Chapter 14

Piper’s pupils dilate as she stares into my eyes, her breathing faster, the scent of her fear turning to something deeper, something sweeter.

If my kisses soothe her panicked heart, then I would kiss her until her very last breath.

I don’t know how to tell her how I feel about her without overwhelming her. I do know that the knowledge that she only pretended to be shy and sweet and na?ve makes me feel… incredible. As though her own deceitfulness absolves me of the guilt I felt tying her to me.

Now, faced with the reality of our own mortality on this gods-forsaken alien planet, I could not ask for a better partner to be stranded with. She is cunning and clever and unafraid to do what she deems necessary.

Piper is a survivor, through and through, and her mettle is clear. She purses her lips, looking around for some kind of solution to our dire predicament.

I want to offer an idea of my own, but I wait, because I have a feeling this human’s solutions will be far more creative and brilliant than anything I could dream up.

How could they not?

Pride bursts through me, a ray of sunlight in the dark of this fetid faux swamp.

“They couldn’t have put us in here without some kind of way to kill it,” she muses, her gaze stuck on a point in the limbs high above us. “Isn’t that the whole point of this thing? To put on a show? ‘Are you not entertained,’ and all that?”

“Not entertained?” I echo, somewhat lost at that comment.

“Yeah, you know. They’re trying to entertain. Whoever’s in charge of this fucked-up shit, they’re putting on a show for the rest of the citizens here. Bread and circuses.” Her gaze goes distant, though she’s still peering up into the limbs. “Bread and circuses,” she repeats.

“I do not follow,” I tell her honestly.

Her focus swings back to me, a cruel smile on her lush pink lips. “There is something wrong with this planet. This society, I mean.”

My gaze slides to the very real reptilian threat that lurks somewhere in the water below us. “I am not sure what revelation you think you’ve made.”

She snorts a laugh, and her grin turns real. “Fair enough. On Earth, there was a society… that did this. A long time ago.” She squints up at the moons, their light turning the blue in her eyes paler. “Well, I suppose you could say modern-day sports are similar—anyway, this ancient civilization, the rulers called it bread and circuses.” She clears her throat, refocusing on me. “Anything to keep the masses distracted from what the rulers were doing. Keep them entertained and fed well enough not to question them, and you have all the elements of a society in decline.”

I nod, although I’m not sure I understand why she thinks this will help us. “Did the fighters in this arena of theirs exploit that?”

Her nose scrunches, an adorably human expression. “I don’t remember. But we could.”

“Once we defeat the threat here,” I say drily.

“We could turn the mob against the rulers,” she continues excitedly.

“Hard to do when we don’t speak their language,” I tell her.

Her mouth twists to the side, and guilt over poking a hole in her theory stings me. “Fair enough. Fair enough. But… there’s an opportunity there. A lever. Something is wrong in this society for this to be such a focus.”

“Or their culture is nothing like human culture, and this blood sport is simply the way of things here.”

“The translator said there is an outside force waiting to stop the problems here.”

“No, she didn’t,” I say, my eyes widening as I inspect her head for lumps and bumps or other signs of concussion.

Piper sighs, clearly exasperated with me, and holds up her hands. She sways slightly as she does so, losing her balance, and I clamp my hands more tightly around her.

Gods, I could stay with her in my grasp forever.

“We were talking with our hands. Sign language. Sorry.” Her nose scrunches again, and I want to put my finger on it, rub the furrows away. “I didn’t have an opportunity to explain that, huh?”

“You communicated with the human without our captors knowing,” I say slowly, understanding dawning. “You are truly a treasure, my wife.”

Piper doesn’t answer for a long moment, but I am content to simply hold her for now.

For now.

“How much weight do you think that can hold?” she finally asks.

I turn my head, trying to deduce what she is talking about. “The tree? It depends on how integrated the root structure is into the bottom of the?—”

“No, the vines. Do you see them? That’s not all tree. That’s a huge vine.” She points up at the branches again.

Surprise washes over me. “You saw those with your inferior human vision?”

“Golly gee, thanks.” A startled laugh burbles out of her. “As an inferior human, I so appreciate that.”

“Who is Golly Gee?” I scratch my chin. “Is this a human name for a lover?”

She sputters, her cheeks turning red. I absolutely do not think that it’s a nickname for a lover, but I enjoy seeing her caught off guard.

“I would very much like to be your Golly Gee,” I tell her seriously.

“You’ve got to be pulling my leg,” she finally says.

“I would not endanger you at this height and when the stakes are so high.”

Her lips thin, and she closes her eyes, taking a deep breath.

I grin, because I can tell I’ve annoyed her, and for some reason, I’m enjoying it. More than I should.

“I do not know how much weight they can hold,” I finally answer. “What do you have in mind?”

She takes a deep breath, and the scent of her fear begins to rise again. “What do you know about snares?”

I stare at her. Surely she is joking.

“You are proposing we try to catch the creature?”

“Yes.”

“We have no weapons. Or bait,” I muse.

“We do have bait,” she says with faux cheerfulness.

My jaw drops, and I stare at her, my stomach twisting into knots. “Absolutely not.”

Her chin juts out stubbornly, her blue eyes blazing in the moonlight.

How did I ever think her sweet and innocent? She hid her razor-sharp claws under velvet paws.

“It’s either take a risk or die when that thing decides it’s had enough waiting around for us to come down. With option one, we’re in charge. We might even live. With the other, we die, and we don’t get a say in it.”

A wave of water hits the tree hard, and I grip the branch we’re on with one hand, my hold on Piper tight with the other.

There’s a long, drawn-out gargling sound and a hideous splash, then silence descends across the arena.

“I will not wait for death to find me,” Piper snarls. “I will meet it headfirst, and I’ll win.”

I stare at her, my cock growing hard from her viciousness, her bravery, and the warmth from her soft human body seeping into mine.

“How did I ever see you as anything but the perfect cunning creature you are?” I ask softly. The tree stops swaying, and I lift my hand from the branch, unable to keep from stroking her beautiful human face. So different from the Roth, yet so similar. Strange. Enchanting.

“Because I didn’t want you to,” she says easily, and that viciously sharp smile is back on her face.

I love it.

“We’re trying the snare,” she says. “Do you know how to make one?”

I stare at her. “Your plan is to build a snare for a monster that size out of vines, then use yourself as bait, and you don’t know how to make one?”

“Do you?”

“Ye-es,” I admit slowly. “Hunting was a popular pastime in my youth. Snares are effective.”

“Good. Then I don’t need to know how to make a snare, do I?” She tosses her hair behind her shoulders. It’s still damp and slightly stringy, and I bite my cheeks to keep from laughing at her bravado. An act, I know, because I can smell her terror.

But she’s not dominated by it, not mastered by her fear.

No, this wife of mine has made herself the master of her own fate.

Because of what my species did to her planet.

I would do anything to ease the burden of that knowledge, to make her life easier than the hells it must have been.

Guilt washes over me, and I nod. “I will make a snare.”

The smile she gives me this time is slow and sweet. It reminds me of the Piper I thought I knew. It’s real, too, and my heart squeezes in response.

There is trust in that smile, and it feels like a gift.