Page 32 of Alien Jeopardy
I want her more than the future somewhere else I dreamed about my whole life.
It’s like my idea of the future was a quick sketch in the sand, easily washed away by salt-water waves. With her smiles and small noises and stamping feet, though, she’s crafted an entire museum gallery of scenes painted in vivid color, hung in gilded frames, each stroke a different promise of the future we could create.
She already makes my heart sing, and I don’t even understand the words to our song yet.
The thought makes me focus on the immediate moment.
This competition of style build and drag. My eyes narrow as another Roth leads us to a clearing. A course of some sort is laid out across a rock-strewn expanse of dirt and patches of grass, marked by red ropes. Spherical lanterns bob and weave around the space, casting a warm glow in the fresh-fallen night.
Two lumps of fabric sit in front of us, and the Roth gestures to one of the bulging heaps.
“This is yours.”
One of the drone cameras flits around Ell and I, no doubt cataloguing our reaction to his sparse instructions.
Sparse or, more accurately, non-existent.
I grunt at the Roth as he steps closer to my mate, his gaze traveling over her exposed legs. A wing rustles as I pull it lower, trying to block her from his view.
She is mine to look at.
Ell makes a noise of annoyance, pushing at the delicate membrane of my wing in an attempt to break free of my grip.
I grumble to myself, but let her push past the shield of my wings. The Roth gives me a sly smirk before he tries to look his fill at my female.
A growl rips out of my throat before I can stop it, and I step towards the gray-skinned fool, needing to punish him, needing to show everyone that she belongs to me, and to me alone.
Until a small, warm hand wraps around mine.
Her touch is all it takes to pull me back from the brink of madness. I suck in a breath.
How could I have gotten so close to ruining my only chance at a future? A future as bright as the lights reflected in her eyes?
A delicate smile turns the corners of her lush mouth up, her nose crinkling adorably as she asks me something in that sing-song language of hers. She tugs me closer, as if that could have any physical effect on me, but I let her pull me towards her, and back towards the odd fabric-covered lump.
She stretches down, tugging the opaque material until it falls away, revealing a bevy of mechanical parts, odd materials, and a sign that reads “Build” in both our languages.
Her brow furrows as she asks something, gesturing to the array in front of us, then sighs in frustration, her cute petite, talonless foot stomping on the ground when she remembers we can’t communicate.
A smile of my own answers hers, unbidden but as natural as the stars twinkling to life in the night sky above us. She’s already a light in the dark for me.
Carefully, she begins to kneel on the dirt next to the parts.
“You’ll hurt your skin,” I chide, then lift her up easily, placing her in my lap. There is no reason she shouldn’t sit on me instead.
She huffs, saying something with words I don’t understand, but already picking through the pieces on the blanket spread before us.
“Hellllpmeyoutoucheeefeeliebastarrrrd,” she says, looking over her shoulder at me with a very grumpy expression.
“Feeliebastarrrrd,” I repeat, nodding my head like I understand her.
To my surprise, she tips her head back and laughs, a beautiful noise that enchants me. Stunned, I stare at her upturned face, so beautiful, so delicate and unlike mine, bathed in the light from the floating spheres and stars above us.
Her hand wraps around my wrist, and she repeats the same words.
“Hellllpmeyoutoucheeefeeliebastarrrrd.” She tugs my hand to the pieces in shambles in front of us.
“Feeliebastarrrrd,” I agree, liking this new game between us.
