Chapter 16 #2
My mouth flattened in disappointment. Kyre had a point. As much as I wanted to be back securely locked behind Tauren’s door, it was a long walk back to his cabin, and right now, there was safety in numbers.
“I’m sorry if I just made your life more difficult,” I apologized. “I have a habit of flying off the handle when I’m mad.”
The corners of Tauren’s mouth lifted up. Lifting his hand, he brushed the back of his fingers down my cheek.
“No apologies needed,” he said tenderly. “No one has ever come to my defense like that. Not face-to-face with my father. Not in front of the whole pack.”
“Really?”
That was a shame. If anyone needed to be brought down a peg or two, it was Drogan.
“Few have the courage to publicly challenge a Lykaon,” Kyre admitted.
That was hard to believe. All the alphas surrounding were massive and looked ready to fight at the drop of a hat. There had to be more to it than that.
“You mean no one is stupid enough.” I was only half-joking. “They want to be able to walk home without worrying about someone slashing their throat because of something they said.”
Tauren shook his head. “If anyone tried something like that, I’d tear them apart before they ever got close to you.”
Even though I had never heard a more touching threat of deadly violence, I still had to shake my head.
“I shouldn’t have put you in that situation.” Especially since I wasn’t planning on sticking around to face the long-term consequences. “This is your pack.”
“And you are my mate—the most important person in the world as far as I’m concerned,” Tauren said. “So you keep speaking your mind as beautifully as you did today, and let me worry about everything that comes after.”
His words, his touch, the sweet intensity of his gaze—it all came together inside me, blossoming like a flower at the first warm caress of morning light. Oh God, what the hell was this feeling? And why did it insist on showing up when I was doing my best to harden my heart?
My lips parted, but nothing came out.
Tauren smiled, apparently amused that after everything this evening, he was the only one who could fluster me into silence.
“Are you hungry?” Tauren asked.
Freaking ravenous. I nodded.
“Come, let’s get some food.”
I stayed glued to Tauren’s side as he led me through the throng of towering ferus.
Amazingly, none of them so much as accidentally brushed up against me, but there was no way to ignore the blistering stares of hundreds of alphas.
All I could do was cling even tighter to Tauren’s side as he strode through the curious crowd toward the tables on the opposite end of the square.
He didn’t waste any time grabbing an earthenware plate, but when I tried to do the same, he stilled my hand.
“Here we eat from the same plate,” was all the explanation he offered.
Did he mean here in the Wilds or just at the bonfire? One more question for the quickly growing pile that I’d dig through once we were alone.
At least the food looked good, and Tauren heaped our plate high with savory-smelling meat, veggies, and crusty, freshly baked bread. Once that was done, he found a spot for us to settle on the long, stripped log benches around the fire.
At first, I took the seat between him and Kyre, but apparently, even my seating choices weren’t okay.
He quickly pulled me up into his lap so that my head was against his shoulder and my legs crosshatched over his.
One arm wrapped protectively around my waist, holding me close, while the other pinched a slice of meat and offered it up.
Something about the deeply intimate gesture in front of so many people made me blush.
“You don’t have to feed me, Tauren.”
“But I want to.”
I was too hungry to argue. It was easier to just accept the bite of food Tauren was offering…even though I wasn’t prepared for the heated shock of awareness that swept through me as his fingertips gently brushed against my lips.
“So, uh…what’s this bonfire all about?” I asked to distract myself from the sensation.
“It’s a celebration of the new moon,” Tauren answered.
“And there’s one of these every month?”
“Twice a month, actually,” Kyre said. “There’ll be another for the full moon in two weeks.”
“Seriously?” If I sounded impressed, it’s because I was. Clearly, a lot of time and resources had been put into the gathering. Organizing that two dozen times a year had to be one hell of a task.
“You sound surprised,” Tauren said. “Don’t you have anything like this on your side of the Wall?”
“Not really,” I admitted. “One year, my apartment building tried to organize a Christmas potluck, but everyone was too busy to sign up, so we had to cancel.”
When the guys both stared at me with furrowed brows, I realized they hadn’t understood half the words I’d said. So I shrugged and tried again.
“I guess we kirre aren’t very good at community,” I admitted. “Even though we live right on top of each other, we don’t really know our neighbors.”
“That sounds miserable,” a new, commanding voice broke in. “A fate worse than death—for a ferus at least.”
My muscles tensed as I turned to see that another alpha who shared Tauren’s dark coloring had come up behind us on the log. Even though he wasn’t quite as muscular as Tauren, he was just as tall.
“Hannah, meet my cousin, Cenric,” Tauren introduced the alpha.
The one whom his father had taken on as his heir after disowning Tauren—it had to be.
But seeing as both Tauren and Kyre were greeting the man with a smile, I guessed there was no bad blood between them.
I nodded in greeting even as I found myself pressing in tighter to Tauren’s side.
Even though I was doing my best to get rid of my old prejudices, it was going to take some time before I became truly comfortable around hundreds of hulking giants and their naturally intense stares.
“I take it my father sent you to fetch us?” Tauren said.
Cenric nodded.
“He’s waiting for you in the hall at home with his advisors,” the cousin explained. “I can buy you some time, if you want to take the kirre and slip back through the forest.”
Tauren shook his head as he lifted me off his lap and set me down on my feet. “And give him the satisfaction of branding me a coward? Never.”
But it seemed that Cenric was the more pragmatic of the cousins. His mouth flattened. He slowly shook his head.
“Careful, Tauren. I’ve never seen him as furious as he is tonight,” he warned. “I’d hate to see you lose your head over something as stupid as pride.”
“Don’t worry, cousin.” Tauren smiled as he put down our plate and stood, wiping the crumbs from his hands as he rose. “If someone is destined to lose their head tonight, I promise you, it’s not me.”