Never mind that I learned I hate being without him.
Never mind that I don't like being alone.
Never mind that I'm madly in love with the fool.
Nope. In his eyes, I'm still heading off to Farmland and he's going to be free to gallivant around the universe. It makes me cranky, but I don't know if that's a side-effect of hormones, either.
All I can do is enjoy every day and hope that rescue doesn't come soon. If it can wait until we're tired of each other, so much the better. Because right now? I'm absolutely not tired of Kas. I'm more in love with him every day.
And I'm growing increasingly worried about the future. It's not that I don't want to be a farmer or a single parent. It's that I don't know how I'm going to function if he leaves me behind. So I cling to him as hard as I can…but not too hard, because I don't want to drive him away. I'm a constant mixture of clinginess and independence, and I can tell it confuses him as much as it confuses me.
I just need the universe to give me a sign. Just one.
It's the middle of the night when there's an unearthly crash outside. Sterre growls and races out of bed, slamming down the stairs. I sit up, disoriented, and watch as Kas also jumps out of bed, buck-ass naked, and heads after her. "What was that?" I call out.
"I think we caught something, Sunshine!" my alien calls back.
Well, now I'm fucking awake.
58
KASPAR
Heart racing, I'm not sure if the chemicals pumping through me are from adrenaline or panic. Sterre pushes her way past me, practically leaping out of the spaceship.
We've caught something all right, and now I need to get to it before Sterre eats its face.
I grab my spear, my knives, and strap them on, then move toward the door as quick as I can. I'm acutely aware of how vulnerable Alice is upstairs. She's small and fragile. Humans have light bones and any alien could snap her in half easily. I don't have my keffing blaster and my mate is pregnant. All of these things race circles in my head, drowning out any excitement I might have had over this new development.
A quick check down below doesn't show a legion of intruders, so I feel safe tossing down the ladder.
"Kas?" Alice calls after me, and I can hear the worry in her voice.
"Stay up there," I tell her. "Don't come down. I'll check it out."
"Please be safe, okay?" There's a wealth of worry in her voice. "Don't make me come after you."
I should probably laugh at that, but the thought of Alice getting anywhere near our intruder terrifies me. "You stay up there," I repeat again. "I mean it, Alice. Don't come down. At all."
"Okay." Her voice is soft. "Be careful. I love you."
"Love you, too." I put my knife between my teeth, test the rope ladder, and then head on down. I move as quickly as I can, because Sterre is making these angry little growls below and I don't want her devouring our hostage—or hostages—before I can question them.
The occupied pit is easy to find—it's the one with the angry, protective carinoux hovering at the edge. I hope I'm wearing enough of Alice's scent that she won't turn on me. I call Sterre gently, moving up behind her, knife in one hand and spear in the other. The protector-kin swats me with her tail as I move to her side, but she doesn't attack. Her focus is completely on the pit and the occupant below.
I'm relieved to see it's only one person.
The pit's coverings have been destroyed, most of them carried into the pit itself. Down below, a large male sits in the pile of fern leaves and broken branches, gazing up at Sterre with a mixture of concern on his face. I study him in the darkness. Big, bulky arms are crossed over an equally wide chest. He's wearing a nondescript gray uniform that looks as if it's a few sizes too small in certain spots—mostly across the biceps and chest. From what I can tell in the shadows, he doesn't have horns. I look for other identifying features of the races I know, and he doesn't match any of them. His hair is a fuzzy, tufted mess that reminds me oddly of a praxiian that got electrocuted on a station once, and all of his mane stood up on end.
"Hello, friend," he calls out, saluting me. "Nice place you have here. Mind calling off your pet?"
"Not just yet," I reply, keeping my tone jovial.
The man below shifts in the pit, and a glimmer of moonlight shows that his skin is the darkish blue that Alice mentioned from before. Given his heavy build, odd hair, and lack of horns added onto the mesakkah blue of his skin? We've got ourselves a splice.