"Kira"

"K-Kira…Wake up!"

I groaned and pressed my cheek into the ground, the cool mud squishing against my skin. I could feel fingers shaking my shoulders, pulling at my hands and patting my face.

I tried to open my eyes, I really did, but I saw her. My baby. My pup. She was giggling and running around the kitchen, the warm blush of the walls so painfully familiar to me. Her sharp green eyes twinkled as she peered past me, her little mandibles spreading with excitement.

I knew that face. That look.

I followed her with my eyes as she ran past me, her little clawed fingers reaching high as she threw herself into the giant's arms. His face instantly buries itself in her neck, her giggles like a tinkering bell. He walked with my pup in his arms, our pup, and purred as he stopped to stand before me.

"And how is our little one?" Al'jek's deep voice seemed to flow through me smooth as jazz. I felt my mouth pull up into a soft smile as I reached toward my family, the words already forming in my mouth.

"She's be-"

SLAP.

I blinked. I blinked again.

Bright light burned my eyes as I stared up at the sky – my cheek stinging. Nora's face soon came into view shortly after.

"Get your ass up Kira! Now!"

I furrowed my brow as I willed my body to move, my mind still racing from the memories clouding it. I quickly shuffled to my feet, my clothes soaking wet and now weighted down with mud.

Moving in her general direction, I slowly got my bearings.

With my eyes now glued to the back of Nora's heels, I ran as she ran. I followed her blindly, barely noticing how there were other females following us as well. We stopped and decided to hide in a cave as it was up on a bit of a hill and gave us a good vantage point. Nora had the other females start on weapons, mostly sharpening rocks and then using them to sharpen sticks for makeshift spears. It wouldn't do much but at least it gave us a chance.

As I sat off to the side sharpening my stick, I could feel my mind wondering back to the days when things were simple, warm and whole.

"What. The hell. Was that about?" Nora asked, her hands on her hips and her eyes narrowed as she stared down at me.

"What?" I asked, feigning confusion. I knew what she was asking, but I couldn't bare to talk about it.

"Enough with the bullshit, Kira. That was personal! We all saw it! I know we haven't talked about our pasts…but it's time."

I bit my lip as I stared at the stick in my hands. I knew everyone had heard what Rai said, the pure anger and rage that always seemed to fill the space between us. My shoulders slumped as I felt the last bit of my resolve slip away. Three years...and I still couldn't say the words out loud.

"Kira-"

"Rai…the yautja leader that bought us…he was very close friends with my mate."

"Your mate? You-you were mated to one of those things?" I could hear the shock in her voice, it oozed between the words.

"His name was Al'jek. He saved me from a life of slavery on Yaut Prime. He-he agreed to take me as a mate and claimed me as his. He gave me my freedom Nora. He knew of a small backwoods planet that was pretty under the radar. There was a small village with other yautja kin there, his tribe. We settled there, built a farm there…even raised a family there…" I wiped angrily at a tear as it slid down my cheek, cutting a clean line through the dried mud.

Nora just stared, taking it all in. I peeked behind me as the other females were also listening in, though thankfully they tried hard to appear preoccupied with weapon making.

"Rai wanted to hunt this legendary beast; one so rare few had even seen it let alone hunted one. Al'jek was one of the best game trackers on Yaut Prime, while Rai was better known for his navigation skills." I wiped at another tear. "They left to hunt this beast, Rai and my mate. They left and…only Rai came back."

Nora slowly sat down beside me. "What happened, Kira?"

"He found it."

"Rai did." Nora stated, but I shook my head solemnly.

"No. Al'jek did. He found it and killed it. The honor alone for claiming such a magnificent prize, one couldn't even imagine."

"N-no. Rai..Rai- He didn't…" Nora's eyes held pure horror as her hand went to cover her mouth.

"He killed my mate because of a damn skull, Nora!" My heart pulsed in my chest; the beating so fierce I thought it'd rip me open.

"But Rai didn't know that Al'jek always sent a copy of his camera feed from his gauntlet back…to me. He knows I worry about him, so he set up his ship to sync all the footage back to a drive in our home. I remember it Nora, like it was yesterday. I went to check the feed, and…I saw him. I saw him kill my mate Nora!"

I bit the inside of my cheek, focusing on the pain as I continued on. "Rai came back in person to tell my daughter and I about Al'jek's death. He lied through his teeth - to my face, Nora! It was all bullshit! It took everything out of me not to hit him then and there and call him what he really was...a murderer! But, I didn't. I just kept thinking about the drive. I needed to take the drive to the officials on Yaut Prime, so I could have Rai charged as a badblood."

"So, what happened Kira? Why wasn't he charged?" Nora asked, leaning forward.

I sniffled and looked up at her through tear-filled eyes. "I messed up. I-I messed up, Nora! I messed up!"

"How Kira?"

"I said the wrong thing, okay! I mentioned something to Rai right as he was leaving the farm about the hunt! He knew, Nora! He knew that I knew! He-he came back that night with other hunters, about three of them. I woke up when I heard my pup squeal…Nora I'd never heard her make that noise before…he-he killed my baby and then he-he..he-"

I lost it, screaming into my hands.

I threw the stick I'd been holding onto tightly against the wall and stood up.

"He tortured me. Then healed me, just so he could torture me again." I turned my back to Nora, guilt weighing me down. "And…you know Nora… I'm almost happy that my pup was put out of her misery when she was. I know he would have done worse to her to get me to talk…And I wouldn't have been able to keep quiet while he was hurting my baby. I just-I couldn't bear that…"

Nora stepped over to me and hugged me tightly, some of the other females also coming to join the embrace.

They mourned my loss with me. I never did get to mourn their losses properly so that moment meant the world to me.

As they moved away to finish their sharpening, Nora gently grabbed my shoulders. "You still have the drive, don't you."

I nodded. "I hid it on the farm. He'll never find it. But I have to either kill Rai now or somehow escape this place, make it back to the farm and get the drive to give to the officials. Nora, I have to do this."

"And you will. We will." She smiled.

I looked from her to the cave mouth, the distant sounds of Yaut hounds snarling making the hairs on my arm raise.

"We end this now" I stated firmly, picking up my spear and stabbing the blunt end into the ground.