Chapter 15

Orsu

The main cavern was filled once again this morning with happy faces and laughter. But no one could possibly be happier than I was. I sat next to my mate eating our breakfast and reminiscing on our mating that had taken place the night before.

Julie was perfect. She had been so brave to trust me to treat her right and her cunt had felt so perfect around my cock.

I was a mated male now. I had been claimed by the female of my dreams and in turn we had claimed each other in the furs. I was the luckiest male in the universe.

Julie laughed at something Gab-bae said and Tarak smiled down at his mate. At the table next to us Anusha, Taylor, and Kayla whispered to each other as their eyes darted around the room, no doubt gossiping about someone–or everyone for that matter.

Jax sat quietly next to Sarah while Sozu chatted with Talia.

Axon served Ashley breakfast and then walked to the edge of the room where it was quiet and sat next to Brexl and Rhaz, both of whom never sat with the females.

Lumod and Drovo flirted endlessly with Hai and Kayla. Hai enjoyed the attention and flirted right back to Lumod while Kayla seemed mostly irritated with Drovo.

The elders sat at their own table swapping stories of past hunts. I overheard one of them mention the upcoming offering and how we were just four moons away from having to present our gift of food to the goddess. Their comment stirred an old fear in me. A fear I'd put to the side while I wooed my mate, but could be ignored no longer.

Four moons was not a lot of time. Not only that, but we only had four moons to gather and hunt food before the snows came. Most of the animals burrowed deep under the ground during the winter and many would not be seen again until the following spring. Last season we'd nearly run out of food and had had to ration what we had left before the season turned. I personally had gone down to eating only two meals a day to make sure the elders had enough food to fill their bellies.

I had been so distracted by wooing my mate that I hadn't given the upcoming offering a single thought. I didn't think anyone had. How were we supposed to have enough food for a decent offering to the goddess and store away enough food to feed our dekes that had doubled in size?

Ice filled my chest at the thought of my Julie going hungry this winter. By the end of the season she could be heavy with my child. She would need plenty to eat to sustain her strength and to give birth to a healthy sietling.

"Tarak!" My voice came out harsh; so harsh that I startled everyone in the room.

"What is it, my friend?" he asked with a concerned frown.

"Our dekes has grown large," I began.

He relaxed at this, "Yes, we have finally been blessed by the goddess," Tarak returned my comment with a smile.

"That is the problem, my Savrix." I bit out. "We do not have enough to feed the dekes throughout the winter and to give a proper offering. We have four moons until we have to meet the others and four moons until the weather turns too cold to hunt and the beasts burrow under the ground."

Tarak's face turned grim and the room filled with whispers.

"What offering?" Gab-bae asked.

"We meet the other dekes at the turn of the season before the first snow falls and when both moons grow full. They allow us to present an offering to the goddess that the priestess blesses and then they take the food back to their dekes in the valley," Tarak explained.

"Why do they get to take the offering? Why can't you take it back to your dekes?" Kayla asked, looking indignant.

"The Savrix said the offering must go with the priestess and she lives in the other dekes," I added.

"Can one of the women here be the priestess for our dekes?" Anusha asked.

Tarak shook his head. "There can only be one priestess."

"Can we opt out this season?" Ashley asked. Every hunter and all the elders looked horrified at her suggestion.

"We're not colonizers, Ashley," Fatima scolded. "We can't ask them to give up their religious practices."

"Oh, I hadn't thought of it that way. I'm sorry." Ashley was genuine in her apology and the room grew less tense.

"We will simply have to find a way to gather enough food for the winter as well as enough for the offering then." Gab-bae concluded. "There might be more people in the dekes now, but that also means there are more hands to gather foragable food and more hands to help make traps for the smaller animals that you hunt."

Tarak looked down at his wise mate and smiled. "You are right."

My Savrix looked around the room and announced, "Starting today we will forage what we can around the mountain and seek out new foraging grounds that we haven't explored before. We will all make traps and the hunters and I will go out twice as often as before."

He wore a pained expression as he looked down at Gab-bae, and I knew what he was thinking. It was hard to imagine parting from my new mate so soon after we'd claimed each other, but if that was what I'd have to do to make sure Julie was provided for, then that was what I'd do.

"I'll help set up a schedule of hunters and humans foraging together in the mornings and hunters going out in the afternoons while we stay behind making traps and drying out the gathered food," Ashley volunteered.

Everyone nodded their heads in agreement with this new plan.

Breakfast concluded soon after and as soon as the dishes were clean all the humans and half the hunters set about foraging around the mountain.

Even though the sun was high in the sky and it was a warm day, a somber mood filled our group. Julie was quiet as she gathered grains in the lowlands next to me and I worried that her mind was burdened with all the things that might go wrong if we didn't gather enough food.

I wanted to reassure her that all would be well. This winter I would go out in the snows and would not return until I had killed one of the few animals that roamed the land in the cold season. Most animals stayed below ground to sleep and eat the food they had gathered themselves, but that would not stop me from hunting for my mate.

I knew I would do all I could to make sure Julie was provided for, but would that be enough?

Julie

After lunch the hunters gathered their travel packs to spend the rest of the day hunting. Brexl and Rhaz agreed to do longer hunting trips that would keep them away from the dekes for multiple days in a row. None of the other hunters were as willing to leave the mountain for long periods of time. It wasn't that they were afraid of the forest, it was clear they just wanted to spend more time around the females whom they hoped to woo. I couldn't imagine being told half my life that I could never touch a person of the gender I'm attracted to and then once I finally get to do so, have to leave for long periods of time.

All in all, no one was happy with the situation we found ourselves in, least of all Gabby and I. We were newly mated and now we had to say goodbye to our alien's for the first of what would be many hunting trips away from the mountain.

"I'll be back tonight, I promise." Tarak assured Gabby.

"I wish I could make the evening meal with you tonight, but I don't think I'll get back in time." Orsu lamented.

"It's alright, just stay safe out there okay?" Although Orsu had lived on this planet his whole life, and he was more than capable of protecting himself, it didn't change the fact that this was a very dangerous place to live and an even more dangerous place to hunt.

"I will. I even packed some medical supplies this time." Orsu teased with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.

"Good. I hope you don't need them."

I wrapped my arms around my big teddy bear of an alien and rested my head on his chest as I fought back tears.

"Don't let Lumod move my spices around. He always makes a mess of things." Orsu tried to lighten the mood but it didn't work.

His teasing only made me realize how much I'd miss his lightheartedness in the days to come.

"Come now my mate, there will be no tears. I will be back before you know it. You'll see." Orsu lifted my chin with his finger and wiped away my tears.

"I feel ridiculous," I admitted. "I know you'll be back tonight, I'm just scared I guess. And I…" How could I put into words the sinking feeling I had in my chest?

"The thought of being separated from you feels all-consuming," Orsu supplied the words for me. "It is because our mating is new. With time it will become easier to be apart."

"Well I don't like it," I pouted and Orsu chuckled.

"I don't either, but with any luck, we'll hunt enough meat to last us the winter and we will stay warm under the furs together until the snows melt."

Orsu looked down at me with a heated gaze that made me blush. I'd like to spend more time with him under the furs.

"Goodbye, Gab-bae," Tarak bid his mate farewell.

"No, don't say goodbye," Gabby said in a panicked tone. "I don't like it. Say I'll see you later."

"Alright," Tarak stroked her face and said, "I'll see you later, my mate."

And with that he turned and walked out into the daylight.

"Will you protest if I say goodbye?" Orsu teased.

"Yes," I said defiantly. "I don't like it either."

"I'll see you later then, my Julie." Orsu kissed my forehead and left the mountain as well.

Gabby and I linked arms as we watched our mates walk through the clearing.

"They'll be back," she stated as if she needed to put it out into the universe for some extra reassurance.

We stood there and silently watched until our mates disappeared into the treeline.

I turned to face Gabby whose somber eyes were a reflection of my own."I guess we should join the others and learn how to make some traps," I sighed.

Drondia promised to teach us and her mate, who was as goofy as they come, promised to tell us stories of the hunters when they were growing up.

Together we turned and walked down the corridor, but I couldn't help but feel like I had left my heart at the entrance. An aching loneliness filled my soul and I knew it wouldn't go away until Orsu returned.

When we entered the main cavern we were greeted with peels of laughter.

"No way!" Talia exclaimed.

"Yes way. Axon has always had heightened senses even before he could shift and Drovo has a special connection to animals." Karo, Drondia's mate and Axon's sire was in the middle of a story.

"What happened next?" Talia asked, eyes wide completely enraptured by the story.

"Well they approached a bafilo and Drovo jumped on its back and attempted to ride it."

Sarah gasped, Talia let out a boisterous laugh, and Kayla put her hand over her mouth trying to hold in her laugh.

"How'd they find the bafilo? I thought they were nearly impossible to spot?" Anusha asked.

"They are," Drondia interjected. "But Axon has always had heightened senses even before he could shift. He was born with cloudy eyes that inhibit his vision, so he learned to use his other senses early on.

"Really? That's interesting." Fatima pondered aloud. "I wonder if he was born a shifter, but his hormones weren't activated until he hit puberty. It almost feels like we're witnessing the middle of an evolutionary step. I wouldn't be surprised if the next generation was born with the ability to fully shift into animals instead of doing the half shift the hunters do."

Drondia and Karo looked at each other as if they hadn't thought of this before.

"We didn't think there would be a next generation until now." Drondia admitted.

All eyes shifted to Gabby and I, the only two mated humans in the group. I had inwardly acknowledged that since Orsu and I had consummated our mating that there was a possibility I could become pregnant, but a big part of me wondered if that would ever be a reality. Sirret's and humans were very different species. If anyone was going to get pregnant it would be Gabby since she'd officially luminesced to Tarak.

If Gabby became pregnant that would confirm that it was possible, but until then, I would remain cautiously optimistic. I liked the idea of starting a family with Orsu. I liked the idea of watching our little ones toddle around the caverns. Everyone was so close here both physically and emotionally, that it would be easy to imagine raising children in the dekes might be a community endeavor.

I liked that idea. If we had a little one with sensory issues, they could go to Axon for advice. If they had extra energy, then Rhaz could take them to the sensory cavern where they could be loud and use their large muscle groups. They could sit at Neelu's feet as she told them the history of the dekes, and they could come to Orsu and I for love and support. Strangely enough, this community that lived inside a mountain on a dangerous planet felt like the best place to raise a family.