42. AHANE/THALIA

“You survived,” Taidc said, giving him a smack on the shoulder with his tail that counted for affection from his older brother.

Ahane shrugged. His scales shifted to a darker shade of ruby as he tried to figure out his mate’s strange reaction. Perhaps she was overwhelmed. He was overwhelmed. Fusses made him uncomfortable.

Chess’ “cat” licked its paw. He glared at it. Fucking “cat.”

Chess seemed too bright at seeing Thalia, and Thalia shrank backwards, or tried to, somehow giving the impression she curled in on herself, ready to bolt or fight like an angry animal.

There was (supposedly) a way for the Lady-Scion to greet the new members of her House, but Chess wouldn’t know it, and truthfully, Ahane didn’t either. Their mother had died before any of them had found a partner. So how did Human females greet each other?

“This is so exciting!” Chess moved towards Thalia, hands extended. Thalia froze and didn’t move.

Chess pulled up short and flipped her hands upward to show her palms and smiled. “I’d tell you welcome home, Thalia, but… I know.”

Know? What did Chess know?

Thalia”s throat moved. Her eyes shone with unshed tears. Chess lowered her hands back to her sides and waited.

He glanced at Keiron, confused by the silent exchange the two Humans seemed to have, but Keiron twitched his tail in a no idea motion.

Were Chess and Thalia having a telepathic conversation?

Thalia licked her lips and finally spoke. “How… what year was it when you were taken? You were taken recently, right?”

Ahane’s hearts stopped.

“I was. I don’t know exactly how much time has passed since I was initially taken and now, but I estimate it’s been… maybe six months? Give or take?” Chess gave her the date by the Earth calendar that she had been taken.

Thalia’s entire being seemed to crumble. Ahane caught her elbow. She jerked free and backed up, hands over her face as the information hit her hard enough it caused her to shake.

“I’m sorry,” she said, “I’m sorry.”

“When were you taken?” Chess asked.

Thalia choked out a date.

It was impossible to read Chess’ expression. Keiron looked at her. “Is that a long time?”

Chess nodded. “She’s been with the Greys for about three [NO CONVERSION: UNIT OF TIME]. A Human only lives about seventy-five [NO CONVERSION: UNIT OF TIME]. Six of our [NO CONVERSION: UNIT OF TIME] is half of one of our [NO CONVERSION: UNIT OF TIME].”

That sounded… like a very, very long time.

He reached for her. “Thalia?—”

“I’m okay. I’m okay.” She did not seem “okay” but she took a breath and looked at the house. Her throat moved with several gulps. “It’s… it’s bigger than I was…”

Chess looked back at the house. “I had the same reaction. They tell you it’s a House, and I was thinking a modest two-story colonial on a quarter-acre lot.”

A… what?

“Or a sad little condo squished between two other sad condos,” Thalia said faintly.

“Or a trailer on a plot you don’t own.”

“A fifth-wheel.”

“A fixer-upper.”

“A flip.”

“A foreclosure.”

“As-is,” Thalia said.

Chess shuddered.

Taidc dragged a clawed hand over his face.

Thalia pointed at the “cat” sitting on Chess’ feet. “What is that?”

“It’s my cat!” Chess said gleefully. The “cat” instantly leapt into her arms and she caught it. “I always wanted a cat. Cats are guard animals in the Gestalt. They keep them in the barns, but this one was really lazy. Ahane allowed Keiron to give it to me as long as I didn’t give it a name. And I haven’t, thank you, steady brother.”

She’d used High Dialect! The affectionate honorific for the sort of brother he was: the steady one, acknowledging his place in the House and her approval and happiness with such an arrangement. And her pronunciation had been perfect and sent a glittering shimmer over his scales and even down into the tip of his tail. High Dialect usage could evoke such sensations, but her rough Human voice somehow shaping the tones was a raw and primal experience that left him shaken.

“Would you like to pet it?” Chess offered Thalia access to her pet as one might a baby. “It’s very protective and has taken down 25XAs, but it knows family.”

Thalia hesitantly extended a hand to the cat, then smoothed her fingers between the cat’s ears. The cat accepted this with an entirely inappropriate arrogance. “It’s so…”

“Feels sort of like a hairless cat, doesn’t it? But it’s rumply and furry too. Has jaws like a shark, though.”

“What’s it—he or she?”

“Neither. Cats come in male, female, and sexless. Sexless is the most common and preferred for farm work. And no name. Because Ahane made me promise to not name it.” Chess put the cat back down. The cat sniffed Thalia’s toes and then briefly twined its tail around Thalia’s ankle.

“I love it,” Thalia said, her voice emotional.

“Oh, do you? Well, Ahane knows where to find cats just like that one.” Chess gave him a mischievous look that even he could read.

Erkus laughed.

“You do? You didn’t tell me you knew where to find cats! There are more like this?” Thalia asked him, her voice having a breathless hitch that struck right at his hearts.

Before he had to tell his mate that he would not be giving any additional business to the shady cat dealer, Chess told Thalia, “Come inside, come inside. I’d offer you tea, but… well. If you smell the herb garden you’ll understand. Perhaps you can convince Ahane to let me name my cat?”

Chess hooked her arm around Thalia’s and dragged her off to the house with the cat trotting behind, tail in the air.

“She is lovely, brother,” Erkus said cheerfully. “And I’m certain if she wants a cat, we can obtain another one from the breeder. At a discounted rate. Since that cat is now so famous.”

Even Taidc cracked a smug laugh.

“That cat is famous?” Ahane growled. “That cat.”

Keiron’s scales turned an amused shade of twilight, then he approached and twisted his tail around Ahane’s. “Brother.”

No, no time for emotions, although they clouded his scales.

Thalia and Chess’ chatter carried from the walk.

“She is tiny,” Taidc grumbled.

“I confess, she is…” Erkus said, his voice drifting into the air with the unspoken concern along with the pale tinge of his scales.

“I did not believe Chess when she said she was tall for a Human woman,” Ahane confessed. His House-sister stood a full head taller than Thalia, and the difference in frame sizes was apparent. Even if Thalia had been the same height as Chess, Chess would still have been larger. Their colors were the same variations on boring beige and brown, and while their skin was somewhat different shades, their hair was almost exactly the same shade of brown. It took the sunlight hitting their hair directly to see the differences. Chess’ hair was slightly lighter, and had golden hints to it, while Thalia”s was slightly darker, and had more blue hints.

“I heard rumors that a ruby-scaled 25XA with a High House look had been spotted beyond the beacon field,” Keiron told him. “I’m sorry I couldn’t come looking for you.”

Ahane snorted. “I would have been furious if you had.”

“Where did you find Thalia?”

“In a lower level of the site, trapped under rubble. She had been selected for a special, more intense set of experiments.”

“Special?” Keiron asked, scales washing the same shade as the incoming storm.

Taidc gestured to his own throat. “Do you need to ask, Keiron?”

Keiron tapped his tail on the ground to acknowledge that no, he did not need details.

Ahane said, “She had a special handler. One who was somewhat Human, and was tasked with pushing and researching the limits of the Human experience. And what he learned he used on the other Humans. Thalia blames herself for what they might have endured because of her. We shouldn’t discuss it.”

Taidc scoffed. “That is just the Greys playing with minds.”

“I tell her that, but…” Ahane gestured. “What about the other Human women? They are split between Temple and High Gestalt?”

“We don’t know what’s happening to them,” Keiron said. “Their rescue was not… happy. They were furious at finding out their fate in the Gestalt. And they despise Chess. They hated her on the ship, and they truly hate her now.”

“Why? They hardly knew her before we found them.”

Taidc snorted. “Because she is free and they are not. They hate her because it’s easier to hate her than hate a situation they can’t change. They don’t accept she had no choice in the situation either. And I do not understand why they are so obsessed with getting back to Earth.”

“Anyone stuck eating your cooking would want to be anywhere else,” Erkus commented.

Ahane grimaced. “That might prove another issue. Thalia told me Human women often don’t live well together. I have been trying to assure her that Chess is not territorial. She isn’t, right?”

Keiron swished his tail. “Chess also told me Humans like their own space. Something about being able to go to their own corners? I am not sure I understand. But she was telling me more as a warning, not as she objects. We are glad to have you back. And not just because Taidc is a terrible cook.”

“I have been cooking,” Erkus told Ahane.

“You have been studying,” Taidc corrected.

“What are you studying?” Ahane asked.

“Trying to bypass grunt military service.”

“He’s been called,” Keiron told Ahane. “Punishment for House 8 daring to raise its gaze.”

They had been deferring Erkus’ military service citing Erkus’ intention to complete his Higher Education, but family hardship as the reason for the delay. Now, since Erkus had not completed that education, his military assignment would be even less exceptional than Ahane’s humble metal-mover position. He’d be assigned to warm body detail—the conscripts whose only qualifications were they could hold a sharp object.

They’d send his brother to the farthest edges of the Gestalt, doing who knew what.

Many who went never came back.

The only hope would be Erkus taking the optional placement exams, which might earn him “existing knowledge in lieu of education.”

Erkus grinned and his scales flashed pale ocean in the growing darkness. “Although I would welcome taking a grunt job and have the audacity to survive. House 8, continuing to be a thorn.”

Taidc and Keiron both sighed at him.

Ahane did not ask about Ohade. His throat would not form the words. He would ask after he had a chance to settle back in.

Keiron turned his attention to the storm. “Winter is here. Come inside, brother. The house has been empty without you.”

Ahane steppedoff the steps and pushed the doors to his room open all the way.

His mate stood in the center of his room.

Did she not like it? His room was on the bottom floor of the house and was colder and slightly more humid. When the house had originally been built generations earlier, a lower floor had been put in, as was normal, but one large room had had the earth cleared partially away so that a long window could be installed that sat slightly above ground level facing the barns. The addition of a flowerbed and creeping, ornamental vines blocked the view slightly, but he had never cleared it away.

He had liked the large room with its quiet, and how it was nicely removed from everything else, and how it had a convenient view of the main barns.

She turned towards him, face blank, expression bright. “We made it.”

“Yes.”

Her lips twisted upwards a few degrees. “I like your room. Since I know you won’t ask if I like it.”

“I know you would prefer a house of your own. As odd a concept that is to me.”

Her smile widened. “Oh, I don’t know. I’ll give this a try for now. I’ve done sci-fi alien abduction prisoner, shanty truck stop casino waitress, now I’ll do impoverished worm farmer.”

“And my mate.” He caressed her cheek.

“That goes without saying.”

“I like to say it.” He bent to kiss her. His mate. His mate.

She pushed him away, then backed towards his bed. She beckoned him with one finger.

He approached.

She parted her legs and ran her hands over her knees and up her thighs. “I will let you make me cum.”

“And?” He just wanted to hear her say it. His cock swelled against his pants, his second heart pumping blood into it like a dock spike.

“And maybe I will accept your honey. Maybe. I’m not sure.” She put a little foot on the groove where his hip met his thigh and pushed down so her heel pressed into the base of his cock—threatening and delicious. “Take those off.”

“I don’t see how that’s necessary.”

“You’re just going to fill them with honey and make laundry,” she said sweetly. “And I want to see your cock begging for me.”

Maybe she wouldn’t accept his honey. He shuddered, and she shoved her toes into him. He undid his pants. Honey already dripped from his tip.

Her lips parted and her eyes dilated and her fingers twitched oh so slightly against the blankets while her desire to stroke his length hit him like a wall of storms.

He stepped out of his pants and kicked them aside.

“Wait a second,” she said, her attention snapping to his pants. “What is that?”

I steppedover his fallen pants and noticed something sticking stained and gross poking out of one of the pockets. I crouched and picked up a space-baggy.

“Why the hell did you keep this?” I asked, recoiling from the bloody Hunter patch in the baggy. “Was that in your pocket the whole time?”

“Yes. And to turn into the 77Ω Hunter Guild,” he said, taking it from me.

“Why?”

He set it on the low side table. “Every time a 77Ω Hunter completes a contract, they deposit part of their contract into an account with the Guild. If they survive to retire, it’s paid back to them. If they die between contracts, it’s paid to their family. If they fail a contract, it’s paid to the client. If they die on a contract, it’s paid to their killer. This patch, with his blood, is proof I killed him.”

“Does that mean 77Ω Hunters hunt each other for fun and profit?”

“It does. I have no idea how much this is worth, but it is likely to be enough to pay the taxes on this House and buy you and Chess some proper clothing. And I intend to claim it.”

I broke into a smile. “You are never allowed to call yourself plain again. What did Chess call you that made you blush?”

He flushed an embarrassed shade and mumbled something about only doing what any of them would have done.

“I can’t hear you.”

“She called me steady brother. And no, I am not calling myself that.”

“That word sounds like you. Tell me how to say it.”

“No!” He blushed with full-body mortification.

“Fine. I will ask Erkus to teach me. He’ll do it.”

Ahane cursed because we both knew Erkus would totally do it. Erkus was trouble wrapped up in an angelic tropical blue wrapper.

Ahane resettled his grip on me. “He did do us a favor by sending one of the Gestalt’s top Hunters after you. I intend to spend His money well.”

I laughed. “I’ve kind of gotten attached to my sack dresses. Very mod.”

“…m-odd?”

“Never mind,” I fiddled with one of the scales at the back of his neck that was especially sensitive, “never mind. Humans have a saying home is where the heart is. It means that wherever you are happy is your home.”

He pressed his forehead to mine.

“And I am very happy to finally be home.”

Because I might not be on Earth but I was home. I moved to kiss him and extended one arm and raised a middle finger to the sky.

I escaped, you Grey bastard. I escaped and made it home.