Why can’t I be her mate?
I’m older than Orik, yet not as old as Sunif. I thought myself unable to change, but I left Orik’s bed, so maybe I can. My fingers run through the fibers that I gathered to make the thin rope to fix the net. They do not feel soft to me, but then I chose the older shoots for strength. The black stems aren’t strong enough for nets, but will they be soft enough for clothes? Or will they be too soft and wear through too fast?
My pants are almost dry, so I dress, and then I carefully pack up the supplies for mending the net, as no doubt it will need done again all too soon.
Yva walks over.Do you want help to fold the net?
Thank you. Though I will not be returning it to the ship just yet.
His gaze flicks to the ship and he smiles.It is a good thing Bridget has not chosen yet, as there is no place to mate in peace.
We work together to fold the net, ensuring it doesn’t become tangled, which then leads to tearing.
I have not seen Orik today. Has he been eaten?
I shake my head.We argued. I will find him.
The human women are…He places his hand, fingers spread, over his heart as if to stop it.The need to have a mate is something that never stopped burning in me. There should be one for each of us.
My need for a mate had been sated before their arrival. Or perhaps it was the lack of women that sent it into hibernation and now…maybe I do want more.
Even if there were, we could not compel them to be our mates. They need to choose us.
Yva’s frustration simmers on his skin.You took her bathing, Hrad has taken her to find supplies. What am I supposed to do?
She wants to make socks so she will need tools.
I can make them.His chin lifts again. No doubt thinking of what it might mean for him if his mate could make socks. He’d be a rich man.
What she is used to using may not be the same as us. You will have to talk to her.I smile.She is getting to know us.
I don’t think she will mesh well with Yva. They will fight like a fish in a net and both get broken. In a tribe, the women take their time to find out who they want to be with. Here, everything is more rushed with choices made in days.
Is it desperation or survival?
Or relief that there is more for us if we are brave enough to take it?
11
BRIDGET
Ihave spent more time dating today than ever before. And with three different guys. If choosing a mate can be called dating and if they can be called guys, given that they are aliens.
I know I don’t need to choose today, or even tomorrow. I can wait for as long as I want, but at the same time my friends are busy with their new mates, and learning how to survive, and without a mate I’m stuck in orbit. The banished have their own tribe which Sabine and Mia have married into, and I’m not part of it.
Which isn’t a great reason to rush. But at the same time, the idea that I can choose and have a say in my future is heady and terrifying.
What if I mess it up?
“So they can be made of bone, or wood, or metal. What do your people use?” Yva is watching me intently.
We went for a walk along the beach. That vast amount of water that needs to be crossed…and in that tiny ship.
Yva holds a bone and a piece of wood, both of which he picked up off the beach. I think he may have put them there, which means someone, probably Vari, figured out what I was going to do next.
Hrad seems to think he’s the most strategic, but I don’t think that’s the case, or at least not when it comes to non-raiding things.
I lick my lip, tasting the salt from the breeze, and his eyes track the movement. My heartbeat quickens and not for the first time in his company, I feel as though I am prey. I’m sure some women would love that feeling, but I don’t.
