“No,” she agrees, and jerks at one of the wrists I’m holding pinned.
I release it, because I’m curious what she’s going to do. I know that ‘no’ means ‘do not’ and so I stop. As I watch, she closes her furs over her skin, hiding her teats from my gaze.
She doesn’t want me to touch her or lick her skin.
For some reason, this causes a strange ache in my heart, and the lonely feeling returns. She is mine, this female. Why doesn’t she like me? Am I not strong? As strong as the bad ones? But she’s gazing at me with fear and worry in her eyes, and she repeats the word again. “No.”
I nod slowly, because I remember this, too. Hazy memories of my father slip through my brain, and I point back at my cave.
“Dunwannagohbak,” she says, clutching her furs tight across her chest. “Lemmegoh.”
She’s babbling again. I’m disappointed, because I don’t know these words. “No,” I tell her. I want to communicate. I want her to know she’s mine, and that I haven’t figured her out, but I’m going to take care of her. “No!”
Her brows go down, and she smacks my chest. “Dontellmenoh!”
I bare my teeth, frustrated. I don’t have a way to communicate with her that she is mine, and she will stay with me. My father had many words, but he’s been dead for a long time, and I’ve forgotten most of them. I use the only one I have. “No.”
As I watch, her nostrils flare, and she looks as if she’s ready to spit another round of sounds at me. But then her eyes go wide, and she stares at something over my head. I turn to look.
Something large and black is slowly moving through the sky. It’s like a giant disk, except it’s made of nothing I recognize. There are strange lights flashing on it, and it gleams in the watery sunlight. It’s big, bigger than the largest cave I know of. It tilts in midair, then continues on its course, speeding up. It’s heading right for the mountains in the distance.
“Theyvegotkira!” The strange woman cries. “No!”
But the thing keeps moving in slow motion, and as I stare, it crashes into the side of the mountain, crumpling. A fiery explosion lights the air, and smoke billows forth. I’ve never seen anything like it. I get to my feet, awed and a bit frightened at the same time.
I hear the woman get to her feet, as well. But instead of standing next to me, she darts away. Still she thinks to escape? With an angry growl of frustration, I snag my knife and then go after her.
She cries out when I catch her all too easily and sling her back over my shoulder. My chest immediately begins to thrum in response to touching her, and I want to explore this more. But if she won’t stay…
I’ll just have to make her.
I return to my cave. There are a few soft leather straps left from my father’s precious bag, but this female is equally precious to me. I consider for a moment, and then set her down in the corner of the cave, using my body to block the entrance. She curls up in a corner and shivers, holding her furs close to her body and watching me.
I cut straps, enough to bind her, and tie her hands and feet even as she tries to slap me away. Once she learns she is mine, this will not be necessary. I take no pleasure in her unhappy cries or her struggles. It must be done.
I can’t lose her. I won’t.
HARLOW
The asshole makes me sleep with my wrists and feet tied all night, and doesn’t even have the decency to make a fire. By the time I wake up, my hands and toes are prickling, and I’m so cold my teeth are chattering. My khui helps my body adapt, but humans still have a hard time with the weather on Not-Hoth, and right now I’d give my pinky for a warm blanket or a cup of hot cocoa.
I squirm in my bonds, my bladder full and my entire body uncomfortable. This can’t continue. I won’t survive if it continues. I have to communicate with my captor somehow, and let him know what I need. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t want me dead, especially not with my khui vibrating in my chest when he gets near.
As if he can hear my thoughts, the alien stirs from where he is curled upon the other side of the cave, in the dirt. No blankets for him, either. Maybe he doesn’t know how to make them? He might not need them, but I do. I’ve learned a little about tanning in the weeks that I’ve been with the alien tribe, and at the moment? I’m totally eager and ready to make my own bedding if it means warmth. It’s another thing on the mental list we’ll have to discuss, once we figure out a way to talk.
The alien gets to his feet and pads to the entrance of the cave and disappears into the bitterly cold wind, stark naked. For a moment, I have an utter feeling of fear that he’s going to just abandon me, tied up and alone in this desolate cave.