winded in the brain. What he means to say right now is that he found the panties inside a white pod, in this camp, along with medicine. Show her the medicine, Nar.”
Nar pulls out strips of meds, which I recognize as the ones he was trying to show me yesterday on the platform. Those aren’t my meds and those aren’t my panties, and those weren’t my clothes I wore yesterday, and if they’re to be believed, they think all those things are mine. If they’re mine, they can’t be another woman’s, and if they don’t know about her, she still has a chance of hiding from them.
I stand and snatch the panties from his hand. “Fine, you got me.” I extend a hand to take the meds.
Nar gives me one strip. “You’ll get another one tomorrow.”
“If I pick you as a winner?”
“Even if you don’t,” he says, eyes narrowed.
I wish I could read his stoic expression, wish I could believe he truly is a good man. Or a male. A male who would gift me something he thinks I need even if I picked another. But I don’t know that. “I won’t pick another.”
“No matter what they bring back?” Mas asks.
I nod. “No matter.”
Mas furrows his brow. “Why not?”
“Because she wants me, idiot.”
Mas rolls his eyes. “Down, boy.”
They lean in, expecting me to answer. “Because I want to make a deal.”
“Name your terms,” Nar says.
Beads of sweat accumulate on my forehead. I’m risking my life here. I have no idea if these males will go back to Gur and tell him everything, and even though they’re from a different tribe, it means nothing when I don’t know if I can trust them. “I want to return to my pod.”
Nar’s jaw shifts from left to right, reshaping his entire face.
I blink, and his face appears normal again. Maybe I’m going crazy imagining things.
“I said down, boy,” Mas repeats.
“I will take you to your pod,” Nar says.
“Great. That’s all I want.” I can send a distress signal. Get rescued. Done.
“Here’s what I want,” Nar says. “I want pups.”
Mas nods. “A fair trade.”
I frown. “You mean like puppies? Dogs? What?”
“Mm-hm.”
“Sure. When I return, I can ship puppies to you. Somehow. We have lots of puppies on Earth, and they’d love it here in the open space and forest. Maybe not in the mud, though they do like to get dirty.”
“Yeah,” Nar says, but his smile doesn’t reach his eyes. “You have no idea what I’m talking about, do you?”
“I’m trying to understand.”
“I will clarify. I want unconditional and exclusive access to your pussy so that I may seed your womb. Once seeded, you carry the pups, and once they’re born, you can leave.”
“Okay, this is the weirdest conversation I’ve ever had. I don’t carry pups. I carry babies.”
“Whatever you want to call them, womankind, but I want them, and you will give them to me.”
I bite my lip. “That seems like a lot to ask for pod access.”
“Take it or leave it.”
He’s preying on me, taking advantage of my terrible situation. If I don't stay with him, then it'll be someone else, someone worse than him. Would another male treat me worse? I don't know. If he did, I’d be helpless to stop him. These males are larger, stronger, more…dangerous-looking than any other warrior-class aliens. I need leverage and have none. Tears gather in my eyes, and I swallow, trying not to cry.
Nar looks away. “Take it or leave it, female.” He stands and lifts the tent’s flap to see the sky. “It’s gonna rain.”
I wipe tears from my cheeks. “It’s always raining.”
“Actually,” Mas says, “it’s not always raining. It’s been raining nonstop for spans now, and while rain isn’t unusual in these parts, rain with vicious thunder for this many spans is unusual.”
Nar snaps his head to Mas. “Mae or Aoa or both are here.”
Mas stares at me, a strange look on his face.
“What?” I ask. “Who are they?”
“Goddesses.”
Creepy. “Should we sacrifice something and make them go away?”
Nar tilts his head. “Is that what you want? A sacrifice?”
“I’m just wondering what’s the custom or ritual or… I don’t really know. We only have one god.”
“You worship a male?”
“Most think of God as male, but it’s a spiritual being.”
“You worship a male,” Nar concludes and wags his eyebrows. “Come along, then. The games await.”
Chapter Eleven
Nar
Dressed in blue pants and a new shirt under three furs, the goddess walks in front of us barefoot, her leash in her hand. Most males have made their