Chapter 7—Native
(Sena)
“What do we do now?” La’el spoke, breaking the heavy silence.
I looked away from the sky, drawn back into his silver-blue gaze. I didn’t really know what to do at this point. I was stuck on Indiku and La’el had to stay with me. The only idea I had was to talk to Edik and convince him to let La’el live in the camp until I was released; after that, we would make our way to Earth where I could find a specialist.
I shrugged, already walking toward the trees with La’el at my heels. “We talk to Edik—the head native—and see what he says. I still have a year’s sentence here on Indiku, so I’m not sure what options we have. We’ll figure something out.” He didn’t respond to my comment, but I heard him take in a deep breath. It was despairing to see him so hopeless when he’d had so much determination before all of this had happened. Only a few days ago, he had been steady and strong in everything he did, but now he was a human man who didn’t know what to do, or who he could trust. I knew what that was like, and I wouldn’t abandon him. I couldn’t.
At the tree line, La’el paused and looked up at the towering wood, his silver eyes widening; for the first time, the zanzi saw the trees from my perspective. It was overwhelming when I’d first arrived on Indiku and I’m sure the same feeling of drowning was coming over La’el. Walking up to him, I put a reassuring hand on his waist, rubbing the silky flesh in small motions. The contact broke his trance and he looked at me over his shoulder with a questioning glance.
“I know this feels strange right now, but you’ll get used to it.”
La’el turned to face me his face conflicted. “I don’t want to get used to this. I don’t want to feel this way.” His voice rose as he became more upset. “I am not meant to be in this weak body!”
“So I am weak?” I said, dropping my hand from his waist.
“No—I don’t know—I feel weak in this body, Sena. I don’t know what to do! How to protect you!” Panic creased his face as he spoke frantically.
Growling, I grabbed his waist and shoved him back into the nearest trunk, pinning him with a tight hold. La’el’s eyes widened and his blue lips parted in a surprised grasp. “Do I feel weak, La’el?” I moved one hand from his waist to his face, gripping his jaw with a strong hand. “Do I?”
La’el’s breath hitched and his irises dilated from thin slits to round orbs. “No, Tao,” he said breathlessly.
I shook my head, unsatisfied with his response. I leaned in toward his ear. “Say my name, La’el.”
Breaths labored, La’el spoke huskily, “No, Senana, you are not weak.”
“Fuck, you are beautiful,” I growled before crushing my mouth to his. La’el grunted as my lips met his soft lips, left parted in a gape. The moment my lips touched his, I found a slice of heaven. The soft blue flesh tasted smoky against my exploring tongue. La’el moaned against me and clutched at my hips as he began to explore my mouth with his. My hand at his waist dipped lower, wandering over the smooth skin of his abdomen, back, and down to his lush ass. I wanted to touch him everywhere, sample his skin everywhere and sheath myself in his tight—
I pulled back, panting through the sharp arousal pounding through my body. La’el leaned against the tree, his eyes closed as he breathed deeply through his nose, his cock erect and straining between his thighs. His didn’t look much different than mine, besides the deep blue tip with white droplets leaking from the tip. The urge to taste him was strong. My knees shook as I kept from kneeling before him. I’d wanted to show him how strong I was and prove that I didn’t need him to protect me, but now, I just wanted to swallow him whole.
“Tao?” he panted as his tail twitched back and forth behind him.
“Don’t move,” I commanded as I let my knees hit the ground and swallowed his cock down to the back of my throat, my hand pushing firming on his abdomen to keep him still.
“Senana!” La’el shouted and threw his head back, his hands burying in my hair in tight fists.
I hummed and began sucking deeply on his cock, letting everything bleed away except for his amazing taste coating my tongue. He was long but not too thick, perfect for sliding deep into my throat.
“Sena, please, I must—” he begged as he tried to shift under the hand holding him still. I sucked harder but kept my hand firm, not letting him fuck my mouth like he wanted. He cried as if in pain, but the lurch of his cock against my tongue told me otherwise. Scraping my teeth lightly over his length, I took the head only into my mouth and suck hard while I jacked him with my hand. Tonguing his slit, I looked up at him and the picture he created, his eyes wild as he stared down at me, his skin flushed a deep blue. Pulling off of him, I watched as his eyes focused on me, blue lips parted as he panted.
“Am I weak, La’el?”
“No, Senana,” he panted.
“Good, now fuck my mouth,” I growled and sucked him back in.
La’el shouted and did as I commanded, his hips thrusting on their own, shoving himself down my throat as hard as he could before spilling in my mouth. I swallowed what I could, some of it spilling as I continued sucking. His taste was unlike anything I’d ever experienced, the smoky flavor better than I could have ever imagined. He slipped from my lips, his hands still locked in my hair as he panted, small spasms coursing through his frame.
“Tao, the exchange, we need to finish—”
Standing, I took his lips again, unable to not taste him again with that expression on his face. I couldn’t get enough; I wanted to taste him everywhere. I didn’t want to stop—
“Rays?!” a shout broke through the trees.
“Fuck!” Quickly, I shoved La’el behind me as I looked for who had called out. My eyes traced over the dark tree line, not seeing much in the low light, but I could make out a large form moving through the trees. The form became familiar as it got closer, a large body and rough elephant skin I’d seen for three years. Edik stopped twenty feet away, his face drawn up into a harsh scowl as he looked between me and La’el.
“Rays, how did you get back?” He looked at La’el with narrowed eyes. “Who is that?”
I kept my hand behind me firm on La’el’s hip, keeping him behind me as a precaution. He didn’t pass me; instead, he looked at the native from over my shoulder, his sharp teeth bared in contempt. “Ary’an, you should remember me. I was kind enough not to eat you when we last met,” my zanzi hissed. It took everything in me not to look over my shoulder. Where had the anger come from? I tightened my hand on his hip, trying to quiet him. The last thing I needed was for him to ruin any chance I had getting Edik’s help.
“Edik, this is La’el. He was…is the zanzi that took me a few days ago.”
Edik shifted on his feet and didn’t say anything, as if trying to decide whether I was crazy or not. I couldn’t blame him, since not many people could imagine a fifteen-foot creature turning into a humanoid with a tail and blue skin.
“That…is the zanzi?” the native questioned slowly, as if testing my mental state. I just nodded, not sure what else to say.
“That’s not possible, Rays,” the native rumbled frustrated, obviously confused. “How did you get away from the zanzi? Where did you find the other man?”
“Sa eske! I am the zanzi.” La’el wrenched from my hold, growling at the native in all his naked glory, tail thrashing, teeth bared.
Edik took a step back, intimidation in his retreat. His rough visage was scrunched as he watched La’el with wary eyes. Surprised, I grabbed La’el’s shoulder. “Calm down.”
Edik grumbled. “You should not have invaded our fields.”
“You have no right to tell a zanzi where they go,” La’el hissed again.
“You stole one of my prisoners,” Edik’s voice began to rise.
La’el hissed loudly, pulling against the hold I had on his shoulder. “Senana is my Tao. He does not belong to you in any way.”
“He is my prisoner,” Edik repeated.
La’el’s shoulders visibly tensed as he stared at the native. “You should remember your place,” La’el growled deep, a savage sound that reminded me of his zanzi form. “Senana is mine.” Blue light began to radiate out from La’el in soft waves. The waves tingled as they ran up my hand from where I touched his shoulder and into my body like small electric currents. It was like the first time I had touched him but on a smaller scale, so many different emotions running through our connection.
Edik watched the exchange with wide eyes, a comical expression for a creature usually so stoic. After a few tense moments, Edik dropped to the forest floor, kneeling. Shocked, I looked between the two of them, trying to understand what was going on. What didn’t I know about these two species that caused such animosity?
“I apologize, zanzi,” Edik said, gaze downcast.
La’el walked toward Edik before I could tighten my hold on him, my hand slipping from his shoulder, breaking our connection. “La’el, wait!” I snapped. What was he doing? I didn’t need anything to happen between the two of them.
La’el stopped in front of Edik and looked down at the native with the same look of contempt I’d felt from him earlier. “My Tao needs your help, and if it is within your abilities, you will provide him with what he needs.” He paused, tail thrashing around him in agitated arcs. “Do not underestimate me just because I do not look as I should. If you harm my Tao, I will rip you apart, beast,” La’el sneered, his back rigid and tone much harsher than I’d thought possible coming from him.
I walked up behind him and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Calm down.” The moment I touched him, the blue light vanished tension eased out of him as he looked at me with the same soft eyes I’d come to recognize. “Edik, stand up, we need to talk.” I rubbed my hand absently over La’el’s shoulders, easing more of the tension from him with each pass. Edik stood with more grace than I had expected of him and nodded with a grim set to his face that I had not seen before.
“We’ll go to my cottage.” He eyed La’el before turning and walking back toward the cottages. La’el looked at me over his shoulder again, his tail touching my leg in a gesture I started to think was for reassurance.
“What the hell was that about?” I asked as we followed Edik, keeping a good distance between us as we walked.
La’el snorted and looked at the native’s back with narrowed blue eyes. “He shouldn’t talk to you that way. You are my Tao, and it is disrespectful for him to talk to a zanzi that way.” He growled the last half.
“To him, I am a prisoner,” I said.
“You were no longer his prisoner when I found you.” He nodded toward Edik’s back. “He was disrespectful.”
“So you’re going to eat him?” I teased.
La’el grinned, baring his teeth like a predator before a good meal. “Yes, Tao.”
We walked into Edik’s cottage silent. La’el and I kept close, his tail constantly touching my body. I found the gesture endearing and comforting. As we walked, I thought about what had happened in the woods, and the more I remembered how amazing it was, the more guilt began to weigh me down. I’d cheated on Rhyan. Without a second thought, I’d cheated on the only man I’d ever loved. A part of me felt guilty but another part couldn’t regret it either, and I hated myself for that. La’el must have felt my inner turmoil because he looked at me with a question written in his features. “Senana, are you—?”
“We are here,” Edik rumbled as we came into a large clearing with a large cottage I had never seen before. It was set away from the cottages that the prisoners stayed in. It was built identical to the other cottages, but it was obviously older than the rest with darker hues to the wood and fogged windows. Light poured out from the windows and heat radiated from the building as we got closer. I was thankful for the warmth; we’d both been in the cold longer than physically comfortable, especially La’el.
We all walked in through the large wooden door. I passed Edik the moment we entered, dragging La’el to the fire. Edik didn’t argue as we settled before the hearth. I sat behind La’el, drawing him to my chest, the combined heat of the fire and my body warming his chilled skin quickly. La’el looked over his shoulder at me, his blue eyes beautiful in the fire light. “Something is wrong; I can feel you’re upset.”
“It’s nothing,” I said quickly. I didn’t want to bring up Rhyan. I felt like it would be even more of a betrayal.
“It doesn’t feel like nothing.” He put his hand over his heart. “It feels like something is stabbing right here.”
“How do you know that? How can you feel what I feel?” I didn’t like the intrusion into my personal emotions, and not understanding how it worked.
“Like I said, when we first touched, there is a bond that is formed so we can learn everything about the other, even our emotions.” La’el sighed and turned back to the fire, gazing at the flames with longing in his eyes. “For some reason, you did not form the bond with me as I did with you. Even my bond is broken; I only saw glimpses of your life and feel your strongest emotions. What we have is a pitiful version of a zanzi mating,” he said sadly.
“Here.” Edik walked up with a pair of jeans and a white T-shirt in his hands. He handed them to me and I released La’el to take them. “Where did you get these?”
“They are replacement stock for the prisoners,” he responded, his eyes darting to La’el who didn’t acknowledge the native. A strange look passed over Edik’s face before he moved away into another room in the cottage. I looked around the large structure and realized it was identical to the one I’d slept in since coming to Indiku. The difference was this was obviously only Edik’s home. A rug lay beneath us in front of the fireplace, a skinned animal of some kind. There was primitive furniture scattered around the room that was large and worn, but it was otherwise bare.
“Hey, stand up and put these on, they’ll keep you warm,” I said, patting his naked side and standing up. He looked over his shoulder at the clothing I held. Slowly, he stood in front of me, taking the jeans from my offered hands. He stared at the clothing with a confused expression before looking back at me. “What do I do with these?” he asked, waving the material at me.
“You wear them, the same way I wear mine. Here, put your legs through here.” I took the pants and held them out the correct way so he could see where he should put his legs. He stepped into the pants awkwardly but managed to pull them on after a few attempts, his tail awkwardly shoved down one leg. I pulled the shirt over his head and pulled his long blue hair out. With the human clothing on, La’el could almost pass for normal, except even in the pitiful wardrobe, he was exceedingly beautiful.
“Sena, I don’t like this. It itches and rubs against my flesh, and my tail has no space to move,” he groused, pulling at the shirt collar and rubbing a hand over his crotch. I bit my cheek to keep from laughing. It was hilarious seeing him pull at his clothes like a toddler.
“Humans wear clothes so we don’t freeze, and so people don’t look at you,” I retorted.
“Look at me? Why would it matter?” His face contorted into a confused expression.
I sighed. How was I supposed to explain how humans felt about nudity? “You saw my memories when we first met. Humans don’t feel comfortable seeing each other without clothes. It makes us have urges and makes it hard to concentrate.” I motioned to the things he wore.
“That doesn’t make sense. Why don’t they feel comfortable if they all look the same?” He motioned between the two of us and our similar bodies. “I’ve been naked all day,” he commented while shifting uncomfortably in his clothes.
“Yeah, and I swallowed your dick in the middle of the woods.”
A look of confusion crossed over La’el’s face as he seemed to absorb what I was telling him. Moments passed before his lips drew into a tight line and his skin seemed to become pale. “Humans exchange with more than just their mates?” There was a hard quality to the question.
It hit me then that I was the only person he’d ever been intimate with—zanzi or human—and I was the only person he ever planned to touch him sexually. I wasn’t so pure; I’d touch other men and I still loved one even after three years away. I didn’t want to hurt La’el, but I couldn’t lie to him. “Yeah, we do.” Including myself.
He didn’t speak and after a few moments, he began pulling the clothes off, throwing them to the ground as if they burned his flesh. “I’m not human.” He sat down on the fur in front of me this time. “Zanzi only ever exchange with our Tao.” He looked at me with hard blue eyes, relaying everything I needed to know just from the intensity of his stare. “I don’t want to be human.”
Edik chose that moment to come back, his hulking form filling the space. “I think now you should explain, Rays,” the native said with less force than he had before. La’el regarded the native with an open sneer.
Patting La’el’s bare thigh, I try to defuse the tension between the two of them. “We think that La’el’s body is changing to be more compatible with mine,” I said, hoping that would satisfy the native. I really didn’t have much else to say at the moment and I was too tired, and I was sure La’el was even more exhausted.
Edik scowl deepened. “Why would his body do that? What would cause it?” The questions made my head pound.
“To be honest, Edik, I don’t really know. La’el woke this way and we couldn’t stay in the nest with both of us defenseless. We came here because there was nowhere else to go,” I concluded, hoping it was enough for him.
“What do you expect to do here?” the native asked incredulously.
“Where else could we go, Edik?” I growled at him.
“You will do as he asks,” La’el interrupted, his tone soft compared to Edik’s and mine, but there was a note of danger to it that brooked no argument.
The native’s jaw clenched and it looked as if he was about to argue, but soon thought better of it. “I’ll do what I can.”
“Me and my Tao are tired. We will speak more tomorrow.” That was the end of the conversation and Edik’s cue to leave. He took the hint, leaving the room without another word. I couldn’t believe La’el held so much power over him. I would have to press him for information about the relationship between the two races—but it would have to wait.
“I am really tired,” he said. Grateful, I pulled the blanket off the nearest couch and lay down with La’el right beside me, pulling the blanket over his naked body and my partially naked one. We quickly got under the covers, lying face to face on our sides, staring into each other’s eyes. My hand rested on his hip while his tail fell in between my legs.
“What happens if I can’t change back?” he asked.
“I guess we’re stuck together until we find out,” I said as my eyes became heavy and closed.
(La’el)
I woke with Oliris.
The floor was hard against my body, nothing like my moss. I sighed in frustration. The uncomfortable sleeping arrangement was far from my biggest problem. I opened my eyes and looked at my mate. He was still asleep, face lax and palm resting firmly on my ass. In his sleep, he couldn’t deny our bond; it was only when he was awake that he tried to fight the pull between us. I’d sleep on this hard floor forever if I got to wake up next to him like this every day. Tracing my fingers over his jaw, I only wished he felt the same way about me.
I gently eased out of his grasp, sliding from the bed with as much grace as possible. It was hard to coordinate this body, but I had made an effort to convince Sena that I could manage on my own. I didn’t need my mate to think I was weak, not when he needed me to be strong. I needed to remember that he was just as confused as I was, and we needed to figure this out together. My sires had raised me to understand the importance of working with your Tao, to lean on each other to save the other unwanted pain. It was hard Senana being human and fighting the bond; it was even harder knowing that I wasn’t the only one to have ever exchanged with him. I retracted my hand from his sleeping face, rubbing the spot on my chest where my heart now lived.
I needed Oliris. I needed to feel the heat sink into my flesh and warm my body to its core. Even in this body, I needed it. Once I clambered out of my mate’s hold, I started pulling on the clothes Sena had given me the night before. It was important to my mate that I wear them and I wanted to make him feel comfortable, even though it made me feel trapped and constricted. When the material touched my flesh, I wanted to wrangle it back off. The cloth that encased my legs was dense and scratched against my bare skin in an unbearable way, while the shirt rubbed across my nipples to the point of irritation. I looked down at my Tao and his sleeping face. All of it was worth it as long as he was with me, every discomfort, every loss, and every tear. With one last look at my mate, I leaned in and gave a quick lick to his cheek before I walked out of the cottage into the morning light.