by Sonia Nova
CHAPTER 9
OLIVIA
Olivia woke up with a chill. She was still wrapped in the parachute and the fire was still radiating some heat. Kraev must have kept it going while she slept, but it wasn’t enough to ward off the wind that had started whistling into the cave. She hoped it would calm down soon.
She looked up at the thought of Kraev and saw her match standing in the doorway to the cave, tense as he watched the sky. Based on the amount of light, it seemed to be nearly morning.
“Still fighting?” she asked.
The sudden sound of her voice didn’t seem to startle him. Instead, he just nodded. “Yes. Still fighting.” He turned to her. “Did you sleep well? You didn’t seem to be moving around much.”
“Well enough,” she said. The ground had been a bit hard to fall asleep on, but once she was asleep, she slept like a log. It was a special talent of hers. “I have no idea how long I slept for.”
“Long enough that you should feel rested.” He moved away from the mouth of the cave and came to sit beside her next to the fire.
Having him next to her immediately warmed her chilled body a little bit. She wanted to curl into his embrace and accept that warmth properly. She immediately chastised herself for the though and wrapped her arms around her middle instead.
“Hungry?” he asked, misinterpreting her gesture.
Now that he’d mentioned it though, her stomach rumbled. “Actually, yes. Starving. I can’t remember the last time I didn’t eat for this long.”
He grabbed a bag from beside the fire and retrieved two bars in what looked like white candy wrappers. He handed one to her and took one for himself.
Dare she hope for chocolate?
Olivia eagerly opened the packaging, but what she found inside was definitely not chocolate. Or any candy that she recognized for that matter. It was a smooth bar of… something. It was deep turquoise like the color of Kraev’s eyes and the consistency was a little squidgy. She tried not to look too skeptical about it and took a hearty bite. Her nose wrinkled.
It tasted strange. Not bad but not really like anything she’d had before either. It was thick and dry, with a cookie-like consistency, but it tasted a little bit like how she imagined sawdust would taste.
She was a little relieved when Kraev pulled a similar expression to her own.
“I’ve never had to eat the emergency rations before,” he admitted. “They are… not ideal.”
She laughed and grabbed the bottle of water, careful not to drink too much of it. She didn’t know whether they’d be able to get any more drinking water. This bar was so dry though that she wasn’t going to be able to eat it without a good helping of water.
“They’re not so bad,” she lied.
He frowned at her. “You don’t have to be polite about this terrible food. It’s not made to be tasty,” he said. “It’s pure protein. If we were stuck out here for days or weeks, I wouldn’t be complaining, I suppose.”
“So, what is food like here?” she asked. “If it’s not like this.”
“Delicious.” He smiled. “We have greenhouses on the planet. They’re huge domes in the foothills of the volcano that houses the main base. You can’t see them from here – they’re on the other side of the mountains – but they grow amazing fruits. You’ll like it there, I think. They’re one of my favorite places on R-2841.”
Olivia liked the idea of huge greenhouses. She’d lived in the suburbs when she was younger and there’d been a lot more greenery than central Minneapolis, which was where she’d ended up while she was in medical school.
“I can’t wait to see them,” she said.
He grinned at her.
“Is it okay if I go and have a look outside?” she asked. “I mean, not to actually go outside, just to look from the entrance. I haven’t seen it properly yet. Your planet.”
She thought he was going to say no when he hesitated, but then he nodded. “Okay. I haven’t seen anything flying low or in this direction in a while. Just stay as out of sight as you can.”
It was only when she went to stand up that the pain in her ankle exploded. She groaned, seeing stars for a moment.
“Dammit,” she muttered. “I forgot how bad this thing was. I’d been distracted.”
Kraev was immediately by her side, putting a hand on her arm and letting her know that she could put her weight on him if she needed to. She tested her ankle again, and this time, it wasn’t quite so bad.
“I think the shock of putting weight on it just surprised me,” she said. It still ached, but it wasn’t the intense pain that she’d experienced just now. The medicine had probably helped as well. She limped toward the edge of the cave and peered out onto the planet that was now her home, as odd as it felt to think that.
Her breath caught in her throat as she looked out over the foreign world. It was bleak and grey. All she could see were the rocky mountains surrounding them. They disappeared high up into the clouds and formed a deep ravine in the distance. A freezing wind bit at her cheeks and she could barely see a single piece of wildlife as she looked out over what appeared to be endless snow and ice. Yet, it was oddly beautiful.
“This is the first time I’ve been out in the mountains,” Kraev said, coming up behind her. “There’s no reason to, normally. I’ve only seen it from above before, on a ship. But it’s actually quite beautiful out here.”
“It really is,” she replied, leaning closer to him before she could stop herself. It was just for warmth, she told herself. Kraev seemed to constantly radiate heat and it was only natural for her to seek it in the freezing weather.
Still, a part of her couldn’t help but wish that Kraev would wrap his arms around her while they watched over the icy scenery.
“Not that this is how I planned things going when I got my match,” he muttered.
Unable to resist, she turned to him and asked, “What was your plan? If everything had gone perfectly?”
“I have a gift in my quarters,” he said, looking at her in the eye. “I’ve had it for years, waiting for when I’d be matched. Now, because I haven’t given it to you straight away, I’m worried that it isn’t good enough.”
Warmth invaded Olivia at his thoughtfulness. He’d gotten her a gift. It was so sweet. This wasn’t what she’d been expecting from her Mahdfel match at all. He wasn’t rough or harsh or insistent on keeping her locked away. She’d thought that becoming a Mahdfel bride would be horrifying, that she’d be matched to some brute and forced to make babies.
But her match actually seemed kind. He was sweet and strong, and he seemed desperate to please her. It was rather endearing.
The realization that she actually liked him hit her like a train. It shouldn’t have. She’d spent the last few hours before sleeping trying not to throw herself at him, but that had just been lust. She hadn’t thought she liked him. But she did. She actually wanted to spend time with him. She liked just sitting and talking to him.
If only he was on Earth and not here, on this desolate planet that the Suhlik were so determined to take control of. She could be back with her family and her career and he could become a part of her world. There was still fighting to do against the Suhlik back on Earth. Or at least, the planet needed to be protected. He could transfer there, right?
Yet, she knew that wasn’t how it worked.
“I’m sure whatever your gift is, it’ll be perfect,” she said with a smile. “It’s nice of you to have gotten me something.”
The tattoos on his skin flared to life and his turquoise eyes glittered as he gazed at her. “It’s a tradition on Raewan,” he explained. “The male always gives their mate a gift, to show his commitment to her. To show that he can take care of her.”
Olivia smiled, blushing slightly at the glow of his tattoos. “Well, you’ve definitely taken care of me so far,” she replied. “Keeping me alive is the biggest gift you could have given.”
“You helped keep me alive too. Is that an Earth tradition?”
> It took her a moment to realize he was teasing her. She chuckled. “I’d like to avoid any traditions that involve us nearly dying.”
They both turned back to the entrance to the cave and Kraev pointed up toward the sky. “The battle seems to be dying down,” he said. “We should start moving. I can go for a while without food, but I don’t think you’d fare as well. Besides, the wreckage of the ship is clearly visible. If we’re unlucky, Suhlik might track us by using it. We should get as far away from here as possible.”
Olivia nodded. “Okay.” But she was worried about her ankle. Descending through the snowy foothills wasn’t going to be easy walking and she wasn’t sure she could have managed a lot of walking even on flat, even ground. The medicine might help with the pain, but that didn’t mean it was smart to put weight on her foot. “We’ll see how it goes.”
She looked longingly at the fire and the parachute that had barely kept her warm last night. She wasn’t looking forward to this walk at all. But Kraev had seemed so confident that she could manage it, and she wanted to live up to his expectations of her.
She limped back inside the cave and sat down by the medical kit. She took another one of the pain killers and pulled out some bandage material, wrapping it around her ankle. She hoped it would provide some much-needed support for the walk, but she knew it wouldn’t be much help.
“I’m going to melt some snow over the fire so we can get some more water to drink,” Kraev said, “and then we’ll set off.”
Thankfully, he picked up the parachute and loaded it into a bag on his back as best as he could, and brought the rest of the rations they had with them. The first aid kit and the drinking water he’d just melted came too.
She felt terrible looking at him loaded up with all those things. He hadn’t put his torn shirt back on and she could clearly see his muscles bulge under the weight. He was obviously a thousand times stronger than her, but he was also still covered in wounds. While they were obviously healing faster than they would have on any human, it didn’t mean seeing the gashes became any easier.
“Do you want me to carry anything?” she asked, leaning against the wall of the cave to take the weight off her ankle.
“Of course not,” he replied. “You’re injured. It’s going to be tough enough as it is.”
She couldn’t really argue with that, so they started out as they were. She stuck as close beside him as she could, feeling unsteady on the rocky ground. The painkiller did its job surprisingly well. It held the worst of the pain away, but her ankle was still unreliable at best.
From the cave, she’d been able to see some of the landscape, but now that they were outside and the sun was higher in the sky, she could properly appreciate what she’d missed in the semi-darkness of the morning.
The moons were everywhere. There must have been fifteen of them that she could see in the sky, all of various sizes, though she wasn’t sure if that was because they were further or closer away, or just because they were different sizes.
And then there was the landscape. As bleak and hostile as it had looked, in the light of day, she could see the slight blue tint to the snow that covered the ground. She could also see settlements in the ravine that she hadn’t noticed before. Or were they settlements? They were just too far away for her to discern the shapes.
“What’s that?” she asked Kraev, gesturing toward them.
“That’s a mining rig,” he replied. “One of the farthest ones out. The main volcano base and the other volcanic areas on the planet are the biggest sources of hellstone, but there are smaller concentrations all across the planet. We are always on the lookout for more.”
Olivia squinted in the direction of the rigs, trying to see better. “Do people live there?”
Kraev shook his head. “There’s not really any need to actually force people to go out and live on the rigs or spend all their days there. All our mining is done by machinery and it’s monitored from our base in the volcano. We simply collect the hellstone whenever there’s enough of it. We haven’t had a problem with the equipment since we discovered the hellstone here and that was nearly four decades ago.”
Olivia whistled, and secretly thought, Well, that’s due a disaster then. Out loud, she said, “A volcano base sounds pretty cool. I used to be fascinated by volcanoes when I was younger.”
“There are no volcanoes near my home,” Kraev replied. “Living in one was a bit scary at first.”
“You? Scared?” she asked in disbelief.
He grinned. “Suhlik are predictable. Nature, not so much.”
Olivia chuckled. She couldn’t argue with that.
CHAPTER 10
KRAEV
Kraev slowed his pace considerably as they started down some of the steeper declines that would lead them onto the icy tundra in front of them. He was on high alert, watching out for possible dangers around them and ready to catch Olivia the second she looked unstable.
He hated that his mate was injured, but a part of him couldn’t help but also be proud of her. She was doing surprisingly well despite her injured ankle. She clearly knew the importance of staying on the move. Although the ankle clearly caused her discomfort even after taking the medicine, she didn’t complain once.
It bothered Kraev how out in the open they were. Ships were still in the skies, even if the battle wasn’t raging as brutally as it had been. A Suhlik ship could easily spot them out here in the foothills without any cover, and if it was him versus a ship, he knew there was no chance of him coming out the victor.
He constantly kept one eye on the sky and one on his mate.
When they hit a rather flat stretch, he stopped and offered Olivia a bottle of water and another painkiller. They were nearly out of the medicine, but she looked like she was struggling more and more. Her light hair was tousled around her face and perspiration shone on her skin.
She took the bottle eagerly, flashing him a strained grin. “Thanks.”
His chest ached at the pained expression on her face.
“Do you want me to carry you for a bit?”
She flushed, looking uncertainly at him. “You’re already carrying so many things.”
“I am quite strong,” he teased, hoping to gain a smile from her, but the words had no effect. She looked completely exhausted, and once they’d stopped, he could tell that she was shivering in the cold weather.
Yet, she didn’t want him to carry her. Somewhere deep inside, that knowledge hurt him. She had shied away from him at the teleport base too, hadn’t wanted him to touch her. Had he done something wrong? Did his mate dislike him?
At the same time, Kraev had realized that it was important for his human mate to feel useful. In her eyes, she was probably dragging him down right now, as if she ever could. What she didn’t understand was that carrying his mate would never be a problem for him.
“We are too out in the open right now,” Kraev said, changing tactics. His mate was exceptionally intelligent, and although he didn’t want to worry her, maybe logic would work on her instead. “We should move as quickly as possible, and there may be paths further ahead where it will not be possible for me to carry you. It would be good to give your ankle a rest when you can.”
Olivia glanced down at her ankle, then at the backpack on his back, clearly still hesitant. “Let me wear the backpack and then you can carry me,” she finally said.
Kraev smiled. His mate was stubborn. It amused him, because he was stubborn too. The fates really had matched him with the most perfect female for him.
He handed the backpack to Olivia, and she huffed as she took it from him. Kraev’s heart jumped as she nearly tripped under its weight trying to put it on. He immediately rushed to her side, grabbing the backpack from her. It was clearly too heavy for her.
“It’s– It’s fine,” she said, still holding onto the backpack. “I’m just going to take the parachute out, okay? We don’t need it.”
“No.” Kraev shook his head. She was already shivering in the
current weather and he knew the nights in the mountains would be even colder. “Let me take the backpack. I can carry it across my chest and you on my back. It will be fine.”
The look his mate gave him nearly pierced his heart. Her brown eyes were wide and she looked close to tears. She was cold, in pain, and out of strength. Guilt filled him at not being able to care for her more properly.
“It will be fine,” he repeated, brushing his fingers against Olivia’s cheek. “Please, Olivia. Let me have it.”
Finally, she seemed to relent. She let go of the backpack and Kraev swung it across his chest. He knelt down so that Olivia could climb onto his back and, hesitantly, her fingers wrapped around his shoulders. Her body was tense but warm against his. He still hadn’t put on his ruined shirt, and though she was clothed, he loved the feel of her against his naked back.
After making sure he had a good grip on her and that she was comfortable, he started walking down the flat terrain. At last, she began to relax.
“You’re warm,” she mumbled against his back. “Maybe this carrying thing was a good idea, after all.”
Kraev chuckled, pleased that she was feeling better. “I only have good ideas,” he said.
Olivia laughed and the pleasant timbre of it made the tattoos on his body tingle. She clearly noticed their glow, because she traced a finger across the one on his shoulder.
“What are the tattoos of?” she asked.
“They’re tattoos of the battles I’ve fought,” he said. “I know it’s not obvious from looking at them, but when a battle happens, a specific symbol is created to signify victory or bravery in that fight.” He gestured to the one on his shoulder that she had touched. “This was a previous battle on R-2841. I was the pilot with the most Suhlik ships destroyed.”
