The First She ✓

TWENTY EIGHT

She couldn't bear to look at Vrox. His offer was so unexpected that it put her at risk of melting. It didn't help that he painted the picture of fucking her in front of his brothers.

"Why is there red on your face?" One of Vrox's brothers asked.

"You would be red too if a guy offered to stuff you with cum," she mumbled in English.

"What?"

She shook her head and decided that it was time to change the conversation.

"Nothing. What's your name?"

"I am Kyros. This is Rokan, and that is Ni'ev."

It was obvious that the men either shared a single parent or weren't related at all. Kyros and Rokan both had light-colored eyes, but their skin tone was much deeper than Ni'ev and Vrox's.

"And the man that took Nebula?"

"That is Ak," Rokan answered.

"Where can we find him? Please, help me."

She crumbled under the pressure and intertwined her hands together.

"Please," she repeated, taking a step closer.

Rokan's eyes flickered behind her, finding a warning in Vrox's narrowed eyes.

"Draekon went after them. He is the best animal tracker among us," he assured.

"Ak is nothing short of an animal, so I'm sure that Draekon will find him," Kyros chuckled.

Rokan cracked a smile, but the joke only managed to wring a tremble from Kira– a ghost of the earthquake that Nebula was likely feeling.

"Is there anything that I can do? Can one of you go and help Draekon look for her?"

Rokan shook his head. "No. It's not good to enter the jungle in groups."

What happened to safety in numbers?

Seeing her confusion, Rokan added, "our bodies emit a certain odor. The scent becomes stronger and easier for predators to pick up if we are clustered together. We only go deep into the jungle if we need supplies, except for Vrox."

"What about him?" Kira asked.

"He disappears for fun. Sometimes, he will go missing for multiple suns. We're sure that one day he'll get eaten and we won't notice until we stumble upon his remai–"

"That is enough," Vrox grumbled, standing up and appearing by her side with alarming swiftness.

"But we have not asked her how she learned to speak Ezronian."

"She needs rest."

With grumbles, the men stood up and went about their business.

Vrox placed a hand at the small of her back– an area she noticed he had never touched before. A part of her wondered if this was Vrox's subtle way to remind his brothers that he owned her; that he was going to become the father of the planet.

Finders, keepers.

The ownership bothered her to no end. She was an engineer, capable of producing machinery and solutions. There was more to her than a golden womb.

"What did I tell you about chewing on your lip? If you are hungry, simply tell me."

Damn, this is weird.

She had been communicating with the guy with facial features, a handful of words, and gestures for so long that speaking to him in complete sentences felt abnormal.