Chapter 12

Kayla

Drovo looked more than pleased to play along with my lie as he wrapped his arms around me and protectively pressed me to his chest as he eyed the others.

Taylor held out her hand to Brexl, who slowly approached her and turned three shades of blue as he put his hand in hers. Good lord, I’m not sure he had it in him to pretend to be mated even though our lives might literally depend on it.

He belatedly wrapped his tail around her leg in an attempt to make my lie look real.

The males from the other dekes did not look convinced, but relented for now.

“The sun is getting low. Let us build a fire. I’d like to hear more of your luminescence.” Shorty said the last word with a grimace as if he couldn’t imagine these amazing, sweet, shifter, males could be blessed with such a gift.

One by one, the males passed by us to walk toward the front of the ship. The male, who had untied Drovo, put a respectful fist to his chest and gave a small bow.

“Drovo, Brexl,” he greeted them by name as he passed by.

The youngest male of the group was the last to walk by us. He bowed with a fist to his chest as well.

“Brexl,” he whispered to the fierce shifter.

“Brother,” he whispered to Drovo.

“Brother,” Drovo whispered as he bowed in return. His eyes were glossy with unshed tears and my heart nearly burst for him. Brother? Drovo never mentioned having siblings. I could understand why. Why mention a family member whom you could never see or speak to again?

Shorty started a fire with the wood that Brexl had gathered without asking or saying thank you. I didn’t think he could sink any lower in my view of him, but I had a bad feeling Shorty wasn’t done showing us exactly how mean he could be. How deeply rooted was their prejudice against the shifters for the other dekes to treat them this way?

“How did you meet? Did the shifters steal you from your ship?” Shorty began.

I was determined not to get riled up by this guy. I leaned back against Drovo so my back was to his chest as we sat on the ground and he wrapped his arms around my shoulders.

“No, actually, they saved us. I don’t think we would have lasted more than three days in this forest on our own. They led us back to their mountain.”

“They shouldn’t have touched you. In fact, they should have taken you directly to the valley. I’m not sure how our Savrix will react when he hears of this.”

“They couldn’t,” Taylor cut in. “We luminesced that first night we met.”

“Did you now?” Shorty looked at Brexl, who was sitting an inch away from Taylor. “You don’t look like a couple who luminesced over a month ago.”

Taylor quickly closed the gap between them and rested her hand on Brexl’s thigh. “We’re not that into PDA. Uh, public displays of affection.” Taylor explained.

Brexl just stared at her hand as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing and I watched in horror as a very clear erection started to tent his pants.

He finally got his act together and forced his last two brain cells to work together by lifting Taylor onto his lap. He looked over at Drovo and copied him by wrapping his arms around Taylor’s chest.

Taylor, who was proving to be a much better actor than Brexl, relaxed against him and planted a pleased smile on her face as if to say, see we’re happily mated.

“How lucky for you to have found mates so quickly,” Shorty scowled. Was that a hint of jealousy in his voice?

“I walked through this ship earlier, and saw that there were eleven containers, but yet there are only two of you. Are there more females living in your dekes?”

Shit. I was hoping he wouldn’t notice that.

“Nope! Just us two!” I quickly lied. “The other women died in the crash.”

“Interesting, I didn’t see any blood. Do hu-mans not bleed?” He let the question hang in the air for a moment before he moved on. Shorty didn’t need to wait for my answer. He knew I was lying.

“We will escort you all to the valley tomorrow. The Savrix will decide if you are telling the truth or not,” he said in a cool tone.

“Uh, no thanks,” I offered as a response. “We’ll be heading home tomorrow.”

“If you don’t go with us, then we’ll be forced to tell the Savrix about what we’ve seen here today from our perspective. I’m not sure he’ll agree with your view of things, especially if you’re not there to defend yourselves. He might decide not to let you give an offering at the turn of the season.”

This guy is such a piece of shit. I couldn’t take away their most sacred religious rite from them. I knew some, like Brexl, saw the offering as their last hope of absolution from whatever they did to anger the goddess so much to curse them as shifters. None of the guys said it out loud, but I could tell they still carried the weight of the deaths of their mothers and sisters on their shoulders.

I glanced up at Drovo, who had a pained look in his eyes. I doubt he wanted to go back to the other dekes, but what choice did we have?

“We’ll go with you.” I relented.

“Good,” their leader replied.

“Well, I’m pretty tired. It’s been a long day,” Taylor said as she got up off Brexl’s lap. “We’ll take one of the crew quarters inside the ship.” Taylor grabbed Brexl’s hand, and he allowed her to lead him back into the ship.

“I’m tired too.” I admitted.

Drovo stood and helped me to my feet. He wrapped his arm around my shoulder and we walked to the unoccupied crew quarters.