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Simply to make sure she stayed safe, of course.
Tori stopped to drink several times throughout the day, but she ate nothing, and as the day wore on, she pulled her clothing tighter around her, slowing down and eventually stopping to find a place to sleep for the night.
An entire day spent walking and without food, she would be starving and greatly weakened.Tori had already proven she could kill to eat, so I didn’t understand why she didn’t do it again.She had also passed several edible plants, and only fear of further anger from her kept me from crying out and pointing them out to her.She would have no way of knowing what was safe and what wasn’t or how to prepare them, and I guessed it was smart of her not to go around eating random plants.
By the time she curled into a ball under a root, I had made up my mind.
Regardless of whether she feared or hated me, I needed to teach her how to survive.I was impressed with how tough she was, but she was still a stranger here.I could go weeks without eating solid food, having adapted to photosynthesize in small doses as I changed to be part of the forest.In response, small flowers would grow on the vines that settled around my arms, originating from my spine, and it had become a habit to absentmindedly pick them off and discard them.It caused me no pain, and they were basically a waste product from my body anyway.
Tori fell asleep quickly from exhaustion, I assumed, and anger bubbled in my stomach.She needed someone to care for her.Why didn’t she stay with me when I had proved I could take care of her?Instead, she had wandered off alone, preferring to take her chances by herself than stay near me.Surely, she understood when I had injured her, it had been an accident.
Stalking off, I gathered a small selection of plants she should be okay to eat and returned to leave them where she would find them in the morning, sitting and crossing my legs to watch her sleep.
If I were to teach her to survive, I would need to be able to communicate with her.
Tori had cried out at me when I had tried to touch her earlier and slapped my hand away.Even that touch ignited need in me, but in order to learn her language, I had to touch her and meld with her mind.Adaptive learning is something I could do to all living creatures if they would allow me close enough for long enough.
She was sleeping now.It seemed an invasion to do this while she wasn’t aware, but I had no choice.
Moving around the roots, I settled into a crouch near where she slept.Her breathing was shallow, and I frowned again.She had allowed herself to become malnourished.There was no way I was leaving her alone now.Tori could hate me all she wanted.I would care for her, and maybe one day she would realize I was only trying to help.
Maybe one day she would open her legs and welcome me to mate with her.
Snarling quietly, I shook the thought from my mind.
I was better than that.
Slowly, I released my vines, and they unwrapped from my body and reached toward Tori, sliding around her body and holding her still—one of them laid across her eyes in case she woke up in a panic.As selfish as it may be, I didn’t want her to associate me with fear any more than she already did, and it made me sick to blindfold her, knowing she’d be frightened if she woke, but I couldn’t stand the idea of her looking at me as though I were a monster.
Tentatively, I reached out and placed two fingers and my thumb against her temple.She stirred but didn’t wake, and after a moment, I closed my eyes and joined with her mind.Her language was not complicated, but a surprising number of physical gestures went with it, and beyond that, an entirely new level of language devoted entirely to sayings, innuendos, and acronyms.
She stirred, murmuring in her sleep, and I pulled my hand away from her head, alarmed.I dared not wake her.I thought I had more than enough of her language to communicate with her.I didn’t want to put her mind through too much in one go.
My vines slowly eased away from her body and lowered her back to the ground.She still slept, but it wasn’t a peaceful sleep anymore.Her brows knitted together, and she twitched and fretted in her slumber.
Standing and frowning with guilt settling in my stomach at the knowledge that I had interrupted her sleep, I returned to my home.The first sunlight was hours away, and I’m certain I could make it home and back with some supplies for her before she woke.
Then I would need to find a way to tell her I had invaded her mind in order to communicate with her and hope she didn’t hate me more than she already did.
I shook my head rapidly as I walked as if to shake the thoughts from my mind.It shouldn’tmatterif she liked me or not, that was irrelevant.What was important was that she was safe, could fend for herself, and learned which parts of the island not to go to.Her feelings toward me didn’t matter, and regardless of the stirring in my crotch at the thoughts of her soft skin and scent, I needed to push all that back down where it belonged.Because I had the same duty as my brothers—to protect misplaced species—and that was what I would devote my life to.I glanced down at my body, my nudity had seemed to bother her earlier, and it hadn’t escaped my attention the multiple layers she wore to cover herself up.Maybe this was a cultural thing.Maybe one day she’d let me ask her about it.
While at home, I would fashion a quick covering for my genitals so as not to bother her further.
I would do anything to make her like me, and no matter how much I tried to shift the thought, I couldn’t.Because stirring inside me, like sparks coming to life after years in a dormant shadow, was the need to claim beyond the need to protect.
To possess.
To mate.
Chapter Seven
TORI
Strange dreams had interrupted my sleep last night, and when I woke, I gripped my head as it throbbed slightly.It wasn’t so much pain as an overt awareness, and I lay for a moment with my eyes closed until it eased.I had dreamed of books, words and numbers, memories and people—things that flashed across my vision too quickly for me to get a good look at them.But it gave me a headache.
Maybe the air on this planet was slowly poisoning me.
There’s that good old-fashioned optimism again.
