Page 24 of His to Take

The other women nodded and went back to their tasks.

“I guess we need to repopulate the world somehow,” Mary said and got back up to finish cooking. It wasn’t like preparing MREs. They’d always made that last as long as they could, to pretend they’d done something akin to cooking, but this took actual thinking and planning, so they all followed Mary’s lead.

“I can’t believe it’s real,” Amanda said. But then she looked at Mary with something like hope. “I always did want a daughter though. Someone sweet and loving, like Ann.”

“Aw, thanks,” Ann said and smiled, pleased for a moment.

“If they can give me another baby, I don’t think I’d complain. As long as it’s Stephan’s baby, of course. Maybe they have some alien voodoo that can fix whatever’s broken in me.”

“I hope they do, Amanda. I’m not sure… I hadn’t planned on…” but Ann could see the speculation in her mother’s eye.

Ann had always wanted a baby brother or sister. It seemed her mother was thinking about it now. They did have a lot of rooms to fill, after all. Ann looked away with a smile, but it faded. Would she be forced to carry some unknown alien’s baby?

For some reason, the man in her dreams came to mind. As always, she tried to push thoughts of him away, but he was always there, always ready to ruin her day with some pleasurable remnant of her dreams. He was a fine specimen of what a man should be, there was no doubt of that. Healthy, fit, and as handsome as any actor she’d ever seen, and she’d seen a few when she visited her father’s office. He would make pretty babies. If he didn’t have orange eyes.

They were the color of a tiger’s orange stripes, deep and full of fire. She thought the color would be unnerving in a child. She sometimes found light blue or gray eyes unsettling and wondered if the light hurt their eyes, but she tried to tell herself that was silly. She was even more silly to consider whether a dream lover could give her a child.

What the hell is wrong with me, she wondered, and not for the first time.

Her mother and Amanda had gone back to cooking, so she did the same. An hour later, the men came in with plates full of grilled fish, the pasta was cooked, the soup puréed and the corn ready to drown in… margarine.

Ann frowned at the tub on the plate. They could clear away ice, a bad atmosphere, and bring life back to the planet, but margarine was the best they could produce in the way of butter-like substances. With a sigh, she spread some of the stuff on her corn and doused it in salt.

“You’re going to wish you hadn’t used that much salt when you’re older, dear,” her father warned her, as he always did.

“I can’t help it. I think it was all of those MREs over the years. They must have been full of salt. The food just doesn’t taste as good without a ton of salt on it.”

“You could be right, although most of them were dehydrated and low in sodium. Not all of them were, though.” John plucked a speckle of fish onto his fork and went back to eating.

After dinner, Ann and Rex washed dishes. He was already eyeing the door, ready to go to bed, but she asked him to stay and talk with her at the table once they’d put the last dish away.

“How are you doing?” Ann asked, her hand on his. He ignored her hand, but she could see he was thinking. Lost in thought.

“I’ve met some other wolves our age.” He didn’t look at her, he just stared into the night beyond the large window beside the door that led out to the back. “There’s talk of… revolution.”

“Revolution, Rex? Against who? You can’t mean the overlords. They would defeat any movement in a minute.” They’d all seen the aliens’ might, their ability to squash insurrection, of any kind. They’d captured Ann’s group easily enough, after all.

“But there might be a way. I’m meeting them later. I’ll find out more then.”

“Rex,” she drew out his name teasingly, but with a smile. “Come on now, you know you can’t defeat them, right?”

“But we can, Ann! We might even be able to escape them. I’ll find out more tonight, and then you’ll see. You’ll believe me.” He pulled away from her hand, stung by her disbelief. “I can’t believe you want to give up so easily to them.”

“I don’t, Rex. We can’t marry or have children because of them. I want them to go back where they came from and leave us alone.” She didn’t mention what his mother had revealed earlier. He was already riled up enough as it was. She placed her hand over his heart and looked into his eyes, so full of hurt and anger. “I can’t fight them, not right now anyway.”

“You mean you don’t want to. And why should you?” He stood up to pace around the kitchen. “You get to live in this. I’m your servant! If anything, it should be the other way around!”

After he said it, he looked around, as if James might be just around the corner. When he didn’t see anyone, he carried on.

“You’re nothing but a helpless woman, and you’re only human. We wolves are far stronger, much hardier than you pure-bloods. You’re weak and should be the ones waiting on us hand and foot!”

The last part was sneered, and Ann stared at Rex, truly stunned at the venom in his voice. “Rex, you don’t mean that?”

Fear suddenly swept over his face, and he turned away to hide whatever else he might feel from her. “You’re right, of course. That was silly of me. I just… I got carried away. I’m sorry, Ann.”

The sudden change in Rex surprised her and she blinked at him. What had just happened? Then it dawned on her and her eyes went round. She had some power, then. She hadn’t realized it, but she did. He was afraid he’d stepped over the line and she’d report him to the aliens. He wasn’t sure he could trust her, which hurt, but he was also afraid of the power she had. She wasn’t sure she disliked that, though she knew she should.

“It’s alright, Rex. Just be careful, will you?” She looked at him, frustrated that he’d been so stupid. “You never know who’s listening, anyway.” She made a motion with her eyes and eyebrows to draw his gaze to the button for calling servants. She always wondered if that button could see or hear them. She didn’t trust it much, and she’d now had two conversations today that could get them all in trouble. All in view of that button.

“You’re right. Sorry about that. Um, I have to go. Catch you later, okay?”

She waved goodbye to him but wondered what kind of trouble he was about to cause them all and if she should talk to her father about it. With a sigh, she went to bed instead. Not that she’d find any peace in her dreams, but she would find pleasure. That was something in this odd world she lived in.