Proposition (7 page)

It was like an arrow to his heart. What the hell was happening to him?

Chapter Seven

Geoff watched Krig leave the pod, not knowing how he felt about realizing that Krig actually cared for Keirah. They’d only met the man a few days ago and sure, the situation was far from ordinary, but he’d always thought that he’d hold her heart alone. He’d come to the conclusion that she might share her body, but she wouldn’t share her love. What would he do if Keirah came to have feelings for the Alphan male?

Pushing the thought aside, to a far deep corner of his mind, he took his shirt off to dribble a little water on the corner so he could wipe her face. The medicine seemed to be working since she wasn’t as hot as before, but her face was still flushed.

He dozed, not really sleeping since he was too worried Keirah’s fever would spike. At some point Krig came back in, but he didn’t talk to him. Geoff saw the other man check on her and run a finger lovingly down her cheek and took it in stride. He couldn’t keep thinking the Alphan was the enemy because, despite his jealousy, he knew Krig was a good man, alien or not.

He must have fallen asleep because he was jolted awake when the hatch door opened. Geoff bolted upright, and it took a second for the world to swim back into focus. He looked down at Keirah and saw she was warm to the touch, although the bandage looked fresh. Krig must have checked it. He stretched and had to take a leak so he made his way outside to see the Alphan urinating into the thick foliage. Geoff made his way over and stood next to him, unzipping his pants to do his business.

“The wound is still red but not as swollen,” Krig told him. “She needs to stay in bed today, resting.”

“Agreed.”

They both finished and zipped up. Geoff wished he had some soap, but water would have to do, and they both rinsed off their hands.

“So, Captain,” Geoff said as he turned to the other man. “What’s on your agenda today?”

“Let’s find some dry wood and then go hunting.”

“Okay.”

It didn’t take them long to find a large log that was perfect, and using some vines they hauled it back toward the pod. Krig used a tarp to cover it in hopes of drying it out a little more. Geoff checked on Keirah to see she was still sleeping. Although he was slightly worried she hadn’t woken up, he knew the best thing for her body was rest, so he tried not to fret too much.

The pod had a small axe that would’ve made chopping firewood a bitch, so Krig grabbed a small torch and Geoff helped the Alphan climb to the top of the pod, where the metal hull had twisted upon impact, to salvage some of it for an axe.

“There’s a lot of creature parts up here,” Krig called out. “I’m going to throw some metal down to you, but we’re going to have to clean it up.”

Geoff stood back as several metal shards were thrown down, and then he used some of the collected water on the tarp to clean off the pterodactyl blood and gore. Krig climbed down. Being a city boy, Geoff watched, fascinated, as Krig twisted vines tightly around the piece of sharp metal on a piece of sturdy wood. Soon he was chopping away, testing the sharpness of the metal blade as well as the sturdiness of the vines.

Geoff realized he wasn’t much help in this wilderness and tried to keep out of Krig’s way. Now, if they’d had to hot wire a car or pick pocket someone then he was the man for the job, but this moon was a far cry from the concrete jungle he’d scoured as a teenager.

Halfway through the day it showered, although Geoff didn’t see much relief from the humidity as soon as it was over. The tarp had collected more water, and he was thankful they hadn’t landed in a desert.

“I want to hunt,” Krig said after the little rain shower had ended.

“Want me to go with you?”

Krig shook his head. “Someone needs to stay with Keirah. I’m not sure sleeping so much is a good thing.”

“A human body heals through sleep,” Geoff said. “I’m worried, too, but her fever is going down, and she doesn’t appear to be in distress. Besides, there’s not much else we can do.”

Krig took a deep breath and nodded. “Okay. I’ll not stay out too late. About an hour.”

“How do you know the animals on this planet are edible?”

Krig’s eyebrows rose. “I figured I’d get you to test it first, and if you die then I know I can’t eat it.”

“Hilarious. No really, I’m laughing on the inside.” But one corner of Geoff’s mouth curled up when Krig grinned.

He watched the Alphan head into the thick forest, disappearing almost instantly and wondered why he wasn’t hoping he never returned. Maybe because he knew they needed him to survive? Because fuck if Geoff knew one thing about wilderness survival. But he suspected it had more to do with the fact he’d feel guilty as hell if the bastard never returned. And Keirah might not like it. She seemed to have developed some sort of bond with Krig.

He decided to test out his skill at chopping wood and grabbed the handle. Krig had made this look easy, so Geoff figured he could help the dude out. It didn’t take him long to realize the task was fucking hard, but he’d be damned to give up and see the Alphan smirk at him, so he kept at it.

He was so focused on his work it took a moment for the high pitched shriek to register. He halted the next swing and looked around. The shriek came again, louder, and above him, and he looked up.

“Holy fuck!” he muttered as he saw three of those pterodactyl creatures sitting on top of the pod. One was staring down at him like he was a tasty morsel. “If I say shoo will you go away?”

The bird-like beast opened its large beak and screeched at him. Slowly, Geoff reached into the back of his pants were he’d stuck the blaster and pulled it out. He flipped it from stun to kill and took aim.

“I don’t know what the fuck you’re doing up there, but if I were you I’d calmly fly away.”

The bird tilted its head, as if trying to understand him. But it didn’t move. Then Geoff saw the other two fighting over something, and he realized it was a piece of meat, that these animals were scavengers and were cannibalizing one of their own.
How lovely.
He fired a warning blast at the feet of the one watching him, and with a mighty irritated squawk it opened its wings and flew up. It circled around the pod, and Geoff kept his eyes on it. And then he felt something pull him from behind, and a second later he was leaving the ground.

“Shit!” he yelled and looked up. Sharp talons had speared through his leather jacket, holding firm, to take him into the sky. If he didn’t do something fast he’d either be too far up to fall or he’d become dinner.

Geoff twisted as much as he could and took aim at the creature’s underbelly. He fired his weapon, and the pterodactyl thing screeched before nose diving down. Luckily, the bird fell onto his back, letting Geoff land on his soft stomach.

“Good shot,” Krig called out, and Geoff raised his head to see him standing close by. “I thought for a moment you were going to be dinner.”

“So did I. Wanna help disengage me from these talons?”

It took them a few minutes to open the claws, and Geoff only shuddered when he saw how big and dangerous they were. One wrong swipe and his back could’ve been shredded meat.

“And that’s why your ass is extinct,” he muttered and gave the carcass a kick.

“We could probably eat this thing.”

Geoff pointed at the furry thing slung over Krig’s shoulder. “Didn’t you find our meal already?”

“I did,” Krig confirmed. “But we can make- jerky in case we can’t hunt for some reason. Did you chop firewood?”

“Yep. I also made a friend, but since he probably only wanted to eat my flesh and pick my bones I had to shoot him.”

“That was probably wise. Let me skin these animals here so we don’t attract anything else at the pod.”

“I don’t know if that’ll help. The big bloody carcass on top of the pod seems to be a big bulls’ eye for those vultures.”

Krig got to work on the meat, and Geoff grimaced as he turned away and headed back toward the pod. Sometime later, Krig was elbow deep in blood, and he carried chunks of meat, including something that looked cross between a bunny and a squirrel. They got a fire going, using the dry interior of the log, and a piece of metal for a cooking grate.

“How’s Keirah?” Krig asked. Twilight was falling, and a different chorus of night sounds was waking up.

“Still out of it,” Geoff said. “If she doesn’t wake up soon I’m going to force her awake.”

“Agreed.”

The food smelt good, and Geoff’s stomach rumbled. They’d been eating rations, but dried food never really filled up the belly. Krig laid out the meat in long strips, cooking it.

“Can I ask you a question?”

Geoff blinked and nodded. “Sure.”

“What was the real reason why Keirah accepted my proposition?”

Geoff stiffened. “What do you mean?”

“Give me some credit, please. Keirah is a loyal woman. She wouldn’t have said yes to me unless there was a specific reason why she had to.”

Shit!
He’d been thinking of this off and on as he learned more about the Alphan culture. How could someone like Captain Krig ever understand the things he’d done to survive?

“Keirah told me a little about your old life,” Krig continued. “She said you were street smart. Although I’m not familiar with that term I can pretty much guess what it means.”

“You just can’t drop a bomb question like that. Shit, Krig.” Geoff got up and marched a bit away from the fire pit.

“I don’t understand your reluctance? It’s a simple question.”

Geoff marched back, his hands curling into fists. He really wanted to punch the Alphan in the jaw.

“Just drop it.”

“How much do you know about my planet?” Krig asked.

“Some. Why?”

“We have technology, but we choose to live simply. Archaic, probably from your standards. However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t cracks through the system. We don’t have orphanages, but we do have runaways. It doesn’t happen often, but being a young male on Alpha can be difficult. We’re a warrior nation, but not all Alphans are born warriors. I’m guessing you might have been one of those runaways. Were you a male prostitute? Is that why you’re ashamed? I won’t be offended if you have lustful feelings for me—”

“Oh God!” Geoff cried. “Enough! No, sorry to disappoint, but I don’t have lustful feelings for you, and no, I wasn’t a prostitute.”

Krig’s eyes narrowed as he studied him, and Geoff felt like the Alphan was reaching into his soul to slowly pull forth out his inner demons. He ran a hand through his hair, absently noticing it was damp. Everything was damp on this fucking moon. It was like he was in a fucking cage.

Shit!

He paced back and forth, unable to rein in the restlessness crackling through his body. The past was dead and gone. It had no bearing on his life now, and the last thing he wanted to do was tarnish his future with shit he’d done when he’d been younger.

 
“For this relationship to work we have to trust one another.”

Geoff wished he could escape from the probing insight, but where could he go? Inside the pod? That wasn’t far enough to run away from the dreg Krig had just brought up.

“If I tell you about my past you won’t trust me.”

“Why don’t you let me be the judge of who I will and won’t trust?”

Geoff threw his hands up. “Okay, fine. Look, my parents were murdered when I was ten, and I was sent to a state run home,” he finally said, although it felt like pulling teeth. “Keirah arrived a few months later. Some older boys cornered her one night, so I beat the shit out of them. But day in and day out, it was a constant nightmare. If you couldn’t use your fists then you didn’t survive. By the time I was a teenager, I’d hurt so many kids I couldn’t count them all, and after a while things just grew darker and darker.
 
Not even Keirah could help me. So, yeah, I ran away. I ran away every chance I got.”

“What happened when you ran away?”

“Shit,” Geoff muttered. “I wish had a fucking drink.”

“I’m assuming you mean alcohol? I agree that would be nice.”

Geoff snorted. “I was seventeen the first time I got drunk. Hated it. Hated losing control.”

Krig tilted his head. “Me, too. That’s why I’m captain and will one day be admiral. I hate conceding control of anything.”

“Then I must really get under your craw, huh? If you like being in control so much why pick a woman with a husband? There’re a lot of single females out there.”

“Yes, running patrol I’ve met a lot of human women. None of them ever appealed to me until I saw Keirah pointing a blaster at me. She was like a
neraezah,
and I couldn’t take my eyes off her.”

“A what?”

“A … what do you call them? Beings with wings.”

“An angel?”

“Yes. A warrior angel who takes fallen souls into the afterlife.”

Geoff crossed his arms and leaned against the pod and he stared at the fire. If he opened up about the past would that change him? Not even Keirah knew all the details because he was afraid once she knew it would change how she felt about him. He didn’t know if he could chance that.

“What I did in the past … I had to do shit to survive.”