
“Why? Why? Why did you mark her?” Ark whines.
“The goddess made me do it.”
&nbs
p; I snort, holding back laughter. “He’s mad, you see.”
Hart nods. “Madness.”
“That’s my doing.” I raise my hand.
Ark makes a fist and brings it to his mouth, eyeing me warily. I think the thought of sitting across from me freaks him out a little, but he won’t admit it.
“You never competed for a female before, Ark. Don’t pretend as if you give a fuck about her.”
“I don’t, but I can’t simply walk away from the games I won. You need to give me something as a prize.”
“I’ll take care of Gur.”
“Not enough anymore.”
“Fine. What do you want?”
“Access to your portals.”
Hart leaps up to tackle Ark, but Ark is fast too. He skips to the right, jumps, and appears behind me before I can blink. He yanks my hair and puts something sharp on the pulse of my throat. I think it’s a claw.
Hart snarls, and his eyes lose the white and glow orange. “You hurt her and you’re not leaving my chambers.”
“Give me access to the portals so I can bring us more females. I will bring so many, we won’t have enough cocks for them all. But I can’t do this without you. Access to the portals and free passage for me and some of the males I take with me.”
“Why do you need access to my portals for the females?” Hart asks. Ark loosens his grip on my hair and pats my head, but won’t remove the claw from my throat. Asshole.
“They chased our warbird,” Ark says.
“They who?”
“The humans.”
“And you shook them off before you entered our space, right?” Hart looks briefly at me, then back up. I hope the glance means he remembered what I told him about the pods.
“We shook them off,” Ark says.
“How can you be sure?”
Ark remains quiet. He can’t be sure.
“Are they a threat?” Hart asks.
“Yes.”
“Where did you land, Ark?”
“Access to the portals, or I cut. She’ll bleed like a baby lettig.”
Hart’s breathing hard, almost snorting, growing bigger, muscles expanding, eyes glowing. He’s gonna lose it.
