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Serenity had no answer for the first two questions, but as soon as the musky beast-scent filled her nostrils, she knew the answer to the third.
It was an ukkur.
The biggest Serenity had ever seen.
The next events happened so quickly that Serenity’s brain could barely process them. It was only later, when she was back beneath the covers in the women’s sleeping tent, her body humming with adrenaline, that she was able to piece it all together in a chronological fashion.
First, the massive stone blade impaling Soul Patch’s midsection was ripped to one side, creating a gaping wound that emptied his steaming innards onto the floor with a sickening wet sound. His body was tossed aside, limp as a ruined doll, and it splatted into the cave wall.
Mustache was the next to die.
Whether it was foolishness, bravado, or just sheer confusion, Serenity could not tell, but for some reason the wiry man actually lurched toward the ukkur warrior.
He only managed one step, however, before the stone blade flickered, quick as a viper’s tongue, and his head tumbled from his shoulders. The stump of his neck spewed a geyser of blood all the way to the ceiling before his legs buckled and his twitching body hit the floor with a thud.
That only left Mutton Chops.
He tried to flee, sprinting away down the tunnel while pathetic whimpers of fear escaped from his mouth.
He did not get far.
There was afwip-fwip-fwipsound like a fan blade as the thrown dagger turned end over end. This was followed by a dullthunkas it embedded hilt deep in the man’s brain stem. He was dead before he hit the ground. His lifeless body skidded several feet from the momentum of his running.
Just as quickly as it had begun, the violence was over, and the tunnel was quiet once again.
Serenity turned her attention to the massive ukkur warrior towering over her.
Slowly, she dragged her eyes up his body. Bulging calves and powerful thighs like pillars of living stone. A ragged, scaly loincloth that looked as if it was fashioned from a dragon’s skin. Above that, his deeply etched abdominals and broad chest were hatched with old battle scars. His arms were huge, bulging with muscles, and the right one—the one that had been wielding the knife—that arm was gloved to the elbow in glistening blood.
It took a supreme effort of will for Serenity to raise her eyes to the ukkur’s face. When she finally did, her breath caught in her throat.
Serenity was used to seeing ukkur warriors on a daily basis, but she had never seen one quite like this. His dark hair was wild and shaggy, framing a face that was monstrous and terrifying—the face of a demon. Yet at the same time there was an almost sculptural symmetry to his chiseled features, and a darkly smoldering gaze that stirred something deep in Serenity’s core.
There was pain behind those eyes. Pain and loneliness. Serenity recognized it as if she had been looking in a mirror.
The intensity of the alien creature’s gaze seemed to pin her in place, and for the space of a dozen heartbeats, Serenity remained frozen on her knees in the shadow of the brutally masculine warrior.
The ukkur grunted.
He stooped, took Serenity by the shoulders, and picked her up as easily as an ordinary person might pick up a cat. His right hand was still wet with the blood of the slain men.
The ukkur pulled Serenity close, and his hot breath whuffled against her shoulders and throat as the beast-man scented her. Serenity cringed at the strange sensation. It was simultaneously ticklish and frightening, like getting sniffed by a giant wolf.
At the same time, Serenity smelled the ukkur’s body too. The supremely masculine scent streamed into her lungs and invaded her bloodstream. It set off all kinds of reactions in her body. Reactions that were totally inappropriate given the circumstances. Nipples aching and hard as pebbles. Sex throbbing with heat and wetness.
Later, Serenity would tell herself it was the adrenaline, but deep down she knew that was a lie.
The ukkur spoke. His deep, rumbling voice jolted Serenity out of her daze.
Kkszt krrg nsh-nsh tk’a?
In the six months that she had been living in the ukkur camp, Serenity had picked up a little of the alien language. There was a woman named Ika who spoke the language fluently, having been raised on this planet from infancy, and she taught the newcomers as much as she could. The language was difficult, and Serenity struggled with the pronunciation, but she could at least understand a few words here and there when the ukkur spoke slowly.
At the moment, her brain was too rattled to catch every detail of the ukkur warrior’s question, but she had recognized two words the warrior had used.
Krrg. Dwelling.
Nsh-nsh. Curfew.
