CHAPTER 6
VALMIR
If April's challenge is meant to be difficult, she's going to have to try harder.
Finding an animal isn't all that difficult.
I talk to some of the hunters, asking where they have last seen tracks.
Vordis mentions that he has had a snow-cat robbing his traps in one particular valley, and so I head in that direction.
The moment I do, I smell the dung-stink of a den and see tracks of a smaller creature all over the snow.
Perfect, and the sooner I get this done, the better.
I return to the beach encampment later that day with the animal den on my mind.
I've set my traps in front of it. Once I catch a creature, I'll have to skin it carefully to get April the perfect hide she's demanding.
For now, I'm going to let her know that I should have her prize tomorrow, if my traps are fruitful.
Just thinking about her reaction fills me with intense pleasure. Her eyes will light up once she sees how committed I am to doing this for her. She will cling to my arm like O'jek's chatty mate does to his, and bat her eyes at me with wonder.
Then she will feed me, just as she promised.
I daydream of April feeding me choice tidbits of dinner with her fingers.
My cock grows hard at the thought, and I wonder if she will let me mark the front of her hut again.
She watched me while I did so last night, and today, the scent of my seed on her hut's entrance almost made the ache of unfulfilled resonance bearable.
Almost.
I would still rather be upon her, filling her body with my seed and claiming her as my own, but I'll take an exclusive, special dinner with her.
Triumphant and full of plans, I saunter back into camp.
I look to the main fire but do not see April's form.
The scents of people in camp are intermingled, and her aroma is harder to pick out.
A praxiian's senses are elite, however, and I eventually lock in on her.
She is not near the others and has not been all day if my nose is correct.
Interesting. April is normally very sociable with the others.
Is she sulking? She did not strike me as the type to pout, but perhaps resonance is affecting her harder than she likes.
I know it has been on my mind ever since my khui began to sing.
It's impossible to not think about. I was unable to sleep, panting and desperate for the feel of my body's chosen mate.
The fact that I ended up bunking near the cock-withering Jason, Kyth, and Chalath is the only reason I wasn't hard all night.
Following April's scent trail, I head toward the beach and to the cluster of newer huts.
April and Dawn's is amid several others, built haphazardly on a small clearing of ground without a thought to privacy.
I would do it differently, I think as I approach.
Build somewhere quieter. Somewhere with fewer scents.
Somewhere where you are not in the midst of everything.
As I approach her hut, my khui begins its steady thrumming, and pleasurable heat floods through my body.
I fight back a groan, because all I wanted to do was tell her that I have nearly completed her first task, but now I am thinking of other things.
Things like touching her. Things like running my muzzle over her soft skin and tasting her scent with my tongue.
Things like marking her door again. The scent of yesterday's mark is still heavy in the air, and it fills me with a sense of pride.
No one with a nose could ever mistake her as anyone else's.
She is mine, evidenced by the aroma of my claim dried all over the portal to her home.
Before I can call out, April pulls aside the heavy leather curtain that acts as a door to her hut and looks around, her gaze suspicious.
Her other hand is over her chest, and I hear her khui singing to mine.
Her eyes narrow as she spots me, but the scent of her arousal drenches the air and makes it feel heavier.
"I should have known it was you," she grouches.
"Were you planning on resonating to anyone else?" I cross my arms over my chest and do my best to seem casual and unaffected. Her nearness is intoxicating, fogging my senses and filling me with a ridiculous yearning that I would never admit to another living being.
"Very funny. Now go away." She moves to lower the curtain once more.
I put a hand up, stopping her before she can drop the barrier between us, and our eyes meet.
We are standing so close that her scent is making me crazed with arousal, and her pupils are dilated and dark.
Her skin is covered in little bumps, as if my presence is making her prickle all over.
"You should know I will have your perfect animal hide in the morning," I tell her, and decide to embellish a bit.
"I have picked out my prey. It is young and fat, with a thick coat, and I will wring its neck for you as you have asked. "
She stares up at me, her eyes wide. "Wring...its...neck?"
"Of course? How else am I to get a perfect pelt?" Clearly, she is not much of a hunter.
Her mouth trembles. To my surprise, her eyes fill with tears. Her face crumples and she turns, retreating farther into her hut.
This is not how it's supposed to go, I think, panicked. Didn't Skarr say that his female loved his bragging? She's supposed to be beside herself with joy, not distraught.
Why are there tears?
I push inside the hut after her, even though tit breaks all the rules that have been drilled into my head thus far about hospitality and privacy. "April, why are you weeping? What is causing this?"
"It's nothing," she says sharply, not turning to look at me. She hides her face. "Go away."
I storm forward until I am in front of her.
I grab her by the arms and force her to stand still, scanning her face as she averts it.
I can smell her tears, even if she tries to hide them, and it makes me feel...
frantic. "You are crying with pure joy?" I ask, hoping against hope that this is the case.
"Because you cannot wait to feed me and you know you have resonated to a good hunter? "
She tries to jerk out of my grasp, but I do not let her go. I try to hold her loosely, as she is fragile, but I do not want her hiding away from me. "That's not it, you idiot."
"You are weeping…because you realized you are going to be mine after all?"
April makes a face at that, lifting a hand and wiping at her wet skin with a sniffle.
She shrugs off my grasp and this time I let her, taking a step back.
"If you must know, I'm crying because...
I just realized I asked for you to murder a sweet, innocent animal.
It's bothering me, all right? I'm fucking hormonal. "
I stare at her in surprise as she gives a shuddery little gasp, trying to calm herself. "You don't want an animal killed?"
"Not for frivolous reasons," she wails, horrified at my question. "I'm not a monster."
This female is nonsensical. "Why did you ask me to do it if you were going to feel guilty about it?"
"I didn't know I was going to feel guilty!
" She dashes her hand across her eyes, wiping away tears.
"Mari mentioned she'd make me a fur hat if I had an extra fur and I thought a hat sounded nice.
I didn't realize I'd feel like the worst person alive demanding you go out and kill something on my behalf.
Hunting animals doesn't bother everyone else, so I don't know why it's bothering me. It goes against my kuleana."
"What does that mean? My translator doesn't know the word."
"I don’t know!" She presses her hands to her forehead, upset. "It's a language I don't know how I know! But I can tell you that it means that it feels wrong for me to kill animals for fun."
I eye her, trying to determine if she is mocking me, or if this is an attempt to get out of our deal. When she sniffles again and hugs her torso, I decide that she is serious. Ridiculous, but serious. With a heavy sigh, I head for the door. "I'll be back soon."