“Look here.” Kane spelled his full name and then put the stylus into her hand.

He expected her to copy him. Instead, to his delight, she picked out the letters of her own name, gnawing at her lip with the strain of it.

“Ran, ayro, veve, een--“

“Eveh,” he corrected, grinning. “Raven, not Raveen.”

“Eveh, nan.” She peeked up at him, and the room beside theirs erupted with cheering, as though their neighbors saluted her success.

“Practice,” he told her, glancing at the wall.

“Sue-Eye,” Raven muttered, bending over her paper.

“Ai, chirak, uu, tan , ahm, hiats, ahm,” he recited distractedly. He could hear, he thought, three distinct male voices. “Ichuta’a.”

“What does that mean?” Raven asked, writing it.

Kane’s gaze dipped to the female in question, now sitting on the foot of the nearest bed and trying not to glare at him. He smiled. “It means pussy,” he said. “More or less.”

Sue-Eye’s jaw clenched. That was all.

“Are you my ichuta’a?” Kane asked, his voice silky and good-humored.

She nodded.

“My eager ichuta’a?”

She nodded again, but her eyes were burning. She knew she was being mocked.

Good.

“You did well for me tonight,” he said. “Very well.”

He heard Raven’s stylus stop writing at the same time as Sue-Eye drew back from him. Beatings either one could take. His praise made them nervous.

“What would you like?” he asked. “If I felt like rewarding you, what would you ask for, ichuta’a?”

Sue-Eye hesitated, unsure of him, and Kane waited. He gave her no encouragement, no clue as to what answer he sought. He watched her agonize and he saw the exact instant she settled on a reply.

“I want to fuck,” she said.

Once again, she delivered a damned good answer. A safe answer. One she probably couldn’t imagine going badly for her. He pretended to consider it.

“You’ve been very good tonight,” he said at last. “All right, let’s go. Raven.”

“Go?” Sue-Eye echoed.

Kane tucked his harvester into the waistband of his pants and stood up. He snapped his fingers and both his females leapt up without further hesitation and followed him out the door. He walked down the side of the building to his noisy neighbors and knocked.

“Fuck off!” someone shouted irritably, but someone else came to open the door.

Kane put his hands in the pockets of his human coat and smiled down at the male who opened to him. It was a young one, too young to grow a beard but old enough to try. Its eyes went first to Sue-Eye and Raven, lingering, before turning on Kane. Better and better.

“We’ll keep it down,” the human said, and started to close the door.

“I don’t care about the noise,” said Kane, putting his foot down on the threshold. He turned and fixed Sue-Eye with his cold smile.

She stared back at him without expression.

“Invite us in,” said Kane, returning his attention to the young male before him.

The human looked back over his shoulder, his eyes seeking those of a grizzled and hard-cut male, his leader, if humans could be said to have them. The leader was sitting on one of the two beds, a smoking herb-stick between his teeth and an open bottle of something inebriating in his hand. Kane could feel the assessment in that stare, but still, the females at his side had a way of drawing even those watchful eyes and he wasn’t surprised when the leader finally nodded.

The bathroom door opened and out came the third male Kane had heard through his wall, fat and unshaven and smelling strongly of toxic fermentations. He stared at Kane and his females as they came in and the door was closed, and then he, too, looked toward the leader.

“What’s on your mind, fella?” the leader grunted, tapping ash onto the carpet before drawing another lungful of smoke.

“I’ve had a very good day,” Kane replied. His gaze slid to the tee-vee, which was on and displaying mating programs. His smile broadened. Three males, bored, half-drunk, and restless for sex. He couldn’t have planned this any better. “I thought you might like to help me celebrate.”

“Want a beer?” the young male asked, shrugging a question at his companions.

“No. Ichuta’a, tell them why we’re here.”

All three males looked curiously at his blonde human when Kane nudged her forward. His ichuta’a colored under their collective stares. Beside her, Kane felt Raven step a little closer against his side and he put his arm around her. The gesture caught Sue-Eye’s attention and he saw her lean body tense before she faced the room again.

“I want to fuck,” Sue-Eye said.

The males stared at her. The young one looked like he’d been punched, and the leader merely grunted and smoked. The fat one sent several fleeting looks up Kane’s way and then went to the second bed and lay down. He picked up an open bottle and drank from it, looking nervous and bewildered. And Sue-Eye, Sue-Eye did nothing to convince them.

“Is that my eager ichuta’a?” Kane asked.

Sue-Eye raised her chin and said it again, almost angrily. “I want to fuck.” She looked at him with defiant eyes. “May I please fuck them?”

“Yes, you may.” Kane pulled the room’s only chair around and nodded for Raven to sit. He watched the males exchange more guarded looks. He was enjoying himself immensely.

Sue-Eye stripped off her shirt and stood bare-breasted before them. She reached up and pinched one of her nipples, and every human pair of eyes went right to her hand. “Anything you want,” she said, raking them with her furious gaze. “Just please fuck me. Fuck me hard. Fuck me all over. Cum in me. Cum on me. I need to be fucked. Please.”

The young one made a hesitant move toward her, his eyes shooting Kane wary glances the whole while. Kane merely smiled when he put his hand on Sue-Eye’s arm, and thus encouraged, the male pulled Sue-Eye to him and kissed her mouth.

Sue-Eye didn’t like it, but she kissed him back, grimacing only a little. The male groped at her breasts, pulling and kneading them until the pale flesh began to redden. Suddenly, he stood back, laughing. “Dude, are you serious?” he demanded of Kane.

“Dead serious,” Kane said. “She’s all yours.” But his smile switched off when the young male glanced Raven’s way, and he added, “And that’s mine,” in a hard tone.

“Yeah, man, cool. Cool.” The young male squeezed Sue-Eye’s breast, licking his lips as he looked her up and down. Behind him, the fat human’s hand tightened on the bottle he held, his thumb moving in the same circular motions as the young male’s thumb on Sue-Eye’s nipple. “What does she do?”

“Anything,” Kane said. And as an afterthought, added, “You can slap her if you want, but no punching.”

“Slap her,” the young male echoed, shaking his head. “Jesus.”

“Shit or get off the pot, Steven,” the leader said abruptly. “She ain’t for looking at.”

The young male twitched and shifted his weight. “Let’s, uh, let’s see that pink, baby.”

Sue-Eye stripped out of her skirt, now wholly naked. Her lips were thinned, her cheeks high with color.

“Show them,” Kane said.

Sue-Eye spread her thighs slightly.

“You can do better than that.” Kane folded his arms, letting himself sound a little annoyed, although he was still smiling.

Sue-Eye arched her back and pushed her pelvis forward, parting her pussy with two fingers and displaying herself to all of them.

The fat male unzipped his coverings with a shaking hand and drew out his cock, his eyes huge with disbelief.

“How much is this going to cost us?” the leader asked curtly.

Kane shrugged, leaning against the door. “Whatever you think she’s worth. I’ll take your money when you’re done with her, and I don’t think there’ll be any argument.”