Chapter 23
I watched my mate from my spot near the fire.
She was acting strangely. Her movements purposefully casual as she wandered past a rack of weapons and grabbed a small ax.
I'd been watching her from a distance all day, doing my best not to follow her around like a lost child as she familiarized herself with the camp.
Taz was not a trusting female. I knew she wasn't as content here as her friends, and I'd overheard her asking if they wanted to leave multiple times.
That my mate wasn't as enamored as I was didn't bother me.
After all, she hadn't glanced twice at another male all day, even the ones who'd tried to win my claim from me.
Beside me, Adak was watching his own female.
The scent of her was all over him and for a moment I regretted not gentling Taz last night.
It was a heady honor to have a claimed mate, something no band of males could boast. But I wanted my female to want me back, not merely allow me to claim her out of a sense of duty.
"This is a strange world," Adak muttered, his good eye following his female's path as she carried armfuls of supplies to their tent.
"It is." I leaned back against the branch I'd claimed.
It wasn't as comfortable as the old eksine saddle I'd rested against on Oska and I felt a pang of longing for the steed I'd left on my planet.
I'd spent many nights beside the fire, resting against his saddle, listening to the slow chuffs he made in his sleep.
It had been years since I’d ridden him across the plains, reveling in the power and freedom I felt atop him. No doubt my friend was long dead, his bones worn down by the harsh winds of my home planet.
"Is your female causing you trouble?" he asked.
I chuckled, even as I watched her make off with another weapon and a couple of med packs. She was planning something, no doubt preparing for an easy escape. I almost hoped she ran, it would be worth the effort to see the look on her face when I caught her.
"No more trouble than I can handle."
Adak snorted. "You would claim the wildest mate you could find."
"I didn't plan on claiming a mate at all," I admitted. "There's too much to do now that we're free. The sytos won't leave us here without a fight, and there are too many males for one band to manage."
Adak nodded, still gazing at his mate like there wasn't another being on the planet.
"Without a proper chief, there will be blood in no time."
I nudged his shoulder.
"Have you considered taking the role?"
He finally looked at me, his scarred brow wrinkling as his good eye focused on my face.
"Me?"
"I saw your tent. It's twice the size of mine, and something tells me you didn't demand the extra supplies to build it. These males respect you already. It wouldn't be a struggle to convince them to follow you."
"They respect you, why don't you claim the title?" he asked.
"With my mate already drawing challenges from every corner? No, brother, these males would rather see me dead than follow me." I already ached from the battles I'd won today and I knew tomorrow would only bring more males eager to claim the only available female for miles.
"Then gentle her and be done with this. Penny told me she shared your tent last night. These challenges are of your own making."
I grinned, not denying his words. "My Firebrand requires a bit of strategy to gentle."
Taz didn't trust me yet. She thought I was playing with her, maybe a few more battles would convince her I saw her as more than a place to warm my cock.
Though the urge to fully claim her had been powerful last night.
With the taste of her on my tongue and her gasps of pleasure still echoing in my ears, it had taken all my control not to sink into her.
Just the thought stirred my blood, and I adjusted my cock as subtly as I could.
She was still holding herself back from me. I could wait until she truly surrendered to the bond.
"Besides," I continued. "These males still see the gladiator that killed turochs to survive the Pit when they look at me."
"I killed just as many at your side."
A fact that tortured him more than it did me and the others could sense it.
"But you never raged," I reminded him, wishing I could say the same.
Adak's control had been legendary in the Pit.
Never in the dozens of matches he fought, did he let his instincts overtake him.
Every death at his hands had been quick and merciful.
He honored every opponent he had beaten, and no male here could accuse him of glorying in his kills.
I, on the other hand, struggled to remember the faces of those I'd defeated. In the madness of a bloodrage, I'd taken the lives of my brothers, and the haze had stolen even my ability to mourn them.
This band would never follow me as chief and they shouldn't.
"I will support you wholeheartedly as chief. I'd be honored to be your second, but keeping my mate alive is more than enough responsibility for me."
Speaking of my mate, she’d strayed out of sight and I wondered if I should go find her before she ran off and into another percer.
Or a less honorable male.
Pushing to my feet, I brushed the sand off my haunches and headed in the direction Taz disappeared. I caught the eyes of several males and I sent up a prayer to Padru that no one would challenge me until I hunted my female down.
I didn't relish fighting my brothers. The challenges were a fact of life, the price I paid for claiming a female in a world that seemed mostly empty of them, but I was sore, and all I wanted was to corner my Firebrand and see how much I could make her blush.
Last night had been more than I could have imagined and I was eager to continue my pursuit. But Taz was acting prickly and I had a feeling she was going to make this harder than it had to be.
I found her standing on the edge of camp, a bag slung over her shoulder, her eyes fixed on the percer head someone had mounted on a stick.
"Going somewhere?" I asked, stopping several yards behind her.
Her shoulders stiffened but she didn't turn around.
"Just looking around," she said, dropping her bag to the ground as she walked toward the trophy. "Are they all this big?"
I let my attention move to the sightless eyes of the percer.
"The females are."
"The males are bigger?" She sounded horrified and I couldn't help but chuckle. I could remember my own shock when I'd first come face to face with these beasts.
"The boars are much smaller and less aggressive."
"The female of the species is more deadly than the male," she murmured. My tail flicked idly as I considered her words.
"That is often the case. Take you for example, no single male has ever taken me down, and yet you did within moments."
She cast a wary look my way.
"I don't think that counts, you let me."
"You caught me by surprise," I shrugged. "I did not expect a human to be so vicious."
"I was desperate, I would have done anything to save Penny." Her usual fire seemed to be missing, her voice almost mournful as she stared at the percer that had almost killed her.
"Loyalty is an admirable quality. You did well."
"Yeah, and she was safe the whole time."
"You didn't know that." I didn't like the defeated tone coming from my mate. Moving slowly, I slung my arm around her shoulders and felt a burst of warmth as she rested her head on my chest.
"Is something wrong?"
She sighed. "I guess not, I'm safe, my friends are safe. I'm just feeling... lost."
For the first time I wondered what my mate had lost when the sytos invaded. The moment the cruiser had crashed, my world had changed for the better. I was free, my brothers were free and I'd never again be a slave. But for Taz and her friends, their way of life had ended.
"Did you lose anyone?" I tensed, hoping there wasn't a male she was mourning while I'd been dragging her into mating me.
She snorted and shook her head.
"All I had was Penny."
That was almost as bad. Even when I'd left my mother band to roam the plains, I'd had other males beside me. I'd never truly been alone. In the Pit, Adak had my back, and in the barracks I'd had the camaraderie of other fighters.
True, those bonds hadn't been as close, knowing that any day I may be forced to fight them built walls between us. But I couldn't imagine having no one.
Surely there was someone she missed.
"What of your parents? Siblings? Where was your mother band when the sytos came?"
"Mother band?"
"The others who lived beside you, the children you were raised with? The fathers and brothers that guarded you?" Had my mate truly had no one? No wonder she'd been so determined to rescue her friend.
"I was a foster kid. I haven't seen my mom since I was twelve, I don't even know who my dad is.
If I have siblings I've never met them." I didn't understand the life she was describing.
Where I came from females were precious, guarded by a community of relatives from the moment they were born.
If a child was orphaned, there were dozens of turochs eager to care for them.
No one on Oska was alone unless they roamed on purpose.
"I’m sorry."
"It's fine. I am used to it." She combed her fingers through her short hair and shrugged. "I haven't been around this much activity in years. I just needed a little quiet."
I glanced back at the camp where even now a fight had broken out. The shouts and the clash of horns was as familiar to me as my own heartbeat. But if Taz was used to solitude, I could see how the sheer noise of it could be overwhelming.
But wandering around alone was asking to be killed when percers roamed loose and sytos still searched for slaves.
"It will be dark soon." I eyed the horizon.
"I know, I'll come back to the fire." Her voice was dull and I hated that the very atmosphere that made me feel alive was suffocating my mate.
This was not what I expected when I claimed Taz, I'd looked forward to the banter and fire that we'd had while I was her prisoner.
Now I felt like she was my captive, and that was not what I wanted.
"Would you like to fight?" I asked, landing on a plan that may solve the problem.
Taz pulled away from me and looked up at me like I was insane.
"You? Now?"
I shrugged. "Tomorrow. When the sun rises, I'll train you."
"Why?"
"You want to get away from camp, but it's not safe. No one will challenge me if I'm training you and we can put a little distance between us and all the idiots fighting each other."
Her mouth quirked with amusement, but a little fire had returned to her eyes.
"You're so romantic."
My ears pinned back as I tried to understand what was funny about training when I was offering her a bit of peace.
"That's good?" I preferred it when she was in my face spitting angry. All this talking was hard for me to navigate.
“It’s something,” she muttered.