Colonies of U'u'kata

Cali awoke with her face pressed against Thenta's chest, her head pillowed on his bicep. She could feel the weight of his hand splayed over her hip and when she inhaled, she breathed him in. He smelled of earth and leather. Though, that could be because they were laying on the ground covered in a fur, the bottom of which was leather.

Underneath it all she smelled a deep musk that wasn't at all unpleasant and suddenly her libido was reminding her of how long it had been since she'd gotten laid.

Before C.O.S. had fallen, she'd had two sexual partners. She hadn't had time for a relationship so everything was casual but she hadn't been able to find them since coming to Uu'k'ata. And it wasn't like the Uu'k'asht had allowed her or anyone else time to grab personal belongings. Some days she believed she would have tried to bring her bees. Other days she thought she might have grabbed her bag of dicks and called it good. She missed her collection.

Her eyes moved down the expanse of his chest to where his shirt met his pants and she wondered if all of him was huge and muscled. Then she mentally slapped herself. What the hell was she thinking? No. She was not interested in the aliens who'd kidnapped her, destroyed her home, killed her insects... though... Thenta didn't seem to know anything about any of that.

The forest outside her cocoon of fur, leather, and alien muscle was chill, the sky a pale gray as the coming dawn pushed away the darkness. Somewhere off in the trees, something snapped.

Cali flinched and strained her ears to listen. It could have been nothing. Or, it could have been a forest monster. Or worse, the Toven.

She patted Thenta on the chest and when he hummed sleepily, she pressed a finger between his tusks.

"Sh!" she hissed. "I heard something."

He blinked down at her a few times, frowning. She pointed at her ear, then in the direction she'd heard the snap.

Thenta was suddenly fully alert. He twisted, placing his bulk atop her without pressing any of his weight into her, and stayed there, unmoving. Listening. His head cocked once, neck craning.

It was so fucking hot that if she didn't believe they were in danger she might have grabbed him or run her shin up his inner thigh...

Mental... Slap...

"Stay here," he whispered. "Don't move."

"Okay," she whispered back, heart pounding in fear and arousal.

He rose into a crouch, pulling the fur over her, and set off through the trees. To her surprise, he made not a sound, despite his bulk. Someone so big shouldn't be allowed to move so silently. It just wasn't fair.

Cali swallowed and tried to ease her own pounding heart. It was probably just an animal. That wasn't much of a comfort though as most animals on Uu'k'ata seem to be incredibly bloodthirsty and aggressive. Maybe it was just the wind. Maybe a branch had just fallen from a tree. She'd grown up on a space farm, what did she know about nature?

What she did know is that she didn't want it to be a person. The memory of Thenta so brutally killing that Uu'k'asht in the mouth of the cave was still so vivid and fresh that every time she thought of it she flinched and smelled blood in the air. It had just been such a nonchalantly savage show of power. Like murder was an afterthought. Who knows. Maybe, for him, it was nothing more than that.

What if he got tired of her and decided to snap her neck and be done with her? He'd taken care of one body already, that she knew of. It certainly wouldn't be hard to deal with hers.

Cali shook her head. Pushing away those dangerous thoughts.

Thenta's blood-splattered face was above her so suddenly she gasped and tried to scuttle away, resulting in the fur falling over her face. She floundered and Thenta shushed her, pulling the fur back and putting a finger to his lips.