Chapter 12

TWELVE

Lorna

Mable returned with another Loppie who walked with a stilted gait and who had worn down a patch of fur near his ear that he scratched often. His eyes were big and bright, and he nearly shook with what seemed like nerves.

"Loppie is here to help Beasty," he murmured. "And No Fur." He nodded to me. "Loppies help Beasty and No Fur."

In his hand was a small device that fit neatly into the palm of his paw. I felt a small sense of disappointment that there was no screen. I had been hoping to see some of Whitten's brothers. But that disappointment quickly vanished when, with the click of a button, a stream of light beamed from the top of the remote and displayed on the wall in a large oval, about the size of a large TV screen. At first, the screen did nothing but flicker, and the Loppie turned to Whitten and handed him the remote.

"Loppies make comms. Speak to comms. Comms connect with Beasty voice."

"It's voice command?" Whitten asked.

"Beasty uses voice, yes."

Mable stood behind her Loppie IT guy with her paws tucked in the front of her beaded belt. She looked on proudly.

Whitten spoke a few words that my translator implant wasn't sure what to do with, so the syllables were just garbled. The remote buzzed and beeped in the Whitten's hand, and then the screen flickered again. A small blinking dot appeared in the center of the oval screen, followed by a constant beeping.

Whitten sat on the edge of the bench, his body tense as he waited for what seemed like the signal to connect. The beeping continued, and Whitten's nostrils flared. Finally, the black dot disappeared. The beeping stopped.

"Those fleckers," Whitten spat.

The Loppie jerked with a distressed mew, and even Mable stared him down. "Loppie comms not working?" She demanded in a sharp voice. "Loppie tells Mable Loppie's invention works."

Whitten stood quickly, but his head slammed into the ceiling, and he cursed again. The poor Loppie trembled and scratched his bald spot aggressively. Whitten sat back down and held his paws out. "The Loppies comms is not the problem. I'm sorry for scaring you. I'm frustrated with my brothers, because they're not answering."

I felt a laugh bubbled up my throat. "They're not answering ?"

"No," he huffed. "The Dark is here, and I'm not in Akoma. They should be waiting for my call. Instead, they are doing Fatas knows what?—"

The screen flickered. A voice echoed from the remote. "Hello?"

An image appeared in the lighted oval on the wall. At first, all I saw was a human ear and short light brown hair before the face shifted into a frame, revealing a teenage boy with blue eyes and peach fuzz. "Who's there?"

The Loppie hurried over to use and gently took the remote from Whitten's paw and placed it on the food table in front of us. The boy on the screen immediately gasped as he saw us for the first time through the remote. "Whitten?"

"Hello, Kyle," Whitten said in his deep voice.

"It's Whitten!" Kyle hollered with a squeaking voice crack. "I told you!"

A paw came into view and picked up the camera. The image blurred before we saw a blank wall followed by a short crack and a muttered curse. "Lynix, you dropped it!" A deep voice. "Leave it where it was."

"I didn't think he could see me." A different deep voice boomed.

"And you're the most important?" mocked another.

I felt like I was in college on a FaceTime call with my drunk roommates as they passed a cell phone back and forth. Whitten rubbed his temples and looked to the ceiling as if seeking patience.

But I was hooked as a face with a riotous mane came into view as he readjusted the camera. When he stepped back, I could make out three more of Whitten's brothers—a bald one with horns and a bull nose. Another with feathers and a pinched, beak-like face. A striped one that resembled a tiger face. And last, the lion-like one with a mane. Standing in front of them about two feet shorter was the teenage boy, Kyle.

"Where the fleck are you?" the lion said.

"Is that a female?" The one with wings stared right at me.

"Another one?" That was the tiger.

And last was the bull. "Are you all right? You look rough."

"I'm underground with the Loppies. Thanks to Eleric, they look favorably on us Beasts and saved our lives. Yes, this is a female, my mate, and I'm all right now even if for a while I was not."

"Loppies?" That was the feathered one. Eleric.

Mable came into view, stepping to my side. She grinned at Eleric. "Mable says hello to Feathered Beastie."

"Mable!" Eleric grinned, his lips curing up into a wicked smile that transformed his pinched face into a pleasant one. "It's good to see you. How are the little Loppies?"

"Beasty saves little Loppies. Little Loppies now big Loppies. Loppies happy." She nodded at Whitten. "Beasty tells Mable about more Beastys. Mable keeps promises. Loppies saves Beasty and No Fur."

"Thank you, Mable," Eleric said, and his feathers ruffled across his shoulders. "My brothers are very important to me."

Mable stepped away from me and then gently urged the Loppie toward the front door. To us, she said, "Loppies give Beasty privacy. Beasty take Beasty's time."

She opened the door and led the Loppie out, who looked back at the remote like it was his child. The door shut and we were alone with Whitten's brothers. He quickly introduced them to me. I knew who Eleric was. Tain was the tiger. Lynix the lion. Bastian the bull.

"This is my mate, Lorna," Whitten said.

"Oh fleck, I see his loks," Lynix said. He placed a massive paw on Kyle's shoulders. "Go get the females and Queen," he said. Kyle nodded and walked out of frame. Lynix had a massive mane in a mottled blue and black. He stroked the fur under his chin. "I'm happy for you, Whitten. But I wish you were home."

"Me too," Whitten blew out a breath. "You know field work isn't my thing. But I met my mate, so leaving Akoma isn't all bad, I guess."

I linked my arm through Whiten's. "I'm glad you left, or I'd likely be dead in a body bag."

"What happened?" Bastian asked. "Why is your ear a mess?"

Whitten gave them a brief synopsis of how we met—that the area Kyle had identified was in fact where us women had been held, and that in trying to save me, we'd both been imprisoned. He went on to talk about our escape and subsequent capture by the Inklas.

Eleric spat out a curse. "I thought they sacrificed their own, not those they abducted. I'm sorry I didn't know, Whitten."

"Not your task, Eleric," my mate said. "I should have heard about them. Or researched better routes home. I should have accounted for trouble at Swallee. But the Loppies saved us. We'll stay here until the Dark passes."

"A woman ?" A voice screeched from somewhere in the distance on the screen. The brothers all reacted differently. Tain and Eleric shifted back, while Lynix and Bastian looked off to the left with fondness. A figure raced into the frame with brown eyes and curly hair. She saw me and gasped. "I remember you! I think I was on a transport vehicle with you!"

I couldn't be sure, but she did look familiar. But I had only seen her once in passing, and I hadn't seen her at all in the underground bunker. "I think I remember you too."

"I'm Yanna. The guards tried to kill me when I got my period because they thought I was dying." She rolled her eyes, and the gesture made me smile.

"I was nearly killed by a giant beetle, and I guess my head wound was too much for me, so they left me to die."

"For all the work it takes for them to ship us light years away from our home planet, you think they'd be more delicate with us." This voice belonged to another woman who stepped in the frame. She had blonde hair, blue eyes, and a pretty smile. "We're precious cargo, don't you think?"

"Very precious." Bastian placed a three-fingered hand on her shoulder.

"I'm Kini," the blonde said. "Are you doing okay? I know there's not enough therapy for what we've been through, but commiserating helps."

"Am I doing okay today? Right now? Yes," I answered honestly. "For the first time since I was taken from Earth. Thanks to Whitten."

Kini smiled. "Yeah, it's the same for us. Without these Beasts, we would have been alien breeding fodder or something else terrible."

I shuddered at the memory of that time in the cell when I'd come to realize I was nothing but a womb for the Xaberians. "It's all terrible, but now we're staying with the Loppies, and they are sweet. Like tiny teddy bears."

"Tiny teddy bears?" Kini gasped as she scoured as much as she could see in her camera. "Are any of them in the room with you? Can you pet them?"

I laughed as I told her the interesting way they talked and how their underground village was built. Kini and Yanna listened with rapt attention, as did Kyle who had returned with the women.

"The only problem is they are veterans ," Whitten grumbled.

"Veterans?" Yanna asked, puzzled.

" Vegetarians ," I corrected. "They're vegetarians."

"What's that?" Lanis asked.

"No meat," Whitten groused.

Lynix made a face like he tasted something bad. "What? Who lives like that?"

"Loppies, apparently," laughed Yanna.

"I will survive." Whitten didn't sound so sure. "I'm counting on you, Tain, for a feast when I get home."

Tain bushed his whiskers and ran a long tongue over his fangs with a smirk. "I don't know, I'll have to check our supplies —" he choked off when Lynix smacked him in the back of the head.

"We have you, brother," he shook his mane. "Stay safe. Should we come get you when the sun rises?"

Whitten shook his head. "No, don't risk it. Stay with the females, Queen, and Kyle. I'll get us home safe." He wrapped his arm around me. "Tell Queen I miss her."

Bastian grunted. "Tell her yourself."

A woman with dark skin and long gray braids stepped into the screen. She held a decorated cane and walked with a slight hunch. Wrinkles stretched from the corners of her eyes and around her mouth. Her warm brown eyes shone with warmth, and I immediately wished I was there. I had heard so much about Queen, and even though she hadn't yet said a word, I felt through the screen the reverence the brothers paid to her, and the affection she had for all of them.

"My boy," she smiled, and her eyes crinkled.

Whitten swallowed audibly. "Queen."

Her smile stayed, but a flash of pain entered her eyes. "I was worried for you."

"I'm sorry. I made a few risky mistakes."

"You have a new companion, I see?" Her gaze shifted to me, and she reached out a hand, as if she wished to touch me, before remembering she couldn't. "Hello, sweetheart. I'm Queen. I'm eager to see you come home."

Her husky, kind voice reached all the parts of me I'd suppressed in my terror since I'd arrived on this planet. I bet she gave great hugs. I felt tears well in my eyes. "I'm so happy to meet you. Whitten has spoken so highly of you."

"And what?" Lynix chimed in. "He didn't speak highly of us? I'm offended , brother."

Queen ignored the big, furred beast behind her. "We'll have a room ready for you."

A room. A home. I thought I'd never, ever feel comfortable again. I thought I'd die alone and in pain and terror. I felt a tear slip down my cheek but smiled through it. "Thank you. I can't wait."

Whitten said his goodbyes to his brother and Queen. I waved farewell, promising to call again soon. When they hung up, the screen went blank, and Whitten and I found ourselves once again staring at a plain lit oval.

The tears were falling more steadily now, and I sniffed. Whitten had noticed, but at the sound, she jerked to face me, his brow wrinkled in concern. "Lorna? Are you okay?"

"I'm not usually a crier, I swear." I rubbed at my nose and willed myself to stop with the tears. "But this is a lot. And I haven't had caffeine in a really long time." For some reason, that comment blurted out of my mouth sent me into hysterics, which wasn't the first time I'd switched emotions on a dime. Whitten only looked more concerned. I patted his arm. "I'm okay. This is more of a happy relieved cry. A release of emotions. I swear."

He didn't seem to believe me, but he took my word for it. Then he helped me off the bench. As soon as we approached the door, it opened, and Mable stood there with her Loppie IT guy. He scurried past us and picked up his remote, cradling it in his little paws. "Loppies make good comms?" He asked.

Whitten nodded. "It worked exceptionally well. Thank you."

I was thrilled that Whitten praised the Loppie, because his invention had worked well, and it had meant so much to us. As Mable looked on proudly, the Loppie's chest puffed boastfully. I would have loved to hear what he went and told his friends after this. After Mable sent him on his way, I realized a few more Loppies were standing at her side. "Loppies surprise Beasty and No Fur. Loppies show you." She gestured to the two female Loppies at her side.

They both stared up at Whitten with big eyes and trembling paws. But they quickly focused on their task. After we thanked Mable profusely for all she'd done for us, she shooed us away. We followed the Loppies as we retreated down the main street, took several turns, and then entered walked through a narrowed tunnel with long strips of a wet plant that resembled seaweed hanging from the ceiling. As I brushed the leaves out of my face and swiped the water from my eyes, I stopped abruptly. We'd stepped into a small room, about twenty-by-twenty feet, with a great steaming pond in the middle. For a moment, I had flashbacks of when the Inklas has bathed me, but this water had no scent. No oils. No paints. No terrifying skull creatures. Just fresh water, warm water and cute teddy bears who were already edging their way back out of the warm.

"Beasty and No Fur take baths," The one said while the other added, "Loppies not bother Beasty and No Fur. Loppies respect privacy. Beasty and No Fur relax. Loppies have many bathing rooms. Loppies let Beasty and No Fur use this one. Loppies want Beasty and No Fur to enjoy."

They each gave little nods, and then shuffled back through the seaweed tunnel until their footsteps could no longer be heard. Whitten and I were alone. With privacy. And safe . For the first time in… ever?