Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 44088 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 220(@200wpm)___ 176(@250wpm)___ 147(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 44088 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 220(@200wpm)___ 176(@250wpm)___ 147(@300wpm)
His hands still. He looks at me in confusion, or perhaps, with suspicion.
“Why are you crying? You did not cry when you were injured, or when you followed me through the bush, when I growled at you to leave me alone… why cry now?”
His way of phrasing the question is harsh, but I think he really wants to know.
“I feel bad. I know you want to move, and you told me… I had to stay close, and I can’t. I can barely keep up with you. I’m disappointing you.”
Kail
She cries because she feels she has let me down. Those tears are as sweet as they are unnecessary.
“You can’t let me down, Tarni,” I tell her. “I have no expectations of you. You’re small and weak, and…” I search for another word to aptly describe her innate lack of survival skills. “Human.”
She looks at me, and then she laughs, a smile breaking through the tears, making them stop.
“You, sir, are no diplomat.”
At least she is not crying any more. I do not like her tears. They make me feel a strange blend of angry and soft. Angry at whatever has made her cry. Soft toward her. I cannot afford these kinds of emotions. They do not belong to humans. They belong to family.
“Tell me if you are in pain,” I order. “I will not drag you through the forest.”
I cannot ask her to walk, and yet I want to keep moving. I want to get to Alpha Colony as much as she does, but for very different reasons. I want to show her the wreckage of her world. I want to make an example of her. I want to…
There is only one thing for it.
“I am going to carry you on my back,” I say, already swinging her around. Her arms wrap around my neck and shoulders, even as she protests.
“I’m too heavy!”
“You barely weigh anything.”
There’s a pause from her as I start walking. I can feel she has something else to say. Humans always have something to say.
“Uhm, sir?”
“What?”
“What is your name?”
I hesitate before giving it.
“Kail.”
4
Tarni
I feel his powerful body moving beneath me. We are making much better time now, and as he predicted, my weight seems to make no difference to him at all.
He is dangerous. I know that. He can save my life, or he can end it, and it is at his whim. I have to watch myself, my every word, my every thought. If he so much as catches a wisp of something he does not like, he could easily turn from rescuer to destroyer.
For now, he has no interest in hurting me. He is saving me with every step, taking me closer to Colony Alpha. I close my eyes, relaxing against him and into him. The heat from his body soaks out of his frame, through the clothing he made me, and into my skin. We are moving over flat ground now, out of the forest and into the open plains. That makes his gait even and rolling and soothing. I relax against him and into him. I let him bear my weight. I fall asleep.
Kail
She is a pleasant weight on my back and shoulders.
I have been lonely for some time, as well as alone. Perhaps that is why I did not kill her when I should have. Perhaps I am softer than I imagine. Or maybe not all humans are monsters.
Maybe I could keep this one. Love this one. Maybe taking her would go some way toward making up for all the bloodshed between our people. She seems innocent of it, but she bears some responsibility for the sin regardless.
She has turned my wandering into a journey. She has transformed my impotent rage into a mission. I have much to be grateful to her for, though she will likely pay the price for that gratitude in pain.
When I decide to make camp for the evening, I lie her down gently on the grass. She is still asleep, exhausted. Humans do not recover from wounds easily. They are not difficult to kill, at least, not physically. Their minds make them dangerous, their ability to strategize and deceive.
I tell myself I have to be careful, even as I look at the roundness of her face and the sweetness of her features. She exudes innocence.
I feel a pull of desire, simple animal lust. My tribe forbids us from mating with any creature that is not of our kind, but my tribe is not here, and she is. Soft and curled up in clothing of my making, completely vulnerable and utterly mine. I remember her body very well, the soft, generous curves, the curling hair surrounding a soft slit. I did not inspect further, but I know enough about humans to know that is her mating channel. I wonder how she would feel, stretched around my cock. I wonder if she would wail with pleasure or cry out in fear. I wonder which would be more satisfying to me. Both hold their allure.