"Stop!"
The word came out louder than Neve planned.
But it worked.
Everyone froze.
Cael stopped talking. Ryker stopped talking. Even the chief, who had been standing to the side doing absolutely nothing useful, went quiet.
Neve blinked.
'Wow. They actually listened.'
He cleared his throat and tried to look like someone who had this completely under control.
"Don't fight over me," he said, keeping his voice steady. "I'm not going to belong to anyone." He paused. "Not yet. Anyway... you all have male scent. I have male scent too, but it just smells feminine. We are all men here. So."
He left the 'so' hanging in the air like it explained everything.
It did not explain everything.
Ryker tilted his head.
"You have female scent," he said. Not accusingly. Just stating it. "We have male scent. You don't." He paused. "Since you have a female scent, does that mean you can reproduce? Like a female?"
Neve felt something inside him short-circuit.
'Why are the males in this world so smart? I thought they'd be like dumb animals. I was so wrong.'
He swallowed hard.
"I'm a man," he said carefully. "So I can't reproduce like a woman. I mean... like a female." He turned away from both of them before his face could betray him and bowed to the chief. "Thank you for letting me stay here. Since I'm fully recovered, I'll be leaving now. Like we agreed."
"You're not going anywhere."
Cael said it flatly, leaving no room for discussion.
"You promised to mate with me."
Neve turned to look at him.
"Did I?" he said.
"The tiger tribe is safer," Ryker said, stepping closer from the other side. "Come with me. I'll make sure no one disturbs you."
Cael's jaw tightened.
"She's staying here—"
"I'm a 'he'—"
"He's staying here—"
"He can choose for himself—"
They were off again. Their voices were louder than before. Completely ignoring Neve, who was standing directly between them.
The chief watched with the expression of a man who had long since decided this was not his problem.
Neve looked at the numbers floating above their heads and spoke quietly, tilting his head just slightly.
{Cael — 46%}
{Ryker — 38%}
'System,' he thought. 'Is there anything I can do? Like mute them?'
{System Notification!}
{Recommended action: Accept both and begin mating immediately.}
Neve stared at the screen.
"I will cook you," he muttered.
The screen stayed exactly where it was.
He looked back at the two of them still arguing. Accepting them was fine, he could work with that eventually. He had ten slots to fill and a mission to complete and he wasn't completely blind, they were both unreasonably good-looking.
But mating.
He thought about it for exactly two seconds and then stopped thinking about it because his body had opinions about it that he didn't ask for and he needed to focus.
He cleared his throat loudly.
They stopped. Again.
"Fine. I'm not leaving," Neve said. "I'll stay in the leopard tribe." He held up a hand before Cael could say anything. "But, I'd like to be alone. I want my own space. I'll hunt, farm, and do whatever everyone else does. I'll be a proper member of the tribe."
"Is the cave too small?" Cael stepped closer. "I can—"
"The cave is fine. I want my own."
The chief clapped his hands once. "Excellent decision, red fruit."
"My name is Neve."
"Ah. My apologies, child." He stroked his chin. "I'll have a space prepared for you in the village. Three days. Until then, stay with Cael." He looked between them. "Winter is coming. We need food stores and hides. The tiger tribe will be merging with us during winter too. It would be easier to protect each other."
Neve nodded. "That's fine."
Cael's arm came around him immediately. "I'll get you better things to wear. Better sleeping arrangements too."
Neve opened his mouth to answer them, but the cave curtain moved.
A man stumbled in with one hand pressed to the back of his head, hair messy, expression somewhere between confused and annoyed. He looked around the room, eyes scanning faces...
Neve recognised him immediately.
The man with the basket. The one who had pinned him to the tree. The one Cael had knocked unconscious and left on the forest floor.
He was very much alive. Neve was quietly relieved about that.
"There you are," the chief said. "You've been gone two hours, Gideon."
"Something hit my head," Gideon said, still pressing his hand against it. His eyes landed on Neve and stopped. "You." He pointed. "It's you."
Neve looked at Cael since he was the one but Cael was studying the ceiling with great interest.
Gideon stepped forward and looked at the chief. "Father, who is he? Is he a female?"
"Father?" Neve said.
"My younger brother," Cael said. "Also the tribe's physician."
The chief nodded toward Neve. "When he gets pregnant, Gideon will attend to him."
"I'm not getting pregnant," Neve said.
"I see," the chief said.
{I see...} the system added.
Neve turned and looked directly at the blue screen floating beside him.
It disappeared.
Ryker laughed quietly from across the room. He stepped forward, took Neve's hand before Neve could move it and pressed his lips to the back of it.
"I'll return in a few weeks with my people." His eyes stayed on Neve's face. "Don't forget me."
"I'll try not to," Neve said, pulling his hand back.
Ryker smiled, said his farewells to the chief and left. The curtain settled behind him and the room went quiet.
Cael looked at Neve.
"Let's go back to the cave."
Neve looked at the mission screen loading in front of him. Hunt. Still incomplete.
"Not yet," he said. "I have to hunt."
"I'll come with you."
Neve looked at him. He wanted to refuse. But he remembered the rabbit that had escaped earlier and the spike that had hit a tree two feet away from it.
"Fine," he said.
They left together.
The chief watched the curtain settle after them. He stroked his beard slowly and turned the name over in his mouth.
"Neve."
He was quiet for a moment.
"He looks thin," he said to no one. "And weak. I should tell Cael to feed him more meat before winter." He paused, still thinking. "Do red fruits eat meat?"
Gideon sat down and pressed his hand back against his head. Nobody answered the old man.