“I don’t care. You can’t kidnap people.”
“Would you prefer I had left you for the screamer?” His voice is level, as though this is a normal conversation.
“No.” Of course not. “You could’ve helped and then returned us home.”
“We are banished. Our only hope of returning home is to bring a woman so she may choose one of our tribe’s warriors.” He takes a step closer, and I take another step back.
“Why are you banished? What crime did you commit?”
His lips twist into a grimace. “The crime of being the fourth born son.”
For a few seconds, I think the translator has messed up. “Fourth son?”
“I have three older brothers. The fourth is always banished when they come of age. The Honey have more men than women.”
And the colony has more women than men.
My gaze slides over him. I doubt I’ll reach his shoulder, and my little knife will barely scratch him. His sword is big, but he doesn’t seem to be carrying any other weapons, even though they stole whatever they found after the screamer attack, which is unfortunate. I don’t know how to use his sword, but a gun I could make use of.
“So you’re going to stalk me all the way back? You’re not going to stop me?”
“I am not going to stop you,” he echoes.
My eyes narrow. “That makes no sense. Why let me leave?”
“I said I’d protect you, not walk you home.”
“What the fuck does that mean?”
“That I will use this time to convince you to choose me as your mate.” He smiles without revealing his teeth. They all do that. Do they do it to hide their orange teeth?
“I don’t want to be your mate. I don’t want to be anyone’s.” I turn and keep walking.
He remains a few yards behind, treading silently on the leaf and twig littered trail.
While before, I was aware of something following me, now I am sure it’s no less creepy. “Can you stop staring at me?”
“I’m not. I am observing the trees and sensing the animals around us. You cannot feel their heartbeats?”
“No, why would I be able to?”
“To hunt. To hide. To survive.”
If I don’t find some water and food soon, I won’t be doing much surviving. I keep my lips pressed together, refusing to tell him how dry my throat is. Running had seemed like such a good idea when I heard the shots. Help was so close…how did I end up so far away?
How did these seemingly primitive aliens take out colony security?
I know the answer, with a zap.
If word gets out about the colony and all the women, we’ll be overrun. But then humans will die out and then there’ll be no more mates for the banished. Not that I know how many banished there are. This planet is supposed to be uninhabited. Or at least that’s what we were told.
Was it a lie?
Maybe this continent is uninhabited. Not the planet. But still a lie.
Are the other colony ships in the same situation? Sharing a world with aliens they weren’t warned about?
I hate that my mother was so desperate to get on this mission that she sold my life, and the life of my sister. Growing up, she was around, but she wasn’t like other moms. It’s not that we were made to feel unwanted—I was a teenager when I found out she’d needed to have us as part of joining the mission, and that I’d be required to have three children as dictated by the colony. They’d tell me when, and who, the father was to be to ensure the best genetic diversity. We’d all been lectured on the expectations, as well as how lucky we were to be off Earth.
