Adult-FanFiction.org : Movies

A Union of Convenience (Formerly ‘Alone’)	By : Keen Category: M through R > Predator Views: 13009 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own the Predator movie series, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 15
- 16
- 17
            Isis
strode up the steps to the infirmary level, cinching the ends of her dress so
she did not trip. It would have been easier to take a lift but the stares and
whispers were beginning to get to her. She doubted she could survive the minute
ride in cramped quarters without giving into her violent impulses. Isis already had enough troubles, but not as many as
some.
            She opened the doors to the main
receiving area and saw Gi sitting at its front. The
only living soul in the oversized space, the pale creature looked all the more
lonely surrounded by the multitude of empty benches in the dim light. Gi turned at the sound of the opening door and waved
furiously with a bright smile, cradling her protruding belly.
            “I am so glad you made it!” she
beamed, clapping her hands. “I was beginning to worry you wouldn’t come.”
            Isis
took the seat next to her and patted her thigh. “I promised you, didn’t I?”
            “Yes,” she nodded, bouncing her
curly white locks. “And normally I would hold you to it, but the way things
have been as of late, I would have understood if you didn’t.”
            Joi’en put Bahdri
in charge of Clan Relations and almost immediately he made ‘mingling’ illegal.
The yautja and foreigner couples already members of Ge’tan were allowed to stay, but they were not treated as
equals, especially their foreigner mates. The mandate was so far reaching, Isis wasn’t allowed to sit at the Elder’s table anymore,
but that suited the woman just fine.
            “Even if Elder ‘Butt-hole’ banned
me, I would have come,” Isis smiled. “Now is
the time for us freaks to stick together, don’t you think?”
            Gi flung
her arms around the woman and hugged her tightly. Isis
could not have known how much it meant to hear that. The woman never seemed to
know what her words meant. Even now she looked stunned by her reaction but Gi didn’t stop, she only squeezed harder.
            “I am an emotional wreck when I am
pregnant,” she explained with a nervous laugh, slowly turning Isis
loose. “It’s even worse now that everybody is different. But I do not need to
tell you that,” she said putting her hands in her lap. “Are things better with
you and Ali’shir?”
            Isis
shook her head ‘no.’ The male treated her like a
stranger, worse than a stranger when
she thought about it. He would not acknowledge her in the hall,
if he saw her he would turn and walk in the opposite direction. At home, on the
off occasion he would return back there, he would greet her with silence.
Striding in like a ghost, bathing by himself and
laying down with his back to her as he went directly to sleep.
            Gone where the days where he would
groan about his day while she massaged his back. Isis
would offer, but he would curtly refuse, snapping he was too tired. At the
day’s start, Isis would almost always awake to
find herself alone in the oversized bed, overwrought with the feeling in more
ways than one. Isis had not expected anything
better from the Council, from the rest of the ship, but she had expected more
from Ali’shir. He was supposed to be her partner in this; he was her confidant
as well as her protector.
            Isis
blinked to keep her tears inside and Gi sighed. She
took her friend by the arm and made her lean against her shoulder while she
stroked her hair. “It’s ok, Isis. He will come
back to his senses soon enough, just give him time to deal with his anger.”
            “I just wish I knew what he was
angry about.”
            “Who knows with males?” Gi groaned, shifting in her seat. Isis
sat up, her brows furrowed as she watched the female move with a wince. “My
back is stiff,” she explained.
            Isis
snuck her hands behind her waist and massaged her lower back. “How long have
you been waiting?”
            “A while,” she shrugged with a faint
smile. Isis pulled down the back of her dress
and saw the red depressions the seat made in her ivory skin. “I got here early
but I forgot that they only take foreigners during certain hours now.”
            “They should take you whenever you
come, it’s not like they have droves of pregnant females coming their way,” Isis grit.
            “But those are the rules now.”
            “Well you’ll fuck around and
miscarry following these stupid rules.” Isis
stood and walked to the room’s head, rapping on the frosted partition. The
blurred figure that sat down behind it shifted, sliding the door open. Isis was surprised when the male greeted her with a bow.
            “How can I be of service?” the
healer’s apprentice asked.
            “Help her,” she said pointing at Gi. “I am no expert, but I think she is too far along to be
doing anything but resting, don’t you?”
            “Yes,” he nodded, snapping his
fingers to the workers behind him. “I am sorry, Elder,
I did not know she was with you.”
            Isis
should have told him it didn’t matter who she was with but she would not split
hairs now. Gi was getting the help she needed. The
female looked up at her as they wheeled her by, smiling wryly.
            “I forget you are an Elder, Isis.”
            “So do I,” she chuckled with
disbelieving. “I was expecting a fight.”
            “Then let us not disappoint you.”
            Isis
turned toward the voice and was blind-sided by an open handed slap. She fell to
the floor and moved to stand only to be rushed upon. A female she had never
seen before pushed her back down, slapping and scratching at her. Isis would have punched the female if she wasn’t pregnant
and obviously deranged, but as it was, all she could do was hold her hands
until the infirmary staff pulled her away. They dragged her to the room’s
centre and left her there to sob on her knees. Another female came trotting
from behind the partition, her green gown flowing water as she knelt beside her
friend.
            “Bren’a,”
she hissed. “What have you done? This female is an Elder,
you have signed your own execution!”
            “Then I will be there to welcome my
son once her mate finally kills him.”
            Isis
turned then, parting the workers to near the female. “What is that supposed to
mean?”
            Bren’a
broke into even more sobs but the female at her side, Hani,
spoke for her. “Her son Kane is in Elder Ali’shir’s
class. My son as well,” she sighed lowering her eyes. “We have seen far too
much of this place as of late. He pushes them entirely too hard. It is as if he
cannot wait for them to go to trial.”
            Isis
slid her eyes to Gi and tilted her head, “Have you
heard about this?”
            The female nodded once, sending a long
snowy tendril to fall in her face. “I have heard gossip, but I did not believe
them to be anything more than that. Ali’shir… Elder Ali’shir,” she corrected herself, remembering they were not
alone anymore. “…could not be the monster I have heard described.”
            “He is,” Bren’a
hissed bitterly, gulping air. “And I will not be like you or Elder Bahdri and accept ‘this is how things are done’ as an
answer anymore. I cannot afford to,” she cried. “My mate is gone,
Kane is all I have left.”
            The ship’s guards entered and a
grave silence fell over the room. Summoned by the Healer’s apprentice, they
were here to take Bren’a away. The female stood with
composure and strode toward them, ready to accept their punishment and all it
meant, when Isis stepped in her path.
            “There is really no need for this,”
she said turning to the guards. “There was just a slight misunderstanding, but
everything is fine now.”
            The obvious leader among them looked
sceptical. Isis had obviously been in a fight,
her arms were red with scratches, her face too. Both she and the female on the
floor looked dishevelled, their dresses askew, but the Elder maintained
everything was fine.
            Slowly he turned away, nodding at
his contingent to do the same. They left and Isis
turned to face Bren’a.
            “I will talk to my mate about your
son and yours,” she said nodding to the other female.
            Isis
offered her hand and Bren’a took it, cradling her
stomach as she struggled to her feet. “I am sorry,” she said shyly.
            Isis
gave her a pat on the shoulder and left her for Hani
to take. She could understand the female’s rage as she felt it herself now.
            “I am sorry, Gi,
but I must go. You will be in good hands, right?” Isis
asked, looking up at the healer’s apprentice with hard gaze.
            The male shook his head furiously
and Isis moved for the door. Gi felt a knot form in her stomach as she watched her go. Isis looked and sounded entirely too calm. She turned her
chair to face the woman and called out, “Isis,
please do not do anything foolish.”
            “Relax, Gi,”
Isis gave a smile so cold, Gi
felt her skin crawl. “I’m just going to talk to him.”
            The Vae
female tried to move from the wheeled seat but the apprentice told her it was
useless, the Elder was long gone. “You will just have to see her later.”
            “I hope that I will,” Gi whimpered holding her suddenly aching head.


            Isis
burst open the doors to Ali’shir’s trophy room and
saw the male hunched over his workbench. He ignored her as usual, not even
glancing over his shoulder as she entered, continuing to brush the skull in his
hand. He didn’t see her as she strode to his case and lifted the prize of his
collection off its gleaming fixtures. It was his first ever hard meat trophy, a
massive thing with a long sloping ivory head and rows upon rows of sharpened
teeth.
            It took hours to buff away the tough
ebony top layer, to clean and cure it, even more time to corner and kill the
thing, especially since he was such a novice. It was the absolute favourite of
his growing collection and Isis took it, held
it above her head and smashed it down on the floor.
            Ali’shir turned hearing the noise,
feeling the sting of flying debris as he was pelted with the broken shards. He
looked at the floor and stood with a roar, “Have you lost your mind, Isis?!”
            “Well imagine that,” she mused,
putting her hands on her hips. “He remembers my name. Do you remember the name
of the boy you sent to the infirmary today?”
            “Is this why you destroyed my most
prized trophy?”
            “I smashed that thing because you
wouldn’t have looked at me otherwise.”
            “And you thought this would make me want to look at you?” he growled,
crouching to the ground, scooping the broken shards into a pile.
            “It didn’t matter if you wanted to
or not, so long as you did because we have to talk.”
            “About what?”
            “Kane, the only
living family of Bren’a.” Ali’shir hissed
dismissively but Isis continued to talk. “If
your class is unprepared, spend the time to prepare them. Don’t send them out
there to the slaughter just because you have a schedule to keep.”
            “Do not presume to tell me how to
conduct my class, human,” he bristled. “This is a very critical time in their
training. Not all of them will make it. That is simply the fact of the matter.”
            “I was attacked today.” Ali’shir
paused and looked up at her, seeing the marks his rage made him blind to. “A
mother, who was afraid of losing her son, tried to tear me apart because I was
as close as she could get to you.”
            “Are you ok?”
            “No. I won’t be ok until you stop
this. Sit down and talk with the female, explain your methods to her and
reassure her that you’re not a monster out to kill her son. Please, Ali’shir.”
            Isis
laid a hand on his shoulder and he shook it off. “I have no reason to talk to
her. I am in the business of teaching them how to fight and survive. When I
need help on how to breast feed them, then I will entertain her questions.”
            Isis’s
hand balled into a fist. “Entertain her
questions?” she blinked. “Do you hear yourself, Ali’shir? You are a parent yourself, surely you could understand the benefits of taking
the time to explain yourself to the female.”
            “That is not how I do things.”
            “Then tell me how you do things
because I don’t understand you anymore.”
            Ali’shir said nothing, continuing to
collect the bits of bone in his hand, making Isis
stew that much more. He couldn’t have been more unaffected by the pain he was
inflicting on others, his only thoughts were repairing some stupid object
rather than a life.
            “You have changed, Ali’shir, and not
for the better,” she said, quietly.
            “I am not the only one,” he grit,
tossing the pieces onto the table. He turned and looked at Isis,
staring back at him expectantly, waiting patiently for him to continue his
thought, but instead he lowered his head, striding past her. “We are done
here,” he said quietly.
            Isis
followed behind him as he moved to the door. “What the hell is that supposed to
mean? ‘I am not the only one?’”
            “Nothing,” Ali’shir paused as Isis darted in front of him, blocking the door with her
body. “Move, female.”
            “Not until you tell me what you
meant by that, because at the moment, only one of us is being called a monster
out there.”
            Ali’shir reached for the door
handles and Isis shoved him back. He caught
her by the thick of her arm and squeezed so tight she yelped. “Do you really
want to fight me, human?” he said, bending her arm back. “It will not be at all
friendly this time.”
            Isis
lifted her eyes, searching his. “What is wrong
with you, Ali’shir?”
            The male reared his head back a
little. The softness of her voice unnerved him. She didn’t shout or scream,
although he knew her to be angry and in a fair amount of pain. Pain he was
inflicting on her.
            Ali’shir released her, tossing her
to the side as he moved for the door again. “Not everything I do is your
business, Isis. Do not ask me again.”
            “I’m not asking. I’m demanding,” she called after him. “I
want to know what made you into this uncaring, un-feeling, disgraceful… thing.”
            “Disgraceful?” he echoed.
            Isis
felt a spike of cold fear jut into her veins. He slid the latches of the door,
locking it tight. His tone, his mannerisms said he was trying to restrain his
rage, but just barely. Ali’shir turned away from the door and Isis
bolted, heading for the other exit, near his desk. Her heart raced to hear him
tromping behind her, it stopped in her chest when he leapt to stand in front of
her.
            He grabbed her by scruff of her
neck, dragging her back to the centre of the room and his workbench. Ali’shir
cleaned the table in one heave, tipping it on its side to dump the contents on
the floor before he slammed her down on top of it. Isis
twisted, kicking at his chest with her naked feet. She peeled away from him a
little but he cinched his grip on her, pinning her flat against the table,
holding her still as he tore at the neck of her dress.
            Isis
swung her fists, landing blow after blow on his cheek until he grabbed her
wrists. He tucked her hands behind her head with one hand and held her down
with the other, holding her perfectly still as he pressed his face between her
beasts. He moved to her neck, breathing deeper, then under her arms, down her
stomach.
            Isis
tried to wriggle away but Ali’shir forced her down with a growl. He crushed her
neck closer to his face, messing her hair, pressing his nose against every
curve there. He knew her scent like his own, it was ingrained on his skin and
everything he owned, and yet he missed it. Even now he missed it. Perhaps it
was lower?
            Ali’shir moved his head down to her
hips and Isis kicked at him, nearly twisting
right off the table. “What the hell are you doing?!”
            “I know he has had you. Tu’shar told
me as much, but I must scent him on you for myself.”
            “Scent who?”
            Ali’shir lifted his head, eyes
flashing. “You know who, Isis.” She went limp then. Ali’shir could feel her
body grow heavy and watched her head hit the table. “How could you seek him
out?”
            “I didn’t. I didn’t.” Isis told him the truth, how she came home and found him in
the closet and he jumped her. “I didn’t tell you because I was ashamed.”
            “If Gi
hadn’t interrupted you, you would not have stopped, would you?”
            Isis
shook her head and Ali’shir put his fist through the table, punching a hole
clean through the metal right next to her head. Isis
took a shaking breath and looked him in the eyes as he lowered himself over
her, tears rolling down her cheeks.
            “Why?” he asked, his voice cracking.
            Isis
shrugged her shoulders. “Because he wanted me.”
            “But you are mine,” Ali’shir hissed
against her neck. “You belong to me, Isis.”
            Isis
cried and tried to push him away but Ali’shir held her. His hand pinched her
cheeks, forcing her to look on him as he pulled the mask from his face. His
mouth fell hard on hers, forcing her head against the table with strength. Isis would have screamed but she could not breathe. The
force of his kiss, his body thrusting down against hers, squeezed all the air
from her lungs. She tried to scoot backward, slide from under him to catch her
breath but he dragged her back. His hands fisted the flesh of her hips and
Ali’shir slid her down under him. He took her behind her knees and spread her
legs wide, falling between her thighs with a heavy smack.
            Isis
gasped and clutched at the table’s edges. Ali’shir thrust forward, grinding
against her with his pelvis as he palmed her breasts. His thumbs flicked over
her nipples, around the sweet curves of her chest and down her sides. His hands
travelled lower and Isis lifted her hips,
craving his touch where she ached the most. She waited
too long for this moment to even think about being coy and thankfully, Ali’shir
would not deny her.
            His mouth followed his hands as he
moved down from her breasts to her waist, kissing and licking a hot path down
the length of her torso, rolling her flesh forcefully in his hands. Isis lifted her head and saw as he slid down her front,
grabbing and bruising her body. He reached her lap and then fisted her hips
again, eased her against the erection between his thighs, bucking his lower
back to rub the swollen tip of himself against her. Ali’shir growled feeling
her moisten him through the cloth. She was ready. Hot and wet, writhing
underneath him, waiting to be claimed, wanting to be claimed.
            Isis
gasped sharply as he stretched over her with speed. Ali’shir roughly fisted her
hair, forcing her to arch against him. She shivered feeling his mouth press
slow and deliberate kisses down the length of her neck. He licked a spot just
below her ear, cleaning her flesh with his tongue, before biting down. Her
flesh gave with a pop and his teeth sank in, slowly filling his mouth with her
taste. Ali’shir crushed his mouth harder against her neck, pressing his face
against her shoulder. When she made a pained sound he forced himself to let up
his grip on her, allowing her to move away if she wanted. He hadn’t meant to be
so ravenous but Isis didn’t seem to mind. He
groaned with satisfaction when she clasped her arms around his neck, pulling
him close.
            She was his. Really
his. His mate wanted him to touch her even if it brought pain. She
wanted to see him even with his face as it was. She wanted all of him and he
her.
            Isis
fell against the table with a thump, dizzy and limp. Ali’shir’s
teeth left her throat and heat washed over her like a wave. She was heady, lost
in the sensation and sounds around her, but she was keenly aware of the blood
that slicked her neck and the warm body that moved down her own. Isis hissed feeling his claws bite into her legs.
Ali’shir pushed her down by her calves, forcing her knees down to the table,
opening her fully to him. She looked between her open legs and the muscles of
his chest clenched taught as he tore at his cloth. The muscles of his abs
twitched again as he grabbed his erection. Ali’shir pressed the head of his
cock against her lips. He growled contentedly watching her eyes widen as he
touched her. His size should have been no surprise, she knew his body like her
own, but Isis still gasped with surprise as he
wet his tip in her juices. The soft sound broke the male’s restraint. Ali’shir
pushed past her swollen lips and fisted her hips, taking firm hold of her
bottom before he roughly thrust forward, filling her completely in one swoop.
            Isis
screamed. Veins stood out against her throat, water sprang to her eyes and she
struggled against his chest to sit up. She grabbed his arms, trying to brace
herself against the sudden thick intrusion but there was no escaping. Isis felt her body tearing under the force, widening
painfully to accept him as he pushed himself inside again and again. Ali’shir
shunted inside her with force in heavy, savage digs. She tried to move away, to
lessen each weighty blow, but he followed, forcing himself so deep inside her,
she knocked her head against the table.
            Ali’shir tucked his head in the
curve of her shoulder. He could see she was in pain but he was unable to stop.
She held him too tightly; her noises were too sweet in his ears. He felt
possessed; physically incapable to stop pleasuring himself with her body, so he
gave up. Ali’shir pressed his face against her neck and shut his eyes tight.
With each thrust of his hips he willed her to enjoy it as much as he did,
begged her to in shuddered whispers against her breasts. His silent prayers
seemed to be answered as Isis seized his arms something
not totally pained desperation.
Isis opened her eyes and arched off the
table, a spark of hot pleasure struck inside her by Ali’shir’s
thrusting. Her fists wrung in his locks as she closed her legs around him
screaming high and long. Pulling on the long ropes of his hair forced Ali’shir
to lift his head from her shoulder and his eyes met hers as she rolled her hips
against him. Her entire body trembled and spasmed
with pleasure. Ali’shir pressed so hard she felt him in her belly, her
body overflowing with his flesh. She closed her eyes and felt hot tears roll
down her cheeks. It was a combination of utter frustration and blissful delight
that she cried now. After going so long without this connection she felt she
would die from wanting and now she felt she would die from having. And
thankfully, Ali’shir would be one to kill her.
            His hands tightened on her hips and
he thrust again. Ali’shir groaned throatily when she lifted her hips to meet
him, rutting back against him as fiercely as he did against her. She was
adjusted to his size now and wanted more. She stared at him with hungry eyes
and tightened her legs round him, digging her heels into the small of his back,
urging him to fuck her harder. Faster.
            Ali’shir moved to hunch over her,
fisting the table under them with threatening as he moved faster. Sweat poured
down the valley of his shoulders, making his back glisten as he slammed into
her harder and harder. The entire table vibrated, shook with hard force until
he felt her inner walls close on him. He froze almost instantly. Isis arched off the table with a wail and her insides
gripped Ali’shir’s cock so much it hurt him to move.
She gasped to breathe and Ali’shir fell forward growling against her belly. The
relentless contractions of her orgasm violently milked his cock, sending him
over the edge. He wasn’t aware of much besides his own breathing and the throb of
his flesh imbedded in her warmth, but still he reached a trembling hand out to
her. He fisted her hair as he plunged inside a final time, moving deeper with a
moan.
            Isis went lamely where she was
pulled, falling against him, her bottom flush against his lap as he gushed his
release deep inside her. Even when he was done cuming,
he still continued to rock against her, staring intently in her dark eyes as he
stroked pleasured shivers from her, his flesh still pulsing inside her. He
moved his arms beside her head, sweeping the hair from her eyes, wiping the
last traces of tears from her cheeks with his thumb. Ali’shir lowered his face
to her and Isis felt heat flush her cheeks.
She started to cry again when he pressed a tender kiss against her lips. Her
arms wrapped around him and he moved to lay flush against her, wanting to be
held. It was clear to them both now that neither of them was pretending and
that they had not been for a while.

            Sometime during the course of the
evening, in-between heated interludes, Isis and Ali’shir managed to find their
way to their bed which is where Isis woke the
next morning. Still half asleep she stretched her arm out to touch the male and
frowned when her hand smoothed an empty pillow.
            It
didn’t take long for things to go back to normal she groaned, turning on
her side. She stood with a whimper, clutching the edge of the bed to steady
herself. Her body protested with aches, her legs feeling more like clunky
weights as she struggled to move across the floor.
            From the dark of the corner, Ali’shir
watched her amble along. With his legs propped up on a bench, the male watched
over her as she slept in between working in his tablet. He set the device down
as she waddled like a rigid board down the corridor. It made him somewhat perversely proud to know
he had done that, but he did not like to see her suffer.
            Ali’shir left his seat and walked
behind her, startling the woman as he swept his arms around her. He cradled her
against his chest as he moved in the direction she once did.
            “Where do you want to go?”
            He asked the question with a smirk
but Isis didn’t see it, she kept her gaze on
the floor. “The bath,” she replied.
            Ali’shir moved down the hall. The
bathroom was a wide and rounded room, at the centre of its obsidian floor was a
rectangular pool. He held Isis as he carefully
descended the steps, wading in waist high before she twisted out of his arms
and swam down. She resurfaced on the other end and Ali’shir watched her as she
bathed with her head down, back to him. It was not his imagination that she
purposely did not look at him when he carried her. Nor was it like the woman to
be so painfully timid. In all the time he had known her she never shied away
from him, even when he ordered her to.
            Ali’shir cut silently through the
water, swimming to her, staring at her back as she pretended he was not there.
            “I do not think I was mistaken last
night, Isis. I do not believe I forced
anything on you that you did not want.” Isis
shook her head and Ali’shir gave a sigh of relief. “Then what is it that has
you acting like this?”
            Isis
moved away. His tone said he found this amusing more than anything else. Surely
if she told him what she thought he would laugh. “It’s nothing, I am just
tired.”
            Ali’shir slid in front of her and touched
her shoulder. “You are lying.” Isis turned
again but he stepped in front of her again, blocking her every time. When he
cornered her, she finally stopped and looked up at him. “Talk, female. You
never had trouble doing it before.”
            Isis
turned her head with a chuckle and Ali’shir turned it back, pressing his lips
against hers. He kissed her deeply, slowly, building something she felt from
the soles of her feet to the tips of her ears. Her arms fell around his
shoulders, her legs wrapped around his waist and Ali’shir pressed her back
against the bath’s edge. He could feel her heels dig into the small of his
back, her hips pivoted toward his stroking her folds against his shaft. As much
as it pained him, Ali’shir broke away, pushing her back enough to put space
between their hips.
            Isis
whined, “Don’t be such a tease, Ali.”
            “I would not have to be if you would simply
speak.”
            “Fine,” she huffed, unclasping her
legs. “When I woke up and you weren’t there…I wondered if you thought you made
a mistake. I thought maybe I was inadequate or-”
            Inadequate
he hissed. “That damn female,” Ali’shir growled. “Why do you even talk to her Isis? You know no good can come of talking to Kaian.”
            Isis
was thoroughly surprised. “H-how did you know?”
            “It is one of her most favourite
words. She used it to describe me on more than one occasion,” he grit, thinking
back. “I imagine she still does.”
            “You are right about that and but
you are wrong to say I talk to her. She talks to me, always going on about how
I don’t belong here, how I am not your equal and we don’t belong together.”
            Ali’shir held her tight around the
waist. “You know that to be false, right? You do belong with me.”
            “I doubt you could find anyone else
willing to put up with you,” she snickered.
            Ali’shir nodded in agreement, not
that he even wanted to try. The one wanted was right in his arms. He bent down
and kissed her again, his hands splaying wide over her slick flesh, his claws
biting into her shoulder blades. Isis moaned
into his mouth and clamped her legs around him again. Nearly every struggle and
trial that plagued them until this point was gone, obliterated by his touch and
kiss, still one thing bothered her.
            “During the good-bye party for the
visiting Elder Cad’li,” she began. “Gi started to tell me what happened between you and Kai but
Heron said it was best that I asked you for that story.”
            “So?” he said, pretending to be
ignorant. He kissed her mouth again but Isis
was not so easily distracted.
            “So, I’d like to know why she hates
you so much.”
            Ali’shir ground his teeth. He did
not want to go into this now but she had been honest with him, the least he
could do was return the favour. He took a centring breath and said sombrely,
“She thinks I killed our son.”
            “I assume we are not talking about
the one down in holding?”
            Ali’shir shook his head. “She and I
had two sons, Yash’in, the one in the cell that you met and En’kal.
Perhaps you met him too.”
            “Why would I have?” Isis smiled.
            “Because he was on
your ship with his brother. The one that A’rah found
you on.” Isis’ smile fell flat.
Ali’shir had to look away to continue, the truth would hurt her, but she
deserved no less than it. “Kaian called me in my exile to find them, to bring
them back. I found my youngest first but he refused to leave without his
brother…and when I tried to make him, he must have fallen on my knife.”
Ali’shir took a shuddered breath as he remembered how the story ended; it still
twisted at him now, all these years later. “I found him later with a wound to
his stomach. It must have gotten worse when he ran away from me; his insides
were on the floor around him and all I could do for him was hold his hand and
watch as the light left his sad eyes.”
            “I do remember your son, the one
with the sad eyes” Isis said, her brows
furrowed in thought. “They were purple like Kai’s. His skin was even toned like
hers as well.” Ali’shir nodded and Isis
smoothed his shoulders. “I remember him but I also remember you did not do that
to him. The other yautja did.”
            Ali’shir growled in his throat,
“What other one?”
            “The one that took me to his ship…” Isis’ voice trailed as the memories rushed back to her.
“I did not understand the language then. It just sounded like a bunch of clicks
and growls, but I knew they were fighting.” She paused. “En’kal
pulled out a knife but the other one was quicker. He gutted him like nothing.
He killed your son.”
            “Impossible,” he growled. “You were
traumatised. You do not know what you saw.”
            “Don’t tell me what I did or did not
see, Ali’shir.” Isis frowned, “I couldn’t stop
seeing it for so long, A’rah had to drug me so I could
sleep at night. That other male killed your son. I would think you would be
happy about that.”
            “Not when that other male is his
brother,” he shouted. “There was only one other yautja
alive on that ship when I arrived and Yash’in would not have killed his
brother!” Isis lowered her head, biting her
lip. Under her hands she could feel his chest tremble with rage. There was
danger in the air, it prickled her skin. Ali’shir was agitated, angry and near
tears all at once.
            He could not be with his sons or
keep them away from their mother, but Ali’shir felt they would always be ok as
long as they had one another. Despite a century of silence between he and A’rah, his sister came to his aid when he called her.
Family always fought for family, never against it.
            “My son would not be so
dishonourable,” he said to no one.
            “Maybe it was an accident, Ali,” Isis said, trying to soothe him. “Maybe En’kal became infected like me and his brother was trying
to do the honourable thing by him.”
            “Would you call what they did to
your Captain honourable?” He snapped, irritated by her overly consoling tone.
“Or did you call it what I did--murder?”
            Isis
was struck silent by his callous outburst. Not because of how he spoke to her
but what he said. Captain An-lee Walsh was female and six weeks pregnant. Isis found her face down on the docks, a spear through
the base of her skull, blood and brains seeping through the slatted floors like
the glistening threads of a cobweb. She had not been infected and the woman was
a staunch pacifist so she never touched a weapon. So why would any honourable
warrior kill her? The answer chilled Isis to
her core. She brought her hands away from him and held herself as she spoke.
            “Ali’shir, did your sons bring that…plague to my ship?” she asked. Ali’shir
had a thoughtful moment of silence before he nodded and Isis
nearly swooned.
            She would have fallen under the
water if Ali’shir wasn’t there to catch her, but the last thing she wanted was
to be held by him. His son, his flesh and blood, destroyed not only his family
but hers as well. Yash’in killed her brother and Ali’shir had not thought to tell
her that before. Neither did A’rah.
            “Get off me!” she yelled, pushing at
him.
            Ali’shir did not listen, if anything
he held her tighter, trying to still her frenzied movements. “What is done is
done, Isis.”
            Isis
jabbed him with her elbows and slipped through his hands. “Is that all you can
say?” she yelled. “Is that really all
you have to say to me?”
            “Isis,
please,” he growled. “I have just
learned my son has killed his brother. Do not pick a fight with me now.”
            “He killed my brother too, Ali’shir.
My best friends, my boyfriend Douglass, my family!” she thrashed, slapping water at
him.
            Vane, her brother, was the only
family by blood she really had left, but her crew became what they lost. She
held her rolling stomach as she remembered each one of their faces. It made her
sick to think she lost them so senselessly but the fact their killers were
being punished eased her pain some.
            “That is why you did not want to
tell me why Yash’in was in lock up,” she said, thinking back on the night she
found Ali’shir in the detainment cells. “He’s rotting in that place because he
killed my family.”
            Ali’shir shook his head, “My son is
where he is for defying Council’s order that he return and he is due to be released
in a few days.”
            “So murdering innocents, my family,
doesn’t matter?”
            “Of course not, your kind is just
prey to us,” he answered.
            Isis
could only blink, utterly stunned and stupefied. At the same time, her heart
felt like it shred into a million slivers and it suddenly hurt to breathe. Kai
may have been a vindictive piece of work but she was absolutely right, she was
not Ali’shir’s equal. Not in council’s eyes and
certainly not in his.
            “Isis,”
Ali’shir reached for her and she flinched like he sought to burn her, a tear
rolling down her cheek.
            She backed away until she fell against the
edge and then hoisted herself up. He called her again, roaring her name as he
swam to the edge himself, but she did not look back. She strode angrily and
still very much naked from the room and out of the suite, eliciting surprised
grunts and murmurs from yautja that happened to be in
the hall as she made her way to the lifts.
- 15
- 16
- 17
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

A Union of Convenience (Formerly ‘Alone’)