by R. E. Butler
He went to his knees next to her. “You have time now.”
“I just realized that. I don’t have anywhere to rush to because the future is wide open here. It’s freeing in a way I didn’t expect. When I agreed to come with you, I was so happy to have a sexy male like you want me for a mate. I didn’t know what wonderful things would come along with that. You gave me time. I don’t know if I can ever thank you enough for that.”
He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles. “My sweet Pilar, my life is full now because of you. You can only thank me if you let me also thank you.”
She smiled and it was his favorite one, her eyes glittering with happiness. “We’ll thank each other, then.”
He kissed her, cupping her face and rubbing her soft skin with his thumbs, and then he settled next to her, leaning back on his elbows. She laid next to him, her gaze turned to the setting sun where the sky slipped from a pale purple to one that bordered black. The twin moons rose, their soft blue light coupling with the stars, making for a spectacular scene.
“I don’t think I paid much attention to the sky before either,” he said.
“It’s beautiful here.”
It was a perfect backdrop for their night. He sat up and used two rocks to light small candles he’d brought to illuminate their meal. Then he took the rings from his pocket, his mind spinning as he thought over what he wanted to say to her. It wasn’t just that he was happy to have found his soul mate; it was that she was everything he’d ever wanted and a lot that he hadn’t even known was important. She was not just beautiful, but smart and creative. Life had given her a raw deal in being unable to bear children, but although she’d been hurt being unmated and judged on her womb alone, she had still built a life for herself that was rich with friends.
“Pilar, when I broke into your home, I knew you were my soul mate. Your scent called to me in a way that I never experienced before. I know we’ve only been together for a short time, but it’s enough for me to know that you’re perfect for me. I’ll do my best to make you happy, to provide a safe home for you, and to build a life together. Will you be my soul mate?”
He held her ring between his thumb and forefinger. She sat up slowly, her mouth open as she stared at the ring.
“Does it… is it like the mating jewelry my people use?”
He shook his head. When Sloan and Warrick had first come to their city, he’d seen their mating jewelry. The females wore a gemstone necklace that matched the gemstone bracelet the males wore. Digital information inside the jewelry proved that the male and female were soul mates, at least in the eyes of the government. They had destroyed their mating jewelry before they came to live here, in case there were trackers inside.
“Paoli made these for us. I talked to him earlier today while you were resting. I told you in the cavern that I wanted to ask you to be mine properly.”
“Of course I’ll be yours, Villi.”
He pushed the ring onto her finger and then handed her the other one so she could give it to him.
She looked at the ring. It was identical to hers, a simple metal band that contained their names stamped into the metal on the interior. “Should I say something to you?”
“You can if you want. This is for us. Our people don’t have a mating ceremony like they do on the other side.”
She was quiet for a moment as she looked at his ring. A tear tracked down her cheek and he brushed it away with his thumb. “I want to promise to be the best mate to you, Villi. I want to make you proud to have me as your mate, and I want to have an amazing life together. Whatever comes, I feel like we can handle anything together. Will you be my soul mate?”
“It’s my honor, Pilar, my beautiful saera.”
She pushed the ring onto his finger and they embraced, their lips meeting in a kiss that seared him all the way to his soul. She was his soul mate. The one woman in all the universe meant for him.
“What does saera mean?” she asked when the kiss ended.
“It means ‘heart’s light.’”
He removed a wooden bowl of roasted fourn, the black-skinned bird that was a staple of their diet. Another bowl held mashed root vegetables. For dessert, he’d brought a large farisn to slice.
Under the moonlight, they took turns feeding each other, talking about their favorite foods between bites. When their meal was over, he cleaned up and stretched out on his back. Pilar laid next to him and they talked into the night, watching the stars and making plans for their future.
Once, he’d been an unmated male with no prospects, hoping that somehow, someway, he’d meet his soul mate. Now he had an amazing female by his side, just as excited to start their life together as he was.
What started out as a mission to prevent future abductions and sterility had resulted in him finding his soul mate.
Chapter 8
Pilar dipped a cooking utensil into the bubbling liquid and lifted it to her mouth. Blowing a few times to cool it, she sipped at the broth. She’d always found stews were the easiest meals to make, but because she didn’t have access to her recipes or the ingredients she was used to cooking with, she was finding it increasingly difficult to make this particular batch taste like she wanted.
She tapped the utensil against the side of the stone pot that hung over the cooking fire in front of their home. She’d been living in the city for half of a moon cycle, and she enjoyed her new family and people immensely. Nelari and Yelda had been happy for her help with the meals, and she didn’t want to let them down with a tasteless stew.
Villi had brought her all of the spices and herbs that their people used in cooking. She turned to the hide mat on the ground where she’d set the wooden containers. Some of the ingredients were similar, but some were foreign. She now had a better understanding of how odd their food must taste to the abducted females, who were used to eating food from their own planets.
She twisted the lids from several containers and sniffed the contents, but didn’t find one with a compelling scent, until she opened one that contained only the tiniest bit of dried leaves. Dunking the utensil into the stew once more, she added a pinch of the leaves and then took a bite.
“Ah, perfect,” she murmured. The leaves were just what the stew needed, but unfortunately, she didn’t have enough to season the entire pot.
She looked across the wide path and saw Nayet, one of the city’s young females. She was a few years younger than Pilar. Nayet sat on a log and was sewing a pattern in a piece of hide. Pilar stood and walked over to her with the container.
“Hello, Pilar,” Nayet said.
“Your stitching is lovely,” she said. “What are you making?”
Nayet smiled brightly. “It’s a vest. My father brought me the hide and said I could do whatever I wanted with it, and I haven’t made something for myself in a long while.”
“Maybe you can embroider something for me sometime.”
“I’ll happily trade you for the sushirs. They’re my favorite.”
The sushirs were a soft biscuit that was flavored with the nectar from trisgs, tiny pale blue flowers.
“You got it,” Pilar said. She handed the container to Nayet and asked if she knew what it was.
Nayet sniffed at the contents. “It smells like yab. It’s a leafy climbing vine that grows on the shady side of the kaotrees.”
Pilar frowned. “Where are they?”
Nayet rolled her eyes in thought and said, “By the river on the other side of the city. There’s a line of kaotrees and they have the yab vines on them. The kaotrees have yellow limbs that twist together in fat curls. They’re very pretty, with striped leaves.”
“Oh. I think they’ll flavor my stew nicely.”
“I’m looking forward to trying it.”
Pilar left Nayet and returned to the stew, moving the pot off the hottest part of the flame and setting it at the edge so it would stay hot but not scorch while she was gone. She ducked into the tent she shared with Villi and picked up a leath
er pouch to put the leaves in, as well as one of Villi’s knives, which she attached to her waist with a belt. She slid the knife into the sheath, hung the pouch across her shoulder, and left the tent. Although she hadn’t visited the river that bordered their city’s territory, she knew where it was and thought she could get to it on her own. She turned away from the path and moved into the forest, letting her mind wander as she walked.
It was difficult to cook without technology, but she was getting used to it. Her whole life had been surrounded by technology, and now that she didn’t have access to it, she wished she’d spent more time listening to her teachers who encouraged their students to try other cooking methods. Cooking by fire had its issues, among them burning herself from time to time. She glanced down at the blister on her thumb and smiled.
As she moved deeper into the woods, she thought about the abduction trip she’d seen leave the night that Villi had come for her. She hadn’t given much thought to the females who would be taken from Earth because of the soul-walk machine, but she did feel sorry for them. After what she’d learned of her government’s manipulation of the machines, the cause of their females’ sterility, and the males’ blue hair at birth, she wished she could return to Kyvern City and bring all of her students and friends with her so they could live a full life regardless of the sterility problem.
The river babbled and bubbled over rocks, frothing and splashing in some places. She looked up and down the riverbank at the trees, then realized that the yellow-limbed kaotrees were on the opposite side. She walked along the river until she found a spot where it narrowed, a grouping of rocks allowing her to step carefully over the water until she reached the other side. Hopping safely to the bank, she walked to the line of trees and looked up at the thick branches.
Just as Nayet said, the limbs were golden yellow and curled around each other. They were pretty, with the green-and-blue-striped leaves accenting the yellow of the limbs, but what she was most interested in was the dark blue leaves of the yab, which climbed up the wide tree trunks on a thin pale pink vine. She opened the pouch and began to pluck the leaves from the vine, dropping them inside. She would have to put them on woven mats so they could air dry. Since they were thick, it would take several dins, but she thought she could accelerate the process by putting the mats close to the fire.
She heard a branch break, the sound cracking through the quiet. She leaned to the side and looked around the tree into the forest, but didn’t see anything. Turning slowly, she looked at the river and saw a huge creature lumber from the forest and turn to face her. She recognized it as a karihre, a beast with shaggy black fur and thick, curved tusks. She’d only ever seen one in a traveling show when she was young, and the big beast had been in a cage. As a child, she’d felt sorry for it, but right now she wished it were in a cage. What she knew of them from school was that they were aggressive when threatened, but otherwise posed no harm.
It lowered its head and scraped its clawed paws on the ground, digging great furrows into the packed dirt. It opened its mouth and roared, showing row after row of sharp teeth, the sound so loud that her ears rang as the furious bellow echoed around her. It took a step toward her and her heart began to pound as she scanned the area for options. Unfortunately, no one knew where she was because it hadn’t occurred to her to tell anyone. Nayet might have noticed her leave, but the young girl was busy with her work and wouldn’t necessarily be watching for Pilar’s safe return.
The karihre moved closer, its gaze fixed on her. It opened its mouth, snarling and snapping its jaws. She spun on her heels and ran into the forest, looking for a tree with low limbs that she could reach and climb up. When she saw one with low enough limbs, she raced for it, hearing the beast’s angry bellow behind her. Leaping up, she wrapped her hands around the bottom branch, which cracked under her weight and sent her tumbling to the ground. She screamed in surprise as she hit the ground, but then sprang to her feet and reached for the broken part of the limb that was protruding from the trunk. Using it for leverage, she pulled herself up, her moccasins slipping on the smooth bark until she managed to get high enough to grab another, thicker branch.
She pulled herself up, her arms aching as she reached for a nearby branch that was even thicker. Tears of exertion slipped over her cheeks as she strained to move high enough out of the way of the huge beast’s deadly claws. It reached the tree a moment after she had climbed higher to another branch that was thick enough for her to sit on. She clung to the trunk with trembling arms and looked down at the karihre as it paced and snarled at her.
“Oh stars,” she whispered, squeezing her eyes shut.
What am I going to do?
* * *
Villi carefully stripped the rough bark from a tree branch, setting the strips in a basket as he worked. When the branch was entirely free of the dark bark, he picked up a rough stone and smoothed out the knots where the smaller branches had been cut away. Carus sat next to him, tying the bark strips into braids to be dried and used for kindling.
“I wish I’d found my soul mate in the city,” Carus said.
“Me, too. You’ll meet her when the time is right.”
He snorted. “I’m wondering if I’ll be alone forever. After destroying the machines and vaccinations, I suspect that the military will be more vigilant to ensure nothing like that happens again. A trip into the city for anything would be foolhardy.”
Villi looked at his younger brother. “It’ll pass and the military will relax once more. They’re most likely too busy trying to replicate the vaccinations and the soul-walk machine so they can keep their people in the dark about the government’s manipulation.”
Carus looked up from his work. “Have you ever wondered if there are others like us out there?”
“What do you mean?”
“A handful of males and females left a few generations ago and went into hiding to start a new way of life. Who’s to say that we’re the only ones? I’ve always been curious if anyone else got tired of that life, too.”
Villi hummed. “I suppose anything is possible. It would be hard to believe only a few wanted to find a different way of life. There could be another settlement somewhere, but you could search your whole life and never find it.”
“True,” Carus said. “I’ll just keep my fingers crossed that I meet my soul mate, sooner rather than later.”
Villi hoped that, as well. Having Pilar in his life had changed everything for him. He didn’t realize how empty he’d been until she was filling his days with love and laughter. He turned his attention back to the branch and finished smoothing the surface. Setting the finished branch in a hide pouch, he gathered his tools and said, “I’m going to take these to the work tent to make them into the frame.”
Pilar had numerous cooking tools and he wanted to make a storage chest, large enough to hold everything but lightweight enough so she could move it as needed. He’d decided to make a frame out of branches, and attach thick pieces of hide to the frame for the bottom, sides, and lid of the chest. It filled him with pride that he had the skills to make items for his soul mate.
“See you at evening meal,” Carus said.
Villi walked to the tent where he kept his projects and stashed the cleaned branches with the others. He wanted to fashion the frame right away, but first, he decided to check in on his soul mate. He was hungry, but not for food. A few sweet kisses from Pilar were just what he needed.
He headed to their tent, surprised that she wasn’t sitting by the fire, where she spent much of her time testing recipes. A pot of stew bubbled at the side of the fire, and his mouth watered at the delicious scent. He opened the flap covering the entrance and looked inside, but it was empty. Straightening, he looked around but didn’t see her.
Nayet was sitting in front of her family’s tent, moving a needle swiftly in a piece of hide.
“Hello,” he said, striding across the path. “Have you seen Pilar?”
She looked up at him, the needle poised
above the hide. “I spoke to her earlier. She had a container of dried herbs that she didn’t recognize and I told her it was yab.”
He frowned. “Did she go somewhere after you spoke?”
She shrugged. “I didn’t notice. She asked where the yab was, and I told her where it grew.”
His heart seized in his chest. The city’s harvesters used to collect yab, but it grew on the other side of the river, which was a karihre’s hunting ground. The beast was territorial and had attacked the harvesters, chasing them away.
He raced into his tent and grabbed a bow, a satchel of arrows, and a few vials of eopia, then dashed down the path to Dex’s tent. “I think Pilar’s in trouble,” he said in a rush, pushing the flap open to look inside. Dex and Bella looked at him in surprise, but Dex didn’t waste any time.
“Where is she?” Dex asked, grabbing his blade and strapping it to his waist.
“I believe she’s ventured to the other side of the river to harvest yab. I’ve got eopia.”
“Oh stars!” Bella gasped.
Dex turned to his soul mate and kissed her swiftly. “Tell Nelari that we’ve gone to the karihre’s hunting ground to find Pilar.”
“Bring her back safely,” Bella said as she followed them out of the tent and ran toward Nelari’s home.
“Lead the way,” Dex said.
Villi tightened the strap on the sheath of arrows and headed into the forest, running faster than he ever had in his life. The stakes were too high for him to fail. If Pilar was injured, he’d never forgive himself.
* * *
