Chapter Thirty-Two
MASON
I CAN COUNT on one hand the number of humans I’ve met in my life, but I can confidently say this human is one of the dumbest. She’s laid up underneath a tree, her body curled into a small, tight ball. I shift my weight between my paws, annoyed with the sight. Is she trying to kill herself?
She looks up as I approach, and her heart rate kicks up a bit, but not by much. I’m not a fan, and I resist the urge to nudge her with my nose and encourage her to do something more. If anybody’s going to kill her, it will be me. She doesn’t get to run off and do it to herself.
This is all Kie’s fault.
He thought letting her run off for a while and burn steam would be best. She’s easy to track and was moving in the right direction, so we hung back and let her do her thing.
Then it started to rain, and suddenly, her tracks were gone.
I had to shift into my animal form to track her, which I hate doing when it’s raining. The water soaks my fur, and I don’t like the feeling of it sticking to my skin. Plus, the wound on my side isn’t entirely healed, and shifting has exasperated it.
The puncture wounds on my bicep are gone, the skin as good as new, but my side is a different story. It was getting better. I was only hours away from pulling off my shirt and witnessing the human’s horror when she saw my healed skin.
Transforming into my animal form tore the sutures, though, and I can feel blood trickling down my side. The last of my stitches popped with all my movement. I’ve been trotting quickly these past several miles, an anxious jitter working up my spine and urging me to speed up my pace.
Abby—no. The human tucks her head under her arms, hiding herself from my view. Her knife, and Kie’s, are resting beside her, and she makes no moves for them. She should.
I step closer, hovering over her shivering form, before turning toward Kie. I stopped waiting for him a while ago, but he managed to keep up with my breakneck pace.
He’s several steps behind me, his lips curled into a deep frown as he does his own evaluation of the human. We expected to find her cold and wet, but not whatever the fuck this is.
In front of her knees is her package of nuts, but it looks like she ate the remainder and is using the container to collect water. It’s a surprisingly intelligent idea, but she shouldn’t have finished her nuts so quickly.
She didn’t pack enough food for this trip, and now it’s guaranteed we’ll have to share ours.
A low grumble pours from my chest as she sucks in a slow, raggedy breath.
I don’t like this woman—in fact, I’d go as far as to say I hate her—but seeing her like this makes me unnaturally anxious. My pulse is racing, and I’m annoyed she’s in this position. I’m also angry with Kie for convincing me not to go after her when we heard her running away.
He’s been doing his best to get on my nerves these past few days, and I’m glad I broke his nose earlier. It healed within the hour, but I still hope it hurt.
“Abby,” Kie says, stopping alongside me.
She doesn’t respond to her name, and Kie pushes his hair out of his face before digging into his bag and pulling out my pants. They’re soaked through, but we need to cover the exposed skin of her legs.
I can’t keep her warm without it.
The human lets out a quiet grunt as Kie bends and begins sliding the material up her legs, but she doesn’t make much of a fuss. I prefer it when she’s fussing, and a low, involuntary whine slips from my throat when she doesn’t.
Kie looks at me, clearly surprised by the noise, and I turn away. I didn’t mean to make a sound.
He finishes pulling my pants up her legs, coating them in mud in the process, before stepping away to give me room. I didn’t tell him I intended to do this, nor did he ask, but we’ve always been on the same page.
Even when we’re fighting.
It’s the damn bond.
The human stares at me through her thick lashes, her brown eyes narrowed as she tries to monitor our movements. Her pupils are fully expanded as she tries to make out our forms in the dark, but I doubt she’s getting much detail.
She doesn’t have her illumination stick on. I hate the damn thing, but she should be using it when it grows dark—especially when she’s by herself. The trolls are afraid of fire, and they’re probably dumb enough to think that’s what the light is.
Maybe the human doesn’t know as much as I assume. She’s making idiotic decision after idiotic decision, even when she thinks she’s alone. I find it hard to believe anybody from this realm would trust her with important information about delysum. I sure wouldn’t.
Her body convulses in a bone-deep shiver, and I scan to ensure her skin is covered before crawling over her. My fur is usually thick enough to act as a barrier between me and others, but the fur on my stomach is thinner. I don’t want to risk the human accidentally touching me.
Her pulse picks up as I cover her with myself. It’s good she’s still reacting, and I force myself to remain quiet so she doesn’t get worked up and try to crawl away. Kie wasn’t joking when he told her I like a chase, and I don’t know if I can hold myself back if she tries to run from me again.
“I’ll get the cover set up,” Kie says, dropping our packs by the human’s feet.
I sure as fuck hope he will. I don’t have opposable thumbs in this state, so there’s no way I’m doing it. The human couldn’t have chosen a worse time to run away.
Had she been with us, we’d have stopped and taken cover before the rain got this bad. Instead, we were sent on a wild goose chase. I have to credit the human for how long she lasted before taking shelter, though.
Kie gets to work putting up our covering, his movements efficient. We brought a small one since we were planning on staggering our sleep and never intended to use it simultaneously, and it hardly covers the entirety of my animal form.
It’s better than nothing, though, and I let out a relieved huff when it’s up and I no longer feel the aggravating rain pouring down on me.
The human continues to shiver, and I hesitate before lowering my body further onto hers. It’s risky to let her be this close to my uncovered skin, but I can’t bring myself to sit back and watch her die. My body heat will warm her.
Kie shoves at my waist, pushing me aside so he can squeeze under the covering with the human and me. There’s almost no room for him, and his legs remain in the rain, but he doesn’t need the extra heat. Faeries can easily handle temperatures twice as low as this.
Minutes pass in tense silence. I spend the entire time listening to the human’s heartbeat, ensuring it doesn’t do anything drastic. I’m tired of her body trying to kill itself, first with the infection and now with the cold.
I should be pleased with the thought of her dying, but I’m struggling to feel the emotion. It’s bothersome.
“Should I make a fire?” Kie eventually asks. “It’s wet, but I have a fireball in my bag. It should still light.”
I shake my head, shutting down the suggestion. We’re too close to the shifter border. My people don’t typically cross into troll territory, but they won’t hesitate to investigate if they see smoke.
No troll would ever light a fire, and they’d know it’s us.
Besides, my body will warm the human faster than a fire will. My belly is my warmest part, and I’m pressing it firmly against her. She probably thinks I’m preparing to eat her.
I would never.
Shifters have no problems killing evolved creatures, but we would never eat one. Humans are too similar to us, and cannibalism isn’t our thing. If a shifter were caught eating humans or faeries, they’d be exiled from their group, and lone shifters tend not to last long in the forest.
We’re territorial people, defensive over what’s ours, including land. My father may be the alpha, but underneath his rule are dozens of smaller groupings of shifters. I faintly remember being taken around to visit them as a child.
It was important that I meet the people I was meant to lead once my father dies, but now that responsibility belongs to Kalix. My younger brother will be the next alpha. I share a mate with the great Prince Kieran, and my father ensured that my people would never respect me as alpha when he ordered me to live and grow up in Bellmere.
My allegiances are split, and it would be a disservice to the shifters.
Kie leans against my back, squishing my tail in the process. I have half a mind to wiggle and flick him off me, but I don’t want to jostle the human. She’s being uncharacteristically docile, and I’d like to keep it that way. Plus, I don’t want to risk her accidentally touching me.
Not that it would matter too much if she did. I’m confident I’ll know my mate when I meet her, and I feel nothing for this woman except for aggravation. I can’t wait to give the human to Zaha and no longer have to deal with her weak frame and angry temperament.
Several minutes pass, but she doesn’t move. She’s not asleep. I know that for a fact, but she’s also not really awake. I don’t like it, and I let out an annoyed breath before wiggling my body on top of hers to try to jolt some movement from her.
It doesn’t work, and Kie laughs.
“What’re you doing?” he asks.
Ignoring you .
I wiggle once more. I’ve had enough of this, and I’m ready for the human to be angry with me again. I’m willing to admit I may have gone too far by saying what the trolls would do to her if they found her. I wasn’t lying, but she didn’t need to hear it. We’d never let them put their hands on her, so it’s not something she ever needed to know.
The trolls are nasty, little creatures.
If the human is still distant and quiet tomorrow, I’ll tell her they’re afraid of fire. I don’t want to give her information that would help her should she ever actually escape us, but I’m willing to give her small crumbs if it means she starts acting normal again.
Wiggling on top of her doesn’t seem to work, but I continue doing so. Maybe she’s still cold.
I already know Kie’s going to mock me for this, but somebody needs to keep the stupid human alive and I don’t see him doing anything to help. I rub my belly against the human’s side before letting quiet vibrations seep from my chest.
It’s an intimate noise that shifters typically only make in private situations, but I’m desperate enough to try it.
Kie slams a hand over his mouth, and I kick out my leg. My foot lands right where I want it, against Kie’s ribs, and cuts his laughter short. He’s been bothering me more than usual these past few days, specifically since we met the human.
He was supposed to kill her, yet here I am vibrating on top of her like a domestic animal. I’m tired of it, tired of him, and I can’t wait until we’re back in Bellmere and I can retire to my bedroom and put some much-needed space between us.