“Thank you,” she grits out. “But you knew I wanted to go with them.”
Rakiz laughs, and I flick my gaze to him at the cold sound. For whatever reason, this female makes Rakiz behave unexpectedly.
“The day I allow a female to hunt Voildi is the day I will no longer be fit to rule this tribe. You would die within days. You have no knowledge of this planet and its dangers, and no understanding of exactly how much danger you would be in.”
“You patronizing—”
Rakiz holds up a hand, and Nevada’s eyes meet mine. Her hand twitches, and I have no doubt that if I were not here, she would attempt to strike my king.
She whirls and leaves, slamming the door behind her, and Rakiz looks at me.
“She would have hit me,” he breathes, stunned. “What kind of females are these?”
“They are not all this way,” I say. “Ellie would not hit you.” I pause. “Unless she thought you were going to hurt her friends.”
To my surprise, Rakiz is no longer furious. Instead, he looks…intrigued. It is no secret that our king has long wearied of his rule. But he is the best ruler we could have, and he would never leave our tribe to experience the slaughter that would come as warrior after warrior was challenged for the crown.
But for the first time in a long time, Rakiz has a hint of interest in his eyes. Interest for something other than killing every Voildi on this planet.
He frowns after Nevada and shakes his head, finally reaching for his cold morning meal. He gestures for me to sit, and I take a seat near the fire, thankful for the warmth on such a chilly morning.
Guilt hits me. I should have added an extra log to the fire in my kradi. Ellie feels the cold much more than I do.
“Asroz told me where the females were found, and I sent Hydrix and his men to this place. Hopefully, they can find some trace of the Voildi that took them.”
A muscle twitches in his jaw, and I sigh. We both know that the likelihood of finding the females alive decreases each day.
“These Voildi were unlike any I had seen before,” I say. “They wore clothing that covered their limbs and seemed to work together seamlessly, quickly separating the females and disappearing.”
Rakiz rubs his cheek, once again placing his morning meal to the side. “Asroz told us this. This is good news. I have not heard of such a pack. This knowledge will make it easier to find the Voildi that took the females.”
He doesn’t say what we’re both thinking.
That by now, the females may already be dead.
Chapter Seven
Ellie
I stare into the fire after Terex has gone. Why was I such a bitch to him?
He shouldn’t have mocked you.
What if he wasn’t mocking me? He’s made no secret of the fact that he finds me attractive, and he doesn’t seem like the kind of guy to be so hurtful as to mock a woman who’s hurt and clearly out of her comfort zone.
What if he really finds me beautiful?
I almost push the thought away, but instead, I take it out and examine it.
Maybe the rules of attractiveness on Earth don’t apply here.
When Matt started dating my sister, I was devastated. Devastated enough that I made the mistake of writing down all my feelings in my journal. When Amelia found it, she waited until the perfect time for everyone to hear my innermost secrets.
The moment she looked across the cafeteria at me, I knew. I’d looked for my journal that morning, and horror had hit me when I’d found it missing. I’d thought I’d hid it in the perfect spot, beneath a floorboard in my closet. But Amelia knew my hiding spot. She was always one step ahead of me.
That morning, I’d pretended to be sick so I could stay home, but my mother had had no patience for me, declaring me perfectly fine to go to school. When I’d tried to explain what had happened, she’d snapped and told me she didn’t have time for my high school drama and that I needed to put on my big girl panties and fix it myself.
By then, my dad had already been in the ground for five years.
So the moment Amelia grinned at me from across the cafeteria and climbed on top of the table, I knew what was coming. I jumped to my feet as she reached into her bag and pulled out my bright-pink journal, covered in photos of Justin Bieber. And I turned to run only to find that she’d arranged for two of her jock friends to hold my arms, keeping me still and present for her humiliation.
Nausea sweeps through me at the memory. After all this time, I can still hear the laughter, still taste the tears on my lips, still feel the squeaky linoleum floor under my feet. I stood there and wished for the ground to open up, for a fire to rip through the school, for anything to happen to make it stop.
It never stopped. For the rest of my high school life, I was that girl. Matt tried to talk to me a few times, but I always ducked away, even after he finally saw Amelia for who she was and dumped her.
At fifteen, I still carried baby fat, some of which I lost by college and some of which is just my body. The thought of the weird, fat, unpopular girl lusting over the most popular guy in school? Hilarious. To everyone. I even caught one or two of the teachers staring at me, not bothering to hide the smirks on their faces.
I jump as a shadow appears outside the kradi, clutching the fur to me as someone steps into the entrance.
Terex is at my feet in moments, kneeling as he pushes the hair off my face. “Ellie,” he says. “What’s wrong? Are you hurting?”
I burst into tears, ugly crying even as he pulls me into his arms, careful of my elbow.
“I’m sorry,” I sob, wetting his shirt. “I was mean and rude and immature.”
“I’m sorry,” he growls. “I should not have left you. What happened to make you so upset?”
He pulls away and glances around the kradi as if searching for a problem to fix. He glances at the dress and raises an eyebrow. “You didn’t like the dress?”
I let out a hiccupping laugh, and his shoulders relax slightly.
“No, the dress is fine.”
“What is it that has made you cry? You will tell me, and I will fix it.”
I blow out a long, shaky breath. “You called me beautiful.”
Terex tilts his head, confusion dancing over his handsome features. “This is…an insult to humans?”
I smile, and his gaze instantly drops to my lips.
“No. I’m just not used to men finding me attractive.”
Terex narrows his eyes at me as if he’s convinced I’m lying. “Are the males on your planet blind?”
I laugh, wiping at my face. “Well, you’re good for my ego, that’s for sure. I’ve…never had much luck with guys. I was bullied in high school for daring to have a crush on the most attractive boy in the school. When I finally escaped to college, my self-confidence was at an all-time low, and I buried myself in books.”
I sigh, frowning as I stare into the distance. “You know…now I think I caused a lot of the pain myself by holding onto those feelings for longer than I should have. I let my sister give me this hang-up, that I was too awkward and ugly and no one would ever want me, and I played by those rules my whole life.”
Terex scowls at me. “How could you think such a thing?”
I sigh. “Oh, if only you knew. Anyway, I tried to get the dress on for about five minutes, and I just couldn’t do it. Will you help me, please?”