Page 23 of Prison Moon
“They let you have all this stuff?”
He didn’t answer and neither said anything for a long time after that. The light spilling into the cave grew dim and Toren added another piece of wood to the fire. She finished the chewy dried meat and laid back down, watching the fire burn, the last several days playing back through her mind. Her life felt a bit like a dream, but it only took her a few minutes to realize it wasn’t. She was still on an alien planet. Still dependent on a guy she couldn’t even talk to. And had almost been eaten not once, but twice. Hopefully the rest of her life—however long that might be—didn’t keep playing out the way it had been. Of course, she didn’t think it would improve much either. She didn’t foresee any cute houses with white picket fences in nice little cul-de-sacs in her future. Everything looked pretty primitive here, so those camping trips her daddy used to drag her on at least gave her a small advantage. She knew how to survive in the wilds. Well, normally she did. The wilds here were a lot different from the state park but she had Toren to help with the hard stuff.
She glanced over at him. He was across the fire from her, staring down at the flames. It was the first time since he tackled her to the ground and pulled her into the underbrush, so the others wouldn’t see her that he wasn’t paying any attention to her. Since that first moment she met him, he seemed very focused on her. Seeing to her every need long before she even knew what it was she needed and now, he seemed a million miles away. Small lines bracketed his eyes, a small indent on his forehead made him appear to be thinking hard about something and she wanted to ask what but knew it was pointless.
The light outside the cave grew black before she saw him move. He stood and went to the cave entrance and sat down, leaning back against the rock wall, then looked toward the sky. Those loud shrieks and screams that filled the air every night were louder here for some reason. Sara watched Toren for a long while and realized, even here, hidden as they were in the cave, he was still protecting her. Watching over her as she slept for no reason she could discern other than he saw her as his.
The thought whispered through her head. What would it mean to be his? She knew what it meant by human standards but he wasn’t human. She wasn’t sure what he was but that sometimes-blue skin told her he was—other. He was different and had different beliefs and was as trapped here as she was.
She studied his profile, wondering why he was here. He didn’t seem dangerous. Completely the opposite, actually. He’d done nothing but try to provide for her—to save her from any and all harm since the moment she’d met him. He looked her way and something in his eyes spoke of a longing she’d not seen before now. How long had he been here? How long had any of the aliens she’d seen been here?
She knew they wanted women for sex but surely that wasn’t all it was. The way Toren was looking at her, she knew it wasn’t for him. He wanted more otherwise, he wouldn’t have bothered finding her somewhere safe to stay or tended her wounds. He’d have had her flat on her back and her knees spread wide regardless of how hurt she was. Toren wanted more than sex and that look in his eyes made her wonder if his need for more came from simple loneliness. It was a sobering thought. She knew all about loneliness. With both of her parents gone and no siblings, she’d spent the better part of her teen years feeling isolated. Her aunt had treated her like a daughter but her cousins had been aunt Susan’s main focus. She was just another mouth to feed until she left for college and surrounded by classmates didn’t help any either, nor getting beamed aboard a spaceship bound for this miserable place. She had no idea how long she’d been on the alien ship but it had felt like a small eternity. Surrounded by other people most of her life, she’d still felt alone. Isolated. Lonely.
Toren was too and if she had to be here on this foreign planet, then she’d do it with someone who might eventually ease all that loneliness and maybe return the favor in the process. Starting tomorrow, she’d let him know he was hers as well.