Chapter 3

3

Anna

The next morning, I actually sleep in. I'm not sure if it's the relief of finally getting what's been weighing on my mind off my chest, or if it's because Drak and I stayed up plotting for far too long. Either way, I'm glad. I haven't had a restful sleep in a few weeks, and this one was nice, even if it was unexpected.

When I get downstairs, the house is actually empty for once, allowing me to gather myself and shove some fruit into my mouth before heading outside. Drak's bright-ass white ponytail is the first thing I see, bobbing along as he tries to tend to the garden with Terum.

The leader of the Aprixians has been helping Brooke with the plants ever since Stevie packed up and ditched this planet with her mate. She handled all the food growing before, but luckily with the help of Terum, Brooke has been enjoying the new task. I'm grateful for it because I want fuck all to do with that godforsaken garden and what it represents.

Even though it's fed us for months now, I can't stand the sight of it. I recognize it's one of the many things that aided in the sorority's collective survival, but most of why we continue to breathe has been due to pure luck and circumstance. It's unbelievable the amount of things that aligned perfectly for us, actually. Location, resources, skill set differences… it all added to our mutual benefit over time.

Because of remodeling being done to Greek Row two years ago, our temporary sorority house was now in the most remote area owned by our University. This strategic placement was our biggest advantage from the start of the apocalypse.

None of us were pleased with the house switch at the time. No sorority wants to be planted a thirty-minute drive away from campus, surrounded by trees and sat in the middle of a mountain. Not to mention the house itself was ancient and dusty with hardly a lick of potential. But the basement was a secret gold mine. We hated it when we moved in, finding it to be one big, messy pit of storm survival supplies and dust. Obviously, everything proved to be useful when the world went to shit.

Not to mention the fact that we've had running water this entire time because of the solar-powered spring the University's engineering program created as an experiment. In the beginning, we used it as sparingly as possible since we knew the solar panels wouldn't last forever. But now, with the aliens here, we're less careful. Why conserve water and resources when they have a solution for fucking everything, I guess?

Whatever .

Our best asset, and the luckiest, was the canned food drive we'd held only three days before the first outbreak. With only six of us living in the house at the time of the breakout, we estimated about a year and a half of non-perishable food. We knew we needed to be prepared for longer. Hence, the garden.

Since it's almost November now, they're really just harvesting what they can until the last of the remaining warmth is swept away by winter. We have plenty of canned food, even more now that the aliens have fetched some each time they leave, but fresh is best. It's very easy to get bored with mushy canned food when it's all you have to eat. Canned food is better than no food, though.

The food situation is one of the Aprixians' biggest selling points for moving us with them to their planet. They have an abundance of human-safe food, and their atmosphere is perfectly livable. I have a sickening feeling that Cayte, Brooke, and Megan will be ready to pack their bags and head off as soon as snow starts to fall. I can't even blame them, but I refuse to consider leaving Earth until I know if my brothers are alive. I couldn't give a fuck about Dad, but Caleb and Landon? I want them to be alive.

My relationship with Landon has always been complicated. He's more like Dad than he is like me and Caleb, but Landon would have never left me behind. When the breakout first happened nearly a year ago and they showed up here with rooted-up plants from the farm garden, guns, and miscellaneous supplies, I was relieved.

I thought, here's my dad coming to save the day . Surely, they'd move in and help keep us safe, right? Wrong. They'd given that responsibility to me and fucked off to go zombie hunting. I knew Caleb felt sick about it. He looked like he wanted to stay and never return to the mess surrounding the sorority. He just couldn't fight Dad on it, and he probably paid the price for it.

I should have demanded he stay, pretended I was too scared to be without him, but I know Caleb would be mortified. Dad would assume I was doing it for him, and that humiliation would be more sickening than the zombies.

Our father wasn't a horrible man, but he always was a bit ignorant.

To him, I was a frailer version of them all because I was a girl. Not in the protective and caring way the Aprixians seem to worship women, but in the demeaning way that made me feel worthless and small. He didn't care about race, religion, or creed like some of the other homesteaders around our area growing up. He figured if you were a good person, none of that mattered to him. But he always looked at me like I was less, whether he realized it or not.

"An-nana," Drak calls out, having seen me before I could walk all the way by. He notes the gun at my hip and the gifted knife right by its side. "Do you wish to hunt?"

"I'm just walking the perimeter," I yell back.

It's no use trying to brush him off. His interest is already peaked, and he's running over to me before I can tell him not to.

"I will come with you," he declares, a goofy grin on his face as he glides up to my side. He's shirtless, again , but the Aprixians usually are. None of them developed a love for shirts like Rem has, and I think most of that was due to the way Sarah would drool at him in cropped tops.

The Aprixians do have pants that they always wear— thank God . The big guys don an alien combination of slacks and denim. Whatever fabric they're made out of, they seem durable.

"Do you have a gun?" I ask, arching a brow.

He scoffs like the question is ridiculous. Leaning down, he holds eye contact as he pulls a small blaster from the side of his boot. It's small for a blaster but still a bit bigger than a typical handgun. The thing holds a shit ton of power too.

"I always have a blaster," he replies happily.

"Then I suppose you can come," I sigh, starting to walk toward the far fence.

"I am pleased that you have invited me."

"I didn—" Oh, what the hell. "Whatever."

There's no point in arguing with Drak. At least it's a nice day out. Not too cold or windy.

My three-quarter zip, tactical belt, and tight but flexible jeans aren't as hot under the sun's heat, despite them all being black. A sure-fire sign that winter is creeping up on us. My showers are a lot less about cleaning sweat off of me and more about washing off the day now, which I suppose is nice. On the days when we go hunting, I usually work up a sweat still, mostly because it's a workout just keeping up with the Aprixian's big-ass strides.

"B'rook's ugly pet got stuck in the garden netting today, but I freed him," he tells me, practically bragging about getting a chicken free from the tomato plant mesh.

"Oh yeah?" I ask, pretending to be interested.

"Yes, it is a very dumb creature," he informs me. "How long do you think it will live for?"

"Chickens live five to ten years if you don't butcher them," I answer, shrugging. "I have no idea how old Harold is, so your guess is as good as mine."

He smirks like I've just complimented him. "My guess is good," Drak agrees. "I think he will die soon. He is constantly hitting his head."

Lovely.

"I guess we'll see," I reply, willing him to shut up or change the subject.

After a few beats of silence, he speaks up again.

"I believe your friend Meg-ham wishes to mate with Al'rik," he informs me, and my jaw drops. Who the hell taught Drak to gossip?

"What?" I ask, pausing our journey even though it's barely started.

"Meg-ham," he repeats. "She wishes to have Al'rik, do you not think so?"

Al'rik is one of the more shy Aprixians. I think he's said two or three words to me in total. He's also one of the two twins, his brother being L'ore. They look similar in ways, I suppose. They're both orange, but L'ore has some pretty gnarly scars. He's also bald, while Al'rik only has one side of his head shaved. The other side is flowing with long black hair. I'm not sure why Megan set her sights on Al'rik in particular, but I don't really care to ask. She can do what she wants.

" Megan ," I pronounce correctly, even though it's no use. They can't say her name to save their lives. "And I don't know, Drak, I don't care about other people's sex lives."

"Hmf," he grunts, thinking about my words. "So you do not wish to know that I heard her complimenting his cock this morning?"

" Jesus ," I sputter. Megan has always been unapologetically sex-positive and admittedly horny, but coming right out and complimenting a guy's junk? That's intense even for her. "Has she even seen it?"

Drak lifts his shoulders. "It is possible. She comes to see him more and more now, but Al'rik is a quiet male. He does not pick up on her hints like I do."

Yeah, because Drak is so good at reading human social cues.

I give him a flat look. "What hints exactly?"

He crowds me without hesitation, stepping so close that his chest is nearly touching my face. "She stands close to him," he explains, voice somehow lower and more raspy all of a sudden. "She touches his shoulders like this—" Before I can demand that he doesn't use me as an example, his huge hands are surrounding the top half of my arms, and his thumbs gently rub circles there.

I have to clench all of my muscles to hold back a shiver.

"And when she wants his attention," he continues, moving his lips down to the shell of my ear. "She will whisper to him like it's a private moment, even if others are around. As she does it, she presses herself against him to get closer, and she smirks to herself when he becomes flustered."

A warmth of something I refuse to feel swirls in my stomach, but when I move to shake him off and step back, he's already doing so.

I blink up at him, lips parted in shock. What the fuck just happened to me?

Drak's smug smile doesn't even shake me out of my stupor. Somehow instead of wanting to smack it off of his face, I want to— no . I'm not even going to go there.

"So she wants to fuck him, so what?" I gripe, turning away from his gaze to continue walking. "Good for Al'rik, I'm sure she'll rock his world."

The alien chuckles, walking by my side again. "Al'rik is a shy male, it will take some time. He does not know what to make of Meg-ham. A female has never looked at him the way she does before."

"Well, he should get used to it," I mumble. "Megan is good at getting what she wants."

"She is a bold creature," he agrees like he knows from experience. "Very forward."

Does that mean she's hit on him too? My lip curls up, but I shake the rage away. It doesn't matter if she has. Drak isn't my boyfriend, and he isn't my mate if the light-less center of his chest is any indication. Rem and Marrec's soul seeds lit the hell up for their mates, and so far, none of the other Aprixicans have followed suit.

Probably a good thing because mating is way more intense than dating. Their people just decide to be together or wait for their seeds to glow, and that's it. Getting to know someone casually isn't a thing from what it sounds like. Either you're friends, family, or you're married.

I do not want to be fucking married. Right?

"If you want her, you're going to have to try harder," I grunt. "Megan's set on Al'rik unless she's said otherwise."

Drak tips his head back to the sky, laughing hard. "I do not long for Meg-ham. I am glad that she wishes to mate with Al'rik."

Well, good.

"Whatever," I reply, waving him off. "We didn't finish our plans last night."

"I have not forgotten. Do you wish to finish them today?"

I wish we didn't need to plan and that we were already leaving.

"Yes."