Tribe Outsider, page 10
part #2 of Chosen Series
She glanced behind her to see if there was some danger of which she and the guys were unaware. Not seeing anything, she faced him again, cocking her head in confusion.
It took her a long moment to understand… he was wary of her . Her eyebrows rose slowly in disbelief as she gave him an are you serious look.
“Riighht, I’m the scary one,” she muttered under her breath.
Lily scoffed silently and started to turn to her guys, wanting to see if they’d noticed the look he was giving her and wondering why no one had moved to greet him, when both Arruk and Tor shot past her and tackled him to the ground, startling the absolute shit out of her.
She gasped and stumbled back a few steps, thinking at first they were attacking him, that she had been mistaken and he was dangerous, before she realized they were… wrestling? And rumble-laughing?
Frrar, who had reached out to steady her when she leapt back, moved closer to her side as she stood there blinking at the wrestling trio in shock, Arruk especially. He was her calm, shy mate. Playful, yes, but still usually at least a little bit reserved. She’d never seen him so… exuberant.
She realized as she watched him that, while he was much more comfortable with his size around her than he used to be, he still carried himself with an extra level of care that neither Tor nor Frrar possessed. Seeing that restraint gone as he tussled with someone his size made her aware of just how cautious he usually was. It made her inexplicably sad that he felt the need to control himself to that extent, that he apparently trusted himself so little. It made her wonder if something had happened in his past to make him feel the need to do so. Had he always been that way or had something occurred to form the cautious male she knew and loved?
Chapter 13
A rruk and Tor were both talking a mile a minute, so fast that she was having a hell of a time trying to distinguish individual words in the constant rumble of growls and grunts. She thought she caught Arruk saying search, and Tor saying something about half-tail , her name, and asking Drrak if he was going to present , but she didn’t understand the context so she dismissed it. She must have heard him wrong.
She had learned that Presenting was what they called the gift giving, muscle flexing, and horny-inducing tail waving they’d done when she first met them. She didn’t understand why Tor was asking Drrak about it, unless he was trying to find out if Drrak had Presented to any females while they’d been away .
But why was my name thrown in there?
Presenting was apparently how males showed a female they wanted her to Choose them for her harem, which was another thing that had shocked the pants off of her. It seemed her guys weren’t the pervs of the tribe as she’d thought when they made it clear they all wanted to be in a relationship with her. All the females had multiple mates, some as many as a dozen.
I still don’t know what they do with that many men. Seems a bit greedy to me.
They wrestled around on the ground like a bunch of kids before they finally broke apart. Arruk stood then pulled Drrak to his feet and into a complicated hug. Their upper hands went to their shoulders while they laid their lower left hands over each other’s hearts and clasped their lower right hands together. They leaned toward each other, touching foreheads for a long moment.
She felt her heart squeeze when she heard Arruk whisper, “Nak sha ita cul sharak.”
It meant the trees have been empty and was their way of saying they missed someone.
She may have found his scars and intense stare a bit unnerving, but hearing the emotion, the relief and happiness, in Arruk’s voice made her fiercely glad Drrak had found them .
When Arruk stepped back from the embrace, Frrar, still at her side, stepped forward to take his place. They did the same greeting that she didn’t have enough arms for and Frrar uttered the same phrase, just as heartfelt as when Arruk had said it, as if he had missed Drrak just as much.
They really are family.
She smiled softly watching them as she remembered a quote she had always loved: Family isn’t always blood. It’s the people in your life who want you in theirs, the ones that accept you for who you are—the ones who would do anything to see you smile and who love you no matter what .
Yet, she was even more confused and curious as to why Drrak hadn’t been with them when they found her, after seeing all of them react to his appearance like greeting a long lost, and much loved, family member. She couldn’t see her guys just leaving him so it must have been Drrak that decided to stay behind. Why?
Lily frowned as a thought occurred to her.
Is it his scars?
She’d learned from Tor, Arruk, and Frrar that they had been outcasts because they hadn’t fit the mold for the ideal shevari male, in either looks or personality. Tor was apparently too short—at six feet? —and his markings weren’t extensive enough. Arruk was thought too big and his markings were too extensive. Frrar, for all appearances the perfect male specimen, was apparently just too independent.
She had been outraged on their behalf at hearing that.
She was just as outraged that Drrak might have felt the need to stay behind, to lose his chance at happiness because he thought no one would see past his appearance to who he was underneath.
She might have been leery when she’d first seen him, but after watching her guys—who she trusted completely—greet him with such happiness, after concluding that he had spared the cub, she knew he couldn’t be a bad person.
Surely these women, alien or not, can’t be that shallow.
Frrar eventually moved back, making room for Tor who was bouncing impatiently from foot to foot at their side.
Lily smirked as she watched him, amused at how his impatient hopping reminded her of the pee-pee dance.
Tor, being Tor, didn’t leave it at just the complicated greeting and had obviously not gotten all of his excitement out with the wrestling. As soon as Drrak lifted his forehead, Tor pounced.
Lily snorted a laugh as she watched him climb all over the bigger male like a spider monkey, firing off a second round of questions, still too fast for her to catch most of the words, narrowly dodging Drrak’s grabbing hands as he tried to pull Tor off. Drrak eventually gave up, his face settling into the same long-suffering expression Arruk always wore when taking the brunt of Tor’s impishness.
Frrar and Arruk began rumbling their amusement and stood back, watching but not interfering, taking obvious delight in watching Drrak come under attack.
When Tor finally leapt off Drrak, landing nimbly on his feet, he walked straight to her. He came to stand at her side, smiling hugely while he gestured to her with a sweeping motion of his upper arm, as if he was one of those attendants on game shows oohing and ahhing over the prize you could win—if you only guessed the price correctly.
Lily shot Tor an incredulous side-eye.
He can’t be serious right now.
At the sound of Drrak’s voice—just as temptingly deep as Arruk’s if a bit rougher—asking what is she in their language, she turned back to face him. He was staring at her, unabashedly interested, if a bit wary. His gaze was piercing and fascinated as he looked her over. He lingered on her hair and eyes, her two arms hanging by her sides, frowned at her clothes, and then paused. His eyes widened when he got to her lower half .
Already tense from being the subject of such scrutiny, she stiffened further. She glanced down at herself to see what he found so fascinating, already knowing what she was going to find, and choked out a squeak.
Yup! Pantless!
The only things covering her lower half were the nearly indecent black panties that had seen better days and her black mid-calf work boots, leaving the rest of her very, very bare.
She knew nudity wasn’t even a thought for their people, was sure it was probably her lack of fur and pattern that had him shocked, but she had fully intended to meet the tribe with her long-sleeved grey shirt tied around her waist to hide some of her nakedness. She hadn’t been prepared to happen upon someone in the middle of the forest.
Which is silly as hell, now that I think about it. They live in the damn forest.
She jerked her head up, her face hot with a blush, in time to see him lean to the side, clearly looking for something. He straightened after a moment, muttering something to himself and blinking owlishly. He started to reach behind himself with his lower hand but stopped mid-motion, grimacing. His tail twitched toward his hand, as if to complete the movement, and she saw it for the first time .
He was missing half of his tail.
The tip was a mass of scar tissue ending at his knees instead of past his ankles like Frrar, Tor, and Arruk’s. She’d thought his scars were bad, but seeing his tail nearly broke her heart.
Her guys used their tails not just like another arm, but also to express their emotions, sometimes more clearly than their facial expressions. Beyond that and, according to them, more importantly, it was used to perform the hypnotic tail dance for mating. She’d learned that was extremely important in their culture. A male had to successfully perform the dance to prove to a female they were mature and virile, with fruitful seed for the female to use, before she would even consider choosing them as a mate.
Was Drrak able to perform the dance with half a tail? Was it his tail more than his scars that had compelled him to stay behind, or was it something she had yet to see?
Drrak jerked his tail back behind him when he noticed her looking, his ears pinning flat to his head in what she knew was their way of showing discomfort.
She winced, the blush that had just faded coming back twice as hot, this time because she was embarrassed at having been caught staring.
Grams would’ve popped the shit out of me with her ever-present wooden spoon for being so rude .
Tor, always dependable when a situation needed diffusing, stepped closer to her, breaking some of the uncomfortable tension between her and Drrak. Except, instead of taking the attention off her as she had hoped he would, he began pointing out her various differences, showing her off like she was his favorite toy.
He reached out and lifted the end of her braid with one hand then grabbed her wrist with another, raising her arm up before wiggling it slightly. He spoke marginally slower as he did, and she was able to understand more of what he said. She caught head fur and two arms before she managed to snatch her hair out of his hand and shake off his grip on her arm, staring at him incredulously.
That didn’t, of course, deter him.
He just smiled and purred at her before reaching out and pinching her black cardigan instead, flapping it around and creating a breeze against her bare thighs while he told Drrak of her odd coverings. Drrak flicked his gaze to Tor before he leaned to the side, again trying to see behind her while asking if she was really without a tail. That prompted Tor to try to twist her around to aid his view.
“Hey! Stop that!” she sputtered, swatting at him to get him to stop alien-handling her.
Tor replied to Drrak, confirming her lack of a tail before saying a word she thought meant hairless or bald .
She gasped at that one, glaring at Tor in disbelief.
“I am most definitely not bald!” she huffed.
Tor, hearing her tone, finally stopped showing her off like a prized heifer to Arruk’s brother and met her glare before he glanced at her hair, grimaced at her eyebrows, then dropped his gaze to the apex of her thighs. The mischievous look she knew so well spread over his face.
“Mmm, ess ,” he agreed, his voice low and smoky, grinning wickedly as he bit his lower lip.
“That is not what I meant!” Lily choked, eyes wide and cheeks hot.
He purred at her, his eyes dancing with amusement. He darted closer and kissed the tip of her nose, leaping back to safety before she could swat him.
“Brat,” she groused, hiding a smile, amused despite herself at his antics.
Shaking her head, she turned back to find Drrak watching her, a shocked, slightly unnerved, expression on his face as if he was waiting for something bad to happen.
As she blinked up at him in surprise, not understanding at first why he was so taken aback, she saw another emotion ignite in his bright eyes. Hunger? Longing? She wasn’t sure exactly what she’d just seen, but it made her heart beat a bit faster and a spark of awareness shoot through her.
Shaking off what she’d just felt, she focused on his initial reaction, and not the hunger she’d glimpsed that bordered on ravenousness. His reaction to her interaction with Tor made her remember a conversation she’d had with the guys about shevari females and their expectations for their males. She recalled how submissive the guys were when she first met them and wondered suddenly if their people would find their new behavior odd, or worse, unacceptable.
That’s just too damn bad!
It took a long time for them to be that comfortable with her. If shevari woman wanted their mates all stiff and submissive…
Well, I think that’s dumb. But that’s also their choice. I don’t want that with my guys so they can either learn to accept it or we’ll just have to set up house away from them.
Lily realized she was frowning at Drrak and consciously relaxed her expression. She didn’t want him to think she was angry with him, nor did she want to ruin the reunion.
She became aware that her guys were oddly silent beside her and turned to look at them. They were all staring at her expectantly. She blinked, not understanding what they were waiting for until Tor jerked his head toward Drrak and she realized they were waiting for her to greet him now.
Oh. Right .
She faced Drrak again and smiled nervously, unsure why the moment felt so weighted, like there was suddenly a spotlight on the two of them. It felt like everyone was holding their breath as she rubbed her palms on her cardigan and stepped forward, hand extended.
Chapter 14
S he felt a little silly trying to shake an alien’s hand, but she didn’t have enough limbs for their greeting. After her reaction to him earlier, she didn’t know if she trusted herself enough to hug him even though that was, in her culture, more appropriate for greeting your husbands’ family.
“Hi, I’m Lily,” she blurted, then winced, immediately regretting not using their language even if her enunciation left a lot to be desired.
She felt even sillier when Drrak blinked at her, clearly not understanding what she’d said, then frowned down at her hand, cocking his head to the side as if trying to see if she had something in her palm.
Ugh. Awesome job, Lily. You’ve really got this whole greeting aliens thing in the bag .
She started to lower her hand when, quicker than her eyes could follow, he reached out and clasped it between all four of his, making her jump with the speed of the unexpected movement.
Her eyes shot up to his face, but he wasn’t looking at her. He was staring at his big, scarred hands completely engulfing hers, his eyes wide as if he had surprised himself, as well. She felt his calloused fingers rubbing at her skin and quickly inhaled when his caress sent a jolt up her arm, setting her heart to racing.
She fought the urge to snatch her hand back—not liking how much she liked his touch but not wanting to be rude either—when something caught her eye.
She peered past their hands to see the claw marks she’d noticed earlier were bleeding again. A thin trail of bright red snaked its way down his muscled thigh. She assumed it opened back up while he was wrestling with Tor and Arruk and hissed in sympathy, surprised Drrak didn’t seem to notice the pain.
Without reclaiming her captive hand, she reached back with her other for one of the pouches tied to her vine strap. Glancing down once she had the one she wanted, she dug through it until she found what she was searching for. Wrapped up in a leaf was her last chunk of the pain-relieving, eggplant-looking vegetable her guys gave her for the menstrual cramps .
She fished it out and offered it to Drrak. The chunk was so vividly neon green against the plain white leaf it appeared cartoonish or radioactive where it sat in the middle of her palm. When he didn’t take it, she looked away from his wound and frowned at him quizzically.
The expression on his face was dumbfounded, as if she had just shocked the pants off of him… if he’d been wearing any. His full, scarred lips were parted, his unblinking stare frozen on the proffered bit of vegetable in her palm.
Lily frowned in confusion and pulled her hand back, inspecting the chunk of food to make sure she hadn’t just offered it to him with bite marks or drool on it. Not seeing anything wrong with it, she extended her hand again, giving it a little shake to prompt him to take it… which he still didn’t.
This time when she looked up at him, his shocked stare was on her, searching her face like he was trying to figure her out. There was a wariness there she didn’t understand.
“What’s wrong?”
She didn’t understand his hesitation.
He’s acting like I’m trying to give him diamonds or something. He must know it relieves pain.
She glanced to the side at her guys to see if they could offer any clarity to Drrak’s odd reaction, but Arruk’s and Frrar’s expressions just served to confuse her even further.
Tor was clearly amused—which wasn’t much of a surprise since he could usually find humor in almost any situation—but Frrar looked satisfied, almost to the point of smugness, while Arruk seemed anticipatory, his eyes a little too wide and his tail lashing excitedly.
Weird.
She didn’t understand Frrar’s or Arruk’s reactions, but Tor’s made her recall that the eggplant thing was supposed to be used exclusively for females.
Lily rolled her eyes and had to curb the urge to snort in exasperation.
What a ridiculous rule! Pain is pain, whether male or female. Is that why he looks like I just offered him something shockingly precious?
Facing Drrak again, she used his grip on her hand—that he still hadn’t let go of—to pull him down while going up on tiptoe. She'd clearly surprised him because he didn’t put up any resistance, and she knew for a fact she wouldn’t have been able to move him unless he let her.
