Page 85 of Tribute
The wall quivered and Rehz turned toward the dark red coils of theUngrichwho appeared. He stood still as the creature’sprobe found his throat and passed through his skin. Yeah, it looked as if he was right. TheUngrichcouldn’t come into the cube completely. He wondered how long theUngrichcould survive in the dry atmosphere without needing to return to their more familiar liquid environment.
“Return our citizens.”
“They are well.”
“I didn’t ask you how they were. You have no right to hold them. If you do not release them, you will face the consequences.”
“You would go to war again over a series of experiments?”
“I would.”
“We have not invaded the surface world.”
“You have taken what does not belong to you. That is enough.”
“These test samples are not from your planet. The treaty does not, therefore, cover them.”
“You’re wrong. They are both full Mitan citizens. We will protect them as our own.”
“They are safe.”
“I don’t believe you.”He focused all his energy into his reply.“Return our citizens.”
The thought had hardly left his mind before theUngrichmoved in a blur of speed, wrapping both him and Kai within its heaving mass and catapulting them through the floor. He didn’t even have time to scream as he ended up in a tangled heap on another sticky floor.
“Humans.”
He opened his eyes and found himself staring right at Anna Lee. She looked exhausted, her body pinned under Aled Price, who seemed to be asleep. Emotions crowded his throat and he forced them down, only reaching out his hand toward her.
“Aled Price is not human.” Kai was speaking now.
“He has sufficient DNA.”
“For what?”Kai demanded.
“For our purposes.”
Kai crawled over to Aled and drew him away from Anna, cradling him on his lap.“What the fuck did you do to him?”
“He says he has no more seed.”
“And he won’t have any unless you rehydrate him,” Kai snapped. “What the fuck are you trying to do?”
While Kai argued, Rehz went over to Anna Lee, who was still watching him as if she couldn’t actually believe he was there. He touched her damp hair and then the corner of her swollen mouth.
“Anna.”
She turned her head and nuzzled his palm, tears shining in the corners of her blue eyes. “You came.”
He gathered her into his arms and simply held her tight, the complexity of his emotions threatening to choke him tighter than anUngrichtentacle. The tang of Aled Price’s come curled around them, and her thighs were sticky with it. He didn’t fucking care. She was alive and he was with her. That was enough.
“I told you I would never let you go,” he murmured into her tangled hair. “Whatever happens next, we’ll face it together.”
She burrowed into his shoulder and he wrapped his arms around her, rocking her against him. Her hand came to rest on his chest, and she nuzzled his ear.
“They only understand what we’re saying when we communicate in thought, so we can still talk,” she whispered. “We told them that we were more likely to conceive if we were reunited with our indispensable, mated pairs. Our equivalent of their Other.”
“That’s probably why they let us live. Good thinking.”
