Mandy’s face lit up and she turned to race over to where the other children were playing. Krono turned just as the little girl arrived, his nostrils flaring to sniff at her before his long tongue swiped over her in a friendly manner before laying his massive head on his front paws.
Mandy’s mother let out the breath she was holding and smiled her first genuine smile. “Okay, this is good. Mandy needed this.”
“All the little ones need it,” Josie agreed, her own face cracked wide with a grin. She hooted with laughter when one of the kids went tumbling down Krono’s long back. Terri laughed as well at the antics of the children until she wept tears of mirth. The laughter felt good. She couldn’t remember the last time she had laughed so much. She had laughed with Veral from time to time over the last several days, but not the gut-busting laughter she was enjoying now.
From the corner of her eye, she saw Veral exit from the hallway, his eyes searching for her. His posture relaxed when he saw that she was merely having a good time. Then he stilled when he caught sight of Krono. Shaking his head, he chuffed and crouched in one corner to finish packing their bags with some of the supplies that had been brought out earlier to tend to the women.
Terri dismissed any of her worries from earlier when it came to the other women and enjoyed watching the children play throughout the late afternoon while she chatted with Josie. Until Lacey approached her with a nervous smile. Josie frowned from where she sat but Terri sighed. If she made a show of not being approachable, then the other girls would be afraid to come to her if they needed anything. All the social niceties were wearing thin.
Planting a stiff smile on her face, Terri addressed her politely. “Yes, Lacey? What can I do for you?”
The girl smiled cautiously, looking at her with an apparent sweetness from beneath her lashes. “Actually, you can. I need to go out and relieve myself, but it’s starting to get dark, and I was wondering if I could borrow Veral to stand guard. It won’t take long.”
Terri’s eyebrows shot up at the request, her eyes sliding over to Josie who gave her a distinct“I told you so”look. Clearing her throat, she attempted to deal with Lacey reasonably. “You want… Veral… to accompany you? Why don’t you ask some of the other girls to go with you?”
Lacey shook her head, a petulant pout forming on her face. “No one else needs to go. IneedVeral with me.”
“I really don’t think that’s a good idea…” Terri attempted to explain but before she could even get the words out, Lacey went from sweet to arrogant. Terri risked a glance at Veral and sighed with relief. He hadn’t noticed. There was little doubt in her mind that if he’d caught Lacey making any sort of threatening expression toward her that he would have hauled her out into the street and left her there. If he didn’t kick her ass the entire way.
“Whatever,” Lacey cut her off with a scornful, quiet hiss. Terri was just glad she was keeping her voice low so they weren’t attracting attention. “You just don’t want him to be alone with me because you’re scared and jealous. Well, you should be. Unlike you, I’m the sort of real woman that a powerful man… uhm… male… would desire. He may have been stuck with you, but now that there are other women to choose from, he has options. You know that any man would prefer this overthat.”
Terri’s mouth dropped open at her sheer gall. Even Josie beside her sputtered in disbelief. If Lacey truly believed that, she was going to be in for a huge disappointment. Terri wasn’t above letting the woman learn some humility the hard way.
Rocking back a little, Terri’s lips twisted and parted in a sharkish grin. “I’ll tell you what. Just to prove to you how unthreatened I am, you go right ahead and ask him to accompany you with my blessing.”
Lacey’s dark eyes blinked in surprise, but it was fleeting.
“I’ll do that,” she challenged.
“A word of warning,” Terri offered magnanimously. “Whatever you do, do not touch him. He won’t be pleased if you do.”
Lacey smiled smugly as she tossed her mass of tangled brown hair over her shoulder and strode over to Veral. Terri smirked as she watched but hoped that she wouldn’t disregard her warning.
“What in the world are you thinking?” Josie whispered from where she was now perched behind Terri’s shoulder. “You’re really going to allow him to go off with her?” Terri’s smirk widened into a fierce grin.
“Oh, I’m not worried about that. Just watch. She’s about to have a rude awakening.”
Terri’s grin widened as Lacey sidled up to Veral. He was bent over the packs that they would be taking in when they raided the Reaper encampment. Terri had no doubt that he knew that the woman was behind from the way his back stiffened, but he was studiously ignoring her. Lacey, clearly not one to be snubbed, leaned forward and said something that Terri couldn’t make out. Veral didn’t even glance up, but a forbidding look crossed his face and his lips thinned before forming the shape of the simple response that Terri knew was coming. “No.” His vibrissae snapped in emphasis before he dismissed Lacey altogether.
Lacey stared at him, her mouth gaping open and Josie chuckled. “Hopefully that will teach the girl something.”
Terri nodded in agreement, but her smile slipped off her face as she watched Lacey scowl in their direction and step closer to Veral. She smirked and leaned forward, her breast brushing him suggestively as she touched his arm with one hand. Veral froze, his vibrissae lifting off his neck, rattling.
“Oh, shit!” Terri barked as she bolted to her feet and into the crowd of women. “I didn’t think she would be that stupid.”
“That twit,” Josie huffed as she crossed her arms. “I wouldn’t rescue her!” she shouted after her.
“Yeah, not an option!” she yelled back as she scooted between women, attempting to get to Lacey.
She knew that she was too late to intervene when Veral’s vibrissae whipped fiercely. He spun around angrily on the woman intruding into his space. Gradually rising to his full height, easily three hundred and fifty pounds of pissed off alien turned on the human, his mandibles clicking in agitation. He stepped forward then, his vibrissae whipping through the air, daring anyone to get too close. Terri watched as his chest puffed out and a rattling growl rose into the air as his mandibles widened and snapped shut several times. Lacey paled as she scrambled backward. He loomed over her, his hands fisting tightly at his side.
“Do not seek such familiarity with me,” he snarled just before his mandibles spread wide accompanied by a hellish roar. She screamed as a stream of urine trickled down her leg, soaking the floor. He gave her a disgusted look and turned away.
With a contemptuous growl, he attempted to step away from her, but Lacey, in her panic, moved in the same direction and in consequence threw herself into the range of his maddened vibrissae. Terri snagged the girl by the collar and pulled her to safety just in time, the vibrissae harmlessly snapping in the air while Veral backed away, still growling as he put distance between them.
Despite the fact that she hadn’t been harmed, Lacey screamed uncontrollably as if she were being murdered. Terri rolled her eyes at the other woman’s melodramatics. From how tightly he’d been clenching his fists, Veral obviously held back his instinctive impulse to maim the source of an uninvited touch until he managed to get away from her. Though he’d held back and refrained from harming the idiot, Terri knew that the entire episode was likely to impact the way the others saw him. They were already afraid of him and were only just starting to relax around his shadowy presence.
Lacey made matters worse as she continued to scream and stumbled away like a wounded animal with every eye in the room on her. Everyone fell silent until all that could be heard was her hysterical cries. A few of the girls bolted for cover, while several of the young women she’d been sitting near ran to her side, fussing over her dramatically.