***
“How many of us are there?” Alex whispered.
Meg waved her hand. “Planet-wide? Who knows? But at the Temple, hmm, maybe two dozen or so?”
The woman was pretty in an odd sort of way. Her features were all exaggerated. Almost like she was a cartoon character. Her large lash-framed eyes were a startling shade of steely blue, and her lips were puffy and rosy but not very wide. With her short curly hair and pixie nose, Alex imagined her features would’ve been the ideal back in the 1920s. Yes. She could easily see her starring alongside Louise Brooks and Clara Bow.
Out of nowhere, she wondered if Auzed found Meg attractive. Chancing a glance over to him, she saw he was still talking with the woman who’d brought Meg. She was beautiful too and a Clecanian. How well did Auzed know that new woman?
When she glanced back, Meg was sweeping her gaze around the treetops. She sighed. “Isn’t it amazing here? I mean, Tremanta is incredible, but…wow…just wow.”
The look on her face was so peaceful. Like she’d just won the lottery and had not a care in the world. Alex could only hope she felt the same way in six months. Out of curiosity, she probed, “How did you get past the shock of it? When did you get over the fact that we can’t go home?” Since her emotional realization the other day, Alex had not been able to push the nagging depression to the back of her mind. She’d never see her family again. How could anyone get over something like that? How was she supposed to move on and live a normal life?
Her gaze slid to Auzed, and she bit her lip to keep her small smile at bay. He’d been helping, that was for sure. But she couldn’t go on forcing herself not to think about the bad stuff forever. One day soon, she’d need to actually come to terms with what her life would be. Despite her growing attachment to Auzzy, he was temporary. He had a life of his own. Her chest tightened at the idea of not seeing him every day.
Meg’s dark brows drew together, and she shrugged. “Honestly, I never had that stage. My life on Earth…well, it wasn’t the best. On top of that”—she bit her lip, and her eyes strayed toward the ground—“some things happened, and…”
Meg cleared her throat, and Alex wondered if there weren’t other women who might see their abductions as a sort of salvation. She covered Meg’s hand with her own and gave her an encouraging smile.
“Let’s just say being here and seeing all of this and knowing I’ll never have to worry about my past ever again…” Meg’s grin returned in full force, illuminating the pink undertones of her skin. “It’s a fresh start.”
A fresh start, huh? Alex leaned back in her seat and pondered that. Would she ever come to think of it that way? She’d been in a dark place back on Earth. Her parents were both dead, and she’d let her grief overtake her for far too long. Being here on this new planet had done something odd to her. Almost divorcing her from the realities of her life back home. She could imagine her life and her family on Earth, but there was so much distance.
It was like when they rebooted a movie with a new cast. The main character was generally the same. Had the same mannerisms for the most part. The same backstory. But they felt different. She wouldn’t call this opportunity a fresh start. But maybe she could think of it like a reboot. The ache she felt at the loss of her family that rang dull and constant in her chest would never go away but instead become part of her character.
For most of her life, Alex had clung to her comfort zone. Her hometown, family, and friends. She’d gone off to college for a few years, sure, but at the first opportunity, she’d jumped at the chance to move back home, where things were warm and safe and consistent. But then, after her parent’s death…all of that had changed.
If she wanted to make it here, she needed to change her ways. Glancing back toward Auzed, who was staring at her from a few feet away, she had a sudden tug of fear. Was she turning him into her safety net? Was his strong, unflinching demeanor something she’d gravitated toward because she liked him? Or because she wanted to feel protected again? What if something happened to him? What if he was taken away from her too soon?
The rich, sonorous sound of wood instruments echoed around them with more fanfare than they had the first time. The sound of thousands of people excitedly speaking at once built before mellowing.
Across from them, one triangular section of stadium seating rose above the rest, jarring Alex away from her downward spiral.
Can our section rise too? Now that she thought about it, it was obvious the floating seating could move. Why wouldn’t it be able to? It wasn’t as if it were attached to the trees. She marveled at the realization all the same, and a flicker of the awe that lit Meg’s eyes every other moment reverberated through Alex.
Auzed settled into a seat next to her. His warm thigh brushed hers, though he had plenty of space to avoid it. She peered over to him and found his gaze soft and assessing. It seemed he was working through something as well.
“Who do you think that is?” Meg all but squealed while squinting and pointing to the raised section across from them.
Auzed leaned over Alex and used Meg’s control to bring up a close-up view. “Those are the regents, obviously,” he said, pointing to the king and queen standing and waving. “And this”—he pointed to a gorgeous pale-green woman with rose-colored hair—“is the bride.”
Both Meg and Alex shot confused glances toward Auzed.
“The marriage games have three rounds. Today the entrants will battle one another, and the half who remain will move on to tomorrow. The same occurs then. On the final day, the last fifteen or so males will race. The male with the highest score at the end marries the bride.”
Alex scrunched her brows toward the beaming woman on the screen. “And she’s okay with that?” It was clear the woman wasn’t unhappy. Alex couldn’t recall ever seeing a Clecanian woman showing that much emotion before, besides Relli when they were in private.
“Yes, she volunteers for it. It’s a great honor to win the games, and there are usually many females vying for the position of bride. They compete in games of their own throughout the year. If I remember correctly, the games are ancient and were played before we left our first planet. They’ve updated them, of course, to apply toward the current state of the world, but Sauvenians love them.”
As the woman posed and waved at the cheering crowd, Alex felt a flutter of anticipation herself. On the one hand it felt barbaric to “win a bride,” but on the other…why not? She was going to have to pick a guy anyway. Why not have fun with it?
An instrumental bellow deeper than the others sounded, and Alex had to blink at what appeared in the playing area.
“Is that…” Meg waved a hand at Alex, trying to tap her without tearing her gaze away from the sight before them. She missed slapping her in the face by a millimeter.
Alex brushed her away, giggled, and leaned forward.
A stream of maybe a hundred shirtless oiled-up men had flowed into the airfield all on their own transport platforms. The men, with their glistening muscles, hooted and shouted toward the bride, who batted her lashes and made a show of eyeing the men.
“What exactly do they do in this bout?” Alex asked, attempting to pick out Gosten among the sea of bulky Sauven men.
“They fight, trying to knock each other off their boards and into the netting below. The last half to remain move on.”
Meg released a small squeak, then an incredulous chuckle. “They fight like that? With their bare hands?”
“Out of all of them, only one will win? ‘There can only be one?’” Alex said in her best impression of Sean Connery.
“There are five winners, but only one gets a bride. The rest have points added to their husbandry-school scores. It allows them to stand out and be more desirable during the Sauven marriage ceremony.”
A high-pitched flute sounded, and the men began stretching and eyeing each other. Their joyful calls grew silent.
“Look, there’s Gosten!” Alex turned to Auzed and pointed down into the crowd.
Her smile faltered when she noticed the fire in Auzed’s gaze. He’d caught how enraptured she was by the brutish spectacle about to unfold before them. In a move that left no room for analysis, he placed his large palm possessively over her upper thigh. Her body began to vibrate all over.
Finger still hanging in the air and pointing, she eyed his hand as he reclined and looked on in dark silence. He didn’t move his palm or squeeze her thigh, he just left it there. Scalding and heavy.
Clearing her throat, she turned back to the game.
Meg, who missed nothing, leaned over and whispered, “Damn.”
Alex mouthed, I know, and widened her eyes.
Meg shot a pointed glance toward his hand resting on her leg, then tilted her head and pursed her lips in a look that seemed to say, “I don’t hate it, though.”
Alex had to agree.
Her attention was torn away when a second flute sound whistled through the stadium, and all hell broke loose. Slamming fists, flashing tails, elbows. It was difficult to make out what was happening, but here and there men let out cries and tumbled from their floating platforms.
She pointed out Gosten to Meg. “We’re rooting for him!”
They cheered and clapped, getting into the frenzied excitement of the game and doing their best to pretend like the floating camera nearby wasn’t broadcasting them to the whole stadium. Both on the edge of their seats, they watched in awe as one burly man grappled with five others, jumping over tail swipes and landing smoothly back on his board.
They both inhaled sharp gasps when the man crouched, gripped his board, and spun upside-down one hundred eighty degrees, surprising his attacker with a kick to his shins. At some point in the madness, the food Auzed had ordered arrived. He passed around drinks while Alex and Meg booed the men hovering near the sidelines, attempting to squeak through without fighting at all.
Gosten, Alex realized, was a formidable opponent. As she and Meg watched, enraptured, he sped toward a chartreuse man who’d been excelling by playing dirty—sneaking up behind players, hooking his tail around their ankles, and then speeding away. After a few minutes of sparring, Gosten roared, startling the other man momentarily. Before he recovered, Gosten lifted his tree-trunk thigh and kicked the chartreuse man square in the chest, knocking him off his board.
Meg and Alex looked at each other with dropped jaws half curled in exuberant smiles. Without any prompt, they both yelled, “‘This is Sparta!’”
Alex actually choked out a sob then. Something about the shared knowledge filled her chest with painful happiness. “You know movies,” she croaked in a weak voice.
“Yeah, girl!”
Alex turned to Auzed wordlessly and saw he was heckling one of the players himself, tracking their movements on the screen in front of him. He threw his fist in the air while muttering something about underhanded play. The muscles bulged under his white shirt, and she ogled him.
“I don’t know about you,” Meg whispered while eying the savage opponent who’d flipped his own board, “but this ridiculousness is making my weakness for himbos flare up real bad.” She bit her lip and watched as the man made a show of lifting a struggling guy bodily, raising him over his head, and tossing him away with a bellow.
“Salud!” Alex shouted and raised her glass, letting the light, joyful comradery of watching a sporting event with new friends wash over her. Things were okay. She’d be okay. And no matter what her future held—whether in Sauven or Tremanta or somewhere else, with Auzed or without—there would still be shining moments of levity and happiness. Moments when her future seemed bright.
Chapter 18
Meg, Alex, and Auzed remained sprawled in their section long after the winners had been announced and most of the spectators had left—no doubt venturing to the plethora of after-parties held throughout Sauven.
The two females recounted highlights of the game while sipping on yubskani, the sweet alcohol made from the fermented syrup of the Sauven trees. Auzed even found himself interjecting here and there with his own thoughts, their exuberant glee contagious.
Daunet had joined them after a while. There was no one left in their section to guard against, after all. As the cleaners made more and more frequent rounds, shooting annoyed glares their way, and the small bots vacuuming the ground insistently bumped their feet, he knew it was time to leave.
“Where are you guys staying?” Alex asked.
Meg glanced over to Daunet uncertainly. “Somewhere by the restaurant district, maybe? Wherever they put us, it’s super crowded.”
Alex drew her lips inward and raised her brows to Meg with a conspiratorial grin.
“What are you thinking?” Meg asked, leaning forward with a grin of her own.
“Sleepover?”
What the hell was a sleepover? Was it what it sounded like? Did she want Meg to stay with them at the nest? A sudden wave of jealousy that he hadn’t planned for roared through him. Did Alex enjoy a female’s company as well? Did he now have to compete with everyone? He peered toward Daunet, who he knew also preferred the female sex, but was relieved to see she didn’t appear interested in either human.
All day he’d been pondering Alex’s words about sleeping in the same bed and how she’d been ready to fuck him last night. He hadn’t let his thoughts linger on the idea too long because…well, because he wasn’t sure he’d make it through the first day of the games if he did.
Despite all that he’d learned about controlling his possessive instincts, he found his palm had traveled to rest on Alex’s thigh once again. He held back a wince, wondering how she’d respond.
Her leg tensed underneath him, and she gave him an odd look. Then she flashed a glance back to Meg and her brows rose. She bit her lip before grinning brilliantly. “A sleepover is a common thing human women do. Friends sleep at each other’s houses and bond.”
Auzed just stopped himself from releasing a relieved breath.
“Want to?” she asked Daunet.
With a shrug and a barely contained grin, Daunet nodded. “I don’t, but don’t let me stop you. As long as you don’t mind me returning to sleep in the nest.”
“Totally.” Meg and Alex stared at each other and released sounds dangerously close to squeals.
***
Bonding, as it turned out, included large quantities of alcohol, loud, off-key singing, and the full spectrum of emotion. At present, Auzed was planted on one of the couches while Alex and Meg tried to re-enact one of the movies Alex so frequently talked about. He’d made a show of refusing to be an audience member, but in truth he enjoyed having something to do. On a deeper level he was not ready to acknowledge, he loved Alex’s pleas for him to participate.
When he’d refused, she’d urged and beseeched where most Clecanian females would have moved on. She wanted him to mingle. To participate in her life. Not because she needed something from him but because she seemed to simply want him near. His whole life he’d always felt needed. Needed as a soldier, as a brother, as a guard, sometimes as a male, but he couldn’t remember ever feeling wanted.
Throughout the evening, she’d made a point of including him in the conversation, explaining unfamiliar human things and making inside jokes that only he understood.
“Auzed, this is one of the best parts!” Meg shouted, rousing him from his thoughts.
Standing on a chair, Alex wobbled, and Auzed readied to catch her in case she toppled over. Her face was flushed and her hair frizzed out around her temples, both from the drink and from the animated acting they’d been doing for the past few hours. This was the most recent of the three movies they’d acted out for him. The first concerned a male exploring ancient landmarks and, for some reason, wielding an animal-skin whip. The second seemed to explore the intricacies and humor of robbing a gambling den, though he hadn’t followed all of that storyline.
This one was turning out to be the most confusing yet, since Alex and Meg kept interrupting each other to go off on tangents about the plot o
r other things altogether, but he’d gleaned that it was a film about animals from Earth and about the lost king of a ruling family returning to save his kingdom.
With a cranky Wilson clasped in her hands, she raised him high in the air. “And then he shows the prince to all the animals below,” Alex boomed in a voice meant to invoke awe and wonder.
From behind her, Meg suddenly began singing at the top of her lungs. “Circle of life!”
Meg’s voice was so awful that Alex snorted and broke into a fit of silent laughter, slowly lowering to her knees while she tried to take in air. As soon as she was sprawled on the chair clutching her stomach, Wilson took her moment to flee.
To his great surprise, the tuey rolled over to him and settled beside him on the couch. Her wide, glowing eyes flashed toward him and then back to the two females now gripping each other’s hands as they laughed.
“Oh no, I’m gonna pee,” Meg wheezed, clumsily rising to her feet. She dashed to the lift, bouncing from side to side as it rose to the upper floor.
Still on the ground, Alex breathed out a sigh and propped her elbow onto the chair behind her. “Are you having fun? No. You’re bored. You don’t have to hang out with us if you don’t want to.”
“I’m enjoying myself,” he said a bit too quickly, earning him another slow grin. She crawled over to him with that smirk still curling her lips. When she reached him, she slid up the couch, sat next to him, and swung one of her legs over his left thigh. With a small yawn, she lifted his arm and draped it over her shoulder, then leaned against his body.
Auzed sat frozen. He didn’t know why, but when he spoke, he kept his voice quiet. Something about the moment felt precious and worthy of whispered conversation. “Did you enjoy the game?” He already knew the answer but asked anyway, wanting to hear her voice.
“Yeah. I’m glad Gosten made it through.” His lips quirked when she responded in a whisper.
This felt good. Too good. It wasn’t sexual or friendly. It was intimate in a way that made his stomach hollow. Something built in his chest. He glanced to the ceiling and saw no sign of lift movement, so he allowed his purr to sound. Alex tipped her face so it was pressed against his chest and smiled. From his other side, Wilson nudged his right leg and rested her head on his thigh. They sat in silence, and after a while, Alex’s body melted against him.
Tempting Auzed: The Clecanian Series Book 4 Page 17
