by V. K. Ludwig
Right. Dead women made no babies…
I balanced the branch toward the trunk, where he slung his arm around my middle. He pulled me against his chest, working my legs around his hips and my arms around his neck. Like that, he grabbed for the trunk, tailclaw hacking into the bark to compensate for my weight.
“Many of the younger Jal’zar don’t speak the common language, but Mayala can translate,” he said.
Strands of my hair caught on the fissures and edges of the bark, sending a tingle across my scalp. “You don’t teach them?”
“We teach them as well as we can, but it is… inconsistent. Without access to Noja, none of them will be able to go into higher studies.”
“Why won’t you let them join another tribe?”
His movement came to a halt, and he stopped halfway down the tree to let our eyes lock. “You are not listening, Ceangal. My tribe is generations old and does not wish to dissolve and join another.”
“Perhaps they would if they wouldn’t be sitting shipwrecked somewhere in the middle of nowhere.”
Where I expected him to argue his point, maybe let his temper flare, he let his eyes meet mine. Their intensity was unnerving, but my pulse went wild when his nostrils flared as he scented me. He tilted his head slightly, letting the tip of his nose brush over my cheek, which tingled where nanites flickered beneath.
“What has your uiri bathed you with?” Short, rapid breaths came from his nose, tingling along my hairline. “You smell like honey this morning. Honey and…”
His head jerked back, and he stared at me for one uncomfortable second too long before he smelled my hand where it rested on his shoulder.
A wave of embarrassment wrapped me tight, but it drowned me when he moaned, lips curling into a satisfied smirk as he said, “If you want to taste my seed, tell me, and I will stroke it straight onto your tongue, warm and thick.”
My breathing accelerated.
My entire body shivered.
Something moved beneath my sternum.
No, not moved. Bubbled or… tugged.
An unexpected wave of heat climbed up my inner thighs, but my brain took over and shut it down. “Why won’t they accept your claim? If you are your father’s son, why all this drama?”
His smirk disappeared when his upper lip twitched, and a fat piece of bark broke off with a crrk when he pulled his tailclaw from it, continuing his descent. “Explain the situation with your armor, and I’ll tell you.”
As if I would embarrass myself like that. “Because you killed your brother? Is that the reason?”
“I don’t speak about my brother.”
As if to prove his point, he climbed down faster, once more leaving me dumb about this entire situation with his claim. Mayala hadn’t said a word either. Probably because of the way he’d hissed at her last night.
“Urizaya,” Mayala said and offered a clay mug to me. “This will help restore your energy. It is much sweeter with tjendol syrup, but the tribe’s stores are so poor I found none.”
Toagi bared his fangs at Mayala before he slipped me down and walked off toward a group of young Jal’zar males.
My fingers wrapped around the warm clay, where pink flower petals swirled on the surface. “Thank you.”
“Come and eat,” she said, gesturing me toward a set of woven grass mats at the fire.
“I need to wash my hands.”
“There is a waterskin beside the fire.”
I lowered myself onto the mat, put the mug down, and rinsed my hands. “He definitely has the equipment to access the satellite, but it’s not in any of those pouches tied to his nabu.”
“Perhaps he carries it in the pouch strapped to his loincloth.”
I hadn’t even noticed that one, but a glance over at Toagi confirmed it. “That’s a problem. I don’t want to come anywhere near his loincloth.”
She sat cross-legged on her mat, checking a stone at the edge of embers where meat sizzled atop. “He must be agonized with his ava swollen for this long.”
“His what?”
“Ava. A knot on his kuy that swells with seed.” Which had to be that bulbous gland I’d seen in the yoni. “If he bred you, your kimi would milk it from him and ease the swelling. Since you refuse him, he can only stroke it out along his shaft to relieve the pain.”
My thighs clenched at the memory of how he’d done it in the yoni. “Guess that’s a ramification he hasn’t considered.”
“I found lumps of rektu fur in the brush behind the pond. A beast that travels in small packs toward the Kekiko ridges each season where they nest during monsoon, so we must be nearby.”
“That’s helpful. Perhaps we could scout—”
“Urizaya…”
A group of females and children approached us, their heads slightly bowed as they placed beaded necklaces, painted clay mugs, and large, iridescent flowers onto my mat. Children toddled over, some of them pointing out my lack of horns, while a boy glanced behind me in search of a tail.
“May Mekara guide your spirit,” the female with the two black braids between her fawn horns said, her smile warm and sincere. “Our urizayo finally took a mate, and we are joyful over it. We will pray for your womb to receive his seed.”
I politely dipped my head, no matter how my stomach clenched. “Thank you.”
When they backed away, I turned my attention back to Mayala. “I hate being part of his lie, and having to disappoint them once this boils over.”
“It is better for now.”
“Last sun, you mentioned a rut?”
She handed me a grilled strip of meat. “Yeki. Our males can fall into a rut when our females come into heat, often all of us together. Unbonded males will scent after whichever female appeals most to them, and chase them in an attempt to perform zovazay, immediately wanting to breed them.”
I groaned at the rich flavor of coals and herbs of the meat. “Sounds barbaric.”
“A female in heat will want to be hunted and claimed. Our heat drives us as much into longing, and our bodies ache to be bred.” She gave me a sideways glance. “A bond amplifies it.”
“Yeah, well, I’m not Jal’zar.” Good thing there was no bond between Toagi and me either, no matter what Uresha claimed. “Are you saying a female never has a choice?”
“Of course, they have a choice. Some do not wish to be bonded at all, or perhaps not to a certain male no matter how he pursues her, and they will fight zovazay.”
“Fight it how?”
Mayala’s eyes caught mine, her brows furrowed as if my question was ridiculous when she said, “Kill the male, of course.”
“Of course…” Stupid question.
My eyes drifted to a clearing beside the tree, where Toagi sparred with a group of young males, teaching them some sort of stabbing technique with his tailclaw. “Is Toagi considered attractive in the eyes of a Jal’zar female?”
She grabbed some sort of yeasty dough from a clay mug and buried it beneath embers using a stick. “His hair color is rare among males. It makes him stand out, and I have seen many young females of this tribe smile at him.”
Ugh, that bubbling underneath my sternum was back. Heartburn, probably. “So why didn’t he take an urizaya sooner?”
“Perhaps because… he could not entice one with his hum.” Her face scrunched up, and she gave a dismissive swat in his direction. “His hum is so untrained and grating it makes the ushtis howl in their dens. Very poor.”
“I told him not to do it anymore.”
Mayala shrugged. “Females hum for children or when their mate is enraged. A male hums when his female is uneasy and whenever she asks for it. Fir’adi. It means, hum for me. A good mate will never refuse his hum.”
“He isn’t my mate. As soon as the Empire troops show up, Toagi will be arrested, his tribe absorbed, and I will marry Katedo. Simple as that.”
“Katedo will kill him as a matter of honor and pride alone.”
A sudden wave of nausea rose from stomach to
throat. “I will make it a condition that he remains alive. His intentions might be misguided, but he truly cares for his tribe, and I believe there is some honor in him. Killing him serves nothing but would only give this dilemma more attention, more media coverage.”
“Urizaya…” Mayala’s voice paused for longer than was comfortable, eyes downcast, posture almost submissive as she said, “I overheard him commenting on your scent earlier when he carried you.”
“So?”
“Nothing smells sweeter to a male than the scent of his mate’s kimi, especially when in heat. And nothing smells sweeter to a female than the scent of her mate’s seed.” She tortured her upper lip before she added, “I used nothing but water and jateno soap to clean you, urizaya.”
I flinched at her words.
Then I flinched again because I’d sniffed that silk.
My eyes flicked to Toagi, who rubbed a hand over the inverted triangle of his torso. Sweat glistened on deeply cut abs, corded arms, and broad shoulders. By the Three Suns, he was all male, strength, and virility. Worse yet, I noticed it as if this alien hadn’t kidnapped me.
“Coincidence. Or maybe something that was in that bun he gave me. There’s no bond.” Neither was there a tingle in my lower belly. That was just hunger. Which explained the heartburn. “What does the bond feel like anyway?”
“A bond is like a bridge between souls.” As if being a bridge between worlds wasn’t enough of a burden already, that guy wanted me to have one between souls for him to trample on, too? Absolutely not. “You will sense your mate’s joy, inner turmoil… pain placed upon his body.”
“Do you have a mate?”
Her shoulders rounded. “I once had a mate. During the war, many Jal’zar males sent their mates away to wait for their return. If bonded pairs are too close to each other and one dies suddenly, their mate might share in their death through the bond.”
Her words touched me somewhere. Back home on Earth, most people had fated mates coded into their DNA. As per genetic screening, mine had died in an accident when he was five. Apparently, a soulmate just wasn’t in the cards for me. Neither was family.
To one warlord, I was an arrangement.
To another, I was a pawn.
I shook my head. Toagi was no warlord.
“Urizaya!” A young male, his gray horns not fully grown, squatted down at the edge of my mat, flashing me a bright smile. “I, Mevin, learn your language very small.”
“You speak it well,” I said, offering him a nod of encouragement. “Who taught you?”
“Urizayo Toagi and warrior Nafir.” His pupils nervously flicked between Mayala and me, and yellow irises disappeared as he lowered his head. “I ask urizaya to learn me knowledge of Earth and other planet. The young ones wish to hear, and no teacher here has time to speak us.”
My heart ached for him. His curiosity was natural, the fact that he was stuck out here keeping him from sating it. The tribe made this location work, but it probably cost them tremendous effort, leaving little time for education, just like Toagi had mentioned.
I took his hands into mine as a friendly gesture. “If you gather all the young ones and bring them to me when the sun stands highest, I will teach you whatever I can.”
He slowly backed away, bowing so many times it made me nothing short of uncomfortable. “Thank you, urizaya.”
Mayala sighed. “If you teach them, you have less time to pursue your plan.”
“True, but it will also put Toagi at ease, fooling him into thinking I’m accepting my fate.” When Mayala glanced over her shoulder, I closed the nanites around my fingers so the fire wouldn’t burn me, and quickly grabbed that delicious bun from the ash. “Once I get a chance, I will start mapping landmarks.”
Eight
Toagi
My nostrils twitched.
Faint at first, a delicate sweetness once more drifted by, sending a whole-body shiver across my skin and straight into my groin. A greedy inhale filled my chest, lips parted so my tongue could spread it across my gums, sampling, tasting, swallowing it by the mouthful—
Something choked me.
Heat engulfed my face.
Gravity shifted.
My back hit the compacted ground.
“By Mekara, his mind wandered again.” Yelim’s tail released my neck, black braids shifting as he shook his head. “This is the third time my urizayo lies before me in the dirt this sun.”
Nafir grabbed my horn and yanked me back to my feet. “You are distracted, urizayo.”
I slapped his hand away, lips curling over my fangs as a deep growl vibrated at the back of my throat. It ended in a warning hiss, underlining the whistle of my tailclaw as it cut through the air, my veins boiling hot.
“I’d say there’s a hint of breeding aggression there, too,” Yelim added, his grin so smug I wanted to punch it. “Easy, urizayo. Zovazay dulled her scent. I cannot perceive it.”
Nafir swatted him away, and waited until Yelim strolled out of sight before he eyed me warily. “Has she come into heat?”
“I believe she is only approaching it,” I murmured, brushing ash and grit off me. “It is different than that of a Jal’zar female but so alluring, sleeping beside her is torture.”
“She hears your call through the bond, yes?”
I scoffed and raked a hand through my hair, gaze drifting to where Ceangal sat surrounded by children. “She says she feels no bond, and I’m starting to believe it. Each sun, I patiently await her approach. Each sun, she mostly ignores me, seeking the silence of the plains instead.” But it was the words that followed that ached deep at my core. “She won’t even accept my hum.”
He gave a pat on my back. “She will come.”
Maybe. Or maybe I’d made a fool of myself when I told her in all my glorious arrogance that she would beg for my seed. Even after she’d found the silk drenched with it, planted there to entice her, she showed no interest. Which meant she’d gone through my stuff and had come across it by pure chance instead of lured by her bond.
“Look at her.” I jutted my chin toward Ceangal, the pride swelling inside my chest like a taunt. “That is an urizaya if I have ever seen one. A couple of suns, and the children love her already.”
Ceangal stroked slender fingers over her cheeks, her skin now dotted with something she told me are freckles. Within suns, they’d sprouted on her face and arms, adding an entirely new dimension for me to stare at whenever she dozed off in our nabu during high heat.
That smile she carried when she taught the children the common language sent unwelcome flickers of warmth through my chest. I couldn’t soften toward her. Not until I’d achieved my goal.
Nafir cleared his throat. “But you sense the bond, do you not?”
“Sense it?” A bitter scoff ripped from my throat. It consumed me, ate me from the inside, devoured me. “Nothing is going the way I’d pictured it.”
Namely, her succumbing to the bond within a sun, arching her back to present me her cunt, and begging me to breed her. Had I expected that I would lose myself to zovazay? Yes, but why so fast? Why alone?
Nafir dragged his fangs over his upper lip, which ripped a sigh from me. “Just say what you have to say. What is it you disagree with?”
“Urizayo, there is something I wanted to bring to your attention.” His posture stiffened further, lips parting, shoving, closing as if he couldn’t quite find the words at first. “Twice, I have witnessed how she willed her armor when she thought nobody was looking.”
“She cannot use her armor.” Unless she escaped my touch no matter how small, but those occasions seemed to be more reflex than anything. “No, it’s quite impossible.”
“Yelim can attest to it,” he said, twisting my guts into a knot. “You told me she didn’t close her armor when you took her. Why not?”
I could only shrug since I’d wondered the same, and now the word of two warriors I trusted with my life added to the confusion. “What’s your take on it?”
“What if you have been set up?”
The deeper he inhaled, the harder my pulse throbbed. “She might have come more willingly than it first appeared, and is trying to hide her full skill set.”
I swallowed past a lump in my throat, reminding myself that I tended to see conspiracies in every corner, because my past had never left me another choice but to expect betrayal. “She tried to fight me off. Even pointed a gun at me.”
“Yet she did not pull the trigger and has been rather cooperative ever since you captured her. What if her fault does not lie in her inability to will her armor, but in how they’d flickered although she tried to make herself look harmless?”
And she couldn’t keep them down at my touch since she knew of my intentions, which would explain why she’d encapsulated herself when she figured it out in the yoni. It was all possible. Katedo ruled over the largest tribe, but Razgar would go to great lengths to absorb my people and strengthen his power. What if they’d outsmarted me?
“I cannot believe that someone from my tribe would betray me.”
“You lead us well, urizayo, and work as hard as any male,” Nafir said. “We bribed two Noja technicians for information on her arrival. They might have talked. What if Katedo and the Empire equipped her with a transponder?”
Then the other warlords would find my tribe the moment the storms in the north cleared and revealed it. Something they hadn’t managed this far since I knew how to mislead their scouts. But with a transponder planted amidst my tribe? They could easily track me down, kill me, and take what was mine… and no interstellar media would be there to act shocked.
Many Jal’zar considered an inter-racial soulbond impossible. Katedo was one of them. Perhaps they did set me up, thinking not too much damage could be done if only they found me quickly enough. Clearly, they knew Ceangal wouldn’t come in heat for a while, considering they hadn’t bothered putting her on a suppressant.
“And you said Yelim can confirm this?”
Nafir grunted, and he was right to take offense in my question, given his unquestionable loyalty. “She has proven amicable, has she not?”
