No, I need to escape. I hug my leathers closer to my body and head away from camp. Not so far that it’ll be dangerous, but just far enough that I can pretend that I’m somewhere else. It’s daylight, so it should be safe. I sit on a rock and gaze up at the two moons hanging in the sky, one flirting closer to this planet than the other. Another memory pricks at my mind, and I try to follow it.

“Stars are gonna come out soon. Think you can pick out which one is the North Star?”

“No. Can you?”

Dad laughs. “Honestly? No. It’s supposed to be easy but they all look the same to me.”

And I laugh, too.

Dad.

I went camping with my dad. He’s the man I keep getting fragments of memories about. A wave of yearning hits me so strong that my eyes tear up. I wish I was back on Earth with my father right now. That he could reassure me that I’m not a flawed clone. That I’m his daughter. That I’m not on an ice planet but camping with him instead.

But…he’s not truly my father. That’s the mind-fuck of all of this. Even if I was on Earth, he wouldn’t be my dad. Is the original Vivi there? She must be. She must know her name, too. She’s probably camping with him even now, her boots stretched out by the fire, telling her dad about some creep that’s hitting on her at her new job…

“Hey, Vivi?” A voice calls into the darkness.

I brush the tears away and turn to see the speaker. It’s Natalie again. She’s followed by someone, and I’m dismayed to see that it’s Skarr.

“Come get your man,” Natalie says. “He’s grossing the rest of us out.”

Like I want anything to do with that sleaze. “He’s not mine. I don’t want him.”

There’s a masculine sound of protest and then Skarr stalks over to my side. “How can you not want me? I am the most excellent of males.” He slaps a mittened hand at his stomach. “Feel how strong I am. How lean. You will know me for the warrior I am.”

“I don’t care about your muscles. You literally just propositioned another woman for sex while I was in earshot.”

“No, I didn’t.” He looks baffled.

“I have ears! I heard you!” I gesture back at the camp. “You just hit on Yasmin!”

He tilts his head. “I did not hit her. She declined.”

I feel like I’m going crazy. This always happens when I try to have a conversation with Skarr. It doesn’t help that my pulse is humming in my veins at his nearness. That the khui’s song is moving through me, making heat and need spread across my limbs. “Skarr. I was less than ten feet away. She said she was a virgin and you said you would help her with that.”

“A virgin fighter, yes. I am pleased to spar with anyone so they can enjoy my prowess.”

He says it with such a straight face that I believe him. “It wasn’t about fighting, you twit.”

Skarr frowns. “What else would it be about?”

“Sex!” I practically bellow out the word and then wince when my voice carries across the snow. “She was talking about sex.”

His expression of confusion grows deeper. “But…I would not mate with her. I have already resonated to you, and you haven’t even let me attempt to pleasure you.” He gestures back at the camp, where Yasmin is still sitting by the fire. “If we were in the arena I would say that she cannot mate because she has not won a battle, but I’rec told me the rules are different here. Is there another set of rules I am unaware of?”

I just stare at him. I don’t even know that I can be mad. He’s clueless. Not just that, he thinks everything ties back to battle. I think about what Flor said—about how I had to be patient with him as he tries to develop a personality. I’d scoffed at her words but now I’m starting to realize the severity of the situation.

Skarr doesn’t know how to think outside of gladiator battles and fights. To him, everyone is an opponent.

And somehow I’m stuck with his crazy ass.

“The rules—” he begins.

I cut him off with a raise of my hand. “Stop talking.”

“Vivi,” he says. “Why would you think I would wish to touch another female when my khui has already led me to you? You are the best amongst these females. You are strong and clever. You—”

I cover his mouth with my fingers, because he keeps on talking, and because some small, strange part of me wants to touch him, wants to feel what his skin is like. It’s not scaly like I thought it would be. It’s warm and smooth and supple, and the scaly look is more of a pattern, except perhaps on his brows and the bridge of his nose.

His gaze flares with interest when I touch him, and his tongue slithers out to caress my fingers.

I jerk away…but I didn’t hate that. Not even a little. And that makes me even more messed up inside. “Just…just stay away from conversations about virgins, okay? When they talk about that, they’re talking about sex virgins, not battle virgins.”

“Why would I touch an inferior female when I can touch you?”

But he can’t touch me. Or can he? Because the longer I stay around him, the more resonance pulls me toward him. “I need to go,” I blurt out. “Don’t follow me back to camp.”

“What if I walk at your side—”

“Still no!”

Chapter Eleven

SKARR

This female is impossible.

I love it.

She challenges me, and there is nothing I love more than a good challenge. Of having to utilize my wits as well as my brawn in order to conquer a fierce opponent. And truly, Vivi is the fiercest of opponents. Any other female would surely be impressed by my prowess and fling herself to the ground to allow me to breed her, but not Vivi. She requires more from me. She knows she is the most worthwhile female ever, and thus I must work that much harder to win the privilege of touching her.

I smile to myself as I return to camp. Every time she tells me no, it just means I must dig deeper.

Ah, I love the hunt.

She avoids me for the rest of the day, but that is fine. I watch her furtively, noticing her movements. She ties the laces of her boots once and then wraps them around her ankle and ties them a second time. Her dominant hand is right. She sometimes squints when an object is far away. Her long mane sometimes blows free from the knot at the back of her head and bothers her, so she tucks it behind her ears.

I memorize all these details, and they all delight me.

“No breeding yet?” Valmir asks.

I shake my head. “She is still having me hunt her. It is like she knows all the things that arouse me. Truly, there is no greater female.”

“If you say so.” He seems less impressed with my mate, but he does not know her as I do, does not watch her as keenly as I do…and if he tries to watch her as keenly as I do, I shall gouge his eyes out.

Flor watches over the females closely, and I am content to stalk my female from afar. She listens intently as the female explains how to skin a kill, and watches with close attention. It is as if she wishes to learn everything about how to survive on this world, and I could not be more pleased. Vivi is smart enough to know we must have knowledge in order to thrive.

The lessons are interrupted when Kyth’s newest khui dies and a new one must be attained, this time from a larger creature. Valmir and Chalath go hunting for it, but I stay near camp, watching Vivi and enjoying the thrum in my chest that reminds me at all times that she belongs to me. My nearness bothers her, because I catch my female touching her chest and frowning, and then her gaze seeks mine.

It is hard not to smile at that, especially when she scowls in my direction. She plays a challenging game…but I like competition.

A creature called a dvisti is brought into camp and slaughtered for Kyth’s second khui of the day and the meat is butchered and roasted over the fire. Newcomers arrive—two of them—and both Flor and I’rec recognize them. One is a male that looks similar to I’rec. Like I’rec, he is strangely hairy with coloring all wrong for mesakkah. The other is another human female, this one the softest-seeming of all. I compare her to my Vivi and find her lacking. Even the clothing she wears is all wrong for stealth. Her leathers are trimmed with pink fur, as if that is a thing that occurs in nature, and she is loud and giggly. Her name is D’see or Day-see or something. I care not. What is interesting is that she is the mate of the male, O’jek, and he watches her as if he wishes to both devour her and behead anyone else that gets near her. They resonate, but their sound is subtle, like Flor and I’rec’s.