by Mara Frost
I stand up awkwardly.
“We have quarters for you and your mate for the night.”
“Oh…thanks.”
The Chieftain nods her acknowledgement. I just continue to stand there awkwardly, unsure of what to do or say. It’s one of those weird situations where you feel like you should say something, but can’t for the life of you think of anything to say. I hate those moments. It doesn’t help that the old woman is just smiling at me creepily.
“Well, it’s late so I guess me and my mate better get to sleep.”
I shoot her a sincere smile, because I truly am grateful for all that she’s done – even if she doesn’t even realize it – and bow my head before turning to walk away.
“You two are good together. Even if you don’t know it yet, Dani.”
I stop and turn, puzzled by her words – her words that suddenly sound very clear and coherent.
“I’m sorry?”
“You and Dakhar are good together. He is strong, but he often forgets that he needs more than just physical strength to be happy. And you? You are too stubborn for your own good. Your stubbornness gets in the way. But together? Together you two balance the other. You bring out a rare softness inside of him that he needs and he makes you see the beauty in life where you normally wouldn’t see it.”
I stare at her. And then I just stare at her some more.
In fact, I just stare at her blankly for a good 30 seconds. I don’t say anything. I don’t do anything. I just stare with a dumb look on my face. I’m also struck by how the Chieftain doesn’t look so ancient –or batshit crazy – anymore. And the crazy twinkle that usually resides in her eyes is now just a regular twinkle, a twinkle that suggests that she knows something that you don’t.
“Uhm…I’m…? Say again?” is all that I can manage to blurt out.
“And he may not be your mate now, but he will be if you two can just stop being idiots. You will have something that not many in the whole universe have.”
I open my mouth wide, probably looking like an idiot, and look around, wondering if anyone else is hearing what I’m hearing. Am I going crazy? Is that tree drink hitting me with another round of drunkenness?
“W-what…”
And then as if a light switch flipped, the old chieftain laughs wildly and again looks like a crazy old bat again.
“You tired! Go to your mate now!” she says happily before turning away.
I eye her suspiciously as I walk away, a bit freaked out by her. I have no idea what just happened, but if I heard her correctly then it looks like the old woman saw through our ruse and knew that Big Blue and I weren’t actual mates…and that I wasn’t pregnant.
I’m just going to ignore the stuff she said about how we should be together. That’s just weird. Never mind the fact that I’m so preoccupied by her words that I don’t even notice the fact the old woman knew our names without us even telling her.
“What’s wrong with you?”
I look up and notice Big Blue standing in front of me. Suddenly feeling strangely shy, my cheeks turn red. Thoughts of what the wacky old lady just said to me flash through my mind – stuff about us “belonging together” and “balancing each other out”…oh and “having the rarest thing in the universe” all whip through my brain.
“What? Oh…nothing.” Nope, nothing at all, so just mind your damn business.
Satisfied, the Blue Terminator shrugs his shoulders, turns and begins to walk.
“Come. They showed me where we’ll be staying tonight. Follow me.”
I mumble something under my breath that even I can barely hear or understand and just follow silently. We walk through the now sparsely populated tree city, but this time without an escort. We get a few looks and nods and a lot of unsettling shark smiles, but for the most part everyone just leaves us alone.
Lost in my own thoughts, it takes me a few minutes before I actually start to take note of the area around us. We’ve been in the arena since sunset so I hadn’t seen the large tree city at night, but what I’m seeing right now is pret-ty cool. It’s as if the trees and vegetation suddenly woke up and came alive.
Much like the glowing alien fireflies - which lured me to the pit of death by being so pretty - the leaves on the trees and all the plants are all bursting with glowing colors of light. Subtle blues, greens, purples and yellows fill the evening landscape. It’s gorgeous.
So this is what it feels like to be in a real life Avatar movie?
“We are here.”
I stop right before I’m about to slam into Big Blue’s back.
“Okay.” I look around absently, trying to find exactly where “here” is. “Where?” I ask.
He nods up at the tree that we’re standing next to. “There,” he replies matter of factly. I look up and see where he’s pointing to - a small warmly lit dwelling nestled within a collection of other apartments at a lower branch level of the tree.
“Oh.”
Despite the fact that I’m really freakin’ excited about the prospect of spending the night in a tree house, I feel a little less excited about climbing 50 feet to get to said tree house.
How the fuck am I going to get up there?
And I didn’t even realize that I asked that question out loud until I hear Big Blue’s low voice. “The ladder.”
I guess that little tree sappy drink is still having its toll on me. Wonderful. That should make climbing up a giant tree really awesome. I’m going to die. We did all that work surviving the auction, the worm hole, the pit monsters…just so that I could die by climbing a tree. It almost doesn’t seem fair.
Oh well, here I go!
I walk to the ladder that’s built into the giant trunk, grab a hold and give it a good shake. It doesn’t seem to budge, which is an amazingly good sign. And so I take a deep breath and begin my climb.
After taking a few shaky steps, I start feeling more comfortable and sure of my movements. This isn’t so bad. Just one foot in front of the other, one hand over the other.
“You know, this isn’t so bad at all. I thou –“
My foot slips and misses a step, which throws me off balance and makes my other foot to lose its hold as well. I cry out as heavy adrenaline and panic spikes through my body, readying me for a fall that will most likely break or kill me.
As my feet slip, my hands try to hold onto the steps, but my grip isn’t strong enough. As if everything is happening in slow motion, I feel my fingers unravel on the step and lose its grip. And then I fall - about six inches before Big Blue’s giant body catches mine and stops me from falling any further.
“What the…fuck, “I breathe, my adrenaline pumping so hard that my entire body feels like a giant heart beat.
With Big Blue’s body encasing mine protectively and with one of his arms wrapped around me, I grip onto the steps and firmly step into a groove. “Jesus…”
“You need to be more careful,” he says lowly, his mouth less than an inch from my ear. I shiver.
Thanks, Captain Obvious.
“Yeah? You think?” I snap back, probably sounding a little too snippy.
Fortunately, he is smart enough to know that it’s just my fear talking right now, so he remains quiet while I catch my breath. After a few seconds, I nod my head, signaling that I’m ready to go again.
The rest of the climb proved to be uneventful and I managed to not fall to my death. Once me made it our level, I awkwardly removed myself from the grooved steps and hopped onto the platform where the tiny apartment stood waiting for us.
A powerful wave of relief sweeps through me the second I feel the stable wooden floor under my feet. I walk into the small tree dwelling and feel instantly safe and comfortable. The room is small but warm with an eerie source of heat and light coming from the trunk of the tree itself. I immediately collapse onto what looks like a couch.
“Oof!!” I let out a loud grunt-cry of relief.
Big Blue walks in silently and inspects the area.
“Yo
u can sleep there. I will sleep on the floor.”
I prop myself up, but say nothing. I just watch him silently walk around the small room, his large size taking up most of the space. He seems restless, like he wants to punch something or fight – which actually reminds me of something.
“Your performance was…” my voice trails as I struggle to find the appropriate words. Beautiful? Mesmerizing? Sexy as Hell? All those words could apply. I settle with a more neutral descriptor though.
“Cool. It was cool.”
He nods his head once, as if he’s uncomfortable with acknowledging what he did.
“What was that? What you did in the arena? If you don’t mind me asking?”
Unable to find space to properly remove his gear, he just begins to remove things in the middle of the room. “It was Nakto. It’s a form of fighting that my people do. We are taught it at a very young age so that our bodies are flexible enough to do the more extreme moves as we get older.”
“Wow... So everyone knows how to do it on your world?”
He smirks. “Not all. The warriors and fighters can do it with the most proficiency though. My people covet strength and the ways of battle, so all children are taught the basic movements, but if the warrior’s life is not meant for you then your training will stop at a certain age.” He shrugs. “But it’s just a good exercise for the body regardless.”
You’re telling me, I think silently as I eye him as he begins to take off his many layers.
I cough. “Ahem…and your tattoos? The marks on your chest and arm?”
His brow furrows questioningly. “My Ka’tagh? What of them?”
“They glow? How do they…do that exactly? I remember you mentioned something earlier about it…” But I was a bit distracted because I just wanted to ride you like a blue bronco.
I don’t say that last part. Obviously.
“It’s a brand that the warriors of my people are given when they are young. The brand is connected to our torak.” He notices my confused look and then adds, “Our torak is like…” he voice trails, as he struggles to find the right words. “It’s like our energy. Our strength.”
I look at him blankly and blink. Nope, still not getting it. And he notices it. He sighs as he rolls his eyes and then makes another attempt. “When you exert yourself, when you run, when you get excited, what happens to you?”
I cry? Groan in pain for having to run? Who likes to run?
“Uhm...feel like crap? Get out of breath?”
He nods his head. “Yes. Why do you go out of breath?”
“Because I’m out of shape and need to work on my cardio?”
He takes a deep breath again.
“Yes and you are out of breath because your heart quickens, no?”
“Yeah, my pulse increases as my heart beats faster because of the increased activity.” And as I mentioned two seconds ago, because my cardio needs work.
“And that is like our torak. When our bodies are performing at an elevated level our torak increases and then releases energy reserves…and the tattoos are connected to this source and become heated and glow.”
I tilt my head, thoughtful of what he just said. “Wow…cool… So your tattoo is like a giant mood ring.”
He shakes his head, clearly clueless of mood rings. That’s fine. He’s not a 10 year old girl, so he doesn’t really need to know what a mood ring is.
“Never mind. Anyway, your death dance or whatever you want to call it was pretty cool. It was beautiful,” I offer awkwardly. I clear my throat and stand up, busying myself and looking around the cozy little tree house.
“So how’s your rib? It looked surprisingly good earlier tonight,” I say while I try to not allow my brain to bring up images of him shirtless again.
Yes, we’ve already been…intimate…and yes, he might have given me the most erotic experience of my life, but that doesn’t mean that we’re not in that awkward situation where we’ve had amazing sex, but we have no idea how or if we should acknowledge it or not. Good to see aliens aren’t immune to the frustrating male/female dynamics that have plagued my entire life. Yay.
“It’s good now.”
“Good, I was wo-“
I turn and my voice is cut off as if someone just ripped my tongue out. I watch helplessly as he removes the last layer of clothing that was covering his torso – his big strong torso. I watch silently as he seamlessly removes his shirt and reveals his blue chest.
“It looks good. I would say it’s at 80% now,” he says absently while inspecting his rib. “I told you that we are fast self-healers. I just needed food and rest.”
I nod furiously while I stare at his bulging chest muscles a little longer than I probably should and then look away quickly.
“Good. Good. Glad to hear it. So let’s sleep, yeah?”
I walk to the bed/couch and stare it. It really is quite small. It might be the size of a double bed. How did they expect us to share this thing anyway? I glance up at him nervously, undoubtedly trying to catch another look at his sexy manflesh subconsciously, while I fumble with a blanket. I catch him looking at me and see the tiniest curve of his lip touch the right corner of his mouth. Feeling caught, my cheeks burn.
“I forgot to say thank you,” he says, his voice low and rumbly.
“Thank you for what?”
He smirks. “I never thought I would ever say this, but for saving my life.”
“Oh…”
“I must admit, you used a course of action that I rarely ever attempt, but you managed to talk your way out of my death, so thank you.” He bows his head.
“You’re welcome. Heh…it was nothing,” I reply back, waving my hand at him. “You should try the ‘talking’ approach more often actually. You would be surprised by how effective that can be.”
He takes a step forward, almost closing the space between us entirely because of the tiny size of the apartment.
“I must admit, the ‘mate’ and being ‘pregnant’ tactic was interesting and unexpected.”
I chuckle nervously. Damn, he smells good. Why does he smell good? Maybe it’s his blue skin? Does the color blue have a smell?
“Yeah, you and me both. I had no idea where I was going with that until I got there.”
He takes another step forward. Now I can feel the heat bouncing off of his body. Oh God, kill me now. The second I feel his heat hit my skin my stomach tightens unexpectedly.
“It was a smart move,” he says as he takes one more final tiny step closer. “Even if it is impossible for me to impregnate you,” he murmurs lowly into my ear.
I shiver. His words dance into my ear and down my neck as if they’re alive.
“Yeah, impossible…” I breathe. I stare at his hard chest rising and falling with each breath. My own breath quickens, forcing my chest to touch his naked skin. And even though I’m wearing clothes - like two layers of clothes - the sensation burns like fire.
Or it could just be that my body is overheating because I’m wearing too many clothes…
He must think that too. He eyes my heaving chest and the zipper sitting patiently right below my breasts. I open my mouth slightly, hoping that breathing through my mouth might help with my overwhelming need for more air.
Then I notice that the tattoo strewn across his chest and arm starts to glow faint blue. Without thinking, I slowly raise my hand and somewhat timidly touch his bicep and trace along the beautiful design.
A rumbling growl sounds from his throat, but I continue. I follow the tattoo along its many lines - up his arm, along his shoulder and across his chest. My fingers move across the hard mound of his chest as the glowing begins to pulsate, growing brighter and brighter.
I bite my lower lip. The more I touch his skin the more dizzy I get and the more difficult I find it to breathe.
“Don’t do that,” he growls lowly.
Startled, I glance up at him and see his now dark eyes staring down at me.
“What? Oh…sorry,” I whisper and then
slowly remove my hand from his chest. I breathe in his unmistakable scent, the mixed smell of leather and just general sexiness, and I unconsciously bite my lower lip again.
“No. That.”
“Wha-?”
He then grabs my shoulders and lowers his mouth onto mine with a blind heat. And if I wasn’t so freaking horny or overwhelmed with need, I might have given him a swat for surprising me and literally taking my breath my away. But my God, did it feel good.
I melt into his arms almost immediately. His lips cover mine as his tongue hungrily pushes past my lips. I gasp in surprise for only a second as I feel his powerful tongue plunge into my mouth. All my senses are at full attention. I’m almost painfully aware of his scent, his touch…his taste. It’s intoxicating. I moan into his mouth and give in completely.
I kiss him back and this only seems to fuel him more. He growls into our kiss and grips onto me harder. I feel the vibration of his growl in my mouth and chest and it shakes me to my core, making my insides tighten and flutter all at once.
And then his kiss begins to move from hungry and hurried to slow and languid. Oh God. I’m going to literally sink into the floor and become putty. I grip onto his shoulders hard and try to stay upright.
Perhaps noticing that I’m having some difficulties standing on my own, he pushes me gently backwards until I’m pressed firmly against the wall…tree…thing. Whatever.
After what feels like both an eternity and only a few short seconds, he breaks from our kiss and his mouth immediately finds my neck. Gasping for breath, I throw my head back and give him as much exposed skin as possible. A wave of shivering pleasure runs down my body as his mouth and tongue tastes every part of my neck.
Holy shit, where did he learn to kiss like this?!
With this hard body pressed against mine, slowly pushing into mine, I wrap my legs around his waist and hold on tight. He presses me harder against the wall, rubbing his apparently very hard cock against my center – which is now resting at his waist. I gasp from the sudden movement.
“You drive me crazy,” he murmurs into my neck and chest in between hungry kisses.
