Page 19 of Feral Tamed

At this point the Doc inserted himself with a gentle murmur, “If I may, can I do a health check first? The two of you can take all the time you need for talking after.” He offered Hina a friendly smile, his black eyes eerily focused on her face, I saw how it made those little bumps break out all across her skin but she nodded. “What do I need to do? And shouldn’t you check Fierce and his new pet first? They are hurt, I’m not.”

The Doc eyed me, his eyebrows winging up, well aware that he’d never get away with treating me first. It wasn’t as if I was hurt all that much, the scratches across my belly were already nearly healed. Then he appraised the little rodent I was holding, “Fierce?” he said at last, so I gestured back at Hina. Yes, the small fellow needed help, but the Doc would have to do some research, and check his species before he could do anything. Better if he checked Hina first.

She rolled her eyes but shrugged, “Okay, if you’re sure.” She sounded dubious but the Doc only took a short moment, scanning across her body with a small handheld device. Then he declared her of sound health, so she hopped off the medical cot, and urged me to get on it. I liked her concern for me but told the Doc it was the little fellow’s turn now. I didn’t need anything.

“You took a freaking spear through your shoulder Fierce,” Hina argued, “The Doc should check that it healed right.” But she didn’t protest further when I held out the little fellow for Luka to scan. He was a bit scared now, he liked it much better tucked up against my body, but I rumbled a soothing purr, cupping most of his body in my palms.

“Hmm, a type of rodent, broken paw. Young, but old enough to be on his own,” the Doc summarized as he read off his device. “I think the tissue stimulator will be safe to use. And I can give him a little for the pain, the scans show no indication he might react badly to some of the more common substances.” A moment later the Doc pressed an injection against the rodent’s fluffy butt cheek and the little one instantly eased as his pain slipped away.

It also made him a little drowsy, which made it easier for the Doc to treat the bone break and get that tiny leg into a plas cast. It was going to be awkward for the fellow to get around for a week or so, but at least he now had a chance at life. As if Hina had heard my thoughts, she said, “What does he need to eat Doc? We need to make sure he stays in good shape.”

As the Doc made a list of dietary requirements for the little fellow, I met Sunder’s stare from across the room. He had his arms crossed over his chest and was appraising me with a tilted head, a frown on his impressive forehead, beneath the crown of horns that topped his skull. “You were up to something on that planet Fierce,” he rumbled, “You knew where that female was didn’t you?” he kept his voice low as he spoke, allowing my sensitive ears to pick it up, without Hina or Luka able to hear.

I shrugged, unsure how to answer that, because yes I had purposely sent Sunder and Jakar in the wrong direction so I could find her first. I had no malicious motivation other than that her scent was just so right to me that I wanted to be the first male she saw. It was never my intention to disappear on the planet with Hina for days, at the risk of our lives. If things had gone right, I’d have taken her back to the shuttle and up to the Vagabond that first day.

“I told Snarl to fetch you guys when we fell down that hole, but he leaped after us instead. I didn’t mean for us to be lost on the planet,” I explained, my eyes flicking to the Ferai beast that had sprawled on his side just beyond the med bay door, not quite coming in. He didn’t respond, but Sunder gave a nod as if that settled things for him. I was starting to fear my brothers really did think I purposely hid Hina on the planet so I could make sure she picked me. At least Sunder seemed to believe my explanation.

“Fierce, your turn,” Hina interrupted my thoughts, her small hand patting my forearm. I turned to look at the expectant faces of her and the Doc, a little uneasy at how eager they seemed to get me medically checked out. I was fine, I hadn’t gotten seriously hurt, my body would take care of things. I couldn’t deny Hina’s request, so I tucked the now sleepy little fellow in the crook of my elbow and jumped up on the cot.

The Doc took scans of me with a furrowed brow, lingering only briefly over the claw marks across my belly. I barely felt them anymore so I wasn’t surprised when Luka pulled out a piece of cleaning fabric and swiped it across my belly, only to discover that the scratches had almost completely closed up. He made a harrumphing sound before tapping on the screen of his handheld device, reading the weird swirls and scribbles. “Some of your hormone levels are elevated, are you experiencing some kind of mating drive?”

My eyes flicked to Hina’s inquisitive face, while I struggled to maintain my natural colors. Her eyes widened a little and then she tilted her head as if she tried to make sense of this information. “He in good health otherwise?” she murmured, her pink tongue darting out to wet her lips, she seemed nervous now and I tried to ignore the pang of pain I felt in my chest at the thought. See, she didn’t feel that mating drive like I did.

When the Doc nodded, she shrugged, “Can someone point me in the direction of some pots and soil or something? I need to get these plants situated before they die.” She pointed at my bag, which was overflowing with slate gray vines and pale pink blooms. I tried to feel happy that at least she was taking my gift, that she was obviously pleased with it.

“I have an idea for that if you’ll permit me to guide you?” Sunder offered politely, he made a small bow at her which had her offer a sweet smile in return. Abby stepped into my line of sight then and gave me a nod, I had almost forgotten she was there and I suddenly feared she’d picked up on more of the undercurrents than any of the males had. When I nodded back at her, she gave me a smirk and trotted after Hina and Sunder.

I didn’t need to say anything to Snarl, or the Riho, both creatures already followed my female. I knew Fluffy did so because she had bonded tightly with Hina, more than she had with me over the past weeks. Snarl gave me a rumbled assurance that he’d watch over my mate. I was grateful I had bonded to the Ferai beast, he’d kept me sane on this ship, we’d kept each other sane. Now he was my greatest ally, if anything, Snarl was going to do his damnedest to keep males away from her and push her in my direction at every opportunity.

I eyed the Doc, “Got anything else you want from me?” He shook his head slowly, long sleek black hair sliding forward over his shoulder. I thought that meant I could go, so I slid off the cot and went to follow my female from a distance. My curiosity was getting the better of me already, I wanted to know just where Sunder was taking her.

Except the door slid open again and Thorin and Ziame entered the med bay, the feisty Camila following them. This time I noted that Thorin was walking with a slight limp and I felt a pang of worry for my brother. He had issues with his leg but I thought they’d cured it, had he relapsed while I was down on that planet? Or had he gotten injured after all?

“Don’t worry, Doc and I are still working on figuring out the right dosage for my injections. Today’s was not enough,” Thorin explained with a wave of his hand and a cocky smirk. His female tucked her compact, muscular body under his arm and smiled up at him, before leveling me with a glare that could singe hair. Oof, what had I done to deserve that?

Chills slid down my spine, had they discovered more about Fluffy? About that night in the corridor with Meian? I hoped not, now that Hina was here, I had even more reason to stay aboard the Vagabond. If they had found out, would they send Snarl and me away? It was my constant fear, the only reason I hadn’t come forward after it had happened.

Ziame waved his tail in my direction, “I think you need to explain a few things, brother.” His voice was filled with a kind of censure I wasn’t used to hearing, he was displeased with me. I fought my natural instincts to bristle and posture in defense, to slide my skin into camouflaging colors so I was less of a target.

When I was stolen from the Mother planet, I wasn’t the only one, just the youngest. My older tribe members had warned me not to give away that trick, it was our chance at freedom. We could use it to escape when the time came. Only one after the other they had died in captivity, too fierce, too wild, too feral. In the arena as a young boy, it had been hard to keep from camouflaging but I’d done it, I’d lain in wait all this time, hoping that like my tribe members had said, one day my camouflage would be my ticket to freedom. It hadn’t turned out that way, but the instinct to hide the skill was still strong, only down on the planet with Hina had I freely used it.

“What do you want me to explain?” I asked, lifting my free arm in a shrug while I protectively tucked Fellow closer to my body. He was fast asleep and had rolled over in the crook of my elbow, exposing his pudgy, downy belly for the world to see.

Camila pointed at a camera lens in the corner of the medbay, “Like how you confused the cameras so the ships logs thought you were sleeping when you were really skulking about.” I flinched, skulking made it sound like I was up to no good when all I’d done was walk the corridors of the ship when I was too antsy to rest. It had become a game to use my camouflage when I did so, as I didn’t get much practice to do it at other moments.

I wanted to bite my tongue and hide this skill, that was the first impulse. But these were my gladiator brothers, we’d been through a lot together and they had stuck around to find Hina and me. They had trusted my judgment when I said that Snarl was safe to take out of his cage, and they hadn’t once suggested dumping him on a planet since then.

So I lifted my arm and held it out for them to see, then I shifted the skin into the white metallic texture that paneled the med bay. At the sound of their surprise, I moved my arm over the edge of the cot, allowing it to match those colors and textures instead. When Camila made an impressed oohing sound I found myself smirking, a little pleased at her reaction, even if my brothers remained stoically quiet.

Then I winked and slid my entire body into camouflage, aware that it would now almost appear as if Fellow was floating in the air. The most visible parts of me would be my weapon kilt and my boots, when I wanted full invisibility I usually stripped down. Now Ziame snorted, a tiny curl of fire coming from one nostril, his mobile ears flicking forward as if he was trying to better pinpoint my location by ear.

Thorin’s eyes went wide and Luka lifted his arm with his medical scanner and started scanning. “Wow, you have all kinds of chemical reactions happening in your skin, I’ve never seen anything like it,” the Doc exclaimed, approaching eagerly to take more detailed scans. It made me nervous as if I was giving away the secrets of my people, though I knew that Luka was a trustworthy male.

Returning back to my natural skin tone I eyed that medical scanner with some distrust, unable to curb the instinct to lift my lip in a snarl. He halted and started chuckling as if I’d done something funny but apologized and asked if I’d be willing to do some tests later, as he’d never seen anything like it before in a humanoid like myself.

“So that’s how you did it!” Camila exclaimed when the Doc finally stopped hovering over me with an eager expression. It had taken a poke of Ziame’s prehensile tail to make the male snap out of research mode and back off. I nodded, unsure just what they had discovered that had made them realize I could move about the ship undetected. I had asked the AI to delete what footage it had recovered of Meian’s death, it couldn’t be that.

Thorin stepped in front of me, arms crossed over his chest, “So when did you recover the Riho? Before or after the death of that pirate?” I had a feeling he already knew, so I didn’t deny it, “Before. When we were still locked in our cells. She crawled out of a vent one night.”