by Cara Bristol
A smiling alien stepped forward. “Welcome, females! I am Enoki, the head of the council of Dakon. These men”— he swept out an arm to encompass his comrades—“are your mates! We are so happy you have arrived!”
The men seconded his comment with a rousing cheer.
“Let me explain how the selection will work,” he said after the commotion had settled down.
“I can understand him!” Gretchen murmured next to me.
“The translators work better than the snowsuits,” I whispered back.
She giggled.
“The men drew numbered chits,” Enoki said, and I realized that’s what the handsome alien was holding in his hand. “Proceeding in numbered order, the men will approach you and ask you to be their mates. If he meets with your approval, you only need to accept. If he doesn’t, you may reject his proposal, and he will choose someone else.”
“May I make an announcement?” Madison spoke up. I’d forgotten all about his sorry ass.
“Certainly,” Enoki said.
“Ladies, your belongings are over there.” He pointed to a tower of luggage. “Be sure to collect your bags before you leave with your mates.” He gave a little salute. “Good luck!”
The head alien cleared his throat. “If we’re ready, we’ll begin selection…”
Chapter Four
Darq
I had picked out my mate! The second I laid eyes on the female in the strange white suit, my horns throbbed, and desire coursed through me. She had beautiful mud-colored hair that reminded me of the ground during the growing season when the ice receded. She was exactly as I’d pictured. The winds had been right.
Even Romando’s scowling presence—and my guilt—didn’t curb my elation.
He was the true owner of the chit. As I’d expected, he’d come forward the next day to report he’d lost it. Unfortunately for him, he couldn’t remember what number he’d drawn. Enoki had asked if anyone had found it, but, of course, no one spoke up, and the assumption was his chit hadn’t been recovered. Enoki had told him to come to the ceremony. When a number was called and no one came forward then that would be his turn.
But because I had his chit, all the numbers would be called, all the females would be taken, and Romando would be left mateless.
My conscience still bothered me, but if I came forward, I’d never get a female. And I still believed I’d been meant to get a mate as surely as the snow would fall. The certainty in my gut, the scent of promise on the wind, hadn’t wavered. I had found the chit Romando had dropped. Getting a mate was the most significant thing in our lives, and he couldn’t even remember his number. Clearly, it wasn’t as important to him as it was to me. I would never have lost the chit, and the number was whittled on my brain: 23, 23, 23.
“Number one!” Enoki called out.
Zertron limped to the front. Kel were good for many uses, except domestication. As an adolescent, Zertron had been thrown when he tried to ride one. Ever since, he dragged his left leg when he walked.
The woman he approached didn’t seem to mind his imperfection. Her eyes sparkled with pleasure. He introduced himself and asked, “Would you do me the honor of becoming my mate?”
“My name is Tamra. I accept.”
They smiled at each other and then Tamra pointed to the mountain of boxes. Terran females had a lot of possessions. The men slapped Zertron on the back, and the crowd parted to let the couple pass.
In order, Enoki called out the numbers. Number twenty, a man named Tarjak, made a beeline for a pretty female with skin as dark as her eyes and hair curled into spirals. She was quite handsome, and if I hadn’t already identified my mate, I might have set my sights on her. Fortunately I hadn’t, because she accepted Tarjak’s proposal.
My soon-to-be mate swatted at the air again. I’d noticed her doing that several times. What was she hitting at?
“Twenty-one!” Enoki called.
Another couple paired up.
“Twenty-two!”
My heart leaped out of my chest when the chit holder headed straight for my mate. Was this to be my punishment for my misdeed? My female would be stolen before I could claim her?
No, no. She’s mine! He couldn’t take my mate! Many females remained, but none of them were mine.
“I’m Calian,” he said. “Would you do me the honor of becoming my mate?”
“I would love to. My name is Gretchen,” replied the female standing next to mine. My knees went weak with relief. The female called Gretchen embraced my mate before skipping off with Calian.
“Twenty-three!” Enoki called.
I strode toward my mud-haired female. I had eyes for no one but her, but her gaze widened with a surprise that caused me to falter. Hadn’t she expected me to approach her? Could I have been wrong about the connection between us? “I’m D-Darq.” The first greeting was so important, but I stumbled over my own name.
Some sort of insect flew at my face, and I realized that’s what she’d been swatting at. She looked at the insect then at me and smiled. “You certainly are tall, Darq, and handsome, aren’t you?”
The other females tittered, but I didn’t understand the humor.
I fidgeted.
“My name is Sunny Weathers,” she said.
Even her name sounded exotic and beautiful. Her smile was lovely—and reassuring. My horns tingled.
She raised her eyebrows. “Is there something you want to ask me?”
Ask her? My mind went blank. Ask her? Then I remembered, and heat burned my face. “Would you be my mate?”
“Yes, I will,” she said.
Our mating was meant to be, but hearing her affirmation filled me with a joy I’d never experienced. I grinned so hard, it felt as if my face would split. “Let’s go, then!” I couldn’t wait to get back to my tribe and introduce her to Torg and Starr—and leave before all the numbers were called and it was discovered someone had claimed Romando’s chit.
She gestured to the mountain of cases. “I need to get my stuff.” She already had a heavy-looking satchel hooked over her shoulder. Earth women brought a lot of baggage. Starr and Andrea had gone shopping and had a lot of items transported from Terra. Some items, like flash cookers, medical supplies, and skimmers had improved our lives, but many others had no discernable useful purpose.
There had to be at least two hundred of the strange-looking boxes. She dug through all of them, but none held any favor. “It’s not here!” she said.
“How about that one?” I pointed to a case she’d tossed aside.
“That’s black. Mine is yellow. Like my name. Sunny.”
“I don’t see any sunny cases here,” I said.
“Neither do I! I knew it!”
“What’s wrong with the black one?” I glanced at Romando. He was starting to fidget.
“It’s not mine! I can’t take what doesn’t belong to me.” She peered into the crowd. “Where’s Madison?”
Number twenty-four and his mate joined us at the mountain of cases. “He’s gone,” the female said. “The ship just blasted off.”
“You’re kidding me.”
“No, he left right after they started calling numbers.”
“Crap!” Sunny ran for the door. I followed her, grateful to get out of the lodge. We were making progress.
A silhouette against the moon, the Terran ship streaked across the sky.
“Dammit. Dammit. Dammit!” She punched at the frigid air.
“What’s wrong?”
“They didn’t unload the rest of my stuff, my clothing, my b-beauty products, mementos from home…” She held out her pouch. “This is all I h-have for a yea—”
“For?”
She shook her head. She shivered, and her teeth had begun to chatter. Perhaps her warmer clothing had been with the “stuff” she hadn’t received. Terrans seemed to have no idea how to dress for the cold. I undid the toggles, slipped off my kel, and wrapped it around her.
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She snuggled into the fur. “Thank you.”
Two couples exited the lodge and tromped toward the field where skimmers were parked. “We should go,” I urged her again. I did not want to be around when Romando was left standing without a mate.
I led the way to the skimmer, extracted the spare kel from the storage compartment, and put it on. I’d come prepared with an extra, just in case.
“How far is it to your camp?” Sunny asked.
“About two tripta, not far.”
“A tripta is…”
“The distance a man can walk in an hour.”
“So…five or so kilometers times two is ten K.”
“You walk much?” I asked her. My brother’s mate had informed us Terrans mostly traveled in vehicles and would ride in circles for fifteen minutes to avoid walking for one.
“I’ve been on a wilderness trek or two.”
I stowed her bag in the storage compartment and straddled the long seat. “Get on. If you need to, you can hang onto me,” I instructed.
She settled onto the machine, but, to my disappointment, placed her hands on her knees. I pressed a button, and the skimmer accelerated and hummed through the snow.
“I expected it to be noisier and stinky,” she said. “But it’s not very loud and doesn’t smell at all.”
“I’m told it’s because it’s powered by illuvian ore energy cells.” I hoped she wouldn’t ask any more questions, because I hated to appear stupid. I didn’t understand her technology. If she guessed my ignorance in that matter, she might doubt my ability to provide for her. “What is it you do?” I changed the subject.
“Do?”
“The females who arrived before you said people on your planet work for money. You have professions, occupations.” Starr had advised me to inquire about my mate’s job. She’d said it would start a conversation.
“You don’t work?” she asked.
“We work. We hunt kel and tan the hides for clothing, footwear, and bedding. We chop firewood. We make bows, arrows, knives, pottery, and baskets. During the growing season, we sow seeds and harvest the crops.” We worked to survive.
“Do you have a particular area of expertise?”
My brother Torg was tribe leader and a skilled bower and fletcher. I often assisted in the governing of the tribe, and I crafted an occasional bow and arrow, but I was not as skilled as he was. “I cook,” I said. I preserved food for the long winter and prepared the meals for Torg, Starr, and myself. I’d learned how to use the flash cooker, although I preferred cooking over an open fire.
“Oh? What do you like to make?”
“Phea wrapped in sweetgrass and baked, kel stew, and soups. Macha.”
“Phea and macha are?”
“Phea is a fowl, and macha are small baked rounds of ground grain sometimes sweetened with tree sap. My brother’s mate says mine are best, and she wouldn’t eat anyone else’s,” I boasted.
“Like a biscuit,” she said. “I’m sure they’re excellent.”
I wove through a natural break in the woods. Cutting down trees could have given us a direct route and reduced travel time by half but doing so required manpower we couldn’t spare during the short growing season. All our efforts focused on acquiring food, shelter, and clothing for the rest of the year.
Yes, we worked. “You haven’t told me what it is you do,” I said.
“A little bit of everything. You know.” She twisted her body as if trying to peer behind us.
No, I didn’t know, which was why I had asked. I began to sense a reluctance to tell me. “Are you a criminal?”
“No! Why would you ask that?”
“The first females to arrive were criminals.”
“Oh, yeah. That’s not the case anymore. Female felons are barred from applying for the exchange program now.”
“So…”
“I had a lot of different jobs.” She chuckled, but it wasn’t a happy sound. “I worked on a fishing boat and at a pig farm. I wrangled alligators. They were babies, not very big, but their teeth were sharp, and I almost got bitten…”
I had no idea what pigs or alligators were, but, from her tone, I surmised they weren’t anything pleasant. And being bitten by a creature with sharp teeth was never good.
She shifted on the seat.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Just…looking.”
The sky had clouded, portending a storm, and dusk was falling fast. I could understand her curiosity about her new planet, but there wasn’t much to see in the dark.
“How fast can we go?” she asked.
“You want to go fast?”
“Yes!”
I opened up the throttle. The skimmer shot through the woods like an arrow released from a bow. She squealed and grabbed me around the waist. I grinned, enjoying her touch and her peals of laughter.
“Faster! Faster!” she urged.
“Hang on!” The wind stung my face, but my mate’s arms kept me warm. My horns throbbed with awareness. This experience is what I had longed for. What I had stolen. Romando will get his chance with the next group. I threw guilt to the wind. What was done was done. I could not go back, only forward. And fast.
I swerved through the trees, going as swiftly as I dared while still being able to steer around the obstacles. Sunny and I flew through the night toward a new life.
Chapter Five
Sunny
I hung onto Darq’s waist and snuck a look behind me. Gone! We’d lost the little buggers. Hopefully, they’d stay lost. I grinned and buried my face against his broad back to avoid the wind.
The six cambots had followed us. It had pissed me off when I discovered my luggage had been left aboard the ship, because it was no mistake. Apogee loved messing with me, setting up roadblocks, designing no-win challenges, and changing the rules in the middle of the game. They’d sent me to an alien planet stuck in an ice age. Taking my clothes and possessions was the last straw.
Darq hadn’t noticed, but cams had pretty much surrounded us to shoot from all angles. Then he’d started asking awkward questions like what I did for a living.
Do? Why, I’m a reality show star. Smile! You’re on Sunny Weathers’ Excellent Adventures.
I should have anticipated the question and come up with a suitable lie, but taken by surprise, I’d babbled on about pig farms and alligators. Yeah, the show had sent me to a pig farm, and to this day, I can’t stand to eat pork, and as far as I’m concerned, the only good alligator is a pair of designer boots. Or a nice designer handbag—like the one left behind on the ship. What did I need an alligator bag for on a primitive, icy planet you ask?
It was alligator!
As the cameras zipped around recording what we did and said, dismay at losing my luggage heated to anger. I wondered how fast cambots could fly. Could a skimmer “outrun” them?
I encouraged Darq to speed up—and we’d left the cameras to eat our snow.
You’re thinking I’d bitten off my nose to spite my face. No camera, no vid, no show—Sunny has to give the money back. I admit I was beginning to regret my impulsiveness. In the morning, I’d ask Darq if he’d take me out for another spin, and I’d rendezvous with the cameras. In the meantime, we’d have a little privacy.
Meeting any alien was awkward enough without having the encounter broadcast to the world. I had to get my head on straight and figure out how to handle the situation. The attraction had thrown me a curve ball.
From our first eye contact, I’d felt a zing in southern regions that hadn’t seen a lot of action in a long time. I should have rejected his proposal and waited for an alien I wasn’t attracted to. I shouldn’t be sitting scrunched up behind him, my front pressed to his back, my thighs straddling his hips, enjoying how his muscles contracted as we swerved among the trees. Most chefs I’d seen were overweight, but Darq obviously didn’t spend all his time cooking—or eating. I’d like to believe the vibration
s from the machine caused my arousal, except the ride was way too smooth. But, I could think of another ride…
Stop it. Don’t go there.
Though preoccupied by losing my stuff, when Darq had shed his fur to offer it to me, I couldn’t help but notice how uh, equipped, he was—and how gentlemanly. Madison, the rat bastard, had abandoned us to the elements, but this alien had given me the coat off his back. His broad, strong back.
And he smelled good, too. I snuggled into the kel and inhaled his scent: earthy, masculine, comforting, protective—yeah, that was a lot to read into an animal hide.
I liked him. He had a sexy, deep, exotic-sounding voice, muscles to spare, and the cutest damn horns. They stuck out of his hair, about an inch. I wanted to touch them, find out if they were as leathery as they looked. Being a tad shy of six feet, I’m a sucker for tall men, and Darq made me feel petite. He’d given me his coat. He’d listened to me. I’d asked him to go fast—and he’d gone fast.
I hated misleading him, using him for the amusement of Terra’s viewing public. Now that we’d outrun the cameras, I needed to tell him the truth, but I cringed at the crushing disappointment I would see on his face. He believed he’d found a mate to settle down in an igloo in the suburbs with, to have two point four children, and whatever passed for a domesticated pet on this planet.
Dakon was nothing like Earth. It was a primitive, freezing wilderness, and right now, dark. When night fell, it crashed. Total blackness engulfed the woods. If not for the beams on the skimmer, we wouldn’t be able to see the trees. Cities covering every kilometer of Earth flooded the planet with light—which would never dim, now that Terra had a mega source of free illuvian ore. Many people lived on urban freighters, so even in the middle of the ocean, it never got this dark.
Riding through the Dakonian night, I felt as if I was floating in space.
Drifting.
Procrastinating.
“I need to tell you something.” I cleared my throat and then wrinkled my nose. “Do I smell smoke?”
