WARREK

The voice calling out is unfamiliar. I would recognize the sound of any of my tribesmates calling out in the space of a heartbeat…and this is not one of them. The inflection is strange.

Suh-mer grabs at my arm. “Who is that?”

“Enemy,” I whisper, putting a finger to her lips to silence her. “He speaks the human language to trick us, I think.”

She nods, eyes wide. Her fingers feel cold against my skin, and I realize that she is shivering. The nights are bitter for humans without coverings, and she has given hers up. I have nothing to offer except my loincloth, but it will do nothing to keep her warm. She needs to get back to the cave.

But how can I leave with her when we have just now lured one of the enemy out?

I hear a loud thump in the distance, and then something that sounds like Leezh when she is in a bad mood. Cursing always sounds the same, no matter the language. I peer over the rocks that shield us, and Suh-mer is at my side.

At the back of the ship, where Suh-mer put her strange leather ball, an orange stranger stands there, one of the light-spears in his hand. It is pointed at the sky as he glares down at a smoking mound. Suh-mer’s leather plug. Her idea worked to bring someone out of the ship, and I am impressed even more by her clever mind. She touches my shoulder as the stranger moves. He sees the tracks in the snow. I watch, holding my breath, as he follows the tracks ever closer to our pit trap.

When the stranger lifts one arm and speaks into his wrist, I am confused.

“He’s got a communicator on,” Suh-mer says. “He’s talking to someone back in the ship.”

I grunt acknowledgment of her words, but I am worried. This brings a new angle to things. What if he falls into the pit and then tells the others not to come out to rescue him? It will be a problem. We need to remove it…or make sure that he is silent.

“If we can silence him,” Suh-mer whispers, “Maybe the others will come out looking for him. We can pick them off one by one. But we’ve got to get him off that wrist-com.”

Our minds are thinking alike. I nod. “Wait here.”

I get up from our hiding spot and begin to creep along in the shadows. I pull my bone knife out and check to make sure that Suh-mer is staying safe behind the rocks. She is not behind me. Good. I will treat this like any other hunt, then. Even if the prey is down, that does not mean it is not dangerous. It only means I have the advantage. I must get his light-spear away from him and get the communicator off his wrist. This is just like any other hunting trip, I decide. The prey is just trickier. But I have never met a beast I cannot fell, and with Suh-mer waiting and hoping, with all of the others depending on me, I will not fail now.

I creep forward, placing each foot silently, slowly, in the snow. Speed is not the key here, but stealth. My prey is oblivious to my presence, his head down as he continues to follow the tracks left for him.

Then his arms fly up into the air. He disappears. A wet crunch and a thud echo in the valley.

Now is the time for me to act. I fly through the snow, covering the ground between us, racing forward. I must catch this enemy before he can think to act. There is no time.

I come across the pit and catch a glimpse of the stranger rolling around in the bottom. He clutches at his leg as if wounded. His light-spear is cast to the side.

Luck is with me.

I leap down into the pit and quickly toss the light-spear back out, onto the snow. I did not have time to make the pit as deep as I would have liked, and this stranger is almost as tall as me. He struggles to get to his feet, and I grab at the thick band on his shoulder and fling it out of the pit.

He growls at me and raises a hand, trying to strike me. He is strong, but I am, too, and I am used to dealing with wild animals and hunting game. He is no match for my skill.

I grapple with him for a moment and then manage to flip him onto his back. Even as he squirms, I pin an arm behind him, and then the other, and tie him like I would a dvisti carcass, limbs in the air.

“Warrek?” I hear Suh-mer’s gasping voice overhead. “Are you okay?”

I look up, as I finish tying up my prisoner, to see Suh-mer with the light-spear in her hands. Her hair whips around her face in the cold night air, and she looks fierce—and scared—as she points the weapon at us. “I have him,” I tell her.

She makes a sound of relief and then gives me a worried look. “What do we do with him now?”

The prisoner growls low, thrashing underneath me.

For a moment, I do not know what we should do with him. I cannot let him go, but I also cannot cut his throat like an animal. He is a person. I do not know what to think. My people do not attack others of our kind. Even though this one is a stranger, it feels wrong to take him out like a sick dvisti. “I…am not sure.”

“Should we interrogate him?” she asks. “Bring him back to the cave and find out what he knows?”

Suh-mer’s quick mind has saved me once more. She is wise. I nod and begin to tie a strip around the prisoner’s eyes. “We will make sure he does not know where we are going.”

SUMMER

I have to admit I’m constantly surprised by mild-seeming, quiet Warrek.

Not only was he an absolute beast when it came to subduing our captive, but he hauls him out of the pit and carries him over his shoulder in the snow as if he weighs nothing. It’s a long walk back to the fruit cave, and by the time we manage to get inside, I’m exhausted. I can’t imagine how Warrek feels, but instead of collapsing with fatigue, he sets the prisoner down, ties his feet, and then comes to my side. With one hand, he pushes me down onto a rock. “Sit. Give me your hands.”

I blink at him in surprise, and when I don’t immediately offer him my hands, he takes one in his and rubs it, warming it and examining my fingertips.

“The cold has bitten at them,” he tells me with that quiet, even tone of his. “But your khui will be able to fix the damage, given a few days.” He carefully folds my fingers to my palm, making a fist. “You must tell me if you are in pain, Suh-mer.”

I stare at him, surprised. “My fingertips don’t matter if we can’t save the others—”

“They do if you are the only one left.”

Just like that, I’m stunned into silence. I didn’t think about that. What if…what if Warrek and I are the only ones left on the planet after this? The thought is terrifying and lonely…and oddly sexy. I don’t want it to be sexy, though. I want the others around. I want the tribe. The thought of being alone with Warrek can be sexy without all that other garbage.

My mind is a mess, I think. It’s stress causing me to fracture mentally. That must be it. I don’t say anything as Warrek drapes one of the furs over my shoulders and tucks it around me, even though it’s sweltering inside the fruit cave. I understand why he’s fussing over me now. In his eyes, if we’re not captured and the village is, we’re the only ones left. That’s a sick twist to things.

Warrek moves back to the prisoner, who is huddled against the vines. He squats low, his long, blue legs flexing and tail flicking as he sits near the orange-skinned alien. “Why are you here?”

The thing looks at him with black, fish-like eyes. It chokes out something that sounds rude and snaps needle-like teeth at him.

Warrek doesn’t look flustered, though. He reaches out and thumps the alien on the brow with his finger. “Why are you here? Do not pretend you do not speak the human language. It suited you to speak it earlier.”

The alien laughs at him. “Why am I here?” it asks, voice strange and words slurred together. “Why are you here?”

Warrek ignores the question. “Are you slavers? Is that why you have taken my friends?”

When the creature just continues to grin at Warrek, I take the laser gun and aim the end that looks like a barrel at the thing’s head. “Maybe we practice using this thing on him. That might make him a little chattier. I’m sure I can figure it out with enough fiddling around.”

The alien goes still, and I feel a surge of triumph. “What is it you wish to know?” he says, words mangled through his strange teeth. “We are slavers, yes.”

“What happened to the old crew?” I ask, because I can’t help but wonder. “Are they working with you?”

“The old crew?”

“Yes, where are they?”

He grins, and it looks like pure evil. “The blue ones? I imagine their bodies are floating somewhere near the asteroid belt.”

I gasp.

“You killed them?” Warrek asks, his voice calm and even. “Why?”

“Our ship was flagged by the—” He says a word I don’t understand. “We needed to escape. They were unlucky enough to cross our path.” He tries to shrug his shoulders in the ropes. “Such is life at the edge of the galaxy.”

“So you killed them and hijacked their ship?” I try to recall a kind face among the lot, but mostly I remember them being exasperated by the weepy, frightened humans. Still, they didn’t deserve to die because they were jerks. No one deserves to die like that. I swallow hard. “Why come here, then?”

“It was logged in their records as a landing, but no reason given. My captain thought they were hiding something here. It turns out they were.” The toothy grin he gives us is cold. “Humans fetch quite a bit if you know who to sell them to.”

His hatefulness makes my gut churn. “Is that why you attacked the others? Are they alive?”

The evil, toothy smile just grows wider, and it frustrates me. I move forward and push the end of the gun against the side of his head, just like I’ve seen in the movies. I want to wipe that smile off his ugly face. “Are the others alive?” I repeat again.

“Of course they are alive,” he spits out. “Slaves are no good to anyone dead.”

I breathe a sigh of relief at that. They’re alive. And if they’re keeping them as slaves, they’re going to keep them alive. All we need to do is somehow stop them from leaving this planet and we can fix this. I feel such intense relief that it staggers me. I need to sit down. I wobble over to the nearest rock and sit heavily. There’s still a chance. We’ve got this.

“Why are you still here?” Warrek asks the alien.

This time, his laughter disappears. “Why would we not be here?”

“Um, because it’s smarter to take off with the slaves you have than risk things? Or like, hover in orbit? Seems to me that parking your ship in hostile territory is the height of stupidity.”

The alien just scowls at us, but he doesn’t offer any more information.

Something about this is very weird. I give Warrek a curious look.

He gazes thoughtfully down at the orange alien. “What are you waiting for?”

But our captive is silent. There’s something he obviously doesn’t want to tell us. He shifts uneasily and avoids eye contact.

Something’s wrong, then. “Is it because you can’t leave? Is that it?” I keep thinking, my thoughts whirling faster and faster. Just because I hijack someone else’s car doesn’t mean I know all the ins and outs of driving it. If I’m used to driving an automatic and my new car’s a stick, I can’t go anywhere. I imagine it’s worse for a boat or a plane… How many times worse is it for a spaceship? “There’s something with the controls, isn’t there?” I remember that ungainly wobble it made as it landed. “You guys can’t figure out how to leave just yet.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he sneers.

I bet I do. If that’s the case, it buys us a little time.

I sigh with relief, slumping forward.

Even as I do, the alien springs into action. He plunges forward, the ties on his wrists snapping, and his arms fly out. He lunges for me, and I fall backward with a shriek, landing near the edge of the cave lip. The fruit cave is like a big hollowed-out gourd in that it has a lot of layers along the sides and not much in the middle, and one wrong step means death.

“Suh-mer!” Warrek pushes forward and grabs the alien. The creature wrestles with him, and as I watch, the alien scrambles for the gun. Warrek jabs the thing in the throat with an elbow and then kicks him hard in the chest, sending him backward—

Right over one of the vine-covered cliffs.

I squeeze my eyes shut, and then there’s a sickening thud far below. Oh god.

Hands touch me, caressing my burned face and smoothing over my hair. Warrek. “Suh-mer,” he says in that low, intense voice of his. “Are you well?”

“I’m okay,” I breathe, letting him help me to my feet. “Just shaken.” Understatement of the year. I’m trembling all over. “He…”

“Got free,” Warrek agrees, running a hand up and down my arm as if to make sure that it’s not broken. Or to comfort me. I can’t figure out which. “My fault.”

“What? No. Not your fault.” I shake my head, then lean in slightly closer, because for some reason, I want a hug. Maybe that’s weird, but when Warrek obligingly puts his arms around me, I want nothing more than to burrow against his chest and forget about the world. I can’t stop shaking. “I’ll be fine in a minute,” I tell him. “Promise. I’m just trying to get my heart to calm down. Adrenaline, you know. I’ve heard it happens a lot when you’re in a fight-or-flight situation, and I guess this qualifies, right? Though there wasn’t much fight, and the whole flight thing—”

“Hush,” he murmurs, stroking my hair back from my face. “You are safe.”

Yeah. I guess I am.

I press my face against his warm skin, eyes closed. “And is he—”

“Dead? Yes.”

Should I be sad? I’m not. It’s not like he was a good guy or that we could let him go. He was bad. A slaver. Evil. But someone just died…and I’m just shaken.

Warrek strokes my hair again, his hand moving over my hair and then down my back. “I have you.”

His voice is low and soothing. His touch—and his voice—make me feel better, and slowly I stop feeling that frantic terror. It changes to something else, and I become acutely aware of his warm, soft, suede-like skin against mine. I want to run my fingers all over him and pet him, but I guess that’s weird. He’s so strong and yet so wonderful to touch. And he hugs me. Gosh, I have needed so many hugs lately.

It’s like Warrek understands me. Really and truly understands what I need. It feels so…good. And I’m starting to get that excited little curl in the pit of my belly again. I think about when he touched my mouth, and I look up at him.

The expression on his face is thoughtful.

I can’t stand it any longer. I grab a handful of his long, silky hair and go up on my tiptoes, pulling him down toward me. When he leans in, I press my mouth to his and kiss him. His mouth is just as I imagined it—soft and yet warm and firm underneath mine. His lips feel perfect.

He’s also not responding. His body has gone stiff against me.

Oh crap.

I jerk away, releasing his hair. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I fucked things up, didn’t I? Here we were being friends and I had to just push things too far. I always do that. Let’s just blame it on the adrenaline, okay?” I give a nervous laugh, and before he can say anything, I continue. “Pretend that never happened. I mean, it was just a kiss. Didn’t mean anything. It wasn’t even a real kiss, either. There was no tongue involved. Not that I was going to add tongue, especially if you weren’t into it. I’m just saying that in the future, if I kissed you, there’d definitely be a bonus. Not that my tongue is a bonus.” God, I just keep blurting words and he just keeps staring at me with that unreadable look. “You know what? I think I need a breath of air.” I turn and head for the entrance of the cave, desperate to get away.

God, why do I have to mess everything up? He’s being polite and friendly, and I had to grab his hair—grab his damn hair—and force him to kiss me. Ugh, if I were a dude, I’d be such a creep. I kind of hate myself right now.

My face burns with shame as Warrek eventually comes outside and stands next to me. He’s silent, but then again, he’s silent a lot. I cross my arms over my chest and do my best to ignore the chilly air. “So. What do we do now?”

He doesn’t respond right away, but gazes out on the moonlit snow. “We will have to bury the body. It will begin to stink right away. I will climb down and retrieve it.”

I wrinkle my nose at the thought. “And then?”

He looks thoughtful. “Then I suppose we dig more pit traps and try to catch the others.”

WARREK

She kissed me. Pressed her mouth to mine in the bizarre human custom that I have never understood.

Now I understand it.

And now I wish I had kissed her back.