Troii stared at her for a long moment, then looked away, going back to his basket. Alright then. Ruth didn’t care if she had hurt his feelings. He’d get over it.
Ruth tried to calm down again. How had she not noticed that both females she had seen in the tribe had multiple partners? Hell, she had noticed. T’Lax had talked about alpha females choosing males. It was normal for the Gandry for a female to take several partners. She shouldn’t be offended that Gron was apparently looking to share her. She’d thought what they’d had was special, that somehow, by surviving together, they’d created a deeper Bond, but whatever. She shouldn’t be offended when he was just doing what was normal for him.
She understood that she must be a burden for him. It was understandable that he would want help looking after her, so that he didn’t have to be with her all the time.
She went back to her basket, scowling, seething, just waiting for that big lunkhead to get back.
Chapter 13
Gron paused before he revealed himself. He had hurried back from looking for a suitable place for them outside the tribal village, which had taken him longer than he’d hoped. Even now he wasn’t sure, but he couldn’t stay away longer. It felt to him like he’d been gone most of the day, though he knew it was still early in the afternoon.
Now he hunched high in a tree, looking down on Ruth and Troii. He knew he shouldn’t be spying, or he was no better than Kranu, but he just had to know. He had to see whether they had Bonded, whether Ruth liked Troii, before he walked into the middle of it. He had to brace himself if that was the case.
Below him, Ruth and Troii were sitting roughly facing each other. Were they closer together now than they had been when he left? They didn’t appear to be interacting with each other much, if at all. Obviously they couldn’t understand each other, but that hadn’t stopped Ruth before. Were they even looking at each other? Had Troii done something to upset her?
Gron leaned forward, trying to see more, and the motion drew Troii’s attention. Gron had been spotted, and now felt embarrassed for hiding. He was a Bonded adult, but he was acting like a child.
He quickly made his way down to the forest floor, hoping to get there before Troii could communicate to Ruth that he was watching them. When he stepped closer and Ruth spotted him, looking to him with an expression of intense relief, he was glad. Just seeing her again made him feel better, the twisting in his gut easing. He still wasn’t sure how she felt about being left behind, but at least now he could watch over her, make sure she was safe.
Gron stepped towards her, and her expression changed. She turned her head away from him, her long mane whipping between them and hiding her face as she resumed violently twisting the ferns into a basket. Gron went to his knees beside her, and she shifted away out of his reach.
“She’s angry?” he said to Troii.
“I think she understood that you hoped she would Bond with me,” his friend replied.
“What happened?”
“She asked about you. I couldn’t tell her where you were, as I did not know, but she kept asking. I think she thought you had gone to fight Kranu, but I tried to show her that was not the case. Her gestures are quite... developed. I can see how you would find her entertaining.”
Gron growled in warning, though it was counter-productive. He should be encouraging Troii to find Ruth endearing, but he couldn’t help himself.
Troii held up a placating hand. “All she asked about was you. I tried to indicate to her that a brother-mate might soon join you, but she rejected that. Obviously, I can’t understand her exact meaning or reasoning behind it, but she has not tried to communicate after that. I think she is angry, yes. Perhaps she does not appreciate you choosing for her? Either way, I believe I have been rejected,” he finished with a self-deprecating look.
Gron considered that. Ruth was watching Troii as he spoke, but she did indeed look angry. “Who else would you recommend for her?” he asked Troii.
“I would give up on this, at least for now. Don’t pursue it. From what she showed me, she doesn’t want it,” Troii said.
“I don’t have time to wait, Troii! Kranu is coming after her!”
“Maybe she will reject Kranu as well, have you considered that?” Troii said.
“And what if he takes her from me? What if he is so determined, that he would take her?” Gron answered, his fear showing through.
“She is still a Queen. It is still her choice. Kranu would not do that, if only because Grasta and her court would tear him to pieces, not to mention your mother. Do not let Kranu play with your mind, Gron. Your Queen needs you most of all, forget other males. By leaving her, you give Kranu the opportunity he wants.”
“Perhaps you are right. You have always seen the furthest of us,” Gron told him.
“Do not repeat this experiment with other members of the tribe. It is cruel. As a Bonded male, perhaps you have forgotten what it is not to be chosen, but it is no small thing to be offered a future and to have it taken away.”
Gron looked up at Troii from where he knelt next to Gruth. “I am sorry, friend. I had to try, to protect her.”
“I know. You are just lucky I am so level-headed,” Troii teased. “Now I will leave you. I have no desire to watch you grovel for her forgiveness.”
With that the other male picked up his basket and strode away. Gron turned back to Ruth, reaching for her again. Was she really that upset? Had she really rejected taking another male? Gron had feared her reaction, but he was elated at what Troii had said. His Queen valued him above all others.
Or she had.
The second before his fingers made contact with her leg, she spun and hurled the basket into his face. The structure was exceptionally weak and her aim was off-centre, so it did not hurt as much as she probably intended, but it was still a shock.
She glared at him, her arms folded tightly against her chest. For a minute he was at a loss for what to do, then something in her seemed to snap and she lashed out at his arm with her palm. Again, it didn’t hurt as much as a punishment from Grasta or Gryla would have, but the intention behind it was devastating. She was punishing him. He had hurt her that badly, his behaviour had been that reprehensible.
Something like a whine escaped him as he drew his hands back, waiting for more, accepting her judgement.
There was a pause, then she pinched him, hard, over his ribs on his side that he had left exposed when he had pulled his hands away from her. He yelped and she did it again. He fell back as she surged forward, attacking the vulnerable skin that wasn’t covered by his pelt. She sat on his stomach as he thrashed, instinctively trying to escape her biting fingers but desperate not to hurt her by accident, yelping and whining for forgiveness. She pinched him maybe a dozen times before she snatched his face and held it facing hers as she leaned over him, her long mane blocking the sunlight.
“Ruth Gron!” she yelled at him. “Ruth Gron!” She shouted something else, and Gron heard Troii’s name, but then she sat back and slapped his chest with both hands, over and over until she seemed to tire herself out. He was able to let her as her hits were centred on his pelt and did not sting at all. His Queen was small, and full of fury, but not vicious it seemed. If she was correcting him now, at least she intended to keep him afterwards. She could have simply ignored him. That would have been insufferable compared to this flurry of nibbles and caresses.
His hands went to her thighs as she panted above him, either to get her breath back or to get her emotions under control. He rumbled, instinctively trying to soothe her before he realised what he was doing. He should still be begging for her forgiveness.
Her fingers curled into his pelt tightly but he didn’t mind. She did that when she wanted to feel close to him, like she could keep him with her. He reached up and wiped a tear from her face. What had he done?
The tears in her eyes made them shine, and look larger somehow. Her face was pink as she bit her lip, trying to maintain her composure. The damage he had done we
nt through him like an icicle. She had been so happy this morning, but he had ruined it. She hadn’t cried in front of him since they were in the cell, before they had Bonded. Now he was the cause of it.
He couldn’t sit up with her straddling his stomach, but he stroked her legs and back and arms, and slowly she lowered to lie on his chest. He threaded her mane though his fingers rhythmically as he thought about what Troii had said. He was doing exactly what Kranu wanted, making her need other males because she couldn’t rely on him anymore, destroying the trust she had in him.
Well, no more. They had been happy before that morning. They would go back to that.
“Ruth Gron,” she said again.
“Gruth Gron,” he agreed. He moved his hand to cover hers where it lay on his chest, and flattened it against his heart so she could feel its beat.
Chapter 14
Ruth felt fatigued after her assault on Gron. She lay on his chest, listening to the pound of his heart and the bellow-like rasp of his lungs. As always, his fur was a soft cushion for her, and his hands rested on her thighs, anchoring her. Her nose felt stopped up and her throat felt rough, as if she’d cried much more than she had. Her body was limp and she never wanted to move, she felt exhausted.
All the stress of coming to Gron’s tribe and not understanding any of the giants around her had caught up to her, it seemed. In that moment, she didn’t want to be lying on Gron, she wanted to be snuggled in her own bed at home, with her own duvet and her comfy pyjamas. But she couldn’t have that so she’d take a forest floor and a warm gentle body and a blanket of fur.
She wasn’t mad anymore, not really, she was just needy. She needed him, and she was angry at how he had reminded her of that. If they were on her planet, he would need her the same way, but the difference was, she wouldn’t be able to protect him, not really, not if the government came with guns. Maybe it was better this way, but she still wanted to go home.
Gron rumbled something above her, and she got an echo from the ear that was against his chest. His hand stroked her hair over her back. He probably wanted to get up. But what would happen then? Back to life on an alien planet. Having no idea what was going on, following Gron around and hoping for the best, eating hand to mouth and sleeping in a tree. Gron looked after her, gave her everything, and she hadn’t been hurt, but it was a struggle. She never felt safe, not really. Not secure, not like she had a place.
With a sigh, she pushed herself off Gron. Whatever. Some days she hadn’t wanted to get out of bed, and work had felt like an unpleasant grind, and the food wasn’t worth eating, but she’d still got up and done it, because lying down and letting life walk over you was harder in the end. Getting through a bad day took less out of her than ignoring it until it built up into a crisis. And what choice did she have? Gron wouldn’t let her starve.
Gron stood and helped her to her feet. He looked concerned but she didn’t have it in her to smile at him and make him feel better. He’d deliberately left her with another man when she’d asked him not to. She knew he couldn’t explain or ask her permission in advance, but she knew that much and she was disappointed. The thought that she’d misunderstood their relationship made her sad. The knowledge that they couldn’t talk about it made her frustrated.
She sighed again and dusted off her T-shirt dress, not looking at Gron. Undoubtedly, he was about to lead her off through the forest for a reason he understood, and she would just have to wait until they got there to see if she could puzzle it out and make sense of anything. True to her prediction, Gron reached for her hand, but she pulled it away impulsively.
Gron whined. It was the same noise he had made when she’d been pinching him. It was a sad noise of pain and complaint, much higher in pitch than anything she’d ever heard from him before. Okay, so he was unhappy. He didn’t like her pulling away from him. Maybe he was sorry. She folded her arms and jerked her head to tell him to get going. She could follow him without holding his hand. She was a grown woman.
He whined again, more insistently this time, and ducked his head to nuzzle against her.
“Okay, okay,” she said, running her hand down his hair and neck to his shoulder. He was like an upset dog. Maybe he did need her as much as she needed him, though she found it hard to believe. She wanted to stay mad but what was the point? “I forgive you,” she said. She hadn’t, not emotionally, but she hurried ahead of the truth because it felt natural to say the words, even if he couldn’t understand her.
Gron pulled away enough to look at her, his big eyes searching hers. She stroked his neck again and gestured for him to set off. He looked sad but he went, taking a few hesitant steps as if he wasn’t sure she would follow. She bent to pick up what was left of her basket and went after him.
They walked in silence for the most part. She guessed that they were heading away from the village, but she couldn’t be sure. Gron started pulling fruit and berries and nuts from the plant-life around them. He ate what he kept, but passed most of it back to her. She nibbled on the attractive bits, since she guessed this was lunch, but he was giving her way too much, so a lot of it ended up in her basket, which she had to hold against her chest with one arm to keep it together.
Gron seemed to be trying to teach her about the plants and foods they were harvesting, as he pointed out a feature of each plant before gathering the fruit, and he showed her how to peel what needed peeling, which bits were ripe and which weren’t. Ruth made an effort to learn. This was useful stuff she needed to know, it fit well with her plan to make herself helpful and independent, and it was nicely neutral territory that had nothing to do with their relationship.
Gron did not cheer up, however. His voice was low and dejected, his tail hung limp and tucked slightly towards him, and he alternated between avoiding her eyes and staring at her as if to check whether or not she was still angry. Ruth was starting to feel bad. He had walked off and left her, but he had come back. He didn’t appear to want to treat her any differently. But she just couldn’t get over the idea that he wanted her to get off with someone else. If she forgave him now, and they acted like it never happened, then would he do it again?
They spent maybe an hour or two gathering food, both of them quiet and dejected and unhappy. Ruth was glad to have food that they could take back with them though. Gron fetched them both a water-filled coconut thing and pierced hers for her, which she took, looking sheepishly grateful. They found a spot to sit and drink and eat in the quiet of the forest.
It felt strange to have a picnic with someone she was mad at. Normally she would have snuggled up to him and put her head on his arm or something, and the small distance between them now only made her feel worse. She sighed. At what point was she only hurting herself by being mad at him? He was clearly sorry, for upsetting her if not for what he’d done. He didn’t want her to be angry with him.
Ruth was just about to swallow her pride and shuffle closer to Gron when she heard something. There was a voice speaking off to her left.
“Nice, nice, a small one, I can take the small one. Will the big one fight or run? Probably run, or I’ll have him too. Small one can’t fight, can’t run. Tasty small one...”
At first, hearing a language she understood was so jarring she almost didn’t take it in. The voice was rasping and quiet, and she looked over to the underbrush where it must be coming from, squinting to try to make out the source. She thought she could just see the rounded shape of something, when suddenly Gron grabbed her from behind harder than he ever had, making her stiffen and gasp.
Ruth almost screamed when he swung her up into the branches above them, quickly mounting higher and higher. He was not being gentle with her. This was him at his full strength, his full speed, like she had never experienced before. It terrified her. The thought went through her mind that he had snapped, that he had decided that if she was going to cold towards him, he would just show her who was boss. When he stopped after his momentary dash upwards, he was breathing heavily, and he pulled her down from
his shoulder to press her against the tree trunk.
Ruth fought her hair out of her face, ready to give him a piece of her mind, but found he wasn’t looking at her. Instead, he was looking down at where they had just been sitting, an expression of terror on his face. Ruth steeled herself to follow his gaze.
Down between the branches, the basket of fruit had overturned, spilling fruit and berries through the grass. For a moment, Ruth didn’t see anything else. Then slowly, a huge cat-like beast stepped into view. It was massive, it had to be at least as tall as Ruth if not taller. Its paws looked to be as big around as her head. Its coat was a mottled black and purple calico, and it walked like a shadow through the green of the forest.
It sniffed at the fruit spread on the ground and at the basket until it came to the tree she and Gron were hiding in. They stayed perfectly silent, barely breathing. The cat looked up at them then, and Ruth saw that it had yellow eyes with black slits for pupils. She wondered if it would be able to see them as high up as they were, but then it snarled viciously, showing a mouth full of dagger-like white teeth mashed messily together, and reared up to slam its front paws into the trunk of the tree, making it sway nauseatingly.
Ruth whimpered and Gron tightened his hold on her and the tree. The creature was tall enough to clear the lowest branches when it stood on its back legs as it did now.
“Big one took small one up a tree,” Ruth heard, and she connected the voice to the beast. It snarled again, thwarted and angry. The tree trembled as it pushed itself off again, turning to leave. “Catch another one,” it growled.
How... was that thing speaking English? But it wasn’t like she’d actually heard it, it was more like – Ruth twitched as she realised it had reminded her of listening to T’Lax’s people on the space ship, when she could only understand what they were saying because of the translator chip T’Lax had put in her head.
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