Page 85 of Alliance
So Fásach did as she asked and scooted sideways. He took the arch of one of her feet in his hand and pressed his thick thumb pad into her delicate sole, feeling the bones that felt so much like his but not the same. She pushed his shoulders forward to pull his tresses free, then ran her hands through their lengths.
A deep, pleasanthuhuhuhbuilt in his chest and he let it go, tempted to close his eyes if not for watching Safia and Misilaenjoy their fish. His fingers brushed against the soft black fur growing on Roz's shins as they sat in silence while the girls chattered. Then she parsed out three sections of his tresses from between his antlers and braided a long plait with slow, diligent care. He lifted his face to the canopy so she could see her work, then swallowed hard.
Roz's scent reached his nose as she leaned forward, and his nostrils flared. It was changing gradually over time, ripening into something sweet and mouthwatering.
He'd smelled heat before, but not so openly. His mamau and other family members had experienced it, of course, though usually it was something one noticed only in passing and when the discomfort became obvious. Partners would tend to each other in private.
The scent was similar, but distinctly human. Distinctly Roz. She didn't seem uncomfortable though. No fever or agitation, no abdominal cramps... His mamau's symptoms had been difficult without his tadau there to alleviate them.
"Do humans experience heat?" he asked as her fingers raked through his fur.
"No," she said after a pause, her silk falling sideways over one of his shoulders, tangling in his antler. "I don't think so."
"But you have cycles."
"Well,Idon't. But yes, a lot of humans do."
She paused again and Fásach squeezed her thigh, ran his claws gently down the top of her foot to make her toes curl from the tickle. Such small toes, all gathered at the tip of her foot, and unwebbed between the digits. Could humans swim with feet like that? Perhaps the toes were simply for balance.
"I don't know much about it, but Rosy has memories of bleeding between her legs and stomach pain. That's what a human cycle is like.”
"Bleeding?"Fásach wondered out loud, taken by surprise. "Is it not heat then?" He faced her, and she let his tresses go unfinished for the moment. Their eyes met, hers filled with confusion. "Do humans have estrus? It's a fertility cycle, the partner to a rut. We usually just call it heat, but there's no bleeding."
"Humans call it menstruation. The bleeding happens in between fertility windows."
Fásach huffed, pressing his forehead to her bare knee."Usually, it wouldn't matter much. But I'm in a fresh rut, foryou,and your scent is stronger than other species. It will drive me insane if you become fertile. If it's going to happen soon, we might want to wait until it's over to get close to the colony."
Roz shook her head. "I shouldn't. I don't have the—" She snapped her jaw shut then nodded once. "Let me just check my hardware. I shouldn't need topeeeither."
She stilled, a light blinking in her eye. Fásach checked on the girls, still eating theirzaiand tearing fallen leaves apart along the veins in fascination. When Roz returned, she looked sheepish.
"I have a reproductive core instead of a human uterus. Extended channel for safety, ovipository, fluid production, scent and pheromone production... The last part is mimicking a fertility cycle by increasing pheromonal output. I turned it off. I'm so sorry."
Fás's brow creased, ears falling back. "You don't need to apologize. We just need to plan for it. When, or if, it happens again, we can talk about it. Just like the rut hunt. And if—" He puffed out a quick exhale, preparing to look more civilized than the rut-addled excitement he actually felt, then looked her straight in the eye as calmly as possible. "If it's something you want, or don't, I'm here either way."
Roz smirked, walking her fingers up one of his antlers. "I betthesewant it though."
Fás panted on instinct, his chest suddenly blazing hot. "They can take a hike."
Roz's expression spread into playful joy. She sighed, then nodded out at Safia and Misila. "I'm okay with not having that hardware. But maybe someday, I'd like to be chosen by some children too. Like you were."
She turned him back around, settling his shoulders between her legs so she could continue grooming his tresses. The girls brought over thezaihead, asking Roz first if she'd like to have it. She declined, so he crunched down on it in two swift bites, enjoying the rare treat of bitter, charred brain matter. He wouldn't have dared eat it two weeks ago, but now it satiated one of his many predatory cravings.
He nodded to Safia and Misila, twirling around and making leaf angels. "They like you."
"I like them too," Roz breathed.
The rest of the sunlight passed quickly, as warm as fruit on the pink and red leaves, filtering through to hazy, pollen-filled air in tangerine rays. The girls begged to stay out of their pods for a night, hugging each of Fásach's legs like tree trunks. They screamed as he growled playfully and tried to shake them off. Falling in a giggling pile, he wrestled them with gentle snaps of his jaw, jumping and rolling, shivering his hackles. Safia's talons extended for the first time, and they celebrated by braiding a palm frond into a crown that promptly fell off her head.
Roz prepped the snow needle's empty sled, padding it with their blankets and bedrolls and parkas. When the girls looked like they'd fall over from exhaustion, all four of them piled on. Roz gave Fás her thigh as a pillow, her head on Safia's hip. Misila balanced on his leg with her head rising and falling softly against his stomach. The weight of his children and the scentof histhuaisfilled him up until he felt...peaceful.As if he was back on Byddie with his tadau on that night hill, listening to the grounding chorus of their family in the distance as it danced softly with his symphony.
But the feeling didn't last.
"Will you be mythuais,"he tried the words out loud with a throat full of gravel. He thought of her as his True North already but hadn't told her so. He hadn't even admitted to feeling harmony with her yet. Every moment of their journey had been occupied by thoughts of survival, sleep,uncertaintyover so many things. It had never been the right time.
He rolled his eyes at himself. Before the rut hunt would have been afantastictime.
Now it felt like they'd always been tied.
