Chapter 7 #2
The war cry that erupted from his throat wasn’t planned. It was nothing like the careful farmer’s call he’d practiced, the gentle sounds meant to soothe and guide.
This was older. Darker. Something that had once made grown males piss themselves on battlefields, that had announced death’s arrival to anyone stupid enough to stand against him.
The lead krulaati’s head snapped toward him, its charge faltering. Good. See me, you draanthic. See the bigger threat.
He spread his arms wide, making himself massive and impossible to ignore. Another cry, this one deeper, more threatening.
The lead beast veered, just enough. Its massive shoulder caught the second animal, starting a chain reaction. But the herd was too tightly packed and too panicked to all change course.
Three of them were still heading straight for her.
The math was simple and brutal. He had maybe two seconds. Not enough time to pull her clear. Not enough time to get them both out of the path.
But just enough time to be a shield.
He hit the ground in a slide that would’ve impressed his old unit commander, if the draanthic had still been alive to see it.
Rocks tore through his work pants, skin scraping away in long burns he’d feel later.
If there was a later. His momentum carried him the last few feet, and he curved his body over hers without thought, arms braced on either side of her head, making himself into a living cage.
“Don’t move, kelarris.” The words were a growl against her ear. “Do not move.”
The first hoof glanced off his shoulder. White-hot pain shot down his arm, made his fingers go numb for a second before he locked the joint.
Hold. He had to hold.
Another caught his lower back, just above his hip. The impact drove the air from his lungs, and sent fire racing up his spine. He gritted his teeth, kept his body curved over hers. A third struck his calf, a glancing blow that would leave a bruise the size of a dinner plate.
The thunder of their passing shook the ground beneath them.
Dust filled the air, thick and choking. The stench of terrified animals, musk and trall and fear, was overwhelming.
Each heartbeat lasted forever, each second stretching into eternity as tons of muscle and bone thundered past inches from them.
Juni trembled beneath him. He felt everything…
her rapid breathing, the racing of her pulse where his wrist pressed near her throat, and the warmth of her body against his chest. Smelled her under the dust and fear…
that sweet human scent that had been driving him slowly insane since she’d walked through his door.
The herd passed. The thunder faded to distant drumming, then to silence except for their breathing.
He stayed where he was for three more heartbeats. Four. Making sure. Then he pulled back just enough to see her face.
Dust coated her skin, tracks through it where tears had fallen and there was blood on her bottom lip where she’d bitten it. Her eyes were huge, pupils blown wide with shock, staring up at him.
“Are you hurt?” He slid his hands along her arms, running them along her ribs. Looking for breaks, for blood, for damage. “Juni, talk to me. Are you—”
“I’m okay,” she whispered. “I’m okay. I just... was doing chores. Hauling feed. I didn’t—” She sucked in a breath, eyes welling with fresh tears.
The fear that had driven him across the field twisted. Became something else. Something hot and sharp burning through his chest.
“What the draanth were you thinking? I told you not to go in there with them!”
She flinched away from him, and some small part of him knew he was being an ass, but he couldn’t stop.
“I told you they were dangerous.” He pushed himself to his feet, needing to move before he did something stupid like try to shake some sense into her. “They’re not pets, Juni. They’re not your Earth animals that you can just walk up to because you think they’re pretty.”
“I know. I’m sorry, I just—”
“You just what?” He was pacing now, hands shaking so hard he had to clench them into fists. The pain from his injuries was starting to register, but he ignored it. Pain was nothing. Pain meant he was alive. She was alive. For now. “Decided my warnings didn’t apply to you? Thought you knew better?”
She pushed herself up, wincing. There was a scrape along her jaw he hadn’t noticed before, beading with blood.
“That’s not—I didn’t think—”
“No, you didn’t think.” He growled. “You could have died. Do you understand that?”
“I said I was sorry.”
“Sorry doesn’t bring you back from dead. Sorry doesn’t undo watching you—” He cut himself off, jaw clenched so tight his teeth ached.
She was crying again. Not sobbing, not making a sound, but tears rolled down her cheeks steadily, cutting new tracks through the dust. She looked small and lost.
And her hands… draanth, her palms were scraped raw from the fall, blood welling up in the deepest cuts. She kept curling and uncurling her fingers like she didn’t know what to do with them.
She was hurting, looking at him with those wide, hurt eyes while he stood here yelling at her like she was some young warrior who’d draanthed up on maneuvers instead of a tiny human female who’d made a mistake.
“I didn’t mean to be a nuisance,” she whispered, and her voice broke on the last word. “I know you got hurt because of me. I’m sorry.”
Something inside him snapped.
He crossed the space between them in one stride. She had just enough time to gasp, eyes going wide, before his hands came up to frame her face and his mouth crashed down on hers.
It wasn’t gentle. Couldn’t be. Not with the taste of fear still thick in his throat, not with the image of her about to die burned into his retinas.
He kissed her like he was trying to prove she was alive, solid, here. Like he could somehow pour all his terror and relief and desperate need into this one point of contact.
His fingers tangled in her hair, tilting her head to deepen the kiss. She made a sound against his mouth, surprise or protest, but then her hands came up to fist in his shirt and she was kissing him back.
And gods help him, she kissed like she did everything else. Wholehearted. Fearless. No hesitation, no holding back, just pure Juni throwing herself into the moment like tomorrow didn’t exist.
Her mouth opened under his, soft and eager and everything he’d been denying himself. She tasted like dust and sweetness and something uniquely her that made his control shatter into a thousand pieces.
He’d kissed plenty of females in his life, but nothing had ever felt like this. Like coming home. Like every cell in his body suddenly remembered what it was for.
Mine, his instincts roared. Mine.
He walked her backward until her back hit the fence post. One hand dropped to her waist, pulling her against him. She made a sound, half gasp, half moan, that shot straight through him like lightning.
Her hands moved from his shirt to his shoulders, fingernails digging in through the fabric.
The slight pain grounded him, reminded him this was actually happening.
He was kissing Juni. This tiny human who smiled too much and made midwinter decorations from scraps and had nearly given him a heart attack by almost dying.
He should stop. The thought flickered through his mind and died immediately when she pressed closer, going up on her toes to meet him. Her tongue touched his, tentative and then bolder when he groaned.
This was what he’d been fighting.
This all-consuming need that turned him into someone he didn’t recognize. Someone who took what he wanted, claimed what was his without thought for consequences.
Someone like the male he used to be. The warrior he’d tried to bury.
His hand slid into her hair, tilting her head to change the angle, to taste her deeper.
She whimpered, and the sound nearly broke what was left of his control.
He could take her right here, in the dirt and dust with the krulaati smell still thick in the air.
His body wanted to. Every instinct screamed to claim her properly, to make sure everyone knew who she belonged to.
Including her.
The thought was so clear, so visceral, it shocked him back to reality.
What the draanth was he doing?
He jerked back like she’d burned him, stumbling a step away.
They stood there, breathing hard and staring at each other.
Her lips were swollen, color high in her cheeks despite the dust and tears.
Her chest rose and fell rapidly, and her hands were still half-raised like she’d been reaching for him when he pulled away.
“Goraath—” Her voice was rough, breathless.
“No.” The word came out harsher than he’d intended. He stepped back again when she moved toward him. “That was... that shouldn’t have happened.”
“But—”
“You’re hurt.” He focused on that. On something… anything that wasn’t the way she looked at him, confused and hurt. “You need medical attention. Those cuts need cleaning.”
She glanced down at her palms like she’d forgotten about them. Blood had dripped onto her pants, leaving dark spots on the fabric. “They’re not that bad—”
Before she could protest further, he scooped her up. She weighed nothing, fit against him perfectly, and he hated how right it felt. Her arms went around his neck automatically, like they belonged there. Like she belonged there.
“I can walk,” she said against his shirt.
“No.”
That was all he could manage. One word. Anything more and he might do something stupid like apologize. Or worse, kiss her again.
She tucked her face against his shoulder, and he felt her exhale, long and shaky. “You’re hurt too.”
“I’m fine.”
“Liar.” But she didn’t push, just held on as he carried her toward the house.
The house that had never seemed so far away.
Each step was torture, her body warm in his arms, her breath against his neck.
That hum in his chest getting stronger. Something primal roared with satisfaction…
she was letting him care for her, trusting him.
His instincts wanted to carry her straight to his bed, tend her wounds, then keep her there so she’d never be in danger again.
He locked it down. All of it. The fear, the want, the desperate need to never let her go. Built walls around it until he could breathe without wanting to roar. Until he could pretend that kiss hadn’t just destroyed every defense he’d built.
His hands were shaking. By the time they reached the kitchen door, he’d almost convinced himself he could handle this.
Almost.