“I’ll keep you alive.”
Mas glares at Nar’s profile. I don’t know what they’re planning. I don’t know anything. I don’t even know where I am. Nobody would tell me, not that I’d have understood since they provided me a translator just this morning. I haven’t had a normal conversation in days, maybe weeks. I don’t know. I just don’t know.
Nar stands, and he’s at me in a second. Startled by his rapid movement, I jump back, but he grabs me and envelops me in a hug. He picks me up and moves me to sit on his lap near the fire, his arms tight around me. “Don’t fear anything.”
I stare at his profile while he watches the other male.
Mas’s jaw shifts left, then right. It’s so crazy that I think I imagined it. I blink, waiting for him to do it again, but he rises with a groan. “I can’t help you feed her, Nar. She can’t accept anything from me unless she wants to warm my bed for the night.”
Nar starts growling from deep in his chest, and I wiggle in his lap, trying to escape when I feel him grow hard. I freeze. Oh my God, he’s hard, and he’s so big, I can feel it through his kilt and the two pelts covering my ass. Swallowing, I bite my lip, not really wanting the other one to leave, mainly because I don’t want to be alone with the one who’s now stroking the fur on my back.
Mas continues, “The female is in distress, cold, and hungry. How will you feed her? We know they don’t hunt.”
“So there’s no chicken soup?” I ask, knowing there never was. I’m dumb or desperate or both. Sheltered little Michelle, my brother would say to me, poking fun at how our late father spoiled me. As I was the youngest of three, my older siblings took the brunt of Daddy’s anger. He never hurt me. But my siblings did. Sometimes emotionally, sometimes physically. and yet they kept sheltering me from the world. This was supposed to be my escape. Get too Joylius, check in with my brother, and disappear. I disappeared, all right.
“They eat our flesh, so I’m good,” Nar says.
“They who?” There’s more of us here?
Nar glances at me, but says nothing.
There are more of us. I think there are! I have to find them, join with them. Maybe they know how we can return. Or make it to Joylius, at least. But we don’t eat their flesh. Hell no.
Mas leaves the tent, Nar’s gaze following him, but shortly returning to me. He parts the pelt and strokes the collar around my neck, trailing a claw down the leather leash. He fists the leash and tugs, bringing me closer. Our faces inches apart, he whispers, “If you play the games with me and only me, I promise to hand you back to your brother when he comes. If you betray me, female, we both die.”
“Gur told me not to accept your gift.”
Nar nods. “Of course he did. I am a Ka. And you betrayed him. Why?”
“For the pelt.” I say. “I was cold.”
“Survival makes us think better, make smarter decisions.”
Maybe. Maybe not. “I have no reason to trust you.”
“You have no reason not to, whereas with Gur, you have every reason not to trust him. Am I right?”
I nod, knowing full well this male is going to take advantage of his night with me. He won’t spare me his lust, and I need to mentally prepare for what’s coming.
Chapter Five
Nar
Light on my lap, the female feels nice and cuddly. A puppy, really. I stroke the leash attached to her collar, imagining what she’d look like under me wearing only that. Behind my kilt, my cock is hard and ready to fuck, but I don’t scent arousal from her, so I make no move to kiss her lips, which have turned a richer shade now.
It’s the blood, I realize. This species is sensitive to cold. They run cold, so if it’s colder outside than inside their bodies, their lips turn blue or purple. They’re less agile than us too. I’m gonna enjoy keeping her warm and maybe take her for a run sometime. “Are you hungry?” I ask.
She blinks as if pulled out of a trance, and I release the leash.
“I would appreciate dry clothes. If you have any to spare.”
“I’m disappointed you want to remain clothed.”
Red colors her cheeks, and I touch them to feel the heat. Interesting. What’s even more