You Don't Belong Here

Chapter Forty Five

Sunlight danced through the room as Brielle stretched atop the bed, the fur pelt slipping from her bare legs as the sweater-like garment hung loosely around her shoulders. Firm, steady knocking echoed through the room and the woman called for the being to enter. The door slid open to reveal O'kaor holding a piece of metal that seemed dwarfed by his enormous hand. "I have something for you." His voice sounded more kind than it had in recent weeks, particularly since their sparring session which he had regrettably lost.

"Really?" She stretched some more before sitting upright to look at the male. "What is it?"

He offered the item to her and she took it in her hands. It was a mask shaped perfectly to match the outline of her face. If closely resembled his own, though it lacked the clan marking. "You will need it for future hunts. It will...you will have a higher probability of survival." There it was again, the same old song that he used to sing: survival.

Brielle smiled as she looked up at him now, their bodies inches apart. "And here I didn't get you anything, Ghost..." He clicked softly. "I don't even know how to repay you."

"Wear it proudly and survive. That is all that I require." Brielle smiled shyly and nodded, a light shade of red tinting her cheeks as she did so. "You have made significant progress, Little one. You have blessed me with great honor and pride. They believed me a fool for bringing you here, and yet you excel with every new task that you are given."

"Are you flirting with me, Ghost?" A long, heavy silence fell between them.

"I...I do not understand."
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O'kaor and Brielle stopped their trek as a clap of thunder rumbled through the area. The Yautja referenced his gauntlet again to get an updated location of their teammates and he clicked softly to himself. "What's wrong?" Brielle asked the question with hands on her hips as she took the chance to catch her breath.

"I do not know...come, we must hurry."

"You go on ahead. I think I pulled something back there. I'll catch up." O'kaor looked at the female skeptically and she waved a dismissive hand. "It'll be fine, I can take care of myself." Still he watched her but she persisted. "It's fine, Ghost. They need your help and you can move faster without me slowing you down."

O'kaor clicked softly as he stepped closer to the human and she gazed upward into his eye shields. A moment later she was taken aback as he grabbed her forearms and lifted her in the air while turning his own body and placed her in a piggyback position. Brielle was about to protest when O'kaor spoke up. "Do not think for a moment that I will leave you here by yourself. We will go together or not at all."

A twinge of pain shot through her chest and Brielle fought the blush that was overtaking her face and spreading down to her neck. His muscles were massive, his leathery skin almost burning with his natural body heat. She wrapped her arms tightly around his neck and tried her best to do the same with her legs around his waist. A moment later they were moving again, the rate of speed almost dizzying as O'kaor pushed himself to his physical limit.
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O'kaor watched as Brielle moved to sit against the wall as she panted, sweat decorating every inch of fair skin. He hadn't believed at first that she'd made much progress in terms of training with Dhadtoudi, but the results were staggering. She was actually able to hold her own against him after all this time.

"Hey Ghost...I want to ask you something." He waited for the question. "Why don't you have a mate?"

"I do not understand."

Brielle took a drink of water from a thermos and returned her attention to the large male. "Zaiyu has a mate, but he doesn't bring her around much. T'ahrou and Dhadtoudi are mates. Why don't you have one?" He pondered this for a long, silent moment.

"There has not been a valuable female show interest." Her nose scrunched and brow furrowed as she glared at him, an expression he recognized all to well from the many times he would agitate Dhadtoudi. "Yautja strive to continue and improve strong bloodlines."

"So what, you haven't found someone with an impressive pedigree or something?"

"There are many. I have no interest."

"Why not?"

"They care only for the hunt, or only for offspring. We do not share the same ideals."

Brielle hummed thoughtfully. "Dhadtoudi isn't hyper focused on hunting and she can't have kids."

"Dhadtoudi is claimed by T'ahrou, and she does not interest me."

"Does anyone interest you?"

O'kaor's mandibles flexed slightly. "The female that holds my attention does not return my interest."

"Then she's a damn fool. You seem to me like you'd make a pretty good husband." His chest swelled with pride before Brielle pushed herself to her feet once more. "Now come on. Let's keep sparring."
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They came to a stop outside the perimeter of a large concrete building; it was massive like a factory but held an appearance resembling a hospital blended with an illegal drug manufacturing facility. Armed bipedal guards surrounded the building and the duo stood in silent observation before O'kaor placed Brielle on the ground in the shadows beside him.

"We have to get in there?"

"And kill every being that is not of our clan while we are there." Brielle jumped at the sound of Dhadtoudi's voice, and turned to see the taller woman standing mere inches from her body. "Are you up to the task?" Her voice took on a tone that Brielle had not heard in several months; it was laced with anger and accusation, and Brielle fought the urge to roll her eyes even from behind her mask.

"Are you questioning my abilities?"

"I am questioning your loyalty."

Brielle took a step closer and removed her mask to look up at Dhadtoudi with defiant, grey eyes. "I swear to you that my loyalty is steadfast. Nothing can break it." A moment later, Brielle said something in a language that Brielle did not recognize and T'ahrou answered in kind. "Our best course of action is to enter from the top. We will find Zaiyu and the others and leave."

"The best thing would be to split up and take the facility at several different points at once. They'll have to spread out their numbers and it will be easier to wipe them out than it would to take on one big group."

"What makes you believe there will be many enemies inside?"

"Despite popular belief, I'm not an idiot!" The tips of their noses were nearly touching now and Brielle's heart was pounding against her eardrums. "You honestly thought I wouldn't recognize the trees? The foliage? The animals? The fucking 'indigenous species'?! I know what planet I'm on, and I know how these places work! They're gonna have at least fifty to seventy guards patrolling!"

"Perhaps-..." O'kaor began to speak up but Dhadtoudi quickly cut him off with a sharp hissing sound.

She turned her masked gaze back to Brielle and spoke in a low, threatening tone. "We will do it your way. But understand this, Brielle Ronaldi: if anything happens to my clan, I will hold you personally responsible." They stared at one another for a moment before Dhadtoudi walked away with T'ahrou following close behind.

Brielle flipped her the bird and turned to walk in the opposite direction but was met with the looking figure of O'kaor. "What?" He said nothing, only watched the human woman who in turn rolled her eyes and walked around him. "Whatever. I can't believe you actually let that bitch boss you around." She thought they had moved past the stuck-up aggression that Dhadtoudi was once again bringing to the surface, but now she realized that no matter how adamantly the taller woman wanted to deny it, at the end of the day she was still human.