Chapter 30
Dargo’s eyes closed and he slumped forward, crashing into me as I struggled to hold his weight. His ax hit the ground and his head lolled on my chest. When he’d tackled the percer, I’d felt my heart stop.
I’d never seen him like that. His pupils so dilated his eyes were almost fully black, his face twisted with rage as he battered the percer with his ax and his fists. A beast that should have taken a dozen males to take down, Dargo had destroyed single-handedly and he was paying the price.
His right arm had a vicious bite, the flesh torn, blood foaming out of the wound and mixing with the thick, toxic saliva of the percer. There were other injuries scattered over his body, but none scared me like that bite.
I lowered him to the ground and ripped the bottom half of my shirt off, wiping at the gruesome wound as I relived the terrible hours of sickness I’d endured when the stuff had touched my skin.
I’d almost died, and he’d used some sort of medicine on me. I didn’t have anything and Dargo’s bite was so much worse than what I’d endured.
Hands shaking, I scrubbed at the wound, desperate to scrape off as much of the venom as I could before it entered his blood stream.
We were miles from camp, and I could still see the pack of percers a few hundred yards from us.
The rest of the creatures must be the boars Dargo had talked about.
They were smaller, bulkier, and lacked the creepy back limbs of the females, but I didn’t know if they’d come after us now that the sow was dead.
Dargo shuddered, his eyes flaring open as he jolted up to his feet, swaying drunkenly even as he whirled to face the looming pack of males.
“Cover, we need cover,” he mumbled, nearly falling on his face when he tried to walk. I braced my shoulder under his arm and helped him stagger toward a scrubby little tree several yards away.
The short distance seemed endless as more and more of his weight fell on me and as soon as we reached the tree, his legs gave out and he crashed to his side.
“What do I do?” I demanded, hovering over him as he panted and his skin gleamed with sweat.
He waved a hand at me, eyes rolling wildly and I knelt next to him.
“Just sit,” he breathed. “The boars won’t attack us if we don’t approach them.”
“I don’t care about that,” I hissed, furious at myself for getting us in this situation and terrified I’d be forced to watch him die of a percer bite.
“What do I do for you? How can I help?”
A weak smile crossed his face and he shook his head.
“You can’t do anything.”
“Dargo.” My chin was trembling and I bit my lip to force the tears back. “Don’t say that.”
“It’ll be alright, little Firebrand.”
“No, it won’t,” I swiped at my face as tears leaked down my cheeks despite my attempts to stop them. “I’m so sorry.”
“Shh,” he hushed me, pulling me down until my head was resting on his chest, the pounding of his heart a small comfort even as his body was wracked with tremors. “We’ll just rest a while.”
“Are you in pain?” I asked, stroking his ribs, wishing there was anything I could do.
He chuckled, the sound cutting off as his torso tightened and he let out a gasp.
“Not the worst I’ve experienced.” Leave it to Dargo to downplay his suffering even as he was dying.
“This is all my fault.” I wrapped my arm around his waist, clinging to him like I could heal him through sheer force of will. Even laying in the dirt, venom coursing through his body, he seemed larger than life, too powerful to die from a single bite.
“Why did you leave, Taz?”
I lifted my head and met his glassy eyes, choking on a wave of guilt.
“I just couldn’t see how it was going to work between us,” I admitted, wishing I could lie and say I hadn’t been running away from him.
“My gentling didn’t please you?”
I shook my head. “That’s not it at all. It was really good between us, but a relationship is more than sex, and I’m not good at all the other stuff.”
His eyes closed and he sighed.
“I don’t understand you, female.”
A bitter laugh bubbled up past my tears and I pressed my forehead to his chest.
“I don’t understand me, either.”
“I would have done whatever you asked of me. I still will, if you’ll stay.” His voice was slurring but the sentiment behind his words was like a slap to the face. I hadn’t asked anything of him. I hadn’t talked to him about how I was feeling or tried to stick it out at all.
I’d gotten spooked by how quickly I’d fallen for him and I’d run.
Like a fucking coward, I’d bolted, leaving behind a male who would have done anything to keep me happy. Even get himself killed protecting me from a percer I’d walked into.
“I’ll stay,” I whispered, pressing a kiss to his pec. That promise didn’t hold a lot of weight now, with his skin burning with fever under my cheek and his body failing to a lethal dose of venom.
“I love you, little Firebrand. In a way I couldn’t have imagined before I met you.”
His words twisted my insides and I cried against his chest as he went limp.
The only sign of life was the shaky, slow breaths he took.
I laid next to him for hours, listening to his heartbeat, holding onto him.
Every once in a while he’d surface, stroke my hair and murmur something sweet before he passed out again.
Every time his eyes closed again I was sure it would be the last time, and I’d struggle to breathe through the bolt of fear in my gut.
There were so many things I needed to tell him, how much I loved to bicker with him, that I loved that he called me Firebrand, and how I appreciated how cheerful he was no matter the circumstance.
I needed to thank him for saving me yet again when it was my fault I was in danger, just like the first time.
Most of all, I needed to tell him that I loved him, and I was sorry I hadn’t given him a real chance.
He deserved a better mate than a closed off angry girl that couldn’t look past her walls to see the amazing male that loved her.
Bad attitude and all. He’d never once said he didn’t like a single part of me, but I’d held onto the certainty he’d come to dislike me.
Before him, everyone in my life had gotten sick of me real fast, writing me off and moving on with their lives. But none of those people had ever sworn to be with me forever, or risked their life to keep me safe.
By the time the sun rose, I had a list a mile long of things I wished I could redo and when Dargo’s eyes opened I grabbed his face, praying he was conscious enough to understand me.
“I love you,” I said, forcing every ounce of certainty I felt into the words. “I love you, and I’m happy you’re my mate. If I could undo today I would.”
His eyes were clearer than they had been for hours and I felt a little flutter of hope that he might survive this.
“You won’t run again?” he asked, hands grasping my thigh weakly, thumbs making soothing circles as he looked up at me.
“I won’t run ever again,” I swore.
He grinned up at me. “I much prefer you fight me than run, mate.”
An ugly laugh escaped me at his teasing. If I was meant to be with anyone, it was this impossible, ridiculous male.
As if a dam had burst, a wave of tears and affection overwhelmed me. I pressed my lips to his cheek, knowing I was crying all over him, but needing the closeness as I peppered kisses over his face.
His arms wrapped around me, surrounding me with his inhuman strength as I finally let myself feel everything I’d been running from. My lips grazed his, and he captured my mouth, drawing me into a drugging kiss that made the world fall away.
I hovered over him, doing my best not to touch any of his injuries while pressing as close as I could get.
His tongue teased at my lower lip and a shudder of arousal washed through me.
Dargo rolled until we were side by side, running his hand down my hip and yanking my leg up until he could grind against me.
I closed my eyes, lost in the rolling sensations taking over my body.
He knew exactly what to do to turn my brain off and I felt myself growing slick as he notched himself between my legs, teasing me with the pleasure I knew he could give me.
“Wait!” I squirmed free of his roaming hands and tried to untangle our legs only to have him jolt forward, pinning me to the ground with his hips. “You’re hurt, we can’t do this.”
He grabbed my hands, trapping them over my head and kissed a path down my cheek to my ear.
“You’re denying your wounded mate a bit of pleasure?” he asked, his voice a seductive purr. “It would be my dying wish to sink into your tight cunt and pass from this life.”
My eyes narrowed as I strained to free my hands from his suspiciously strong grip. He shifted until both my wrists were held by one of his hands, the other moving down my body and catching the waistband of my oversized shorts.
Struggling to catch up with my traitorous pussy begging for his touch, I jolted when he ripped at my shorts, destroying yet another item of clothing. Warm air swirled over my wetness and I arched into him even as I strained to free myself.
“You were dying,” I growled. “I laid next to you for hours, crying myself sick because you. Were. Dying!”
He bared his teeth in an unrepentant grin, and rolled his hips until I was gasping from the teasing slide of his hard cock between my folds.
“Dying may be a bit of an exaggeration,” he admitted. “I’ve been bitten before and lived. I’ve gained a certain immunity to percer venom.”
“You’re immune?” I yelled, wrestling a leg free and trying to knee him off of me. “You bastard! I was scared shitless! I thought I killed you!”
He was laughing as he wrestled me back under him, effortlessly dodging my attempts to kick him. I was still cursing him out when he pressed his thumb to my clit and sank his cock into me in one smooth motion.
My ravings died on my tongue and I gasped, arching into him, chasing the last few inches I knew he had, only for him to withdraw completely and give my clit another teasing circle.