“I’m human,” Marissa replied, “but I’m as Lycaon as any of the others. I’m Caleb’s mate, and he’s Alpha of the faction. I couldn’t stay with them if I wasn’t a member of the pack.”
Chris started back. “Pack! What pack?”
“The Lycaon live in packs,” Marissa replied. “That’s one thing that distinguishes them from the other factions. They migrate through the woods in temporary dwellings and dens, but the pack structure takes precedence over everything else.” She gazed into the distance. “I suppose that’s what attracted me to them in the first place.”
“Not Caleb?” Chris asked.
Marissa chuckled. “That too.”
Chris shot a sidelong glance at the tall leader. His dark hair spread back from his forehead in smooth ripples to his sharp pointed ears, and his eyes flashed over his surroundings with practiced acuity. He knew and understood every detail of his territory. He strode among his people issuing orders in a low voice. The others hurried to obey him, and the column functioned at its best from his direction.
Then Chris noticed what they were doing. The Lycaon collected poles from the woods and laid them out near the fallen women. They constructed litters to carry them. Caleb ordered his people to carry out Marissa’s suggestion. They planned to carry the women who collapsed. Marissa directed Caleb from behind the scenes, and he used his authority to do as she told him.
Chris took a closer look at Marissa. She kept a keen eye on everything her people did, especially Caleb. “It must have been hard for you to lose everything the way you did. You lost your life back on Earth and had to start all over again here.”
“It wasn’t so hard,” Marissa replied. “I didn’t have much back on Earth to lose, and the pack gave me everything I ever wanted. I have a family. I have a loving mate. I have a place in the world now. I never had that before.”
“But you’re a different species from them,” Chris pointed out. “You might never be able to have children with Caleb.”
“Yes, I can,” Marissa told her. “Aria has twin children with her Ursidrean mate and another set of twins on the way, and Penelope Ann is pregnant, too. We’re close enough to them biologically to reproduce.”
Chris grimaced and turned away. “I could never do it with an alien. I would puke.”
Marissa snorted. “You’re not so different from me. You’ve lost everything you ever had on Earth, too. In fact, I’ll bet you lost a lot more than I did. When you’ve been here a while, you’ll see the Angondrans as human, just like we do. Then maybe you won’t puke when one of them wants to mate with you.”
The Lycaons shouldered their litters and carried the crash survivors into the gathering evening gloom. Chris and Marissa and the other women who could still walk followed behind. Turk and Caleb came last.
The column traced its way through miles of trackless forests. Two ghostly moons sailed through the heavens, but Chris barely caught a glimpse of them through the treetops. The darker the night, the more comfortable the Lycaon warriors became. They stiffened on their guard when they broke cover and entered open places in the forest. They only relaxed again when the trees closed around them.
Hours into the night, clouds covered the moons and heavy rain set in, but they never slackened their pace. Marissa kept up with them, and Chris steeled herself to match their stride, too. She couldn’t let her circumstances defeat he.
All night they trekked until the rain slackened and cleared. The moons set, and morning light set the treetops on fire. The forest burst into life, with the noisy calls of animals echoing through the woods. Clouds of steam rose from the forest floor and evaporated into the sky.
One by one, the human women from the crash site dropped to the ground, unable to go on. And one by one, the Lycaon picked them up and carried them forward. In the end, only Chris and Marissa remained on their feet, but when dawn broke, Chris’ knees wobbled under her. She couldn’t go much farther, but she refused to ask Marissa how far they had to go before they would reach their destination.
Marissa showed no signs of flagging. Chris gritted her teeth and walked on. As long as Marissa kept going, she would stay on her feet, too. Then, without warning, the Lycaon at the front of the column set down their litters and sat down on the ground. Chris stopped, too, but before she could ask any questions, she saw it.
Across a small clearing, an untidy pile of sticks and leaves rose from the ground under an enormous tree. Poles stretched down to the ground from the tree’s lower branches, and the sticks and leaves lay in bundles against these poles. A Lycaon woman squatted in front of it, and two little children huddled at her feet.
Bright red hair ran back from her face and down her neck. The children looked just like her, with the same red hair and the same square cut to their facial features. They stared at Chris and inched closer to the woman.
A Lycaon left his litter and approached them. He squatted next to the woman and ruffled one of the children's hair. Then he surveyed the new arrivals as if seeing them for the first time.
Some of the warriors left the column and strode into the trees. Other piles of debris scattered through the forest. The warriors disappeared into them. These must be the temporary dwellings Marissa told Chris about. The closer she looked, the more dwellings she noticed. A whole village of them spread through the forest.
Chris stopped at the edge of the clearing. Lycaon of every age and color came out of their dwellings and stared at the women on the litters. Chris flushed bright red. Would these aliens really take them in and care for them? She had only the word of a woman she just met that they would.
Turk and Caleb strode past Chris and Marissa into the clearing. Caleb called to his people, and one by one, they took custody of the women. One by one, they led the new arrivals away to their dwellings. In a few cases, they picked them up and carried them away.
Chris watched them disappear into their make-shift shelters until only she and Marissa remained in the clearing with the last of the warriors. She couldn’t exactly call these women her friends, but they'd been kidnapped together and crashed together. Now they were vanishing before her eyes, just like Sasha. No sooner did someone come into her life than they passed out of it without a word of warning.
Chris’s gaze met Marissa’s frank eyes, but she didn’t have the courage to ask the question that plagued her mind. Marissa smiled at her. “You’re going with Turk. He’ll give you something to eat and a warm bed. The world will look a lot brighter in the morning.”
Chris glanced across the clearing. Turk stood next to Caleb near the now-empty litters. He studied her from afar with his sharp eyes. Chris snorted. “I’m not going anywhere with him.”
Marissa started back. “Why not? He won’t hurt you, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“I’m not worried about him hurting me,” Chris shot back. “I’d smash his head in if he tried. But I’m not going anywhere near him, not after the way he attacked me last night. I wouldn’t go within a hundred miles of him.”
Marissa stared at her. “You’re the one who attacked him, remember? All he did was hold you still until you calmed down.”
Chris turned away. “Find another place for me. I don’t care where, but I’m not going with him.”
“You can’t be serious,” Marissa exclaimed.
Chris rounded on her. “You can’t expect a single woman to stay with a single man. He could do anything he wanted, and I would have to defend myself anyway I could. Even these crazy people must have some laws about that.”
Marissa laughed. “So that’s what you’re worried about? Well, you don’t have to worry. He lives with his mother and two sisters and his sister’s two children. You won’t be alone with him, and his mother will make sure you’re comfortable and you have everything you need. Does that satisfy you?”
Chris turned away again. Turk stood in the same spot. His ears twitched toward her. He heard every word she said. “Forget it. I’m not going
with him.”
Marissa sighed. “Then you better come with me. It’s the only other place in the village. If you don’t want to come with me, you can sleep right here on the ground if you’d rather.” She walked away into the trees.
Chris couldn’t see any dwelling in that direction, but no one else remained in the clearing but Turk and Caleb. Caleb murmured something to Turk and strode after Marissa, leaving only Turk staring at her.
Chris stared back at him, and their eyes sparked in the space between them. Why couldn’t she accept basic hospitality from these people? They didn’t kidnap her to be sold into slavery. They brought her to safety when she had no prospects at all, and now the Lycaon took her into their homes to give her shelter. What more could she ask for?
But it wasn’t the Lycaon she couldn’t accept. Not even their great size and strange features could make her throw their hospitality back in their faces like that. It was him—Turk. She couldn’t accept it from him, not even if it came from his mother and his sisters and his sister’s children. He caused a reaction in her she couldn’t handle. She couldn’t go home with him, no matter how much she needed shelter. She would rather sleep on the ground.
He put his arms around her and held her against his body. He imprinted his essence on her skin, and even now, more than twelve hours later, she couldn’t shake it off. He was still in contact with her now, even when he stood across the clearing and stared at her, and she couldn’t stand it.
She stared at him as long as she could, but he had all the advantage. This was his territory, his home village. She was the stranger here, the outsider, the alien from another planet. She spun on her heel and hurried after Marissa.
Marissa was long gone, but Chris caught sight of Caleb and followed him to another dwelling tucked far back into the trees. She never could have found it without following him. He didn’t go inside, though. He went around behind it and disappeared still farther back into the dense forest. Chris ducked into the entrance with a sigh of relief.
Chapter 4
A hole in the roof let a shaft of light into one round room inside the dwelling. Dust filled the beam of light and obscured the surroundings. Only a shadow on the far side of the room showed Chris where Marissa was. She sat next to a smoldering fire in a pit, and Chris barely recognized her.
She wore a light top of pale tanned animal skin hanging off one shoulder, and another wrap of animal skin around her waist, but her legs and arms shone bare and bright in the light streaming down from overhead. Her shoulders hung rounded and relaxed from her body, instead of standing square and sharp the way they did when Chris met her at the crash site.
She smiled at Chris. “So you decided to come after all. I wondered if you would, or if you would settle down in the clearing.” She laughed to herself. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you did.”
Chris blushed and dropped her eyes. “You fit right in here. I didn’t think you could. I thought you’d be too different from those... those people.”
Marissa chuckled. She picked up an earthenware pot and set it on the glowing coals. She dropped a handful of dried herbs into the water and stirred them with her forefinger. “It took me a while to relax here. It took me almost six months before I would take off the clothes I was wearing when the Romarie abducted us. I wouldn’t wear these skins. I thought I wouldn’t be human anymore if I changed my clothes.”
“Are you still human?” Chris asked. “Do the...whatever you call ‘ems....to they keep their distance from you because you’re a different species?”
“I’m not a different species,” Marissa replied. “The pack is everything to the Lycaon. If you belong to the pack, nothing else matters. I’m Caleb’s mate, and the pack worried he would never find one after the plague. So the whatever you call ‘ems are very happy to have me. They don’t treat me any differently than they would a female of their own species.”
Chris couldn’t look her in the eye. “I don’t think I could ever live like this.”
Marissa regarded her for a moment. Then she waved her hand. “Sit down. You can’t stand there all day long.”
Chris hesitated. If she sat down, she had no choice but to sit on the floor. And what was so bad about that? She’d sat on the cold, dirty ground dozens of times on camping trips back home. Yet somehow, sitting down on the dirt in this hovel carried a finality she couldn’t face. If she sat down here, across from Marissa, she would be accepting this life as her own. She would be accepting her fate, that she was on this crazy planet for good, and she would never get home again.
None of the other women would suffer these doubts. The Lycaon carried them into their houses and laid them on the floor, or on the bed, or wherever they laid them, no questions asked. They were here, whether they wanted to be or not. They had a long way to go to recover from their ordeal with the Romarie before they started wondering if they belonged on Angondra or not.
Only Chris was strong enough and healthy enough to worry about getting stuck in this place. Only someone as fortunate as herself, with hands outstretched on all sides to help her and make her comfortable, could doubt the blessing of her circumstances. She had to shoulder this burden alone. No one would help her cross the gap between herself and Angondra.
She raised her eyes and found Marissa watching her. She read every nuance of Chris’s expression, and a twinkle of understanding danced in her eyes. She’d lived all those doubts and anxieties herself before settling into this life. If anyone could help Chris bridge that gap, it was Marissa.
Chris lowered her eyes again.
Marissa pursed her lips. “Sit down....Sorry. I don’t even know your name.”
“Chris.” The memory of Sasha lying lifeless and still flashed through her mind. Sasha lay across the body of the Romarie who killed her, out there in the rain-drenched field, where Chris left her. She would never be buried. Chris swallowed hard. “I'm Chris Sebastiani. From Humboldt, California.”
Marissa smiled again. “All right, Chris Sebastiani, from Humboldt, California. Have a seat and drink a cup of tea. You’ll feel better.”
Chris looked around the room again, like that was going to do her any good. Not one piece of furniture occupied the perimeter of the dwelling. Only indiscriminate bundles lined the circular walls. An assortment of furs and blankets lay in a pile under one of the lodge poles. Chris blushed again. Marissa slept with Caleb on those furs. Where would she sleep? She might wake up in the night to the sound of them mating.
Marissa’s eyes pierced Chris’s soul. “Sit down, Chris. I won’t bite you, and you’re making me nervous, standing there. You’re a guest in my home, and I’ve offered you a cup of tea. The least you can do is sit down.”
Chris hesitated one more minute.
Marissa’s voice softened. “Sit down, Chris. You won’t lose your humanity by sitting down and drinking a cup of tea. If anything, it will help you stay human.”
Chris buckled. So Marissa understood after all. She wasn’t alone. Chris inched her way around the fire and sat down near Marissa. She folded her legs under her and stared down at her hands. “Sorry. I don’t mean to be so rude. I don’t know how to understand all this.”
Marissa took the pot off the fire and poured steaming tea into a cup. She handed it to Chris. “You don’t have to understand it. In a lot of ways, the others have it easier than you. They don’t have to wonder if they’re doing the right thing by accepting the Lycaon’s hospitality. You’re the only one who has to think about it.”
“I just don’t want to get stuck here,” Chris explained. “I want to go home.”
Marissa nodded. “I know. But you have to remember you’re not signing any contract by spending the night here. You’re not agreeing to anything. You’re just spending the night. You can decide to leave first thing in the morning, and the Lycaon will send you on your way.”
“I’d have nowhere to go,” Chris pointed out.
“You could go to one of the other factions,” Ma
rissa pointed out. “When the other factions find out we have a bunch of Earth females here from a crashed Romarie vessel, they may want to take some of them in. The other factions are just as desperate as we are for females. I’m sure the Alphas will have to negotiate about it.”
Chris’s eyes widened. “You wouldn’t sell these women to the other factions, would you? That would make you just as bad as the Romarie.”
“We wouldn’t sell anybody,” Marissa replied. “No one would go anywhere or do anything against their will. But these women have to find homes somewhere, and families somewhere. If they don’t want to stay with the Lycaon, they can go somewhere else. I’m sure some of them would be more comfortable with the Felsite, or with the Ursidreans, the same way my friends were. I can contact them and find out if they have room in their own factions.”
Chris shook her head. “I don’t like this. You make it sound like some kind of mail-order bride service you’re running.”
Marissa patted her hand. “You’re a really good person, aren’t you? You don’t even know these women, and you want to protect them and make sure no one exploits them again the way the Romarie did. You’re a natural leader. Well, don’t worry. Nothing will happen to them until they recover their strength. Then they can decide for themselves where to go.”
“I’m sure some of them will want to go home, too,” Chris pointed out.
Marissa gazed down into the fire. “I’m sure they will.”
Chris peered into her tea cup. She still didn’t dare to put it to her lips. “I wish Sasha was here. She’s much more of a natural leader than I am. She was going through the crash site checking on everybody when you showed up.”
Marissa shrugged. “Sasha’s not here anymore, but you are. You have to be the leader now, and as long as I’m around, no one will do anything to those women. You have my word on that.”
At that moment, Caleb entered the room, followed by Turk. Caleb scanned the room and nodded. Turk frowned when he saw Chris. Then he turned his eyes away. Caleb sat down next to Marissa and kissed her on the cheek. Turk sat across the fire, as far away from Chris as he could get.
Rohn (Dragons of Kratak Book 1) Page 23
