I stifle a groan of irritation as Asha saunters into my family’s cave. My bunk is closest to the entrance, and it offers little privacy. Certainly not enough for what Asha intends. “I’m busy at the moment, Asha.” My voice is blunt in the hopes she’ll get the idea. I hide the gift for Kira in the waist of my leggings, because the last thing I want is someone like Asha seeing what I have before my intended recipient does.
“Hemalo’s out showing one of the ugly human girls how to dye leather,” she says, and then moves forward to put a hand on my chest. “Want to come back to my cave with me?”
I remove her hand from my tunic. Once, I had welcomed Asha’s forward attentions. She’d been unmated and flirty and I’d eagerly participated in bedsport with her.
Until she resonated with unassuming Hemalo, one of the tribe’s tanners. Asha hadn’t been pleased – at the time she’d been moving between the beds of several unattached hunters, eager to frolic and enjoy herself. Resonating meant she had a mate and a family…and someone she didn’t want. Their joining hadn’t been the most joyous of occasions, but I had genuinely wished well for her.
I am also relieved, because Asha can be annoying when she wants her way. I am glad she is not my mate.
But her kit died mere days out of the womb, and she and her mate fight, and now she seeks to recapture her old ways…only I am not interested in another male’s mate. And Asha is not the only young female in the tribe anymore.
She clings to my arm. “Aehako, wait.”
“I am busy, Asha. Go seek your mate if you want sex.”
She huffs in irritation, and smacks my arm with one hand. “I am not interested in him. We have no children together. Why should I be tied to him?” She follows me as I head out of the privacy of my parents’ cave and into the main tribal area. “You enjoyed sharing furs with me before.”
“I’m interested in another,” I tell her.
Asha gasps and clings to my arm, tugging me backward to face her. “Not one of those humans?”
“Who else would it be?” I chuckle.
“But they’re so…ugly.”
I roll my eyes. “Does it matter?” I do not find them ugly. Different, yes. Intriguing? Definitely. They could be as beautiful as a kas-fish with its opalescent scales, and she would find them ugly because they are competition. Poor Asha is threatened – before, she had all the young hunters in the tribe at her beck and call. Now she watches them pair off with their own mates and feels unhappiness at her situation.
She pouts. “I miss you,” she says, trying another tactic. “Aehako, please.”
I give her a quelling look. She’s wasting my time, and all the while, Kira is outside alone. This is a rare moment I can spend with her and not have others peering over my shoulder.
“I must go,” I tell her firmly, and adjust the gift I am hiding under my clothing. Asha gives me a curious look but steps aside. I jog to the cave entrance, looking for Kira’s small body. The humans barely come to my breast, and I am not even the tallest of males in our tribe. They are delicate things, and I worry that Kira will not be safe out here.
There are tracks in the snow, and I follow them out of the caves and onto the nearby ridge, where Maylak’s healing plants grow in abundance. They are wedged into a small valley, buffered from the worst of the winds. Kira is here, grabbing leaves off of a plant angrily, a scowl on her face.
She turns and glares at me as I approach. Am I the recipient of some of her anger? I grin to myself. Her cheeks are flushed with that unusual pink color that some find ugly in humans. I find it charmingly adorable. She’s so many interesting colors – pink and brown, and her eyes are the vivid khui blue courtesy of the symbiont. “Hello, my small friend,” I call out in greeting.
“Not your friend,” she mutters. “And I’m not small.”
I chuckle at that. “You should pull a few of the intisar plant there,” I tell her. “It’s good for eyesight.”
She shoots me another glare.
I don’t mind. I prefer her angry expressions to the sadness in her eyes that is so often there.
“I don’t need herbs for my eyesight,” she tells me.
“No?” I tease and move to her side, then point at another bush. “That one is for potency.”
She gives me a shocked look, and the pink returns to her cheeks.
“I do not need it, of course,” I tell her. “My cock can stay erect for many hours without flagging. It is mostly for the elders or men that have been ill for a long time and wish to couple with their mates.”
The noise she makes is strangled. “I don’t want to hear about your…penis.” She shoots me another vicious look. “Maybe you should go and talk to your friend about it more. She seems interested.”
“Are you jealous?” I ask, pleased. I’ve tried to make it clear to Kira that I am interested in courting her, but she’s rebuffed me at every turn. Has she changed her mind? I admire her fine brown hair as it blows in the wind and imagine it spilling over my chest.
And then I have to adjust my breeches again.
“Jealous? Ha! Why should I be jealous? I’m ugly, remember?” She taps the shiny metal shell attached to her ear. “I heard every word of your conversation!”
I cannot keep the delighted grin from my face. She did hear me speaking to Asha. And she is jealous. This pleases me greatly.
Perhaps Kira is not so aloof after all. It’s time to present her with my courting gift.
KIRA
But they’re so ugly.
Does it matter?
The words ring in my ears as I rip leaves from one of the wintry plants. Jerk. Jerk. Jerk. I like how he doesn’t care what I look like as long as he gets laid. “Why don’t you just go inside and leave me alone?”
“How can I leave you alone?” Aehako still has that teasing note in his voice that makes my stomach flutter…and makes me want to punch him at the same time. He puts a hand over mine. “You’re plucking all the leaves from this plant. If I leave you, I’ll find the entire hill bare.” He tsks. “Maylak will be most displeased.”
I glare over at him, but I stop denuding the bush I’m attacking. He’s right – I’ve taken way more leaves than I should have, but the man gets me so darn frustrated. “I’ll stop with the plant. You’re free to go now.”
He doesn’t leave, though. Instead, he reaches out and touches the translator sticking out of my ear. His fingers brush against the shell of my ear where it’s attached, and I have to fight back a shiver. “Does this thing hurt you?”
“It doesn’t feel good.” His touch does, though. His finger feels insanely warm against my skin, and a prickle of awareness runs up my arms. “It’s heavy and I can’t sleep comfortably. It gets cold, too.” That, and I can hear every conversation for a mile around.
“Can you take it out? Do you want me to try?”
I pull away from him. A rush of horrible memories burst through my mind and I hug my furs tighter around my body. “They surgically implanted it. I tried pulling it out myself but it’s in deep. I’ll just have to live with it.”
It could be worse. They could have raped me like they did Josie. They could have removed my baby like they did Megan.
“I want to help you,” Aehako says softly, and all the teasing is gone from his voice.
I give him a faint smile. “That’s sweet and all, but I’m fine. Really.” I drop the crushed leaves into a leather pouch. He’s right that I’m squeezing them to death. I don’t even know if I can give these to Maylak. They look pretty mangled.
“You’re angry at me, aren’t you, Sad Eyes? Is it something I said or did?” He leans in close and I catch a whiff of his scent. He smells like the berries they use for soap, and a hint of sweat that somehow smells wonderful on him. “My goal is to make you smile, not bring more sadness to your face.”
“I’m fine,” I say, even though his earlier conversation with the female sa-khui still stings. To me, it matters if he finds me attractive or not. I’m only human – ha.
“You’re not fine.”
“Yes, so you like to point out,” I respond automatically, then mentally wince. Ugh. Why did I go there?