Free The Alien's Captive by Ruth Anne Scott Page B

division commander for the Eastern Divide was. He doesn’t know who killed Aquilla’s brother.”
    Piwaka shrugged. “That was a lie. Anyone could see that.”
    Anna stiffened. “What do you mean? Why would he lie about it?”
    “To save his own skin. That’s why,” Piwaka replied. “He knows, but he’s keeping it to himself. I don’t blame him, either.”
    “Then you must realize Aquilla won’t quit until he gets that information out of him,” Anna countered. “He’ll starve Menlo and beat him and torment him until he gets what he wants, and then he’ll kill him. Then where will we be? The Ursidreans will want revenge in return.”
    “You might be right.” He wouldn’t stop that maddening smile. Anna couldn’t look at that smile any longer without flying into a rage.
    “So what are you going to do about it?” she asked. “Are you going to wait until he kills Menlo and drives us to war all over again? I thought you were more intelligent than that.”
    “Intelligence has nothing to do with it,” Piwaka replied. “I think you’ll admit Aquilla is a perfectly intelligent man.”
    “He’s crackerjack,” Anna muttered.
    “Whatever else he is,” Piwaka told her, “he’s Alpha of this faction. It isn’t my place to interfere between him and his prisoner.”
    Anna glared at him. “I can see I misjudged you the same way I misjudged Aquilla. I thought you could think for yourself and act on your own judgment without kowtowing to Aquilla all the time.”
    He smiled even bigger. He almost laughed in her face. She could have slapped him if she wasn’t scared of him. “I am sorry to lose your good opinion.”
    She turned away toward the tree. “I suppose you’ll run to Aquilla and tell him everything now. You’ll tell him everything I’ve been doing, and he’ll either kill me, too, or throw me out of the village. I don’t know what will happen to me, but I’m sure Menlo won’t survive much longer.”
    Piwaka didn’t try to stop her. He kept his voice low so she hardly heard him. “I won’t tell him.”
    Anna whirled around. “Why not? You said it wasn’t your place to interfere. Run home to your Alpha if he means so much to you.”
    Piwaka shrugged again. “He might be my Alpha, but that doesn’t mean I can’t think for myself. It isn’t my place to interfere any more than it’s your place to interfere. That doesn’t stop you from interfering, and it wouldn’t stop me, either.”
    Anna stared at him. She couldn’t understand him. “What are you getting at?”
    He really did laugh at that. “Here. Take this. You’ll need it.”
    He pulled a bundle from the folds of his shirt. Anna unwound it and stared at a dead sillian wrapped inside it. These fuzzy creatures inhabited the upper canopy, and their chatter echoed through the forest every day. They lived on fruit and leaves. The last warmth of its life radiated into her hand through its thick fur. She didn’t have to ask what she was supposed to do with it. “Why are you doing this?”
    Piwaka chuckled and turned away. “He won’t last long on eggs.”
    In an instant, he disappeared. The air washing off his feathers blew Anna’s hair out of her face, and she lifted her eyes into the sunshine where he vanished into the canopy.
    She wrapped up the sillian as fast as she could and concealed it inside her shirt the same way he had. She didn’t have a moment to lose. She took hold of the tree trunk and started climbing.
    Sweat trickled into her eyes, but she didn’t stop until she scaled to the platform adjacent to Penelope Ann’s house. There she stopped and considered. How could she deliver the sillian to Menlo in broad daylight? The animal was intact with its fur still on. She couldn’t exactly hand it to him and expect him to tear into it with his teeth.
    At that moment, Penelope Ann and Aquilla came out of the house. Aquilla put his arms around her and kissed her. Then he set off across the bridge toward the village. He