Olivia (75 page)

“How are you, Cheyenne?”

The redhead rolled her eyes hard.  In a sunny singsong, she chirped, “Oh, fine, thanks.  How are you?  How’s your hubby?  How’s that fucking little fleabag you squeezed out?  While we’re at it, how’s the fucking weather?”

Olivia swallowed a hot stone of anger, unclenched her hands and took two good breaths to calm herself.  “I’m fine, thanks for asking.  Vorgullum is fine.  Somurg is in exceptional health.  There’s still snow on the ground and ice on the mountain, but Vorgullum says that spring is coming.  Are you getting enough to eat?”

Cheyenne shook her head, tight-lipped.  “You are really something else, aren’t you?  Whatever.  I only asked for you because I can’t get Tina.”

“If that’s supposed to hurt my feelings, you better try again.  I’d pick Tina over me any day.”  She gestured towards the nearest bench.  “Lie down, please.  Let’s just get this over with.” 

Cheyenne got up and shucked out of her crude-cut breeches.  She straddled the bench and lay back, gripping the stone as though keeping her hands from locking around Olivia’s throat took tremendous effort.  “Kodjunn wants to fuck you,” she said.

Olivia, just opening her pack, threw the whole thing down and said, “Jesus
Christ
, is that what you called me up here for?”

Cheyenne finally smiled, and it hardened her features even more.  “You can fuck him if you want to.  You must have liked it, since you went to the trouble of keeping Vorgullum from finding out.  And I know he liked it.  He’s still dreaming about it.  You make his furry cock hard every night.”

Olivia slung her pack back over her shoulders.  “If you ever have a real problem, let me know,” she said tightly and headed for the door.

“Wait!” 

Was that a tremor in Cheyenne’s voice?  Olivia looked back.

Cheyenne’s head was bent, her brow knotted with something that did in fact resemble concern.  Without looking at Olivia, she said, “There’s… Something’s wrong with the baby.  Or puppy or whatever the fuck it is,” she added in a sudden, angry rush.

Olivia lowered her pack and came back into the light.  “All right,” she said.  “What’s the matter, exactly?  Is it pain?  Have you felt the baby yet?”

“Hell, yes, I’ve felt it.”  Cheyenne curled her lip, trying to disguise her fear with scorn, but her voice shook just slightly.  “That’s part of the problem.  It moves…in a weird way.  I can’t explain it, but I don’t think it’s normal.  Or whatever passes for normal with these furballs.  I…I think I’m going to lose it.”

Olivia raised Cheyenne’s shirt, exposing a hard yet substantial stomach.  “You’re pretty big for four months,” she remarked. 

“Is it some sort of infection?”

“Just lie back.  I’ll have a look.”  Olivia retreated to the washroom to wash her hands.  When she returned, Cheyenne was on her back on the bench, legs apart, holding her stomach in both hands and staring at the ceiling in a detached, brooding fashion.  “Try to relax,” she said.

“Do I look hysterical to you?  Jesus Christ.  Just do it.”

Olivia began by placing both hands on Cheyenne’s belly and moving the uterus back and forth gently as she tried to locate the baby.  When she found a head, she cupped it and felt gingerly inside.

“Christ, it’s like the conception all over again,” Cheyenne muttered.  “Why you’d want to fuck that thing I’ll never know.”

“Did you forget you doused me in Murgull’s potion?” Olivia snapped.  “Can you please be quiet and let me concentrate?”

“You got what you deserved.  I asked you for help and you gave me that fuck-happy piss instead.  I’m glad he raped you.  I hope it hurt.”

“Kodjunn is manifestly incapable of raping anybody, and no one is impressed with your bullshit anymore, so shut up.”  Olivia stood up, walked to Cheyenne’s left side and started again.  She found the head in the same place, cupped it gently, and again probed from within.  “Does this hurt?”

“No, but your hands are fucking freezing.”

“Sorry about that.”

“Olivia…Olivia, seriously, what is wrong with you?”  Not hostile, but spoken with what seemed like genuine frustration and confusion.  “If you were watching on the news about some chick who got kidnapped, would you be saying she wasn’t raped just because she quit screaming?  Do you call putting chains on her getting her in the mood?  I mean, where are you coming from?”

“You know, I could ask you the same thing.  What do you think you’re going to accomplish by being this nasty all the time?  It’s not going to help you escape, and it’s sure not endearing you to anyone.”

“I don’t get that, either.  It’s like all of you have rocks in your fucking heads!  We were
kidnapped
!  We are being
held against our will
!  We are being
impregnated
by fucking
monsters
!”

“Listen,” she said tightly.  “There are a lot of other women here besides you and me.  Most of them are trying to make the best of things with gullan who really don’t like them all that much, so just what do you think will happen if you give those gullan a reason to distrust us?  They’re not going to hand us a bunch of lovely parting gifts and show us the damn door!”

“No, they’re going to throw us off a fucking cliff!” Cheyenne shot back.  “What’s
wrong
with you?”

“Olivia?”  Bodual’s voice, concerned.

“I’m fine,” she called.  To Cheyenne, she added, “Just be quiet.”  She placed both hands on Cheyenne’s belly and this time, instead of rocking the baby, she tried to turn it.  When she had succeeded in moving the lump to one side, she reached again between Cheyenne’s thighs and used two fingers to probe, all the while staring intently at Cheyenne’s belly.

She felt the pressure on her fingers relax.  Simultaneously, Cheyenne’s skin bulged slightly.  “The hell?” she muttered, frowning.

“It doesn’t hurt,” Cheyenne said, eyeing the ripple of flesh dubiously.

Olivia felt her mouth drop open.

“So what is it?  Is it some sort of infection?  It is, isn’t it?  Would you say something, you dumb bitch?!  I swear to God if you don’t—”

“I think you’re having twins,” she said.

“—tell me what the problem is, I’m going to…what?”  Cheyenne blinked rapidly, then pushed herself into a sitting position.  “What did you say?”

“Two babies, Cheyenne.  Twins.”

Cheyenne gaped at her, and then looked down and gaped at her own hard stomach.  “You’re joking!  You’re not joking?  Twins?  Really?  I mean, that’s actually kind of scary, but it’s—”  She let out a loud whoop of relief and shouted, “I’m having
twins
!  Jesus! I thought I was dying!”

“Olivia!” Bodual bellowed, and she heard him bound up the shaft and come for her, no doubt with his spear at the ready.  When he saw Cheyenne laughing and Olivia calmly cleaning her hands, he shouldered his weapon, but kept his wings fanned and his horns lowered.  “Watch yourself, beast.”

Olivia ignored him for now, tapping Cheyenne on the shoulder.  “I recommend that you rest as much as possible, and really start watching what you eat.  When spring gets here, you’re going to choke down a lot of greens and they’re all bitter as hell, so you better get used to the idea now.”

“Fine, whatever,” Cheyenne said dismissively.  “Send me all the salad you want, I’m eating for three!”

“I will,” Olivia replied, smiling in spite of herself.  “Do you want to tell Kodjunn or shall I?”

“Why?  Oh, yeah, sure, whatever.  If you think he’ll be interested.”   Her expression tightened suddenly and she turned a black look on Olivia.  “But you want to make damn sure he knows that I conceived them, I’m carrying them, and they belong to me!”

Cheyenne’s English may have been beyond Bodual’s understanding, but the combination of her look, tone, and pointing finger proved too much for him.  He lunged forward without warning to seize Olivia and push her behind him.  “Are you threatening my leader’s mate?” he growled.

“Hey, when I threaten her, you’ll know.”  But she backed down, snatching up her breeches and retreating to the end of the bench to put them on.  “Get the fuck out of here, would you?  I’m naked.”

Bodual kept his grip on Olivia and kept his gaze on Cheyenne as he backed out of the cave.  He nudged her towards the access chute and she went, rolling her eyes a little but permitting him to defend her.  A moment later he joined her in the tunnel, still growling deep in his chest.

“Should never have brought her,” he was muttering.  He tipped a distinctly indulgent glance at Olivia, and added, “We tolerate her for your sake, and for the child she carries, but she’s dangerous.”

“To quote Horumn, she is far enough along that she is hobbled.”

Unknowingly echoing her own response, Bodual snorted.  “Hobbled?  Ha!”  Bodual shook his head, casting a mistrustful glare over his shoulder at the chute.  “Not that one.  And I tell you, I’m not afraid of the Beast herself, but I hate to think what she wants with that baby.”

Olivia looked back at him uneasily.  “What do you mean by that?”

“Oh Olivia,” he said, and shook his head.  “Do you really think she gave in to Kodjunn for any other reason?  You and I both know he’d have never forced himself on her and never mind how many seasons she had.”

“She didn’t have much of a choice, Bodual.”

“If you say so.”

“If she’d kept refusing Kodjunn, Vorgullum would have given her to a new mate.  Someone who didn’t have Kodjunn’s patience.”

“Maybe.”  Bodual shrugged, eyeing the open hole of the chimney.  “I can think of a few gullan mean enough to want her, sure enough.  But you saw her just now, Olivia.  She’s too damned happy about sparking.  Think.  Think of the sorts of things it must take to make that Beast happy.”

That sounded altogether too much like he had a point.

“Speaking of babies,” Olivia said, deliberately changing the subject.  “What is it called when a woman carries more than one?”

“In what?” Bodual asked.

“In her belly, of course.”

“More?”  He could not have looked more shocked than if Olivia had claimed Cheyenne was carrying a litter of kittens.  “How many more?”

“She’s going to have two of them,” Olivia explained.

“At the same time?”

“No, about two moons apart.  Yes, of course at the same time, you stag-head,” she said, exasperated.  “It happens sometimes with humans.”

“Not to gullan.”  He stopped himself and furrowed his brow.  “At least, not to real gullan.  Sometimes it happens in stories, but only when one of them grows up to be a great leader and the other is evil.  Horumn might know if there’s a word for it, but I don’t.  Ho!” he said suddenly, raising one hand.

Olivia turned to see an old gulla coming down the tunnel toward them, spear in one hand, bucket in the other.  “I thought you might want to be there,” this fellow said to Bodual, not without a certain sympathetic tone.

“Already?”

“So it would seem.”

“Ah, hell.”  Bodual winced and gave Olivia a pointed look.  “If you want to know why ‘Poor Doru,’ you’d better come with me now.”

She really should go find Kodjunn and give him the news about Cheyenne and the coming twins…

She followed Bodual to the commons.

It seemed quite a lot of people were in on whatever was happening tonight.  Nearly all of the hunters were here with their human mates, although there was very little of the sort of chatter that usually accompanied a gathering.  No one laughed or told stories, no one’s kill roasted on the fire; the air itself seemed charged with foreboding and every eye was on Vorgullum.

He stood in a close ring with Doru, Tobi and Tina, his arms folded and face set in an expression of equally mingled amusement, confusion, and concern.  The four of them conferred for quite a long time, mostly the two gullan, but at the end of it, Vorgullum nodded and said something to Doru that caused Tobi to start bouncing on the balls of her feet.  Vorgullum addressed Tina briefly, flicked his claws to point past her to the crowd of idling gullan and humans, and then turned and ascended the center rock.

Olivia left Bodual’s side and came all the way into the commons to get a good view, wondering what on earth was going on.

“Doru,” Vorgullum called.  “Come before the tribe.”

Doru, with Tobi tight at his side, approached the rock, and then turned. 

Olivia felt her stomach clench.  Tobi was so excited, she seemed to be on the edge of spontaneous combustion, but Doru, although smiling broadly, looked like he had taken the butt of a spear to his gut.

Doru said, “This human is Tobi, bound to me this past year as mate.  She is young, strong and clever…and she loves another.  I would be severed from our bond, to free her for her true mate.”

Well, this was a surprise.  Olivia scanned the crowd again, trying to guess which gulla was about to come forward and claim giddily-bouncing Tobi.

“Gullnar,” Vorgullum called.  “Come before the tribe.”

Astonished, Olivia could only stare as Tina’s mate, with his human also at his side, came forward and faced the crowd.  For a male about to claim the human that presumably loved him, he looked singularly unhappy, almost angry.

In a low voice, not meeting anyone’s eyes, Gullnar stated, “This is Tina.”  He was quiet for a long time, and then growled in the back of his throat and added, “There is no child.  I would be severed.”

Olivia’s first glimmer of understanding occurred only after Vorgullum fanned out his wings and said, “Doru, Gullnar, stand away.  Tobi, will you have this female for your mate?”

“I do!” cried Tobi, leaping wildly into the air.

Vorgullum started to laugh, caught himself and fixed her with a stern eye.  “Tobi, will you provide for this female?  Will you starve to feed her in times of famine?  Will you take her children and raise them to be tribe?”

“You bet!”  She was bouncing again, smacking her fists together.

“Tina, will you refuse this…Tobi?” he finished, starting to smile again.

“I didn’t come this far to back off now,” Tina replied, grinning.

Tobi flung herself into Tina’s open arms.  They kissed, not a polite bridal peck at all, but a passionate mashing of mouths that left Olivia somewhat agape.