WARREK

The next evening, we set up near the pit trap. Suh-mer carries the light-spear — a gun, she calls it — and I have made a few more spears of my own. No one has come out of the ship to investigate, and our traps are as yet untouched.

But the ship has not moved from its spot in the snow. They do not seem to be leaving anytime soon. That is good.

Suh-mer has returned to rambling around me, her voice high as she chatters. She is nervous.

I should have pushed my mouth against hers in return. I should have suggested she give me her tongue like she mentioned. Perhaps I am not as aggressive as I should be. Bek would have claimed Ell-ee’s mouth for his own, I think. Or Harrec. Even Vaza.

It is just…pursuing a female simply for pleasure is not something I have ever considered. I always thought that if something would happen, it would be with resonance. When there were no unmated sa-khui females, I assumed I was meant to be alone and leaned heavily on my father’s company and teaching the young kits how to hunt to fill the loneliness.

I did not ever expect the other humans to arrive. And when I did not resonate to them, I was not surprised. But I also did not expect…Suh-mer. Suh-mer with her lovely mane and golden skin and her mouth that moves constantly with her worried thoughts. Suh-mer with her clever mind and the way she holds on to me when she is scared, as if I am her protector. It makes me want to be her protector.

It makes me wonder at the pleasures of sharing furs with a female, even if it is not meant to be forever. Perhaps I will never be chosen to resonate. Does that mean I am to spend my life alone? I think of Shail and Vaza, who are happy and flirt constantly. It does not matter to them that there will never be resonance. They have been enamored of each other from the beginning.

And what if we are unable to rescue the others and it is only Suh-mer and myself left here on this planet? How will we react to each other then?

These are not questions I have answers for. I know only that I think about her all night long, and I worry over the kiss I did not give her as much as I worry over the safety of the others.

Tonight, Suh-mer is heavily bundled in furs as we sit behind the shield of rocks near the pit trap. There is no snowfall, so our tracks are not covered. The pit trap has been reset. That is good. Now all we must do is wait. I am certain they will not leave without their crewmate, and they must be wondering what has happened to him. His armband has chirped and flashed repeatedly throughout the day, so they are aware he is missing.

They will come after him. And when they do, we will be ready.

But until then, there is a lot of waiting. Suh-mer sits next to me in the snow, her gaze focused on other things. She deliberately avoids looking in my direction, and the silence between us feels…awkward. Normally, I do not mind quiet, but with Suh-mer, I long to hear her thoughts.

So I am the one that breaks the silence between us. “If this was your game, what would your next move be?”

“My game?” She looks over at me, startled. “Oh, you mean chess?” Then she gets flustered and waves a hand in the air. “Of course you mean chess. I don’t know why I even had to ask that. I guess that’s just me being silly. Or obtuse. Or both. Or—”

“Chess,” I agree, interrupting to focus her.

“Right.” She chews on her lip, the light-spear balanced in her lap. “Well, we have control of the board for the moment, and we just took one of their pawns. At least, I’m going to assume it’s nothing more than a pawn, because we don’t know how many of them there are on the ship. There could be fifty. There could be five. That could be the only guy and we’ll never know.” She frowns to herself, then shakes her head. “I do think there’s more than just one, though. Someone’s beeping his communicator. So, okay. If we’re playing chess and I just captured one of his pieces, what would I do?” She tilts her head and then nods slowly. “I’d try to keep my opponent off-guard. Plan a move he’s not thinking of. Try to go on the attack if it’s safe.”

“And if it is not?” I glance over at the ship. It is still large and intimidating. We do not dare approach it in case they are aware that their friend is gone and have set their light-spears on us. Suh-mer told me earlier she worries over such a thing. They know something is happening. They will be alert and wary.

“Then I would wait to see what they would do.” She gives me a little half-smile. “Which is what we’re doing.”

I nod. It is not the best answer, but it is a wise one. I want to keep her talking, though. I like the sound of her voice. It comforts me. Makes things seem not so difficult. “Did you have a pleasure-mate back on your home world?”

She looks startled at my question. Her mouth opens, and then she closes it again with a snap. “Pleasure-mate?” she eventually asks, the sound strangled. “I…no. I’m kind of invisible to men.”

Invisible? My knowledge of their language tells me that this word means she is unseen and ignored. How is this so? She talks all the time. “How do they not see you? Is it because you are not very tall?”

“What? I…no. That’s not it.” She nervously tucks her mane behind her ear. “I am sure they see me just like they see any other person. I just meant that they don’t look in my direction when it’s time to find a mate. I think I’m unappealing to men, or they don’t find me sexy.”

Sexy. That is a human word for mating appeal. I study her—her delicate features, her attractive mane, and soft-looking skin. Her slight form and the swell of her teats against the layers of her tunic. Why would they not find one such as her appealing? I would take her as my pleasure-mate without a second thought. But I do not tell her this, because I do not wish to fluster her. So I grunt acknowledgment.

“What about you?” she asks. “How come you’ve never taken a mate?”

She asks about me? I feel a burst of pleasure at the realization. It makes me feel…special in her eyes, and I decide I like that feeling quite a bit. “Many reasons.”

When I don’t elaborate, she nudges me with her boot. “I’ve got all night, buddy. Give me a few reasons.”

I chuckle. “Apologies. My habit is to not talk about myself.”

“And I have the opposite problem. But we can meet somewhere in the middle. Tell me why you never had a mate.”

I ponder this. “Well…lack of females is one reason. Growing up, the only two females in the tribe that were unmated were Asha and Maylak.” I shrug. “Neither of them struck my interest, and there was no resonance. I did not see the need to fight with others for their attention.”

“That’s fair. But what about when the humans arrived?”

“That is…different. I did not resonate, and I suppose I was waiting for that.”

She makes an exasperated sound. “But if you were interested in someone, you should have gone after them.”

Suh-mer is not wrong. Though I was not interested in any of the humans, she is wise to chide me. “I admit to being…hesitant at chasing a female. My father was broken when his mate died. I was young and do not remember my mother very well, but I remember my father’s grief. It took him many, many seasons to recover, and even then, he missed her every day for the rest of his existence.”

“That’s so sad,” she whispers. “He’s gone now, I take it? You speak of him in the past tense.”

“He died in the cave-in a few seasons ago. Our home collapsed, and as we rushed to get out, I did not realize he was not behind me until…much later.” I feel a stab of guilt and grief. Even after several seasons, I miss my father’s easygoing presence. “He was old, but he had many good seasons in him yet.”

“How old are you?” she asks. “I’m curious.”

“Fifty-six seasons.”

Suh-mer sputters. “You what?”

“Our kind is very long-lived.”

“God, I guess so. You don’t look like a silver fox to me.” She leans in and tweaks a few strands of my hair. “No grays yet.”

I smile. “I will not become gray for another fifty seasons I imagine.”

“Then I guess in a sense, you’re not that much older than me. At least, not enough for it to be weird.” Her face colors bright red. “For our friendship to be weird, that is.”

“Do your people not approve of friendships between different ages?” I ask, curious. I have not heard such a thing from the other humans.

She squints in the direction of the ship. “Oh look. Is that someone? No, I guess it’s just my imagination. Do you suppose someone else is going to come out soon?”

I blink at the flurry of her skittish words. Sometimes her mind is difficult to follow. “It is my hope they come out soon, yes, but I am prepared to wait all night.”

“Me too.” She shifts on her rock and stares straight ahead.

It grows quiet between us again. This time I do not feel lonely, though. I am thoughtful. Suh-mer’s words have given me much to think about. Perhaps I have been too complacent. Perhaps it is time to stop waiting for resonance to come for me and to choose the female I wish to spend my days with, like Vaza and Shail.

Perhaps like in her game of chess, I should take my opponent off-guard in order to win.

Not right now, though, I decide. Our focus needs to be on rescuing the others. But once they are safe, I will let Suh-mer know she is to be mine. Even if all of the humans were not mated, she would be the one I would choose. Her face, her form, and, most of all, her mind all appeal to me greatly.

I will wait for resonance no more.

SUMMER

Sometime close to dawn, another alien does in fact come out of the ship. It’s another one of the orange creatures, and this time, when Warrek jumps down in the pit after him, the fight goes on longer than it should, and I begin to worry. I shoot the laser gun—and the alien slumps, dead.

I mean, that’s one way to take out the enemy, but I can’t feel good about it. I know the rules here are different, but I just killed a guy. It doesn’t matter that he’s a bad guy, I still feel guilty.

I cry over it, too, but just a little, and only when I think Warrek isn’t looking. I don’t want him to think I’m a wuss.

I mean, I am a wuss, I just don’t want him to think it.

At this point, though, we have two guns. We strip the dead guy of anything that looks like a weapon or a communicator, pile snow over his body to hide it, and retreat to the fruit cave once more.

“Get some sleep,” Warrek tells me. “I will keep watch over the ship to make sure it does not leave.”

As if we could stop it even if it did decide to leave. But I nod at him and lie down with the furs, ignoring the steamy heat of the cave as best I can. Never thought I’d prefer my chilly little hut back in the canyon village, but after days and days of the sauna-like fruit cave, I’m starting to get tired of all the endless hot, wet damp.

My face feels better, though. I touch my fingertips—which also feel better—lightly to my skin, and wish that eyebrows and lashes returned as quickly as my new layer of skin did. It hasn’t been important to me that I look as attractive as possible…until now, of course. I glance up at the entrance of the cave, but Warrek isn’t looking in my direction.

In fact, he hasn’t really paid much attention to me outside of chatting, and I just feel so awkward about that kiss. Thinking about it makes me want to curl up with shame. He’s just being nice, and here I think it’s interest and decide to smooch him. What if he’s gay? He could totally be gay, and that would be fine. But now every time I look at him, I’m going to remember that I tried to hit on him and failed miserably.

And it’s a small damn village.

Despite the turmoil in my head, I manage to doze off for a few hours. Warrek and I trade “watch duty,” and he catches a bit of sleep. Then it’s nearly night again, and time to decide our course of action for this day. I gaze out at the ship, and I notice that the ramp hasn’t gone back up.

Either they’re inviting us in…or something else is wrong. I know we saw four. At least four. That leaves two and some possible buddies unaccounted for. I don’t like this.

I also don’t like waiting, either. By now they’re going to be aware they’re being picked off.

“I don’t know how much longer they’re going to be here,” I admit to Warrek as I point at the ramp that’s still in place. “It feels like every hour is another hour that could risk the others. What if we wait too long and they figure out how to fly the ship?” I gesture at the laser gun in my lap. “We’re both armed as well as they are now. Maybe it’s time to take them off-guard and make our move on the board.”

He nods. “You and I share similar thoughts. What is your suggestion?”

It’s flattering to be asked my opinion, but I feel wholly inadequate to offer one. “I don’t have a lot of experience with battle.”

“Hunting is not much like this either, I am afraid.” He almost sounds amused.

“No, I guess not.” I blow out a long, anxious breath. “Okay, well, then I guess we head in under cover of night. We could wear the armbands to throw anyone off and make them think their friends are returning. If nothing else, the armbands might have a passcode of some kind. Other than that, we just head toward the ramp, charge in, and hope for the best.” I wince to myself. “That sounds like a terrible plan, but I really don’t know what else to do. We can’t let them leave with the others.”

“I agree,” he says quietly. “Even if we risk our lives, it is a risk we must take.”

I nod. “It sucks, but there’s no other option. I know the others would do the same for us if the tables were turned. Plus, the village…”

He nods, his expression grim. “They cannot get to them. The kits must be kept safe at all costs.”

“We are in total agreement. You know how to shoot your gun?”

“About as well as you.”

“Well, that’s not totally comforting, but I get what you are saying.” I smile brightly at him to hide my nervousness. My stomach feels like a big ball of nerves, and even feasting on a ton of delicious fruit hasn’t helped things much. “If there’s no reason to wait, then we’d best start hiking. The suns are going down right now.”

Warrek nods thoughtfully.

I turn away to go put on my wraps. The moment I do, he grabs my wrist and turns me back around to him.

“What—what is it?” I look up at him, breathless. Just that small touch on my wrist is enough to make my insides flutter.

He steps closer to me. He leans in, his long, silky hair fluttering as he does. Slowly, he brushes his knuckles over one of my cheeks and then presses his mouth to mine. “If we survive this night, I am claiming you as my pleasure-mate.”

I gasp. “You—you what? You are?”

He nods. “You will show me this kiss with tongue, and I will take you to my furs and make you mine. I have decided.”

“Decided?” I echo, stunned. I can still feel the light brush of his lips against mine.

“Yes. You are my opponent, and I am going to take control of your board.”

That’s the sexiest, most bizarre thing I’ve ever heard.

Now how am I supposed to concentrate?