Page 24

Lisa: Day 18

“ Y ou must eat,” Juk says as he sits beside me. A cup of broth and meat is in his hands, and he all but shoves it under my nose. I try to shoulder him back, but he insists. The stew sloshes inside the carved cup, threatening to spill and I sigh. I don’t want to waste food, but I don’t want to waste time either. “You cannot help them if you have no strength.”

Reluctantly, I put aside the leather straps I’ve been weaving together and take the bowl of broth. I start to sip down the sloshy stew as fast as possible, but Juk takes it back from me and shakes his head. “Too fast, and you will make yourself sick,” he reprimands. “Leesa, you must...”

“Must what?” I snap. His brows pull together, and I take a deep breath. I close my eyes, and take another. He’s right. He knows he is, and I know he is. I need to... I don’t know. Relax isn’t the right word. I need to be levelheaded, but I am finding it difficult. “I’m sorry.”

“There is nothing to apologize for,” Juk says. He hands me back the cup and then sips from his own.

I take another sip and this time, try to savour it. The flavour is... interesting. It’s bland in that there are no spices, no added flavouring that the Celetans normally tend to use. But it’s rich, because in this particular stew-soup-thing, Juk drained the animal’s blood and stirred it right into the soup. If they’ve been doing this the whole time, I wasn’t aware of it. We’re low on food—for now—and need to make use of everything, more than usual. The Celetans already don’t waste anything, but making food stretch is something else entirely.

There is so much to be done. Ever since we found the cargo hold’s wreckage, my brain has been go go go . I’ll never forget the sight of the ship down there. From up here, it’s nothing more than the size of a pea. I never would have seen it without Juk steering me in the right direction. And when that voice answered...

I close my eyes, replaying it in my head. There’s no telling whose voice it was, but it was clearly human. In my mind, it is Allison’s. But it could be any of them. We could not keep yelling back and forth all day. That was one thing Axyll shut down. Once whoever was at the bottom said they would be waiting, they’ve stayed quiet. As have we. There was no way to warn them that it would be wolves venturing down there to rescue them. Wolves that turn into muscular, hunky aliens.

A smirk twitches at the corner of my mouth as I sneak a glance over at Juk. He sips his soup carefully, one hand on the ladle keeping the rest of it stirring over the fire. When my mind wants to wander, to focus on something other than the rescue we’re in the midst of, I let it. Now, instead of trying to fight it, I let my thoughts come and go as they please. Those at the bottom of the fissure will still be there, even if I take a quick minute to ogle the man beside me.

Juk. My mate. I still can’t wrap my head around it sometimes, how this all happened so fast, and just how right it all feels. The universe works in mysterious ways, and now that I’ve tried to stop finding out how it works, I can enjoy it. I try not to think too far into the future. Someday, I like to think I’ll still see Gragon 6 again. But that might not be until I’m old and frail. And that’s OK too.

When Juk catches me looking, he smiles. A tendril of his white hair has fallen out of the bun on his head, and he flicks his head to brush it out of his eyes. The crystal on his forehead shines in the light of the fire, but I know it shines for me too.

Right after finding the wreckage, the Celetans fell into action. Axyll ordered Tabros and Bex to find a way down. I was adamant about climbing down too, but Juk shut that down immediately.

“It’s not even safe for them,” he said. “Until we can find a path down, one that ensures a way back up as well, then we can reconsider.”

I was annoyed by that and still am. I want to be down there. Need to be. I need to know who is down there and in what condition. Were they separated during the crash? How many didn’t survive? What is the status of my four other crew members? I know there were more than just the four in the cargo hold. Jade, Raegan, and Navi were there as well. Jade’s on her way back to the pack now, and she said Raegan had been missing a few days. That means the only people down there are my four and Navi.

My thoughts toss and turn as I stare into the cup of soup. “Does the blood give it extra nutrients?”

Juk nods. “Yes. It will help strengthen the females once we’re able to find them.”

There’s something distant in his voice. It’s quiet, and his head tilts away from me, listening for something I cannot hear.

It’s his premonition thing. I don’t know how to describe it aside from that. The Celetans believe that each Seeker is gifted to them from Vekao. And each one is given a different ability. Axyll can read the moods, or auras as they call it, of other people. Apparently, the alpha can also communicate mind-to-mind with someone in wolf form, but only when their Seekers are directly aligned with each other. It is a skill only the alpha inherits.

Juk’s power seems a bit hokier. He can also tell when someone is troubled or worried, but he can also sense when something bad is about to happen. Like the earthquake a few days ago. He can’t always pinpoint what the upcoming problem may be, but he always puts a “feeler” out whenever they are about to embark on a particular mission or run. I don’t bother trying to understand it, as I’ve seen some alien species do weirder shit.

We’ve been cooped up in this cave, different from the one we found Jade in, for two days now. It was the closest stocked hunter’s shelter around, and is our base now for the rescue. It’s about a half-day’s run from the crash site. The cave is large, with two different spaces. A big communal space, where Axyll sleeps. Then there’s a smaller cave space in the back, where he lets Juk and I have some privacy. It’s not entirely private, but I do my best to keep quiet during our intimate moments. Though the first time I gave head to Juk, I’m surprised the cave didn’t collapse from how loud his howling was.

“What’s wrong?” I ask. Juk glances over at me and shakes his head. But his lips are in a thin, pressed line, and his nostrils flare. “Juk. Tell me. I know your Seeker is acting up.”

His lips stay taut together and he avoids my eyes for a minute, before he sighs and looks back down at the soup. “Something... something bad is coming. I have felt it since we found the fissure two days ago. I did not want to worry you.”

I grip the cup in my hands, my heart already racing like crazy. “Does it have to do with the survivors down there?” My voice has turned into a whisper.

“Yes,” Juk answers. He’s at least always honest with me. Even if he tried to hide this to keep me calm, I don’t count it as lying. He knows how upset I’ve been and anxious I am to get the rest of the Gragians back together. Hell, it’s been my whole personality since we crashed here.

“Is it the Stygians?” I ask. I’ll never admit to him that I am a little curious about the other two packs that live here. Juk seems indifferent about the Ashen Pack, but the Stygians.. I can practically see the steam coming out of his ears anytime they’re mentioned. How different can they really be?

The muscles in his shoulders tense, and his grip on the ladle looks like it might snap the thing in half. “I cannot tell. If it is the Stygians, it is very, very bad...”

“And what constitutes as very very bad if it’s the Stygians?”

He hesitates for a moment, tilting his head once more. His Seeker shines but it is dull. Not the same shine when it’s focused on me. “If it is the Stygians, it feels as though the entire pack is on its way. That’s how bad it feels. But, I do not think the entire pack...”

I take another large gulp of my soup, waiting for him to continue. He seems distracted again, this time his nostrils flaring. I finish the rest of my soup, and pick up my leather project again. We’ve been stocking up on supplies here, trying to set it up as a medical base. I’ve been weaving slings together and makeshift bandages. Juk goes out to hunt animals and check traps, stocking up on food and bringing back furs and leathers to be worked. I’ve gone through most of what was already supplied here, and have the new hides stretched and drying, working with scraps now until I can do something with the fresh ones.

Axyll goes to the cliffs every day and checks on the others. Finding a way down has been torturous. The rock is too sharp and narrow in most places. But, finally yesterday afternoon, Axyll reported that Tabros and Baz were able to find a way down. It was a few feet away from the wreckage site, but something. They were slow to go down, but he was certain they would reach the bottom by nightfall. Today is supposed to be an update on if they made it down safely and are with the women. My eyes have been fixated on the cave’s opening all day. I’m dying for the alpha to come back and report that everything is going to be OK.

“Entire pack what?” I finally prod after a few minutes of silence.

Suddenly, there’s a light tremble throughout the cave. Not another one , I think, bracing myself for an earthquake. My eyes go to the ceiling, trying to survey if it will rain down on us like before. I can’t help but eye all the hard work we’ve done the past two days and pray that the cave stays intact, solely to not have wasted time and resources.

Juk reaches out to hold me. His large, warm hand rests on my shoulder, gripping it as though he’s ready to yank me out in a moment’s notice. I look up at him, and his eyes are frantic. His Seeker shines brightly, and I hold my breath. Whatever his intuition was warning him about, this is it. I’ve been studying his Seeker and its various shines, and this is a new one. This must be it. And he’s right—it isn’t the Stygians.

The tremors feel different than an earthquake. As a matter of fact, as I look back up at the cave’s ceiling, they seem to be coming above . And that’s when I hear it—the quiet rumble of an engine.

I feel every bit of colour drain from my face. Juk hears the rumbling too, his eyes snapping to mine. We both jump to our feet, him to usher me into the back cave, me to rush to the cave’s entrance. I need to see who it is.

I evade his grasp and rush to the cave’s entrance.

“Leesa! It is not safe!” Juk hisses at me. But he knows better than to pull me away. Even though he could easily toss me over his shoulder and drag me to the cave, he doesn’t. This is outside of his element.

I stay just inside of the cave’s lip and watch as a ship flies low overhead. It almost skims against the mountain’s rock, but narrowly avoids it as it moves further away.

Just then, a flurry of white runs up to me. It barrels inside, and I wince as bones crack quickly, the quickest I’ve ever heard. It’s the first time I’ve seen one of them shift up close, but my mind isn’t given time to process it. Axyll doesn’t even pant, doesn’t even take a breather before he’s standing next to us, pulling me back further into the cave.

“We saw it coming,” he says. I can hear the fear in his voice. Juk stiffens at the sound of it.

“We?” he asks.

“Screks has been following us. Tracking and trailing from a distance,” Axyll explains. “I told him to stay hidden and discreet. I wanted him nearby in case we had an emergency and needed backup from the pack. But now that Kalpa is already on the way back, as is Hazen, I’ve changed his directive. He’s run ahead to go and warn the others. With his small stature, he will be quicker to reach the bottom than Tabros and Baz were.”

“So they made it to the bottom?” Juk asks. Axyll nods, and the two of them turn to watch the ship shrinking in the distance once more.

I feel like I should be angry that Axyll knew Screks could reach the bottom of the cliff easily, but didn’t send him. The old Leesa would have reamed him out, but the new Leesa knows, no matter how much I push and shove, the pack comes first. As a whole. And, as it turns out, it was for the better. Maybe Screks can get there in time and warn them. But something in the pit of my stomach doesn’t agree.

I turn away from the black dot of the ship as it nears the cliffs. My stomach twists and I reach out to brace myself against the cave’s cold, stone wall. My mouth dries and my legs feel like they will give out at any moment. Fear sinks its claws into me so deep that I don’t need to follow the ship to know where it’s going. To know what it’s after. And I don’t need to look twice at the shotty siding, the sleek but dirty black walls to know who it belongs to.

It’s the Skulchers.

They’re back.