by Selena Scott
“You’re making us breakfast?” Alec asked, a little bemused. If it had been him, he’d have needed to cool off a bit. But then, Kain was Kain.
Kain shrugged, a frying pan in one hand. “I mean, I guess it’s the least I can do.” He widened his eyes and exaggeratedly shrugged. “I am the guy who’s fuckin’ your sister.”
He was ready for the headlock he immediately got put into, and accepted it gladly.
***
Valentina was alone in the woods. She might have been on Herta for how familiar this stretch of mountains was to her. There were small differences between Earth and Herta, of course, noticeable to the trained eye. She could see, on many of the older plants, where the pollution of Earth had taken its toll. Herta’s air was sweeter, flavored with all the herbs and plants that she’d grown up with.
She wished, not for the last time, that she hadn’t left her shoulder pack when she’d run from the hunters. She’d left behind so many of her creations. Tinctures and medicinal pastes. She’d had a small pharmacy in her bag. It was an indulgence, she knew, and part of her believed all hobbies to be selfish. But she’d used this little passion of hers to help other people. Especially after skirmishes with hunters.
She wandered through these woods now, in a way she’d never done before. She never wandered or meandered. Her entire life was spent on a mission. Getting from one place to the next, freeing enslaved shifters here, battling hunters there, organizing other freedom fighters when she could.
Free time was non-existent, and in her eyes, shameful. Any time she spent relaxing was just another minute that Herta brought shifters to their knees.
But she wasn’t on Herta. She was on Earth. And these weren’t her woods. They were Kain’s woods. And somehow, that small knowledge, his ownership over the space, gave her a brief permission to take the day slowly.
She’d never needed a slow day more in her life. Each step she took was steady and strong, but inside, she was spinning.
She couldn’t explain what had happened yesterday with Kain. She only knew that his sweetness with her, his attention, made her feel fragile.
And she hated feeling fragile.
Anger for him, and his little white smile, and his blunt fingers, and his happy demeanor, grew inside her. Valentina intentionally nursed it. He was wrecking her. And he was probably doing it on purpose! She was sure it was all part of some twisted game. All his jokes and all his sweetness, it was just a big game to him. He got what he wanted, a puddle of a woman at his feet, and she got destroyed. Yeah. That’s what he wanted. To destroy her.
Valentina parked herself in a huff on a log and watched ants race over one end. She picked up a stick and fished around in the racing highway system of the little insects and a few of them scrabbled aboard.
She set down the stick and sighed, pressing her cheek into her upturned knees.
Who was she kidding? Kain didn’t want to destroy her. He was just a nice man. And the sad truth was that Valentina had little to no experience with nice men. Not that Williams had been cruel to her. But there’d been nothing soft there either.
What scared her, truly, about Kain was not the ridiculous idea that he wanted to destroy her. It was that he wanted to love her. And he’d destroy her in the process. Because Valentina wasn’t going to stay here on Earth. She did the hateful math in her head. There were only so many ways this thing could end. And all of them ended with Valentina alone again.
A stick cracked and had her attention swinging to her left, though she didn’t move an inch.
“You cracked that stick on purpose,” she called.
“Just trying to give you a little warning. Not trying to get my neck snapped by a jumpy warrior,” Kain called back. He came out of the brush in a pair of jeans and a blue T-shirt, his cap tipped back on his head and a smile on his face.
Any fight that Valentina had left in her for resisting him just rolled right over and died.
“Is it okay that I came and found you?” he asked, sitting on the log next to her. She wore his blue hoodie and it had tightened his breath when he’d realized that just now. He liked how often she wore it.
She shrugged. “I thought there was a chance that you might.”
He took her hand. Because he had to and because it was a perfect little hand. There was a trace of some green herb on one of her palms and dirt under her fingernails. “You keep leaving before I can wake up.”
She furrowed her brow. “You sleep too late.”
“So wake me up.”
“Why?”
His expression softened, like he found her ornery little self pretty dang cute. “So that I can roll over and put my face in your hair in the morning. And get all warm with you. And say sleepy stuff that I wouldn’t say if I were more awake.”
She blinked at him for a minute and then just looked away. He watched her stir the ants with her stick.
“I’m overwhelming you, aren’t I.”
“Maybe we should go to the movies.”
They spoke at the same time and then looked at one another like they’d gone bananas. “Did you just ask me on a date?” Kain asked carefully.
“Of course you’re overwhelming me,” she answered, her huge honey eyes staring him down just like her brother’s had earlier that day. “I’m used to focusing my whole self on survival. Every moment. Even when I’m asleep. And I’m used to wanting. Hunger, thirst, loneliness, those are just a part of my life. But then you come along and you shove raviolis into my mouth and kiss all over me,” her cheeks went the tiniest bit pink and completely charmed him. “At least before I knew what I wanted! Food. Drink. Somewhere safe to sleep. But now I have all those things and still I want and I don’t even know what it is I want!”
She was standing at this point, glaring down at him. He looked up at her with her complicated braid over one shoulder, those honey eyes flashing, his hoodie all loose at the shoulders.
“You just asked me on a date,” he confirmed. “How do you even know about the movies?”
She pursed her lips at him. That was the part he was fixating on? “Ruby told me that’s where she and Ansel go sometimes. But she wasn’t sure I’d like it.”
“You’d like it,” Kain nodded. “You are definitely gonna like it.”
***
She did like it, as it turned out. They’d gone to a small movie theater that apparently showed old movies. And there was a bar in the lobby area so most people had a glass of wine or a beer.
“Wanna share one?” Valentina had asked Kain as they’d waited in line for popcorn. She was thinking of the night before. The sips of wine they’d had from the same glass.
“Oh, sure. What kind of beer do you like?”
She surveyed her options. “The dark kind. We have that kind on Herta.”
She frowned while he pulled out his wallet and paid for the tickets, the beer and the popcorn.
“I always forget about that.”
“Money?”
She nodded.
“I never mind paying for you. Since you don’t have a job or anything.” He grinned down at her and tipped his hat back.
“Wait?” she asked as they found their seats in the theater. “Do you have a job?”
“I work with Ansel whenever he needs a hand on the job site. And I’ve worked a few places around town.” His eyes were forward and Valentina got the impression that he was purposefully looking away from her.
“So how do you have money?”
“Ah,” he shifted in his seat and a small pink flush worked its way up his neck.
She blinked at him. He was embarrassed about something! She’d never thought she’d see the day when she could embarrass Kain.
“When I was younger, like a teenager, I was,” he coughed into one hand, “a model.”
“What’s a model?”
Definitely blushing now, he fought the urge to adjust his hat. “It means that people paid to take pictures of me. To make advertisements and stuff like that.”
“Like on a billboard?” She hated billboards. They were probably her least favorite part of Earth.
He shifted again. “Uh, yeah. There were some billboards. And I was in some magazines. And,” he coughed again, “on TV now and again.” He waved a hand. “It’s not important.”
She wasn’t quite sure she understood. “And now you don’t have to have a job?”
“It paid me a lot of money at the time. And Milla helped me invest a lot of it. And yeah. I don’t have to work. Unless I want to. So most of the time I just help the family out. Do any errands that people need doing. Cook. Clean. Help with Carmen. That kind of thing.”
She nodded. That made perfect sense to her. On Herta work was often communal among families. It didn’t matter who did it as long as someone did. That wasn’t a benefit she’d been able to enjoy for many years, though.
“Can I see the pictures? That the people took of you?”
“Uh, maybe.”
“It embarrasses you?”
“Yeah, I mean a lot of the pictures are so dumb. And it’s a cool job, for some people. Just not for me.”
“So why did you do it?”
He sipped the beer and handed it over to her. “Because my aunt had just died, so the four of us were alone, again. And we had barely any money left after those medical bills. And I was at this club in the city one night and a guy came up to me and handed me his card. He was a talent agent for models. I wasn’t really in the position to say no.”
“Are medical bills very expensive?”
Kain sucked air through his teeth. “Like you wouldn’t believe.”
She was quiet staring at the popcorn dancing on the screen for a second. “Who paid for my medical bills?”
Shit.
He really, really wished that she hadn’t asked that. “Ah. I did.”
“Why?” He could feel those brown eyes on him like lasers.
“Because I was right there and because you’re Alec and Milla’s family and I had the money, no problem. And Alec about strangled me and so did Milla but I figure it’ll all even out in the end. And I never intended for you to find out. For the record.”
“I’ll pay you back.”
“Let’s talk about it later.”
She turned away from him for a second and when she turned back he was smiling at her, already knowing exactly what she was going to say.
“I know you don’t like debts. We’ve been through that in great detail.”
The previews for the movie flicked on and Kain was quite sure he’d never forget watching Valentina’s first movie with her. She jumped, gasped, laughed, never quite at the right parts though. Her huge eyes never left the screen and Kain’s barely left her.
“Ah, shit,” he murmured toward the end of the movie. He traced his hand roughly over his five o clock shadow as Valentina’s eyes blurred and overflowed. It was the part of the movie where the young lion saw his father’s face in the clouds and decided to return home. Kain’s chest tightened when a tear rolled down Valentina’s cheek. He caught it on the tip of one of his fingers but she didn’t even acknowledge the touch. He’d never seen her look so soft. He felt his heart break away from him and start a stomach-flipping downward plunge. And he was screwed. He was so, so screwed.
That helpless, inevitable plummeting feeling stayed with him after the movie, when she excitedly talked about everything she’d just seen. On the car ride home when she put the window down and leaned her chin on the car door. At home when he pressed her down to the couch and slid inside her hot, needy body. And the feeling only intensified when he fell asleep all in her hair.
The next morning, Kain woke up and knew two things. That she was still in bed with him and that the plunging in his chest wasn’t going away. He opened his eyes to see her large, honey eyes staring him down. She looked mussed from sleep and so serious.
“You waited this morning.” He lifted his thumb and traced her bottom lip.
“I wanted to hear all those sleepy things you have to say.”
He wrapped his arms around her and rolled them, burying them deep into the bed.
CHAPTER NINE
It was a few weeks later when Valentina interrupted a Sunday with the family. She’d gone by herself into the woods that morning, as she was doing more and more often those days. Kain forced himself not to worry about it. That there was no way she would go back to Herta without telling him. But he also couldn’t make himself ask her about it. Somehow he felt like bringing up the subject would force it, and she’d leave even sooner.
He knew there was no way that she would stay on Earth. It was so clear to him that she wasn’t of this place. Just like it had become clear over the last weeks how much he wanted her to stay.
She was fully integrated into his life at this point. The little glass jars and bottles of homeopathic medicine that she’d made herself rested on his bathroom shelf. Her clothes were hung on the line in his backyard. It was food that he made that filled her belly. He’d taken to buying a single dark beer when he picked up the groceries, because sometimes before dinner, when they sat on his back deck, she liked to split one. He didn’t think he’d even set foot in his bedroom in weeks.
Yeah. He was good and thoroughly wifed.
He was enjoying every second of it. Except for the fact that every morning he woke up and wondered if today was the day she said goodbye.
So it was with an almost embarrassingly large leap of relief that Kain watched Valentina come out onto Ansel’s back porch where the rest of them were lounging. The first time they’d come to a family gathering separately, Kain had puckered his lips meaningfully and she’d kissed him quite passionately. It had had John Alec clearing his throat and the rest of the family raising their eyes. But no one had questioned it. And the tradition continued.
Today was no disappointment. She crossed the deck and kissed Kain, but he sensed something just a tiny bit different. Not distraction coming from her, but a certain kind of awareness.
He pulled back from the kiss with his eyes slightly narrowed but her focus wasn’t on Kain. It was across the deck, on John Alec, who was rising from where he’d been leaning on Milla’s lap, a spark in his eye.
“What’s going on?” Inka asked, looking back and forth between the two siblings.
Neither of them answered. But they were stepping off the deck and into the yard, their eyes on one another.
“Seriously,” Kain called. “What the hell are you guys doing?”
John Alec cracked his fingers and swung his arms once as he started to circle his sister. “Valentina wants to fight.”
Instantly Kain was on his feet. Not to interfere, but to get a better view. The entire family moved to the steps at the edge of the deck, all of them curious as heck to see the warriors spar.
If that could even be called sparring. Valentina unsheathed two katanas that had been hidden under the back of her shirt and John Alec took a blunt knife and a length of rope from his cargo pants.
Bing, bang, boom. Three hits. Just like that. It was impossible to say who’d struck and who’d defended. But there was the clash of steel, a quick whirl, and the two separated. Still circling, but now John Alec had a joyous, snarly smile on his face.
One, two, three, four, five. The hits were barely visible to the eye until John Alec tried to sweep her legs and Valentina backflipped neatly backwards. She immediately charged forwards, leapt atop his shoulders and whipped him to the ground. He rolled and was back up immediately and this time their steel clashed seven times.
The rope in his hand whipped out and caught Valentina around the neck. Kain took three steps forward when it tightened quickly enough for her frustrated gasp to be cut short. But he needn’t have worried because Valentina’s steel flashed and then both of them held a separate half of rope in their hands.
In a flash, Valentina had John Alec belly down, his neck circled in rope and his face purpling. He made a sign with one hand and she grinned, stepping off of him.
�
��Again!” he shouted. Obviously she’d won that round.
Kain slowly lowered to the stair to sit again. It was natural to be worried, watching your woman fight pretty much to the death. But as their sparring match went on, Kain found himself fully enjoying himself. It was Milla who was wincing. None of them had ever seen John Alec get his ass handed to him.
Finally, John Alec stalked over to her, in between sparring bouts, and yanked the rope from her hand and one of her katanas. He tossed them to the side and fully ignored her smug grin. He was evening the odds. He couldn’t beat her when she was so well armed. So it was a particular hit to his pride when she immediately disarmed him again not twenty seconds later.
“Fuck!” he screamed in rage, crouching down and gathering calm.
“It’s good for you to lose, brother. In this way you learn. You better yourself.” It was said in a funny, deep voice from Valentina and Kain wondered if she was repeating something that their father used to say.
John Alec laughed, and it was only half feral. Kain was amazed to see how much affection he had for his sister even as he tried so hard to land any blow to her small body.
“Fuck learning,” John Alec snarled at her. “I want to win. I get another man.” He flicked his hand toward the deck, summoning one of the other warriors, as if he didn’t even care which one. Milla was up and next to her husband in a flash, picking up Valentina’s discarded Katana.
Kain bit down a little disappointment. He’d been enjoying seeing Valentina kick ass so righteously. But now Milla was in the mix and it was all gonna be over very—
“Ho-ly shit,” Ansel whistled between his teeth as Milla got kicked straight out of the air, rolling away across the grass with a frustrated scream. John Alec, meanwhile, was on his back again, a katana to his throat. He was tapped out. Valentina swiped his dagger from his ‘dead’ body and threw it. It landed three feet to the left of Milla’s neck, but no one doubted that was exactly where she’d been aiming.
