By the time we get back to the cave, my khui is resonating and my cock aches fiercely. It strains against my loincloth, the ache almost unbearable. Is she not suffering, too? Why does she fight this?
A resonance mate is always final.
Liz heads into the cave without a backward glance at me. She’s still angry – it rolls off her in waves. That’s fine. Let her resist if she thinks it will make a difference. She is mine. She was claimed the moment her khui resonated for me.
Nothing she does will change this.
As if she can sense my turbulent, possessive thoughts, she grabs one of the furs and wraps it around her waist, then turns to me. “I know what your goal is, here.”
My brows draw together. My goal? I have no goal other than to claim her as my mate. So we can be one.
“You’re going to hide me away until I’m pregnant, right?” She sounds defeated, the look in her eyes miserable.
“And what if I am?”
“Once again, I’m being held hostage for my vagina.” She sighs. “What is it with you aliens? Can’t a girl just make her own decisions for once? Is that so freaking hard?”
“The khui has decided,” I tell her.
She gives a small shake of her head. “It’s always someone else’s decision. When’s it going to be mine?”
I watch her, frustrated. There is no decision to be made. The khui has decided. And yet…I don’t like the way her words make me feel.
Or the defeat in her voice. Liz is a fighter. I don’t want her to give up.
LIZ
Things are uncomfortable in the cave when I come back. I ignore Raahosh and concentrate on sewing my pants together again with a few scraps of leather that I use as thick ties. I knot my pants every few inches instead of using one long thread in the hopes that things hold together better, and I blush the entire time I work on them.
Raahosh putters around the front of the cave, getting water and melting it, gathering more dung chips for fire fuel, and then butchering the thing that we killed at the river. He saves the bamboo for me, and then takes the bits of the creature with him, mumbling something about ‘bait for traps’ under his breath.
I say nothing. I’m still pissed at him. Actually, pissed is not the word. I’m frustrated. Frustrated beyond belief. I know it’s not his fault that our cooties decided to become friends, but can the guy throw me a bone and freaking help me out instead of acting like I’m the problem? Excuse me if I don’t want to automatically jump in the sack and demand that he squirt me with his baby batter.
My face grows hot as I remember our little throw down in the snow. I think of him ripping my pants off, and my cootie starts vibrating and I get wet between my legs again. Gah. This is so frustrating.
I don’t know which is worse – the endless horniness the cootie brings, or the fact that Raahosh has let me yammer on and on without telling me that he understands English. I try to recall all the things I’ve said and draw a blank. Truth is, I ramble and I don’t remember what has come out of my mouth. Ugh.
A few hours alone lets me fix my pants, and when I put them on, they’re a lot tighter, but they still fit. The downtime away from Raahosh also puts me in a better mood and gives me some perspective.
Really, he’s just as trapped as I am. And maybe it’s the orgasms talking, but he did a lot of giving and very little taking in our, ahem, snow incident. Maybe I’m being too hard on him. He is right about one thing, though – I never bothered to ask him if he spoke English. I just assumed he was an ignorant alien…which makes me a jerk.
I sigh. I’m not sure if I’m ready to apologize, but I do know I’m mentally exhausted from fighting with him all the time. It’s getting me nowhere. My dad used to tell me I could catch more flies with honey than vinegar.
Lately, all I’ve been doing is spewing vinegar. No wonder I’m not getting anywhere.
And while Raahosh and I still have opposite wants – he wants a wife and baby-carrier, and I want to be left alone – we can still act like adults.
It’d be nice to have a friend again, I think wistfully. The girls I was captured on the ship with? Those were forced friendships. If we hadn’t been stuck together, would we have ever spoken two words to each other? I miss home. I miss my friends. I miss my dad, gone for five years now.
When sunset approaches, I take stock of the cave, knowing Raahosh will appear soon. I’ve tried to make things as presentable as possible. I’ve gotten extra water, braided my hair to keep it out of my face, repaired my clothing, stoked the fire, and started working on a cord for my bow. The bamboo we’ve gotten is different than what I expected, but it’s hollow and has a bit of give to it, not unlike bone. I’m going to try wrapping it in leather at certain spots to reinforce it, and hope for the best.