Alien Storm, page 6
My mouth fell open, but he continued before I could come up with a reply.
“This leads me to your second error.” He raised his chin, looking down at me with imperious confidence.
“Which is?” I sighed.
“That you will never love me.”
“Are you serious?” I said, balking. Had this guy disregarded everything I’d just said? “What, just because you always get what you want, you think that’s going to be the case now?”
“Precisely.”
“I really don’t like you,” I muttered.
“And I love you with everything I have, to my own heart’s detriment,” he shot back. “And I vow, my stubborn little Zuh-Tephanie, that one day very soon, you will feel the same.”
I snorted.
“Wanna bet?”
His brow furrowed.
“What is bet?”
“It’s like a deal. If I win, you give me something I want. And if you win, I give you something you want.”
His gaze grew heated. “There is only one thing I want.”
I cleared my throat and flapped my hand at him dismissively.
“Yeah, yeah. That’s what I’m saying. If you can make me feel anything close to affection for you, then I’ll stop rejecting you and give this a chance. How’s that?”
He stiffened, his tail jerking.
“And if you can’t,” I continued, “which I already know you won’t be able to, you give me something I want.”
“And what is that, exactly?” he said.
I pursed my lips, the image of him on his mount flashing in my mind. It melted away, swirling until I was the one seated on the flying creature.
“I want to learn to ride the animal you came here on,” I whispered. I hoped that the intensity of my longing wasn’t too evident. I didn’t want to give him anything he could somehow use against me. Letting him know how much I wanted it made me feel too vulnerable.
But his next words shocked me.
“My braxilk, Togo? You do not need some twisted deal for that,” he said, cocking his head. “I would teach you to ride anytime.” The heat returned to his gaze. “I do not think you understand how fully I wish to fulfill your every desire.”
My stomach swooped at his words, and I broke eye contact.
“OK, well, thank you. I would like to learn.”
“Then you will have to come back to my mountains,” he countered instantly.
“Ah, there it is,” I said, my gaze returning to his face. For a moment, I’d thought he was actually being generous. But there it was. The other shoe. To get what I wanted, I’d have to go back with him.
“There is what?” he asked.
“The catch,” I said. “Using something I want to get your way. To force me to go with you.”
He inhaled sharply, his sight stars storming.
“You assume far worse of me than I deserve,” he uttered vehemently. “I am not doing this to force your hand. You may have forgotten, but I am a Gahn. I am the leader of my tribe. My people need me, especially during such turbulent times as these. I cannot remain in foreign territory any longer than is necessary. Besides, I do not know these lands well. If I were to take you flying, to teach you, I would only do so in the familiar peaks of my homeland where I know every valley, every shadow, every monster.”
I stared at him, trying to figure out how sincere his words were. Maybe I had been a bit hasty in my accusation.
“OK then. Maybe I was wrong about that,” I said, my voice softening slightly. “It doesn’t even matter anyway. I already agreed to go to the mountains.”
When his sight stars pulsed, I quickly added, “With my people. I’ll be at the new settlement.”
“When?”
“We leave tomorrow.”
He made a thoughtful rumbling sound, deep in his chest. Then frowned.
“And I suppose you will travel with your people, too?” he asked.
“Yeah. The shuttle.”
“Fine,” he snapped. “But once you are in the Deep Sky, you will only fly on my mount. Not some bizarre wingless corpse from another world.”
I wanted to bite back at him with a scathing retort, but that would have been pointless. I did want to ride a braxilk. I did want to learn how, to see what it was like, to find out if it would be anything close to the freedom and contentment I’d felt when riding back home.
“Fine,” I repeated after him.
“For once, then, we agree,” he muttered, his gaze narrowed as if he didn’t trust this new turn of events.
“Well, for once, you’re being agreeable.”
Kind of.
The silence stretched between us.
“I guess there’s nothing left to discuss right now,” I said. I pulled up my hood and put on my sunglasses.
Gahn Errok didn’t answer. Instead, he watched me with the dark intensity of a panther.
I pushed off from the stone wall and started to walk through the clearing, back towards the stone tunnel we’d come through. I’d almost expected him to just stay where he was, staring at my back moodily as I left.
But he didn’t.
Goosebumps prickled along my skin as he fell into step directly behind me, looming over me like some kind of grumpy shadow.
“Thought you were just going to stay back there,” I said.
“Please. You cannot think so little of me as that. No worthy Gahn would let his mate be alone out where it is dangerous,” he grumbled.
“I can take care of myself,” I stated flatly.
His next words were a clawed caress down my spine.
“Not as well as I can.”
Thankfully, the next few steps brought us out into the open air, letting the hot sunlight burn away the oddly cooling shiver of his words.
The group of human women who’d been watching Gahn Errok’s single-competitor strongman competition had mostly dispersed. My closest friends, Nasrin, Tilly, and Fiona had remained nearby, along with several warriors. Clearly, they’d been waiting to make sure I didn’t start screaming something like, “Help, I’m suffocating under the weight of this alien’s astronomical ego!”
I nodded at them to let them know everything was OK, then turned around to face Gahn Errok.
“You’ll be heading back now,” I said, the words more a statement than a question.
But he sliced his hand through the air.
“No. I will remain until your departure.”
Great. So, this guy is going to be strutting around here annoying everyone for the rest of the day and tonight?
“Won’t that mean we get to the mountains before you do? The shuttle has to be faster than riding a braxilk back,” I asked.
“Yes. That is what will happen.”
His sight stars flashed, his jaw working obstinately.
Oh my God. He wants to make sure I actually follow through and go.
“I am going,” I said, annoyed by his doubt. “I said I would, and I am. I already decided I would.”
“Every expectation and belief I held about our first meeting has been utterly dashed. Forgive me for wanting to confirm this one simple thing with my own sight stars,” he growled. There was a sarcastic bite to his words.
Forgive me. Yeah right. He didn’t seem the type to ask either for permission or forgiveness.
“Alright. Whatever.” It would only be for another 24 hours, tops. Probably not even that long. We’d be leaving early tomorrow morning. Then, I’d be able to focus on getting the new settlement set up instead of the ferocious drag of opalescent sigh stars along my skin.
I hurried over to the group of my waiting friends. Together, we walked away from the brooding mountain Gahn.
But even as my feet took me further and further from him, the distance seemed only to diminish.
Moment by moment, his sight stars grew stronger and harder at my back. More demanding, more desperate. I could physically feel them, hooking into me like talons.
Threatening to drag me back.
CHAPTER TEN
Errok
I spent the rest of the day with Togo as my only companion. We hunted desert rakdo for our meals and watched the settlement with brooding eyes. I did not bother engaging in any more feats of strength. My earlier display with the boulder had not had the desired outcome, and my muscles needed some time to recover. By nightfall, I was in a foul mood indeed. Togo and I remained up on our chosen ledge, staring down at the evening fire.
My mate was there, along with some of the other new women. I felt sick with longing. Longing to go to her, to touch her. To have her look at me with something other than disdain.
And when I saw the pregnant new women, smiling beside their mates, that longing grew even sharper claws.
Cursed skies, I wanted that. Needed that. Needed my mate content at my side, her middle heavy with my cub.
It will happen.
I’d vowed both to her and to myself that she would one day love me.
I just had to figure out how to make it happen.
It was very difficult not to fly home at top speed and hold Lerokan over the edge of a cliff by his hair until he told me how he’d won Priya. My hands curled into seething fists as I thought of my little brother so perfectly, hideously happy at home with his own willing mate.
I got little sleep that night. The fits of slumber were punctuated by the stiffness of my muscles on the hard rock ledge. I was struck by the battling sensations of wanting desperately to return to my own comfortable bed, and knowing that all the comfort of said bed would be worthless if Zuh-Tephanie was not in it.
Having slept so uncomfortably, it was not difficult to force myself to rise at dawn. Zuh-Tephanie was due to leave today. From the ledge, Togo and I observed a small group forming among the tents of the settlement, lit by the slowly rising sun. The group was comprised of Sea Sand men and two Bitter Sea warriors Grim and Tok, whom I recognized from the mountains, as well as new women.
When my mate emerged from the new women’s tent, heading for that group, my sore muscles tensed.
It was not so bright yet as to require the use of her eye shells or hood. The rising sun painted her lovingly in shades of milky pink and golden red. Her shoulder-length brown hair shone. Her oddly pale skin glowed, luminescent and clear.
In that moment, I hated the sun. Hated it for touching her, for warming her perfect skin, when I could not.
I glared at the rising orb, wondering if I could try to shoot it down. My aim was certainly good enough. The only question was the distance...
That question would have to wait.
“Come, Togo,” I commanded. He rose from where he’d been sitting, and I leaped up onto his back. Together we dove off the ledge.
The members of the group that had gathered all turned to look at us as we descended. Well, all of them but one. Zuh-Tephanie made a show of not turning to look at me, ignoring me and fiddling with her cloak.
So, you will not even look at me, mate?
I did not say the question out loud.
It felt too pathetic.
And I refused to be pathetic.
I landed near the group and dismounted, striding over. Zuh-Tephanie kept her eyes fastidiously elsewhere. Three new women, the ones who often spent time with her, closed ranks around her.
I stopped in front of them.
“Oh, there is no need for that,” I growled, jerking my chin at the little wall of new women that had been erected in front of my mate. “I do not plan to snatch her from among your ranks.” I decided not to add that I would happily snatch her from them if it would not make her even more hateful towards me than before. Frankly, my claws ached to do it. But my mate’s reactions confounded every instinct I had. So, I fought the urge.
“Then what do you want?” This question came from a new woman I recognized. Valeria. She’d been in the mountains before.
“I merely want to wish my mate a safe journey,” I retorted. Then, my voice turned hard and cold as high mountain ice. “And to warn you all that if anything happens to her, you won’t even have time to blink before the arrow of my punishment is upon you.”
Tok, the golden giant, snapped his mighty jaws, stepping in front of a wide-eyed new woman with spirals of brown hair.
“I would like to see you try to harm us, little mountain Gahn,” Tok growled. The spikes along his arms twitched, threatening to emerge.
I met his gaze unflinchingly, though the use of “little” sent rage pounding through my veins.
I should know how irritating that is considering I call my brother Little Lerokan just to incense him...
“Enough of this,” barked Valeria. “Gahn Errok, you are welcome to do whatever you wish, whether that be to remain at the settlement in our absence or to follow us back into Deep Sky territory. What you will not do, however, is disrupt my mission. We are leaving momentarily, and you will not get in the way.”
“No, I will not get in your way,” I said smoothly, keeping the irritation out of my voice. “But I will see you soon.”
Those last words were meant solely for Zuh-Tephanie, who finally looked up from the front of her cloak. My jaw clenched, my fangs clanging off of each other when her eyes met mine. Curse me, those defiant eyes could burn a man from the inside out.
They were burning me from the inside out.
That gaze scorched me. Branded me.
I was hated and I was hers.
And there was nothing I could do about it.
At least...
Not yet.
I watched my mate go with the others into the cliffs to find the wingless thing. Even though I was secure in the knowledge that she would soon be in the Deep Sky, just as I’d wanted, I felt further from her than ever.
I watched her the entire time before she disappeared from view.
Not once did she look back.
“Come, Togo,” I said, returning to my mount’s side as the sun rose higher. It glanced off the smooth blades of his feathers. “It’s time for us to go.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Stephanie
We stretched the available space of Valeria’s shuttle to its limits. It was a decently large vessel, about the size of a school bus, but unlike a bus the interior wasn’t just devoted to seating. There was storage for food, weapons, and other supplies, beds that folded into the walls, and a small bathroom towards the back. A lot of the space had been loaded with equipment we’d taken from the big desert ship – equipment we needed to set up the new settlement and do our work. The front of the shuttle had the cockpit area with two large seats, Valeria, being the pilot, sat in one of those seats, strapped in. Taylor sat in the other cockpit seat, also strapped in. Their Bitter Sea mates, Grim and Tok, each stood behind their seats.
There were four other seats that unfolded from the walls with seatbelts, and Nasrin, Tilly, Fiona, and I occupied those. Four Sea Sand warriors found seats on the floor between boxes of bedding and drones and guns. There would be one Sea Sand warrior from each Sea Sand tribe at the new mountain settlement. One of them, Oxriel from Gahn Taliok’s tribe, was already in the mountains. Dalk, from Gahn Fallo’s tribe; Vaxilkai, from Gahn Buroudei’s tribe; and Bariok, from Gahn Baldor’s tribe were on the shuttle now. They’d been on the original mission beyond the Death Plains, so they were already familiar with the territory. Zoren, from Gahn Razek’s tribe, was also joining us, traveling out there for the first time.
“Normally, I wouldn’t fly with so many bums out of seats,” Valeria had said when we’d all piled in. “But, unfortunately, there’s no way around it this time. We have to fly out there with all this equipment and we might as well just get this all done in one trip.”
“Will anyone else be joining us at the settlement?” I’d asked her. She’d craned around in her seat, her deep brown eyes meeting mine from around the hulking red shadow of her mate.
“Not sure. Each of the Deep Sky Gahns may send a few delegates. Also, I’m pretty sure that Hakah Gog said Kohka will be joining us once he’s done escorting Varrow and Camille back to the Sea Sand settlement. He’ll join us on foot. There’s not much out there that can kill him, so he’ll be fine journeying on foot alone.”
I nodded. That made sense. We already had precedent for that – Zoey’s mate, Kor, had wandered around hostile territory for ages all on his own and he’d been fine. And he wasn’t even quite as big as a pure-blooded Bitter Sea warrior.
Once all the fragile-boned humans had gotten settled and adequately strapped in, we’d taken off.
From my seat, I couldn’t see much out the viewscreen without leaning forward and craning my neck. After a while, I gave up, since we’d gotten high enough that all I could see from this angle was bright, cloudless sky.
Luckily, the fact that half our group wasn’t strapped in didn’t become a problem. Valeria was a skilled, confident pilot, and she flew our invisible-to-the-naked-eye shuttle with practised ease. With the vessel’s powerful engines, the trip to the mountains that would have taken two weeks or more on foot took one full day.
I wonder how long it will take Gahn Errok to get here, I thought as Valeria announced our arrival in the Deep Sky territory. He’d arrived at the Sea Sand settlement a few days after the shuttle group, so it would maybe take him two or three days to fly back here.
Well, he can take his freaking time. I was not looking forward to whenever he was going to show up. I could only imagine that his ego would be even bigger in his own territory where everybody worshipped his every move and jumped to obey his commands.
My brooding thoughts about the cocky Gahn were disrupted by excited chatter and the intake of breaths all around me. I blinked, leaning forward as far as my straps would let me, angling my head to try to see out the viewscreen.
We’d descended since I’d last tried to look out. Or, maybe it was because the very ground had risen up all around us in steep peaks. There was no longer empty clear sky out there.
