I fling his hand off and slowly get to my feet. The cavern is full of people, most of them newly risen from sleep. Tee-fah-nee is one, and she’s looking at me with horror and confusion as I loom over Hassen. Nearby, Taushen and Vaza talk in low voices, anger on their faces. Bek looks as if he’s ready to lunge into the fight and join Hassen to bring me down.
This is…not right. I did not start it, but I should not continue it.
“What is going on with you?” Aehako shouts, glaring at both myself and Hassen. “You brawl like two ill-behaved kits!”
I look over at Tee-fah-nee. She’s now flanked by Aehako’s mate, Kira, and Josie. All three women look shocked at the display, and I’m not surprised. It’s not often that the males of the tribe fight. I refuse to feel ashamed, though. I will fight for my mate.
Hassen gets to his feet slowly, glaring hate at me. He wipes a bit of blood from the corner of his mouth, and I am shocked to see it. I did not even realize I had struck him. “I started the fight.”
“Why?” Aehako steps between us, as if we will claw at each other again.
“Because I found him emerging from Tef-i-nee’s furs!” Hassen’s nostrils flare with anger and his fists clench. “He thinks to steal her while we work on our courting competition!”
Bek growls low in his throat nearby.
Aehako points at him and shakes his head. “Do not even consider it.” He looks at me, and there is reproach in his normally laughing eyes. “Is this true?”
I straighten. “She is my mate.”
More angry growls.
Aehako’s brows rise. “Did you resonate?”
“Not yet.”
He gives me an exasperated look. “Then you have both chosen to be heart mates and the contest should end?”
I say nothing. I have not declared my thoughts to Tee-fah-nee, and I’m ashamed I did so just now.
“Well?” Aehako looks past me over to the humans. “Do you claim this one as your heart-mate until one of you resonates to another?”
My body tenses, and I want to hear the words spill forth from her mouth. I want her to claim me as her own. I want to show the others that she cares for me as I do for her. That the bond between us is real.
But Tee-fah-nee is frozen in place. Her entire body is trembling, and she clutches the furs to her shoulders. Her normally dusky face is bleached pale, and her nervous gaze flicks back and forth between all of the angry men.
She doesn’t look at me and my heart sinks. She will not claim me this day, then.
Aehako claps me on my shoulder. “That is your answer, my friend. Any claim to her is in your mind. If you want her favor, it is only fair that you join the competition with the others, or we call the entire thing off.”
My jaw clenches, but I force myself to nod. “Then I will join the competition.”
“Bah,” Hassen says. He throws his hands in the air and stalks away to his furs. “This is madness! All of this competition and not an end to be had.”
“He speaks truth,” Aehako says, and casts a stern glance over at the humans. “We are not familiar with your ways, but surely there must be an end to the game at some point?”
“O-one more round,” Josie stammers. “One big round and then the winner will be chosen.”
“Then that solves it.” Aehako nods at me. “No more fighting. Understand?”
I understand. I will need all of my strength and skill to best the others, because they will all now be coming after me.
TIFFANY
I hide in my cave all day.
I’m not ashamed of what I did with Salukh. I feel good about it. But I’m ashamed that we got caught. That the others stared at me with such anger and reproach, and I can’t blame them. I’ve been making them run through hoops – courtesy of Josie’s competition – to get my ‘favor’ and then I take another guy to bed? Of course they freak out. The sa-khui aren’t judgy people, and I suspect if I’d have let Hassen or another into my furs, they wouldn’t have batted an eye. It’s that Salukh wasn’t even competing for me that made the other men upset.
Not that Salukh is safe anymore, either.
I didn’t speak up to claim him. How can I, when resonance effectively negates any sort of relationship? And there’s no reason why I haven’t resonated yet, which means it’s just a matter of time. How can I claim him and then abandon him?
There’s a more cowardly reason behind my silence, though. I looked at the faces of my suitors – Hassen, Bek, Vaza, and Taushen, and saw anger in their faces. It frightened me. I spiraled right back to that awful mental state of fear, and couldn’t act. All I could think about was the fight between Hassen and Salukh, and how the spurned males would act toward me after making them do the competition. They’d hate me…or worse. And while I haven’t seen violence against women so far? I’ve seen enough ‘firsts’ with the human-sa-khui inbreeding that I don’t want to be the first case of a woman taken against her will. These men are hard up as it is. To come this close to ‘getting’ a girl and then someone else swoops in? It could break even a stable mind.