A week later, Valentina was over the worst of it. She was sore still, but nothing she couldn’t handle. And she was thoroughly, one hundred percent, sick of being babied.

She liked the bed, though.

Going back to her stiff bedroll and stingy blanket was going to be a rough transition. But she wouldn’t mind sleeping under the stars again.

She was thrilled to her core when Milla and John Alec left her alone for the first time in what felt like a year. The house was blissfully silent. Valentina got up from the chair in the corner of her room, under the window, and stretched a little. It tugged at her stitches, though a fair few of them had already dissolved.

As she walked from one room to the other, she caught sight of herself in the long, perfect mirror on the wall. The first time she’d seen it, she’d been confused. She’d thought there was an indoor window in the house, between two rooms. It hadn’t taken her long to figure it out. She’d seen mirrors before, small ones, cloudy ones. But never one this perfect. And never one this large.

She’d glance in it now and again, but now she really took the opportunity to look. Really look.

She liked what she saw. She looked like John Alec. But a girl. She was pretty. Not, maybe, as flawless or stunning as Milla and Inka, but who was? She leaned close to the mirror to examine her eyes and flushed with embarrassment when her forehead conked into it. Her eyes were lighter than her brother’s. Almost honey-colored. And it felt strange that she’d never really realized that before. That everyone who’d ever seen her knew something about her that she hadn’t.

Her nose was small and plain and she thought her lips were a little bit too pouty. They gave her a sullen look, even when she was just relaxing her face. And she was too thin. She knew she’d been losing weight over the last few months. But her appetite had gone out the door with her happiness. It gave her face a tight, pulled look that she wished were a bit softer.

She cocked her head to one side and stepped back a foot or two from the mirror. Valentina pulled her soft T-shirt up with one hand and came up against a clean, white bandage which she promptly peeled away. She jogged her body to one side to better see the wound. It was thin, and not too deep at the beginning or end, but the damn bastard had gotten her from armpit to hip. She was eager for the next moment she came upon another hunter. She was going to put him on a spit and roast the bastard.

“Oof,” Kain said from behind her and Valentina moved only her eyes to his. She stayed with her wound exposed and reflecting in the mirror. He respected the poise, the lack of shame. “That’s a doozy.”

“What’s a doozy?” Her voice was flat but not unfriendly.

“Your scar.”
“No, I mean what does doozy mean?”
“Oh,” he laughed and came into her room, bouncing on the end of the bed as he sat down. “I can’t really explain it, I guess. I just mean that that’s gonna leave a big scar.”

“Not as bad as this one.” She dropped her shirt on one side and lifted it on the other.

Kain leaned forward and inspected the wicked scar she had on the other side. “Gnarly.”

“Like a tree?” She inspected her own scar. “I suppose you’re right.”

With zero self-consciousness or innuendo, Valentina let her shirt drop and pulled down one side of her sweat pants to see her other incision. She pulled the bandage off and inspected it, missing the way Kain’s eyes skittered from the line of her white underwear against her hip, to the ceiling, and back again. “This one’s not gonna be so bad,” she decided.

“Nah,” Kain rose and stood beside her in the mirror. “That one’ll be kinda cute.”

“Cute?” She looked supremely suspicious of that assessment. “How?”

“I dunno. Some scars are cute. Sexy, even.” He grinned down at her. “Like mine.”

Kain turned his head so she could inspect the silvery crescent moon that lined one side of his face from brow to jaw.

“How’d you get it?”

“Fought a bobcat.”

“And lost, apparently.”

He laughed. “Nah, I was a kid, messing around with Ansel. He kicked me off a tree branch and I hit an old nail in the tree on the way down. He felt worse about it than I did.”

“You didn’t mind?”

“I didn’t like the stitches, but I didn’t hold a grudge. Especially when I realized how many chicks a scar like this can net a guy.”

She narrowed her eyes, trying to understand. “I take it that ‘chicks’ means willing women?”

He grinned. “Indeed.”

She rolled her eyes and then looked up at him again. “But I thought shifters were incredible healers?”

“Not before you have your first shift. That’s when all the cool stuff happens. I was too young to heal right when I got this.”

She considered him for a moment and then turned to the mirror to start putting her hair in one of those incredibly complicated braids she liked so much.

Kain looked at the two of them in the mirror and realized just how close he was actually standing to her. He sidled back to the bed.

“I didn’t come to talk about scars.”

“Hm.”

“I came to invite you to Ansel’s house for dinner. Milla thought you might be up for it.”

If it had been a walk in the woods, Valentina would have jumped at the chance a hundred times over. But a family dinner at someone’s house on Earth? Eh. Not so much.

“Don’t say no.” That was all he said. Until his face twisted to one side. “Unless you actually don’t feel up to it. And then we could just hang out here.”             

Valentina’s stomach twisted. Her whole life she’d found it so hard to create situations where she got to be around other people. But it was obviously so easy for Kain. Simple as that. We could just hang out here. Like he wouldn’t have minded skipping the dinner with his family.

“No. I’ll go. Actually, I’m hungry anyways.”

 

 

***

 

 

“I want that. Or one just like it,” Valentina said to Kain as he pulled up in front of Ansel’s house.

He looked down at where she was pointing. “My hoodie?”

“One like that. That parts in the middle.”

“A zip-up. This is a zipper.” Sometimes it floored him how different their worlds were. Like how she’d put down the window and let the wind mess up that complicated braid, like she couldn’t believe speed like this existed. He had to admit that he’d flirted with the gas pedal just a little for her. There was something about being on the road with Valentina’s stern little face in his passenger seat. He liked it.

“Well, it’s very clever.”

He pulled off the sweatshirt and handed it over to her. “It’s yours, sunshine.”

She took it from his hands immediately. No hesitation. Just like she’d taken the tea that first night at his house. Kain found himself charmed by it. She said what she wanted, and if it was offered to her, she took it. It was the same thing that hadn’t had her flinching from her own scars. She’d shown them to him without a single beat of shame or self-consciousness. He could rock with that kind of confidence.

He went around and pulled open her passenger door. She tried to get out but winced when the seat belt pulled against her wounds.

“Shit.” He leaned into the car and unbuckled her.

“I forgot about that thing,” she admitted and stepped out, ignoring the hand he held out for her. Or maybe she just hadn’t noticed. It tweaked his nerves a little bit, that she didn’t know a man was supposed to help a woman out of a car. Not that they had cars on Herta. But still. Add it to the list of reasons that Williams was a tool.

Valentina came out of the car and put his hoodie on over her T-shirt and sweatpants. The only clothes that were comfortable for her yet. She held the sleeves out for inspection. “Too bad it’s such a ridiculous color.”

He laughed. “I like that color. It’s a good blue.”

She frowned. “But it could be seen for miles. There’s no hiding in a color like this.”

Her words saddened him. That she’d had to think in terms of survival for so long. He looked at the cerulean blue against her tan skin, her honey-gold eyes. It kind of made her pop. “You’re not supposed to hide in a color like that.”

His voice was too gruff. He cleared his throat. Walk it back, thug.

“Obviously,” she retorted. “Since you picked it. You’re not exactly a hider.”             

He took that as a compliment and led her into Ansel’s house. They were the last ones to arrive and Kain was very relieved that there wasn’t a big fuss when Valentina walked in. He knew she would have hated that.

John Alec immediately called her to the couch where he inconspicuously set up some pillows up for her to lean on.

Valentina looked around once she was settled and saw a humongous man smiling very large from next to her on the couch. Had she met this man before? He had black hair, a crooked nose, and a friendly sort of handsomeness. “How are you feeling?”

“Who are you?”

He blinked. “Ah, I’m Matt Woods.” They’d met before. He’d given her the portal maker and showed her how to use it. “Inka and I are married. That one’s mine. Carmen.” He pointed behind him at a baby with black hair and chubby hands who was currently gripping both of Kain’s ears and attempting to blow a raspberry right on his lips.

“Gah, Carm,” Kain laughed hysterically, the way you do when something is just on the edge between fun and terrible. “She won’t let go of my ears!” He called to his sister, but he wasn’t calling for help. Instead he turned his attention back to baby Carmen. “If you get me, I’m gonna get you.”

The baby didn’t listen, and she tried it again. Kain ducked his head, planted his mouth in her neck and blew a loud wet raspberry. Now it was the baby’s turn to laugh. A full on belly jumper. She was hiccupping by the time Kain was done with her. He flipped her, taking mercy on her little soul, and set her butt on his hip, her arms swinging out to grab at a stack of books. He stepped deftly away and popped a rattle in her hands.

Valentina blinked at the scene. There was no reason to feel like she’d been scraped clean by a pricker bush. No reason at all. But there it was. She was stinging and raw and it had nothing to do with her injuries. She forced her eyes back onto the man in front of her. This Matt fellow.

“Okay,” was just about all the response she could muster up.

“Ah, okay.” He pinked in the cheeks, a little flustered by her blunt attitude.

Just then, John Alec came over with a plate of food for Valentina. He was childishly expectant of her reaction. He fully expected it to be the same one that he’d had when he’d come face to face with how Earthlings ate.

“God in heaven, John Alec, are you trying to murder me?” She gaped at the plate piled over with food. She and her brother had been brought up as hunters and gatherers. They ate well and often. Seasonal foods. And not a bite wasted. But their portions were minuscule compared to the heaping plate he held. In the last week she’d been stomaching little things. Broth, bread. She’d had some cheese and nuts yesterday and that had been just divine.

But she didn’t even recognize most of the food on her plate. And it was heavy. It must have been a full pound of food.

John Alec cracked a boyish smile that had his wife doing a double take across the room. “Just joking. That one’s for me. This is yours.”

He passed her a much more manageable plate, all the same foods but in much more reasonable proportions for someone who’d barely been able to eat all week.

Valentina set the plate on her lap and in less than two seconds Kain was leaning over the back of the couch, baby Carmen gripping at his collar as she leaned with him. “Should you set that on your lap? Won’t it hurt your incision?”

She craned her head to look at him and the two of them found the other startlingly close. “I’m being careful,” she assured him and snapped her head back around to face front.

The noise of the group swelled and ebbed as everyone chatted with one another, leaned across to snatch something from each other’s plates. Valentina knew John Alec and Milla, of course, and the very pregnant Inka. And she’d met Matt, remembering now that he was the scientist. The one who’d invented the tool to make portals. Across the room was Ansel, who tipped his glass at her–they’d been on plenty of caravans together at this point. But there was a little red-haired woman, very pretty, and a dark-haired young man whom she hadn’t met either.

She stared thoughtfully around as she took her first bite. The food was soft and looked yellow with some sort of red on top. Valentina thought her head might just blow right off.

“Who made this?” she asked, loudly enough for the party to come to a little bit of a halt. Her wide eyes opened even further when no one answered. She gestured with the fork. “This red food, which one of you made it?”

“Um, I did?” said the red-headed woman, her cheeks going a little pink and her eyes darting to Ansel, as if she wasn’t sure what was going to happen next.

“This is—you should—I’ve never—” Valentina gave up and shoved another bite in her mouth. “I didn’t know food this good existed. I’ll never be the same.”

The group laughed, letting out some of the tension, but Valentina hadn’t been telling a joke. She already knew that she would dream of this food for the rest of her life.

It wasn’t long before the red-headed woman came and sat on the coffee table in front of Valentina. “We didn’t meet yet. I’m Ruby. That’s my, um, fiancé, Ansel. And my brother, Griff.”

“Ah,” Valentina put the pieces together. “He’s the Griffin.”

Everyone on Herta knew about the Griffin. He was the young shifter who’d been lured to Herta but had never succumbed. Not in all the time he’d been there. He’d never shifted once and he’d never become enslaved. When John Alec, Milla, Ruby, and Ansel had freed him and brought him back to Earth, they’d made legend on Herta.

Ruby nodded.

“But I don’t know what fiancé means,” Valentina said, cocking her head to one side.

“It means that we’re getting married soon. In a couple of months.”

Valentina could see from the flush on the woman’s cheeks that she was very happy about this.

“Actually,” Ruby leaned forward, “I was just going to show the girls my wedding dress. Will you come see?”

She was starting to be uncomfortable, her incisions aching and fatigue gunning for her, but there was something about this woman’s smile. You didn’t turn down a smile like that. Valentina set her plate aside and Ruby helped her stand with a hand on the elbow. She didn’t need much help, if any, to walk into the bedroom, but there was something about Ruby’s presence that Valentina didn’t mind.

Milla and Inka followed them into the room and Valentina immediately sat down on the bed, completely unsure of what was going to happen next. What was so important about a wedding dress?

Her question was immediately answered when Ruby unzipped a hanging bag in the closet and swept the dress out into the room.

It was a gorgeous fall of ivory silk, made to cling and compliment. The straps were wide and would fall off the shoulder when she put it on. There were no adornments besides a small row of red stones sewn in at the scooping neckline.

“Wow,” Inka gasped, clutching for her sister’s hand.

“Rubes,” Milla breathed and surprised Valentina. She didn’t think that the serious, fierce woman would have had tears in her eyes at a moment like this. But she did.

Valentina wasn’t sure whether she was supposed to compliment the dress out loud or not; the other women had. But she didn’t have the words. She simply rose slowly from the bed and stepped closer to it. Ruby’s eyes went to Valentina and Valentina got the impression that the other woman was nervous for her reaction.

Valentina searched for words. “It—it has the same kind of perfect beauty that a waterfall does. Or the crescent moon.”

Tears sprang to Ruby’s eyes. “God, you guys, you’re getting me all excited now.”

“Is the wedding soon?” Valentina asked, and she was surprised to find that she was hoping that it was. She would like to still be on Earth in time for it.

“Just a few months,” Ruby replied, as if it were just around the corner. But sadness clutched at Valentina. She’d be gone. Back in Herta.

She’d never see Ruby wear that dress.

 

***

 

“Come swimming,” Kain cajoled Valentina.

“No.”

“Come swimming… please?” His calm green eyes were large and blinking fast at her. He clasped his hands in front of his face.

“No.”

John Alec chuckled from where he sat in Kain’s kitchen, finishing off a peanut butter sandwich.

“Gah, come on! Your incisions are healed, your energy is up, you’re eating like a normal person again. We need to celebrate! Come swimming! Alec, you’re in, right?”

Alec’s eyes went back and forth between Kain and his sister. “No. Milla and I are moving our things back today.” He’d just decided that this minute, but hey, plans were plans.

“Really?” Kain squinted at his brother-in-law. “But there’s no guest room at your house.”

Alec took a big bite of sandwich and avoided his wife’s eyes when she came into the kitchen. She would know that he was up to something.

“She’ll just keep staying here.”

“Oh,” Kain’s eyes went from Alec’s downturned face to Milla’s confused one. “I mean, of course. Sure, that’s fine. I just thought—”

He cut off. He really wasn’t sure what he’d thought. But he definitely hadn’t expected to be staying alone in his house with Valentina.

“John,” Milla started.

“They’re going swimming,” Alec cut in.

“I’m not,” Valentina asserted.

“Look, it’s either that or you come with me to the bar.”

He’d already told her all about bars and he watched suspicion rise in her face. “Where people go to dance and drink?”

“And celebrate. Look, Val, you’re all healed up! We should party!”

“No,” her eyes went dark and still. “It’s the opposite. I’m all healed up so I should be getting ready to go back to Herta.”

John Alec stiffened up but Kain merely waved a lazy hand. “There’s always tomorrow for that. But today we p.a.r.t.y. So, you choose. Swim or bar.”

Milla was used to her brother. The flirty fun thing he did with girls. Especially pretty ones like Valentina. But she was also very confused by the vibe in the room right now.

Her husband was widening his eyes at her, trying to communicate something, Valentina was turning the handle of her tea cup one way and then the other as if she were trying to talk herself out of something. And Kain was leaning way too far across the table toward Valentina, his hat tipped back on his head, like a small boy.

“Yeah. I’m… gonna go pack, like Alec said. If you go to the lagoon, you should show her where the portal used to be.” And then Milla slipped away.

Valentina looked up at Kain. “What portal?”

“Long story. I’ll tell you the whole thing while we’re there.”

Valentina crossed her arms over her chest. “It’s only noon. If we go to this lagoon then what will we be having for lunch?”

Kain was up like a shot and sticking his head in the fridge. “I’ll pack sandwiches for us. And look, two Cokes, aaaaaaand yup! Leftovers from the other night, roast chicken and mashed potatoes. And we’ve got some of Ruby’s cookies for dessert.”

“Fine.” Valentina rose. “I’ll come to the lagoon.” She was two steps out of the room before she turned back. “But you’d better not talk the whole time.”

Kain mimed zipping his lips and flashed her two thumbs up. He turned back to Alec, huge grin falling away. “What?”