Chapter 25
I crashed into camp, yelling a warning as I hurried toward our tent. Adak appeared at my side, averting his good eye when he realized Taz was naked.
A few minutes ago, having my mate slung over my shoulder, with her breasts pressing into my back would have turned my brain to mush, but now all I could think was that she'd come far too close to being captured by the enemy.
Sweeping the tent flap open, I set Taz down and she hissed out a stream of curses as she scrambled to cover herself with a blanket.
“I can’t believe you dragged me through camp naked.” Her face was almost as red as her disheveled hair and it killed me I couldn’t stay in this tent with her and ignore the entire world.
“I’m sorry.” I was, but I didn’t have time to talk. Already males were grabbing weapons and streaming toward the edges of camp. If the syto scout got close enough to see us, we’d have a fight on our hands.
I started backing out of the tent and she lunged for me, grabbing my arm in a death grip.
“You are not sticking me in here with no clothes! If something happens I need pants and a way to defend myself.”
“There’s no time,” I apologized as I retreated. Her eyes narrowed as the flap closed behind me and I knew there’d be a reckoning when I returned.
Striding to the center of camp, I found Adak waiting near the fire, ax in hand, his expression grim.
“How many?”
“Just one,” I assured him, knowing it wouldn’t mean much if they knew our location and called for reinforcements.
He set his jaw and turned to the waiting males. The relaxed chaos of the last few days was gone. Every turoch wore the same determined expression.
“Send two males in each direction, keep to cover, try to stay out of sight. There’s a chance they haven’t seen us, don’t change that,” Adak ordered. No one argued, the camp breaking up into smaller groups as we spread out and prepared to watch the horizon.
If the sytos wanted their slaves back, they’d have to fight every turoch here to take us.
***
Several hours later, the last of the lookouts returned to camp. As far as we knew, the syto scout had passed by, none the wiser to our location.
The relief was palpable when Adak decided we weren’t in immediate danger. Unfortunately the burst of organization unraveled as soon as he called off the emergency and the others dove straight into the salvaged alcohol to celebrate.
It didn’t take long after that for the fighting to start again. Everyone’s tempers were strained after the scare, the battles more violent than usual and I knew it wouldn’t take much to trigger a blood rage and turn the whole camp into a war zone.
Adak glared at a pair of males, their horns locked together as they strained to throw each other to the ground.
"We'll kill each other off before the sytos have a chance to,” he snarled.
The dueling males crashed into me and I shoved them toward the center of the tent.
"We need a chief. Someone has to get this band under control," I said, eyeing the drunken mayhem growing all around us.
Adak swung his head around, his good eyes blazing with frustration.
"You call this a band? There's a reason we never had this many males together on Oska. It's too unstable, too much fighting. It would be better if we broke off into two or three groups. Separate bands, different chiefs to rein in the rages."
I watched as the fighting males stumbled into a group on the other side of the tent and another dozen males leapt into the fray. Adak wasn't wrong. Duels were our way of settling disputes, but a camp wide brawl every night was going to be a problem.
Someone knocked over the center pole and the tent caved in. The canvas dipped into the roaring fire and smoke billowed into the air.
"Let's get out of here before the whole tent goes up." Adak stalked toward the entrance, casually batting males out of his way as the rest of the tent fell into the flames.
"For a mated male, you're in a foul mood." I followed him outside, noting the tense set of his shoulders and the angry flicking of his tail. Something was eating at my friend, something beyond the constant fighting around us and the general disorder of the camp.
"Your mate can't be easy to deal with. I've heard her urging the other females to abandon us," he shot back.
Ah, so that was it. Adak feared his mate would flee from him.
"I gentled her less than an hour ago, I doubt she'll be nagging at your mate anymore."
He snorted. "These females are not like the ones we knew on Oska. Gentling is not enough to settle them."
I didn't like the flicker of doubt his words sparked in me. I'd held off on gentling Taz, recognizing the way she watched me with distrust and wanting her full commitment to our mating. When she'd accepted my claim outside of camp, I'd believed she had seen how good we could be together.
But I couldn't deny the distance she'd put between us immediately after our consummation. She smelled of me, and the whole camp would acknowledge that Ulto had been fulfilled, but Taz herself was another matter.
"Love takes time to grow," I admitted. "But our mates surrendered to us in the way of our people."
"The way of Oska." Adak crossed his arms and let his head fall back. I followed his gaze, seeing the same unfamiliar stars above us as he did. "This is a new planet. The humans are not like us, we can’t pretend otherwise. Even if our mates come to love us, we don't know if they can bear our sons. How long will they stay with us if we can’t give them children? What happens when their males creep out of hiding and try to seduce them away with the promise of families and the company of their own people?”
I ground a hoof into the dirt and mulled over his words. He brought up valid points but I refused to live in fear of the future. When I'd fought my last battle in the Pit, I had no way of knowing a few days later I'd be a free male, and a few days after that I'd have claimed Taz.
"It's not like you to despair, brother."
He sighed and clapped a hand to my shoulder.
"No, it is not. Ignore my words, I'm weary tonight."
"Tomorrow we’ll organize these males into patrols, give them something besides eating and fighting to occupy their time. Give this world a chance, Adak, we can build a new life here."
When he didn't answer, I lowered my voice.
"I will take my mate with me when I patrol. Tomorrow at least, you will not have to worry about her whispering in your female's ear."
Adak's ears dipped and he shook his head.
"None of that matters if the thought of leaving me lives in her mind. Penny will stay or leave of her own volition." With that grim pronouncement, he wandered away from the smoking tent and disappeared.