Page 14 of Beauty and the Alien Beast: Naxer

“Well, that’s admirable. But I need us to focus here. How much more time until we can get after the slavers?”

He blinked at me slowly. “Your spirit is strong,” he said in a very careful tone, “but your body needs rest, food, and mending.”

“And to clean my body,” I admitted. I was feeling my body’s lesser demands, and one of them was cruddy itchiness from the forced march. Sometimes it had rained on us, but in the heat that could only do so much.

“There is a peaceful stretch of water near here that we can make use of.” He pointed out past the circle of firelight, into the dim green jungle beyond. “It sits amid a colony of pit flowers, so no beasts get close to it. You merely have to watch your step.”

“Pit flowers?” My jaw was aching again as I chowed down the second meat bar and washed it down with water. The canteen was draining fast.

“They feed on unwary animals. Their bodies form a pit trap that is too slippery to escape without aid,” he said simply. “Most will hold a Gladiator. The largest and oldest could devour a score of us. The openings camouflage themselves, but I know how to uncover them.”

I shuddered. “You really know your local wildlife.”

“I grew up on the edge of this jungle. I trained here and helped cut the first trails after our short-range teleporters became inoperative.”

“How did that happen?” It explained the lack of roads. Until a little while ago, apparently, they hadn’t needed proper roads between their cities.

“Gladiators are going extinct because of the lack of mates. We handle the system’s upkeep, and there simply aren’t enough of us left to maintain our technologies anymore. Even the knowledge of how to do so is slowly being lost.”

Another consequence of population collapse. I almost felt bad for some aliens of this world, despite the ones who had yanked me out of my life and thrown me into a goddamn nightmare. “I see.” Another reason to court this guy as an ally now that I had committed to doing so: with him along, I had a chance in hell of surviving another long journey through the jungle.

“Once you are well enough to travel, we will go to sector seven to regain my Alpha position. Once that is done, I will…”

I felt my tension shoot up. “Wait,” I said after swallowing with difficulty. “The women in that caravan are dying right now. Their lives and welfare will not wait for you to straighten things out with your sector. We need to make sure the caravan doesn’t leave your sector with the remaining women.”

“Agreed, but this situation is complicated.”

“Explain,” I demanded.

“If we get to my sector before the slavers leave for sector one, we will have to fight the slavers to seize all the Earthlings. The both of us can’t fight the slavers by ourselves. From what you’ve told me, the slavers will outnumber us.”

“But we won’t have to fight alone. You’re the Alpha. We’ll have your pack.”

“I am no longer Alpha. I must reclaim my position first. Gladiators respect and follow the orders of their Alpha. This is our tradition.” Our eyes locked. “We need my pack to help us fight the slavers. Anything else will fail.”

“And what if we get to your sector too late and the slavers have left for sector one with the remaining women?”

“We still need me to become Alpha so that we can go after the slavers with the support of my pack.”

I sucked air and went silent, just barely fighting back the urge to yell at him. I thought of all those frightened, desperate women, all the ones wounded by their ordeal, sickened by it, ready to drop in their tracks from sheer exhaustion. They couldn’t wait on whatever bullshit political channels Naxer would have to go through to make the operation completely legitimate.

“This will take more time than we have,” I complained. “The women need help now.”

“This is our way Amara,” he said, and though there was regret in his tone, the look in his eyes told me that, whatever his giant crush was on me, he would not budge on this one.

I sighed through my nose in exasperation, wondering if I was going to have to strike out on my own when I could travel again. We would see.

Maybe he would come around if I found the right way to get through to him.

CHAPTER8

AMARA

After some more food and water and a bit more conversation, I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore. He helped me to a bedroll of tanned animal hides and went to refill the canteen again. Beyond our haven, the calls of unknown creatures echoed through the alien forest. This world teemed with exotic lifeforms. I was dozing off as I sensed his return. He walked over and set the water beside me.

I woke up with my top half shivering and damp, my hips and legs almost too warm, and thrashed partway out of the bedroll. Sitting up and dragging myself back into it, sighing as my shivering eased away.

Naxer was sleeping nearby, wrapped in a white fur cloak with a silvery pattern on it. Chaser was keeping watch by the coals of the fire and thumped his tail a few times when he saw I was awake. I wiggled my fingers at him, and the massive canine padded over and nestled against me, his sturdy legs tucked under his furry bulk, nudging my hand with his head for an ear scratch.

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