I don’t know about hunting, but I can think of something.

If humans aren’t good at anything else, we’re good with adapting…coming up with ideas.

“I can find us food,” I repeat, surer this time.

“Where?” he repeats. “Where will you hunt?”

I lick my lips.

Is this a test for me now?

Jerking my chin toward the water, I swallow hard. “There. In the water.”

Fer’ro studies me for a few moments before he glances at Burgundy-Eyes.

There’s a click and a thrum between them.

He looks back at me and clicks as well. Then, as if realizing I have no idea what he just said, he speaks. “Come. Show me how.”

Sam grips my arm, her voice low and insistent. “You can’t go off with him.”

I don’t know if she realizes, but even though she just whispered those words, I’m pretty sure the aliens heard what she said.

But I force a brave smile at her.

I’m not scared.

I’m trusting my instincts here. Leaning on them.

And I…

I trust him.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend…right.

Right?

Chapter Twelve

ADIRA

My steps are shaky as I rise. I’m much weaker than I thought.

So much so that I almost stumble. But I catch myself in time.

I dart a glance at Fer’ro and he pulls his arm back.

He’d been about to touch me. To stop my fall, perhaps.

Those intent eyes of his are on me now, they never left, and I have to pull my gaze away as I face the water.

He’s not the only one watching me either.

They all are and I feel like some sort of spectacle as I walk on shaky legs toward the lake.

I stare out across it.

The surface glistens in the sunlight and you wouldn’t know what lies beneath.

The wreckage…the bodies…what’s left of the Feeders.

My lungs constrict at that thought and I glance behind me.

A chill goes through me at the many eyes directed my way.

At Fer’ro.

He’s still watching me too.

He’s so focused on me, I don’t know if he is aware of anything else around him.

This is a test.

He is testing me as much as I am testing him right now.

My so-called “hunting” skills are about to be graded. A sure indicator of my species’ strength—of what we’re capable of.

If I appear too weak…will they turn against us?

Will they judge us as unfit for…whatever they are here for?

I gulp at the thought and put one foot in front of the other and then another.

It’s silent as I walk. Eerily so.

Those of his kind along the shore stop to watch us go and the silence is unnerving.

There are no birds in the small amount of trees nearby. No signs of life anywhere.

Still, I continue on, my gaze averted as I keep my focus in front of me.

If the fate of humanity really depends on my hunting skills…

We. Are. Fucked.

I’m walking, or rather, limping for maybe a few minutes when I glance behind me and I jerk a little.

Fer’ro’s eyes bore into mine.

He’s still following me.

How can someone so big be so quiet?

I glance away quickly, suddenly aware of his gaze on my back.

Did I say I trusted him? Cautiously so?

I’m not so sure what I feel anymore.

But I’m a rational woman…right?

They haven’t hurt us yet. They could have harmed us while we all slept.

I gulp as I turn my head to the side a little and catch Fer’ro’s huge form in the corner of my eye.

I feel like prey with the way he looks at me. Not just him either…all of them.

It’s like looking into the emotionless gaze of an apex predator.

Some deep-set instinct within me is telling me to run.

Run, right now!

But my mind is wrestling with the logic of it all.

A breath shudders through me as I try to lean on the arm of reason.

Even if I run, he’ll catch me, and if he wants to hurt me, there’s nothing I can do to stop him.

I’m not in a power position.

Forcing away the fear that’s giving me heart palpitations, I continue putting one foot in front of the other.

I can focus on what I can control, and right now, I’m being given the chance to find food.

I’ll do my best to procure some for the three of us.

So, I focus on walking.

The shore of this lake is a bit rocky, which doesn’t help, but when I glance in the direction I’ve come, I’m surprised at my progress.

I’ve walked some distance away from Sam and Mina and, it may have been a subconscious effort, but I’ve walked away from where I think the orb fell too.

There’s a rocky area near the shore that leads into the water. Broken wood sticks out of the surface and some of the planks are still nailed together.

The remnants of an old pier.

I head toward it, searching for something I can use to try and catch some fish.

Shit.

I don’t even know how to fish with proper tools much less with what nature provides.

But my brow furrows as I search the ground.

I spot a branch as I hobble along and I grab it.

It’s about as long as a walking stick and thin.

I don’t have a knife so I use the next best thing I can think of.

My teeth.

Lifting the edge to my mouth, I bite and gnaw at the branch to sharpen the end as best as I can.

I huff as I work.

It’s hard doing things with one hand.

Behind me, Fer’ro watches. I see when he moves toward me to help but when I stiffen, he pauses.

I don’t know if he was trying to help or not.

I’m not so sure I want to get unnecessarily close to him.

By the time I reach the pier, the branch is pointy enough to poke something.

As I step upon the rocks and begin to hobble across the pier, there is a click behind me.

I pause and turn my head to the side so I can see him.

Fuck. What’s gotten over me?

I can’t even face him fully.

“That does not seem like a stable hunting spot.”

His voice is such a deep baritone that the inflection makes the words sound foreign to my ear.

But I nod. “You’re right. It’s not really. But it will hold.” I think.

He clicks at me again and this time I meet his gaze.

Secondary eyelids slip across his eyes before disappearing again.

The sight has me frozen as I stare at him.

“And if the female falls in?”

For a second, I don’t realize he’s speaking about me.

I blink at him.

He’s not moving at all. And I realize now that when he does move, his movements are measured and calculated.

As if…as if he is being cautious around me.

I frown a little as I glance down at the water.

It laps against the wooden pier peacefully and the sound is calming.

“If I fall in, I’ll survive.”

When I look back, those fire eyes are still on me, studying me, and his ears twitch as I turn and continue along the pier.

He doesn’t follow.

Guess he’s going to stay there then.

No problem. Having him so close unnerves me still.

I can get it done quicker too if he doesn’t come any farther.

Something moves on the rocks behind me that makes me pause, my gaze snapping to the location of the movement, and I turn to look just as a small bird hops on top of the rocks.

A robin.

Surprise makes me hold my breath.

“Oh my God,” I whisper. It’s the first animal I’ve seen in so, so long.

It’s a tiny little thing and I wonder what it’s doing all the way out here.

It looks at me, twisting its head in that strange way birds do, before it tweets at me.

Happiness fills me so much I choke on it.

But that happiness quickly diminishes as I see a dark shadow in the corner of my eye.

Fer’ro moves toward the bird, his arm outstretched.

“No!”

He pauses.

“It’s just a bird. Leave it alone.”

He eyes me.

“Please.”

“A…bird?” he says in that strange way of his.