Rivers Run Deep

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Disclaimer: I do not own the concept of the Predator. whatever you don't recognize, is mine however.




Authors Notes: Full Disclaimer at the begining of the first chapter.



Author: Charlotte (jemstone5)

Email: jemstone5

Feedback: Please, yes lots.

Forward to others: would be flattered if you did.

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Rivers Run Deep



Chapter 35



He could easily tell her a lie. She trusted him so implicitly that she would believe anything he said. He could tell her that the law keeper of her town had done the deed, and she would believe him. He could tell her that the four males that she’d fought had selected her family for some vendetta or something, she would believe him. He could even tell her that he arrived too late to stop other hunters from killing them, and she would believe him.


But then again, it would all be lies. He couldn’t lie to her. He couldn’t lie to those eyes. Those green beautiful eyes that had sought deep in his soul to heal his shattered heart. Their time alone on his ship after leaving her world and sealed them together. She trusted him enough to lie in bed with him to sleep. He as naked as he was the night he was born, and she hid her gaze from him each time he disrobed, giving him her respect for decency. How could he lie to her? He’d never lied to Uni, and he never lied to El. He could not start now.


“Have I ever lied to you?” he asked her, gripping her hips gently. She shook her head no. “And I never will. I swear to you, in front of every Yautja and Elder here, I will never lie to you.”


“No, just keep things from her!” Kire shouted.


They ignored him. “Did you see something?” El asked. “Back on Earth, when my family died?”


“I saw everything, My’El. As I said, I was involved.”


“What happened? Please Ver’On. What happened to them? Start at the beginning if you have to!”


From the corner of his eye he saw Sol dash out of the room. Sol knew the truth, they’d talked about it before. Sol knew how nervous he was about telling El the truth. He recalled the discussion very well…






The only time the pair would leave El alone at the same time, was if she was asleep. She slept more than they did, she had too, her days were shorter on her planet. Once the doors to his quarters were secured, they maneuvered the awkward machine down to the machine shops to begin their work.


“Why are we attempting to fix this stupid thing?” Sol asked, as he helped Ver’On secure the Ooman riding machine to a hoist, and lifted it off the floor.


“Because it is important to My’El,” Ver’On replied, looking over the machine. “You will find in the future, there are more ways to make your mate happy, than just making her pregnant. This machine belonged to her brother. He was important to her…”


“You make it sound like her respect was misdirected.”


“It was.”


“How so?”


“He was a bad blood. He was involved with criminal activity in the near by city. The day I hunted him, he got away at first, when I found him, he was arguing with his parents, so severe was the argument that he’d killed them both. At the time I didn’t know they were his family. I knew of a female that resided there, and thought him to be an irate suitor for their offspring that they did not approve of. And I agreed with that reasoning.”


Sol shot his gaze back to Ver’On. “Her mother was pregnant! Was she not?”


“Yes,” he replied, removing the fasteners that held the leather seat in place. Some how during the move, the leather on the seat had become torn, he’d need to find some new leather to replace it. “It may have been an accident, it may not have, I’m not sure. I can only tell you what I saw.”


“Does El know?”


“No. She loved her family deeply. She adored her brother. She took their deaths very hard.”


“Wait…if her brother killed their parents…how did he die?” Ver’On stripped the leather off the seat, and laid the pieces on the bench. “Ver’On?”


“I killed him,” he sighed, and held up something from inside the seat. “He’d taken four lives that night. In my eyes he was no better than the bad bloods the arbitrators hunt down.”


“She doesn’t know?”


“No. And you are not to tell her! I will…when she’s ready. For now, I want her to get used to her new life, her new surroundings. I don’t like the idea of Lee’tha associating with her…but…El’s not happy in the gardens. Perhaps Lee’tha will be…a friend to her, if she is capable of such.”


“What are those?” Sol asked, seeing the pile to his mentor’s right getting larger.


“I’m not sure. They were in the seat. I think…they may be El’s.”


“I’ll get a box. We’ll give them back to her when we’ve finished repairing her machine.”


“So,” he laughed, tuning to the youngster. “You’re going to help me?”


“Of course. I’ve seen your repairs to some of your spinning blades. It surprises me that you’ve not taken your own head off with them. You try to repair this? Please, it will probably blow YOU up, before you can even get it off the hoist.”


“Very funny!”






He wished he could turn her eyes away from him. He’d do anything to not have her look at him the way he knew she was about to. “Its ok baby, you can tell me.” She stroked his mandibles gently. “I can take it. I’m a big girl. And I’ll be your woman soon enough.”


Could she really handle the information? Could she really take the truth he was about to tell? He’d never known anyone who had killed someone, then take the sister as a mate. He held her close to him, the horrible thought crossed his mind that he may never do so again. “Know that I care, very deeply for you,” he sighed, inhaling her sweet fresh scent. “I think you should sit.”


He settled her on the steps, and knelt in front of her. “I had been on your world for many days, before your family’s deaths. I’d found a group of males, that would be classed as bad bloods, they were…well…I’m not quite sure what they were doing, but from what I had observed of your race, I knew that what they were doing was wrong.”


“What was it?”


“Well, they were in a building, far from your village. Some of them were sorting weapons, others were working with powders and pills. I knew that medicine would not be kept in the conditions they were in, and that producing medicines, was done elsewhere. Then there were the weapons. Why so many? I could only surmise that they were up to no good. So…I went after them. Out of the five that were there, two got away. One in a four wheeled vehicle, the other…was on your riding machine.”


“My brother?”


“Yes. Though at the time, I’d not known that. Not till you told me…he’d gotten away from me at that time. After I dispatched the other runner, I tracked him o your dwelling. I’d found him inside, arguing with your parents. When I scanned the older two, I found one to be female, and pregnant…”


“My mother, with twins.”


“Yes. I was surprised that she carried two offspring. Our kind does not…when I arrived, there were only the three of them, arguing heatedly. I’m not sure about what. I could not involve your parents, they were innocent, your sire most likely protecting his mate and her offspring. During their argument, the younger male pulled out a weapon and fired on your sire. He missed, but your mother was hit…in her heart.” El sat back, her hand to her own chest as though she herself had taken the blow. The bodies were too badly burned to determine exactly what had killed them first, though a gun had been found in the fire, they could not determine if they had been killed then burned, or had been injured in the fire before succumbing to the flames. She hadn’t known how the truth would affect her till now. And to find out that her own brother had pulled the trigger.


Ver’On waited for her to regain herself before he continued. He didn’t want to overwhelm her all at once, but it was going to be hard. “Keep going,” she stated through strangled cries.


He nodded. “Even with our medicines, My’El, there would have been nothing we could have done, for her, nor her offspring…it was too late. I had entered the dwelling some time after your mother was hit, and as I stood over her body, I heard the weapon go off again. When I turned, it was your sire who fell, the weapon’s projectile had taken half his head off.”


His heart jumped when El pulled away from him, her tears already falling, her breath caught in short gasps. “You’re saying, my brother…the kindest, most considerate and helpful person I’d ever known, killed our parents!” Ver’On nodded, chancing to wipe her tears from her face.


She screamed at him, but he held her fast from running away. “I was still hurting for my Uni, and our child. I had seen another mother and her young slain. I could not allow the culprit to go free. When I found him, the heated weapon was still in his hand. I fired first.”


She was numb. She couldn’t believe her ears. She’d trusted him. She loved him. How could she believe that he did what he was telling her? “Please tell me you’re lying?” she begged. He shook his head no. “WWWHHHYYY!!!?” and she hit him, she hit him with everything she had, and more. How could she believe him? Her brother was nothing like he was describing. There was no proof that he’d been involved with the drug trade, nothing! How could he kill their parents without reason? There had to be a reason!


Ver’On had been struck many times. His body was hardened muscle, his stamina trained to take and shake off any blow his opponent would deliver. But the blow he took from El more than stung. It was agony. It was like she’d crushed his heart to hurt him. He wanted to make her understand. Their ways did not permit bad bloods to live, but the more he wanted to tell her, the harder it was to form the words. He reached his hand to cup her face, only she slapped him away. She would not let him touch her, this he knew already, but it did nothing to prepare him for the reality.


Just then, Sol stepped to his side, handing him a small box. “Give it to her,” he whispered. “Her brother’s treasures. Maybe that is what they are.”


Ver’On took the box, nodding to the former Kadji, and placed it in El’s lap, wrapping her fingers around it for her. “We found these, in the land vehicle you ride. They may have been your brother’s, possibly he was trying to make his life right, hiding these from his bad blood companions. Please El, these are his truth. Let them tell you. If I am wrong of what I’ve told you,” he drew his dagger, handing her the hilt. “You may stab me, where ever you please, I will not fight you.”


M’Pa had moved to Sol, and quietly asked about the box, El looked over the surface and to Ver’On. He nodded, taking another chance to touch her face, to catch the tears he’d caused her to shed. She removed the lid and looked inside.