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“Was he upset when you talked to him?”
“No. He told me I could stay with him when I got back and to call him before I left. I was calling to tell him I was staying here. He told me to call him.” The last few words were nearly a shout, and the other women and warriors in the room turned to look at us.
Tasha put an arm around me. “Okay, thisisa little suspicious. Especially if he had no illnesses or financial problems. It's not like on Earth, where people died in traffic accidents. Does he have any friends you can call?”
Why hadn't I thought of that? “Yeah. He lived with a roommate. They were pretty close. They went to school together.”
I dialed Mark’s number and he picked up almost immediately.
“Mark. It’s Clara.”
“Shit. I…I…um…I’m really busy right now andcan't talk on the phone.Why don’t we meet up?”
“Um. I can’t come to you. I'm—” I hesitated before I said, “I’m somewhere far away.”
“I know. I was there, remember? Come and visit me whenever you can.We need to talk.”
“Okay, but—”
“Maybe when you come by, you can pick something up for thepotluck.” He stressed the last word.
I froze. Potluck. Chris had told Mark about our secret pet years later, and I knew they still used it as some sort of code.
I turned to Tasha. “I need to get back to the colony; something is up for sure, but Mark insisted he couldn't talk on the phone and that I needed to go see him, and he said we needed to talk, and it sounded like he meant it.” The words tumbled out of my mouth in one long run-on sentence.
“If he thinks you can't talk on the phone, it must mean he believes he’s being watched. But why? What could your brother have done?”
“Nothing!” I exclaimed. “He has his thoughts about the colony, but don't we all? He wouldn't have done anything. He's not the type to.” But I wasn’t sure about that. He’d always been adamant he’d do anything to get Ella back.
“I didn't mean to suggest he did anything wrong.”
“I'm sorry, Tasha. I'm just really stressed right now.”
I needed to get back to the colony and find out what had happened to my brother. But what about Krxare? And our mate bond? I wanted to stay so badly, but not at the cost of never seeing my brother again.
I’d told Krxare I wanted to stay with him here. I was sure that if he found out about this mystery with my brother, he would insist on returning to the colony with me. Stepping foot into the colony would void the delicately-kept treaty between our people. Anyone living long enough in the colony knew there were nukes ready for the instant the alien monsters broke the truce. They were waiting for the moment the Kadrixans faltered to press that big, red button.
“I was going to stay here,” I said to no one in particular. “With Krxare.”
I didn’t expect Tasha to reply, but she did. “You can always come back. Just request to return for the next rut. Or you can ask Krxare for help.”
I shook my head. “If Krxare knew about this, do you think he’d let me go back to find my brother?”
“No way. My mate would never let me back there, even if there wasn’t anything fishy going on. This business with your brother? That’s some surströmming-level of fishiness right there. Krxare would probably insist on heading to the colony himself to find out.”
“He’d get himself shot.” Panic rose as I imagined Krxare gunned down by a guard. “You know how those guys feel about the Kadrixans. And it would void the treaty.”
“Shit.” Her face turned pale. “I didn’t think about that. Do you think it’s true they have nukes pointed here waiting for the moment the Kadrixans mess up? I’d completely forgotten about those.”
“I don’t want to be the reason we find out. I can’t put you, Krxare, and everyone else here in danger. Krxare can’t know about this. This is my problem, and I have to fix it myself.” As I said the words, I knew them to be true.
I had to find out what had happened to my brother, and I had to do it myself. These people here meant something to me now. I cared more about the stronghold than I did the colony, and I couldn’t let anything endanger the people here.
“Then you’d better read that contract well. I think there’s only one way for us to return to the colony. You need to say the right words when the representative gets here. I made sure to look it up, just in case, but we all know how that worked out.”
She’d stayed and never looked back.
“You can do what Jenna did,” she continued. “She went back to take care of her ailing mother, then she came back the next year for good.”
