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“It looked like what our ancestors warned us about. They told us what would happen when people came from the sky. They told us what to do with them. That’s why the guns are still there. That’s why they still work.”
She pulls a blade from the back of her skirt. It is long and it is sharp and I know it is meant for me.
“You need to die,” she hisses. “I’m going to finish what I started.”
Tyna throws herself at me. My death is imminent and it comes at the tip of her blade, but I would not die when she shot at me and I will not die now that her knife is at my throat.
I take the zap from my skirt and I jab it into her midsection. It discharges with enough force to send her flying off me, a limp rag doll of a woman who lands in a puddle of mud on the path. I get up and go take a look at her. She’s still breathing. Lucky her.
“That felt really, really good,” I tell her senseless form.
Crouching down next to her, I splash water over her face. It’s enough to bring her back to consciousness, though not enough to bring her back to her feet. She lies there, groaning to herself.
“You ever touch me again, and it will be the last thing you do,” I tell her. “Understand?”
She groans and nods.
“Get up and get out of here,” I growl. “Now. I want you gone. Don’t let me see your face again.”
Tyna moves gingerly, but she does as I say. I watch her stumble to her feet and limp away with a sense of satisfaction I haven’t felt in a very long time. I can’t do anything about the Patron. I can’t do anything about Zion. But I just did a whole lot about her.
* * *
Zion
“What do you look so pleased about?”
“Nothing,” Tselia says with a smirk, which tells me she is lying. “I just… had a good day.”
She’s been up to something. I don’t know what, but I am sure I’ll find out soon enough.
Things have changed between us since our visit to the caves. It’s not that she doesn’t fight me anymore. It’s not that she is an easy captive. She is neither of those things. But I don’t see her staring upward, sighing at the stars. She turns her attention to the world around us. She tries her best to follow my orders and observe our customs.
I keep a close eye on her and make sure that her discipline does not slip. My palm meets her bottom often, but with less intensity and less conflict than before. She is beginning to enjoy life on our world. When she lies beneath me in my bed, her body submits to me completely. The natural mating instinct is strong in her, and after being denied for so long, she is as voracious for me as I am for her. I see happiness in our future, a long life of love and family.
Chapter Thirteen
Tselia
“You seem happier.”
Zion smiles and brushes the hair off my forehead. Days have passed into weeks. Weeks have slid into months and I have become one with the tribe. Tyna has not bothered me since the night she came to kill me. I did not mention it to Zion. He wouldn’t have liked that story. I put the zap back where he thought he hid it and life went on.
The huntresses give me a wide berth. There is no sign of the Patron and I am beginning to understand the rhythms of life on this planet. I am starting to think that perhaps the Patron might forget about me altogether. Maybe he wanted me to get lost in the far reaches of space. Maybe not hearing from me is a good thing. Or maybe that’s wishful thinking because I know, no matter how peaceful and idyllic life is on this planet, the Patron is coming to take it away.
“I am happy. Maybe it’s the hormones. Maybe this is the month.”
Zion has come inside me almost every day for months on end. He has filled me with his fertile seed, he has made sure my womb does not want for semen. We know what the inevitable outcome of that will be. It is only a matter of time before our disparate strands of DNA combine to create offspring that will be part star, part wild. A child with a right to the stars and the wiles of the wilderness. I cannot wait to meet him or her, and see which life they choose.
It has not happened yet. I have bled each and every month. But I know it is only a matter of time. Nature finds a way, especially on this planet. Humanity should have died here, but it found a stronger, hardier form.
