1. Yva

1

YVA

I have never seen so many people in one place. Or had so many people staring at me. The human colony is bigger than when three tribes come together for celebrations, trade, and marriages.

I glance at my brothers and wonder if they are as overwhelmed. Edilk is smiling and holding his mate’s hand. Sabine seems excited, but then this is her home. Her people.

When we decided to join the human colony, all I thought about was how many unmated women there were, and how easy it will be to find a mate.

Only Hrad and I lack mates.

As usual, he is wearing a worried expression. I don’t want to be lumped in with him. I am the son of a chief. My tribe has wealth beyond measure. I am what a woman should want in a mate…

Except for the fact that I’m a fourth son and banished.

Agreeing to move to the colony is admitting that this will be our home, and we are never going back, even if we found women and may return to our respective tribes. The situation unsettles me. I expected to die while banished, or to steal a mate and return home—they are the expected outcomes. Living in my mate’s tribe was never an option.

Yet here we are.

But then when we crossed the ocean to follow Edilk’s shooting star, we didn’t expect to find another tribe of people. A people who wear such different skin and yet are so similar beneath.

The humans are talking and some of their soldiers are giving orders. The device in my ear which is supposed to translate the human language has trouble with all the conversations going on around us. The words are scrambled and make no sense.

I want to rip it off my ear.

I want to turn around and walk out the gate and return to the little colony that we built. The wooden huts, the vegetable gardens and drying racks for the meat and fish we caught.

We’ve been living, not just surviving, on this continent for four months.

And now we need to start over again.

I’m being unreasonable. I should be glad this much bigger and more powerful tribe has accepted ones such as us. No Honey tribe would accept a band of the banished. But then no Honey tribe wants more men, as there are already too many unmated warriors.

I rest my hand on the pommel of my sword and lift my chin, giving what I hope is a cocky grin as if unbothered by the noise and stares.

Tiril walks out of the crowd and embraces Edilk. “It is good to see you again, brother.” He nods as he looks at each of us. “It is good to see you all again.”

I thought he was dead. I had no hope that Tiril would survive the capture.

But he not only survived, he found a mate and has thrived, making a place for himself in the colony and advising the leaders on all things related to this world and us.

I don’t want to envy him, and yet I do.

Until my brothers found mates, I was the one they envied. But it was Edilk they followed, not me, even though my mother is the chief of my tribe. Edilk brought us together to work as a tribe instead of fighting each other for scraps.

The gate closes behind us, and I now understand how an animal feels before slaughter when they realize there is no escaping their fate. Some go quietly while some buck and scream, refusing to die. Hrad is the former.

Me, I will go down fighting.

None of the human soldiers draw their weapons, and the chatter is excited curiosity, not hatred.

Though that still exists. As soon as we were in range of the colony, Tiril started talking to us. I think our kams buzzed all day long as he gave us updates about the colony and what to expect when we arrived.

I glance at him. What now? Or do we let them point and stare until they are done?

Tiril smiles at me, lips pressed together.

The humans are smiling, baring their little white teeth. It is unsettling even though Sabine, Chloe and Ruby explained many human customs to us in preparation. When they are happy, they show their teeth. And I discovered that their teeth are not as fragile as I expected.

I cannot smile and reveal mine because it feels wrong. I hope Tiril has been explaining our customs to the humans, so they do not see our closed smiles as dissatisfaction.

Or fear.

I refuse to acknowledge those jagged edges. I am a warrior.

The others don’t seem to think the humans brought us here to kill us. But they might have. What better way to be rid of some troublesome men, who have taken your women, than to invite them in and then kill them? It saves the trouble of hunting them.

Now the medics will draw some blood and check you over and you will be assigned housing and shown how to use their bathrooms and get food from the dining room. Tiril says silently, not only to me but to all my brothers.

Perhaps they also asked him a similar question.

Will we be separated? I hope I do not sound afraid. A warrior shouldn’t be afraid, he should embrace the unknown and the adventure. Which is what I have done since I was banished.

However, it is much easier to do when there is little hope for a better life. My eyes skip over the crowd. Three women to every man. One of them will choose me.

But do I want to be chosen before I understand their social standing?

Then there is the issue that my brothers faced—human women do not like to do the choosing. They like to be chosen.

The knowledge fucks with my head.

This is where our tribes differ. In the Honey there are too many men, so the women do the choosing, but the humans have the opposite with too many women so it is the men who choose.

I do not know how to choose a mate. Or how to have those conversations. While I had the same lessons as my older brothers when it came to fighting and pleasing a mate, I never got to be part of the conversations of how mates were selected.

What I have learned about humans so far is that they are happy to share a blanket with many people before selecting a partner. If it doesn’t work out, they can leave that partner with no consequence.

If a woman leaves a Honey warrior, it will cause him great pain and death and everyone in the tribe will know that he somehow mistreated her. Edilk and Sunif made it very clear that any sexual contact with a human woman will be enough to start the mating bond. Have the human women been warned about the rut?

For the first time in my life, I am surrounded by more women than I can ever have imagined, so many potential mates, that I do not know what to do. my cheeks tighten as the smile becomes forced. I am done with being stared at.

You will each have a room, and we are in the same accommodation block, so we will not be too far apart. Tiril indicates for us to follow him.

Since I cannot flee the colony, nor will I survive long on my own—which is why I joined up with these other banished warriors—I follow.