Out of all the girls, Alana seems the most interested in what we found out there. "I don't know," I murmur, rather unhelpfully. She's looking at me with wide, dark eyes, the light from one of this planet's moons reflecting in them. "Um... there were ship logs, communications-"
"Was there a database of information about this planet do you think?"
"Maybe. I'm not sure. Why?"
She's quiet for a moment. "It might be useful to know about the flora and fauna here."
Shifting on the nest built from a frame of sticks and lined with hides and feathers, I blink back at her. The Trixikka have inhabited these lands for God knows how long. Surely they know everything there is to know about the animals and plants here. "You could ask any of the Trixikka... or the temple thing?"
"I tried the temple. It didn't answer me and Mavyx wouldn't give me any privacy to keep asking what I really wanted to ask." What she really wanted to ask? The moonlight catches on Alana’s frown as I wonder what that might be. "Do you trust it, though? Whatever's inside the temple?"
No, not really. I mean, it gave us our translators, but the white egg object looks decidedly un-temple-like to me. But apparently, little Trixikka baby boys come out of there so what do I know?
"Could you try and convince Rynn to let us go to the ship?" she asks, wrangling the whispered conversation back to her original topic. "Or at least me, if the others don't want to go. Maybe we could get a communication out for someone to come and rescue us from this planet? Like an intergalactic mayday?"
Glancing over the slope of her shoulder, I can see Chastity and Bea fast asleep in their nest, breathing heavy and slow in their slumber. "I'm not sure that's a good idea. Even if we can figure out how to work the communication system, how do we know who we'll be talking to? It might be the same guys that wanted to sell us off to be breeders." Alana takes a sharp inhale like she's remembering our previous fate. "There's God knows how many different types of aliens out there. How do we know we'll contact the good guys... if there evenaregood guys out there?" No, I don't think sending out a distress call to the corners of the universe for just about anyone to pick up is a good idea. Alana knows this too. In fact, from the little we've gotten to know each other, I'd say Alana's smarter than most of us. So why the questions now? Is it because of the mate thing? Because of Mavyx? "You know he would never force you to do anything, right?" I ask, reaching over and touching her arm. "The Trixikka may think these heart-star things are a big deal but they-"
"No, no. I know he wouldn't. I don't think he likes me very much anyway. That's... that's not why I want to go to the ship. I-" Lifting her dark head, Alana looks over at the other nest, ensuring both girls are still sleeping before glancing over at the window to look at Rynn too. Finally, her gaze meets mine again and she wriggles even closer, her voice dropping so incredibly low, I have to strain to hear it. "I... there's a chance I might be pregnant."
***
If I'd thought that being abducted and then stranded on a primitive jungle planet was stressful enough, I sure as hell thought again when Alana confessed that she might be going through all thatplusa possible pregnancy.
God, I feel for her. I really do. She had been in love with her boyfriend, she'd told me last night in whispers no louder than a night-time breeze. They'd not been actively trying to start a family but hadn't been all that careful either. Alana cursed herself for being so stupid and I could tell she was fighting back a whole flood of tears when she'd said there were at least three very recent occasions where protection hadn't been used, that her boyfriend had told her a romanticized story about how happy he'd be if they accidentally made a baby. She'd also told me about how, on the day before her abduction from Earth, she'd found him with his dick in the pretty intern at his office and Alana had cried herself to sleep that night.
She's wary of almost every option available to her. She doesn't want to let the Trixikka know of her predicament."You saw the... 'offerings' they gave us. They want to knock us up with their babies. Theirs. Well, if my period doesn't show up, my baby is none of theirs. What if it's like in the animal kingdom where a male lion kills the cubs that aren't his?"
"I don't think these guys are baby killers,"I'd tried to reassure her.
"I don't think they've ever had the chance to be before. They get given a baby boy from that temple thing and they're told it's theirs. This time, they'll know my wingless, tailless child belongs to none of them."
I understand her trepidation. She'd gone on to explain that if she could find information on the flora of this planet, maybe she could find some sort of jungle Plan B. Or failing that, something for the pain of childbirth. There's got to be some herb or something that will help.
Fuck, I don't even want to think of the pain she might endure. I know next to nothing about pregnancy and labor. And we're all the way out here in the middle of nowhere, on a strange planet with no hospitals, no doctors or midwives in sight! The thought makes me pause. Maybe one of the other girls has knowledge that neither I nor Alana does? Maybe, if Alanaispregnant, they could help. Chastity was a porn star and I think Bea said she worked at a school. I'll have to remember to ask Gwen, Skye, and Tessa what they did back on Earth.
Her period is not late yet - she thinks. She's not regular. But I've never spent a whole night wishing so damn hard for someone to get a visit from Aunt Flo. Just as I'm sure Alana did too.
I eye the Trixikka who I know is one of the village healers. He's currently mashing leaves into a well-worn hollow of a large rock with a smaller, smoother one - sort of like a large, crude mortar and pestle. I doubt that the healers in this village have any knowledge of pregnancy and childbirth, though they might know what herbs can help with pain.
Alana was right though. If there's information in that ship's computer, or even if there's medical stuff that I'd missed when I'd looked around, it's worth going back there to check. Rynn has deemed another trip to the ship unnecessary, but unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) for him, Alana was right about something else too; I'm pretty sure I know how to persuade him.
Maybe there's a small pang of guilt deep down in my gut for what I intend to do, but I've been using my body to get what I want from guys for a long time now. Normally, it's just their money. Normally, I don't give a shit about them. Normally, I don't even like the guys.
I like Rynn though. I like him a whole lot. And somehow that makes what I'm willing to do both betterandworse.
He's never far away from me. Even now, my skin prickles with awareness of his gaze as the girls and I sit around the fire, trying to fashion scraps of hides into something we could wear. Lord knows we need to give our already stinky abduction PJs a break. It soon becomes evident that Bea's far better than all of us at clothing construction since she's the happiest I've ever seen herandshe's already made herself a halter-top of sorts. She uses the most delicate hide she can find out of the bundle we've been gifted by many a Trixikka, as well as some form of plant fibers, woven and twisted together to make twine. "Can you make me one like that?" I ask her, standing. "If you don't mind?" She quickly agrees and beams up at me as I say my thanks. There's a small group of three Trixikka standing not far behind her, fascinated by everything she's doing. Bea is oblivious to them or has simply decided to pay them no mind. I smile at that and head toward where Rynn stands with five of his men, discussing search parties.
His bright turquoise gaze burns into me as I approach. He's meant to be listening to what his men are telling him of the ground they have covered in their searches, but it doesn't look like a single word is penetrating that handsome head of his, what with his whole attention rapt at mapping my approach rather than anything else. Mavyx stands beside him, stealing glances at Alana, his heart-stars fluttering just like Rynn's are doing too. Both of their tails jerk back and forth and the male who had been discussing search parties with them stops mid-sentence, realizing that nothing he's saying is being listened to. He bows his head at my arrival and murmurs something to his High Spear about returning at a more opportune time to discuss plans. Rynn merely responds with a grunt, his eyes practically glued to me. The Trixikka disperse, including Mavyx, though he doesn't go far, merely crouching in the shade of a hut, picking up a branch and fishing out one of his opal-like blades to begin whittling a sharpened point on one end, all the while that tail of his flicking against the dry ground.
"You wished to see me, my mate?" Rynn asks. I tear my focus away from Mavyx and his glances at Alana to look at him and hesitate for a second. Alana had asked for me to try and convince Rynn to take us to the ship again - had suggested I could sweet talk my way into getting whatever I want out of this guy. And, standing here, looking at him now and how those little lights on his skin seem to twinkle in anticipation of my nearness, I don't doubt that she’s right.
"When was the last time you slept?" I ask him, the word blurting out. "You're always guarding our hut. I never see you sleep."
One corner of his mouth twitches up into a smile. "There are more important things to me than rest. My mate's safety will not be compromised for the sake of sleep."
"That... doesn't sound healthy. Everyone needs sleep."
"Trixikka are used to hunting excursions and patrols lasting days. We are able to keep our wits about us without a wink of sleep during these times." His grin is possibly the sexiest thing I've ever seen and I realize; I don'tjustwant to butter up Rynn for the sake of manipulation - my girl-parts want me to do all sorts of naughty things with this huge, winged, alien guy. "You need not concern yourself, Zahreenah," he says, "I am a strong, fit Trixikka male and my primary aim is to keep you safe."
