Chapter 9
The trees thinned out, and Chris paused at the edge of the forest to breathe a sigh of relief. “Thank heaven! I thought we’d never get out of there.”
Turk pointed to an escarpment of steep rock against the clear sky. “That’s the pass leading into Felsite territory.”
“Will they send out scouts to stop us entering it?” she asked.
“They won’t know we’re entering it until we do,” he replied. “We’re still in Lycaon territory. They won’t be watching us now. Their scouts will see us when we cross the pass.”
“Will they attack?” she asked.
“Not likely,” he replied. “They’ll report to Renier so he knows we’re coming.”
“Won’t they see us as a threat?” she asked.
He raised his eyebrows. “Us? We’re no threat to them.”
“I only meant....” she began.
He waved his hand and started forward. “I’m an Alpha. Renier knows me. He might be annoyed that I came, but he won’t harm us before he finds out our business.”
Chris started after him. “Does Carmen know you, too?”
He shook his head. “I only saw her twice—once at the gathering and once when Marissa visited her. I never talked to her in person.”
“Then how do you know she’s a reasonable person?” she asked.
He shrugged. “Most human females are, aren’t they?”
Chris snorted. “You obviously haven’t met very many of them.”
“I’ve met you, and I’ve met Marissa,” he replied. “And I’ve met all those other women you crashed with. They seem like reasonable people, too.”
Chris looked away toward the bluffs. “Most men on Earth would say human women are the most unreasonable creatures they can imagine.”
“Then how do you manage to live together?” he asked. “You couldn’t keep your species going if that was true?”
Chris chuckled. “That’s what they say. They think we’re too emotional and manipulative.”
He frowned. “That makes no sense at all.”
She laughed out loud. “Ask Caleb. He must have something to say about living with a female from Earth.”
“He says it’s exactly like living with a Lycaon woman,” he replied. “The only difference is Marissa can’t tell when he’s eaten Karola flowers. Lycaon women can tell instantly by the smell.”
“What are Karola flowers?” she asked.
“Karola is a plant that grows in our part of the forest,” he told her. “The flowers give you a fuzzy feeling all over, sort of like the fuzzy feeling you get right before you mate with someone. But they also make everything look sort of blurry and vibrating. It’s a very pleasant feeling.”
Chris stared at him. “So you people take drugs, too? I thought you were so much better than that.”
“I don’t recall ever saying we were so much better than anyone,” he replied. “Some of the men eat Karola just before they go home to their mates. The females can smell the flowers a mile away, so they know what the men want.”
Chris nodded. “Oh, I get it.”
“But Marissa can’t smell when Caleb eats Karola,” he went on. “So he has to be more direct about what he wants.”
Chris turned away. “Let’s change the subject.”
He eyed her. “What for?”
“Never mind,” she muttered. “What can you tell me about the Felsite?”
“Nothing Marissa hasn’t already told you,” he replied.
“Then maybe you can tell me about the Aqinas,” she prompted. “Marissa wasn’t able to tell me anything about them. They must be very mysterious.”
“I’ve seen them a few times,” he replied. “They aren’t any more mysterious than the other factions, though no one really understands how their communication system works. They have a way of propagating their chemical signals in the water to send them out to every other body of water in the area. Don’t ask me to explain it. That’s all I know.”
“Maybe they have a way to travel into space,” she suggested.
He turned away. “I wouldn’t bet on it. Anyway, you have no friends living with them, so you wouldn’t be able to ask them.”
“There must be a way,” she muttered.
“What are you going to do if there isn’t?” he asked.
She cocked her head. “What do you mean?”
“You have your heart set of going back to Earth,” he replied. “What will you do if you can’t find a way?”
“There must be a way,” she argued. “We got here through space. There must be a way to get back.”
He didn’t answer.
“You want me to say I’d settle down here with you,” she went on. “Is that where this is going?”
He wouldn’t look at her, but kept walking. “You said it, not me.”
“I won’t settle here,” she told him. “I’ll keep working until I find a way off this planet. I’ll never rest until I succeed.”
“What do you have back on Earth that’s so important?” he asked. “Do you have a mate, and children? Is that it?”
“I don’t have a mate, as you call it,” she replied. “We call them husbands—husbands and wives. I don’t have one and I don’t have children, either. But I have a home and business and animals I take care of. I have a life, and I don’t want to give that up.”
“You already did give it up,” he pointed out. “You’re here, not there.”
“I didn’t give it up,” she replied. “The Romarie stole it from me, and I’m going to get it back. That’s one thing you’ll have to learn about me. I’m determined.”
“Tell me about your business,” he told her. “What did you do for a business?”
“I train horses,” she replied. “I’ve worked with horses since I was seven years old, and I never wanted to do anything else. Let me guess. You don’t have horses on this planet. Well, that tells you all you need to know about why I don’t want to stay here. What would I do if I stayed—sit around the fire and raise your children? No thanks. I want to do something meaningful with my life, something more meaningful than being a pack mule for some man.”
He cast her a sidelong glance. “Is that what you think the other Lycaon females are doing? Is that what you think Marissa and her friends are doing on this planet? You think they’re pack mules for the Alphas?” He shook his head.
“I don’t know what they’re doing with their lives, and I don’t care,” she shot back. “I only know I won’t stay here, and I won’t mate with any Angondran male. I don’t care if he is the Alpha of his faction—or the Alpha’s twin brother. I’m not a brood mare. I have a life.”
“You said that,” he replied. “You said you wouldn’t be a pack mule, and you said you wouldn’t be a brood mare. No one said you had to be.”
“But that’s what staying on this planet would mean,” she pointed out.
“Who said?” he asked.
“I said,” she countered. “What else is there to do on this planet? Aria’s got two babies and another two on the way. She must not have had anything she wanted to do with her life. She must not have had anything back on Earth that gave her life any meaning.”
“As a matter of fact,” he replied, “Marissa says she was a nurse. She took care of people the same way you take care of....what do you call them?”
“Horses.” Chris blushed. “I didn’t know she was a nurse.”
“And Carmen was a police officer,” he went on. “Marissa worked at something called a library where she educated children. And Penelope Ann had her own business, too.”
Chris looked the other way. “I didn’t know that.”
“No doubt the other women who crashed with you had meaningful lives, too,” he pointed out. “You won’t be the only one who had a meaningful life.”
“Then they’ll be all the more ready to go back,” she replied. “They’ll be thrilled that someone is working to get them back to their homes and isn’t just settling into this life in defeat.”
“Is that really what you think they’re doing?” he asked.
Chris scanned the horizon. His eyes bored into the back of her head and made her skin crawl. “Let’s talk about something else.”
He gazed into the distance, too. “As you wish.”
“How are we going to handle the Felsite when we come in sight of their scouts?” she asked. “Should we have a plan worked out?”
“No doubt the scouts will tell us what they want us to do,” he replied.
“Are you telling me you don’t have a plan?” she asked.
“None whatsoever,” he replied.
“Do you really just plan to wing it?” she asked. “Do you really think that’s wise?”
He cocked his head to the side. “What does that mean—wing it?”
She waved her hand. “You don’t have a plan. You’re going to let them tell you what to do.”
“That’s my plan,” he explained. “My plan is to wait until the scouts leap out from behind their observation posts and threaten us with their weapons and march us to their city at spearpoint. That’s my plan.”
Chris stopped dead in her tracks and stared at him. “You’re not serious.”
He rounded her with no expression on his face. “Do I look like I’m joking?”
“You can’t be serious,” she insisted. “You can’t seriously plan to let them threaten to kill us and drag us away as their prisoners.”
“Why can’t I?” he asked.
“You said you would help me find Carmen,” she cried. “You said you would help me find a way off this planet. Now you’re betraying me.”
“I am helping you,” he replied. “If they capture us and march us to their city at the point of their spears, the very first thing they’ll do is take us to Renier. When they do, we can explain the situation. The closer we get to him, the closer we’ll be to Carmen. She might even be present, since the scouts will send word ahead to Renier that they have a human female in custody. Carmen will want to know who you are and how you got here.”
Chris narrowed her eyes at him. “Are you sure this will work?”
“This is the simplest way to get directly to Renier and to Carmen,” he told her. “I wouldn’t do this if I thought there was any chance it wouldn’t succeed.”
“What makes you so certain they won’t kill us on the spot?” Chris asked.
“First of all,” he replied, “they wouldn’t kill any Lycaon that crossed their borders. That could set off a string of hostile events that could lead our factions to war. The worst they could do is keep me under lock and key until they contacted Caleb and determined I wasn’t a spy or a maverick out to plunder their city. But as it is, Renier’s scouts will recognize me. They’ll have to treat me well, since I’m Caleb’s brother and the son of the Alpha family. Only Renier has the authority to decide what to do with me, and when he hears your story, he’ll bring you and Carmen together.”
“What happens then?” she asked.
He started walking again. “What happens then is entirely up to you.”