Why is she killing it again?

But what I focus on is the fact the thing is so small.

It will hardly feed her and the two other females, yet she is innocently trying to share it with us.

I sense when Ga’Var backs down the moment his shoulders relax.

“It is fine, little female.”

Adee’ra pauses a little.

It is the first time someone other than myself has spoken to her. I hide my surprise. Ga’Var’s ba’clan have assimilated the language too. Shortly, the others will follow and we will all speak the language of this land.

“You eat, Adee’ra,” I say to her as I grip my womb mate by the shoulder and pull him away.

Chapter Thirteen

ADIRA

I don’t know what the hell just happened.

I stare at Fer’ro’s back as he almost hauls his friend toward the water.

The others still sorta hover around us but I am getting used to their presence.

Slowly.

It doesn’t seem like they want to share the fish. I never expected them to, but because they are hovering, watching, it was rude not to offer.

Either way, more for us.

The fish is small anyway, but it’s better than nothing.

“It looks so good,” Sam murmurs, her mouth practically watering.

Mine is too. I have to swallow several times so I don’t drool over myself.

“It smells even better,” I almost moan.

One of the aliens, the dark-eyed one, makes a click that’s sort of high-pitched and I’m beginning to sense it means disbelief.

I’d heard it when I offered them some of the fish in the first place.

I almost chuckle.

It’s obvious they think the fish is gross.

Well, their live spaghetti is worse.

“Think it’s done?” I ask Sam. I was never a good cook but the way I feel right now, I could have probably eaten the fish raw.

“It smells done.” Sam literally drools and a small laugh bubbles within me.

It withers on my lips.

When was the last time I laughed?

I freeze, staring ahead but not seeing anything.

It almost feels…wrong to feel happiness.

“—dira. I think it’s burning.”

Sam’s voice snatches me from the void I was entering and I pull the stick back.

The fish is smoky and I cough as I try to blow on it and breathe at the same time.

Sam had found a big leaf earlier and I put the fish on it.

We both lean over it, staring at it.

It’s even smaller than it was before.

It seems to have shrunken in the fire.

“Well…” Sam begins, “it’s better than nothing.”

We wait for the food to cool and slowly pick at it with our fingers.

I keep my bad hand tucked toward me as I eat, and my eyes close as the flavor from the fish bursts across my tongue.

I can almost forget the aches and pains in my body.

The source of my injuries seems like it happened so long ago now but the events replay in my head as I watch Sam crush some of the fish and hand feed Mina.

Mina swallows and grants us a smile that doesn’t reach her eyes.

She’s in pain. I just know it.

But either she’s hiding it from us, or she’s hiding it from the aliens around us.

There’s movement on the shore and I squint at it.

Fer’ro is rising from the water. Funny how I know it is him now without seeing his eyes. The water sluices off his suit like the material can’t get wet, but that’s not what causes me to stare.

He’s carrying something.

Over his shoulder, in much the same way he carried me, he’s carrying the biggest catfish I have ever seen.

It is still alive too and it struggles, its tail slapping against Fer’ro’s back.

“Oh…wow,” Sam breathes.

Wow, indeed.

He heads straight toward us and all I can do is stare at him.

“Sustenance,” he says before his gaze drops to the fire.

His nostrils twitch.

The fire isn’t big enough, is what I assume he is thinking but all I can do is stare at his catch.

“Y—you caught that for us?” How the fuck?

He glances at Sam then, as if she was an afterthought.

“Yes,” he says. “Food. You must eat.”

His gaze moves to Mina then, and I stiffen a little.

“She must eat too,” he says, and his nostrils twitch again, the ridges above them folding a little. “I will kill it then make a bigger flame for you so you can kill it again.”

FER’RO

The sea creature is much too big for the females to finish on their own and after they’ve had their fill, Adee’ra once again suggests that we share.

“It is not an invitation to mate,” I growl at my brethren, annoyance riding all along my back.

I do not like that she is offering.

It is innocent but it annoys me just the same.

“The hyu’man does not wish to breed.” I meet their gazes and some of them flatten their ears, signaling shame…signaling they were considering it.

I growl at the thought.

Even as I speak, Ga’Var is leaning against a tree, his ba’clan bristling almost unnoticeably as they sense his annoyance too.

Annoyed at me, perhaps.

Too bad.

Even if Adee’ra wants to invite a male to her bedding feathers, the thought angers me.

I do not know why.

I do not care to know why.

We are not here to mate.

Though, I am not sure if that is the true source of my anger.

That is something I will have to contemplate later.

In private.

When the females are resting and most of my brethren return to the ship.

We have almost completed dismantling the Scrit.

We won’t stay here much longer after that.

One of my brethren, Fi’rox moves forward toward the sea creature meal.

The others bristle as he stops and glances at the females.

Adee’ra looks from him to me and then back. “Go ahead,” she says. “It’s still warm.”

Fi’rox is the bravest of us all.

Once we intake sustenance, we do not have to do so again for several days.

So I know he is not hungry.

I watch as the others glance from one to another.

The sea creature does not look delicious at all.

Its flesh is white. Bloodless.

I imagine it tastes like water.

Fi’rox pokes the flesh with one of his claws and his ba’clan shiver a little.

I can sense he wants to retreat and not eat the thing, but he’s gone too far. Turning back now would be cowardly.

So he picks a part of the flesh and lifts it into his lips.

We all watch him with bated breath.

For a moment, he does nothing, he simply freezes, his gaze on the females.

And then, his ba’clan bristle again.

I can tell their movement alarms the females, Adee’ra, when she stiffens a bit, her eyes going wide.

Then Fi’rox chokes. Somehow, he manages to swallow the thing.

He slaps a hand against his chest as he rises, his gaze darting to me for a second.

“So?” Ga’Var clicks. He’s leaned off the tree now, his focus on Fi’rox.

Fi’rox’s lips pull back a little before he answers.

“It’s…disgusting. How can they eat such a thing? Even now my innards are trying to expel it.”

His back arches a little as he says this.

I believe him.

But…

“We should not anger the females.” My gaze moves over my brethren. “They are being generous.”

Our gazes flick back to the “meal” and an audible groan leaves one of us.

“Fine,” Ga’Var clicks. “For the females then.”

Chapter Fourteen

ADIRA

They have settled around us in much the same way that Sam and I have stooped on the ground.

One by one, they reach forward and take a piece of the fish and though they all put it into their mouths and chew, I get the sense they think it is awful.

I watch them for a few moments.

None except Fer’ro have removed that strange suit from over his face. The others have simply removed the part where their mouth holes are and it amazes me that this suit of theirs is so reactive.