Page 53 of Meat

“What wrong?” Alyx whispered in her broken language.

“Not,” Jale replied, keeping it simple for her. “Not wrong. Not wrong.”

So nothing was wrong?

That was obviously not true, but Alyx decided not to press the issue. Whatever her three mates were worried about, she was certain they could handle it.

They rode down into the prairie, not speaking a word.

***

It was another hour before they reached the big encampment of tents. The other ukkur had seen them coming from far off, and now many of them had gathered to greet them, maybe fifty of them altogether, big brutes all.

Oddly, Alyx noticed, there were no women or children present. Were they hiding inside the tents until the males made sure everything was safe?

She suddenly remembered what Jale had said to her before.

No mother. No have.

She also remembered how Jale had first communicated with her on that very first night. He had gripped his penis and testicles to indicate that he was an ukkur. And he had touched her vulva to ask Alyx what she was.

Did that mean there were no ukkur females at all? Only males?

Is that what Jale had been trying to tell her when he said the nith had made them?

That would certainly explain why her three ukkur mates had been so curious about her anatomy when they first found her. And it would also explain why these new ukkur from the big camp were staring at her with equal curiosity now.

Krogg and Ravnar hopped down from their skriks. Jale dismounted too, then helped Alyx and Cyrith down after, taking the infant in one arm and Alyx in the other. He set her down in the knee-deep grass before handing the baby back to her. The little one looked around with that wide-eyed awe that infants have.

They walked forward as a group. Her three mates surrounded her protectively. Alyx got the impression that they didn’t particularly like having the other males look at her body. The three of them closed tighter around her, shielding her and the tiny child.

They were being possessive, and right now that was just fine with Alyx. She had grown accustomed to being naked all the time with her mates, but with these new males around she felt self conscious again.

This must be what they had been discussing before.

The other ukkur males refused to be put off so easily. They crowded around, jostling and craning their necks to see. They chattered loudly, asking rapid questions that Alyx couldn’t even begin to understand with her rudimentary knowledge of the language.

But she could guess…

***

“What is that creature?”

“What is that little thing it’s carrying in its arms?”

“Are they ukkur?”

“Where did you find them?”

The crowd of ukkur pressed in, trying to inspect Jale’s mate, and it was starting to make him rotted angry. He positioned his body in front of her, trying to block their prying eyes.

His son Cyrith was frightened by the swarm of faces and loud voices. The child started to cry, screwing up his round little face in fear and rage. He bawled loudly, and tears streamed down his reddened cheeks. Alyx bounced the child, cooed to him soothingly.

The sound of the shrieking baby just excited the crowd’s curiosity even more.

Now Jale was really pissed.

These fuckers had disturbed his mate and his offspring.