Page 48 of Uprooted

Elowen

My eyes are glued to the horizon while I pace back and forth along the deck of the watchtower.

I was reassured this was the best place to see anyone approaching the base after I got confirmation Bri had safely arrived with all the other evacuees.

Even climbing the hundreds of zigzagging stairs to get up here didn’t tire me out.

Just stop. Calm down. He’ll be here soon.

The only light in the dark sky is the faint orange glow of the fire that destroyed the dome.

I watch the chaos below. Tilaks help evacuees get around and massive tankers are loaded and leave in the direction of the attack.

From up here the dead Atorum and Allometradon stain the once unblemished grass.

A theory has begun to formulate in my head while I pace. The Atorum have got to be targeting humans. Between Andi, the dome, and now myself—it’s the only logical conclusion.

I knock on the watchtower window, getting their attention. “Anything?” I yell through the thick glass. One guy looks up at me, shakes his head and goes back to the transparent screen he’s working on.

I turn back to the empty tree line. I’ve bitten my nails down to nothing. I shake out my hands and resume walking, unable to stand in one place for long. Suddenly, the lights of an approaching porter flicker into view.

“Come on, Aro. Come on,” I whisper.

He’s got to be okay. Maybe I should have tried to turn the porter around to get him. At least there would have been something between him and the Atorum. I shake away the memory of the black leg smashing through the plexi.

Someone bangs on the glass behind me.

“He’s on his way.”

I take the stairs two at a time. When my feet hit the ground I bolt for the gate.

I dodge porters and soldiers, trying my best to stay out of their way.

I wait impatiently for the gate to open.

The heavy metal creaks as it gradually opens.

As the space between the two doors widens, a figure emerges.

With his head hanging low and shoulders high, he forces the huge doors open.

Aro swings his head to the side. Wet hair whips off his face and he marches straight toward me.

We roughly collide, and Aro grabs my face with both hands. His eyes desperately search my face. “What happened back there?” he asks, nodding back to the wreckage.

“Sir, you should have seen her. She took on an Allometradon and an Atorum at the same time, and she’s the only one that walked away,” a soldier standing to the side answers for me.

A smile breaks out over his dirty face. “You’re a badass.”

“It was mostly luck,” I tell him.

“My little dragon slayer,” he says and crushes me to his chest. His tight arms hold me up. I sink into him and feel his chest pound against my cheek.

“Uck!” he says and pulls away, strings of black ooze still clinging to him.

A blue blood stain on his side is spreading.

“Aro! You’re hurt,” I say frantically.

* * *

Aro drops me off at the cafeteria on his way to the med clinic. I promise to stay exactly where he put me. He frets over me for a minute, then takes off to get his side closed up.

I grab a cup of synthetic coffee and sit at one of the only empty tables.

The black sludge on my back is starting to harden and itch.

I watch the door, looking for any familiar faces.

Tilaks file in, having returned from the dome.

Some are injured. Others are covered in black but seem unharmed.

Two sit down behind me and recap what happened back at the dome.

“Did you see him rip the leg off the Atorum, and then beat the other one to death with it?” one says.

“That was insane! He looked like a fucking gladiator when he threw it like a javelin and stuck that bug to the ground,” the other replies.

“I lost my damn mind when he showed up like that. He was at least ten feet tall.”

“Do you think the captain could teach us how to do it?”

“I hope so. I’d love to go all berserk on these things.”

It hits me—they are talking about Aro. What happened out there?

The conversation behind me is interrupted by a loud bang on the table, followed by another.

Soon everyone in the mess hall is hitting the table with their fist in a steady thunderous beat.

I look around trying to figure out what is going on.

Aro walks down the row of tables, heading straight for me. Chairs scrape the ground when everyone stands up around him, continuing their beat on the table. He slides up next to me on the bench without acknowledging the spectacle around us.

“That’s quite an entrance,” I say.

“Don’t pay any attention to these guys. They are easily impressed.”

“I overheard what you did out there. Sounds pretty impressive to me. Did I hear something about a battleform?” I ask.

“I’ll explain later."

“I appreciate the humility—really, I do. But I think we can both agree that using an alien leg as a weapon is pretty fucking cool.”

He grins over at me. “If that’s all it took for you to finally be impressed by me, I would have done it months ago.

” He steals a drink of my coffee and I pretend to be offended.

I savor the feeling of him against my side.

I don’t know what happens next, but there is one thing I have no doubts about.

I have absolutely fallen in love with Aro.

“You ready to get out of here?” he asks.

“Yes, I need a shower, desperately.”

“I know just the place,” he says.

* * *

We get to the barracks where the communal shower is already in use. A half-wall blocks the lower part of their bodies. I still avert my eyes and try not to stare.

“You’re done here,” Aro roughly orders the two showering. They turn off their water, grab a towel, and hurry out without a word with their heads down.

“You didn’t have to do that. I can wait,” I tell him.

“Don’t fight me on this. Get in the shower.” He uses his “captain” voice on me. I’m ashamed to admit it does something for me.

“Yes, sir.” I mock salute and peel off my clothes.

Aro has a shower running by the time I’ve gotten my boots and clothes off. I step under the water and close my eyes as it runs down my face. The shower drain turns black with the runoff from my body.

I hear the slap of bare feet on the tile behind me and turn to see Aro stepping into the shower with me. His giant wall of blue chest comes up next to me and rubs up and down my arms, scrubbing off the sticky black ooze.

“You scared the shit out of me,” I tell him. “You walked straight into danger empty-handed.” It was the worst feeling watching him get farther from me.

Aro never leaves anyone behind. I’m in awe of his undying loyalty to his unit. To me, he is larger than life in body and in his purpose.

“I needed to get you away from there, and there was no way I could leave my unit behind.”

“I know why you did it. It still scared me to death.”

“I was scared too. When I saw the wrecked porter outside the base, my soul was ripped out of my body, but I should have known that you could take care of yourself.”

“You weren’t the only gladiator out there tonight. I outran an Atorum.”

“Gladiator?”

“That’s what the boys behind me were calling you.”

“You really shouldn’t listen to them.”

“So, what happened out there?” I ask. I wash some of the dried black tar off of his arms with soapy water. His hard muscles bunch up as I rub up and down .

“The explosions from the dome did most of the work. We destroyed the ones left behind.”

“So, no beating an alien to death with a leg, or spearing anything with said leg?”

He smiles a little and shrugs, not wanting to tell me what I already know. His humility is adorable, but right now I’m craving that arrogant soldier that won me over.

“Is everyone okay?” I ask as Aro takes a squirt of shampoo and works it through my hair.

“I’m not sure. I came to you as soon as I could. We’ll get the report when we go to comms,” he says, concentrating on keeping the shampoo off my face while he scrubs away the remains of the mire off me.

“There you go—all better,” he says and rinses my hair out. I reach my hands up to his tall shoulders, I rest my head against his chest, our bodies fused together.

He kisses the top of my head, and soothes his hands down my back, comforting me with each pass. Every touch is a reminder we are okay. That in this moment, we have each other.

He is hard against my belly as we step even closer. I spin him around and let him get the full force of the clean water.

With his back to me, I reach around and stroke his chest and hard abs, then move down to his cock. He slaps a wet hand against the tile. A low growl comes from deep in his chest. My wet body shifts over his. I move up and down with agonizingly slow strokes from behind.

He must feel me reach for myself with my free hand, because the moment I do, he turns and lifts me up.

My ankles instinctively lock behind his back.

The hard tile sends a shock of cold through me when my back comes against it.

I push his wet hair back from his face and grind my hips against him, searching for more.

The adrenaline from today morphs into desire.

His lips are everywhere. I grab the back of his neck and hold him to me. I need more. I need him inside of me.

The shower door swings wide open. “Oh shit! Sorry, sorry, sir.” A Tilak rambles an apology and slams the door behind him in quick retreat .

Aro mutters something under his breath as I release my legs and step back on solid ground. I pat his chest and kiss him softly.

“Let’s find somewhere a little more private,” I say, dragging him from the shower. I toss him a towel from the neatly piled stack. It hits his face. He drags it down his body and tucks it around his waist his erection tenting the towel.