| |
––––––––
ZEALISH:
The lines between wake and sleep blurred for someone like Zealish. Thanks to what humans called the alien portion of his DNA, he was unihemispheric, meaning the right and left sides of his brain didn’t sleep at the same time. He was able to control slumber, have one half of his mind sleep while the other watched for predators.
Except this time, something went incredibly wrong.
He remembered the episode like a muddled dream. Normally, he could tell the difference between dreaming and the awake portion that happened while his other half slept. This time, it was all too heavy, and he couldn’t tell the dreams from reality.
He recalled a telepathic message about Thane, one of his Xeno Sapien friends, bringing a human into their city. And that’s where everything jumbled.
In his dream, he’d been sitting under a tree, having dug a trench to trap his prey. The winds picked up, sending the most magnificent scent his way.
Female. Sexual prime. And so very turned on.
His.
The word came across faintly in his mind, but it was enough that he picked up on it. How Thane managed to find Zee’s mate—the one being meant for him—was a miracle in itself. And because this was his dream, he could do anything he wanted.
Including killing Thane for her.
There was no hesitation over what he had to do. Not when he could see them approach, hand in hand like lovebirds. The female laughing as Thane tenderly tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear. As he helped her over a large tree stump that had rolled over the path. It wasn’t that he minded Thane being attracted to Zee’s newfound mate, of course.
It was that she stared at him with the same bedazzled look in her eyes.
When the jealousy cleared, he realized this was indeed the female meant for him. She looked at Thane—who was huge, green, and glowed with the subtle conduction of electricity—like he was the only male on Earth-Ground. That was the way she should be looking at Zee instead. Without judgment. Without fear. With love and lust.
The more he thought about his appearance—the colors that swirled in his skin and would deny his human percentage—the more enhanced those other differences became. He could feel his muscles swell, rolling as though they’d explode. His limbs grew to absorb the difference, and his skin color deepened even more, mottled shades of deep blues, grays, olives, even black.
He looked down at his hand. The growing muscles seemed to rove underneath the layer of skin, giving him power as he flexed his fingers. His weight would take some getting used to since muscle weighed so much more. The only thing that seemed to stay the same was his hair—the hair that all others, humans and Xeno Sapiens alike, coveted.
His hair was long and bottomless black, with thick streaks of deep blue. It was shiny and dropped down his back like a sleek waterfall. Females everywhere stood slack jawed when they got a glimpse of his hair.
That and his eyes.
Someone referred to them as melted gold. Unfortunately, the color interfered with his other abilities which had a primary goal of hunting. It was hard to hunt when golden eyes lit the path like headlights.
Now, as his body changed, he felt his teeth sharpen. His mouth felt fuller as if his jaw elongated. But that could be because another row of teeth emerged, dripping with a viscous fluid that, by the tingle in his glands, could very well be poison.
And since this was his dream, he leapt across the fields to watch Thane drop into one of his pre-dug traps. Then he set forward to greet his new mate.
Thane’s widow.
* * * * *
SOMETHING WAS WRONG. His dream had taken a dramatic turn. His new mate, Everly, whose name was twisting on his tongue as his changes grew, was terrified of him. The sweet, subtle tang of her lust had morphed into the sour taste of fear. Of revulsion. Definitely not the way his mate was supposed to feel.
He roared in frustration.
He would take her and force her to be his. In time, she would decide he was the better option. Dimly, he was aware of agreeing to let the others retrieve Thane, who lay broken and bloody in the pit, and allow him to be alone with his new mate. He only agreed to this because a brief moment of sanity poked its head through his dream and made him realize Thane was his friend.
Then he was attacked from behind and put down like a dog.
When he woke next, his cognizant brain was diminished. All that was left was a snarling mess of instinct and emotion. Animal urges like hunt. Feed. Kill.
Hunt. Find. Smell.
Breed.
Where was the tantalizing mate he’d smelled? There were just brief traces of her lingering in the air. Mixed with the cloying scent of Thane.
Anger curled his lips as he howled his frustration. He couldn’t stand the smells together. For a brief moment, he received a reprieve as raw, juicy meat was thrown at him. Snarling, he bit into the tender, flavorful chunk, and the new aroma saturated the happy center in his brain. He wolfed down the meal, lying replete in the sun afterward.
A breeze caught his attention.
Something sweet and tantalizing—but stronger than that of his mate. Oh, no. Now his animal senses knew the difference from what his human brain had told him. This new scent—as similar as it was to what he’d thought was his mate—was much, much more on the mark. It was the other half of him.
But where was it?
He jumped from his spot, ignoring the males that walked upright and armed themselves with the darts that made him sleepy. He ran to the area where the breeze came from—and was knocked flat on his ass.
“Cool it, man. You can’t get past Robyn’s electrical field. You know this.”
The twang of human language meant nothing to him. He roared in anger and tried again.
Zaap.
The field weakened him and left his limbs twitching uncontrollably.
“Zee, stop, man. Stop torturing yourself. You have everything you need in there.”
He tried one more time. He’d continue to try until the day he died because the field was one step between him...
And his mate.
The electricity penetrated him with another painful zap, leaving him barely able to breathe in the dirt.
“Tranq him before he kills himself.”
The next time he woke, the soreness in his body reminded him of what he couldn’t have. The painful rod between his legs. He roared, shrieking for the mate that was just beyond his reach.
That was when they began to muzzle him.
But at least they left him alone, unless it was dawn and his meat was brought. Just when he thought nothing would change, she came to him.
She ran, the wind kicking up her dark hair, lifting it from her face. For a time, he was confused. She looked just like the one he’d thought was his mate. But, no. As her hair continued to fly in the wind, he noticed one marked difference. A pink slash of skin from the top of her cheekbone and across her temple that buried in the thick hair. She ran right toward him, the electricity that kept him caged never even touching her.
All his animalistic urges could accept was that this was proof she was his. Surely the one meant for him could beat all odds to get to him?
She stopped short when she saw him, her eyes rounded. “Jeezus.” She fell to her knees.
He was so relieved she’d beat all odds and made it there that he dropped his head, the muzzle shackled around his mouth suddenly heavy. A whine emitted from his throat.
The dank tang of fear that had erupted from her upon first sight was thick in the air. Like he’d done previously with the other female who had swiftly become a distant memory, he dropped to all fours to appear smaller, fought against snarling, and slunk toward her, the muscles of his upper back bulging heavily as he moved.
Only the fact that she’d twisted an ankle kept her from bounding up and running, for his mate was fierce. Proudly, he lifted his head...and then dropped it into her lap, letting her know he was hers to do with as she pleased.
At first, she petted his head. It was comforting, this touch. This soft, soft hand that trembled against his skull. Her strokes became bolder, her fingers working through the snarls in his hair. The hair that once made him proud, but he couldn’t remember why.
He squawked, a rather unpleasant sound that showed his pleasure at her acceptance of him.
But then, his mate became agitated. “Oh, no. Men are coming. I have to get out of here, to hide. Maybe they’ll be distracted by you.”
His head thunked on the ground when she slipped away, beyond his reach again where the fields of sparking lights kept him bound. He roared after—as best as he was able considering he couldn’t open his jaws.
“Zee, calm down, man,” someone said. “We’re bringing you some food. Both kinds this time, raw and cooked.”
“Why bother?” Another voice said. “Look at what he’s done to the tent we just erected. It’s shredded. He’ll do the same to the cooked food.”
The first voice sighed. “Because Robyn wants to prepare him for a return to human life. She wants him to get used to having both. If he destroys it, he destroys it. But he’ll get used to seeing it.”
For the first time, his out-of-control urges organized into some semblance of thought. Humans brought human food. His mate would need human food. He would tempt his mate with this gift.
