Chapter 16 Harb’k

I could have Zoey falling apart in my arms every day from now until the day I died and still not bore of it. I wanted to hear her cries of pleasure as they bounced off my shuttle walls. I wanted the scent of her pleasure filling my head and driving me wild. If it were my choice we’d never be apart, and my entire existence would be to bring her pleasure.

I settled my body next to her, and turned her limp, satisfied body so that we “spooned.” I’d learned about spooning from watching movies and talking to the survivors at camp, and it was every bit as perfect a position as I’d hoped it would be.

“But what about you?” She reached a hand behind her and squeezed my thigh.

My cock, still half-hard and pressed against her back, twitched, eager to have its turn. But there would be time for that later. The whole reason for this was so she’d sleep easier after her release. I figured it must work for humans too since we were so sexually compatible.

“Don’t worry, I will have my chance to sink into your depths once we are home. But right now, you need sleep.” I slid my fingers into her hair, rubbing her scalp.

She yawned. “I admit, it is an effective solution.”

It wasn’t long before she was asleep. Her soft snoring had me smiling. I wouldn’t mind having her in my shuttle more often. I’d help her get to sleep every night.

A message flashed on my screen saying we were approved for liftoff. Since we had to travel over the ocean for some distance, where flyers were less of a concern due to the lack of nests, I set my shuttle on autopilot, requesting it to alert me when we approached land. Then I climbed onto the sleeping mat, careful not to wake her.

I failed.

“Oh, I’m taking up your spot. I’m sorry.”

“Do not be. We can share.”

“Wait. Who’s driving?”

“I am,” replied my shuttle. “I am fully equipped for general navigation.”

Zoey yawned, then hummed.

“I will wake you when we are close to my camp.”

She hummed softly and let me gather her into my arms.

After long moments, I shifted so I could dim the lights to the sleeping nook without speaking out loud, but my arms were stuck. I gazed down at the female tucked neatly in the curve of my body, realization dawning.

Zoey was my mate! But of course she was. I’d wanted her from the moment I saw her.

I don’t mind getting stuck with you. I remembered the words that had made my chest rumble with contentment. I doubted she understood the meaning.

Xarc’n warriors formed mate bonds when we found the right female. The initial phase included being stuck together, our arms wrapped around our mates, unable to let go.

I wanted to wake her up and share the good news, but she might not see this as good news at all. Not when she was planning on leaving for Sanctuary in three days. Not wanting to witness her distress at our mating, I stayed quiet and relaxed instead, memorizing the feeling of her in my arms.

I fell asleep with the scent of her invading my senses and searing into my brain like indelible ink.

The initial moment of the mate bond had come and gone by the time my shuttle woke us. I released her easily. I was simultaneously relieved and disappointed that it had been so brief that she’d not witnessed it. Did that mean our bond wasn’t very strong? What if it had been a mistake?

Some hunters were stuck with their mates for days. Why couldn’t I have that? It would’ve given me more time to convince her to stay with me.

Zoey got up, none the wiser, and disappeared into the privacy alcove in the back. And I was left with nothing to prove that I hadn’t simply imagined our mate bond aside from the irrefutable knowledge that Zoey was mine.

***

Mo and Katarina had greeted us the moment we stepped out of the shuttle. As the humans’ unofficial leaders, they welcomed Zoey to the camp and then requested a debriefing from me, which I’d already come to learn was a thousand and one questions about my mission. And while I was answering their never-ending questions in Mo’s office, Heather and Sam made off with Zoey.

“So what’s this Pip was saying about your new lady friend being a traitor?” Mo asked after I’d described the island and the human researchers setting up there.

I’d had my shuttle replay the last bit of Pip and Zoey’s conversation on our trip to the island, so I now knew the source of Pip’s concern. And now that I knew Zoey was my mate, my one and only, I understood it too. But that wasn’t fair to her; I’d known of her plans to reach Sanctuary from the very beginning.

I explained what had happened.

“I believe I understand,” said Kat.

Mo’s wife , the human word closest in meaning to our mate , had hair the color of starlight, just like my Zoey, but it was straight like dried grass and not like the ocean waves. According to the humans, she had an accent, but I couldn’t tell.

“It must be tiring for Sam and Kan’n to deal with an emotional shuttle,” she said.

I’d also replayed the conversation between Zoey and my shuttle, where my shuttle explained that it stayed with her and helped her because it was part of its programming to help me. I was glad that despite my shuttle's apparent intelligence, it was not, in fact, a PIP model. It might have picked up some odd behavior from Pip, but it hadn’t been converted.

Which brought something to mind. “Zoey interacts with my shuttle in ways I have never thought to, asking it to make up new ideas. It was my shuttle’s idea to scoop up the Object with the container.”

“Interesting.” Mo scratched his beard.

I was glad Xarc’n hunters did not grow facial hair. It looked itchy.

“Perhaps you should bring it up with Sam and Lenny. They could figure out if this was inherent in the model or if it was from spending time with Pip.” Mo stood. “Well, that’s it then. We’ll get it all written up and send in a report.”

I made a face at the mention of a report.

Kat laughed. “I know. I know. That is why we will do it for you. We’ve made the mistake of asking hunters to write reports already.”

Not all hunters can write well. We all have basic literacy, enough to do our jobs and communicate with each other. But our shuttles kept detailed records of anything vital to our fights on each planet.

The first time they’d asked me for a report, it had been short.

Scourge located. Met humans from Sanctuary. Hostile. Scourge eliminated. Humans released.

It had created more questions than it answered.

With my debriefing done, I went in search of my female.

There was the scent of freshly cooked food in the air, a rich stew made from the meat of the bovine animals, by the smell of it. But my female’s delectable scent pierced through the delicious aroma, and I followed it to the war room where the opening credits to a movie were playing on the large screen on the wall.

It must be Friday. Friday was movie night. I didn’t usually keep track of the days of the week since it was a human construct and something hunters weren’t accustomed to, but there were some days that were worth keeping track of, like Taco Tuesday. I liked Taco Tuesday.

Our war room had once been a place where humans sold medications and other personal hygiene needs. They’d moved everything out of it, and now it consisted mostly of one long table with chairs surrounding it for our meetings. There were also a dozen or so couches pushed along the walls. Every Friday, they pushed the giant table over to the side, lined the couches up to face the screen, and used the projector to play a movie.

At first, I’d thought these movies were instructional videos, like the ones the Xarc’n military had left for us, or perhaps retellings of historical battles. But the humans had assured me that they were all fiction, even the ones that claimed to be inspired by real-life events.

My female was sitting on a couch with Heather and Nov’k. Heather was in the middle, and Nov’k looked unhappy that he had to share his mate with her friend.

I stepped in quietly and scooped Zoey into my arms. She made a small sound of surprise but muffled it when she realized she was not in danger. I sat down on an empty couch and nestled her into the dent made by my body.

Since most of the fighters and the warriors were away, the vote had skewed far from the action movies and landed firmly into what the humans had called “chick flick” territory. It wasn’t the type of movie I was interested in. There was very little fighting and absolutely no explosions, but for my female, I would endure anything.