Page 44 of Black Mamba

Afterwards, Lukys places the meat on the sheet at Greg’s behest and slides it into the fire.

Despite knowing I’m watching them, they pay me no mind.

The little light bugs that come out during the evening appear, and, hungry myself, I get off the floor and walk to the food replicator.

My finger hovers over the birthday cake option. Yellow cake with buttercream frosting, topped with sprinkles and a single candle. It would be nice to have something sweet. Like tea and Ilubriam chocolate, I love sweet-flavored things.

Instead, I order basic pasta, happy enough I have food of my own. I’m lucky to have survived up until now. That’s a gift all in itself. There is stuff to be thankful for…

I curse under my breath when I step through the door to my room and smell Ilubriam chocolate. Unable to help it, I clench, feeling my arousal reignite.

But I realize something as I sit on my bed and force myself to finish my food. The fear I had of Lukys…

It’s gone.

TWENTY-TWO

WATER

Lukys

The next day, I show up outside her ship’s dome shortly after dawn, hoping to see her on the other side. In my hands I have a basket of berries I picked earlier.

I will get her to eat. If it is the last thing I do.

I saw her interest. She’s intrigued by the firepit I’ve made her. Still, she did not venture outside.

And then, when I turned around after placing the meat into the flames, she was gone.

After my evening with the males, Levy and Greg, my opinion on them has changed. I realized, like Elena, they are just trying to survive.

I understand now what Shelby meant when she said The Dreadnaut was destroyed. It was the human’s nesting ship—a home ship for a vast number of them—and now it is gone, having taken many humans with it.

Elena cries because she has lost her home—her clan. Her sister.

Grey told me the story of what happened. I learned why they are here.

There was a rebellion and the ship’s main power source had been damaged. Many smaller ships fled. And those that had fled were saved from the nesting ship’s blast when it erupted.

Greg, Levy, and Elena came here, to Earth, with other fleeing vessels. Which is what I saw when they appeared like speckles in the sky. Their ship had just been destroyed.

They are worried that there is no help coming from the other nesting ships. Elena must be worried about this too.

Elena’s sorrow—the tears at the beginning—makes even more sense. I cannot conceive the loss of my nest, my entire clan, all at once, and I want to hold her, tell her as much. Though I understand loss—I lost my father to age, I lost my sister when the females left, and I have now lost Deiys as well as many others over the seasons—I am also not wholly affected by it. Death is a part of life, and I see it nearly every day when I hunt.

Ixi and I laid Deiys to rest in his nest. It was enough.

I do not blame the humans for his demise. I may have killed him all the same for trying to take Elena. For hurting her.

Searching for her within her ship, she has yet to emerge from her back rooms.

It is then I hear a muffled, scratchy groan and a woosh. Leaving my hiding spot behind, I slip between the trees to get a better look, expecting to encounter one of the males.

Instead, I spot Elena stepping out into the open with a bucket gripped in her hand.

I freeze as she glances around warily. Her eyes drift to me within the trees, widening.

I lift the basket and slide forward in greeting.