Bridging the Chasm - 1. Chapter 1

Miah glanced over his shoulder at me, eyebrows drawn down in a scowl. “You can put me down now.”

“No.” I smiled at him.

“Don’t you think you should help Lisco pack your stuff?” he asked.

I shook my head. “No. He’s faster than me anyway. Better I stay out of the way. Besides, I like you in my arms.” I did. Miah was solid but no challenge for my strength. I almost wished he hadn’t gotten the hover chair to move around in until his hands healed. If we’d known how scared he was, and that the pilltock juice from the plants in the dome could affect him when he veered off the maze, we’d never have set up the mock chase. Trying to bond with a human was a lot more complicated than I’d thought it would be—who knew some of them didn’t like being hunted?

He’d seemed so interested, the night we overheard him talking in the bar to a guy about Nature’s Wrath. Some humans paid a lot of money to participate—the ultimate thrill, being hunted by sentient aliens shifted into our true forms. We’d smelled his arousal when he looked at us. Lisco and I wanted him.

Wooing Miah our way had been a disaster. We nearly lost him after we had to take him to the human hospital so they could treat his leg and the poison that infected his hands. He couldn’t use them, but his doctor offered to take care of him. I couldn’t stand the idea, even if they were only friends. We’d begged, and he’d reluctantly agreed to let us take care of him. If he hadn’t…? I don’t know what would’ve happened.

I was trying to act human for him. It was harder than I thought. My need for him was growing. But he’d been hurt because of us, and now I was afraid we’d hurt him again. Humans were so fragile. I had to be careful. I could cradle him gently in this form, but I still had to watch every movement to make sure my strength didn’t injure him. I took a deep breath. I’d take what I could get.

“What?”

“Nothing.” I didn’t want him to freak out, but I knew he was hard and had been since I’d picked him up. I could hear his heart beating fast and hard, which might be due to the fact we just got him to agree to let us come with him to his land, but I could also smell his arousal. His hormones had spiked when Lisco had crouched between his legs. He had a musky scent, salty and rich with pheromones. How could humans get anything done with their feelings so readily shared?

Lisco had more control than I did. He was packing what we’d need from our apartment so we could move to Miah’s stake to help him with the beasts the rude man on the holo was delivering. I wasn’t sure exactly what cattle were, but I knew the conversation had made Miah really mad. His anger had a bitter tang that made my tongue curl. Lisco said we should thank the guy who’d holo called though. He’d given us an excuse to ask Miah about going out to the property he owned.

It would be just the three of us, all alone, in the middle of the country. I’d wanted to go there from the first time we flew over it, instead of being stuck in the stinky city, but only bonded shifters could leave the dome. We weren’t bonded… yet. But maybe we would be tonight. Miah’s anger had all but disappeared and a sweeter smell rose from his skin where the blood rushed under it.

The reproductive organ between my legs stirred as I took another deep breath. “Hmm….” I closed my eyes and bent my head, absorbing the heat from that soft skin just behind his ears.

“Are you sniffing me?”

I blinked and looked down at Miah. He was staring at me with his small, flat face, his eyes bigger and rounder than normal. His mouth hung open. Should I tell him? My body warmed as I shrugged. Such a strange sensation, the way the human form could change color because of emotion. I glanced away.

“You were! Do I smell bad? Is it because of earlier?” Miah frowned.

“No. You smell good.” I rumbled my pleasure, my chest vibrating. “So good.”

“Oh.” Miah’s frown faded. “You smell good, too. What was that you just did? You vibrated.”

My face got hot again. “I was just saying how good you smelled.”

“Yes, I heard you say that. But why did your chest sort of buzz?”

I’d said it aloud with the human vocal cords I’d grown when we assimilated to Earth and gained our new forms, but I’d said it in my native tongue, too. Though, it wasn’t really words, but a call to warn away any rivals as I wooed my mate. He just couldn’t hear it as words. He seemed curious, not repulsed, so I took a chance. “My kind use calls over long distances, much like some of your ancient animals. You felt it as a vibration in my chest, but other Yume would get the message.”

“I always wondered about that. You’re all aliens, but your shifted forms are different. You’re kinda like a hairy caterpillar beast-thing and Lisco looks like a flying snake with jewel-toned skin. Can you understand each other?

“Some of us. It’s like your Earth languages—some are very close to each other, and some are very different. We can learn each other’s languages if we bond, though, so Lisco could hear what I said.”

“And you said…?”

“Ah, I-I… uh. Just letting them know you were….” I paused. Was he ours? He’d agreed to let us woo him, and he’d accepted our touch—but was that just because he had no other choice?

“I was what?”

“It’s a breeding call. He was claiming you as a potential sexual partner and warning any rivals away. Cause you’re ours, now.” Lisco popped his head in the room and grinned at us, then darted away. I could hear him in the kitchen, throwing things in cubes. Ugh. He had no filter.

Miah’s face was turning colors, but it was more purple than pink. I hadn’t seen that before. Maybe I should call Lisco in. He knew more about humans. “Are you okay?” I turned Miah sideways on my lap and gently patted his back.

He dragged in a huge breath with a long gasp. “A breeding call?” he choked out as he dragged in a second breath that seemed slightly easier.

“Potentially. It’s okay,” I rushed to assure him. “We haven’t marked you with anything but skin scent. We’d never do that without your agreement. I just… you just… you smell amazing in your need, and I couldn’t stop it.”

“Mark me?” Was he in shock again? He kinda seemed like it. He kept repeating what I’d said, and he wasn’t blinking as he stared at me. “With skin scent?”

“From touching each other. We smell better than you guys. I can smell that doctor and the rude nurse, plus a hint of a strange male from your hover chair.” I nuzzled his head. “But mostly I smell me and Lisco mixed with your natural scent. I like it.” I grinned at him as he squirmed. “A lot.”

“I can tell.”

“You can? Can you smell me?”

“No.” Miah shook his head. “But since you turned me, I can feel it.”

“It what?”

Miah leaned back and looked down at my lap. He licked his lips. “You’re aroused.”

“Oh! My organ. Yes, it does that. I’d never gotten hard before from a human’s scent, just from Lisco’s, until the night we saw you in the bar talking to your friend about Nature’s Wrath.”

“Have you done anything about it?” Miah was mumbling, but I heard him.

“Yes,” I answered simply. Lisco had told him we’d watched their sexual mating videos. We didn’t understand everything they did, but I didn’t really care. I didn’t think Miah would try to hurt me, or do anything bad. I wanted him to touch me and let me touch him, though.

I wanted to mingle our scents below our skin. I wanted to claim and be claimed. But Miah had said he was inexperienced, and I wasn’t sure how to tell him what I wanted. I called for Lisco.

“I’m coming,” he shouted from the living room.

“You rumbled again.” Miah rested his cheek against my chest. “Do it again.”

I closed my eyes and rumbled out how much I wanted him, letting those close by hear how much I wanted my human. His words failed me, but this was easy, natural. I tightened my arms around him when he squirmed.

“That tickles.” Miah chuckled, and the puff of his breath against the fine hair poking over my collar sent every hair erect in a ripple from the top to the bottom of my body. I shivered. “I like that tickle,” he said. “It was like you touched me all over with your sound.”

Lisco leaned against the side of the door. He’d stripped off his shirt. His skin had a sheen to it, not nearly as bright as the blue skin of his true form, but it caught the light. “Hey.”

Miah’s scent filled the air. Lisco flicked out his tongue and flared his nostrils. “You want us. We want you. Moshe doesn’t know how to tell you, but I think you value honesty. This way, we don’t make mistakes.”

“Want… me?”

“I want to touch you.” I ran one hand down Miah’s back and squeezed his hip. Lisco sauntered into the room and squatted in front of us. He ran his hand up Miah’s thigh, pausing before he got too close to the bulge growing in the soft shorts we’d put on Miah at the hospital. We were both careful to avoid touching his skin in a sexual manner until he gave us permission.

“O-o-okay.” His breathy answer was stuttered a bit, but he’d said yes. Did he mean it?

“Really?” I shouldn’t have said anything. What if he said no?

“I want you guys. I promised myself I wouldn’t waste the opportunity to get to know you better, even if it’s only for a few weeks.” Miah tilted his head back, looking at the ceiling, and blew out a breath. “I have no idea what to do, though. I haven’t been with a man, let alone alien shifters.”

“We’re not so different,” Lisco said. “Besides, we’re your hands, remember? You don’t have to do anything, but—”

“Let us love on you,” I finished, softly. There would be no time limit to this bond between us. Lisco might be the outgoing one who said things I couldn’t, but I knew things deep down. Miah was meant to be ours.

“We can leave in the morning, right?” Miah nodded. Lisco grinned. “Good. We can pack up the rest of our clothes and the bed before we go.”

I stood up, hooking Miah’s legs over one arm as I cradled him against my chest. I had to be careful of the stiff braces around his lower leg and encasing his hands. “Hold on. Why did you guys have clothes in cubes already? I was on the holo call in here. You couldn’t have packed then.”

Lisco laughed. “In the bar, you said you were leaving to go home. We planned the hunt at the dome to woo you into bonding with us. Bonded people stay together, just like those in a human relationship. Where you go, we go.”

“But we didn’t bond. That fake hunt of yours just scared the shit out of me and left me injured. And not everyone who is dating lives together, especially in the beginning.”

“Shifters do. We were hopeful, no matter what,” I said. “You’re here, right? We are bonding.”

“We are? Like permanently? I thought we were just doing some touching. I don’t know—”

“Shh,” Lisco hushed him. “This isn’t any sort of bonding like your fantasy stories. We bond through physical intimacy to draw us closer and make us a pair or triad. There’s no mystical connection or ‘you are mine, I must bite you now to make you desire only me’ crap. But it makes no sense to bond with a person you don’t want to be with. We want to be with you.”

“Oh. Whew. Okay.”

I chuckled. Humans were so funny. We’d faced all sorts of bias and fears, like anal probing—though I wouldn’t mind some of that done in the right way—to funny stories about the moon making us crazy in our true forms. The full moon might make it easier to hunt, I could easily see by the pale light, but it didn’t change me at all. I was Moshe, no matter what form I was in.

“So, are we good to go?” I’d heard Miah use that phrase.

“Yeah.”

I smiled. I went over to the high bed—perfect for someone my size but a bit of a climb to get onto for someone Miah or Lisco’s height—and gently set Miah down with his head on the pillows in the center of the bed. He smiled and closed his eyes.

“Did I mention how much I love this bed? It’s so soft and comfy. Tell me you were serious about taking it with us.”

“We are.” I’d never fit on a human-sized bed. I turned to Lisco. He’d already stripped off his pants, showing off his lean legs and tight ass, perfectly rounded. His blue crest of hair was already hanging down, the long strands relaxed out of their usual stiff position after Lisco’s shower. The strands slid silkily under my hand as I ran one palm over the crest and down to Lisco’s neck. He leaned up, and I bent forward until our lips touched together. We touched and tasted each other’s mouths, slowly teasing.

Lisco lifted one leg up, curling it around my hip. I grabbed his ass, squeezing one round cheek and then lifting when he jumped. My hand spanned the center of his ass so I could hold him up as he wound his arms around my neck, sinking his tongue deep inside my mouth.

“Holy Jygp! That’s hot,” Miah said. I pulled away from the kiss, sucking on Lisco’s tongue as we separated. We turned to look at him. Miah’s face was pink, and his eyes were shining. The shorts he wore did nothing to hide his stiff reproductive organ. His arms were resting on the pillow above his head, his bandaged hands carefully out of the way.

“I told you he climbed me before he got in the bed,” I said. I grinned. “It wasn’t just a joke.” I squeezed Lisco’s ass before I plopped him on the edge of the bed. My turn to get rid of my clothes. We didn’t wear them much at home, since they were a new habit we’d only adopted here on Earth. It was hard to get used to—they were so binding and unnatural. No planet I’d been on was dominated by a species so naturally ill-equipped to survive its environment, but then, humans were unlike any other species in the universe.

Their very nature was what protected them—and us—now that they’d granted us sanctuary. And yet, they had no idea. I shuddered at the thought of what had befallen us before we found Earth.

“Moshe?”

I’d paused, my thumbs hooked in the top of my pants to pull them down, lost in my dreary thoughts.

“Hmm?” I looked up. “What?”

Lisco leaned out and placed a hand on my cheek. “I know.”

Miah rolled onto his side. “Are you okay?”

“He’s fine,” Lisco assured him.

“If you don’t want to do this….”

I stripped my pants off and climbed on the bed, straddling Miah’s legs as he rolled back onto his back. This close, I could smell his fluids that glistened on the pink tip of his organ. “I want you,” I said in a rush. He had to know that. My organ was so hard it was flush to my stomach, matting the body fur I had there. Lisco slinked across the bed in that almost boneless way he had. Our scents combined, swirling around us, want and need ratcheting higher as I waited for him to see that, understand how much this meant.

“We want you.” Lisco placed a kiss on Miah’s arm. He slid his hand down to wrap his fingers around Miah’s wrist, slowly drawing his hand back over his head. When Miah let him, I lifted his left arm and gently propped it against the pillow, too.

“Not any human. Not another shifter. You. Nehemiah Jonahson. Just you.” My voice was nearly as deep as my rumble. I leaned down and rubbed our cheeks together. “Yes?”

We waited, locked in a tense second that stretched to eternity.

“Yes,” Miah whispered.

I groaned in relief. Lisco thanked the gods under his breath. Miah rolled his eyes at him, and then looked back up at me with an expectant expression in those dark eyes. “Well? What now?” Apparently when he was in, he was all in. “I wish I could touch you.”

“No using your hands.” We wanted to make him feel good. “We’ll touch you.” I slid off to his side and lay next to him, Lisco opposite me, sandwiching Miah’s solid body between ours. He was wide-shouldered with curly hair coating his chest but had slim hips and a hint of a six pack covered in sleek skin. He had more mass than Lisco but less than me with my soft coating of flesh over my muscles.

Lisco leaned over and kissed me again, sliding his tongue in my mouth and out again. Then he turned to Miah. “Can we kiss you?”

Not all human males kissed. Some of the videos showed them just touching private parts. But since we learned of it, kissing was Lisco’s favorite thing to do. Miah nodded, his lips parted. Lisco didn’t hesitate to take advantage. Miah lifted his head, reaching for Lisco the only way he could. Lisco moved with him, teasingly keeping the kiss light, flicking his slender tongue at Miah’s lips.

My skin felt too tight as I watched them kiss. I couldn’t just watch. Miah’s nipples were flat brown disks half-hidden through the hair. They pebbled under my fingers, growing bumpy and tight. I licked my thumb and rubbed small circles over the brown tips. Miah moaned into Lisco’s mouth. He shifted restlessly on the bed. I grew bolder, trailing my fingers through the curls to the soft bumps of Miah’s abs and down. My hand brushed the head of his organ as I reached for his sac underneath.

“Shit!” His muscles hardened as he flexed into my touch. Lisco was sucking on Miah’s neck as I rolled the soft orbs inside the wrinkled skin. I was fascinated by these external reproductive organs, so sensitive to good and bad sensation. I loved mine to be played with, though Lisco didn’t like me touching him there. Miah’s eyes were scrunched shut, but he seemed to like it.

“Ugh.” Lisco had moved up to Miah’s ear. Miah shuddered, and Lisco chuckled.

“Like that?”

“I don’t think so. It makes my skin crawl.”

Lisco trailed a hand through Miah’s chest hair. “That’s okay, there are a lot of other things for me to use my tongue on.” He started with Miah’s nipples, and then used his tongue to trace the valleys between his abs. I watched Miah’s face, mesmerized by his reaction to being touched for the first time. The connection I felt to him was so strong, nearly as strong as what I felt for Lisco, and it was growing by the day as we grew closer to each other.

If only he could touch us back. I ached for his hands on me. I had to kiss him. His mouth was warm, and faintly bitter, and I could just taste a hint of Lisco’s flavor. Miah followed my tongue, licking inside my mouth as he returned the kiss. I ran my thumbs over the raspy stubble across his cheeks. I loved the different textures of his hair. He groaned just as Lisco took the head of Miah’s cock in his mouth. “Jygp,” he said, drawing out the word.

I turned my head to watch. “He does that so good.” Lisco licked and nibbled around the flared edges of the tip.

I smiled at the blissful pleasure on Miah’s face. He licked his lips. “Uh-huh,” he said hoarsely. He started to pick his hands up off the pillow above his head, and I leaned over him, pressing down on his forearms.

“Stay still.”

Miah shifted his legs restlessly on the bed, spreading them farther apart. “Please!”

Oh. Begging. Lisco loved begging. I glanced down to see Lisco watching Miah’s face as he drove him crazy, tonguing the tip, before he finally sank down to the bottom, swallowing Miah’s entire organ. Miah grunted and thrust his head back against the pillow, squeezing his eyes shut. He drew in a ragged breath and shuddered.

“Oh Jygp. Shit. Ugh.” Miah panted. “Sorry. Sorry.”

Lisco slid up the bed, kneeling at Miah’s side. “Why? That was amazing.” I was jealous that Lisco got to taste Miah’s seed.

“Didn’t mean to come so soon.”

“Just means I’m amazing. I take it as a compliment.” Lisco winked, licking his lips. “Besides, you taste great. I’m glad you didn’t make me wait.”

I groaned and reached up for Lisco until he leaned over Miah and gave me his lips. I wanted to see what Miah’s seed tasted like. I cradled his head in one hand, licking at the seam between his lips until he parted them. Oh. Salty and strong, Miah’s flavor coated Lisco’s tongue as I rubbed mine against it. I ran my hand down his back and squeezed his ass, just like Lisco liked, kneading the taut muscle. Lisco pulled back with a gasp for air. “Take me in your mouth,” he said.

Still crouched over Miah’s body, the heat of him warming my chest, I did just that. Lisco’s organ was thick at the base and slender at the top, the tip bright red. We didn’t usually tease so much. I pulled him close to me with one hand on the back of his thigh. He rested his hands on my head and fell into a quick rhythm, pumping into my mouth.

My sac was tight, and my organ felt like it would burst when Lisco clenched his hands in my hair and held me to him, rocking in small movements, groaning as he sent his seed down my throat. I moaned around him, and he hissed. When he pushed me away, my whole body was throbbing—needing air, needing a touch. It would just take one.

The tip of my organ dripped fluid, shiny and sticky. Miah watched us, his mouth open. “Are you okay?”

“Hurts,” I whimpered. Lisco had collapsed on the bed at Miah’s side. He looked like I’d sucked out his brains through the tip of his shaft, along with his seed. I clenched my teeth together, trying not to touch myself, though I desperately wanted to ease the ache.

“I’ve never touched another guy before.” Miah frowned. “And I can’t now. I don’t think I can take all of you in my mouth, but can I taste you?”

“Oh yeah.” Miah’s breath on my shaft as I straddled him and leaned forward so he could reach me without straining was almost too much. I needed control, but had no idea where I’d find it. He was going to taste me, taking my scent into him. I’d fantasized about it before, but never dreamed he’d offer the first time we touched. Miah eyed my shaft, like he wasn’t sure where to start.

“What do you like?”

He was asking me to think? What did it matter? “Anything,” I groaned.

Miah began by touching the tip of his tongue to the slit in the tip of my organ. It was soft and firm, but the touch was tentative. I remembered our first time trying out our new bodies with Lisco, how unsure we’d been. I hummed and nodded. “Good.” I expected him to keep licking me, but instead, Miah opened his mouth and took the entire tip, closing his lips around it.

“Ahh!” I started to thrust forward into the warm, wet heat of his mouth, but stopped when his teeth caught on my shaft. The sting brought me back, reminded me of his lack of experience. I froze, my hands clenched on the headboard until the bed creaked. My heart was pounding in my chest, and sweat slid down my face. Then Miah rubbed his tongue against the bottom of my organ, in the spot that always sent me hurtling to the edge of pleasure. Oh, how did he know?

He did it again, and I went off. My muscles locked as pulses of seed shot out my organ into his mouth. He choked at first, but then swallowed, and I rumbled out my pleasure, long and loud. People in the entire building would know how Miah made me feel, announcing our claim on the man in our bed. When my climax finally ended I hovered over Miah’s body, trembling as I gathered enough control to swing my leg over him and collapse on the bed next to his limp body.

We sprawled together, touching here and there along our bodies. We were too sweaty to snuggle, but I didn’t want to let Miah go. Lisco was running his hand up and down Miah’s leg, so I knew he felt the same.

Minutes later, when we were all breathing a little easier, Miah lifted his head. “This bed definitely has to come with us.”

 

We woke up before the sun rose, which was fortunate because the packing wasn’t done yet. I helped Miah in the bathroom, though he still turned red when I had to hold his organ, even after what we’d done the night before. I’d wondered if he’d ignore the intimacy, being so new to him, but he leaned into my body once we were both naked and in the shower. I enjoyed it, and the warmth of his skin, as we bathed. My pants were too big for him, but Lisco’s would be too short, plus they’d never fit over the brace around his foot. We cinched the waist around his hips, and they didn’t look too bad. Lisco finished gathering the necessities and set the cubes to compress.

It was amazing, how they folded around the objects and compressed them without damage. I’d never really understood the human technology—we’d just have transported objects from one place to the other—but we weren’t allowed to use that technology among the humans. Their wars were too recent. That’s why I’d distracted Miah while Lisco ‘ported the bed to our shuttle.

No way would we give up our bed. Not only was it a comfort I’d hate to lose after a long day in my human form, but it was ripe with our combined scent of pleasure. The human’s technology was ingenious in its own way, but for some things, ours worked better.

“Time to go!” Lisco called. He’d finished his shower and dressed much quicker than we had, but then, he hadn’t had Miah to wash… all over. Twice, just to make sure every inch was cleansed.

“Do we have time for breakfast?” My stomach growled. Lisco chuckled.

“Yes, and to pick up supplies. I’m sure we’ll need them.”

Miah was in his hover chair. He looked me up and down. “Yeah, we should get a lot of supplies. I can pay for half.”

“Nonsense,” Lisco said. He waved a hand at me. “Moshe will eat more than both of us, combined. You’re letting us come stay with you, out in the open. We’ll pay for supplies, happily, for that privilege.”

Snorting, Miah held up his arms. “You’re coming to work—”

“Because our hunt got you hurt,” I finished. I knelt by his chair. “Let us do this. It’s a small enough thing to do for someone we care about. Is it really worth arguing over?”

Miah didn’t look happy, but then he shrugged one shoulder and sighed. “You’re right. It’s just hard for me. I’m used to doing for myself.”

I leaned forward and kissed him on the lips. “Well, you don’t have to now.” My stomach grumbled again and Miah smirked.

“Let’s go get some food.”

After watching me put away three helpings of pork, eggs, and half a loaf of sourdough bread for toast, Miah didn’t argue with Lisco about paying for food again. He didn’t eat much; I thought he was embarrassed to be fed in public, but I could see how much Lisco liked feeding him eggs and offering him bites of soft pancakes. I could’ve eaten more, but we didn’t have time. The market was open, and we had the best pickings of the fresh food.

“What are you buying?” I asked Miah. He was paying a merchant with his holo pad.

“Seedlings. I’ve special grains for the cattle, but I’m thinking if we want to keep you in produce, we’ll need to begin growing it. The house on the stake has limited cold storage and reconstituted veg just isn’t the same.”

I began plotting for ways to change that. I liked our apartment. It was spacious enough for me, a welcome change after the ship and the last planet where we’d sought shelter. That desolate wasteland had been so inhospitable above ground that we’d been forced to live underground, hiding from the burning sun and raging winds during the day, and freezing ice storms that came with each nightfall

Not that it had protected us from the enemy. They’d razed our home world, and then the cursed beings had followed us to every sanctuary we’d sought. Until we came here. Only our unique nature as shifters, our ability to adapt and change into the dominant species on the planet, saved us from the plague.

This galaxy was quarantined for a reason, and not even the Tarquiek would follow us here. We had a chance at peace and happiness again.

Some of us, at least.

By the time we finished our shopping, the sun was already up. Miah started to fret. “Stop worrying. We’re not taking your tram system to the stake; we can be there in no time with our shuttle.”

“It didn’t seem that fast yesterday.”

“Yesterday we were in the city. There are laws here, remember?” Lisco tapped in the coordinates for our parking structure and shuttle space. The cubes power system hummed on, and they zipped away.

“I wouldn’t know. I’d never been in a private shuttle before, actually. I always took the transfer and the tram. Back home, we walk.”

Lisco grimaced. “I hate walking. I do like the limbs on human bodies, but I miss my wings. There’s nothing like soaring through the air.”

Miah smiled up at him. “I bet. Well, once we get the cattle situated and the grain planted you can fly quite a bit. My timetable is crucial for planting, and I need the herds available to finish my experiments, but we will have plenty of time once the initial work is done.”

“What experiments?” I asked.

“Something I came up with as a project to get my certifications. I don’t want to talk about it here, but if I’m right…? Well, some of the desolation from the germ wars might not be as complete as everyone thinks.”

Lisco looked interested. He liked technology, though ours was nothing like the humans. I’d never been as good at it. The land called to me. “There will be lots of hands on work to be done, right?”

“Plenty,” Miah said, smiling up at me.

“Good.”

Our trip over the mountains to the interior amazed all of us. Miah said he’d never seen the mountains quite the same way—the tram went through a low pass that appeared just before the jagged walls of black stone rose high into the air. We had to avoid the cables, which meant we had to go higher over the mountains in. Frost rimed the windows of the shuttle and the sun sparkled on the ice lining the branches of the trees clinging to the rocks in cracks and crevices.

It was both desolate and beautiful, in its own stark fashion. I ached to feel the breeze ruffle my fur and the ice under my toes. Even through the filters the air smelled cleaner than any in the city—even in our dome. It was a scent that could easily come to represent home.

Would it? I hoped so, with every fiber of my small, human being and my shifter soul inside it.

Lisco and Miah sat in front of me, talking about our shuttle and the way Miah planned to alter the cows with the special grains he’d grown and planned to sow into the fields of his stake. I didn’t understand the how exactly, but I got the why. Their cattle herds were dwindling, the land yielded scarce crops as the nutrients had been leeched out of it during the wars generations past.

If the grain worked the way it was designed, the leftovers from the harvest would mulch into the soil over the harsh winter and give back exactly what it needed—nutrients that were just not present or stable enough in liquid fertilizer that couldn’t penetrate deep enough. The seeds from the grain would hold a key component to Miah’s plan with the cows to overcome their basic genetic incompatibility. Both breeds had different dietary needs and their offspring, if they bred together, couldn’t digest any of the grains currently grown.

But Miah just might have figured out a way around that.

“You’re a genius!” Lisco exclaimed. “I cannot believe no one came up with this before you.”

“I’ve been working on it for years. It might not work.”

“But you’re gambling with your entire future,” I said, just to prove I’d been listening, even if I didn’t understand it all. I did get that much.

“Everyone takes risks at some point in their life. My family wouldn’t let me starve, even if I lose my stake. But if I’m right? My future would be set. My parents could retire before they’re too broken by the hard life in the interior to enjoy it. Inter-landers don’t live as long as people in the city, but they will never leave their land. Maybe my methods could be used for other things. We could recover more land, take back more than the coasts.” Miah started to wave his arms and then stopped, grimacing at his hands. He’d gotten better about not moving them, but he still forgot.

“But first the seeds have to be planted and the cattle penned in the pasture until we can get the bulls. I didn’t expect for them to be delivered for a few weeks. It’ll probably take that long to get the house habitable.” Miah looked down at his lap. “It’s not like your apartment.”

I reached up and put my hand on his shoulder. “We told you, it’s fine. Stop worrying. We’re going to get everything done. You can use your chair all over the stake and tell us what to do. We want to help.

“We should tell you about some of the places we’ve been and what we’ve done. Earth is a beautiful planet, even with the desolation. We can see its former glory, and if we can help restore it with you, we will. This is our home now, too.”

Lisco nodded. “What he said.” He grinned at me over his shoulder. “Though I’m shocked as hell he said all that.”

I rolled my eyes. So I wasn’t as smooth as Lisco was when it came to talking. I could still feel things.

“He’s sweet,” Miah chided Lisco.

Sweet. Well, it was better than what some humans called me. We passed the crest of the mountains, and the interior plains spread out before us. The wide expanse alternated between swatches of waving sickly yellow grasses and patches of exposed earth that spread out the farther we got from the city. “How far out is it?” Lisco asked.

“About five hours by tram, but the shuttle is so much faster.” Miah looked at the holo navigation screen and tapped a spot. It lit up with a white dot. “Here.”

“Can we bring the shuttle down close to the house?”

“For now. I don’t have any animals out there, so there’s nothing to spook. We’ll have to figure out something else when we start breeding or calving season comes.”

I sat back in my chair, contentment spreading through me. I didn’t think he realized it, but Miah was already thinking we were staying long-term. Even breeding would take a lot longer than two weeks. A tension I hadn’t really felt until that moment dissolved.

 

Miah’s stake was bleak. It sat, a little white dot of an oasis, in the middle of a brown patch that spread as far as we could see once we were on the ground. There was a house, but it needed work. The barn looked to be in better shape. Lisco rubbed the back of his neck.

“Are you sure anything will grow out here?” The wind swirled around the yard and dust rose with it, spinning in small brown cones.

Smiling, Miah nodded. “Yep. I got this cheap cause it seems like a bad prospect. But I know something the city slickers who’d owned it didn’t. The east side of the property has a small river—not much on the surface, but it’s deep. A big part of the plan is to set up an irrigation canal system to water the plants and create a tank for the cattle in the corral.”

“Good thing I like to dig,” I said.

“I was going to rent a holer. It’s expensive, but should get the work done in just a few days. That has to be the number one task, as cattle drink a lot of water. In the meantime, there’s a cistern down by the barn with enough water for necessities.” Miah nodded toward the white structure a good three times bigger than the house, and it looked to be in better repair.

“No need. I’ll just shift. My true form is great for digging,” I said.

I turned in a circle, just to see what I could spy. As far as the eye could see, there was nothing but dirt and sky. There were a few birds, but the silence was nearly complete. It was warm, but not hot. I could really grow to love it there; it was already better than being in the stinky city with the overwhelming noise constantly assaulting my ears.

“Bet I could run water canals all through here tonight. What time is that guy coming by with the cattle?”

Miah scowled. “I dunno. Sometime tomorrow. Since I can’t do much, though, I figure I’ll stick close to the house. We need to unpack and get the house set up anyway.”

“Pfft.” Lisco waved his hand. “Let us handle that. Why don’t you go check out the barn? Make sure it’s all shipshape. If you use your holo you can make verbal notes on anything we need to add for our to-do list.”

“How about I show you inside, first? My cubes should already be delivered. My folks were gonna get them and drop them off inside for me.”

“Oh. Right.” Lisco grinned sheepishly. “That’s a good plan.”

“HC: Forward six meters.” Miah’s chair rose smoothly and hummed over the ground. At least the model we got to help him move around while his leg and hands healed was working well on the rough ground. Its engine whined unpleasantly when he sent it up the stairs, but it made it up those, too.

The steps were solid, and the recessed porch and house seemed to be one structure made of concentric squares. I bent and ran my palm over the floor of the porch “What is this material?” It didn’t look anything like the metal and plastics of the city.

“Mud. We don’t have a lot of trees or refineries out here to fabricate walls, but we have a ton of dirt. It’s an ancient technique of creating hardened mud bricks and stacking them to create the walls. Inter-landers are good at making do with what we have. We do use a white glaze sprayed on from canisters, imported from the city, once the building walls are set. The roof’s an old metal one, and it’s seen better days. We’ll need to replace it and coat the walls again before the next rainy season.”

He did it again—Miah mentioned us sticking around his stake longer than just a few weeks. I hid my grin before I stood up.

“Sounds good.”

Miah reached for the door. Lisco jumped forward. “Why don’t you let me unlock it? Your hands—”

“It’s not locked. Just gotta nudge the button.”

We gaped at him. “Not locked?” I asked. “But what about your stuff? Will it even be there?”

He snorted. “Who’s gonna steal it? Our closest neighbors are my folks that way”—Miah nodded to the left—“and the Hevburgs over there.” He nodded to the right. “A good three hours walk either direction.”

“That’s not far by shuttle.”

“Well most folks don’t have a shuttle. Trust me, my stuff is fine.”

Lisco shook his head, but he pressed the button to open the door. It slid open with a hiss and a squeal. I’d never fit through it if I was shifted. Inside the house was one big room lit up by two windows on opposite walls. A kitchen area took up the third, and the last wall had three doors.

A ratty couch, a stack of cubes, and a table were all I could see inside the dim room. It was cool, enough that the skin on my arms pebbled as the thin hairs stood up. The ceiling was nice and high, though, so once I was inside I didn’t have to stoop.

“It’s not much….” Miah cleared his throat. “I mean, I understand if—”

“We want to fix it up? Sure! It’ll be great once I’m done.” Lisco rubbed his hands together. “We have some great stuff in the shuttle. But first, where’s the bathroom?”

Miah was squirming in his chair but looked like he didn’t want us to notice. He still turned really red whenever we had to help him. It was cute. He gestured toward the doors. “That one on the left. The other two are bedrooms.”

“Come on.” Lisco raised an eyebrow when Miah tried to object. “I’m stronger than I look. Moshe can go check the bedrooms out.” Miah finally gave in and sent his hover chair after Lisco toward the bathroom. “This is going to be tight,” Lisco said when he opened the door.

I wandered over to the far door. The bedroom was smallish, but not tiny. It was completely empty. The middle bedroom was bigger and had another door to the bathroom. It was empty, too, but it was just barely big enough for our bed.

I paced the room from wall to wall, counting. It’d just work. I ran my hand over the wall between the bedrooms. Maybe we could knock it out and make one bedroom. It wasn’t like we’d need a guest room way out here, and there was no way I was sleeping away from Lisco and Miah.

Time to start unpacking. I stepped back outside the bedroom. While Lisco had Miah distracted, I used my holo to call for our bed, directing its placement in the room perfectly. There was a narrow aisle on each side, just wide enough to walk through.

Our clothes were going to have to go into the other room. I went out to the shuttle and got our cubes. They were folded up as small as they could go. It didn’t take long to collect them and stack the expanded cubes beside Miah’s.

He was leading Lisco out of the bathroom when I plopped the last box on top of a stack. “Wow. You’ve been busy.”

“Yep.” I nodded. “Brought in our boxes and the bed.”

“The bed? What do you mean, the bed?” Miah directed his chair to the bedroom and gaped. “How the hell did you bring that? I didn’t see it on the shuttle, and it’s not exactly something that would be easy to miss.”

“Aliens, remember?” Lisco said.

I snickered when Miah shook his head. “You know, I did forget. You guys are just so good at being human.” I didn’t think we were, not really, but we were trying very hard not to freak him out. Not all humans could handle it. We knew other shifters who’d tried to bond with humans and failed.

That wouldn’t be us.

Step one of settling in on Miah’s stake was unpacking the cubes. That didn’t take too long. Miah didn’t have much, and Lisco was fast. He knew just where he wanted everything in the tiny house, and I just acted as his robot—hanging up all the stuff he wanted on the walls and filling the higher shelves he couldn’t reach easily. By the time we were done, our little place had furniture and color from bright paintings on the wall with matching floor cushions. The couch I brought in by hand, since Miah was around, but it wasn’t that heavy or as awkward to move as the bed would’ve been.

“I’d like to knock this wall out,” Lisco said, patting the wall between the bedrooms. “If we did, we could have a bigger bedroom. It’d be nice to have our clothes in the same room.” He started walking around. “And then”—he sketched out his plans with his hands—“we could move this other wall and expand the bathroom. Put in a tub big enough for all of us, double sinks, a few extra windows….”

Miah was gaping at Lisco. I rocked back on my heels, enjoying his confusion. I’d lived through the Lisco whirlwind once before when he took our apartment from a hovel to a lovely home, but I could really care less as long as I had a comfy couch and bed. And lots of food.

“Let’s not go crazy. The house needs a new coat of sealant on the outside as well as a roof, and the irrigation canals need to be dug. Feed’ll be delivered with the cattle, and we’ll need to stack that in the barn, plus the planting. The bulls won’t come for a while, but the herd will still have to be corralled, fed, and watered every day. There are predators out here, so we have to get the pasture shields up and running to keep out the vermin—they still carry diseases that can destroy the viability of a herd.” Miah rattled off the to-do list, getting more agitated with every item. “And I can’t do fucking anything.”

“You can tell us what to do,” I said. I crouched in front of his chair, massaging his thighs. “We like it here. We can’t wait to check out these cows and learn all about them. Stop worrying.” I leaned forward and kissed him when he opened his mouth, his forehead still all scrunched up. I watched him as I assaulted his mouth until he relaxed and started kissing me back, following me as I moved away.

I chuckled and gave him a soft peck.

“I’m never going to stop worrying if you do that every time,” he said. For someone who’d been essentially untouched, Miah has a sensual quality that made him damn near irresistible. He might not be experienced but he was damn sure eager to learn what we could teach him. How had he lived for three years among a whole city full of men who would’ve loved to get their hands on him, and not even realized it?

The rumble through my chest was involuntary. He was inviting me to kiss him. A lot. “Fine by me.” I was so happy, I needed to do something, anything, to express it.

I needed to shift.

“Care to show us this water source? I’m ready to get started on those canals.”

“Sure.”

“While you’re doing that, and Miah’s in the barn, I can start dinner.” Lisco had decided to leave the food we’d brought on the shuttle; the galley facility on there was better than the small house’s single burner stove that looked like it belonged in a museum. Since he was the one who did all the cooking, I’d bowed to his decision, then made plans to get new appliances ‘ported over as soon as possible. He’d get cranky without a good kitchen.

Miah looked up at him. “You’re not coming with us?” He didn’t sound happy about that.

“Of course I am!” Lisco leaned forward and cupped Miah’s cheek. “I want to see the land how you see it. I just figured you’d work better in the barn on your own, without worrying about me getting in your way. I’d rather only one of us shift at a time until your hands get better, and once Moshe’s done, he’ll be starving.”

“Oh.” Miah leaned into Lisco’s hand.

“We know how hard this is for you, Miah. It’s not hard to see your feelings about depending on us.” He barely knew us. I tried not to let on how much his attitude bugged me. I needed Lisco, and he needed me. Our people couldn’t survive alone—and none of us would want to. Living without a bond would kill us.

“I never expected to have anyone out here. It’s strange.” Miah rubbed his face with his forearm, sighing.

“That would have been very lonely,” I said. I couldn’t imagine it. “Living all alone? Forever?”

He shrugged. “It is what it is.” He acted nonchalant, like his need for other people wasn’t a gaping wound in him, barely covered by his forced indifference. The scars on his psyche from his life before we met him were so apparent, I don’t know how he thought he was hiding them. I could smell his desolation.

I think I always could.

Lisco reached for my hand. “Oh, that’s so sad.” We clung to each other, facing him, needing that physical connection to combat the empty chasm yawning inside Miah, pulling us in.

No. We wouldn’t let it.

We’d find a way to pull him out. I squeezed Lisco’s hand and then let him go.

“Hey!” Miah protested when I slid one arm under his legs and another behind his back, slinging him up into my arms. “What are you doing?” I headed for the bedroom.

“Showing you that you’re not alone anymore.”

Miah was tense and rigid when I set him down on the bed after carefully maneuvering into the small bedroom. Lisco approached from the foot of the bed, hopping up so he could crawl onto it. I watched Miah’s gaze dart between us.

“Relax,” I rumbled. “This is bonding. We touch and feel good. No one is going to do anything to you that you’re not ready for. We’d never hurt you like that.”

Miah grimaced and blew out a breath. “I know. I do. I just… not knowing what I’m doing makes me uncomfortable.”

“You know what you’re doing,” Lisco assured him with a smirk. “Trust me.”

He shook his head. “No, I really don’t. And damn, this is embarrassing.” He flung an arm over his eyes, hiding behind it.

“What we did earlier was perfect. The way you touched us and let us touch you? All three of us, together? It felt great.” I stood beside the bed. If I couldn’t touch Miah, I didn’t want to lay down. My organ was bulging in my pants.

Lisco lay down beside Miah and pulled his arm away from his face. “Look at him. Can you see how patient he is? He’s waiting for you to say it’s okay. Moshe would rather cut off a limb than hurt either of us.”

Miah stared at me. “You just met me. You don’t know me.”

“We back to that again?” Lisco gently tugged on Miah’s chin until he turned and looked at him. “We know enough. You know us enough, if you just ignore your human sensibilities to realize how right this is between us.”

I held my breath.

Slowly, their gazes locked the whole time, Miah leaned forward and kissed Lisco. I held my breath. He reached back for me. I nearly screwed up and grabbed his hand, but just managed to avoid the rigid bandages protecting them. I slid across the bed, blanketing the back of Miah’s body with mine. I brushed my hand across their faces, pushing their hair away so I could see better as they kissed. Miah squirmed, pushing forward against Lisco and then back into the cradle of my hips.

I groaned. “You’re going to kill me.”

Lisco broke the kiss. His lips were dark and wet. “You love it.”

Miah snickered when I agreed, then turned his head. He was a lot calmer and smiling; I loved seeing him like that. The scent of his happiness filled the air already pungent with arousal.

Time to do something about that.

 

By late afternoon we were all finally dressed again. Miah had shown us the barn and then started the tour of the property. It would’ve been faster if we’d shifted. I could’ve carried Miah on my back, and Lisco was itching to soar. But it was easier to hear what Miah had to say about the land and his plans for the stake when we stayed in human form.

Even Lisco stopped grumbling as we zigzagged across the edges of Miah’s stake from the house to the grass plains and back to the water. There was an enthusiasm and love for the earth that could almost be felt when Miah spoke.

“So here it is, the source of our water.” The lazily moving river was forced between tall, hardened banks. “It’s deeper than it looks. Without this, the whole area would be a complete wasteland.”

I stomped, feeling for the vibrations in the earth. It wasn’t as effective as in my true form, but I got a sense of a nicely packed soil. It was dry, but not so dry that it was hard packed or blowing away. “I can create the canals you wanted. If I shift, I can follow our scent back as I dig. Then I’ll come back here and connect to the river.”

“Can you come get me, before you do that?”

“Sure.”

“How about we go back? You can get to work in the barn, and I’ll get started on dinner,” Lisco suggested.

Miah stared up at me, a strange look on his face. “Can I…?” He hesitated.

“What?”

“Can I see you shift?” he asked in a rush.

“Oh.” He seemed embarrassed, like he’d asked to see something personal he shouldn’t. “Sure.” I grinned.

“You don’t mind?”

“Nah.” I shook my head. “We don’t go around shifting in public because humans gawk, but there’s nothing freaky about it, or anything.”

“Well, I wouldn’t want you to risk being gawked at,” Miah said. He pretended to look around us. “Nope, no gawkers here.”

Lisco smothered a laugh.

I reached down and tapped Miah’s nose. “Thanks for making sure for me.” We laughed. The sun was beating down, and the rich soil and metallic tang of the water surrounded us. The dome in the city allowed shifters to have space within the human territory to experience this, but it was a pale copy compared of the stark beauty of where we stood.

Stripping off my shirt and pants only took a few seconds. Miah gasped and choked. “No wonder you worry about gawkers,” he said in a strained voice.

Lisco chuckled. I was too busy absorbing the stimulus in my skin. I couldn’t see myself shift, but I’d watched others. Somehow, it just seemed like one form absorbed into the other, when I saw it happen, but so much more happened. It all passed in a fog for me, as my body stretched and expanded, my fur bursting from my skin as I grew outward. I slumped forward as my legs split from my sides and took my weight. The light dimmed and then went dark.

“Holy shit,” Miah said breathily. My fur quivered. I could feel the pulse of his heart, beating frantically in his chest. Lisco was standing behind him; his calm energy washed over me in a familiar wave.

“You can touch him.”

“Where?” Miah choked out. I shuffled closer, turning my side toward him. “Jygp. He can understand me?”

“I can. I can speak to you, too. Don’t you remember?”

Miah shook his head. “You did, didn’t you? That moment at the end of the hunt is kind of a blur.” He reached up, sliding his forearm along my side. “You’re so soft. This is strange. Where’s your face?”

“Don’t have one. Not like you think.”

“Then how can you see me? Talk to me?”

“I feel you. Every breath, every movement, sends a wave of information to me through my fur. I speak the same way I do as a human, though it’s harder in this form to make my vibrations match your words.”

“Okay. Wow. You guys are just so good at being human. I forgot how big you are, and what you look like in this form.” Miah leaned back in his chair. “You’re going to get filthy. All this white fur will take forever to clean.”

I rippled, imitating a human shrug by picking up my segments in sections. “I’ll shift back. Skin’s easier to clean.”

“More fun, too,” Lisco said. I could hear his leer and laughed.

“Fun for you later. Fun for me now.” I couldn’t wait to dig into the soil and feel it surround me. “I’ll come get you when I am done.”

“Okay.” Miah stroked me one more time. “See you soon.”

If I could’ve smiled, I would have. He wasn’t afraid of me this time, and he liked my true form. It truly had been the hunt, and not my body that scared him. I waited until they were at a safe distance before I extended my claws and began tunneling down at an angle. Thick clods of dirt fell behind me, and soft sprays of the looser surface soil sprinkled over my back.

Stretching my muscles felt good. I dug and moved, tracing our combined scents across the stake. Time passed while I was scraping out smooth half-moon trails in the ground for the water to follow, but I didn’t notice. I went under the pasture, deeper underground, coming up in a corner not too far from the barn. I scratched out a long rectangle Miah had shown me he wanted for something called a tank.

I stepped into the yard and stomped. I could feel Lisco’s energy bustling around the shuttle. Miah was inside the house. My rumble rolled out like thunder, calling to my bonded.

“Hey you, keep it down out there. I’m making a soufflé thingy,” Lisco snapped out the shuttle door.

Miah chuckled as he guided his hover chair out of the house and down the stairs toward me. “Done already?”

“Yep. You wanna come see?”

“Fool loves to dig,” Lisco muttered. “I’m going to have dinner ready in about two hours. Make sure you’re back by then.”

I rumbled my agreement to Lisco. “We can walk it backwards.”

The pond met with Miah’s approval, but he seemed surprised by the tunnels for the irrigation canals. “They’re narrower than I expected.”

“I thought you’d want to limit the water spreading out in each canal, so I used my back limbs to pack the soil behind me to create the narrower vee shape.”

“Yeah, that’s great.”

We didn’t check every canal in the fields—Miah liked what he saw of them on the way to the river, and we didn’t want to make Lisco mad by being late for dinner. “This is perfect,” Miah said when we got close to the river. I had him move his holo chair back, and then I finished the canal down to the river.

“Brr,” I rumbled as the water began to trickle and then blasted down the tunnel as the pressure of the current shifted. Water rushed into the new paths quicker than I thought it would. I climbed out and shook the beaded water off my fur. Mud coated my body from the belly down.

“Well, that got some of the dirt off my back, but now I’m muddy.” I took a deep breath and then relaxed into my shift, losing my extra limbs and fur as I slid to my knees, panting. The energy of the shift into my human form left me burning up. I blinked. I saw so much in my true form, but it was nothing like the way my eyes worked.

“You could’ve shifted back at the house. We have a shower there.”

“Nah. I’m roasting. The cold water will feel good.” I went up the bank from the new canal so I could avoid the current shift and then jumped in the river. Gooseflesh rose as the thin hair on my human body tried to protect me from the icy cold. It felt wonderful. I slid my hands over my body and up into my hair, scrubbing it before I broke the surface of the water with a gasp. “Ahh!”

“Are you okay?” Miah asked. He leaned forward in his hover chair, almost like he was about to jump in after me. I must have been under too long.

“Yep.” I scooped up a double handful of water and splashed my face, then smoothed my hair back. “Never better.” Miah’s avid expression caught my eye as I ran my hand down my chest, swiping off the dirt coating me. I grinned at him as I waded out of the water. He jumped and then turned red.

I laughed. “Caught you!”

Miah looked away and shrugged, but he smiled when I stopped for a kiss before I took my clothes from him. “Let’s get back. The smells coming from the shuttle have been driving me crazy all afternoon.”

Lisco’s dinner was great, as always. Getting ready for bed was easier; Miah had less hang ups about us helping him—a great side effect from our growing intimacy. We were all tired, though, so we fell into bed without doing more than cuddling. We had Miah in the middle, his hands on a pillow to keep them safe, and Lisco and I snuggled in close.

It got cold away from the coast! I was tempted to shift when I woke up in the early morning hours. Lisco had stolen most of the covers, rolling up in them like a Cashian worm. Miah had a little of the sheet, but his side against me was cold too. I grumbled but reached down to the foot of the bed—I’d been sleeping next to Lisco for years and knew what he was like—and grabbed the spare blanket I’d left there before we went to sleep. I spread it out across us, leaning over to tuck it under Miah so Lisco couldn’t steal it. Miah turned his head and nuzzled into my shoulder. I wanted to soothe the scars loneliness left on him, but he was healing parts of me I hadn’t known were hurting. Sinking back on my pillow, I smiled. I was exactly where I wanted to be. Finally it felt like we had a home.

 

The rude man on the holo who’d insisted Miah take the cattle early didn’t bother coming with the shipment. His men came, led by a guy in a gray hat and boots as broke down as Miah’s. They were polite and knew what they were doing. It was probably a good thing, since I didn’t. They greeted Miah, and soon words were flying between them I couldn’t begin to understand. I thought I knew the language, but this was different.

Head. Slicks. Bobs and brands. First cut.

And I had no idea why he called me a leppy when I offered to help move the cows from the truck to the fenced in area by the barn. He looked amused, but he didn’t seem like he was trying to be offensive, so I let it go. I could ask Miah later. The amusement faded off his face pretty quick when one of the cows decided not to go in the direction the cowboy wanted them to go through the gate, and I stopped it by shoving on its wide horns until it backed up. I rumbled, and it kept going, putting distance between us.

“Man, did you see him stop that weedy head? Glad you decided to bring in some guys. I still think you’re crazy, you know, but at least you aren’t suicidal enough to work this place all alone.” The guy in charge reached up and slapped me on the back. “Solid hand you got here. You’re lucky to have him, even if he’s a city slicker.”

Miah smirked at him. “You’ve no idea.”

“Lunch!” Lisco shouted. He’d set up some boards across the corner of the porch and there were big, thick sandwiches and cold salads spread across it. There was even a giant pitcher of lemonade. He must have used the ‘porter to get more supplies. We’d left him inside muttering over the menu and what to feed real cowboys wearing leather pants that morning—I bet he’d used the holo to look it up.

“Tuck in,” Lisco said.

I held in my snicker. Yeah. He’d looked it up. The guys muttered thanks as they filled their plates nearly as much as I did. They were all so lean; I had no idea where they put it all. I sat down next to Miah, leaning against his legs. “Wanna share?” I asked him. I held up my sandwich so he could take a bite. He ate about half before Lisco demanded he try the lemonade he’d worked so hard to make, sticking the cup with a straw in a holder he’d attached to the holo chair.

He must have ‘ported in to make it easier for Miah to get a drink himself. He looked happy about that, stretching for the straw. Miah tried lemonade. “Nice and cold. It’s good, sour with just the right amount of sweet. I hope you made a lot.” He took another drink.

Lisco smiled, and gave him a peck on the mouth. “I have more for dinner.” Lisco swept his hand down the back of my head and squeezed my neck. “Got some of that chicken casserole stuff you like, too.” My stomach was full, but already I couldn’t wait for dinner. I could see it now. The sun would be going down behind the barn, full of the beginnings of the herd Miah wanted to grow. We’d sit on the steps, Miah between us, while we enjoyed a quiet dinner, just the three of us.

The cowboy raised an eyebrow, and then grinned. “Damn lucky bastard.”

Miah winked. “Like I said; you’ve no idea.”