Chapter 22
I WILL DISEMBOWEL ANYONE WHO LOOKS AT HER (A LOVE STORY)
KOL
Ido not put her down.
I hold her lifted against my chest in the center of the cavern, her small hands fisted securely in my mane, until the rapid, terrified flutter of her dra-kir finally slows.
Then, ignoring the watchful eyes of my war council, I carry her directly to my alcove in the stone and drop the dense furs over the entrance so no other male can look at her.
She does not argue. The moment I lay her against the sleeping hides, she is unconscious, the adrenaline of the last three sols finally abandoning her delicate frame.
I do not sleep.
My body is trained to shed rest when the clan is threatened. But this dark, it is not the threat of Lucek that keeps me staring into the pitch-black stone.
It is the sheer volume of noise inside my skull.
Not from the clan. The warriors are quiet, their presence in the mindspace nothing more than the low, dull thrum of resting bodies in the outer cavern.
The noise is her.
My female is asleep. Her small body is tucked flush against my side, enveloped in my heat. Her head rests on my muscle, her soft thigh pressing against my thigh.
She is asleep, yet her mind is racing.
I lie perfectly still, letting the sensation of her thoughts wash through my mindspace. Her sleeping thoughts are pure chaos.
Urgency. Fear. An image of the missing female, Ah-lex, and the one Sorn did not find, Hah-na. The drive to rescue. The planning. Always the planning.
Even in sleep, she leads.
That low rumble starts deep in my chest. My body recognizes her drive, her fierce need to protect her kin, and answers it with pure approval.
I pull her closer, my head tilting down to her face.
The mating has changed her, just as it changed me. The sickly pallor that had haunted her features is gone. Her skin is flush, healthy.
But her jaw is set.
She does not surrender. Never.
She shifts in her sleep, burying her face deeper into the crook of my neck. Her small, flat teeth drag lightly against my skin.
My pulse spikes immediately, both shafts thickening against my thigh.
I want to wake her. I want to roll her onto her back, pin her wrists lightly to the stone, and slide inside her until she calls my name through the entire mindspace. The urge is so consuming that I have to clench my teeth just to keep from moving.
Control, I remind myself, forcing the instinct down. She requires rest. Her bones are delicate. You cannot mate with her every time she breathes on you.
It is a miserable realization.
I wrap my arm around her waist instead, pulling her flush against me. She makes a tiny noise of protest, her fist thumping weakly against my stomach, before she settles back into the heat of my body.
Mine, the instinct whispers.
Outside my alcove, the mindspace gradually fills with the waking thoughts of my clan. The dull throb of hunger, the sharp sting of healing wounds, the slow planning.
Ah-lex. Lucek’s clan. The war.
The reality waits just beyond the furs.
“Eh-ree-kah,” I project gently, aiming the thought right at the space behind her eyes.
She groans, screwing her eyes shut tighter. “Five more minutes.”
She speaks in Een-gleesh. It does not matter. The mindspace translates the intent perfectly. Delay. Comfort. Refusal to move.
A low rumble of amusement vibrates in my throat. I brush my thumb across the soft curve of her hip.
“We have a war to plan,” I remind her.
She buries her face into my chest, her voice muffled against my muscle. “The war can start at nine AM. Go away.”
I do not know what a ‘nine AM’ is, but I recognize a battle I cannot win.
I pull the thick furs higher over her shoulders, sealing her against the freezing draft of the cavern.
I will give her five more mee-nits.
I tighten my arm around her waist, anchoring her against my chest. She sighs softly, her breath washing warm across my collarbone, and the last edge of my panic finally dissolves into the dark.
Lucek is out there. The dust will always demand a brutal toll. We will face all of it.
But my female is safe.
She survives. She leads. And she is mine.
I rest my jaw against the crown of her dark mane, close my eyes, and let the claiming hum vibrate through the quiet stone until the deep dark finally lifts into dawn.