Page 37 of Theirs to Crave
As though he felt my gaze on him, Zafett looked up from his cooking. My anticipation must have been clear—even to an alien—because he smiled, and his tail rose gracefully to wave behind him.
He really was just unbelievably gorgeous.
He’d finally stopped pouting, for which I was grateful. If Revik hadn’t snapped him out of it, I’d have...every thought in my head stopped, rememberinghowRevik had snapped him out of it. My body whimpered.
I was officially confused. Last night, I’d thought Litha and Revik were partners. But the way Revik’s body had moved over Zafett...the way he’d bitten him...the way he’dpurred? That hadnotlooked platonic.
Were they...polyamorous aliens? My gaze darted between the three of them, cooking together with companionable ease. I forgot how to breathe. That meant—they might—ay, Dios mío, I wasn’t strong enough to think about what all that might mean.
A small hand patted my chest, and I remembered to inhale.
Yin was seated cross-legged beside me, and xe patted her lap. When I raised an eyebrow, xe touched my hair and patted xyr lap again.
I felt awkward and a little clumsy as I shifted around. But when my head was cradled in xyr lap, xe started to croon softly, and relaxation washed over me like the tide. My thoughts quieted with every pass of gentle fingers over my head, and I floated in that timeless place between waking and sleep, where there are no expectations, no questions.
Yin’s hand stilled.
I blinked as the sounds around me grew distinct. The fire snapped and hissed against the endless fall of rain, and I realized the conversations around me had stopped.
“Food is ready,” Yin murmured.
Oh. Oh! I rolled to my feet, squeezing Yin’s hand as I helped xem up. “Thank you, Abuele.”
Xe squeezed my hand, tugging until I leaned down to look xem in the eyes.
“We choose how to live. We do not have to choose today.”
I blinked rapidly as I kissed xem on the cheek, feeling the satiny softness of ultra-fine scales beneath my lips.
We squeezed in around the low table where the Teterayuh took their meals. It was piled high with steaming chunks of eel-salmon, juicy bluesorumelon, piles of small white berries resembling blueberries—but in bunches like grapes—and what looked for all the world like yellow carrots.
I looked around the very full table and was struck by uncertainty. Breakfast and lunch had just been us and Svixa, since Revik and Litha were out and the menfolk were busy being idiots. Mariano and Shane had calmed down after Zafett had helped get our collars off. Good thing, too. They’d been about ten minutes away from hearing what I’d thought of their behavior.
But now that all three adult Teterayuh were seated around the table with us, things felt more...formal. The others felt it too, because no one made a move to start eating.
“Litha...” I said, trying to pick the words I needed from the Teterayuh language-soup that filled my head after a day of new vocabulary. “Zay jore...thenra jore? Or...zay la ra jore?” That was supposed to be, “You eat, then I eat? Or you and I eat?” but by the confused look on her face I was pretty sure I’d fucked it up somehow.
Understanding widened her eyes, and she reached for a bunch of berries, pulling them apart to offer me half. “Zhai la ra,” she confirmed.You and I. “Algot joaral.”
Okay. I was pretty sure that meant “we eat together”. I was also pretty sure they conjugated their verbs, like in Spanish, but hadn’t figured out the details yet.
Hesitantly, I pulled off one of the berries, encouraged when she did the same. It burst between my teeth, sharp and sour, andmy jaw clenched reflexively. After the initial shock, I chewed, delighted. They were a good sour, like lemons or sour candy.
The ice broken, everyone dug in. The Teterayuh ate family style, mostly with their hands. The eel-salmon was served in a big shallow clay dish with several large shells—like clam shells but bigger than my fist—next to it, and I waited impatiently for one of them to take some.
After demolishing a pound of the sour berries, Revik reached out a long arm and scooped up a chunk of the delicious-smelling meat. He used one of the shells, which he placed in front of himself. Then he tore off a piece with two claws—I almost drooled as I watched the tender flesh fall apart beneath his slightest touch—and ate it with every sign of enjoyment.
I was breathing in the fragrant steam, holding my own shell filled with eel-salmon, before he even finished chewing. It was hot enough to burn my fingers, but that didn’t stop me. My eyes fluttered shut as the flavors exploded on my tongue. The meat was tender, buttery, and rich. It wasn’t quite salmon, but damn if I didn’t like this better.
I bit back a moan, not wanting to look like I was trying to star in a porno, and chewed slowly, savoring every second. This was definitely my new favorite alien food.
I must not have been very successful in hiding my pleasure, because when I opened my eyes, everyone was looking at me. I squirmed.
“It’s really good,” I said defensively, as Ria snickered and Cass hid a smile behind her hand. Turning to the Teterayuh, I tried, “Edda es ray.”
Svixa giggled, so my attempt to say “it’s good” must have missed the mark. But I got my point across, because Zafett scooped another piece onto my shell and smiled at me.
I barely noticed all the teeth.